casacaudill

this makes me happy

covetous

Back when we were married eons and eons ago, I had provided our wedding coordinator with a photo of the bouquet I wanted to carry during the ceremony.  It was blush pink roses with white/pinkish orchids peppered throughout, all tied together with an ice blue satin ribbon.  I offered to send the ribbon I wanted to use to the coordinator and she told me there was no need as she had access to a beautiful supply that would be perfect. 

We had a lot of problems with our wedding coordinator during the final days leading up to our wedding, but none so dramatic as when she pulled out my bouquet and it was THE MOST HIDEOUS BRIDAL BOUQUET I HAVE EVER SEEN. No seriously, it was bad.  We paid $180 for 12 half-dead, moldy bright pink roses tied with a polyester funeral bow. I cried. I tried leaving it in the bushes during the pictures but that bitch kept picking it up and handing it back to me saying, "oh, you forgot your bouquet." Damn straight I did, that thing was horrid. 

(As a side note, when we were checking out of our hotel - The Fairmont Kea Lani - the next day one of the hotel employees noticed that we were the same couple they'd seen getting married the day before and she asked me, rather tentatively, if the hotel had done my flowers.  I told her no, that they had come from some janky florist up in Kehei.  Her response?  "Oh good, we would never have given those to you.")

You can kind of just barely see them in this picture.  Because we were married in the days before digital was so widespread, I don't really have any photos of it online.

Anyhow, to make a long story short ... it was ugly, not what I had asked for and I hated it.  So did everyone else but the wedding coordinator.

For seven long years I've looked at other brides' wedding bouquets and thought, "why couldn't I have something that pretty?"  I've even gone so far as to tell Alan that if he really loved me on our next wedding anniversary he'd get me the bouquet I had wanted.  So far he hasn't. 

Today I clicked on a link my friend sent me and my heart stopped.  There it was, the perfect Hawaii wedding bouquet in all of its splendid glory.

(Photo courtesy of The Wedding Chicks)

And here I am back to feeling covetous. Le sigh.

welcome to the world!

Today we welcomed our new nephew Luke Thomas to the world. And by welcome I mean we took the phone call announcing he was born and we congratulated Alan's brother and his wife for the new addition to their family. We'll likely meet him in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, we're like that.  A new kid is born and rather than bombarding mom & dad at the hospital we give them some time to get home, get relaxed and get into the swing of things.  I'd like to say it's because we're courteous, but mostly it's because I'm really uncomfortable around newborns. So until then, CONGRATULATIONS ADAM & NICOLE.  We hope Jack is nice to him.

what's your style decor

Mrs. Limestone over at Adventures in Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone posted earlier today about a decor quiz that for once was - despite some semantics - right on the money.  I have yet to find one that is mostly right, so I rushed on over to see if it could narrow me down correctly.  Past quizzes I've taken have told me I like modern decor (not!) or would love to live in a treehouse (hardly).  So I was curious to see how the folks at Sproost would evaluate my answers.

Overall, I liked the quiz, but the one thing I couldn't get past was them telling me that I shouldn't evaluate the architectural elements of a room, instead to focus just on the decor.  That was hard stuff because most of the rooms that I liked had serious beautiful buildings - exposed beams, staircases along the wall, high, vaulted ceilings.  I feel like in some cases the room made the room, not the stuff that was in it. 

So, what did the quiz think when all was said and done?

Nantucket Style

Oh how you love the beach! Who doesn't, right? And so your dream home is either perched in your favorite beach town, or you've brought that favorite beach town into your house.

Your art and accessories speak directly to the activities that are found at the beach. Pieces of driftwood you found here, pictures or paintings of the amazing views there. Things that remind you of the coast - surf boards or fishing boats - are found throughout the house. The feeling of the seaside is both abstract and literal in the design of your space. The fabrics are natural, cottons and linens and are light in color and touch. Much of the furniture is wood or wood framed (the lighter the better, think driftwood!) and wicker, when done right, is a must.

And since your true inspiration is the sea, the colors and textures in your home are the same that you would find at your favorite beach: white, light beiges and grays of the sand and driftwood, a variety of blues for the ocean and sky, and greens and vibrant blues of the sea glass, but the key is white! Your space should feel light and airy and give off the mood one has when at the beach: laid back!

