Double barrel ring names/ choice of double surname

It seems to me that I am not the only freak in the world, who wanted to explore the possiblilties of keeping my maiden name in conjuction with my married name - Yay me!  My only advise - JUST DO IT!  If only so that I can not be the only turd whose done it...

Am I still Mrs if I don't change my surname

Uh, yes.  Make sure your prenup states it, so that if you ever leave his ass you can get your due.  Just cos you keep your surname does not make you any less married.  It's like saying that eating less food does not make you a skinny supermodel...

How to hide a bad carpet

In my honest opinion, the only way to hide a bad carpet is to kill it... rip it up or throw it out.  Then you can go shopping for a new one!

Greek Style Birth Control

Um?  Is there something I should know?  The only greek style of birth control I know of is too nasty to share, but just in case up the bum works cos bum = no eggs... Got that?  Good, nuff said.

Swollen left arm

This one recurs quite often - if you are the same person, seek medical attention.  If you are not, gosh, hope it feels better soon - but my advise is still to seek medical attention.  Can't lose!

Each day with with you

Yes we are all saps for our partners at one stage, but don't get cheesy too often, they get complacent if you do ;)

Years have passed and it seems like yesterday

And how, it seems like just the other day I was starting out on this infertility journey and now years have passed.... Oh?  You weren't here for infertility shyte?  Whoops!  Guess I better wish you more great years that seem like yesterday...

Menopur wine

I WISH!!!  This is a fabulous idea - get the best of both worlds - infertility meds and a relaxant at the same time... Lets make millions together searcher, I know of a few gals who would buy this stuff in CASE loads...

Tra la la, time to get home for a nice roasted chicken which I got the man cooking... Hmmmm, wonder if he's doing the Naked Chef thing *nudge nudge wink wink*

Black Rock Bicycles has just received two golden 10.5 x 3.5 Cane Creek Double Barrel shocks for the 2008 Intense M6.

 The new Cane Creek Double barrel is one of the best after market shocks out and you owe it to yourself to get to the nearest shop and ride one. I'm not talking about just a spin in the parking lot but a long ride up and down the mountain. This will give you a taste of what 30 years of racing technology can do for your bike. If you want a new way to add some life to that old trusty bike that you have enjoyed over the years then ride don't run, it wont be fast enough, and get one of these new shocks. I have tried a lot of different shocks and none of them offered the extremely wide range of compression and rebound damping adjustment as this shock. This is just my opinion and yours may be different but you will never be able have an opinion if you don't try one soon.

 www.canecreek.com

Make sure you pick up Torae & Marco Polo's albums "Daily Conversation" & "Port Authority" both in stores right now. Keep it locked for updates on both artists!

Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale - Barrel aged beers are all the rage right now and Firestone Walker really impressed me when I finally got around to trying their Reserve.  I had high hopes for this beer and waited until the right moment to try this one.  Well, I probably built it up to much because I wasn't impressed.  An amberish-brown ale, I came away thinking "tastes like beer."  Now I'm not saying this was a bad beer, by no means, it just wasn't what I had expected.  If you have the choice between the Reserve and Double Barrel, grab the Reserve.

Lagunitas Lumpy Gravy - Another beer I had high hopes for but in the end I was disappointed.  Very similar to the Double Barrel Ale, Lumpy Gravy was a nice amber in the glass.  Very malty, not much hops to it, I found out after drinking it (thanks to the Lagunitas Seasonal Release Schedule) that it was supposed to be an Imperial amber.  I actually had this beer last week and haven't wrote about it until now because I really couldn't think of what to say.  The previous Zappa brew (Kill Ugly Radio) was incredible and I had hoped for more of the same, but it wasn't meant to be.  Again, this was not a bad beer, but I think was doomed by the expectations I placed on it.

Well, I guess this marks the end of Christmas, hope your New year is treating you well.  Keep drinking those tasty brews.

Following our stay in Santa Fe, and after a brief air jaunt from the Albuquerque Sunport (I love that they call their airport a ‘sunport', just as I love that Phoenix calls theirs a ‘skyharbor') to LAX, I was ready to set out on the open road. 

Day 1: Tuesday, May 27^th - Los Angeles, CA to Cambria, CA

Bari and I reunited on Tuesday morning to repeat (and improve) the trip we had taken together last time we saw each other, two years ago.  When I moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, hauling a small uHaul's worth of books, clothes, and my parents' cast-off furniture, Bari rode co-pilot.  She kept me company, ensured that I didn't take out any miniCoopers with my hulking vehicle, and checked the sense of superiority I start to develop when driving a giant truck (taking over for Kate, who  had this job in college when I occasionally got to drive uHauls or F350's for events - honestly, how can you not feel all-powerful in a huge pickup?). 

