This Week in Review (3/17-3/20)

3/17 -(Mon) This was a great St. Patrick's Day. I picked my mother-in-law up from the airport and then went to work for 4 hours. I was home at 6:20 and only beat Sean by a few minutes. While we were working, Mom-in-law was making corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. Yay traditional Irish fare made by a 100% Irish person! It was delicious. We even had Irish soda bread that was very good. There was liquor: I had Bailey's Irish cream over ice while Mom and Sean had Guinness. Of course, there was Sean having a car bomb. That's Mom laughing in the background. He's my man and boy can he down a beer real fast! Good times, good times.

3/18 - (Tues) I missed American Idol, but Sean taped it for me. I still have as yet to see it. I worked 4-12. Pretty good night at the store.

3/19 -(Wed) I made an awesome cake for Sean. He wanted a checkerboard cake and so I thought I would give it a try. I used the Fannie Farmer's Baking Cookbook's recipe. It uses a stiffer batter so you can pour the rings and don't need to go and buy a single purpose cake pan. It came out great.
Again worked 4-12 though I got out closer to 11 because Francisco closed and he always wants to get out as quick as possible.I missed American Idol again though I know who got booted. I am sad that it was Amanda Overmyer, but at this point anyone who leaves will be sad. I thought for sure it would be Kristy Lee Cook. Ah well, I was wrong.

3/20 -(Thurs) Sean's Birthday! We went to IHOP for breakfast and marveled over the crazy "Horton Hear's a Who" pancakes and drink. We didn't get them because they are scary. Who wants a drink with multi-colored Jell-o cubes in them? Eww...
We drove up to Napa to stay for a couple days. On the way we stopped at Roche family winery because Sean and I really loved the Muscat Canelli we got there the last time. We bought two more bottles and a bottle of Tamarix. Quite delicious.
We stayed at the Chelsea Garden Inn and it was pretty nice. The cottage was pretty cool, cowboy themed. The "wood stove" was nice. It was fake, but the fire was very helpful. The room froze at night, but whatcha gonna do? We went out to the Flatiron Grill for dinner. It was delicious! I recommend it to anyone who goes up to Calistoga. After dinner, we ate the cake I made (it came out perfect and looked like a checkerboard). Next time I need to frost in between the layers. While eating cake we watched the newest episode of Lost. That show is really crazy.

3/21 - (Fri) We were supposed to get picked up by the wine tour at 10:55 so sayeth the tickets place. Apparently there was a mix-up between the tickets place and the wine shuttle place so when I called at 11:30, we had missed a winery already. I was furious. At least we got refunded on almost half the price of each of our tickets and the shuttle payed for one of our tastings. We were picked up at noon and went to the remaining half of the winery the others were on (Frank Family Winery). The day went pretty smoothly after that. Very smooth. The nice thing about a tour is the not having to drive. This also means that people drink more. By the end of the tour (Beringer was my favorite winery of the day...tasted 9 wines!), everyone was drunk and best friends. We were taking pictures of each other together. I don't remember the last winery's name and I don't think anyone else does either. Maybe the Canadian couple as they bought a bottle of wine there. It was a blast. Next time we go up there, I'm going to contact the shuttle place directly. Lawrence was an awesome bus driver.
We went back to the bed and breakfast and Mom and I took a nap. After, we went to dinner at Checkers. It was pretty good food. We ended up going to bed a little early as our wine-soaked brains would take no more.

3/22 - (Sat) We checked out of the inn and wandered Lincoln Ave in Calistoga. There are a few cute stores and consignment shops to browse. After, we headed to Santa Rosa to eat lunch at Tex Wasabi's Rock-n-Roll Sushi, owned by Food Network's Guy Fieri. Sean has wanted to go there for a while now and I did too. The food was pretty good, however, as a real sushi lover, I hated the Gringo Sushi. Sean thought it was tasty though. Everything else was awesome.
We drove home and had a pretty good time of it listening to the Beatles and singing away. WE missed our exit to get on 1 from 101 and had to navigate UPHILL in part of San Francisco. My car made it! I was worried.

3/23 - (Sun) Happy Bunny Day! Easter was pretty good. Mom got up early-ish and made Sean and me french toast. Then she went to Easter Mass. We were going to meet Adam Lisbon in town for Mexican food, but the place was closed. We decided to make Easter dinner instead and invite him over. For appetizer we had lavash bread and hummus from the farmer's market. It was yummy. For dinner we had lamb, potatoes, and asparagus. It was quite delicious. For dessert, Adam had brought some pastries, but we made chocolate fondue as well. We dipped strawberries, pineapple, grapes, marshmallows, and PEEPS!! Of the torture for those poor chicky peeps. They were good though. Adam left around 6:40 and Mom, Sean, and I watched some West Wing before turning in around 11. It was a good holiday.

3/24 - (Mon) And the week comes full circle. Sean went back to work. :( Mom and I went shopping at the mall and Borders. I spent more money than I meant to, but it's all good. I get paid on Friday! Yay part-time job at Borders! Yay discount! We went to Mimi's for lunch with Sean. The lunch proportions are pretty good, they aren't too big. On the way to dropping Sean off back at work, I got backed into by a white van. I had no idea why he was backing up, but I laid on my horn. He tapped me. It turned out he was trying to back into a parking thing but had never put a blinker on. He really should have been looking. There wasn't any damage to my car that I could see, so we didn't call the cops or anything. Still, it was pretty nerve-wracking. Honestly, who pulls up to a stop sign, starts backing up, and doesn't look to see if there is anyone behind them first? Gosh!

So, now I'm home. I'm sorry for such a long post. It has been a while and I thought I should get it down before I forgot. It's been a good week on mom-in-law visiting. Her plane is tomorrow and then I have to work 4-12 again. It sucks working so late, but money and a job is nice.

Anywho, TTFN; Ta-ta for now!