Merry Christmas

I finally got around to taking pictures of the tree and village. The major news in the Flinn house is that the village is finally large enough to go on the floor - it's no longer relegated to the top of the CD rack. It's still nowhere near as large as G-ma's, but I still have years to catch up to her. :-)

What our village looks like to all the random bugs that make their way into the condo.

The View from My Seat

The view from my seat, many many many feet above ground, on a flight back from Indianapolis.

Friendsgiving

We decided to go up to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Nothing against our families, we just decided to take advantage of having a long weekend (that we didn't have to use vacation time on) and head up to the city.

We stayed at my favorite hotel in the city - the Serrano. The weekend included spending Thanksgiving with friends, trying to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, viewing the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the De Young Museum and wining our way through Napa.

The trip got off to an auspicious start - I spent the majority of Wednesday with one of the worst migraines I've had in years (sending me home sick from work a scant few hours after arriving) and convinced I wasn't going to be able to stand the flight. Luckily, some sensory deprivation in the form of a completely dark room, cold compress on my head and hours and hours of sleep before having to catch our evening flight helped a little.

Luckily, Thursday the migraine had subsided to simply an irritating headache and we were able to spend Thanksgiving with friends. Everyone brought a dish. Sean cooked the turkey with a great Giada recipe that involved stuffing the turkey with wedges of oranges, lemons, onions and herbs and slathering it with enough butter to make Paula Dean blush. I made stuffing with andouille sausage, mushrooms, onions and celery. And his friend K. made the most amazing whipped sweet potatoes with a pecan/brown sugar crumble topping. I almost cried when I ate them they were so good.

Here's Sean devouring the turkey...
While we waited for the turkey to cook, we played a bit of Rock Band. And we played it after we ate the turkey, too. -
Our original plan on Friday was to go to the CA Academy of Sciences, but when we got there the line to get in was 2 hours long. I had no intention of standing in line for 2 hours - that's insanity. The museum was offering to refund tickets given that the line was so ridiculous. It was super disappointing - aside from Napa that was the one thing I was really looking forward to. If you visit the website you'll see why - it's a museum, aquarium, architectural wonder all wrapped into one. Luckily, the De Young Museum was right across the park, so we walked through the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit where Sean surprised me with his in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the man and his contribution to the fashion world. Here's a view of the city from the observation deck in the museum.
The rest of Friday evening was spent discovering bars in San Francisco, eating at Shalimar (home of some of the best Indian food I've ever eaten) and then crashing in the hotel.



Luckily, I had Napa to look forward to. After getting off to an early start - I misread the Google Maps directions and thought it was a 2 hour drive (as opposed to the 1 hour drive) to Napa we made it to the first winery on our tour, Nickel & Nickel. I won't bore you with the details, so here's the quick recap: they produce single-vineyard, single-varietal wines. This was some of THE best wine I've had.

This barn was originally built in New England about 200 years ago. The owner of Nickel & Nickel decided he wanted a barn on his property, so he bought it, dismantled it, then re-built it exactly as is in Napa. Without any nails. (Save for the mandatory earthquake structural safeguards.)

This is a view of a part of their vineyard - currently waiting to be re-planted.
Next up was Chappellet. The drive up to the main building was beautiful - we drove through their vines and had a spectacular view of the surrounding area.

Makes me want to pack up and stomp grapes for a living.

To cap off my aunt's visit to CA - we took her with us to a "No on 8" rally in Long Beach. Her visit all weekend had been a pretty accurate "Day in the Life of the Flinns." We hung out and caught up on TV; took her to a party; went to the beach; saw Janeane Garofalo at the Improv; ate a lot of great food and drank a lot of great wine. So, adding a bit of political activity into her trip made it that much accurate.


I'm sure the majority of you have heard about it, either because you live in CA or because of the attention it's been getting on the national news. Or maybe you're a member of one of the LDS churches that's made it their mission to ensure my mother-in-law isn't treated like an equal citizen.

This is an important matter to me for several reasons: 1) my parents didn't raise an intolerant jack-hole. 2) it's personal - like I said earlier, it directly affects my mother-in-law. With the onslaught of media attention this item has been receiving, here's a more personal account - my husband wrote his feelings on the whole thing and he does it much more eloquently than I ever could. (I don't think he uses the word "jack-hole" once in his whole blog.)