Your furniture is comfortable and the layout is cozy. The more it reminds you of actually sitting on the warm sand, the better! And what do you do at the beach? Hang out with family and friends - and your home is just an extension of this play place. And though the space is filled with large white furniture, it somehow manages to feel both durable and casual.

 

Okay, I like Nantucket style.  In fact, I would love to live in a home in Maine someday with lots of white cotton slipcovers and blue gray walls, with bright pops of color.  Lots of white curtains and framed black & white prints.  But that's more of my DREAM style, it's not really my actual style.  When push comes to shove and I'm out buying stuff for my house - whether it's my small Victorian apartment, my larger Spanish/Mediterannean apartment, my industrial loft or my Craftsman bungalow, I always go for the dark, rich tones.  Burgundies, sage greens, browns, forest green, deep blue.  These are the colors I actually choose. 

What about you?  Are you decor schizo?

spring cleaning

It's been a busy day here at casacaudill. In a span of several hours we've:

- hacked back some overgrown bushes in the backyard
- done the laundry
- cleaned the kitchen
- shampooed the rugs
- cooked pork verde for tacos tonight (okay, this is the crockpot, but still)
- cleaned the bathroom - again (got dirty from cleaning the rug cleaner)
- changed the sheets
- brought a side table up from the basement and created a nice little space for me next to the couch
- figured out when my cousin is graduating from UCSB
- watched 2 episodes of house hunters

It's only 3:30 and I still have a trip to Trader Joe's and IKEA on the docket.  I should probably fit in a shower before I take on those tasks though.  Nothing like smelling like dirty carpet water.  Mmmm, sexy.

what's up with you two?

Someone I know in real life who reads this blog mentioned that I'm updating a lot less frequently, and she'd be right.

We're not really doing any work on our house so there's not a whole lot to report there.  I changed out the curtains in the bedroom and painted an old end table white so I now have somewhere to put my books, water and computer.  I also painted the tv dinner tray I'd been using as a side table so now Alan has somewhere to put his stuff too.  It's very mismatched and the curtains are very quirky so our bedroom is starting to take on a country chic look that I've admired in pictures but never really thought was for me.

With all the rains we've been having (thank goodness!) our backyard has turned into an overgrown jungle, again.  Alan's arm is still injured so he can't do as much as he's done back there in previous years.  I'm just waiting for the weather to get dryer and then we'll likely just start ripping it all out again.

Work has been insanely busy and productive.  I'm gearing up for one of the industry's biggest conferences and that has been taking up a good portion of my day when I'm at work.  And of course I obsess about it at night.  I've been to this conference several times for my clients, but now that I'm on the team that is running PR for it, I'm seeing a whole different side of the coin.  It's good work though and I'm learning a lot.

As if I don't have enough on my mind, I've been doing a lot of reading (no great literary masterpieces, I'm afraid) and thinking about the type of story I'd want to write.  I used to do a lot of creative writing before I was working in PR and I've been thinking up stories in my head, but never committing the words to paper (or screen, as the case may be).  I decided to stop just thinking about it and do something so for the past few days I've been writing a story about a very lonely, emotionally damaged woman who meets a man that's probably the exact wrong person for her and yet in so many ways is the only man she could ever really love.  Yes, I'm a romantic fool.  I'm up to about 7000 words now (roughly translated to 20 pages) and am having a lot of fun discovering who these characters are and how they will come together.  I struggle with the filler content though, so that's been a challenge.  I know the major points of conflict and how they will be resolved, but getting to each point along the way is taking some doing.  I spent two hours last night working on the same 700 words.  Another problem I have in writing which has held me back for so long is that I am an obsessive editor.  You can't tell from my blog posts since they're riddled with errors and incorrect grammar, but when I write "for real" I'll go over the same paragraph several times, tweaking words or phrases, until I'm absolutely happy with how it has turned out.  It makes for slow going if I have to do that to every paragraph I write.  Like NaNoWriMo encourages its participants, I'm trying not to do a lot of editing along the way - saving that for when I've wrapped up the story - but some old habits die hard.

