August Madness

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure where the first half of August went! It's been non-stop action around my house with hosting two summer parties, my birthday, my father-in-law's birthday and a last minute trip to Disneyland. Whew! So many fun things, but no time to blog it all. Things are starting to calm down a bit, but man oh man, things were crazy there for awhile. So, in my typical recap style, how 'bout some bullets:

* We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday at the Cicada Club in downtown Los Angeles. My inlaws have recently become enamored with ballroom dancing - they take lessons and love to practice every chance they get. The Cicada Club opens every Sunday night for dinner and dancing with most patrons dressing in vintage 20s and 40s dresses and suits, which fits the very Art Deco vibe of the place. It was a much cooler club than any of us realized and we had a great time just hanging out, having classic cocktails and soaking up the atmosphere. If you're into vintage stuff and you're ever in LA on Sunday night, it's worth a visit.

* Jim surprised me with a mini in-town vacation the night of my birthday. We stayed at the relatively new Ritz-Carlton in downtown LA and ate at Wolfgang Puck's new restaurant WP24. Neither of us had ever stayed at a Ritz before and it definitely lived up to its reputation. And dinner? Oh man, dinner was AMAZING! We started off with glasses of prosecco and because it was my birthday, mine was served with a shot of St. Germaine on the side. Can we say LOVE?! Fabulous service (formal, but not stuffy) and the food was really delicious. When we go out for fancy dinners, we don't typically do Asian food, so this was a nice change of pace for us. The package he reserved came with the tasting menu and it was so. much. food. Good grief, they practically had to roll me out of the dining room. Highly recommend the place. In fact, we are already planning a time to go back.

* And because my husband is amazing and treats me like a princess, I also got a Nook! I've been very skeptical of e-readers since they were first released a few years ago, but he seems to think that I need one seeing at how much I read and all. I still feel like it's cheating on real books, but I'm also pretty excited about my new toy. And it will make packing for Hawaii so much easier. (On our last Hawaii trip I read 6 books - heh.)

* Since Jim's co-coordinator wound up at home on bedrest for the last bit of the summer program, I was invited along as her proxy for their lunch at Club 33. Guys, it was so much fun! Jim's partner buddy treated us to dinner there during his summer at the firm, but we hadn't been back since. The food is really quite good (much better than anywhere else in the park) and the appetizer and dessert buffet are pretty awesome. Someone had tipped off one of the female summer associates that they should order a "tinkerbell" with their drinks so we all did just that. There we sat with our adult cocktails and cutesy light up toys perched on the rim. So cute, right?

The rest of the day we spent bumming around the parks and riding all of the big ticket attractions. One of the summers had never been to the park and we had fun showing him the ropes. I also really enjoyed getting to know the summers on a more one and one basis. I'm bummed that his co-coordiator couldn't make it, but really happy that I was able to take her place.

* As a last hurrah for the summer associates, we hosted a backyard bbq and pool party before they left to go back to school. I've said it before, but it's worth mentioning again - Jim had the best group of summer associates ever. They were such a sweet bunch of kids and it was really fun having them all over for one last casual party. They all managed to crowd together in the same tiny little space around one side of our pool, which was pretty darn adorable to view from the house. Jim misses them quite a bit and I know we're both looking forward to seeing the ones that accept offers again next fall.

* We had a ton of booze and soda left over after the work party, so we thought it was an excellent excuse to host a repeat bbq/pool party for all of our friends and family. And oh boy, when I say all, I mean ALL. We wound up with around 70 or so folks and while it was crowded, it was also pretty mellow. We went through 3 dozen burgers, 5 dozen hot dogs/bratwursts and a silly amount of potato salad, chips, salsa, fruit, brownies and ice cream. Even though there were folks everywhere, it was such a fun day. This party is kind of becoming a yearly tradition and it has grown every year since we bought the house. I hope that we're able to host it for many years to come.

With a few of the ladies at the party. Photo courtesy of Winnie.

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In other news, I've finally worked out a sewing plan for the goodies that I want to give Vino and Blondie for their babies. I don't do simple very well, so needless to say, the plan is ambitious. I've already completed one outfit and have several cut out, but there is still a lot to do. Unfortunately, you don't get many details because they read this blog, too and I don't want to ruin the surprise. The showers are tentatively scheduled for mid-October and early November respectively, so more details later this fall.

And I'm even working on some sewing for me, too! We have our trip to Hawaii at the beginning of September, so I'm trying to squeeze in a few more garments before then. Since our summer weather just got here, the summer sewing still makes sense and the garments will at least get used for more than just our vacation. However, I'm afraid that I'll be itching to make fall dresses next month and it'll still be in the 90s here. Hmph.

Happy (very) early Birthday to me

I made the mistake of doing a quick run through of my favorite online fabric haunts this morning and stumbled upon this:

Black, grey and green stylized houndstooth print. 100% wool sweaterknit. From Diane Von Furstenberg.

Somebody hold me.

I've professed my love for her before and this print is so up my alley. I love the colors and the vaguely retro vibe. I immediately started envisioning a simple sweater dress with bracelet length sleeves and an exposed back zipper. Paired with black tights and booties. To die for, right? This print is from her Fall 2008 RTW collection and I think the scale is probably somewhere between this coat and the skirt.

But it's expensive. Like, really expensive.

I showed my co-worker, who was no help whatsoever, as she suggested buying it and calling it an early birthday present to myself. I've gone back and forth all day, even sending an email to Linda from Emma One Sock and asking whether it would even be an appropriate fabric for a dress. If not, I was willing to pass. After getting the affirmative from her, it pretty much sealed the deal. I just pulled the trigger on the most expensive fabric order I've ever made.

Again, somebody hold me.

