James Is Home :)

I flew out to meet James in Napa this weekend and then we drove home to San Diego. He decided it was time to come home and felt he could make better progress here.

We are both ready to start planning for our future for the first time in a while. And I'm glad to have him home. Now we can share our summer adventures rather than just filling each other in each night.

What Owen Has Been Doing while Leo is Away

For those of you who know Owen, our Basset Hound, this will probably be no surprise. Owen has made some new friends while James and Leo are away. In this photo you will see Owen, Mya (that's the pit bull he has mounted) and Ollie. Ollie is a Boggle, half Beagle half Boston Terror. While at Andrea & Jeremy's housewarming party the dogs would chase each other around the yard... take turns being chased and playing games. The funny part is here you can see Owen has mounted Mya but that was usually not the end of it. Every time this happened Ollie would climb right behind Owen... Well you can imagine the laughs they were getting from the party guests. Dinner and a show! I tried a few times to get a picture of the three of them but this was the closest I got.
Its a good thing dogs can't look at the Internet; I think Owen might be either really embarrassed or really proud, not sure which.

A Birthday in Napa

I went up to meet James in Napa - Yountville to be exact - this weekend. It was my birthday and what better way to spend it than with my husband. I flew to San Francisco with Leo (the bulldog). What I trip. We have flown with Leo before but it is different doing it alone. I think I know what a parent traveling with a young child feels like now. There is a lot of stuff to cart around, a lot of this and that to take off and put on. Security was tons of fun. Mostly it was smooth, we even got to sit in the front row so Leo had more room.

I got up there on Friday and promptly took a nap. (I know its funny, I went to Napa and took a nap... haha. Thank you Uncle Sean) I had just come off of two straight weeks at work, traveling to New Jersey and back, working three full days at a trade show and then working the second week. I was totally on auto pilot the whole week before I went to Napa.

We ate some great food in Napa. The first night we went to Bottega (www.botteganapavalley.com) where James said he had the best food he's had since leaving Italy. Mine was wonderful too and the chocolate souffle was, well lets just say, oooohhhh. On Saturday we went to the Napa Grill (www.napavalleygrille.com). The dessert there was out of this world. It was a take on a snickers bar, chocolate mouse with nuts and caramel and some butter cream - yum. I was surprised when I looked them up online to find that they also have a location here in San Diego!

Surprise, surprise there was also some good wine over the weekend! My favorite was a sparkling wine from Mumm Napa (www.mummnapa.com). James and I both love sparkling reds from Italy, known as Frizzante in the Calabria region but they are all but impossible to find in the states. They are tart and frutie with just enough sweetness. Well, I finally found a few that compare. I can't wait to get the bottles in the mail.

We visited a few wineries, Mumm, Beringer (www.beringer.com), which has a lot of history and has been producing since before prohibition and right through, and another that had a reserve room where the owner displays his extensive collection of photography including Ansel Adams! It was a lot of fun. We were escorted by a very helpful woman named Sally who works at the Yountville Visitors Center and who spends a lot of time keeping of some of the Veterans who live at the Vets Home in Yountville company. She got us some great discounts too!

As James says we "Chillaxed" on Sunday just sat around a lot with his "Old Guys". Yes James calls them "His Old Guys". They are a group of mostly Viet Nam era vets who sit around near the little lunch counter scratching lottery tickets, drinking beer and smoking. They have a lot of stories but mostly talk about nothing in particular. I got to know most of them over the weekend. They are all good company for James and Leo.

All in all it was a low key birthday but a good one. And a big Thank You to Andrea and Jeremy for taking care of Owen! I did miss him while I was gone.

James & His Scooter

James Got a Scooter... It is a Honda Ruckus. It is really very funny to see him scooting all around town. He loves it, it gets 107 miles per gallon!! Can you believe 107 mpg? Well I'll have to take a pic of him on it. He has added a black milk crate behind the seat and some mesh to fill in the space under the seat so that he has some storage. He is now very happy to go to the store almost any time I ask!
Just though you might like to know. I'll really have to post a pic of him on it with his riding jacket, helmet and bright orange vest.

Its been a while.

I thought it might be a good time to update the blog.
James is doing a lot better... in the words of one of our great friends; "He has improved SO MUCH!... He has gone from here to here (imagine her stretching her hands as far apart as possible). Needless to say, he is doing a lot better. I think he feels better most days but he still has a lot of back & neck pain.

Lets see... Me, I'm doing OK. I've started working with people outside of my 8-5 job on graphics, newsletters and getting Government Contracts. I have two clients and am making an extra $50 each month from one and am trading my time for a new computer with the other! Its really kind of cool. Who knows, maybe a new road ahead for me.

James and I are both still waiting for the results of the medical board in Washington DC to decide how disabled he is so we know what kind of package he is going to get for his medical retirement. Its hard to make plans until we know how much we are going to be able to count on each month from the Department of Defense. Once we know though we will look at going to school. Both of us. I want to finish my BA and he would be getting started with an AA at first. I really can't wait to get going with this and to start the next chapter of our lives, we just have to wait for now.

He started making beer lately and has been really enjoying it. We have already been able to sample some of them and they are good. I think they will only get better the more he makes and as he grows some patience and lets them age. :)

The puppies are doing great. They are trouble makers as usual but nothing compared to our new nephew puppy, Gus. (Rachael & Matt's new Lab puppy.) He is too cute but a ball of energy and my three year old's are just not built to keep up with someone with twice the length in legs and easily triple the energy. I'm sure they will all have more fun together once Gus grows up a little.

So all in all we are doing fine. Nothing too exciting yet but there are great things to come. :)