just got paid

hellooooo family

my apologies for not blogging as much as i should, however, i do prefer phone calls unless i have pictures to share. and no dad, i am not spending all my time on facebook. i actually can't spend more than 15 minutes on that site anymore because 1) it makes me miss college 2) my campers from agawak (who will always look 12 years old to me) are drinking on it and 3) it reminds me that i really need to find some friends. SO, here are my most recent pictures... you are the first viewers of my soon-to-be very boring facebook album.

ben took me to Sonoma Valley on saturday for our 1 year anniversary. it was the GREATEST weekend. we stayed in a little 15-room hotel that was kind of off the beaten path as far as sonoma valley goes. but, ben did his homework and actually knew all of the spots that we should visit. after we checked in and figured out that the hotel had no pool, we were pretty happy that we were only staying there for one night (we were supposed to make a weekend out of this trip, but decided one night was better). first we went horseback riding (like i said, ben did his homework). i was SO SO SO SO SO happy to be riding a horse, even though it was western-style and my horse was really moody. my horse's name was Peanut, presumably after his size, but it obviously reminded me of mom :) i got to carry my camera in a saddle bag on the horse, and when i turned on my camera Peanut turned all the way around to face me and figure out what the sound was. the picture i captured of him was hilarious.

our guide's name was dominic, and he took us through Jack London Historic State Park, where Jack London, after living in Alaska, decided he wanted to create a model farm in Sonoma Valley. we actually saw his grave, the ruins of his home that he built but it burned down in a forest fire because it was made of eucalyptus, and all of the things he tried to create in Sonoma. Dominic was also a nature freak, and new everything about the trees and plants around the trail. we passed a redwood tree and dominic made us pluck the leaves off of one of the branches from our saddles. this would have been an easy task, however, for some reason my leaf would not detach from the branch. so, there i am on Peanut's back, holding onto the reins with one hand and taking this redwood branch with me. suddenly, the leaf detached from the branch and made a loud cracking sound. this spooked Peanut, who bucked me and then started to trot. when i finally felt him stop i found myself slumped on peanut's side facing his shoulder. luckily, i didn't fall off because i would have rolled down a huge hill. i grabbed onto the horn of the saddle and pulled myself back up. dominic managed to break the awkward, shocked silence with "wow jessie, good thing you didn't fall off. you just saved me a load of paperwork." glad i could help him out.

anyway, the point of grabbing the leaf off of a redwood is that if you crush it up in your hands, it smells like gin. glad i risked my life for that leaf. FML.

after horseback riding, we started the wine tasting. this really managed to calm my nerves a little. we started with Ledson, and we had a connoisseur named Austin (not Jerry, he was in Pennsylvania). turns out Austin was exactly my age, and ended up at Ledson after having 18 jobs in 10 years. he reminded me exactly of Zak Rosen, so obviously we had a great time. Ben really loved the 2005 Alexander Reserve Cabernet (their secret weapon, giving it to you at the end of the tasting) and so now we have our very own bottle at the apartment. Austin gave us all of his favorite wineries to visit (he has visited 250 out of the 300 wineries in Sonoma--he's creating a website of his reviews) which rated from "GO HERE NOW, this one's the best" to "SUCK SUCK SUCK DO NOT GO". his website promises to be very insightful.

so, off we went to the only wineries that were open until 6pm (it was 5:20pm when we finished at Ledson), so we went to Ty Canton winery. Ty himself led our tasting, and signed a bottle for Ben's dad. it was really cool getting to know all of these people, and i learned in the Sonoma wine business you have be truly interested in wine AND people. Ty was probably one of the weirdest people i've ever met, obviously some of the tannins have gone to his head, but he knew how to talk and belt out disco tunes so he was pretty entertaining.

at this point we were about ready to ditch our driver, Angel, who was driving us around in her cab. so we had her drop us off in the Sonoma Plaza, which is a square in sonoma where there are restaurants, wine and chocolate tastings (!) and clothing shops placed very strategically (i.e., in between bars and wineries). so we went to the Ledson Hotel in the square and met the owner of the Ledson sister label, Zina Hyde Mendocino (Zina is apparently a man's name). The Ledson Hotel has only 6 rooms, but the lounge where we were drinking was so amazing that I'm guessing only the elite stay there. Next we went to another winery which we originally visited for chocolate, but we made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in this hippie's winery. This guy loved everything about Wisconsin (or was really good at faking it) and gave us tons of free tastings. it seemed like we were a breath of fresh air to him, and he looked just like a lumberjack.

FINALLY, we went to dinner at The Girl & The Fig... which was seriously the best dinner i've ever EVER had in my life. think Top Chef in real life. i lived that show for a night. we had the best steamed mussels, and i don't even like mussels. these were perfect. then Ben had the duck confeit and i had the chickpea panisse cake. for dessert we had chocolate creme brulee and profiteroles... yes we had two, like i said ben did his homework. i felt weird taking a picture in the restaurant (we had the best table because ben said it was our anniversary... so everyone was staring at us. this table was a throne) but the last picture is of us after the meal. very happy!!!

so now, i am back in SF and juggling nanny jobs. i just interviewed last night with a lady who has a 2 year old girl, and two boys that are 7 and 9. the boys love sports, and the girl loves dolls so i'm pretty sure it will be an easy gig for me. i think their dad passed away recently because the mom seems very out of sorts, a mystery which i will soon solve. i also babysat for a 5.5 year old named Jonas before i left for Sonoma... Jonas was really smart and energetic. his parents were a little nervous about leaving him with a new babysitter, but they came home to him standing in the bathroom naked, brushing his teeth and begging them if i could stay for one last story. their reply? "you REALLY need to put some underwear on..." a job well done.

so, that's my story so far. i miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOOO much and i can't wait to get back to milwaukee next week!!!! until then, love you!

jezz