First Anniversary in Napa

So Lisa and I left Lodi on Saturday for our first wedding anniversary which we spent in Napa with the baby. On the way we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory and did the tour, which was the first time for me. Andrew was great the whole time and enjoyed all the bright colors.

We stayed at the Westin Verasa a hotel that opened up last year and has very modern rooms and a classic feel. The room comes with a 32" LCD TV, an XBox you can play DVD's on, cordless phones, and iPod enabled alarm clocks. The hotel has a HUGE pool and spa, as well as a large workout room.

Saturday we settled in and had a killer lunch in the hotel restaurant, called Bank, which is what it cost to eat there. But seriously one of the best chopped salads I've had in a long time. That evening we went to the pool and took Andrew swimming for the first time. He had a blast. We stayed for quite a long time, Lisa and Andrew posting up eventually in a covered cabana where Andrew ate and mom read about the "John and Kate plus Eight" shenanigans, and I swam and enjoyed the hot tub. We had dinner again at the Bank. This time I tried their steak and fries. The garlic fried were great, but the flank steak was the fattiest, piece of crap I've had in a long time. Back to the room, Lisa was tired and slept while I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on the XBox.

Sunday we hopped in the car and started driving north. We stopped at BV Vinyards and had some wine. Then to Franciscan Vinyards, and had some more wine. Then to S. Vattui... this place is pretty special. Across the street from Dean & Delucca's the amazing kitchenware store, S. Vattui is a quaint little Vineyard offering a large tasting room and small grocery store where one can choose from a huge variety of cheeses, meats, olive oils, and such. It's situated in a nice, cool, tree covered, grassy park complete with benches and tables to enjoy your purchases at. By this time it was getting a little warm, and dad was feeling a little tipsy, so we took the opportunity to relax on the grass under the trees, feed the baby, and enjoy some salami, tomato-pesto cheese, and smoked cheddar on some water crackers. All while enjoying copious amounts of water to dilute the vino.

That done, back to the car and we continued up CA-29 into Calistoga. Here we saw signs for the Old Faithful Geyser, so we stopped, paid our $8/person and each got to see the famous Geyser, one of only three in the world, erupt two or three times. The grounds also had Tennessee Fainting Goats as well as other petting-zoo sort of animals. I tried my damnedest to get a goat to faint, but all they'd do was run from me. :o/

Back to the car, we returned to downtown Calistoga and did some window shopping of the old stores, until we came upon a book store. By this time it the temperature was
up to about 102 and cresting. So we spent this hottest time in the nice air conditioned book store, where Lisa found a good novel she's been reading all week. When we were finished there, we cruised down the street and decided on Pacifico's Mexican restaurant for dinner. Pacifico's had outstanding food, and great service. I recommend the Tres Marias.

Back to the hotel and burnt out. I went to the spa for an hour or so, while Lisa started watching Benjamin Button that she missed the night before. I came back to the room and finished the movie with her, enjoying the rest of our smoked cheddar and the bottle of merlot we bought at the Franciscan.

Monday we began our trip back, stopping only once at an IHOP for some good 'ole home style eatin', and finish off our trip.

Painting the Kitchen (Why wallpaper sucks)

Repainting the Kitchen
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

About this time last week, just before the 'eye' incident, Lisa and I decided to repaint the kitchen. It's been one helluva chore as we didn't realize that when I bought the house, the previous owners had simply painted over existing wallpaper. Just the act of trying to completely remove all the wallpaper turned into a complete mess. All I can say is thank God for the Roman Piranha Wallpaper Shaver. Really digging in with it allowed me to shave off the paint, and usually the top layer (the design layer) of the wallpaper without wetting the wall. We filled up about four trash bags full of painted paper.

Then off came all the floor and door trim and pulling the the nails going through them and still stuck in the walls. Then the messy part began: getting the lower paper and adhesive off the walls. For this we tried Roman Piranha Gel Wallpaper Remover which worked well enough. It was easier to apply by hand or rag than use the nifty roller on the top of the bottle. You let it soak in and use the scraper to get the paper and paste off the wall.

Ultimately though I found that a spray bottle simply filled with soapy water, and with the nozzle set to 'force spray' worked the best. Being liquid it instantly permeated the paper, where as the gel took time to soak in. So then after finishing this nasty task, we picked up the sloppy mess off the floor.

