The Beach Resort view of Monterey Bay @ night, originally uploaded by r3v||cls.
We went to Monterey for wine tasting last weekend and I took a ton of pictures. I finally got around to picking the not-so-sucky ones and uploading them. Take a gander, if you care.

The photo here is the only night shot. It’s awesome and I need to figure out how to do it better.

We’re back from another visit to the hometown of Spider-Man. Didn’t see the web-slinger this trip, but we did see Tim Kern who’s like a super-hero (or maybe super-villain) with a tattoo machine. (Tim’s the master inker who did my power button tattoo on our last trip to NYC.)

So, this time he did a similar piece on my right forearm. It’s another piece of metal brutally embedded in my flesh. The symbol is a valknot (also spelled valknut) surrounded by the elder futhark (aka the norse runic alphabet). Altogether, it’s a symbol for knowledge and power. Let’s see if it helps any.

So, that was Sunday during the day. Rewind to the beginning of the trip.

Thursday night, we got our room at Hotel Pennsylvania (yelped) and had sushi at a great little place called Avenue A Sushi at like, 2am or somesuch. I recommend it for the decent food, great atmosphere and excellent hours.

Friday, we had lunch at Tir Na Nog and went to see Grindhouse. (Unfortunately, we had to leave a little half way through the second movie, so no official review from me. If you want opinions, then ping me.) From there, we met up with some KaTG show regulars and went to Keith and Chemda’s to witness the live show and play some poker. (Well, Annette played poker. I took care of a drunken, but very sweet, girl. Still, fun night and maybe the most relaxing of the trip.) I think we got in around 07:00.

Saturday, I slept in. Way in. I think weeks of stress, and a night of drinking, caught up with me. But, since we had no plans to do anything touristy, there was no real need to be active before the afternoon. We went out for dinner at Wolfgang’s. Hrm, what to say about Wolfgang’s, what was it - oh yes. Holy crap, that’s good steak. Then, instead of turning in early like I should have, we headed out to a party in Jersey. Ah well, sometimes you can’t help being in an Irish pub one minute for after dinner drinks, and then across the water in Jersey at a party the very next minute. It’s a really easy mistake.

So, Sunday I was very hungover and very tired. It took a fair amount of willpower to get moving and make it to Last Rites to get my tattoo. Last Rites is in a new location now and it’s half tattoo shop, half gallery. It’s really quite impressive. Good place to get inked. We were subjected to much less death-metal, this time around. Something for which the girl was thankful.

Sunday evening, we went to see Keith Malley perform stand-up, which was hysterical. Brother Love, closed out the night with a fairly short set. (HORRID audio quality, but a fun show still.) Closed the night out at Nice Guy Eddie’s.

So, yeah.. to sum up: My arm hurts and I am in desperate need of a vacation.

After a great Thanksgiving, Annette and I headed up to Napa for the weekend for her birthday. On our way in, we had lunch at AppleBees so prepare for the onslaught of fermented grape juice. It was the day after T-Day and they already had Christmas music playing. WTF? And it was the most horrid music. I mentioned to Annette that songs about “being merry” should’t make me want to put a gun in my mouth. After we escaped the unmerriness, though, things looked up.

We stayed at the Old World Inn (yelp review is still forthcoming), since out longtime favorite (The Daughter’s Inn) has changed hands. To be fair, I don’t know if it has negatively impacted the service at Daughter’s, but the hosts were a big reason to stay there. Our room had a 60″ screen with an HD projector and a very nice whirlpool tub… very nice.

On Saturday, we had a driver and a towncar. This is the second time we’ve done Napa with a professional driver. Last time, it was a very enjoyable experience even though the driver didn’t know shit about Napa. This time, we had a very cool, informative driver and the experience was a hundred times better. An’ that ain’t no hyperbole, bub.

Also, I have to say, this is a GREAT time of year to go to Napa. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Most of the vines have changed color and the grass is all a vibrant green. The view from Domain Carneros really shows it off nicely.

Annette and I managed to survive another trip to Mecca Las Vegas. Three highlights:

1. Penn & Teller. We saw their show on Saturday night. It was awesome. I’m a huge fan of theirs and the show really delivered. It was intelligent, funny, impressive, patriotic and, ya know, magical. After the show, we also got to meet Teller (he spoke to me!) and Jonesy (great jazz pianist who plays before the show and supplies music for Penn’s radio show). The line to meet Penn was a little long and we were off to a party, so I will have to meet him next time. Besides, we had forgot our camera. >.<

2. Drinks at Defcon. In case you were unawares, geeks can f’n party. It was fun meeting Annette’s old 303 friends.

3. The third highlight? Well, the third highlight is what Vegas’ motto is all about. At least as far as this blog is concerned. Heh.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be hitting up few cool events. If any of you are going, drop me a line and we can hook up for a pint or something.

