Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Four Glorious Days...

... with my hubby.

Nick is still flying a lot when he's not in school, and last weekend he flew Don and Kellie to Napa, California, and they very generously invited me. WooHoo!

So with Cayenne and Acacia staying with the Luthys and Sturms, we joined the Gosneys and a limousine full of friends and experienced Napa in style.




Our crew at Castello di Amorosa. 



Just enough glasses for the 9 of us!



Actually, the real tasting rooms were far more intimate and fun.



The castle has four stories below ground as well.




 One of the lads in our group works at a winery and we got an extra-special tour. So special, in fact, that said winery will remain unnamed because he would get in trouble. But I can say that the beautiful woman next to me in the vat is his Mom!

If you look closely you'll see spouts on the front of the stainless steel. He had a key that turned them and magically filled our glasses.


And to top it all off, look who joined us for dinner one evening!


(Sophie and Alan live about an hour from here.)



Good times!

  

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Dancing Queen

So what do you do when you're turning 46? Well, you gather your cronies, don your best polyester, and dance the night away at an ABBA concert of course.

It wasn't really ABBA, just a look- and sound-alike Swedish group pretending to be them, but the polyester was real, as is the 46 part, sadly. 
And we did dance the whole time! 


September 26

This was taken at the pre-concert party thrown by Katie (third from right) to start off what would turn out to be the most excellent night ever!

When Alison, our brunette (second from left) who looked more like ABBA's Annifrid than Annifrid herself, declared at Katie's that she would end up on stage by the end of the concert, we had no doubt she would succeed. But we couldn't have predicted the reason she she'd end up there: She ran into a friend of hers with Downs Syndrome who absolutely loves ABBA. Alison went backstage and got permission for them to join the band for Dancing Queen - and the crowd went nuts. It was a dream come true for this young lady - and a highlight of the evening for everyone. What a blast!






September 27

And, thanks to Cayenne and Acacia starting off my day with handmade gifts, and Michel and Ilona ending it at one of my favourite restaurants, the 27th was very awesome too.

There was, however, an important piece of the puzzle missing...



But he was there in spirit. Thank you Nicolas!