Of course, I've also been looking forward to the release of the Twilight DVD and have been obsessively stalking the Lainey Gossip website for updates on what the cast and crew is doing in the Vancouver area as they prep for New Moon.  I pre-ordered the DVD from Target and when I checked the status of my order yesterday it said it would be shipping on 3/23 (not 3/21, its release date) and that estimated delivery was NEXT MONDAY.  Doesn't Target know that anyone who took the time to pre-order a DVD with all the special features because they need another 2 hours of that shit is going to go out of their mind waiting an extra 10 days from its release date to get their hands on it?  Alas, I've already paid for it so all I can do is wait my turn.  Supposedly it's going to be available on AT&T U-Verse OnDemand today so I'll probably watch it at some point this weekend.  Alan will be pissed since I've already paid money for the DVD but part of our wedding vows had him promising to love the things he did not yet know about me - that being that I'm obsessed with vampire love stories and that I will watch movies over and over and over again if I like it.

russian river barrel tasting

Last weekend (even though we shouldn't have because I was coming off a pretty nasty cold ... but we'd already bought the tickets), we drove up to the Russian River wine region to attend the region's annual barrel tasting event.  We've gone the last 5 out of 6 years (skipping last year b/c we spent Alan's birthday up in Clear Lake instead, at the Tallman Hotel) and were excited about going this year as well.

We knew we were going to start at Manzanita Creek in Healdsburg.  We're wine club members there and they were tasting my favorite Zinfandel out of the barrel.  Since we've been going up to this area several times a year for the past several years, we've sampled the wines of a good many winery and know which ones we like and which ones we don't.  We also know which ones will be mobbed and should be avoided at all costs on an event weekend (I'm looking at you Ridge, A. Rafanelli, Mauritson, and Passalacqua).  We looked at the list of participating wineries the night before we left and decided in addition to Manzanita, we'd stop into 2 or 3 ones that we'd never been to.  These are all either new wineries or its their first time doing this event.

We stopped in, talked with Jack and the crew, picked up a case of Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel and then headed to our next stop, Stuhlmuller Winery.  They're very well regarded by the major wine critics, consistently earning 90s and 91s for their Chardonnay.  They also had a chef there serving Coc au Vin, which wasn't like any other CaV I'd ever tasted, but the chef was sure to impress upon us this was a "famous, classical french dish" as if I'd never heard of it before. His version, while incredibly tasty, lacked the depth you get from the red wine and there was a lot of broth.  He also served it over white rice, so it felt very much like a chicken soup with bacon.  Whatever, it tasted good ... but dude, chill out on your French credentials.  All the wines we tasted were very good, but at nearly $40 for the Reserve Chardonnay, we decided to continue on our way. 

Our next stop was J. Rickhards who was tasting 4 years of the same Zinfandel so you could see it at different stages.  I didn't find any of them bad, but I also wasn't blown away.  They were also tasting every other wine they had, which were numerous.  A Sauvignon Blanc we tasted didn't taste so much like wine, but rather like lillikoi juice ... the passion fruit overtones were so pronounced.  We bought a bottle because we think it'll be great chilled during the summer.  Unfortunately, at J. Rickhards I met a cute little puppy who I absolutely adored (and vice versa) that it turns out I was allergic to.  After she jumped up in my lap and tried to kiss me, my skin was burning.  No cuddles with the puppy this time.

From J. Rickhards we went to Truett Hurst, a new biodynamic winery in Dry Creek Valley.  It was a madhouse.  I imagine they must have gotten some good press because the parking lot was overflowing with cars and there were buses coming and going.  We didn't taste any of the wines that were bottled, opting instead for a few sips of their barrels (which is the part I enjoy most anyhow).  Again, nothing I was blown away by.  I liked their Syrah, but not enough to put in an order for futures.  They were serving tri-tip and the line was LONG but I was starving by this point so we decided to wait it out.  While we were in line, they announced that they had run out of meat so people behind us weren't going to be able to get any, while we each got 2 bites.  They clearly weren't prepared for the amount of people who showed up.  While I don't think we'll make it a point to go back there, the property was beautiful though ... running right along the river.  And since it was in the mid-60s and sunny, it was a perfect location to end our day in wine country.

