Chrsitmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve and the kitties are ready for Santa to come. So are we!

I visited my Sister Sandy and her family over the weekend. Casandra got a new blanket and Matt got a rock crawler.

We saw Santa Clause at Sea World and even the Orca whale Shamu...

We Saw Penguins and Dolphins...




Mike and Matt made a ginger bread house...



So, now I am sitting at home on Christmas Eve with my girls waiting for Santa to come...

..

Company Christmas Party

Company Christmas Party 2007

Save the Date!

Sarah and I found our location for the wedding!

We visited many wineries in Sonoma and Napa County and found out favorite...

Paradise Ridge Winery

in Santa Rosa, California.



We will be married on 6 pm, Monday,

July 28, 2008

Keep up by visiting our wedding site website: http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=6289279809225398

Rain!

IT'S RAINING!!! It has not rained here (measurably) in sunny California for about three or four months. Sarah has moved in here and brought the Texas weather. A nice cool, noisy thunderstorm has just swept in and is pouring rain on our dry lands. Cars will likely be driving off the road since the oil build-up will be thick.



Well since the last picture a new kitten has been added to our family. Her name is Blackberry. She is a 4 month old black short hair.






Right now little blackberry is watching the drops of rain drip down the windows. Her older sister, Zoe, seems to like her new sibling. The two cats have been getting along really well.

Well, other than a new kitten, Sarah has settle in here. All her stuff has been moved in. We had our 5th dating anniversary last weekend. We went to a nice Chinese dinner and relaxing evening at home.

this weekend, we are heading to the Napa Valley to scout out wedding locations such as Paradise Ridge and the Geyserville Inn. You are all invited! The date should be late July 2008, so get ready...I'm not.

The family...Sarah, Zoe, and Tom

Sarah, Zoe, and I arrived safely at home here in California Tuesday night. We drove over 2100 miles from Houston to get here.

More info coming soon...

Tomorrow, I am flying out to Houston, Texas. I am meeting Sarah at her parents home and then we are driving out here to California. Sarah is moving out here, so i am driving with her accross the country. We plan to go from Houston to the El Paso, Saturday. The next night, we should be in Phoenix, Arizona. Monday, we will vist my Grandmother in Visalia, California. After that, we will drive the final leg of the trip home to Rocklin, CA.

Yeah Sarah!!!

Sarah really did it and here's the proof...

Congrats Sarah!

Office Pranks

The daily routines and monotonous routine of work can get to anyone. I am victim to this. To break the bordem, I usually think of jokes or pranks to play on coworkers. See I have always planned many pranks but rarely follow through with them. I have done some simple ones such as:

- fake faxes telling everyone they must submit their urine for drug testing
-When an employee was changing jobs, I sent her a fax (from her boss) saying she was terminated
-I turn some files upside down, so when you pick the folders up the paper slide out

Most of these didn't work real well, but made the "victims" want to get me back.

Recently I had a good prank done to me. A coworker, Joanne, turned my calendar and at least 30 pieces of data and other paper hanging on my office walls, upside-down! So I noticed one thing upside down, then another, and soon I wa in the twilight zone. Every paper, calendar, picture, and even my business cards were upside down in the holder.

Some other ideas I like for office pranks...

1. Set a mouse free in the office each day. When the problem becomes an epidemic, send snakes after them.
2. Submit letters of resignation for other employees.
3. Dial the phone number of the guy in the next cubicle whenever he walks away from his desk. Hang up before he can run back to answer it. Repeat often.
4. Make sure your expense report contains at least one reference to the "client meeting" at the "gentleman's club".
5. Post a list of the communists in your company on a conspicuous bulletin board. If you're not sure who the communists are, take your best guess.

Sarah is moving Soon!

Well, it wont be long before Sarah and Zoe the Cat are here with me.

I am flying out to Houston on August 24th, then Sarah and I will drive back to California. We should get to home on August 28. We will be visiting friends and family as we drive from Texas to Cali.

Oh So Lonely...

It really sucks proposing to a girl that you won't get to see for another month.

Sarah, hurry and up get here!

Staying in Cali!

If you did not know, I was planning on moving out to Kansas with Sarah. A change in plans now has me staying here in California after all.

I will be at the same sewage lab job. Sarah, the cat and I will be living in the same apartment I had. She is currently in Houston working at Boeing/NASA. Her last day of work there is August 23rd, then we will drive out to Cali together. Road Trip!

So, my bachelor lifestyle is going extinct...and some new girls are moving in: Zoe the Cat and Sarah. Now what am I going to do with all my fishing stuff that's in the living room??

