Happy Birthday Caseo!!! Part 2 - Saturday & Sunday in Paso Robles and Solvang

So my plan was to post Part 2 on Monday... but that didn't happen. So then I was going to post Part 2 on Casey's actual birthday on Thursday... but that didn't happen. Oh well. Here's what we did last weekend for Casey's birthday:

We reserved the Grapeline tour (http://www.gogrape.com/) in Paso Robles for Saturday. We left Santa Barbara at 8:00 in the morning Saturday morning to arrive at our hotel for the 10:15 pickup.



We did the Vineyard Picnic Tour, which we highly recommend based on our experience. We were greeted by Tommy, our very friendly Wine Tour guide. He gave us a schedule of the four wineries we'd be visiting.










Here we are on the bus with our schedule!


















It was nice having our schedule planned for us. I think that's worth the price of the slightly costly wine tours.



















Here we are at the first winery, Doce Robles. Very cute, family owned winery. The owner signed our bottle of wine that we purchased.












(Here's me the next day at my apartment with the wine we purchased. We loved the Syrah!)


















Us at Doce Robles...















They had three dogs! Definitely felt like a homey, family-owned winery.









Next stop was Castoro Cellars winery. Look at the beautiful grounds! We both agreed it would be a perfect place for a wedding reception (but calm down everybody, we're not getting married anytime soon :-)!)







We had a DELICIOUS lunch at Castoro Cellars. The lunch came from Odyssey World Cafe, in cute little brown cardboard boxes. Here is the menu we had to choose from: http://www.gogrape.com/paso_robles/Paso_Robles_Menu.html










We ordered the Rotisserie Chicken Sandwich and Indian Curry Wrap. Both were SO good. They were accompanied with a green salad with raspberry viniagrette, brie and crackers, strawberries, and a brownie! And we shared a glass of white wine from Castoro Cellars.












So... we went to two more wineries, Veris cellars and Rotta Winery. But since I'd been drinking since 10am, I kinda forget which pictures are from where....













....And I didn't take as many pictures. So this picture is from one or both of those wineries!













We had a great experience on the Grapeline. We both passed out on the bus ride home. And then it was SUSHI TIME for dinner! :-) We went to Kai Lana. Here's their Yelp page, with our review coming soon! http://www.yelp.com/biz/kai-lana-sushi-and-seafood-atascadero











It was a great day!

















The next day we went to Solvang, the cute town of the Dutch people!












So many pastry shops!
















The streets of Solvang!
















Our drive home... what a wonderful weekend. Hope you enjoyed your birthday Caseo! Sorry I couldn't celebrate with you on the actual day. Love ya!

Macbook Fail

Awwwww... after only 1 short week with my beloved 'New' Macbook Pro, I now find myself packing it BACK up and sending it BACK to Apple...

Must. fix. screen.

The first night after opening my refurbished Macbook I noticed that sometimes the screen would go black. I'd move the laptop around a little and the screen would come back on. (and no, it wasn't just going to sleep!). Then I started to see that depending on how I positioned the computer, I could get the computer to replicate the screen darkening and then reappearing act. It was frustrating but the problem stopped after a few minutes and then never returned for the remainder of the week (last week.)

Well, after spending a wonderful weekend with Jenna in Paso Robles this weekend, I came back to my apt and tried to start up my computer. This time, the screen wouldn't even come on. I force quitted the thing and again started it up. Time and time again the macbook would fail to boot, giving me either a screen with no icon (and only the top bar) or a screen that was way faded and zoomed in.... weird. I again figured that this was somehow linked to an internal connection problem and went ahead and tried shifting the computer into multiple positions to see if I could rectify the problem. After about 40 mins, I was finally able to get the thing to function properly and since then I've had no problems (again).

Taking preventative measures, scheduled an 'appointment' with the 'Geniuses' at the Apple store in Pasadena on Monday night where they ran diagnostics test. After a short 10 minutes, he determined that since the computer was so new to my possession, that I should simply contact Apple online care and request a replacement. Ergo my morning started with an HOUR long conversation with many Apple reps, workers and managers until I finally got confirmation to send my computer in for an exchange.

....I'm hoping that they'll swap my refurbished unit with a brand new one....

Ha. We shall see.

And PS. this does not shatter my faith in Apple products. I still believe they are great products and when working, will help me out with whatever 'work' needs to be done!