Sean's blog

For those non-Californians, here is the wording of Prop 8 as it will appear on our ballots:

Proposition 8
ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

That's it. It's that simple. It's a constitutional amendment to take rights away from people.


I know that by the time most of you read this, it'll be Tuesday, and you'll probably have already voted. But, I thought I'd share a few more links with you:

Los Angeles Times

Newsweek: Can I vote on YOUR marriage?

Beach Visit

What do you do when your aunt from Wisconsin is in town visiting? You go to the beach, of course. Never mind that it was in the high 60s/low 70s and breezy. In Wisconsin it' s freezing and wintery - so coming to the beach so you can gloat to your co-workers (and kids) that you went to the beach for the weekend is a lot of fun.

Here are some random shots I took:
The waves were a lot larger than the pictures make them out to be.The clouds were pretty cool looking, too.
I hate seagulls. They're the rats of the sky. Whenever I see them, I picture the seagulls from "Finding Nemo."

Halloween

Friday night my friend S. invited us to a Halloween party thrown by some people at her office. This meant coming up with a 3rd Halloween costume (costume #2 consisted of a Black Angels tee and a guitar controller from 'Rock Band'). Our friends K. and C. lent us their AWESOME wigs and boots so we built our costumes around them.

This is S. and I book-ending my aunt, who's in town visiting for the weekend.
Technically, we were going as Cotton Candy and Black Licorice - but at some point in the evening we also thought we could pass as dolls...

Halloween

Our Halloween costumes...TARDIS and Dr. Who.
...due to getting the inspiration so late for our costumes, the TARDIS isn't as awesome as it could have been. The day of the party we kept coming up with ways to make it better - doors that open, lighted windows, etc...

They Just Took a TARDIS Out Of That Bar

Last night we went up to LA to a screening of the show "Heroes." Why? To watch Sean's friend David make his big screen debut as Eric Doyle aka The Puppetmaster. It was great! David's character was the highlight of the episode - his character is so creepy. But, David's one of the nicest people on the planet, so it was really hard to appreciate the creepiness of his character because I was just so excited that he got was on TV and got a lot of screen time! His character even has his own graphic novel!!

After the screening, we stayed for the burlesque show - or more specifically - the Villains Burlesque Show. I know - you're confused. David's wife produces a weekly burlesque show up in LA - so they they performed afterwards, each girl performing as a villain. It was awesome! Here are the highlights:

• Dr. Who and the Weeping Angels: Ack! I freaked out. The first performer not only performed as a villain from Dr. Who - but as a villain from one of my favorite episodes (the episode is incredibly tense, stressful and the writing's tight). Did I mention she built a TARDIS to use during her performance?
  
• PLUS! this served as the inspiration for my and Sean's Halloween costumes - stay tuned to see how they turned out...
• Cruella DeVil: Two words explain it all: puppy bath.
• Boris and Natasha: comedic burlesque

This Past Weekend

Bike ride
Saturday morning I went for a bike ride after Sean guilted me into it. He’s training for his 3rd marathon and Saturdays are his long, outdoor runs, which meant that I could either lay on the couch and clear out the DVR while he was training for his 3rd freakin’ marathon, or I could get off my a$$ and ride my bike. I chose the latter. It was great – I need to remember to bring my camera with me while I ride around Back Bay – there’s a lot of great pictures to be taken. Also, this girl’s in need of some padded bike shorts – my tush was sore after my 10 mile ride – please leave your suggestions in the comments section.

Yoga
I have discovered yoga and it is wonderful. I am kicking myself for ignoring my friend G.’s invitations to join her at her Sunday morning yoga classes for so long. Yoga is the cure for all that ails you.

Cookie baking
Our vows included something about me continuing to bake cookies…so when we both got a craving for chocolate chip cookies after watching a character TV bake them – I whipped up some cookies Sunday night. I am going to try my hardest to ignore the Tupperware container of cookies taunting me from the kitchen counter.

Wedding!

This weekend friends of ours got married. We both know the groom because Sean use to work with him and I use to live with him. And we both got to really know the bride once they started dating. Both are excellent, excellent people and we couldn't be happier for them.

There was a 2 hour break between the end of the wedding ceremony and the beginning of cocktails at the wedding, so Sean and I headed out for a pre-cocktail hour drink...

My two favorite loves.

Proof the bride and groom are good people.


Friends in front of Newport Harbor.

I think Sean is practicing for B.'s James Bond themed party in a few weeks.

