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:

Sarah Graduates

Sarah just graduated from University of Kansas with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering!

YEAH SARAH!

Going to Kansas

I'm moving! I gave two and a half months notice at work. The decision has been made.

I'm going to move to Kansas to be with Sarah as she finishes graduate school at University of Kansas. Sarah has been accepted for the Fall semester of school and has a summer job with Boeing Aerospace for the summer in Houston, TX. We move into our new apartment in Lawrence, Kansas on August 6.

I have been practicing a few things for this "union":

"Yes Dear"
"I will put the seat down, sorry"
"I will squeeze the toothpaste tube from the bottom, I promise"
"Yes Dear"

For all of my friends in California, let's get together as often as possible before I go .

Here's Fishy Fishy!

Hobbies, leisure time activities, what ever you want to call them…I love to do many of these. I have more hobbies than I can keep track of. Fishing, remote control trucks, video production, reading, etc.

When it comes to fishing, I have done crazy things just to catch fish. I have hiked up and down steep canyons, fallen in cold rivers, traveled to foreign lands, driven hundreds of miles, and spent…well never mind.

Fifty miles north of the famous Napa Valley resides a large bass fishing lake, Clear Lake. I will be traveling there tomorrow with a bass fishing club I recently joined. We have friendly fishing tournaments every month. When I was getting ready to go, I had all my fishing lures laid out when I realized that I have a quite a few.



I have been collecting these for over 10 years now, but it still seems like a lot. This is only my bass fishing lures. I also have trout lures, flies, and Steelhead lures. I do tie most of my own fishing flies, but lures I just have to pay up for. Some things I found in my tackle box have never been in the water and likely wont. Others have been in the water so much that I may have to retire them. Some lures have teeth marks from fish, and some are so rusty that I should get my tetanus shot before casting them.

Wish me luck….in being able to choose a lure before the sun goes down.

Italian Night

I have been wanting to try Eggplant Parmesan for a long time. I got the stuff and it was actually easy. The recipe called for 2 eggplants. I made enough to feed a large family. Well, now I have lunch for a few days!

BEFORE...



AFTER...



My Dinner (and a few lunches).



Mmmmm...it is good!

Bean Hollow

This last weekend I drove to Bean Hollow State Beach on the Pacific Ocean, below Half Moon Bay. On the way, I visited with my friend Nicki and Steve's in Walnut Creek, near San Francisco. Nicki's dog, Pria, was happy to see me. I gave her a stuffed octupus as a gift. She seemed to like it!

After the visit to Nicki's, I drove to Bean Hollow State park for a remote control truck competition. There were harbor seals on the rocks near us.



The picture below is my truck on the sandstone rocks on the ocean.




On on return home, we met up with Nicki and Steve for a Chipotle burrito dinner.

Now I have to retun to work :(

The End of February

I have been lazy with my blogging lately. I have been doing things, just not sharing.

Two and a half weeks ago, I went to Kansas and visited sarah and Zoe for a few days. We had a good time in snowy, cold Kansas. We had fondue nd wine for our belated Valentine's Day dinner.




I flew back to California to find my sister, Sandy, was visiting with her family. We went to San Francisco, saw the Pier 39 area, downtown, Union Square, Chinatown, and Little Italy.

Here are the Mayberry's with Alcatraz Prison in the background.

My Nephew, Matt, loved the live crabs in the restaurants, which tasted delicious.

We went to a park with the BEST playground and we played.

We went to Chinatown and saw these frogs for sale.