Then came patching. No problem. I pulled the can of spackling out of the garage with a couple putty knives and we went to town filling the nail holes. We also found, behind the stove, that that was previously the location of the clothes dryer as there was a gaping 4-inch hole which for exhaust, as well as a 220v plug which hopefully we can turn into a new circuit for the microwave, but that's another story. I went to Lowes and was able to find a 6" adhesive, netted patch that had a square, galvanized panel to cover the hole. This worked nicely to cover the exhaust port. You just stick it on, and spackle over it. Patching in place, we sanded all patches to get a smooth surface.

One last issue before painting. The old wallpaper still had left rough patches all over the wall from dried paste and other adhesive. The problem here was that even wetting it, it was too slipper to be able to scrape off. With a bit of research we learned it was time to wash the walls with TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate). You buy this stuff in a small box containing a white powder and mix a small amount of it with hot water and it's REALLY effective. For this you want to lay down a plastic drop sheet as TSP can stain surfaces. Also it's a good idea to wear gloves, as it can burn your hands after a while. To be even more effective, I used a 3M 60-grit SandBlaster Paint Stripping Sponge. This too was a messy process, but scrubbing the living hell out of the walls really got all the paste off. Once washed, you'll also need to rinse the walls. It's my understanding that the phosphate in the TSP can prevent your primer from sticking properly. Also after rinsing with cold water, the walls will have a very squeeky-clean look and feel.

Finally we kicked into high gear. We busted out the paint rollers, and a couple foam brushes along with 1-gallon of white primer and in two days we had the kitchen primed. Then yesterday, while I was at work, Lisa finally picked out a color, a sort of sage-green. She was getting really sick of having a messy kitchen and started painting. She had a good three-quarters of the kitchen done by the time I got home. I helped out a bit, and started working on getting the trip put back up.

Bottom line, we're about 95% done and have a really great looking green kitchen with with white trim. (And REALLY clean walls)

Eye Allergies from Hell

So Thursday morning I wake up feeling mostly okay and once I'm out of the shower Lisa asks me, "What's wrong with your eye? It's swollen." I disregard the comment and say, "Oh sometimes my eyes are puffy in the morning if I'm really tired." She seemed to know better.

So I go to work and realize on my way there that my left eye is really irritated as it starts to water from time to time. By the time I arrive I can still work, but my eye is just killing me. It's all swollen up and watering profusely.

Now I was already planning on working from home on Friday and I had rescheduled a meeting with my boss to Thursday to facilitate that, so I needed to at least needed to make it through my 10:30 meeting. He was cool and offered to push back the meeting, but I wanted to get it out of the way. Real smart. Do you know how hard it is to have a serious conversation and try to look someone in the eye while trying to not look like you're balling your eyes out? Not fun. He gave me a bunch of napkins and by the end of the meeting told me to "get the hell out of here."

By the end of the meeting I knew I was just jacked. I needed a doctor or my eyeball was going to explode. I called Lisa and let her know I was heading for the doctor. She asked who my doctor was, and come to find out she was calling my doctor about the time I arrived and asked to be seen. She knew I was in a bad way, and wanted to make sure I got seen. My doctor was heading to lunch, but agreed to see me before she left.

I explained that I'd been repainting my kitchen, and be it wallpaper debris that got in my eye, or crap from mowing the lawn from the day before, it was killing me. She asked if I'd ever had allergies before and I said, "No." She was convinced that was the diagnosis, and the painting and yard work all exacerbated the situation. She prescribed me anti-biotic eye drops and told me to take Claratin daily.

The drive home was hell. Lisa asked me to stop and get her second round of antibiotics she's taking from the last time she was sick. I did, then tried to pickup my eye drops, but the doctors office hadn't pushed through the script yet. I'd say I could have cried but, well, I was.

I got home and went to bed, and Lisa, God bless her, called the doctors office, pushed through the script, and went and picked it up. As soon as the first drop hit my eye I was in heaven.

It took about two days before the swelling went down. It's still not completely normal, but I'm still taking the drops three times a day and it seems to keep getting much better.

I'll tell ya. I don't know what the hell hit me. By comparison, I don't mind being sick at all... lay it on me. But I hope to God I don't have to ever go through that again!