Proposal: The Setup

A few weeks ago, I started the planing stages of proposing marriage to Sarah. This is Part 1 of the story:

A few weeks ago I purchased a ring and started the wheels turning on how and when I would do it. I thought of some interesting ideas...

--Take Sarah fishing, tie the ring on the line, cast it out, then tell her she has a fish
--Take Sarah horseback riding and when we stop on the trail, dismount, then propose while she is on the horse
--Bake her a cake with the ring in it, etc. etc.

All these ideas had problems such as, a fish thinking the ring is a lure, the horse kicking me in the head, and Sarah swallowing the ring saying, "What ring?"

One day it hit me, a winery would be a nice, romantic place, but where? I realized that the Korbel Champagne Cellars would be perfect. I contacted Korbel and they said they would be happy to help me out. They said to ask for a man named Sam and ask for the "Private garden tour" when I arrived on Saturday July 7th.

Sarah's Dad had lost control of his cell phone one day and it accidentally called me, then hung up. I returned his call to see what he wanted. he said that his phone was on the fritz, that's all, and so I took the opportunity to ask him if I could marry his daughter, Sarah. Surprising him seemed to work well, as he gave me his blessing.

So, now the major parts were in place. I told Sarah that when she visited we would go to the Pacific coast and on the way we could sample some wines, etc.

Some how she found a bed and breakfast to stay at right next door to Korbel, the very place I was going to propose to her.

Sonoma Orchid B&B in Russian River Valley:



I thought that someone had told her. She said she wanted to go horseback riding, so I made a reservation to ride horses in Armstrong Redwood Park, just north of Guerneville, CA, planned for two hours after the proposal at Korbel.



Sarah flew our from Houston to vist a few days before we would leave to the wine country of California. Friday came and we left for the Russian River Valley, just west of the Napa Valley. We arrived at the bed and breakfast, checked in, then ate at a nice pizza place in Guerneville.

I had a hard time sleeping with the ring hiding under the back seat of the car.

The next day we woke up for the nine o'clock breakfast.



While Sarah was showering, I took the opportunity to get the ring out of the car and slip it into my left front pants pocket, knowing that in three hours I would need it. We sat down for a family style breakfast with the other visitors to the inn. After breakfast, I needed to stall about an hour before going to Korbel, so sarah and I went to a small winery on a hill nearbye, called Gary Farrell.



As it approached noon, I was getting anxious. We left the Farrell winery and I drove Sarah to Korbel.

( Sarah at Korbel )



She was very excited to be there, as I was. We went to the information booth and inquired about tours. I had other things on my mind. I needed to find a man named Sam. I made up some reason to leave and went to find Sam. I found him in the tasting room. He told me they were ready for us and Sally would be our "guide" through the garden. She explained to me what would happen. I went and got sarah who was trying to tell me we were going to miss a tour. I told her we had our own private tour.

Sally took us into the garden and explained every plant as we went through the famous Korbel garden.



My heart was pounding as we wound our way through the garden towards the gazebo.....


to be continued

Proposal: The Big Moment

(READ PART 1 above...this is part 2 of 2)

So, as I was saying...

We were in the Korbel garden walking up the path to the gazebo.

The original plan was to trick her into getting into the gazebo, get down on a knee, then hold out the ring and say, "Sarah you are everything to me. Will you marry me?"

What actually happened is close, but not quite as smooth. As we got near the gazebo, Sally, of Korbel, was telling us the names of every flower along the path for the "tour." I don't remember any of the flowers or trees she mentioned. I was starting to get really anxious when we finally got to the front of the gazebo.

I gave my camera to the garden guide, Sally, and grabbed Sarah's hand. I led her into the gazebo and said, "I brought you here for another reason." I led her back out to the stairs, then went down on both knees and said something about marrying me. I am not quite sure why I "collapsed" onto both knees instead of one. I also can't recall exactly what I said. Anyways, she said "yes" and we hugged.

Part of the hospitality of Korbel was a bottle of champagne on ice and flutes to drink from. So...POP! goes the cork and we had some champagne to celebrate.






We talked for a while, then Sally asked us if we wanted to leave the garden or continue the tour. Sarah and I continued the wonderful garden tour.

Our guide took us back to the tasting room for some samples of the Korbel champagnes.




We sampled every one of their champagnes, some twice. Wow, we were feeling good by then! They gave us a bottle of their best, Le Premier, and the flutes we drank from. We were a bit tipsy, but we had reservations for horseback riding in the nearby redwood forest to get to.

We arrived at the Armstrong Woods Pack Station horse corral. We met with our guide, Laura, and another couple we would ride with. After learning that horses communicate in two ways, physical and spiritual, we rode into the redwoods. I rode on an old stubborn horse named Sidney and Sarah rode P.D., a younger horse. PD was speedy, but my horse was slow.