However, on the last time around, we drove up the I-5, the giant interstate freeway that runs through California's agriculturally productive, but stupefyingly boring, central valley.  This time around, we had (A) no purpose other than getting Bari up to SF so she could continue her around-the-world trip, and (B) a smaller vehicle.  Thus, we took the infinitely more scenic route up the coast, along Route 1 and some parts of the 101. 

We got a little bit of a late start on Tuesday when the time change between New Zealand and LA left Bari a little discombobulated.  I knew things were going to go off-plan when I called her at 9:50am asking, "So... you were going to be here with the rental car 20 minutes ago, right?  Just wanted to check to make sure you can find the address ok..." And what I heard in response was definitely a just-woken-up Bari who likely wouldn't be able to make it to my place in less than an hour.  This ended up being an advantage, since it gave me more time to look up things for us to do on our adventure. 

Bari picked me up at 11:00am in our rental, the preposterous Dodge Caliber.  It looked sleek and modern from the outside, prompting a total stranger in a parking lot to ask us how much we had paid for it, because she liked it so much.  However, on the inside, there were no power window or door locks.  Really?!?  In this day and age, what car comes without power locks?  Does that really cost much extra?  Maybe I'm just out of touch, since I don't own a car, but I would think that would have become standard by now.  This just meant that for the rest of the trip, each time Bari wanted to let me in the car, she had to lean over from her side and manually pull up the little lock.  Not a big deal, but just enough to keep us amused every time we got in and out of the car.

We braved some brutal LA traffic on the 405, which I didn't expect, given the time of day, got ourselves onto the 101 northbound, and promptly decided to pull over, in Oxnard, to visit the ‘California Welcome Center' and that burger mecca, In-n-Out.  At the Welcome Center, we picked up some brochures and a map for our drive, which proved incredibly useful later on as we navigated between tiny towns and took a couple scenic alternative routes.  At In-n-Out we pre-lunched, since we had plans to meet a friend in Santa Barbara.  I got to hear all about how Bari started dating Matt when he surprised her by FLYING TO GREECE(!) to meet her on the island where she was working for two months.  Damn - I hope he's got big plans up his sleeve still, because it is pretty hard to top that in the romance department.  I also kept thinking that it's an awfully good thing she really likes him, because I don't know what you say to someone you're just not that attracted to if he just flew from NYC to London to Athens to Santorini for you.  Luckily, this was not an issue in their case.  Phew. 

When we got to Santa Barbara, we met up with Alyson, one of Bari's friends from high school, for second lunch.  Though lately I've been eating like I've got a tapeworm, I actually couldn't really handle another burger, and felt like I belonged back in anorexic LA when I heard myself utter, "Just a small caesar salad, please."  Meeting Alyson was fantastic, and even better, she's moving up to San Francisco.  It also turns out that we're connected by two or three degrees of separation about three different ways: (A) she went to the same tiny liberal arts college as my younger sister, at the same time; (B) her boyfriend grew up in the next town over from where I grew up, and went to a high school where I knew lots of people; and (C) her boyfriend's mom went to the same high school as my dad, around the same time, though we don't know yet if they knew each other.  As my dad said when I called to ask about this coincidence, "You're going to have to get me a maiden name.  There were lots of Deborahs." 

Post-lunch we decided to deviate from the plan and take the inland Route 154 towards Santa Inez, rather than the coastal Route 1.  I am so glad we did because I have driven that stretch of Route 1 dozens of times before with my family, and sure, it's pretty, but nothing compared to the golden hillsides studded with oaks out by Lake Cachuma.  The stretch between Santa Barbara and Santa Inez on the 154 was my second favorite scenery of the whole trip (absolute favorite to be described later on in this post). 

We got on the 246, headed west, and drove through Disneyland-ish Solvang, a Danish theme town of sorts.  We decided not to stop, considering that most of the town's attractions appeal to gals approximately 40+ years older than the two of us: antiques, hand-stitched tranditional Danish garments, and churches. 

We drove through beautiful vineyard after beautiful vineyard on our way out to the coast.  I wished we could have tasted some of the local wines, but we had windy roads ahead of us and wanted to keep all of our wits about us.  We didn't stop anywhere else until we got to Morro Bay, but the scenery is reason enough to take this drive. 

