Labor Day Weekend- Musings

It's Labor Day weekend in the US-- it signals the social end of summer because school starts right after Labor Day. For many, school started last week if not the week before, but after Labor Day, the summer ends seriously! Stores that have been stocked with back-to-school supplies will have a clearance sale and all the Halloween merchandise will now be put out.

Mentally, I'm not ready.  I had hoped to get in another beach trip, but instead, I'm cleaning my home office (which really needs it!). Reluctanctly, I cleared the beach paraphernalia out of my car and am loading it up with stuff to donate, take to the used book store, or consign. Besides emptying out my clothes closet, I am also purging the office. Yes, cleaning out is fruitful and I love the process!

Today started off with an impromptu trip to meet my daughter at Janssens Market for coffee... we were waiting for Talbot's to open because she needed to get uniform apparel for her new teaching job. The plus to this morning's experience was running into an old friend and colleague!

Sigh... all these things were good, but now I have to mentally prepare for the coming winter, which, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, is supposed to be just as bad, if not worse, than last winter. So-- I will be shopping for some serious boots and a gorgeous cashmere sweater, and try to find a bargain southern getaway for Ed and I around the end of January. We deserve it- I just need to find someone to babysit the dog!

Homegrown Peach

This is a rare peach from Phillip's garden-- it was sweet and juicy, just like peaches are supposed to be! He's also growing a pear tree (bottom picture).

This peach was so wonderful and sweet! The best peach of the summer...

This is the peach tree that grew this peach...the only peach on the tree, but then again, the tree has only been in the ground for two years...

Summer Wine

Ah-- I'm trying to decide whether today will be my Friday or whether tomorrow will be Friday... Choices, choices ! It's sunny and in the high eighties, with some humidity. White wine should help me in the decision making process, and I will admit I bought this one purely because I liked the label! Stay tuned to see how this one plays out...

POSTSCRIPT Verdict: I could definitely taste the pear notes in this wine. It's fresh and when you pour it seems to fizz a bit, almost like a sparkling wine. But- it is a true light summer white wine, very fresh and light. This wine comes from Mason Cellars in California's Sacramento Delta area. This Pinot Gris has won an award from Wine Spectator as the best value wine. So one of my questions was What's the difference between a pinot grigio and a pinot gris? I didn't know this either so I did some quick research-- a pinot grigio is the Italian version of the French pinot gris and typically has a more citrus flavor. They both come from the same grape, originally grown in the Alsace region of France (now grown all over the world), but the Italian Pinot Grigio became popular for it's light bodied white wine. the French Pinot Gris is a fuller bodied white wine. 

Since my recent tour of sustainable wine growing vineyards through Sonoma County, I was interested in checking out Mason Cellars online. Unfortunately, they don't discuss sustainable grape growing practices, (Yes, I can now say the words "sustainable viticulture" without tripping my tongue!)  so I'll assume they haven't reached that point yet. 

Checking Out

Ok- I knew this day would come-- has anybody else had this feeling? You know, that feeling of now you're floating around on your own with no place to call home? No anchor to help you feel secure?

It's that time between checking out of your hotel room and the hours and hours before your flight departs. What do you do in the meantime? Where do you hangout?

For me, I guess it means taking up residence in the hotel lobby....finding a seat to call my own and settling in with some reading. Hmmmm...there's a lot more to this concept called home... amazing how a few hours of displacement can be so unsettling for me!

Jawbone and My Walking Routine

One thing about cities is that you certainly do a LOT more walking! On Thursday by jawbone noted gat I'd walked over 4,000 steps, and yesterday I walked over 6,000 steps, and today I walked over 10,000 steps! Today those 10,000 steps equated to 4.8 miles and I burned over 1600 calories just by walking. Whew! It's the suburban lifestyle of always getting in the car that's do unhealthy. Looks like I need to move to the city!

Happy Birthday, Sophia!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOPHIA!!!

Sophia... you are so special and have been such a delightful person to watch grow into adulthood. Sophia is... loving, kind, thoughtful, wise, strong, determined, and just an all-around fierce woman!

Here are some random pictures celebrating Sophia (in no particular order)...

 She's not yet 2 years old in the photo above...

 And here she is all grown up!

With her Oma... pushing Lili in the stroller...

feeding Lili one of those awful pixie straws during Michael's swim meet...

And finally, courtesy of Erika's FB pictures, here's the latest of Sophia...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sweetie! May your life be full of love and joy!

Conference Routine

 My favorite annual conference by far is attending ASA. It's always held in an interesting place where there is so much to see and do, but it's also so stimulating to attend sessions and learn what other sociologists are researching...

