Book Reivew: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

A hotel in Paris. The building has been converted into enormous luxury apartments. Downstairs is the lodge. Inside the lodge lives the concierge; A woman in her mid-fifties trying to hide her brilliant mind. Upstairs lives a girl; a suicidal 12 year old genius. There is a lot of philosophy, academia, literature, art and profound thoughts in this book. There is also a very touching story.

I don't have much to say really, other than read it. This is an intense book. Read it.

Day Trip

Last Friday J and I decided to brave the rain and head to Napa. We hadn't been in a while and wanted to go out to lunch and visit a new winery. Since we joined the wine club at Mondavi there are several other wineries nearby that we automatically became members at as well. The Franciscan is just minutes down the road from Mondavi, but we'd never been. The picture below is not mine, (remember the rain?) but it is of the fountain out front of the Franciscan.

We discovered that we really liked several of their wines! In fact we liked them so much we ended up buying three bottles! We bought two bottles of their sauvignon blanc (which is distributed around the country, hooray for when we no longer live 25 minutes from Napa one day) and a wine they only have at their winery (of course!) called Fountain Court which is a white blend that is on the sweet side. I also tried port for the first time. There is a fine line between cough syrup and yum there ...  I'm not sure about port yet.

Franciscan Winery

Our second stop was lunch at Rutherford Grill (pictured below, but also not my own). This was another first for us. As any of our guests thus far can attest, the lines for food in Napa can be ridiculous! Particularly on weekends. Even on a rainy weekday this place filled up FAST. The only reason we got right in was because we were waiting in the parking lot for it to open.

The service was excellent, as was the food. Like everything in Napa it's a bit pricey, but not bad. J got a giant burger and I ordered the french dip sandwich. Both were lovely. They also have the best fries, tiny little shoestring potatoes with lots of yummy seasoning. The wine list, of course, is huge! We didn't drink anything at lunch because all the tastings we were doing were free for us. This is a great stop! Highly recommend.

Our last stop was the Mondavi Winery. While J was on his last trip he and his dad ordered a bottle of pinot noir from Mondavi; they loved it! Turns out that there are three different types of pinot noir that they make, so we had to taste them all! We ended up with a bottle of that, along with our two wine club bottles to take home. All in all, a very successful (albeit slightly damp) day. (This picture is also not mine! Yeah, completely forgot the camera. But this is the entrance to Mondavi.)

Mondavi Winery

Trip number...

10 or 11? I'm starting to lose track. I haven't been posting about every single trip. Some are short and J doesn't bring home any pictures. Others we can't say much about. This latest trip was pretty interesting though, and has a whole bunch of accompanying photos!

J was part of a Presidential support mission. His crew staged out of Andrews AFB in Washington D.C. and flew between there and Rio, Brazil. During his stay in D.C. J's parents were able to drive down and meet him. They went out for a big birthday dinner for his Dad on Sunday and got in some sightseeing as well. Here are the D.C. pictures.

The WWII Memorial

What a handsome guy ;-)

A sight you don't see every day: the reflecting pool empty! It was drained for repair work.

Sheppard's pie in honor of St. Patty's day. J said that mine was better.

The Air Force Memorial

It's hard to read it on here I know, but this is a list of all the campaigns that USAF has been involved in. J has participated in the last two, Afghanistan Campaign (2001- ) and Iraq Campaign (2003- ).

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (One of our favorite places in D.C.)

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Halfway up the mountain

Looking back down at the city

A crazy airport!

Christ redeemer statue

A chapel by the statue

A giant salt water lake

Views of the beach from one of the hotel's they stayed at. If you look closely you will see two small dots (helicopters) one of which is the Presidential helicopter practicing. J's crew flew that down to Brazil on their plane!

J said there were many of these sand scenes along the beach

A big mall the guys visited.

Book Review: We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals

This is a double biography of the longest ruling English monarch (to date), Queen Victoria and her husband, the Prince consort, Albert. I absolutely love history and biographies, thus I enjoyed the book. I think it's so interesting reading about other people's lives, particularly when it differs so greatly from your own. I'm not at all sure I would ever want to be a queen!

This book concentrates on the couple's early years, from their childhoods apart, to their young marriage and wraps up with Prince Albert's death twenty years after their marriage. I especially liked the various family trees drawn throughout the book, and the section of pictures. How strange to marry your cousin and have your aunt for a mother-in-law! That is just one of many strange and twisted stories about the old British, well to be more accurate, European, royal families. I also learned a fair bit of European history and found out that Prince Albert was quite involved in preventing the English from getting involved in our American civil war.

The reason I became interested in this book was because of the recent movie, Young Victoria. I would highly recommend the movie if you've not yet seen it! After reading this book I re-watched the movie and found it even more fascinating.

Happy reading!

Nine Years

Happy nine year anniversary J! Doesn't seem possible that it was that long ago already that we started dating. On the other hand, I don't really remember life with him. (I love this picture, a high school lunch time favorite!)

Friday Fill In

http://wifeofasailor.com/

1.What are some of your ideas for staying connected with family…you know, those people we moved thousands of miles away from? submitted by Live it. Love it (or not). Write About It.

A.) Every single day I email certain members of my family, and (most of them) email me as well! It's a great way to stay in touch and keep up on on the smaller, day-to-day things in everyones life. Some of the people in that email group are our parents, siblings, & grandparents. B.) One word: SKYPE! C.) I maintain our blog so that whoever wants to keep up with us has one place to go for news, pictures, etc. D.) I love writing and receiving snail mail and cards! E.) Thank goodness for cell phones!

2.What’s the most romantic gift you have GIVEN? submitted by Painting My Canvas

I think the most romantic things are either, handmade, or totally spontaneous and unexpected. Based on those definitions I'd have to say it would either be the scrapbook of pilot training I made myself for J, or when I pick up something small at the store (his favorite candy bar) and stick it into his lunch with a love note, on a random Thursday for no reason.

3.Would you encourage your child, if they came to you and wanted to join the military? submitted by Perfectly Imperfect

I don't have a child! Yes! :-) If I did have one I like to think I would encourage them in the military. However, I would want them to be smart and educated about the choice and to spend time thinking and researching before they committed to it!

4.What is your least favorite bill to pay and why? submitted by A Little of This, A Little of That

All of them, duh.

5.What is the proudest moment you’ve had as a military spouse? submitted by Our Okinawa Life

Man, that's a hard question! At the end of pilot training there are two huge moments: being assigned your airframe and getting your pilot wings. I was so incredibly proud on both occasions!

First quilt is finished!

The pictures aren't the greatest! They were all taken on my phone because J still has the camera. I will take better pictures and post them again later. But since I finished I was just too excited not to share!

It's not a large quilt, and it's far from perfect, but I did it! I learned a lot along the way and I'm hoping the second quilt I'm attempting will turn out a bit better. 

The entire front of my quilt.

 A closer view of a corner so you can see the binding, finished, and the quilting a little better.

 The entire back of my quilt.

 A closer corner view again, although it is very hard to see the white on white quilting!

Project number two is still a small project, just a baby sized quilt, but it's a solo project. Maybe if I get motivated I will finish it before J gets back...?