Further proof the bride and groom are good people - dancing robots as centerpieces.

... and speaking of the bride and groom.

O. and his date spent the ENTIRE night kissing. The entire night - and every single camera at our table has proof. After a while the kissing got a bit old (for those of us forced to watch) - so we had to make things interesting...can you spot my husband?

One Sentence Review - Dandy Warhols

...better late than never...

When: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Where: Belly Up

Dandy Warhols : LOVE them - go see DiG! to find out why.

A Place to Bury Strangers: Their drummer is a machine; he went non-stop through the entire set - an absolute machine.

P.A.N.T.H.E.R.

The Vice-Presidential debates are next Thursday. Remember to watch. While we wait, let's enjoy this little video, shall we?

One Sentence Reviews - Hot Chip & IO Echo

When: Sunday, September 21, 2008
Where: Wiltern

IO Echo: Perfectly captured the "aaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhh" feeling of every teenage girl ever.

Hot Chip: Completely blew away my expectations; crazy-dizzy strobe lights plus dancing equals awesome.

One Sentence Review - Stereolab

When: Saturday, September 20, 2008
Where: Detroit

Sooooo much better than Monade (one of the band member's side project, that Sean made me see a few years ago) - a hundred times better than Monade.

Beach

Things I could never when I was living in MN:

1. Pack big blanket in car
2. Pick-up Thai food
3. Head to Newport Beach
4. Eat dinner on beach w/ husband
   

The beach.
The husband.
The food. Mmm ... pad se-lew.

Our Weekend

It was a lazy weekend, broken up with a brief burst of productivity and going out to eat.

Organization
We ran out of bookcase space about 1 year ago. We’ve spent the last year piling the new books we’ve bought on the floor, on desks and next to our existing bookcases. Last weekend we finally bit the bullet and bought the bookcase we’d been eye-ing at Ikea for the last year. This was a big commitment, because while the Ikea bookcase fit our price range, it came at a heavy cost (literally); those pesky Swedes expect you to put it together yourself. Which we did. Or, rather, Sean did while I alphabetized our books. (although I did offer the occasional help pounding the shelves together – and came up with a few brilliant suggestions to help make the shelves line up so the screw would make it into the hole).

Did I mention – after living together for 3 years – we FINALLY merged our book collections. Yes, I waited until I knew the marriage was actually official before I merged our books together. There’s something very final about merging the last bastion of your singlehood with another person. It’s important to note that Sean hasn’t once brought up the topic of merging our music collections. I think it’s because, secretly, he doesn’t want my Boyz II Men Christmas Melodies CD (my taste in junior high was shockingly embarrassing) knocking boots with his Joy Division albums.


…Which brings me to this weekend: I finished putting away the books that didn’t fit on the new bookcase. We put those on the old bookcase in the living room.

Good Eats
We went with our friends G. and A. to Jason’s Downtown in downtown Santa Ana. We discovered this place during the Santa Ana pub crawl last month. And it almost didn’t happen. This place is open at the weirdest hours – every time we could make it there, it was closed. It was as though the restaurant didn’t want to get new customers. Luckily, we were able to make it

The food was great food; so was the interior design – very polished. And the bathroom had the best sinks: glass, almost flat with a slight curve so the water would drain. And the water didn’t come out of a regular faucet; the faucet looked like a regular open pipe and you moved a portion of the pipe up and water gushed out. And the white sangria was delicious.

They Say It's Your Birthday

This past Sunday was my birthday. It wasn't a major milestone birthday - but I celebrated it in a major way - I went skydiving. Why? It's simple: I've always wanted to, so my birthday was the perfect excuse. We sky-dived up from 13,000 ft and it was incredible. Amazing. So freaking fantastic I can't even explain it. We have video documenting the entire dive (from start to finish) but DVD keeps shutting down our computers. But, as soon as we figure out a way to download the DVD onto our computers, I'll put the video up. For now, here are some pictures and a short video clip that Sean took with my camera.Have a safe flight, indeed.
Sean kissing his wife good-bye and good luck.
The plane I jumped out of was very similar to one of these planes.
And here I am getting all harnessed up. After I got strapped into the harness, Jack (the guy I would be strapped to) and I went over to our plane. There was another girl jumping, so in total there were 4 of us sitting in this itty bitty plane. I hop into the plane and sit on the floor. I put a seatbelt on and then the plane starts taxiing. Did I mention, that the door to the airplane is still open? It is. At this point, I've had no training whatsoever. No one's told me what to do. So as we're taxiing, I thought we were simply going to a different part of the airport. Then I noticed the plane going faster and faster. Jack leans over to me and says, "see that yellow line? that's the point of no return and no refund!" I laughed, thinking it was a funny joke, and still believing that we were going to a different part of the airport for training on how to jump out. Then I notice the plane IS IN THE AIR!! And the only thing keeping me from falling out is this little seatbelt. A SEATBELT! I'm in a plane, right in front of an open door. Like any sane person - I start to freak out internally. At that point I realized there was absolutely no turning back.