Morro Bay was sadder than I remember it.  We stopped here about six years ago when some friends and I drove the scenic coastal route all the way from LA to Vancouver over the course of about 10 days (I also remember that gas cost about a buck thirty five a gallon back then...sigh).  Maybe it is just because we arrived in town at about 6:30pm on weekday, but Morro Bay seemed shabby and shuttered, like the whole town was going out of business.  We stopped in a taffy shop, the only storefront open after 6:00pm, and got to stand around for a full 15 minutes despite being the only customers, while the woman operating the store yelled at her boss over the phone for not giving her clearer directions on how to conduct an inventory.  I had two thoughts at this moment: (1) What exactly does a taffy inventory entail?  It sounds fun to me.  (2) This is not how employees of The Monkeyhouse will treat customers. 

We decided we weren't hungry enough to eat yet, and had been advised to find a place to stay in Cayucos or Cambria, so we hopped back in the car.  The first B&B we tried in Cambria was full, and had a very intimidating sign posted on the front door that read something along the lines of "No vacancy means no vacancy!  Please do not ring the doorbell!"  This turned out to be for the better anyway since the place we stayed, the Burton Inn, was fantastic.  When we walked in, we were certain it was going to be way too expensive for us, and almost walked out without even asking about the rooms.  There was mahogany furniture and plush rugs and rich wallpaper.  But, it turns out that for what I've paid for Super 8's on past California road trips, we got a beautiful bedroom with two queen beds (not even an option in most B&Bs), a whole living room as part of the suite with a second giant TV (in addition to the one in the bedroom), an amazing breakfast, and free DVD rentals from the front desk.  The woman who ran the place was as sweet as could be, and she and her mother asked us lots of questions about our trip as we picked out a movie and played with their hilarious puppy. 

Of course, the one downside to the rooms was that the large wooden bed frame jutted out just enough that, in my usual clumsiness, I bashed straight into the sharp corner of it.  Great.  Now I've completed the battered wife look, between the just-beginning-to-heal bruises on my shins from the boulder incident and the brand-new giganto-bruise on my thigh from the bedframe. 

We had dinner across the street at Robin's, which billed itself as healthy food from around the world.  I'm always a little skeptical when places in towns with only one stoplight get delusions of grandeur about serving global cuisine.  In this case, I felt half justified.  They weren't way off the mark in any hilarious kind of way, but the lobster enchiladas I had were pretty heavy and seemed like not the best use of some amazingly fresh seafood.  I think they had gone out of their way to make something exotic out of ingredients that would have fared pretty well if just left well enough alone.    

Day 2: Wednesday, May 28^th - Cambria, CA to San Francisco, CA

The next morning, after stuffing ourselves with Belgian waffles and lemon cake, we set out for day two of our adventure, and the morning could not have been more perfect.

We backtracked a couple miles to Harmony, a town with a population of 18, according to the road sign.  Here we rode ATVs over the hillsides and enjoyed the best scenery of the whole trip.  As we rode high up on the ridge between clusters of startled calves and mama cows, we could look down over one shoulder to the ocean, bashing against the cliffs.  Over the other shoulder, the inland shoulder, were more of those golden meadows I love, draped over gnarled foothills, as far as I could see.  I absolutely loved it and was trying to scheme up ways to build a shanty on the land and find some means of sustaining myself, so that I could live here full time.  [There are a lot more photos in the album online at photobucket, so click the picture to the left if you want to see more.]

Following the ATV riding, we steered about 25 miles inland to Paso Robles to visit Firestone Walker Brewery (see, I promised you we'd get around to the beer eventually).  There, we went on the best brewery tour of any I can remember taking. 

They don't have a brewpub on-site, though they do have a restaurant in Buellton, and the tasting room at the brewery hadn't opened for the day yet.  So, when we arrived, it was just us and the brewery folk.  I thought they might have someone walk us around for 10 minutes, point out a couple tanks, and then tell us they couldn't serve us yet because the tasting room didn't open until noon.  Instead...

We were met by three people: Matt Brynildson, the Brewmaster; Jamie Smith, the Marketing Manager; and Dave, whose last name I didn't catch, the Special Events Manager.  The three of them walked around every corner of the brewery with us for the next 45 minutes.  I don't know where else you can get a tour where the number of guides outnumbers the tour takers, or where the a intimidatingly accomplished, but still all together friendly, brewmaster stops what he's doing to come walk around with two visitors he's never met before.  I felt very, very lucky as we wandered about and got a chance to have all of our questions about their brewing process answered by Matt, Jamie, and Dave. 

