Cool Jellyfish Picture

I don't really have any excitement to share, just this really cool picture that I took all by myself at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Hubby and I went to Monterey for my birthday. NOTE TO READERS...do NOT go to the Aquarium on a weekend during the summer, unless you enjoy chaos and loud children.

I barely flinched

So in light of my recent decision to again pursue my nursing career, I am happy to report that I saw my ickiest thing to date and barely flinched...I did feel slightly light-headed but only for a moment. A dear relative of mine had surgery last week and DH and I went to ensure his comfortable recovery for a few days. For reasons totally foreign to me there was a drain inserted in the pectoral area that pulled puss and blood out of the body and into a handy little plastic bottle. Fine.

Once we were ready to leave the hospital, though, things got a bit less fine. The drain came out, leaving behind a gaping wound hole, about the diameter of a pencil...maybe a weee bit smaller. Now, I don't know about most of ya'll, but I"m not used to seeing holes in people...especially people I love. Much much less, holes that are oozing puss and blood and who knows what all. But, I am proud to say that after the first few looks, it got a lot easier...proof that one of my biggest fears about nursing won't affect me too much (the fear of gaping wound holes that produce puss and blood in copius amounts). It was actually kind of interesting, and I had to resist the urge to fuss, fluff pillows or dress any and all available wounds.

While there we took one quick foray to the Las Vegas strip where I am pretty sure I saw a total of THREE prostitutes, scored about 4 free drinks and played with the same $25 for about 2 hours. But of course, by 8:00 we were tired and, rather than wait for them to offer us a high-roller suite (which they most assuredly would have!), we called it a night and went home to bed. We are such the party animals.

We're hitched!

Tom and I just returned home from our wedding vacation. We had a wonderful time with all of our friends in Gold Beach and can't wait to return to the ocean. We're currently scheming on how we can buy the beach house we rented...lottery tickets may be in our future...after all, you can't win if you don't play! I am happy to report that we had no wind (also no sun, but oh well!) and the beach was deserted! Jeff and Jim did an AMAZING job putting together the "circle of love" and Ted blew me away with the walkway he created entirely out of driftwood. It was awesome! Our friends Tony and Terri-Lynn went waaaay beyond our expectations with everything they did for us...food, music, planning, officiating and video taping! We are truly blessed and we love all of you so much :-)

On our last morning in Gold Beach, most of us (meaning everyone but Tom) woke early and walked down to the beach at low tide. It was really cool to walk out past the rocks and say hello to all the starfish and mussels who live there. I can see how doing this could easily become a daily ritual...I really must get on top of those lottery tickets.

The only glitch in our plans was a wee bout of food poisoning on the last night of our stay in Ashland. We missed the end of "Cyrano de Big French Word Here", and I subsquently missed an entire night's sleep while introducing myself to the commode on an hourly basis. Other than that, though, things in Ashland were fun as well.

It is nice to be home, of course, and we are gearing up for our big picnic on Sunday. Love to all!
Mrs. O

It's a good thing I don't have a problem with alcohol...

It's a good thing I don't have a problem with alcohol because I could NOT give up drinking wine. Went wine tasting in Napa yesterday with Tom, his friend Eric and Eric's squeeze Melanie. The boys, for reasons completlely lost on us, went on a bike ride while Melanie and I rented a chauffered Mercedes and traipsed around Napa sipping wine and having a grand ol' time. I am proud to say I did not get nearly as tipsy as I did the last time I went to Napa, so I feel I've regained some dignity in that regard...there's nothing like being gently asked to leave Mumm and having to walk to dinner thanks to a blood alcohol level almost as high as George Bush's IQ.

Before we dumped the boys and hopped into the S-Class, the four of us went to Sterling...here's a picture of us on the Gondola ride up to the winery...note to self...drink BEFORE getting on the Gondola...do not make Sterling the first winery of the day.

Our second winery stop was Frank Family Winery...they were very low-key and super nice. They also (BONUS!) had a big black kitty and great champagne. We spent quite a bit of time there talking with the wine pourer guy (who I think has my dream job, by the way) and, of course, drinking wine. The thing about wine tasting is that it's almost impossible to remember what you like well enough to buy, so at Frank Family I ended up with just one bottle of champagne, though now I'm regretting not getting a bottle of Zin. Oh well...

The third winery was V. Sattui (I probably spelled that wrong), where a friend of mine (Hey Coop!) had a gorgeous wedding. Talk about chatty and friendly wine pourer guys & gals. All that goodwill must have rubbed off on me because I gave a strange man from Israel a Fig Newton, which he described as a "very bad cookie." See pic of Me, Mel, the cute Isreali guy and his buddy from Colorado (who wasn't so cute and I think may have been stoned...but then again, if he were stoned he would have been jonesing for my newtons!)


Our fourth, and final, winery was up a windy mountain road...the type of place I would never be able to find on my own. Here is where we met The Rain Man of Wine. He was actually very nice, but he kept asking us impossible trivia questions like, "how much does an oak barrel cost? (Something like $750!), and I forget what all...I was liking his wine, though. It was here where I blew caution to the wind and dropped a cool $100 on four yummy botttles...can't wait to see what I got (Ok, I might have been a wee bit tipsy!).

In other news...Trumie is having appetite issues, but I'm hoping that will clear up as the Leukeran clears out.