Another Week Gone By

...and gone by too fast! This past week is all a blur to me. Work was extremely busy! However, I did manage to go to My Girlfriends Garden in Auburn on Monday, where we had an excellent guest speaker who led us through a very telling writing exercise. The speaker was Jennifer Basye Sander, who co-authored The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, Hot Flash Haiku, and the Martini Diet, just to name a few. I bought a copy of Hot Flash Haiku and laughed all the way through it - so true, so true!

And of course, since we were at Villa Fiorente, I bought two bottles of Fortezza's Viognier!

And then yesterday, I went on the monthly birdwalk at Heritage Oak Winery with David Yee. We had got the count of birds sighted or heard up to 51, and then he counted 5 more before lunch was over! Here is the bird list, which I know Tom Hoffman is updating again, since we added an Olive-Sided Flycatcher to the list yesterday!

I've been writing my Daily Pages, but haven't got back to the short story I'm writing in response to The First Line's next contest, entries for which are due by August 1st.

And today I am off to fly the friendly skies to visit project sites in Utah and Colorado for work. Another busy week for this girl!

Until next time, I bid you adieu...

Weekly Rambling - 13 Feb 11

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, but we celebrated last night. Split a lovely dinner at Il Fornaio in Roseville. They change their regional menu monthly, and this month is Puglia! Lots of seafood - we had Insalata di Mare alla Pugliese, Spaghetti del Gargano, and Grigliata di Pesce Misto. Dessert was Torta alle Madorle. We also each got a wine flight - for the white, he had the Chardonnay del Salento, Cantele, 2009, and I had the Alticelli Fiano, Cantele, 2009. The reds were Primitivo, Cantele, 2008 and Salice Salentino Riserva, Cantele, 2007. Everything was excellent! We also started the evening with a glass of Orvieto at the very busy bar - apparently they need to revise the work schedule to have people come on shift before the rush...the bar staff was moving at light speed!

Today we may go wine tasting at some of the Placer County wineries - they (as well as other California wine regions - like Lodi) are doing a wine and chocolate weekend. Villa Fiorente posted a lovely picture of their offerings on Facebook yesterday!

On to this week's goals...

Exercise: I went to the gym twice - met that goal for the week. Trainer - zero times - oops! Only did yoga one day this week. Did manage two walks (I counted the eight-block round trip to the Dive Bar after work on Tuesday...which is why the trainer was neglected this week) though - so that goal was met!

Writing: Well, I have done the Daily Pages, but did not work on my writing so much. Need to find pictures of the animals named in the Rudyard Kipling Just So Story of How the Elephant Got It's Trunk, so I can finish the book for my grandson before his birthday next month! (Kipling's work is in the public domain now...and the Just So Stories are something I want to share with my grandchildren, since I remember them well from my childhood.)

Artist Date(s): Well, I had three of those this week - My Girlfriends Garden at Villa Fiorente on Wednesday - great fashion show by a gal from Nordstrom Rack (the one at Howe about Arden shopping center in Sacramento) and a surprise musical guest -Evan Zee! This kid is smoking! He did a rendition of Christopher Robin by Kenny Loggins that had several of us sighing in the audience! Then I saw Tempest at Constable Jacks in Newcastle on Friday - great show, as always! And I attended the NCPA meeting on Saturday, where Mark Leonard of Davis & Leonard, LLP, educated us on copyright and trademark laws. I also sold a copy of Papacita to a fellow member - my first sale!

All in all a good week!