First up is DefCon in Vegas. That’s this week. Then we have SRL when we get back. (SRL is f’n cool. If you don’t know what it is, check out the videos.)

If I can work it, I may swing by the Second Life Community Convention in San Francisco later in August as well.

A little while after that, we are heading down to SoCal for the PodCast Expo. That should be fairly cool.

Like I said, if you’re going to any of this stuff, ping me.

Just got home from from the east coast trip. I’m f’n beat so I am taking a break on the couch long enough to write this entry, cause then I have to go to the grocery store and do some errands.

Monday, we flew to New York on Jet Blue. Comfy flight, I totally recommend this airline. We didn’t even have any problems with our landing gear. We got to our hotel, the New Yorker, to find it has rooms the size of matchboxes. Also, we found it to be centrally located and yet not actually close to anything in particular. Next time, it’s the St. Marks Hotel.

It rained most of Tuesday, but we went to the Met so it made no difference. We saw loads of paintings that, up until now, I had only seen in prints, Art class books or on PBS. :) There was a special exhibit of Van Gogh’s work which was excellent, of course. The Japanese art section was amazing, as was the modern art.

Also, I saw a painting that I’d always wanted to see in person: George Washington Crossing the Delaware. I always knew it was a large painting, but to call it simply “large” betrays it’s mammoth proportions. The painting is gigantic and amazing. It is, in a word, Epic.

Another highly was the Arms, Armor and Guns exhibit. The most gorgeous flintlocks… it was all I could do to not shout “YAR!” kick in the glass and make off with the booty. Of course, I didn’t see any powder or shot around so it would have been a rough escape. That’s ok, there were plenty of melee weapons to help. Maybe next time.

Wednesday we went shoe-shopping, or boot-hunting perhaps, for Annette. She found an excellent pair of Grinders boots, in case anyone’s keeping score. Thankfully it had stopped raining in time for the boot-hunt.

On Thursday, we spent almost the entire day paying someone to jab our skin with needles attached to a loud buzzing machine. Ok, not just someone. Tim Kern of Paul Booth’s Last Rites tattoo shop. This is the second time we’ve met Tim, and the second time he’s inked Annette, but it was the first time he’s worked on me. (It’s only my second tattoo.)

I got the power symbol I’ve been wanting for so long. It looks like it’s shiny metal and embedded brutally in my left forearm. Click the thumbnail for a better view. (Pic taken the next day.)Annette got a gypsy head with a dagger through it and crossed flintlock pistols below. Tim’s an amazing artist and a perfectionist… so he’s not the fastest around (we were in the shop for almost 12 hours, about eight of that in the chair) but he’s one of the best there is. The time and money was well worth it. He’s also a helluva guy, so it was fun spending most of the day with him. We capped the night with a pint at The Library Bar. (That link is oddly dead as I post this, so if it’s still dead and you wanna click… click this instead.)

Friday, we spent a good deal of time bitching about our arms for some reason. We swang by Last Rites and Tim took a final photo of each of our tattoos for the Last Rites site. Then we drove the rental car down to Philly, with a detour to pay respects at the final resting place of Joey Ramone in New Jersey.

That night, we met up with a couple of Annette’s Philly friends and had great sushi and sake at some little shop, of which I can not remember the name, then headed over to the hotel bar where Pumpcon would be held the next day and had a few beers.

On Saturday, it took us over an hour to get across Philly due to freeways that flowed like stone. And not molten stone, either. Eventually we made it to the con, which was running even later than we were. (Which is good, since the first speaker was pretty interesting.) After the con we visited the Sailor Jerry Store and ran around and hit a few other shops before eventually retiring to our hotel to pack, eat and kick back.

This morning, Sunday, we somehow managed to make it to our 8:15am flight and here we are…

Ok, that was really longer than intended, but it’s the longest vacation that I’ve had in a while. I’m tired and my arm hurts… but I need to go to the grocery store.

Awright, we’re wheels up in a couple of hours and I am finishing packing. The Boo is staying at a spa for the first time.
Podcasts and other feeds are downloaded. My new 5G, 60Gb iPod is charged and synced. Bags are packed. Garbage is taken out. Seeya!

Less than two weeks till Vegas. And something called DefCon. Whatever that is.

We’ve got reservations at the Luxor, despite some friends warning us that they had a bad experience their last time. They said all the rooms they saw were trashed, etc. We’re giving the Luxor a shot, though, because we love it there so much. We’re a littled worried, though. I suppose we have reservations about our reservations. (Sorry!)

Anyways, let us know if you’re gonna be in town during the DefCon weekend. We’ll be there from Thursday night till Sunday Monday.

