Sunday Chillin...

Beautiful Sunday morning. Chillin on the couch, watching "Fight Club", updating the MacBook, drinking hot chocolate and curled under my blanket. I was freezing last night because the crazy wind that was blowing through SF blew out my pilot light. You'd think I'd be able to figure out how to light the thing again. Problem is, I can't figure out where the darn pilot is to light. I get the instructions. I even vacuumed all the dust and kitty fur out of the way. Yet I am at a loss. I may have to call in the troops.

I'm back from the SGHE Summit! Woo Hoo. That was a long week away. 50/50 ROI on that conference. I hope my colleagues had a better return on their time.

Just finished reading the second book in the vampire romance series, which started with "Twilight", written by Stephanie Meyer. Sure, it's for young teens. Sure, it features a 17 year old girl falling in love with a 17 year old (relatively speaking) vampire. Sure, along with the good, loving vampires there are werewolves and evil vampires. But what can I say? It's fun reading. Like eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's. And yes, I'm going to keep reading them. It's kinda like the twisted period I went through reading that horribly written Left Behind series. I can say, without a doubt, that Stephanie Meyer is a MUCH better writter then the, uh, people who wrote Left Behind. There is only a little bit of irony is comparing a vampire series to a religious end-of-the-world-rapture-antichrist-is-here series. I will say that had the Left Behind series ended with the fourth, or even the fifth book, I might have finished, but it just goes on and on and really, even I, with my fascination on how religion pervades our society, can only take so much of the crappy writing and endless story line. I guess they'll keep writing them until the Rapture actually comes. I think R. Laurence Moore needs to update "Selling God."

But I digress...

In just a little while I go on vacation! Cazadero Heaven here I come. I really, really hope the place is nice and comfortable. And of course there will be wine.

And today, a little paw action! Here Keiko extends her back leg and spreads her little toes wide. Look at that cute little pink kitty paw pads? This paw action should be exposed on CuteOverload. The horror. The horror.

Hard not to be a little motivated...

I tend to be skeptical about what you can get from a keynote speaker at a conference. I think I liked the keynote at SunGard Summit 2006, but I've forgotten who gave it and what it was about. I have been at SunGard Summit 2008 since Friday, the start of the executive portion. I've listened to 3 "keynotes" so far; 2 for the executive summit and 1 for the general summit. Both of the executive keynotes were interesting, though BJ Fogg's presentation on the Psychology of Facebook stands out. BJ is an excellent speaker and by the end of the presentation I was ready to sign up for a Facebook account (haven't yet, but give me a chance). And I came to understand the fascination with Facebook and similar technologies a bit better, including some of the pros and cons. He's also committed to the idea of peace in 30 years, a goal I'm more than happy to work towards. As long as we imagine peace is possible, peace is possible.

The keynote speaker for the general Summit, though, was exceptional. The speaker: Erik Weihenmayer. His accomplishment: the first blind man to climb the Seven Summits.

Now, I haven't climbed any mountain of any size since I climbed Mt. Washington in my early teens with my older brother -- a feat I accomplished after much moaning and complaining as we approached the final leg of the climb. Yes, I was almost there and thought it would just be better to go back down. Luckily for me my older brother managed to find in himself the capability to motivate me through something other than brute force (as my older brother he was, by definition, a bully). I'm glad he succeeded because even now I can remember how I felt when I reached the top. Exhausted but exhilarated -- a natural high, as you will.

Listening to Erik and hearing about his accomplishments reminded me of how I felt when I reached the top of Mt. Washington. And it reminded me of many other times I've felt that exhausted but exhilarated feeling, whether from doing something that was a physical challenge, or an emotional one, or a mental one, or even just getting through a tough day. Sometimes we get through it alone, sometimes we get through it only because of the help we get from others. Either way, we get through it... and move on... and we keep moving on. That's why I found him motivating.

He made a comment something along the lines of when people take on and succeed at a challenge they thought they couldn't possibly achieve they open the door for the next and harder challenge. They very thought of all the challenges ahead of me is both exhausting and exhilarating.

Happy Easter!

Had a nice Easter / Pagan Fertility Day brunch this morning. Had about 9 of us squashed into my kitchen, which is really about 3 bodies too many. But we have fun regardless. MH & EI bought mix'ins for Bloody Marys, Majors bought the Mimosa love, NL & RM bought the bacon -- and I do mean bacon, about a pound of it, nice and think slices. I cooked up some eggs, turkey sausages and pancakes, Nicki cooked all the bacon, and we had a nice little feast. It was very relaxing and chill and now I have the rest of the afternoon to play WoW.

Passing my Cooties Around

After 3 days out sick this week I went back to work this a.m. only to find my boss went home sick Monday... Poor TS. I clearly passed my cooties on to her last week. But all is fair in pain and work as far as I'm concerned.

Wine the Cure for the Common Cold?

One of my devoted readers suggests wine is the cure for the common cold. I wish that were true, because then I would be a 100% back to my old self! Regardless, wine is much loved among me and my friends. Below, four of my fellow tasters.




R&A took the lead on purchases when, at Quivira, they bought a case of futures! That put my 10 bottles to shame.

Colds Suck but it won't keep me from the Wine!

In case you had any doubts, let me assure you that having a cold and going away for the weekend is not necessarily a good combination. But despite feeling icky most of the weekend I am having a good time. Right now we are all crawling awake slowly. MM, EI and MH stayed up late chatting (though I have been informed that MH was actually asleep on the couch), but I had a headache that just wouldn't go away so I ended up in bed early. It's weekends like this that I start to contemplate my age a bit more than I might have in the past.

We don't have any plans today other than to laze about. The weather is still beautiful. Maybe I'll find some energy later to go into town and walk around doing a little weekend shopping.

Yesterday we did have fun wine tasting. We went to about 4 vineyards: Hop Kiln, Rochioli, Mazzoco and Quivira. R&A drove up and joined us, as did a friend of MMs, so there was a total of 7 of us. After the first two stops we picked up some food stuffs in Healdsburg and then had a very nice lunch at Mazzoco. By the end of the day I had purchased about 10 bottles of wine. Everyone seemed to have a good time and the weather was perfect. If I hadn't ended up with a headache, it would have been a 100 percent success. I will put up some pictures a little later as I can't seem to upload any right now.

The evening was spent bbqing on the back deck while I tried to nap my headache away. Everyone but me participated and we had a nice dinner together. MMs friend even baked an apple cobbler from scratch, which we are all enjoying this morning as breakfast! Mustn't let any of it go to waste!

This is how Pathetic I am...

So here I am, in cute little cottage (sort of) on Russian River, at 9:30 p.m. What, do you imagine I'm doing? Do you think to yourself, "oh, self, that wonderful Snarfff, she's off there in the country with her friends party like crazy on the river..?" You'd be wrong... MH is curled up on the couch attempting to nap, but failing miserable because I'm reading my blog out loud as I type, I'm blogging (oh the excitement) and EI is trying to find some music and MM is lost somewhere because of failed directions. I'm old and lame. Whatever happened to weekends away where you stayed up all night drinking, playing poker and insulting each other?

But really, I'm tired... and I have a cold... And MH is tired... it's budget season, after all.

We have a fire going. That's something at least. And even though the house doesn't have a hot tub, it has a big deck and we are right on the river. Tomorrow we shall taste wine, more wine, and even more wine, so I have faith the weekend will improve.