bainbridge island wine tasting

We love wine. Any excuse to taste new wines, chat with wine makers, visit undiscovered wineries, and taste fine cheeses is fine by us. A couple weekends ago we were in Seattle staying with my parents, and we all ventured over to Bainbridge Island (by ferry) for the day for their "wine tasting event". About five (very small) wineries were open for the day - when I say small, I mean SMALL; most of them import grapes from the Walla Walla area (which in my opinion are usually very good). The first winery we walked into was in this neighborhood right by the beach...then all of a sudden, there it was! We kept looking for a big building, or anything resembling the wineries we've known...but instead, it was a small "shed" type of building in someone's backyard! Completely awesome. My dad instantly bonded with the wine maker, as they both were wearing a "boot" after having foot surgeries. :) The day was filled with visits like this one, as well as lunch at a teeny tiny little homemade pasta joint, and cookies from the local bakery. Yum yum. Oh, and to top it all off, the weather was sunny and in the mid 60s. So - now we are all stocked up on some fabulous and local wines, and we got to experience something new for the day!

house update

Just to keep everyone in the loop...

Our house has been "on the market" now for a week (since we are selling by owner, all this means is we have a sign out in our lawn, haha, and an ad on Craigslist :). In that time, we have had about 14 showings, one offer, and many "serious" lookers. It is not up to us what will happen with this house; if we are not offered a price we both feel is right, then we are content with staying here for a while longer. It's as simple as that! Fortunately, we both love it here too, and would cherish just one more summer on that back deck...that being said, if it does sell, our plan is to move downtown and rent an apartment for a few months while we search for that perfect next house for us. Something just a bit bigger, a bit newer (okay, brand new would be great), and a bit closer to downtown where we both work. Interest rates are low, and so are home prices, so through this adventure we are taking a shot at seeing if we can have a piece of that pie. Watch for updates!

aruba

as a five-year anniversary trip, plus graduation trip, plus we-just-need-some-sun trip...we are going in May! More pictures to come!

spring has arrived! (right?)

Last Saturday and Sunday we worked our tails off to get the yard presentable. We are finally coming to the point where we are ready to put it our house on the market, just to see if we get any interested buyers. I would say we are fairly unmotivated sellers, more just testing the waters a bit...if we stay here a couple more years, then we will be happy with that too. Sometimes we look at the view out of our backyard and we think we never want to leave!

We had four yards of bark mulch (that's a lot = back breaking work for Jeff) delivered on Saturday morning. We spread it all over every surface of the front and back yards, and it's lookin' good! The rest of the day contained some weeding, planting of pots and flower beds, painting, building a new back roof for our mud room, raking 15 large bags of leaves and hauling them to the sidewalk...oh, and powerwashing the driveway! That was me by the way, who did that. I have never done it before, and wish I had taken a picture. I don't think many people would believe what they saw - I was covered/soaked in mud from head to toe - maybe I was doing it wrong? Not really sure! That thing is powerful though! :) Oh yes, and please note that normally I stay as far away from outside/yard work as possible, but with this much to do, I was forced to partake.

We took a little lunch/beer break in the field behind our fence, and soaked up some sun. Chloe is in heaven here, in her little Cook Park wonderland.