Happy Early Birthday Caseo!!! (Part 1: Friday night)

One of the worst parts of being in a long-distance-relationship is we have missed many important dates and holidays in the past 7.5 years. I think we both missed each others 21st birthdays, we've spent I think one or two actual Valentine's Days together, as well as one or two anniversaries... On September 23rd, my bud is turning the big 2-5. Casey's birthday is almost always right around when school starts (and going into my seventh year of post-high school education, that's been a problem for us for quite awhile), and this year, it is of course on the first day of school. While I don't have classes on Thursday, I do have to be at the elementary school, and Friday I have a full-fun day of classes and meetings starting at 8am, so I couldn't even sneak out to LA for a day.

So ANYWAYS, this weekend we decided to celebrate Casey's special birthday a little bit early, by going to Paso Robles for a wine tour on Saturday, spending the night in Atascadero, and then stopping at Solvang for lunch on Sunday. Here's a picture summary of our fun-filled weekend... hope you had fun, sweetheart.

I actually started planning for the weekend about a week ago, wanting to make Casey a homemade Vietnamese/Thai dinner, and presenting him with one of his gifts (he'll get the next one next weekend).

Casey and I have been to a handful of places around the world in the past 7.5 years. But there is definitely a long list of places we want to go, once the bank account will allow (let's not think about how long that may be). So a couple weeks ago I made my friend Meagan a picture collage of Santa Barbara photos since she was moving away to her internship. I picked up two of the same frames to make Casey's present.





I decided to do a "Places we've been" collage in one frame, and a "places to go" collage in the other. Here is my prep for places we've been... I printed a bunch so I could choose the ones that looked the nicest to each other. Some of the places I printed out included Hawaii, Vietnam, Catalina Island, Disneyland/CA Adventures (I think we've been there once or twice...), UCLA, Santa Barbara, the Bay Area/Bridge, etc., etc...





For the "places to go," I found a handful of images from the Internet that represent places we've always dreamed about going. I wanted to make the selection of places somewhat realistic, so I choose some "more attainable" places, like Napa Valley, LA Dodger's Stadium, and Ike's :-) (Caseo loves him his sandwiches). I also choose some "stretches" that we'll be grateful to get a chance to actually go to just one of these places, such as Paris, Disneyworld, and Fiji. And some places that were a little more "in between" such as Hawaii and the Grand Canyon. You'll also see a cloud shot from the plane on the bottom right, which is a ??? up-for-grabs destination. (Keep reading to see the final product!)





For Friday night dinner, I decided to make spring rolls with peanut sauce....










...Green Thai Coconut Curry (with poached chicken, bell peppers, onion, eggplant, bamboo shoots, lemongrass, ginger, coconut milk, green curry, lime, basil, cilantro, and a bunch of other yummy stuff!)

..this picture doesn't look so delicious... but I think it kinda was! Haha.






The dinner set-up ready for Casey when he arrived from LA!














He arrived after a (super) long drive (sorry!), ready to eat! And drink!
















And I was ready to eat too!




















Gift opening time!




















He likes it! I think!











And that was our Friday night, the beginning of birthday weekend... Part 2 (Saturday & Sunday) to come soon! Love you sweetie. And I miss you already.

My Dream Computer

Today, I received the best Birthday present from myself! My long awaited Macbook Pro 15 FINALLY came, via Fedex, into my eager little paws!

I went through a little trouble trying to get this 9 lb beast delivered to me since I knew I wouldn't be home during the day. First I tried calling Fedex so that I could just go to their shipping location and pick it up myself. Unfortunately, Apple restricts customers from going and picking up their own packages (until later I found out you can contact Apple and work something out on the DL..) So my next option was to pre-sign for the package and then have Fedex leave it at my apartment. Well, I wouldn't be home so maybe I could have my apt. managers hold it... Except that they weren't going to be home for all hours of the day and suggested I let one of the handy men pick up and hold my $1700 new baby.... ugh. I had no other choice.

Throughout the day I kept checking Apples shipping updates to see if Fedex had successfully delivered my computer... no luck. At around 5pm I texted my landlord to see if she had heard any news... Nope. Panicked, I departed from work at exactly 6pm and drove as fast as my dirt covered little scion would take me. I got home and discovered that Fedex had not even been by our place yet?! It was 6:35... What happened? Oh no! They forgot all about me and probably gave my computer away! NOOOOO.

