Stompin' Grapes!!!

Scott's mom Nancy got into town on Thursday and we have been doing a lot of exploring and hanging out.

We went to a museum on Friday (De Young) which was having an exhibit "The Art of Americas" so it was art spanning a variety of mediums, time periods, styles, etc. All I can say is "Wow - you better eat your Wheaties before you hit up a museum in San Francisco!" We were there for 3.5 hours and we still only saw half of it! I saw ancient Mesotopian sculptures all the way to abstract metal sculptures with a spray painted Mickey Mouse doll. It was very cool but I got burnt out before we got to the second floor.

We went to Sonoma yesterday to the Harvest Fair (imagine the Alaska Fair only it's smaller and the focus is wine). Scott and I entered a grape stomping contest that was a lot of fun. I got to stand in a wooden barrel in my bare feet and try to squash grapes for 3 minutes while Scott tried to get as much grape juice into our jug. I have always wanted to stomp grapes and we came in third place in our heat - not bad for first timers. Nancy has some great pictures but her camera won't connect to our computer so that'll have to wait a bit.

The Harvest Fair had people from all walks of life. You could eat a sausage, milk a cow, drink wine in a very sophisticated manner, or dance a jig. We met up with some of Nancy's cousins and went to a big family gathering in Sonoma. I felt a bit like I was crashing their party but we're family (in some distant way!) so it was the more the merrier. Next year we're going to enter the costume contest and rock those grape stomps like they've never been rocked before!

Looks like we're heading to Vegas in November for Karla's (my sister-in-law) 40th birthday party. You know, we are just doing our part to be good family members and make sure we're there for big occasions so we'll take one for the team and stay at the Mandalay Bay. I won $500 last year on the nickel slot machine so that means I'll probably lose half of that trying to recreate my winning scene.

I hear that its beginning to snow in Alaska. I equally miss it and am thrilled to still be having sunshine (it depends on what day you talk to me). I love this time of year in the AK so I think about home often.

I turned down the PR job last week so I am still out there job hunting. Every day could be a wild card day so we'll see what the week has in store for us!