Our favorite winery dogs

so far, that is. we get our dog fix when we visit wineries--each place seems to have a mascot.

Ralph at Stony Hill



















Curly at Smith-Madrone















Until we get a pup of our own, though, we'll have to keep tormenting this little beastie:

Chihuly, Brilliant Chihuly

Yesterday I was lucky enough to experience the Chihuly exhibition at the de Young Museum here in San Francisco. I had first seen his art--unbeknowest to me at the time-- in February of last year when I lost my Vegas virginity. Recognize the location in this picture?*

Dale Chihuly's blown-glass creations (but no, they're so much more than that) are nothing short of amazing. They are whimsical, playful, Willy Wonka-esque fantasies come to life. I'll let my favorite photos from the exhibition do the rest of the gushing. I think they speak for themselves:

*Hint: it rhymes with Dellagio and is famous for its fountains...

Confession Tuesday

As I was wolving down my heavenly bizet--

vanilla whipped cream sandwiched by vanilla meringues--

(why did I wait so long to discover this place?)

--part of it fell into the wet kitchen sink.

I didn't care. I still sopped up every crumb.

a year ago today...

Mexico baby.

and to think I spent THIS glorious March 8th at work. Jeez. Saving up for another trip.

Gung hay fat choy (& my 1st post of 2008, for shame)

a little late, considering it was ushered in on February 7th--but here in San Francisco there was a huge parade last night in celebration of the rat. Chinese New Year. Fun stuff. We whooped it up in the rain and wind.

& while I'm at it, happy Valentine's Day (to you Fridad, since I'm pretty sure you're the only one who reads this anymore!)

More to come. A pictorial love letter to San Francisco, my newest favorite city, is in the works.

happy Sunday, happy Oscar Night.

things I'll miss (in other words, goodbye Phoenix)

Family. (who else can you call to come pick you up at the Salt River in freaking Mesa?! thank you Fridad. & thank you for getting us the 'Best of Phoenix' two years in a row! I devoured it.)

Fry Bread House. Fry Bread House, why didn't I just eat at your place once a week and tack on an extra workout to make up for being such a piggy? Really, why didn't I? I'll never be able to have the fair food crap version of fry bread again.

Being able to say that I live in the same city as Chris Bianco & yes, his pizzas Fing ROCK and are worth every second spent in line, or at the bar next door, or wherever. (& goodbye homemade mozzarella--y'hear, he makes his own mozzarella--& basil sandwiches from pane bianco. I have loved you many a Saturday.) Chris Bianco is a genius for what he does with pizza dough & a wood-fired oven.

The intersection of E. Cholla and N. Tatum. If you turn your head east at the stoplight as you're heading towards Cactus it looks like a scene out of a Super Mario Bros. video game, what with the rolling green golf course hills against the blue sky. It almost looks fake it's so purdy.

...Because there is nearly always a blue sky here. Monsoons? What monsoons? You mean the heavy rain that happened, like, three times in the year we were here? Puh-leaze. Come to Florida and we'll show you what severe thunderstorms look like.

Phoenix Ranch Market. Oh how I'll miss being able to go to Mexico for 30 minutes whenever I feel like it! I was just telling Steve tonight, how can you not be happy when shopping or eating in that place?

The way the cacti wake up come springtime and bloom their little thorny hearts out, but only in the morning. Made the drive to work so much nicer.

My old job--not the one in Sun City, hells no, but my second assignment in Scottsdale. So it's true, looking forward to work is not an urban legend but actually does happen from time to time. Huh. Unfortch I'm sure my next assignment will be hideous.

We leave our hearts at the sight of our first-ever geocaching spot, Stovie's Trip to the Mall...and since then we've geocached in Laos and Cambodia and -- and it all started in the parking lot at Paradise Valley mall. Weird.

There's more but I have to dismantle our computer now -- Arizona, you are so much more than just the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, you are not a character-less city with "absolutely nothing to do"--silly, silly people on fodors.com boards. You just have to look a little harder to find all the great things.

********

....more...

The Saturday morning farmer's market at Vincent's on Camelback, what with the crepes and lobster burgers made to order by the chefs there. & getting to feel all grown up saying "yes, chef" and "thank you, chef" to kind Vincent and the rest of his staff. Saturdays when Steve worked meant I was either at Vincent's or at Pane Bianco.

Driving up to Dobbins Lookout on top of South Mountain to watch the sunset, then lingering to see the gazillion lights of the valley "turn on" below us.

Squinting up while driving south on Tatum to try and make out the Praying Monk rock formation on Camelback Mountain. I never could see it until the very last second before veering off--but when I did I'd always giggle/squeal/combo of the two like a happy degenerate.

Steve mentioned this one and I wholeheartedly agree: the triumvirate of the bestest Mexican food in the valley: Barrio Cafe, Asi es la Vida and Los Sombreros. We've been so spoiled with rocking Mexican food here. Not to mention his co-worker's incredible homemade tamales, second to none. A new tradition for us, tamales for the 12 days of Christmas.

Matt's Big Breakfast in downtown Phoenix. One word: bacon. No, two more words: honey lemonade.

Another of Steve's-- Richardson's, for New Mexican food. But we wouldn't even consider getting anything but the carne adovada. Oh what a wonderful thing is their carne adovada.

Listening to John Jay & Rich on 104.7. They're hilarious all by themselves, but between 7:00-7:20 in the am they feature a segment called "Remember the Time" and play this montage of song/movie/tv clips, all released in the same year at which point the caller attempts to guess which one. I bloody loved this game! How satisfying is it to dig up subconscious associations with songs & movies & the like in order to establish a time frame? For a totally random, wacky example--the song No More Drama by Mary J. Blige was playing in the car on the way home from my friend Janel's graduation from college. I remember she started being silly and belting it out at the top of her lungs, windows down, so giddy to be done with exams, stress and bullshizz that goes with those last few weeks. And Janel graduated a semester after me, so 2002. Brilliant! Is there some kind of board game out there like this? Must google to find out.

& I've veered way off track by now, but one last thing--being able to take off to Sedona at a moment's notice and recharge with an incredible hike and all that amazing scenery . I'll miss Sedona too. Sigh.

Let's be joyful

Yes, let's.

Despite having one (or more?) extremely unwanted visitors the last few days, there's still that wonderful Christmas feeling 'round here. We put a Vietnamese conical hat at the tippity top of our beautiful, albeit Charlie Brown-ish, tree. On Christmas Eve we picnicked underneath said tree on Alaskan king crab legs with lots of melted butter to slurp up. Slurp slurp slurp. We went to midnight mass, got seats, and I sang my arse off. I took my first stab at making homemade trofie pasta and they tasted a-ma-zing (actually I can't take all the credit; Steve helped to make their adorable twists). I finally got around to making no-knead bread (2nd loaf is rising right now). Tonight we're going to a restaurant which I've been dying to go to since, oh I don't know, two weeks after moving to Phoenix last year. I finally got to show Steve what all the fuss over the movie The Namesake is about. And late at night when our dear old biddy neighbors are safely tucked in, we sneak downstairs and get in the jacuzzi to warm up. We have to. I don't think they have hot tubs where we're going.

There's still the tiny little baby hiccup of my getting a job (but we have a place to live! let me not jinx it just yet though), but I'm still taking the official 'not panicking' stance. After all, it's a tough week for getting a job, right? Just nod your head 'yes' for my sake. Thank you.

Happy new year beautiful ones!