Another crazy week!!! Let’s see what happened. A week ago we took Morhéa to her first movie. It was outdoors in this new fancy mall we have by our house. Morhé and her friend Ella went. We had Mexican food for dinner and then went to the movie post-thunderstorms. I have a new found appreciation for movies like Shrek and Cars. They are the perfect combination movies. Kids love them and parents also get a kick out of them because of the adult humor thrown into the movie. Unfortunately for us we were seeing High School Reunion 2. WOW! It was so bad I almost lost it. It was over the top gay (gay as in festive, jolly, jovial, lively, mirthful, rollicking, spirited, vivacious and zippy). It was great to see our good friends the Howell’s again because summer is busy for both Brian (U.S. Forest Survey) and me (USGS) with our field seasons. Brian is pretty much in the field every Monday through Thursday for the entire summer and he usually isn’t in Denver. Ella is one of Morhéa’s good girlfriends and they love to PLAY! That Friday we were also sent home from daycare with Morhéa’s diapers!!!!! YES!!!!! What that means is that she is like 98% potty trained. Of coarse as I am about to just start screaming because I can’t take the gayness of the movie I start to feel this warm wet feeling as Morhéa is sitting on my lap. Just as it couldn’t get more miserable I get peed on! That also most sent me into the stratosphere. I sat there for another 10 minutes trying not to show my anger (after all it was for my daughter). Then it got late and we decided to go. I had a great time with friends but I can only hope they show Shrek, Cars, The Godfather, This is Spinal Tap or 300 the next time I go to the kids movies. They did play Spinal Tap in Cherry Creek last week in the park.
In true form we had our last Saturday tournament for our beer league softball. Our backup catcher didn’t show until after 3 games. Our Starting Left Fielder didn’t show period and our 3B/1B we still have no idea where he is. Dano was injured yet we managed to stay tough. We won our first 3 and then lost somewhere near the semi-finals. It was a fun year though. Lots of good laughs with washers and softball. Summer is flying by.
Sunday Morhéa and the girlfriends went to a park while I recovered and packed for my trip. I was headed to California for a week to do field work.
I know everyone thinks it is a joke and all but I really did do work in the Sacramento/Napa Valleys. We started at UCDavis working with core samples for the first 2 days. Some kind of Superfund site with radioactive Beagles or something. Then I got to tour the hills for a full two days. This included the Sacramento Valley, then to Lake Berryessa, North to an old mine and then back down the hill to Napa. I got a lot of good stuff but there is very limited access to the areas so we did a lot of roadside geology. I learned a ton though. The valley is filled with some pretty impressive and diverse crops I have ever heard of. They had lettuce, tomatoes, peaches, cherries, rice, kiwi’s, corn, oats, barley, grapes, zucchini, cucumbers, walnuts, almonds, and just about anything you can thing of. One of the more interesting things is that if they want to grow a new fruit tree they actually graft it onto a more resistant naturally occurring tree. It almost looked like they stuck peach trees onto oak trees. We found several outcrops of serpentines and sample them all for 2 days.
We rolled into Napa around 5:30 and decided to go wine tasting. The hills around Napa are volcanic basalts. There are many minerals in basalt that weather easily (like olivine) and when they do they supply nutrients to Napa Valley. That is why the grapes grow so well there. Of coarse everywhere is closed at 5PM so we end up at Beringer Estate. Not the best wine but fun none the less. We learn there that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are grown at the southern end of the valley because they like cooler temperature supplied from air from San Francisco Bay. Just up the valley Cabernet Sauvignon’s grapes are grown because they are more heat tolerant. We drive around the valley in search of a wine boutique that might sell a few good wines that my coworkers have heard of. We end up getting a few bottles from a winery that was kind enough to let Chris and Jean to sample some soil from their vineyard a few years ago. Napa was very nice but a weekend would do me fine. Bring out the beer! Actually, Chris and I had a great idea. All of the wineries close at 4-5. We would open one that starts serving at 4PM and goes to 1AM. We would offer a u-pick system where you pick us 4 bushels of grapes and we give you 1 no-name bottle of wine in return! We wouldn’t have labels other then some white-out names written on the bottle. We would also figure out how to have an April mashing and then we would be the ultimate anti-winery! I like it! It was great though. I am glad I got to experience some wine tasting in Napa. Overall the trip was a success. I still have one area I would like to go back to and get some permission to walk around some land. Next time and maybe I can stay in Napa then! WHile I was gone Morhéa also had her first tumbling class. Very Cool! Her first class by herself. No adults are allowed for the most part!!
Got back tonight and was very excited to see Morhéa. We played for 2 hours straight until she had to go to bed. We danced to the new Bruce Springsteen album (Live in Dublin) which is awesome. I am not the biggest Bruce fan but this show rocks!! Pete Seeger is the man and Bruce covers him for many tunes in this show. I recommend that you check it out!
We have a busy few weeks now. Fantasy Football starts this week and my draft is next weekend. Jeff and Heather are coming out for a visit and football. We have a good group of guys this year and it should be fun. There should be some washers, fantasy football and poker along with beer. What else could we ask for?
Jim, Janya and the kids are coming over tomorrow for some fun. The Cousins have been gone most of the summer so we haven’t seen them in a while and Morhéa is excited to have everyone over!
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