Wine Blending and Pizza

I had the opportunity to be at The Meritage Resort and Spa again this week. With their marketing manager out on her honeymoon I was invited to assist with a tour being given by their sales team to meeting planners from throughout Northern California. The tour gave me some new opportunities ... I got to participate in my first wine blending, think science meets wine (my Meritage blend of up to five Bordeaux wines took second place out of 10 teams). I also got a spectacular lunch comprised of Crab Louie, Short Ribs with Jumbo Prawns and Lava Cake (not quite my favorite Boudin, but very close). Beyond the sales event, I also did some work and, of course, ate more food, trying Blend Cafe's Beignets and took a reporter out to lunch at Crush Ultra Lounge. She enjoyed the Crush Burger, while I stuck with the Ruben after trying the very tasty Po' Boy the night before.

Once back at home, I ran more and ate pizza twice. Once at BJ's Brewery for Happy Hour and tonight from Papa Murphy's. I had half of a family size Chicken Bacon Artichoke deLITE, I'm pretty sure that after half it's not so "lite."

A Day at the Placer County Fair

I had no idea my nephew raised "meat" rabbits

It's not quite as big as the California State Fair, but it's a fair and that means food, animals, music and rides. Today I went to the Placer County Fair to experience it through the eyes of seven of my favorite (non-related) kids. From choosing which food vendor to eat at (they choose the Squeeze Inn truck, pizza, Italian Ice and Beignets, I had tacos). There was also cotton candy, carnival rides (a roller coaster, bumper cars, a Ferris wheel and a carousel), time to hang out with the cows, sheep, ducks and turkeys, and even some classic cars rolling down the main drag.

I Ate, I Ran, I Conquered

It's probably getting a little old and I should probably just call this a food and fitness blog, but pretty much all I do is eat and workout.

This week was pretty mellow until I went to Napa on Thursday for a meeting with the Napa Valley Destination Council. Before the meeting I met with the individual who runs the Twitter account for the Napa Valley Film Festival to give her some ideas on how to continually improve based off of some tricks that I have used in the past to engage with others. After the Destination Council, held in The Meritage Resort and Spa's new Carneros Ballroom, The Meritage hosted another spectacular reception with short ribs, foie gras (gotta get it while you can in California), oysters and wine (I was driving back, so no wine for me).


Friday night I headed to Crush 29 for Happy Hour and dinner with friends. I didn't know that they had such a great Happy Hour menu, it could be one of my new favorites (wine and apps for $5 each). Then, of course, there was running and going to the gym. During this weeks three five-mile runs I saw some goats being used for fire control (they eat the vegetation), so that was little different at least.

Luis Palau Sacramento Festival

Drawing well over 75,000 people on Saturday and Sunday, the Luis Palau Sacramento Festival was one of the largest events Sacramento has seen in a very long time. The festival brought in top Christian bands, world renown speakers, including Luis Palau and his son, Andrew Palau, X-Game medalist skateboarders, BMX riders and motorcycles, a huge kids zone and much more.

Although the temperatures didn't exactly cooperate (105+ degrees on Saturday), many people came, heard a great message and hundreds, if not thousands, decided to radically transform their lives making all of the prep work of staff and thousands of volunteers across the Sacramento region worth it.

Before the festival I met with the media relations director and gave him all of my Sacramento area media contacts. He was able to connect with each of them and get some great coverage of the event. Since I wasn't leading media relations efforts, it allowed me to focus on my other passion ... TWITTER. From Saturday morning to Monday morning I ran the @SacramentoFest Twitter account, posting hundreds of photos and updates, responded to questions and retweeted people sharing their views and pictures with others at the Festival or those who were following from around the world.

With more than 400 tweets and 150 pictures taken (most tweeted), I may have gone a little overboard, but I did raise the accounts Klout score from 48 to 52, meaning my tweets were well received by followers and the accounts influence grew during the festival. Running Twitter did provide a few benefits ... free food, as much water as I needed (also free), free parking, a spot to charge my phone (during one 45 minute period at the end of the Festival I used almost 40 percent of my battery life), a chance to see the entire festival and I got to meet Phil Wickham for the second time (I drove him from Bayside to his hotel a few years ago, I don't think he remembered me).

It was a great event to be a part of and I was glad to use my talented thumbs to Tweet during it.

Gym, Foursquare and the Chicago Tribune

I never thought those three things would all fit together, but when I saw a request from a reporter about unusual reasons to go to the gym, I knew I had a response.

I go to the gym for a variety of reasons. A main reason I go regularly is because I eat too much. That gets me running and/or to the gym about five days a week. The other one or two workouts are simply because I have a title to keep ... Foursquare Mayor of 24 Hour Fitness Roseville. Those extra workouts and the times when I would rather be sleeping, but instead end up at the gym to keep a title that in reality does nothing for me is why my name and story made it into the Chicago Tribune thanks to HARO.

read complete story here

Excercise, Food, Food, Exercise, Food

I'm often asked how I can eat so much. First, I have a pretty good metabolism. Second, and most importantly, I exercise everyday. Third, when I'm at my house, I eat pretty healthy foods.

This week was no exception. I started off on Monday by going to the gym, Tuesday I went for a run. Then plans changed a little. I got a phone call asking if I could be in Napa Tuesday evening for a Wednesday morning video shoot. I went home, packed, went to the Placer Business Tweetup at La Provence, then was off to The Meritage Resort and Spa. It's not a secret what my first item of business was when I arrived (after checking in) .... order the Boudin (flourless chocolate cake).