But alas, 10 minutes after I set foot in my apartment, there's a knock at the door and there stood a skinny Fedex man with a large white box in hand! IT WAS HERE!

I gotta say, after only spending a few hours with this thing, I can already tell i'm going to absolutely love it. It's sexy as hell and definitely the fastest thing I (or any member of my family) has owned! The ONE gripe I have so far is that as I'm typing this, the hard edge of the unibody is cutting into my wrists and I fear that I'll soon people will think I've been trying to commit suicide with all these line indents.

Anyways, I've wanted a mac laptop for a very very very long time and I think it is well worth the extra $700... Only time will tell as I begin to load my various editing programs, music, movies, etc.

Oh, and anyone else out there with a mac, PLEASE teach me how to use this thing. The last time I truly used was back at home home with my parents old white macbook. No finger guestures back then folks!

ILOVEIT!

Labor Day(s) Weekend

This past weekend was one of the few weekends (recently) I didn't get to spend with Jenna. She went home to the Bay Area while I stayed behind in LA. Saturday and Sunday went alright and I stayed pretty active even though I was going solo. I attempted to go hiking on Saturday up in the Arroyo Seco mountains but when I got there, all the roads were closed!! WTH, why didn't someone tell me?! Somehow I ended up at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena which was ridiculously awesome and awe-inspiring. The visit also made me super sad that I didn't go to an actual art school. These kids literally have the NEWEST and BEST equipment in every classroom and they get hooked up on the spot with ALL the best companies in the industry. I saw this career counselor list that had names like Nike, Disney, Pixar, Reebok, Cisco, etc all which were easily available for the kids to meet with and intern for.... GRRRRR. How am I supposed to get into Pixar ahead of all these people? It's like trying to get a front seat on a Southwest flight when you're not in the special 'first 30' section. My boarding pass will always start at 30 no matter how fast I check in... Dammit.

Enough with the whining and complaining. Here's a view from their main campus. Pretty wonderful.

After my campus visit, I somehow ended up at a Japanese museum AND a crappy Blockbuster near my apt. An interesting Saturday.

Sunday, I ...... (INTERUPTION: haha, I'm watching Glee right now (which I like now) and Rachel is sick and said, "I'm like Tinkerbell; I need applause to live." ...just thought that was pretty funny). Anywhooo, Sunday I woke up 'early' to go to Costco so as to avoid the crazy lines of asian women who drive shopping carts like cars. It didn't work... they were all there anyways and annoyingly in my way. I bought 6 things which costs me $40 and then high-tailed it outta there. Oh wait, one more thing.

I bought a slice of pizza(!) which is something I wouldn't have done had I been with Jenna. Not because she wouldn't let me, but because I would have more will power with her there. Without her, there was no chance in resisting the cheesy goodness.

After Costco, I FINALLLLLY got my chance to visit the Pasadena Flea Market over at the Pasadena City College (which is a beautiful campus for just a city college). That thing was HUUUUUGE. I mean, I was expecting just a couple tents in one parking lot but they had like 3 outside lots full PLUS 3 stories of the inside parking lot. It was endless amounts of used and janky shit which gave me a headache after only 30 minutes there. Alas, I didn't find any hidden treasures and left with only an iced coffee from the Starbucks across the street.

Here's the other thing I did this weekend... concoct copious amount of frozen, fresh-fruit smoothies! It was like working at Jamba Juice all over again! haha.

As for Monday, my day was boooooorring. I stayed home all day working on art projects and watching hours upon hours of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. I did get to work on Kristin and Josh's wedding invitation which was such a fun experience. Another thing I learned is that wedding are crazy hard to plan and organize. I had no idea how much work is involved and how annoying the little details could be. I'm gonna give lots more respect to those planning their weddings right now (which is kinda like, everyone!). Good job and hope you have the best time!

Purchased!

Ohhhhh Crap! I just bought a Macbook Pro! Even though I'm now broke, I'm excited as hell to get my new laptop.

Anyone with a Mac wanna teach me all the tricks?! THANKS!

Thank You, Zankou

Anyone ever been to Zankou Chicken? Well, if you have, you'd know how awesomely delicious it is. My favorite moment is when you get your Styrofoam container, open it up and suddenly appears a mountain of shaved beef piled on top of raw onions and sitting next to pools of creamy hummus and garlic sauce! MMmmmmmmm so good.

Come and get some with me!

mmmmm.... Zankou Chicken