It's almost bottling time

Lucky me. I know I've been complaining about the weather but here are some amazing highlights!

Arizona - I was there 10 days in February. Met the most amazing people, saw lots of cactus, ate too much good food and drank really good wine. I have to say I was thrilled to be part of an amazing wine dinner at the Dove Mountain Grill with Master Sommelier, Laura Williamson, Executive Chef, Bruce Yim, and their amazing team. We had great friends attending including my dad and bonus mom and 22 of their friends plus new folks I had not yet met. What a great evening! The food and wine pairings were spectacular. I had the opportunity to stay with my dad and bonus mom for one night, who wants to stay in a hotel? They had heated their pool to 90 plus degrees. It felt like a hot tub. It was a good thing.

I mooched off of my bonus sister, her husband and daughter and got to stay in a wonderful home in Scottsdale. They are located next to everything so life was good. I'd come home and there would be food ready to go and the coffee would be brewing in the morning! Not too bad!

Next up Portland. Amber and I went to Portland for Taste Walla Walla and an auction wine dinner for the Classic Wine Auction. Can I say spoiled and more fun? We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle...I'm seeing a theme here...if you have wine to share folks want you to stay with them. Maybe it's my irresistible begging?! Hmmmm Again, a great Taste Event, wonderful people then my cousins made homemade pizza. Outrageous with fennel, olive oil, artichoke hearts, garlic (I'm missing something) but fantastic. Had that with a wonderful salad and a little vino. Yet, another good day. Next day lunch at Carafe! Talk about good food and great people. Had lunch with friends and family, met new folks and fell in love with Carafe all over again. That night was our auction dinner at Five Spice in Lake Oswego. I can't even begin to start. Our good friends showed up then four more friends surprised us and showed up and that was it...fun on! We met the owner and winemaker from Brook's Winery in Oregon, great folks with great wine, and 10 more couples who there there supporting the event. The chefs nailed the food pairings. You could taste the thoughtfulness that went into each course. FANTASTIC.

Couple of action items or thoughts that resulted from this dinner:

1) We need a guest Swirlie Post - so for you swirlies out there...send me your thoughts, notes or bottle shots and I'll happily include your note.
2) One of our friends truly dislikes cilantro and the question all evening was, "does this dish include cilantro?" I'm happy to report that there was no cilantro served. Our friend "M" renamed the restaurant "Four Spice" to exclude cilantro. That caused one of many roars of laughter from the West end of the table to occur that evening.
3) I need to update the blog more often.
4) We all need to see last weeks, "The Bachelor".
5) I believe that the best evening comes from great food, great wine and great people...the crazy people sitting on the West end of table believe if you have great food and great wine who cares about the people? (stinkers)
6) We had two people who are party people sitting at our table. (Party people in their minds if you ask me.) They supported this claim by saying they are party people however they are still catching up on their sleep from all the missed sleep in their 80's due to partying. They both went to Chico State. I'll let you sort this one out.
7) Blogs really aren't self serving
8) You can be happy doing anything if you are doing what you love
9) Has anyone read "2012 for dummies"? We all decided to hold off on Christmas shopping in 2012 and if this passes without the world coming to an end we were told by our friends on the east side of the table that Macy's has great last minute shopping.

With this I'll end and then get to the serious stuff...upcoming wine!

P.S. we have started working out.