My wallet may be screaming bloody murder, but I'm smiling like the cheshire cat. I cannot wait to get my hands on that fabric! Happy early birthday to me! :D

Napa Birthday Trip - Part Two

After the amazing meal at French Laundry, we got some sleep and then was up early to grab breakfast at the hotel before spending the day wine tasting. Jim and I both noticed a much larger crowd for breakfast and figured it must have something to do with the V Foundation Wine Celebration that was taking place at our hotel and The Vintage Inn down the street. During the meal, I needed to grab some more juice at the buffet and as I'm walking in, there is a man walking towards me that looked so familiar. As he passed, I kept my cool, smiled at him and said "Good Morning." He responded in kind and as I walked away I wanted to jump up and down because I had just exchanged morning pleasantries with Coack K!! He and his wife were the hosts for the Wine Celebration, so their whole family was there. When I got back to Jim, I was about to tell him about my run-in, but before I could open my mouth, he just smiled at me and said "I already know, he's sitting right there." So cool!

Once we had finished our star-studded breakfast, we met up with our driver and headed out to drink, um, I mean taste a lot of wine. ;)

Hess Winery

We were really excited about this place and it didn't disappoint. We split a regular tasting (any 4 wines on their normal list) and a vertical tasting of cabernets. So fabulous. We went home with a several bottles of wine and a membership to their wine club. Wheee!

Signorello Winery

This one was a recommendation from our driver. The grounds are gorgeous - they often do public tasting events at the pool area and we were bummed we weren't there during one of the food events. We shared a tasting, which included 4 wines.
The wines themselves were really quite lovely, but there wasn't much in the way of ambiance for the tasting itself. All told, we were there for maybe 30 minutes, including taking pictures and puchasing a bottle of wine.
On our way out, I was totally tempted by this book, but alas, I left it. :(

Frog's Leap
Another recommendation from our driver. I can't tell you how much we loved this place. The only organic winery in the Napa Valley, they are very proud of their green ways and it shows not only in the speel they give, but also in the decor.

Due to their license, you have to have a reservation, so when we arrived they had a table all set up for us. We each had our own tasting and I was quite happy that I didn't have to share. Not only were the wines delicious, but the tasting also came with a cheese and cracker plate with the best gouda I've ever tasted. It was like all of my favorite things on one table. And to make things even better, they even had a dog running around. I think had we not already bought several Cabernets at Hess, we likely would have bought more than the single bottle of Sauvignon Blac we went home with from this place.

Once we had "tasted" most of our pours, we each took a glass and wandered around the vegetable and fruit gardens and the grapevines.

Auberge Du Soleil
We stopped here for lunch and it was so good! We ate on the outdoor patio off the bar with gorgeous views of the entire Valley below us. Jim had a BLT with avocado and I opted for the pizza with prosciutto. The food was really fabulous and the perfect break from a full day of drinking. :)

Beringer
Huh. What to say about Beringer. Jim had been told from a colleague that Beringer was fabulous, so we added it to our itinerary. What he had neglected to say was that he thought it was fabulous in college. :/ Needless to say, after the smaller, more intimate wineries, Beringer was just too big and too commercial. We would have liked to have gone through the wine caves, but we were in between times and didn't want to wait around. Instead, we split a tasting in their reserve room, which was meh. How uninspiring was this place? I only have a single picture from our time there - Jim double-fisting some meh wine.

Mumm Napa
Perfect end to a perfect afternoon. We had a kickass server who bonded with Jim over surround sound entertainment systems and Kill Bill. We split two tastings - 3 classics and 2 reserves - but our server also brought us tastings of a Santana wine (surprisingly tasty) and a reserve Rose. Some of the pictures are um, blurry. Cut me some slack though, at this point I'd been drinking for well over 4 hours. ;)


We finally made it back to the hotel around 5ish, giving us enough time for a quick rest and then to get ready for dinner. Our destination - Ad Hoc.

As much as I'd heard that French Laundry was the best meal ever, I'd also heard some pretty amazing things about Ad Hoc. Each night they do a single 4 course menu, which changes daily. I forgot to take a picture of the menu, so you'll have to bear with my descriptions of the meal.
Watermelon salad with feta and an herb vinaigrette. Fresh, light and summery. We cleaned the plate.

Tri-tip with potatoes cooked in duck fat. Perfectly cooked steak and drool-worthy potatoes. Fabulous.

Mixed veggies. Lovely accompaniment to the steak and potatoes.

Really strong goat cheese, two other milder cheeses, apple slices and honey. The goat cheese was just too strong for me, but the other cheeses was really good. The apples, drizzled with olive oil were a nice surprise, but the honey was the real standout here. I don't even like honey all that much, but as I told the server, had the container not been so sticky, I would have thrown it in my purse and taken it home with me. Jim and I ate as much as we could drizzled on the apples, the cheese, the bread, you name it, while our eyes rolled around in our head. The server was kind enough to write the name down for me, now I just need to dig out the card and order some!
And because we obviously didn't drink nearly enough during the day, we had some wine with dinner. Dessert was some sort of brownie sundae - really yummy. No pictures as we got to talking to the very sweet Australian couple next to us and giving them advice about things to see in LA (their next stop in their US tour). We did, however, wind up with a picture of us at dinner, so you get that instead of dessert. Ha!
We really enjoyed our dinner at Ad Hoc, the vibe of the place as much as the food. I'd highly recommend it if you're in the area. We cannot wait to go back - unlike French Laundry, it's a restaurant we plan on patronizing as often as possible. :)

The next day it was time to head back to LA. Total bummer. Before we got on the road, we took a quick picture in front of the hotel and then drove down to French Laundry to get a few pictures of the building and the garden in the daylight.

This trip was absolutely fantastic! We ate some amazing food, drank some fabulous wines and had a chance to just relax. We can't wait to go back for another mini trip soon. :)