We got to hear all about their incredible barrel fermenting system.  While lots of breweries are experimenting with barrel aging now, Firestone is the only US brewery running a barrel fermenting system called a Burton Union.  The only other brewery in the world running this type of system is Marston's in Burton-on-Trent, England.  The system pipes away excess yeast, while returning the lost beer (that beer that comes out with the yeast) to the barrels.  This has several advantages, the first of which is clearer beer due to less yeast left floating in the barrels.  It also changes the yeast strains by forcing them to adapt to their more turbulent environment, developing a strains, and often a combination of strains, with unique flavors not found elsewhere.

As we toured the brewery, we also got to smell some new and used barrels, check out the barrel aging wall in the warehouse, say hi to brewers met at Boonville, and grab an IPA Nectar straight off the line to taste beer so fresh its age could be measured in minutes. 

Finally, the tour ended with tasting, of course.  We sampled four of their core brews.  Sadly, most of the bigger beers were not available just then (the thought that I may never taste Saucerful of Merkins again is very distressing to me), nor was there Lil Opal for me to bring home for the saison tasting (look for a post on that tomorrow).  However, what I found was that I definitely hadn't been paying enough attention to their regular brews.  We tried the 31, a California-style pale ale; the Double Barrel, an English-style pale ale; the Union Jack IPA; and their Porter. 

My favorites were the Double Barrel and the Porter.  It was a great idea to taste the 31 and the DBA side-by-side for comparison sake.  The 31 had a great hop aroma, but not too much hop bitterness in the taste itself.  Meanwhile, the DBA had a smaller hop aroma with a more prominent malt flavor.  To me, the English version, the DBA, was perfectly in balance, with it's vanilla and caramel flavors, but still with a dose of hops befitting a pale ale. 

I had never had their porter before and it was a big surprise.  I loved it!  And you all have heard my thoughts on porters before...not usually very enthusiastic.  This one had a very rich chocolate-y aroma.  I encourage anyone trying it to drink it out of a wine or snifter glass, as we were doing, because I'm not sure you'd catch as much of its amazing aroma if drinking it out of a shaker pint.  The flavors were rich and smooth, and the carbonation was perfect: subtle, but never in the realm of being mistaken for flat. 

That said, I have to admit that I may be almost ready to jump on the cask bandwagon.  While low carbonation has generally been the hurdle between me and cask beer enjoyment, I had the Blue Bell Bitter on cask at Magnolia yesterday morning, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Yes, it was relatively warm, but I came around on that point a while ago, it's the texture, not the temperature that bothered me.  But that morning, it just worked.  So, expect updates on my cask beer conversion in future posts. 

We left the brewery around noon, sorry to go, but with all of the Big Sur coast ahead of us.  We stopped for some elephant seal viewing around San Simeon.  They weren't doing much, mostly just sleeping, which made them all look a bit like carcasses.  Bari didn't want a picture with them, but I did.  Then pushed onward along the coast. 

The views were spectacular, so we stopped for a late lunch at Nepenthe, where I had one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.  The bread they put it on was incredible too, as was the pod of porpoises splashing around in the bay that we looked down on from our perch on their patio. 

The one bummer was the Esalen Institute hot springs.  So far as I can gather, Esalen is an artists' retreat/spa, that has natural mineral hot springs.  I don't know for sure though, because apparently you have to have reservations far in advance to stay at the Institute overnight and the public hot springs hours are extremely limited.  How limited?  Well, we showed up around 2:00pm, and spoke to the woman guarding the gate, explaining that we wanted to go for a dip.  She said "Sorry, the pools are open 1:00 - 3:00."  I looked at her with a "I'm confused, it's 2:00pm, what's the problem?" kind of look, and she re-explained what I didn't catch the first time.  The pools are open 1:00am - 3:00am to the public.  Seriously?  Why even bother?  I think what actually came out of my mouth was, "Are you for real?"  She assured me she was, so we drove on. 

The last stop of the trip was ice cream at Marianne's in Santa Cruz.  They had about 50 different flavors, including all kinds of wacky stuff (what is ‘baby coconut' after all?).  I got a scoop of fresh banana and a scoop of wild blackberry together in a cup and Bari got raspberry sorbet. 

From there, it was just a straight shot home to San Francisco.  It was sad the trip had to come to an end.  We may not have done a whole lot of organized activities on the road trip, but what you all miss here in the blog is how much fun we had catching up during those hours in the car.  I think Bari and I could each separately talk person's ears off, so I'm glad there was no one else with us in the car or else they might have purposely destroyed their eardrums an hour or two in upon realizing that we were going to keep the chatter up for the next two days straight.