Wednesday morning started off early (5:30 a.m.) with some client work, then a quick breakfast sandwich at Blend and into the Estate Cave for a video shoot in Spa Terra. Video shoots are always fun and Spa Terra makes for a beautiful backdrop, 12 treatment rooms, a serenity lounge, saunas, spas and more in a 22,000 square foot cave. It started off easy enough ... I played boom operator. It then changed a little when the videographer decided he wanted a "happy couple" in addition to the two female models that were already there. So a friend of mine from the marketing team and I became the happy couple, enjoying time in the serenity lounge and then getting a massage. The massage and body scrub I got were great, but a three minute massage and a two minute body scrub aren't quite the standard 50+ minute treatment. I will take what I can get though.

After the video was shot, it was back into my "office away from my office," some meetings, a tour of the Vintner's Suite (more on the reason for that tour in a few weeks hopefully) and a surprise, friends from the Napa Valley Destination Council invited me to bowl with them at Crush Ultra Lounge. It was great to be invited and I enjoyed hanging out with some of the people who I email with regularly, but have only met one or two times in person. Lucky for me, I could extend my reservation and would just have to wear the same shirt and pants the next day.

That said, I ate some incredible food during my entire stay. A Turkey and Brie Panini, Crush Salad, Ahi Wantons, Mac & Cheese and Bananas Foster Stuffed Brioche French Toast.

After only being able to work out for about 20 minutes on Thursday morning in my favorite "hotel gym" I headed back to my gym in Roseville for a long workout. Cardio, weight lifting and abs were all covered. In a spirit of continuing not to cook, my next stop was The Fountains at Roseville for a Food Truck Round-Up. For $5 I got a taco and a mulita (similar to a small quesidilla with corn tortillas from Chandos Tacos.

Weekend of Food, Laughs and Fun

My weekend started off on the right foot when my office closed early. A friend and I headed to Sacramento's Hyatt Regency to try a hamburger with peanut butter that I had read about in SacTown magazine.  The hamburger was amazing (keep in mind I am slightly addicted to peanut butter). We also ordered the asparagus fries, deep fried pickles and a chicken quesadilla.

Once we were in a food coma we headed to KBAR for a pre-show drink where we sat next to a few reporters and producers for Fox40, proving you never know when you might have an opportunity to network. After a quick drink we headed to the Cosmopolitan Cabaret to see Triple Espresso. The show was fantastic and was the first time I had seen Bob Stromberg with his main show (I have seen him a few times before at Bayside and First Covenant in his solo act). Although the original cast is gone now, I understand the next cast, performing the same show, is equally impressive and the show runs through July, so take your friends and head downtown to laugh.

Saturday morning I ran off some of the calories and headed to the American River for my first ever float down the river. Yes, it's true, I've lived in Sacramento for nearly my entire life and had never rafted from Sunrise to River Bend Park. The rafting trip with Epic Life was great, gave me an opportunity to hang out with a few friend's I've known for years and the opportunity to meet some new people too. To my surprise not only did we all survive the trip without injuries, I survived without my phone for about five hours (sorry, that means no pictures from the river).

Sunday I headed to the Rock of Roseville with a friend, where to my surprise the high school group washed my car during the service (one less chore to do this afternoon) so that was nice. After church service number one I was off to Taco Bell to try the Doritos Loco Supreme. I'm not really a Taco Bell person, but it looked interesting and I needed food, so I tried it. It was good, although a little soggy, if they could work on that I might have it again. Chicken instead of "mystery meat" would be a good option too. With some food in me, I went to Bayside to check out the progress on the set for Breakaway (their kid's summer program) and hear another great message. Before heading home to do laundry and some house cleaning I stopped at the gym for a quick workout to work off the Doritos Taco and all of the other food I had over the last few days.

From Napa to the Transfer Station

It was another weekend of opposites. On Friday I headed to the beautiful Meritage Resort and Spa for a photo shoot with a FIAT and by Saturday morning I was in Lodi at the Waste Management Transfer Station.

Friday's photo shoot was fun (especially with some wine from the weekly guest wine tasting in the courtyard), they took pictures on a back road of the resort and then at the main entrance to the Estate Cave that houses Spa Terra and the Trinitas Cellars Tasting Room. When the photo shoot ended, I checked into my brand new room and met another reporter who was staying at the resort for dessert as she was finishing dinner at Siena. I had my favorite dessert, flourless chocolate cake (Budino), while she enjoyed Lemon Panna Cotta. As we finished dinner the writer who was part of the Fiat photo shoot arrived and we walked over to Crush Ultra Lounge, where he and I could have dinner, and I could show off the lounge to the writer and a friend who was with me. As the resident menu expert, I was asked for recommendations and no one was disappointed. The Crush Burger with fries, mac & cheese, Reuben and cracker jacks.

On Saturday I left early (6:30 a.m.) and took a breakfast wrap from Blend with me in the car. When I got to my parent's house we headed to Lodi where we unloaded the fence at the Transfer Station. We then dropped my grandma off at her house and did some chores before heading to Woodbridge Crossing for lunch. Once back in Sacramento my dad and I finished building the fence and all that has to be done now is paint.