Each year the conference has a theme, but that theme is not the only topic of discussion. For example, this afternoon I attended a marvelous session on Collective Memory in which Aaron Cicourel presented a paper on the cognitive domain of memory making.

He discussed how medical interviews are paraphrased by doctors in doctors' notes and this becomes part of the archival record. However, the archival record only tells a small part of the story-- so in essence, doctors' notes are an example of sharpening and levelling-- a trick used by the advertising industry to market a product. Interesting stuff... maybe nerdy to others, but fascinating to me!!!

Saturday Morning in San Francisco

My wonderful new Sony H400 camera battery died right at the end of the winery tours yesterday, and when I got back to the hotel I found out I didn't have the right charger to recharge the battery! Sigh... So it was up early this morning and headed for the City Target store who directed me to RadioShack who directed me to the Discount Camera store around the corner--

Success!!! Turns out that this camera's battery charges in the camera but I needed a cable to fit so it could be plugged into an ordinary wall plug. The bonus was a lovely and interesting conversation with the camera man- who explained why Sony cameras were such good cameras and how Sony came to build their camera business. Sony acquired Konica Minolta on the 1990s when electronics companies became so diversified that some of the, including Konica Minolta wanted out of the digital camera business. According to Allan, the salesman who helped me, Sony management visited all Konica Minolta factories, shut down several and reorganized the digital camera business-- all without laying off anyone!

Then I also found out that the camera that's a level above mine, although it has lesser zoom, does have a German Carl Zeiss lens!!! Sigh and doublesigh.... for now, I'll do with mine-- it's not shabby-- 63x zoom and 20+ megapixels-- makes for clear photos when your style of shooting is on the go!

After a few hours of charging during which I took a much-needed nap, I'm now back in business! Yay!

Wine Growing Sustainability Tour

One of the perks offered by ASA is a specialized pre-conference tour emphasizing some topics relevant to sociology. And so it was that I spent yesterday traipsing through 3 vineyards in Sonoma County-- each known for using biodynamic agricultural farming practices. What is biodynamic wine farming, you ask? It's farming without using pesticides or herbicides or fertilizer. In other words, it's organic and sustainable. The vineyard owners use nothing that can change the soil or otherwise change the ecosystem it farms on.

Our first tour and tasting was at Benziger Winery where I fell in love with sustainable wine farming and immediately ordered 6 bottles to be shipped home! It was fun to taste the grapes right from the vine and note things like the color of the grape and the texture of its skin...

That's why we could pick grapes straight from the vine and taste them!

Next it was a stop at Hamel Wineries- a relatively new endeavor and a small winery. I fell in love with their Rose which had a Grenache grape (it's so fun to name drop with a little bit of knowledge !) and a beautiful color! Had several bottles of it shipped home also.

Last, we stopped at GunlachBundschau and after I tasted two of their whites, even while sloshing and spitting all day-- I was done tasting wines! Hard to believe but true!

Most of these wineries are about 30-40 acres, and as we were told on the tour, it takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in this business. Most of these wineries are family owned, and don't make much money but do this truly for the love of it. It also helps to keep the land in the family. 

San Francisco Arrival & Sausalito

What better way to arrive at a far away destination than to be picked up by your son? Michael was waiting for me when I landed with USAir (more about that flight in an upcoming post) and the timing was great because Annie arrived a few minutes later. We headed across the bridge to Sausalito, and had lunch at a cute little fish market on the waterfront. We then walked around in the heart of Sausalito, poor Annie tenderly nursing her foot since she'd had foot surgery. The weather was great and the view of the bay phenomenal ! Sausalito attracts lots of foreign tourists, so all sorts of languages can be heard- a feast for the ears!

Circling around the SF airport to pick up Annie...

Crossing the Golden Gate...

Lunch in Sausalito at the Fish restaurant...

Michael and Annie...

Behind me is the San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz...

Siblings on Mt Olympus Hike

Remember a few posts ago there were pictures of my 3 youngest children? Well, here they are all grown up and hiking Mt. Olympus this summer. 

I am just amazed by their hiking prowess!

They walk miles and miles, carrying everything they need to survive on their backs. 

Luckily, they find this satisfying and rewarding. I am so proud of them!

Myrtle Beach Vacation

 Most of the time our vacations consisted of going to Myrtle Beach and staying at Uncle Max's cabin. 

 Uncle Max is the handsome man on the far right. He and Ed go back many years... Ed first got to know Max when he was in grad school. 

 Adorable Lili on the beach.

 Phillip enjoying floating in his tube....

 And, of course, here is Sophia...happy with her progress on building a sandcastle!

 South Carolina's Grand Strand is fabulous! Wide beaches with blond sand.....

 Even Uncle Max joined us for a day on the beach!