Jack was great - he saw that I was getting nervous so he kept talking to me and telling me lame, but funny, jokes. Pacific Coast Skydiving is located in south, south San Diego - we were really close to the Mexico-California border. So up in the plane, I could see Tijuana and all the way into Mexico. It was a gorgeous site. Jack pointed out a bull-fighting ring to me and I started to actually relax a little bit. But then, the plane banked hard right, so the plane tilted over the ocean - and THE DOOR WAS STILL OPEN! And I was still in front of it!! Needless to say, I was getting more and more nervous the higher we flew. I was pretty proud of myself for not freaking out out loud. Like I said, it was all internal.

Once we were halfway up, 6500 feet high, Jack started to strap us together. It was at that point that I FINALLY relaxed and went completely calm. I was now connected to a guy who knew exactly what he was doing and I had no control over the situation - it was actually pretty liberating.

Then, the moment I was waiting for happened. Jack and I scooted our butts to the edge of the plane. I tucked my legs underneath the plane and I looked outside. It was as if my brain shut off. I was blissfully calm. Then we threw ourselves out of a perfectly good plane.

The free fall was the most exhilarating feelings. The adrenaline just shoots through your body and you feel like you can conquer the world. I felt like I was flying. Not falling, but flying. After we fell for a while, Jack pulled the parachute and I was chucked up into the air (or at least it felt that way). Jack let me hold onto the parachute reins for a little bit and guide us. Then we did these crazy spins in the air. The float down was pretty amazing to - I felt so calm the entire time. And happy - freaking happy.

And before I knew it, I spotted Sean and my friends on the ground. We came in for a landing, and true to my klutzy nature, I totally boffed the landing and came in on my ass instead of my feet. But, it didn't matter because I just jumped out of a plane on my birthday.

Here's some video that Sean took with my camera - turn your speakers on because there's a little bit of sound. As soon as I figure out how to transfer the DVD onto my computer, I'll upload the FABULOUS video of my entire jump.



Afterwards, we went to the Turf Club for dinner and drinks. The Turf Club is awesome because 1) they haven't changed the decor since around 1967 so it's like sitting in someone's awfully decorated basement and 2) you grill your own meat.

Work Trip

Last week, I was in Indianapolis for work. We were on a site visit of both the Convention Center and the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium. It was a pretty fun trip for several reasons: great city, an inside look at a pretty cool stadium, and great food.

Great City

Indianapolis reminds me of Cleveland. It’s an underappreciated city with lots to offer, but people dismiss it because it’s in the Midwest. Now, it could be that I’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid, but I like Indy. Lots of old architecture, including ornate churches, that is missing from the sterile-strip-mall-vastness that is Orange County. Its downtown has a lot of personality with cool little bars and (non-chain!) restaurants. It’s a shame that so much of the city’s personality is covered with snow during our show.


Pretty Cool Stadium
Great Food
A real NY deli in the middle of Indiana? Believe it. Shapiro’s is the real deal. I had half a pastrami sandwich, half reuben, broccoli salad and boston cream pie. It was the best reuben I’d ever had and will probably go on a mission of eating reubens to see if anything else can compare to Shapiro’s.

Yes – I ate it all. And I loved it.

Cleaning House

I'm doing a major purge of the condo this weekend and next. If you, or anyone you know, needs wine glasses, drink glasses, or matching plates & bowls - PLEASE let me know. All items are gently used. I'm going to take everything to Goodwill, but I thought that I'd offer it out to friends/family beforehand.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend, we had two weddings to go to and they couldn’t have been more different. One was held on a yacht in a harbor while the other was held in the desert. One was an intimate gathering of 40 close friends and family; the other was a bash of 300. One was for a friend and I knew close to 90% of the people there; the other was for a family member where I knew 2% of the people there.

