Napa was awesome

Over the weekend I took Beth to Calistoga (in Napa Valley) for a birthday she doesn't want to admit she had. Since she took all of the pictures I can't post them (at least not yet), but here's the link to where we stayed: http://www.winewayinn.com/.

It was the first time either of us have stayed in a bed and breakfast, and it was pretty fun. The place was walking distance from the town, which basically has a half-mile Main Street and that's it. Calistoga is the northernmost of the five towns that make up the area, and from what I could tell, also the smallest and quietest. I hadn't realized until the first night when we were going to sleep with the window open how long it had been since I had heard complete quiet. I love living and working in the city, but it made me realize that I can probably stand to get away from it once in a while.

All in all, the breakfast was fantastic, and the small touches were a nice change from the usual chain hotels I normally stay at (compare this place to the Holiday Inn Express on the 10th Street bridge in Pittsburgh and you'll probably agree). However, I'm not sure Beth & I are cut out for being really talkative to strangers at breakfast. We mostly kept to ourselves while the other guests (who were mostly much older than us) chattered away.

We hit tastings at 2 wineries on Saturday, and another 6 or so on Sunday. Most of them were pretty good, and by the end we both started feeling pretty confident about knowing what we liked and didn't like. We ended up buying bottles to take home from 4 of them. Definitely a side trip I'd recommend to anyone coming up to the bay area in the future.

A few of the places we hit:

http://www.rutherfordhill.com/ (The first place we hit. A little more on the corporate side.)
http://www.vsattui.com/ (REALLY corporate and huge. It's nice because you can buy food and have a picnic on their grounds, but we had to wait a while just to do a tasting. We ended up buying a bottle of port, but I don't think we'd go back, unless we can find a less crowded day.)
http://www.bennettlane.com/ (This place was really nice. It was completely empty when we hit it first thing Sunday morning, and we ended up buying a bottle of red. At the end of the day we decided we liked one of their whites better than any other one we'd had that day, and should have bought that too.)
http://www.augustbriggswines.com/ (We didn't like their wines very much, although the people were very nice, and they didn't charge for tastings.)
http://mummnapa.com (Sparking wines are apparently different from champagne. It was a nice change after sitting several wineries that morning, but not our favorite.)
http://www.dutchhenry.com/ (Our last stop, and probably the funniest. The owner had pictures of himself and other guys reenacting old western scenes, and wore cowboy boots. We ended up buying a bottle of chardonnay.)

Back to PHX 11/6 - 11/9

For those who I haven't had the chance to tell yet, I'll be making a pitstop back in Phoenix next week. The plan is to fly in Thursday night, hit up kickball for a while, and fill Friday and Saturday running around trying to see people. On Sunday Beth & I will be headed up to Payson for the day, and then we're out.

Other than sitting on the patio at Four Peaks for as many hours as I can stand it Friday afternoon, there aren't any solid plans for the weekend. Let me know if you're around and have a great idea for something to do, or just want to meet up somewhere.

Garbage Truck

I actually don't know if it was a garbage truck or the street cleaners, but last night around midnight, and also 6, and some time in between when I was too delirious to look at a clock, someone decided it would be a great idea to sit just below our bedroom window and incessantly raise and drop what I have to guess was a huge garbage dumpster. We usually hear this on Thursday mornings when the trash is picked up, but never on a Sunday night, and never 3 times in a night. Sleeping in the city is fun!

High School Reunion

My 10 year high school reunion is this weekend (I think... I haven't been following up too closely, but I know that some of my friends are headed to Phoenix around now, so I have to assume it's this weekend). As much as I can complain that I'm working long hours at the new job, or praise how great living in the city is, the most notable thing I can think of today when I consider the effects of moving away is this: I have a valid excuse to not have to attend a stupid reunion!

It's amazing that it's been 10 years, but I don't see the need to spend hundreds of dollars to reminisce about a time that really wasn't that great to begin with. If there are one or two people that I really am curious to see, they're probably just a facebook friend request away (but I can't think of anyone at the moment).

Interesting Day

Everything worked out fine, but an exciting mid-afternoon break in my building today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/13/MNLR13G92M.DTL&tsp=1
http://www.ktvu.com/news/17705898/detail.html
http://flickr.com/photos/eston/2939645796/

Yes, he did this because he was pissed that he had not been picked to be on the game show The Price Is Right (for those paying attention at home, no one on the 30th floor of my building is in any way associated with that or any other game show.)

Okay, back to work.

Startup

Most of you know that while I was going ahead and making a major life change by moving here, I decided to take things a step further and make a significant career change by trying life at a startup. Now that I've been here for about a month, I can say that day-to-day life is definitely different than at the behemoth I used to work for, and not just because there's free snacks in the kitchen. (As a sidenote, I received a registered letter from my former behemoth employer today, informing me that I owe them $135 to cover books from when I took a class last year. When I was getting ready to leave the company I checked with _both_ HR and Education Assistance to make sure everything was ok, and they told me there was nothing to worry about. Then, weeks later, I receive a letter threatening legal action if I don't pay them for something they didn't tell me I owed them for, something they could have easily withheld from my last paycheck. If they ever wanted me to even consider going back, they certainly don't know how to be convincing.)

Anyway, back to the main topic: What I've found in the last few weeks is that working for a startup still in survival mode is very much an always-on job. It's not that everyone works 24 hours a day, but we are all aware of work at all times, and can't really leave work at the office after 5 (or 7, or 10, as the case may be). The reality is that one seemingly minor wrong move could change the perception of some large customers we're starting to sign on, and from there it would be a quick slope towards looking for a new job.

Some of you may or may not know that I'm now working in the retail industry, in a way. Our CEO sat us all down last week with some very good news about some very big customers we're making progress on, and then laid it on the line for us: "Call your families and tell them you'll see them on December 26." The retail industry does the vast majority of its business in Q4, and the next 3 months are going to determine whether this place makes it big or falls on its face. Considering that on my previous project, I wrote code for almost two and a half years that never saw the light of day, it's amazing (and frightening!) to be in a situation where what I do actually makes a difference.

No Scooter Yet...

Still debating. I'll update with pictures when I finally break. :)