 

Except ... we didn't.  We were going to stop into the Dry Creek General Store to get food but because most of the wineries this year had pulled back dramatically when it came to the food stuffs they were offering alongside their wines, the parking lot was overflowing and the line was out the door.  We were both very hungry and when I get hungry I get (1) shaky and (2) cranky, so we had to get creative. 

The first year we did the barrel tasting event, we went to Clos du Bois because it was a name we recognized (you'll probably realize at that moment we knew very little about wine).  Imagine our surprise when they were serving kosher hot dogs to everyone who came by to taste.  Since then, we've made Clos du Bois our last stop of the day to grab a snack before driving home.  Strangely enough, I actually really like their unfiltered chardonnay while it's still in the barrel. I'm not a fan of it once it's been bottled though.  We decided to go with the tried and true and CdB did not disappoint.  In fact, they even upped their game, this year serving ... CORN DOGS.  I cannot adequately describe to you how much I love corn dogs.  So yeah, very happy we decided to go back to our old plan and stop in. 

The other reason I love stopping in to Clos du Bois during this trip is because I always know I'll get some beautiful photos of the dogwood trees in bloom.

 

 

Maybe we're getting old, but I think this is the last year we'll go to the barrel tasting event.  It has, dare I say, jumped the shark for us.  A couple of years ago it was a really great time where you could talk to winemakers about why they were doing what they did and how they were blending their grapes and what they thought about this barrel versus that barrel and how they thought the wine would compare to what was already bottled.  This year I felt like it was more of a party atmosphere and even the wine makers weren't looking at this as an educational event, but more a time to get people drunk so they'd buy more wine.  I don't know.  Maybe that's me being cynical, but while I had a good time, but the end of the day I was just really tired and kind of over the whole thing.  I didn't mind getting back home.

Book Review: More Sookie Stackhouse

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
rating: 3 of 5 stars

I waited patiently as the library transferred this book (ever so slowly) from a library across town to my local branch. When I got the email that it was available for pick-up, I let out a squeal of glee. More Sookie, more Eric, more Pam ... more Sam and yes, even more Vampire Bill. More than anything, I was hoping for more insight into the relationship between Sookie and Eric, so everytime Eric showed up, I read with baited breath. And then he'd disappear again, nothing to be resolved. Until the scene where there's yet another Vampire stand-off at Sookie's house and Eric finds himself in her room ... remembering everything about his feelings for her. I got so excited - "here it is, we'll finally know what's going to happen!" And then, no. Sookie does what she always does and retreats to the bathroom, telling Eric they'll talk about it later. Unfortunately, later never comes and instead we get more information on Jason and his slutty werepanther wife, the Weres and their battle for supremacy and more about Sookie's family history. BORING! Here's to hoping Dead and Gone (coming out in May 2009) does a better job of it than From Dead to Worse.

just a boy and his dad

Gorilla picks handsome name for son at San Francisco Zoo -
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/11/national/a145506D85.DTL&hw=gorilla&sn=004&sc=284

Little Hasani was abandoned by his mom moments after she gave birth to him. He's being raised by a zookeeper at the Zoo.  He'll be able to integrate with the rest of the gorilla troop in a couple of months.  In the meantime, he's drawing a lot of attention - and not just from the human population. 

 

when it rains it pours ($$$)

So, we need a new TV.  And my tooth is broken (thankfully not beyond repair).  These are not cheap things.  In fact, I just got back from the dentist and this is a pricey proposition. 

The fillings I got when I was 12 or 13 have failed and I need new fillings.  One of them failed so badly that I have a crack in my right bottom molar - exactly what caused my left bottom molar to break last night, in fact.  So, I need to get that one crowned as well.  Oh, and that fraking fourth wisdom tooth my crackpot dentist left in when I was 16?  Yeah, I either need to get a filling or get it pulled.  [Let me ask you something ... what kind of nutjob pulls THREE wisdom teeth and leaves the FOURTH?]

I also need to have all those failed silver fillings refilled with the latest and greatest materials.  The total cost for everything I need to have done is over $3000 and our insurance is going to pay $1800 of it.  SHIT, SHIT, SHIT. 

Here's to hoping our dying TV makes it awhile longer because I need my teef.