Friday’s wedding was my favorite for a very obvious reason: the bride’s an incredible friend of mine. And that evening was great for so many reasons:
1. Enjoying cocktails while sailing around the harbor
2. Catching up with fabulous ladies I haven’t seen in a while
3. Randomly finding a bright red clown’s nose on the ship during cocktail hour and thinking about the sad, sad clown walking around without his nose.
4. A wedding DJ who’d actually heard of the bands and songs that I requested

5. Really good food – especially the mashed potatoes with the green onions and the wedding cake.
6. After party in the backyard surrounded by white Christmas lights

7. Having a husband who’d race clear across the country after one missed flight and another re-directed flight, just so he’d be able to make it to the last hour of the after party

B-R-E-A-T-H-E

*big sigh*

Today is the first day since June 25 that I’ve been able to take a breath. And a short breath it will be, because tomorrow starts another long stretch of busy-busy-busy time that includes 2 weddings and a bridal shower within a single 24 hour period, a trip to a water park and then a trip to Indianapolis.

I don’t know how it happened, but this summer has flown by. Between the wedding, the honeymoon, concerts, birthday parties, Sean’s various work trips and out-of-town guests, I feel as though I haven’t had time to slow down and relax. So I'm going to utilize this one free evening for everything its worth. This includes such lovely tasks like laundry, catching up on some of the shows currently clogging the DVR, and playing some serious catch-up with various blogs.

And did I mention that Sean’s gone? So I have the entire house to myself after a summer of feeling constantly crowded by people or always on the road. It’s nice.

So far, the best part of the day has been standing in the middle of Target, chatting with E. in China (via my cell phone). It was totally worth draining all the battery out of my phone just to chat with her for a few minutes. *waves hi to E*

Vino in Temecula

We signed up for a wine tour with a company called The Grape Line. This tour is great because everyone hops onto a little bus and the bus driver and tour guide take you to 4 wineries in Temecula wine country. Since this was our 3rd time on the tour (it’s the ‘go to’ activity every time someone comes out to visit us in CA) – it was pretty old hat for us. Here’s a breakdown of the events.

Holiday Inn Express
Get picked up at the Holiday Inn Express by the bus and meet our tour guide, Phillip. Since both the bus and our party arrived 15 minutes early, the day got off to a great – ahead of schedule – start. Then we left and picked up the other 10 guests on our tour at various hotels in Temecula. Then we hit the road for our first winery – Callaway.

Callaway
Used to be owned by the same Callaway family that owns Callaway golf items. I don’t know golf, so this doesn’t mean anything to me. The wine was great. Very crisp whites and full-bodied reds. Had my first Sangiovese – and now have a new type of red to explore.

We completely missed the tour of this winery – we were too busy talking and sampling. But that was fine for the three of us (Sean and I had already taken that tour) and my aunt was fine with skipping it so we gave her the condensed verbal tour: you grow grapes, you pick grapes, you put them in a machine; the machine crushes them, put it into barrels, barrels sit for a while, the wine’s put in bottles, you buy the bottle, you drink the wine. Viola.

Wilson’s Creek
Ahhhh – the Disneyland of wineries. I don’t like Wilson’s Creek. Like most things in Southern California, they put more emphasis on the appearance and ignore the substance. After reading the “family history” pamphlet they put on our table – I dislike it even more. Basically, a family with money got bored in the late 90s and decided they wanted to do something. Owning a vineyard was the popular thing to do in California at the time, so they bought a vineyard. They didn’t know what they were doing so they paid someone else to grow the grapes and make the wine for them. They built a ton of buildings on the land so they could have events and it seems like they sell the wine as an after thought. The woman who greeted us was the daughter of the owners. She was an over-medicated mess who made us guess how old she was (and I’m convinced she lied about her age). Lovely.

It’s worth noting that they were very stingy with their tasting size.
Bella Vista
My favorite. This is the oldest vineyard in Temecula. It’s a no frills, focus on the wine vineyard. Full bodied reds and no pretentiousness.

Mount Palomar
This was the only winery that was new to us and I really enjoyed it. I had a delicious cream sherry and their port was my favorite of all the ports I tried on the trip. Palomar has a very nice set up – lots of shaded outdoor seating (which is a big plus considering Temecula gets into the triple digits) and live music. It was a very relaxing, laid back winery.


All in all, it was a great trip.