Day Trip to Paso

February 15, 2026

On Sunday we had reservations to pick up our wine shipment at Vina Robles. Our friends Brad and Jean have recently joined Hope Austin Winery in Paso (as well as being Vina members), so we decided to make a day of it along with our other friends, Kari and Will. We wanted to check out Hope Austin, since they have recently taken over ownership of the music venue formerly owned by Vina. Suffice it to say we not only did some tasting and picking up of our regularly scheduled pick up, but we also came back Sunday evening members of both Hope Austin and Opolo (Jean's favorite winery). Opolo also has a distillery, so we now also belong to that club as well. It was a lovely day with wonderful friends, with lots of excuses to head back that way in the future. Those wine shipments won't pick themselves up!

Valentine's Day

February 14, 2026

We celebrated our Valentine's Day with a delicious dinner at DiCicco's, followed by Beetlejuice at the theater. It was nice to get a little dressed up and have a little more of a formal date-not that we don't love our every day dates too!

Moravia Winery

February 7, 2026

We had a wine tasting outing with our friends Kari and Will and with Brianna and Shelby. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was lovely!

Winter Formal

February 1, 2026

Last night was Buchanan's Winter Formal, and as usual Rafe was a good sport and came along to keep me company. I just love to see the kids all dressed up, and I love getting dressed up to go out on a date with Rafe, even if it is to a high school gym.

Souper Bowl Playoff Watch Party

January 25, 2026

It's playoffs weekend, so we had a Souper bowl kick off- a soup potluck/tasting party. Everyone got to sample several kinds of soup while yelling at the little men on the TV.

Double Date Night

January 24, 2026

Jim and Christy were in town this weekend, so we planned a whole evening. We met up for dinner at Kocky's Bar and Grill in downtown Fresno. A little loud, but they had good food and good service. Then we headed to The Grand 1401 (a beautiful venue in the 10th floor ballroom of an old downtown building) to see a Candlelight Concert. The theme was Queen vs. Abba, presented by a string quartet. The music was of course familiar, but the setting made it magical. Once it was over, we took Jim and Christy to the new speakeasy in downtown Clovis-the place we spent our New Year's Eve. Such a cool vibe! It was a relaxing, effortless evening, and already we can't wait for them to come back to town so that we can plan another outing.

Backyard Social House

January 20, 2026

I believe we have found our new home for pub quiz. Backyard Social is a great atmosphere with good food and a great game format. Bonus -we won our first time out! Rafe, Karen, Will, Jonah, and I make a very solid team. I'm hoping Bree can join us in the future as well!

Palm Springs Day Two

January 18, 2026

Day Two at the tournament was a much stronger showing. It was perfect weather. They shook off the cobwebs and made some great plays. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to put them in finals contention, but we wrapped up our day on the field and headed to the team Airbnb (we stayed at a different hotel for the trip) and had a barbeque. Great evening team bonding!

Palm Springs Baseball

January 17, 2026

Baseball kicked off the season with a tournament in Palm Springs. This is a fun group of guys who typically play with a handful of different teams during regular season, but form a separate tourney team for pre- and post-season. It was a bit of a rocky start, but still a fun day one.

More Old Friends

 January 3, 2026

We went to dinner tonight with Jim and Christy, whom we haven't seen for quite some time--by my estimation nearly a year and a half.  They live out of town, but they still have family here and come to visit every now and again, but we are just one of the stops on their visits home.  I know how hectic it can be to try to get everything and everyone in during a quick weekend trip, so I understand.  But oh my goodness, how lovely it was to just sit and talk and catch up.  You know the friendship is solid when what I would guess would be a two hour lunch turns into more than four hours.  The secret, I've discovered, to not letting too much time go by between get-togethers is to make a specific plan for the future, rather than the usual "let's not make it so long next time...".  I'm so excited that we decided to make a date in another three weeks when they are back in town again--definitely something to look forward to!  (Reuniting with old friends and making plans a priority seems like a good refocus for the new year!)

Stranger Things

January 13, 2025 Rafe and I are binge watchers, and although we have pretty different tastes in shows, we have found several we have enjoyed together: Ted Lasso, The Boys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone (and its off-shoots), Inside Man, Nobody Wants This, and Succession, to name some. Currently we are watching Stranger Things. When it first came out I watched the first couple of seasons but fell off, probably because life got busy. We went back and started watching from the beginning, and man, is it intense! We are in the fourth season, and this is by far the darkest and most difficut season. It's really good though! I like a show that can weave several story lines throughout and then connect them all together. I am invested to see where the rest of the show goes...

It's The Little Things

January 5, 2025

Being a homeowner means there is always something to be done, and I don't always have the skill set to complete all the chores quickly or easily. I am so thankful that Rafe is not only a good handyman, but that he is absolutely willing to jump in and take care of things that need to be done. He is a true partner in that way, and I feel pretty lucky!