There are a couple other pics uploaded, but nothing better than these two. (A wine filled Limo with my girl and a cigar in the garden at the B&B.) And none of us. Excuse the crappy camera phone quality, Annette has some better pics on her real camera.

So, it’s Monday and I’m back at work. I figure this means it’s time to blog about my weekend in Napa. :) Sorry it’s so long… but, well that’s the way it goes. Feel free to skip to the summary! :P

Friday, it rained off and on as we drove up to Napa. I was kind of hoping it would keep up to suppress any potential crowds at the wineries, but it pretty much let up by late afternoon. We had some time to kill before we could check into the B&B, so we had some lunch and hit up a couple of wineries. We decided to just head up the Silverado Trail and see what looked interesting.

Darioush, is a gorgeous winery that neither of us had heard of before. We pulled in solely because of how great it looked. I was pleasantly surprised by their Cab and bought a bottle. Bad sign, couldn’t even get out of the first winery without buying. Heh. Our wine hostess (yeah, I really don’t know what they’re called) was very friendly and gave us a winery map, since I’d left ours at home, or rather unprinted.

Then, we hit up Silverado. Good wines and an exceptional view. The hostess there was fun and excited about the wines and that’s always a plus. We left there and I had my second bottle of Cab in hand. Ok, that’s only two wineries and I thought we visited three on Friday… anyways…

We checked into The Daughter’s Inn, which is easily my favorite B&B in Napa. Of course, I’ve never stayed anywhere else in Napa… but that doesn’t really matter. :) Like last time, there were fresh baked cookies and delicious creme sherry waiting for us (well, I suppose other people too) in the living room. The owners, Brooke and Perry, are awesome and are, themselves, enough a reason to stay there. Never mind, the kick ass rooms and whirlpool tubs.

After we got settled, we headed down the street to the Beazley House (the oldest B&B in Napa, and owned by Brooke’s parents) for a free tasting. The wine was decent, and we got a tip for dinner: Sushi Mambo in downtown Napa. After a trip through the local bookstore (Annette was dangerously close to finishing her current book) we had some great sushi and tempura and even better sake. (MmmmmMmm unfiltered…)

Saturday, during breakfast we chatted with Perry and he gave us an invitation for some free tasting of the good stuff at Mondavi. Allow me a moment to explain that “chatting with Perry” is one of the highlights of staying at the Daughter’s Inn. He’s got some great stories (both on the innkeeper side and the Elvis-loving, tattooed, rockabilly side).

Then, our limo arrived. We had a list of wineries we wanted to visit and we had grouped them together, to maximize our limo-efficiency. We had not, however, drawn them out on a map or anything like that. Well, as it turns out, our driver was sort of expecting us to do just that… so, he gave us a map and had us mark where we wanted to go. This was so that we didn’t waste his time. (Ok, in point of fact… I bought “his” time and that meant it was actually my time and had I wanted him to drive around in circles, he would have.)

However, due to the fact that it was possibly a language barrier issue and we were going to be spending the next several hours with the guy, we decided not to correct him on the matter. Besides, after we got to the first winery and he had a chance to study the map and our list while we had some wine, all was good.

We visited a plethora of wineries on Saturday. Among them were Andretti (yes, owned by Mario Andretti), Mondavi, Beaulieu (BV) and Trefethen… but not exactly in that order. They were all good, but BV and Trefethen were excellent. We tasted both the estate and the library selections at Trefethen and Susan, our hostess in the library (back) room, was great. And generous. :)

After we filled the limo with wine, we had the driver take us to the Dean & Deluca store so we could pick out some tasty bits for dinner. I mention our stop here mostly just to say that this place is like the mecca of cheese. It’s got serious cheese for serious cheese fans. I highly recommend the Humboldt Fog. (Note: Not for the cheese-wuss.)

Sunday, we begrudgingly packed up our stuff and bid farewell to Brooke and Perry (after joint photo ops) and headed out. We still had a reservation at Cakebread (that’s the only way to do tasting there now, apparently). The reservation included a little mini-tour, which wasn’t really why we were there, but was ok. Then we went to Opus One. Really, we only went there because it’s one of the most interesting structures in Napa Valley. However, they charge $25 for a tasting. And they only have one wine. My wine-stang contained plenty of proof that I had no fear of pricey wine, but $25 for a taste of ONE wine? Not happening. I guess they had to pay for their architecture somehow.

So, after an abrupt about-face we headed home.

The only bummer was we didn’t have time to hit a couple of places we wanted to (Nichelini’s and Coppola’s) and Hakusan is CLOSED in Napa! As in kaput!

It was a great weekend. Mosty ‘cuz of a great woman and the time I got to spend with her.

SUMMARY: The Daughter’s Inn rules. Tell Brooke and Perry that Chris and Annette sent you if you ever make a reservation there. Trefethen rules. Limo’ing around Napa rules. The weekend ruled.