Posts

Showing posts from November, 2011

First A&W and Christmas

Image
On our way home from the Bradley Lodge my parents, grandma and I stopped by the first A&W Restaurant in Lodi, CA for lunch. Despite my grandma living in Lodi this was my first time visiting the restaurant that opened in 1919 ! The root beer float was amazing and my dad's milkshake looked great too. Once back at Fort Bradley I quickly got all of my Christmas stuff out of the garage and started to put up my outside lights and tree. Three and a half hours later everything was decorated, the "fire" was lit, the house was vacuumed (lots of "pine needles" were on the carpet) and the laundry was started.

Thanksgiving 2011

Image
We had a great time at the Bradley Lodge this Thanksgiving . We started out celebrating the gender announcement ... I'm getting a niece in April 2012. Our family continued to celebrate by eating for the rest of the week. Between meals, I made sure to run everyday - got up to 4.4 miles (elevation is 5,100' - total climb was 680'+) - my brother and his family went sledding at Bear Valley , we headed to Murphys for appetizers and even saw the Dorrington Christmas Tree Lighting .

It's a Girl

Image
My first niece, my parent's first granddaughter, my grandma's first great-granddaughter, my brother/sister-in-law's first daughter and my nephew's first sister will be born sometime in April 2012. We found out the gender officially last night and celebrated at the Bradley Lodge today. Leave comments for name suggestions ... other kids are Luke and Levi.

Siena at The Meritage Resort and Spa

Image
My job is full of contrasts, but I like both ends of the spectrum (sometimes it's the times in the middle that are the most difficult). Two weeks ago I was waking up at three in the morning and working until midnight . Last night I had a client meeting at The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa and ate a fabulous dinner at Siena , the resort's signature restaurant. Our meal at the Chef's table was served family style and everything tasted amazing. We started with a Caesar Fondue (salad) and a large platter of Caprese .  That was followed by minestrone soup . Then pene pasta with three difference sauces and meatballs that were larger than baseballs. After that they brought out lots of salmon and a chicken. Since I was already incredibly full, I had to polish it off with a dessert trio. The trio included flourless chocolate cake , tiramisu and something cool with fruit. Since it couldn't just be a trio, we also had Spingies (Sicilian style donuts) and a chocolate p

Happy Birthday to Me!

Image
Well it's official, I'm one year closer to the big 30. I had a great time at the pre-celebration in Napa (it was nice of all the celebrities to come out for my party at Mondavi ) and I had a great weekend with my family at the Bradley Lodge . We relaxed, ate dinner at Sarafina's in Arnold and Google even remembered to say Happy Birthday (along with about 100 other people on Facebook and Twitter )!

Napa Valley Film Festival

Image
I attended my first film festival this week, although I didn't see any films, so I'm not sure if it really counts. I was there working on behalf of a client to tweet during the event (it's frowned upon to tweet during movies).  It was a lot of fun to hang out at the Bosch Culinary Stage at the Oxbow Public Market , drink some wine from 1976 while talking to the stars from Bottle Shock in the Buick Tweet House at the Avia and be at VIP parties at both the Napa Valley Opera House and Robert Mondavi . It was a busy 27 hours, but luckily I got to hang out with my friends from The Meritage , meet the celebrities, eat some amazing food ( Siena , Gott's Roadside and Pica Pica ) and I even walked away with an early birthday gift from Bosch . I'm looking forward to my next trip to Napa (maybe this week or next week) and was glad that I could be a part of the inaugural film festival, can't wait for next year. Now I'm at the Bradley Lodge celebrating

Convoy of Hope

Image
After learning nine days prior to Convoy of Hope that I would be doing all of the media outreach for it, I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be a challenge, I knew it would be a lot of work and I hoped that the media would help spread the word to the community, especially to those in need of assistance. Thankfully every major Sacramento news outlet answered my prayers and helped let the community know about Sacramento's largest humanitarian event of the year, Sacramento Convoy of Hope . A huge thanks goes out to all of media including KCRA , News 10 , CBS 13 / Good Day Sacramento , FOX 40 , The Sacramento Bee , KFBK , K-LOVE , Roseville Patch and many other local Christian and Catholic Radio stations for covering the event, before, during and after. All of that coverage and the help provided by more than 2,300 volunteers to more than 13,000 honored guests made my long days (waking up as early as 3 a.m. - I even had to drink soda for the caffeine) worth it. It was an