Albert's Birthday

January 3, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa, Bree, and Danielle and I went to a friend's house to make tamales. I'm not sure how we came into the tradition of having tamales every Christmas, except that opportunities for purchasing homemade Mexican tamales are plentiful at Christmas time, particularly in the Central Valley. Because of my fondness for them and easy access, my kids always grew up knowing that we'd have tamales at Christmastime--it's one of our traditions. When I happened to mention it at Thanksgiving to a friend, she offered to have us all over for a tamale-making day. I've always heard that it was a long day, tamale-making, and it was! However, with many hands and a few steamers, we were able to make about 18 dozen chicken, pork, and vegetarian tamales among all of us. (We talked, of course, and had the requisite singable songs going, which made the process much more fun.) I can confidently say that they turned out pretty well! Rafe suggested that we take some to his dad when we celebrated his birthday, which is today. Although I admit to a little trepidation about taking my homemade tamales to someone who grew up in a traditional Mexican household and whose mom used to make him tamales, we decided we'd go to Tulare for dinner and treat him. Rafe made beans and Albert made rice, and I must say we sat down to a very tasty meal together! Both of his parents thanked us and gave us the stamp of approval for the tamales, which made me feel good. I love visiting Albert and Cyndi because they are always so welcoming to me, so it really was a great birthday visit. :)

A Visit to Sacramento

January 8, 2024

Since Mia was in town on Sunday/Monday, we decided to make an overnight trip up to Sacramento to visit Rafe's brother Josh and his family. We were able to go to a local brewery and listen to some live local bands, and spend time playing, laughing, and talking with Beka, Josh, and the kids. It was a quick turn-around, but totally fun!

More of this Please

January 6, 2024

We spent New Year's Eve day sitting around a fire, talking and just enjoying the feeling of having no place to be and nothing pressing on our to-do lists. While we can't have that all the time- of course there will be papers to grade and laundry to be done sometimes- I'm striving to carve out more of these days in 2024 for us.

Play Ball!

March 27, 2022 

Last week I was out of town for Rafe's first baseball game of the season, but this week I was able to go watch. I don't love watching baseball on T.V., but live and in person, I can definitely get behind. (It doesn't hurt that he looks cute in his uniform!) We were out at the Roosevelt field, which unfortunately has no bathrooms and no shade. I'm going to have to keep that in mind for the next time we go out to that field. It is a lot of fun to watch him play, as well as to listen to their banter during the game. It will be even more fun as I start to get to know who all the players are. One of his teammates has a wife who comes to the games, so we hang out and chat during the game, which is great. The only down side to Sunday's game was that although there was a bit of a lovely breeze, the sun was shining brightly which means that by the end of the three hour game, I had developed quite a sunburn on my shoulders. I'm going to have to remember to bring sunscreen to future games; it's not going to get any cooler out there as we move into summer.

Oscar Contender: Movie Night

March 25, 2022 In my quest to see as many Oscar nominated films as possible before the Academy Awards (at which I will fail miserably this year), I wanted to have a movie night tonight. I have only seen West Side Story so far, and we were limited to what was available for streaming. That left us with Don't Look Up as our option tonight. I invited Rafe over to join Danielle and me for dinner, and then we watched the show. Honestly, JenniferLawrence, Leondardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and Jonah Hill were all very good in this film, as one would expect them to be. It was a pretty strong social satire, albeit quirky and odd. I enjoyed it, as did Danielle and Rafe, but I also suspect it was too non-traditional to take away Oscar gold on Sunday night.

Baseball Sunday

March 13, 2022

To cap off a fun weekend, I went out to watch Rafe play his first baseball scrimmage of the season. He's been playing ball with his friends in a league for several years, so they all have a great time playing together--lots of trash talk and joking around. I can tell it's a fun-loving group. I enjoy baseball, and the weather was absolutely beautiful, so it was a great way to spend the morning. It was kind of cool to be one of the girlfriends in the bleachers, to be honest. The only thing I didn't like was it was Daylight Saving Time, so we lost an hour of sleep between Saturday and Sunday night--that never makes me happy. Nevertheless, going out to the game and then having dinner later in the evening was a wonderful way to finish the weekend. I definitely wish there was more weekend in our weeks.

Meeting Someone New, Part Two

March 12, 2022

Last night I got to meet Rafe's parents, and tonight he got to meet my best friend and her husband. Turn about's fair play! Rafe and I actually spent the afternoon looking at Oscar Nominated Short Films to watch on Youtube--unfortunately there aren't many there yet, but we did catch a few. (Obviously, I am looking forward to the upcoming Oscars. I missed the traditions of the Academy Awards during the Covid years!) Afterward, we met up with Mo and Scott and a group of friends at Sequoia Brewing to listen to Night Heat play. It was great to have Rafe and Mo meet, and match faces with names. Nicholas has also already met him, so I am looking forward to my girls and Lisa getting the chance to meet him as well.

Meeting Someone New

March 11, 2022 Meeting someone new is exciting and interesting, getting to learn all the intricasies, idiosyncrasies, and nuances of someone new and important in your life. What works? What doesn't? What's important to them, and what drives them. How do they prioritize their time? What are the things and people they value? It's all an adventure, and usually a pretty wonderful one. Part of that exploration involves meeting people who are important in their life and introducing them to the people who matter to you. That part can be pretty daunting, actually, because what if they don't like you? What if you don't fit into their friend group, or their family finds you not good enough? Tonight I got to meet the parents. They invited us to join them for dinner, and although I was excited to meet them, I was also a little nervous, of course. His parents were super sweet and welcoming, and I think the conversation flowed smoothly and easily. Hopefully they thought so too! I was actually a really nice evening--a bit of a milestone, I guess. One of my girlfriends asked me when was the last time I had met the parents of a man I was interested in. Oh my goodness--Bill's parents were the last parents I met, which was about a year before we got married when I was still only 19. (For those keeping track, I am now 54. Meeting the parents for the first time was a LONG time ago!)