The path wound through the forest, up a small valley to a ridge. The view of the Russian River Valley was incredible.



We descended back down the trail to the corrals. The horses were on autopilot most of the time, so riding consisted of watching our for tree branches in our path.



After riding, we left the Russian River Valley for the upper Napa Valley, at Geyserville. We stayed at a nice B&B, the Hope-Merrill House. After the family breakfast, we drove to the Ferrari-Carano winery to start our wine tasting tour. My friend, Justin, said this was a must see, and he was right! The grounds were beautiful.





We got some pics, tasted some wine, then we headed south to the "main" wine country.

Near Calistoga, we stopped at Sterling Winery. Here there was a tram ride up the hill to the winery. At the entrance to the self-guided tour, we grabbed glasses of wine. This tour was like a wine scavenger hunt, giving us tastes of wine as we arrived in each area.




We could see a castle in the distance, so we headed to it next.




After the castle, we turned down roads looking for wineries. We found a nice one near St. Helena, Raymond Vineyards. They poured Sarah a lot of wine! They gave us some free tasting coupons and off we went.

We stopped at the Rutherford Grill which had grilled Ostrich on the menu.



Near the grill, we visited a tasting room for Elizabeth Spencer Wines

We visited a great little winery, Rutherford Grove. This was the only place we bought a bottle. We got an '04 Estate Sangiovese. We never had this grape before, but we liked it.



We then visited Mumm Napa and saw some cool champagne flutes.



Sarah and I stopped at the famous Mondovi Vineyard.




Finally, we briefly stopped at the beautiful Domaine Carneros in South Napa before heading home.

And that was the end of our perfect weekend!


Oh, and no, we have not set a date yet...

Tom Drives the Rubicon Backwards!

Seems like I go 4-wheeling every weekend now! I wish. This weekend, Justin and I went "backwards" through the Rubicon trail in his Jeep. "Backwards" means we started near the West shore of Lake Tahoe and headed West from there.

Now comes the craziest part of our trip....I drove the entire trail! Justin gave me the key and said "You're driving." WOW! Now that's a friend.

I drove over huge boulders, up and down steep granite slabs, slammed the Jeep into rocks, and put the tires into the air on occasion (not a good idea).

Here's a picture of me going over a section of large boulders:



I had the funnest time driving this tough trail. Many people breakdown and we were lucky enough to never have a serious problem.

Me starting to climb some granite:



Dozer the Dog came with us:

Rubicon Trail

Last weekend, my friend, Justin, took me to one of the best 4-wheel truck/Jeep trails in the West. The Jeep company has named a line of Jeeps after the trail, The Rubicon". Dictionary.com defines the word:

Ru·bi·con (rōō'bĭ-kŏn')
n. A limit that when passed or exceeded permits of no return and typically results in irrevocable commitment.

The trail is a tough 4x4 trail from the West side of the Sierra Nevadas to Lake Tahoe on the East. It is actually on old trail used since the California fourty-niner goldrush. Go to this site for some history.

The trail was FUN! We took Justin's Jeep Unlimited with a lift, large tires, and other things that make it very capable in tough terrain.



The actually difficult section of the trail is only 17 miles long, but it can take up to two days for a group to make it through. We left Sunday night and camped near a creek a little ways into the trail. The next day, the Gold Hills 4x4 Club met with us to run the rest of the trail. We went over some tough terrain that day, the toughest of the trip. I was tired and dirty when we stoppped to camp at Buck Island Resovoir high up in the Sierras.


We were happy to get to camp that evening. Justin and I headed down to the lake for a swim/bath after setting up camp. I grabbed a beer and sat wroung the camp site listening to stories and realxing.

The next morning we hit the trail. That day we went through Big Sluice, Rubicon Springs, and over Cadillac Hill. When we all got off the trail, but some had some boddy damage and other broken parts. We started with eleven Jeeps, but only seven made it through.

I loved it...Thanks Justin for taking me along.

Camping!

Here in the Sacramento, CA, when the summer comes, we go to the Sierra Nevada mountains for relief. When it's 90 degrees in the valley, the mountains may be 10 to 15 degrees cooler.

Sarah and I went camping this weekend along the South fork of the Yuba River. To get to the camping spot, we have to 4-wheel my truck in and cross a river. The camp site sits along the river, secluded from most of civilization.



Our tent along a creek:



We camped for 3 days and had a great time swimming, fishing, and four-wheeling.

For breakfast the last morning, we had Zoe the Cat pancakes...


Sarah and Paul eating breakfast: