life has been a bit out of hand lately . . .

so as i'm sure you've noticed, my daily postings about life and the happenings have come to a screeching halt. suffice it to say, life's been a bit crazy . . . in a good way though. i've been spending most of my free time with mac and have been having the time of my life.

we had a wonderful time in the willamette valley a few weekends ago visiting several wineries and having a romantic weekend away. the 2005 pinot noir release party at sokol blosser was outstanding. ended up buying a few bottles of 2005 estate cuvée pinot noir and yet another case of their 2006 rosé of pinot noir that is so highly drinkable. paid a visit to the torii mor winery and picked up a 2005 late harvest gewurtzraminer before stopping through at argyle to pick up their outstanding 2005 brut rosé to put up for a special occasion.

after all that fanciness, we decided that a down-home lunch was in order so we stopped in at huckabee's bbq right next door to argyle. they weren't quite open but i guess we looked cute enough that they let us in anyway. had a great tri-tip plate with some good collards and cornbread. we did a bit of shopping at the dapper frog and at dundee garden art (where i found really cool brass numbers for my house).

we kept on to mcminnville and checked into the hotel and had a lovely evening of strolling through town and lounging in each other's company. had a fantastic breakfast at the crescent cafe and did even more shopping at cowgirl mercantile (got the coolest shirts there!) before heading back to our *normal* lives. i honestly can't stress enough how good breakfast was ... no, really! i sat there over a plate of biscuits and pork gravy that had chunks (and i do mean chunks) of smoked ham hock and the hash browns were to die for. we'd started breakfast with mimosas made with argyle brut ... we were in wine country after all.

after a lovely dinner at home that night, we went back to the normalcy that is the work week. fortunately, it was a short week! we got the good news that mac had friday and saturday off so we planned a long weekend together. we'd invited some friends for thanksgiving dinner (yes, we made *all* the fixins) but they ended up getting hung up in seattle. despite that, we had a really nice quiet thanksgiving at my place. luckily we got the call early enough in the day that we could scale the menu & portions back enough to not have enough to feed an army!

friday was spent just hanging out and cruising the racks at the goodwill in beaverton. you'd be amazed at some of the shit you can find out there. i managed to walk out with 5 bags *stuffed* full of stuff and a crockpot! the find of the day was a leather trench coat for $40! it's beautiful and fits like a dream. that night we had leftovers and watched bring it on as mac had never seen it - and that's just not right in my book. saturday was a quiet day hanging around the house. suki had an eye appointment (they're still doing about the same as last year - best we can hope for at this point) and then we met mac's friends (who'd finally made it down from seattle) for dinner at green papaya for some thai food. they had the most beautiful 1yo little girl who was a blast to hang out with. we had plans to meet up with some friends for double down at holocene so we got there around 10p. we thought dj harmony was going to be on that night and were looking forward to it. turns out she couldn't make it and the dj they got to replace her wasn't what we were in the mood for so we headed home early.

sunday we met up with the seattle friends at their hotel (they were staying at the ace and it was very nice) for coffee and more hanging out with them and their cute baby girl. ended up hanging with them until 1ish and then dropped by powell's and buffalo exchange because we were in the 'hood. i met up with my friend cg for a wine tasting around 4 and then was off to the grocery store for supplies. made dinner and hit the hot tub to round out an amazing 4 day weekend together.

i have to say – it was probably one of the best of my life ... and the funny thing is that i said that the weekend before about our weekend away. bodes well as far as i can tell. ;-)

so today i'm thankful for . . . an amazing woman in my life and the great memories we're making together