Entries from February 2008 ↓

So, the red dress was an absolute success. I wish I could find a picture of it online somewhere. Bright red, slightly ruched, slightly drapey. Kind of evoked a little Marilyn Monroe vibe. I wore it with a sheer black wrap and black heels. Rick was very handsome in a black shirt and yellow tie. We were a little overdressed for Paso Robles (the town is populated by fleece-wearers) but we fit the restaurant rather well.

Dinner was three courses. Appetizers included bruschetta, a mushroomy-thing and a prosciutto-asparagus thing. Rick had the prosciutto-wrapped filet and I had a seafood-brothy-garlicky creation (an Italian bouillabaisse, perhaps). Desert was chocolatey-raspberry mousse.  I would say the food at Buona Tavola is a little over-ambitious (how many things can we wrap in prosciutto?) but still tasty. And their wine list was decent.

Rick gave me a pretty bonsai tree and a sappy-romantic card, which was perfect. I forgot to get him a card but made it up to him in my own special way This turned out to be the best Valentine’s Day I’ve had yet.

After my amazing Hawaii vacation and catching the flu, I spent this weekend putting my ducks in a row and getting back into the swing of things. I unpacked, did massive amounts of laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed the living room and gave Pixel a bath. Rick and I spent time together, catching up on TV and getting breakfast at the local golf course clubhouse.

Now I’m working on catching up on mail that piled up during my vacation and organizing all my projects and tasks. That would have seemed overwhelming just a couple weeks ago but I’m finding that vacation was a much-needed rest for my brain and body. I have a lot of work to do but I’m not freaking out about it anymore, no longer paralyzed at the thought of everything I have to do. All in all, I’m feeling confident and fairly serene.

Of course, we’ll see how well I’ll be able to hold on to that feeling in the coming days

Here are some photos.

And here are some highlights:

• Tami and I went snorkeling around the reef by the resort. We swam super far offshore and ended up hanging out with and petting 3-foot sea turtles! They were so beautiful and serene.
•  The Princeville Resort Presidential Suite is pretty bomb. On the first floor, living room, dining room, balcony (with breath-taking view of the Hanalei Bay), full kitchen and half bath. On the second floor, giant bathroom, office nook, giant bedroom and dressing room/closet. Full maid service during the day (they even washed our dishes!) and turn-down service at night.
• Hanging out at the resort’s beach is pretty bomb, too. You get lots of fluffy towels, comfy beach chairs, ice water and waiter service. Mai-Tais are yummy, especially when you don’t have to leave the beach to get them.
• Due to the time difference, we woke up the first morning quite early. On the second morning, Tami got us up with the assurance that the sun would be rising soon. Gene made coffee and we readied ourselves for breakfast. As I was sitting on the couch, still somewhat zombified, Gene realized that it wasn’t 6:30am … it was actually 3:30am. Tami was officially deemed a nut and we went back to bed for 3 hours. Heh! Definitely the highlight of my entire trip
• We went to visit Larry and Darlene, friends of Tami’s, on the other side of the island. They have a beautiful house in the jungle with big picture windows and a wrap-around porch. Darlene also makes a killer crab-stuffed mushroom.
• ABC Store is your one-stop touristy shopping experience! Aloha shirts, dresses, t-shirts, jewelry, lotion, macadamia nuts, you name it. I ended up getting two free coffee mugs for spending as much as I did there!
• The town of Hanalei has a very cool shopping center. Their Savage Pearls store (featuring Tahitian Black Pearls) made me channel Mom and want to go nutso. Luckily, I restrained myself. I did, however, pick up some amazingly cute and comfortable Croc wedges at a shop down the way. This place is also notable for the fact that you can get breakfast for $3.75 and coffee for $1 (as opposed to the $8.65 for a cup of coffee charged by the resort!).
• We drove way, way up North on the island to The End Of The Road and explored lava tubes and more beaches. It is truly gorgeous up there. It’s also fun to check out all the different houses and estates. Almost every house is up on stilts there. And some of these houses are huge, sprawling, 2,000-sq.-ft. affairs.
• I got a killer tan.
• Our flight back from Honolulu to LAX was cancelled. Luckily we were able to get on a later flight. That also meant that we had 7 hours to kill. We took the bus to the Ala Moana mall in Honolulu (which must be one of the biggest malls in the world). This place was HUGE. Since we had all our carry-on luggage with us, Tami grabbed a Foodland shopping cart and loaded it up. We then proceeded to push that cart throughout two levels of the mall, including stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Chanel, Dior, Coach, Fendi, Hermes and Gucci. We would open the door and park our plastic shopping cart loaded with luggage right next to the security guard at each store while we went shopping for fancy-schancy wallets and shoes. Quite an experience!

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am very grateful to Tami and Gene for it. Having caught a cold halfway through, however, I’m also happy to be back home to recover!

Kauai View

Originally uploaded by nessahead.com

I was sticking my tongue out at Gene when he was taking this - somehow I ended up looking contemplative.

Rick is taking me out for a fancy dinner tonight. I found a fabulous red dress (on sale, even) at Banana Republic and am very excited!

Tomorrow, I fly to Kauai with Gene and Tami for a long weekend. We’ll be staying at a fabulous hotel suite with a gorgeous view. (Yes, this is actually a picture from the suite we’ll be in!)

Mom is doing well in her new room at Kingsley. I’m looking forward to visiting with her tomorrow before we leave for Hawaii. I promised to take a ton of pictures to show her. I only wish we could take her with us.

Sign up for Sprint’s SERO plan. SERO stands for Sprint Employee Referral Offer. Their basic plans:

• $30/mo. for 500 anytime minutes
• $49.99/mo. for 1250 anytime minutes
• $99.99/mo. for 2500 anytime minutes
• Nights and Weekends starting at 7pm ($10/mo. extra if you want to start at 6pm)
• Unlimited mobile to mobile
• Unlimited text messages free if you sign up by 2/16 (regularly $10/mo.)
• Unlimited data

That’s right. The service that T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon charge an arm and a leg for is FREE with Sprint SERO. I got a new Treo 755p and I’ve got all the web browsing, email and Google Maps I can handle with 500 anytime minutes for $30/mo. It’s insanity.

To sign up, go to http://sprint.com/sero and enter savings@sprintemi.com as the employee email address. It’s only valid for a new line of service and you can port your old phone number over if you want to keep it.

(Also, Sprint’s coverage is far better than T-Mobile’s in my area. YMMV, however. But give it a try. You have 14 days to return the phone and cancel the whole deal.)