Filed under: animals, cats, dogs, friends | Tags: animals, cats, dogs, life, photography, wine
well, time is coasting by here in new york. saturday was the funeral. it was so cold and windy at the gravesite, which made the situation even more dramatic. (thanks to everyone who sent well wishes here, on facebook and through email. it did help knowing there were warm thoughts coming my way.)
before my grandmother died, and when i was still just coming out to see her one last time, my sister had planned a small gathering for while i was here. a wine tasting with her friends and work pals. that was last night. it was pretty fun, but with my cold, i shouldn’t have had any wine!
my sister’s boss brought gifts. here’s pennycat playing in the gift wrap:
she even brought quackers for cody bear and pickles! thanks n., they’ll love them!
here is one of the yummier wines of the night. eye of the bee. an organic wine with a little honey berry flavor.
and here are some pictures i took from my sister’s front yard:
we were going to go for a hike today, but it is 42 and rainy. the weather was beautiful yesterday. what happened???
Filed under: cooking, food, life, vegetarian | Tags: cheese, cooking, dogs, food, kitchen, life, wine
oh, hello there. welcome to goodbear’s kitchen.
above the sink we have my new lucky cat, paw raised and ready to bring me prosperity. or…at least keep me from overcooking the asparagus again.
the kitchen got a deep cleaning today because the pet sitter is coming later this month. i’m flying back east in a few weeks to see my grandmother one last time.
regarding the kitchen:
my dogs think i am an amazing chef!
no raw chicken is allowed in my kitchen. it freaks me out.
i make THE BEST TOASTED CHEESE SANDWICHES IN THE WORLD. i have people that will vouch for this.
my border collie is laying in the middle of the kitchen floor. she has eyes the color of coffee beans and she is waiting or me to drop something.
under my kitchen table lies my cody bear, a mandarin collie who has to eat four times a day and needs meds to digest his meals.
and there is a black cat with white mittens sitting on the counter waiting for chow.
there are always beers in the fridge.
and again…best toasted cheese sandwiches in the world. plus,….i know my way around a potato, as well.
mangia mangia!
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, wine | Tags: animals, dogs, friends, life, pets, photography, vineyard, wine, wineries
let’s just preface this by saying…”and the wine was delicious!”
we were greeted by a malti-poo. here she is, surveying her drums of elixir. annnnd….i’ve learned that in march they are having a “dog-friendly” tasting. snacks for people and dogs, including a tour. we’ll revisit this at the end of the post.
3 whites, 4 reds. my two intellegent, gentle and fun friends. a friendly, young couple from l.a. with two kittens and interesting jobs. another couple, half of which was a jerky, pompous punk ass 29 year old guy.
our hosts were engaging and benevolent, and mostly…very proud of their tasty accomplishment.
the vintner gave a little tour, explaining the horrific lifecycle of the grape: its beautiful infancy, followed by a violent separation from its stem, only to be squashed then smashed beneath a floating lid. the horror. the delicious horror.
everyone bought a bottle or two. i even got one, which we opened there and shared with all the other tasters.
so, about the dog friendly tasting. i will probably go with pickles. it’s a long drive, but we will leave early to go hiking and hopefully take some photos of the area’s raptors. can’t take cody bear: it’s too long a drive for a sweet dog with chronic motion sickness.
one last note: so glad they had crackers, as i’m sure i would have tipped over dead without the snack.
Filed under: animals, border collies, dogs, pets | Tags: animals, border collie, dogs, humor, love, mutts, pets, veterinarian, wine
uh ohhh…
looks like goodbear had a vet appointment tonight.
’twas the “collective” goodbear that went to the vet.
you see…at the last appointment, the vet was actually more worried about me than cody bear. i was spastic. worried. cody bear’s health issues were getting worse and i was histrionic. tonight, i decided i couldn’t get hysterical if pickles was there. who could be stressed when pickles is around. just the name alone inspires whimsy.
and apparently, she was willing to comfort cody bear, as well.
“whose idea was it to bring this dog?”
“dude…
i’m here for you.”
it actually did go well. pickles was fascinated by the doctor. she sat quietly next to me, transfixed on the veterinarian’s movements. and what about cody bear? he is officially in less pain!
are we out of the woods? no. when you have your vets mobile number and when she’s telling you her vacation schedule, you know your dog is on the doctor’s radar. but, it looks like cody bear won’t have to have surgery!
Filed under: animals, bees, dogs, friends, life, nature | Tags: bees, cake, chocolate, friends, insects, life, nature, wine
on sunday the phone rings. “what are you doing tonight?” asks a.h.
you know how you can sometimes hear when a person is smiling? well, a.h. was smiling, and not in an “i’m drunk so let’s call goodbear” way. more in a “goodbear is going to love us” kind of way.
it was about 7 ish, and i told her all of the very important jobs i had to do, “why?”
“cuz we want to bring over wine and chocolate cherry cake”
how spontaneous! how fun!
they had volunteered at a local winery for the harvest and were rewarded with a few bottles of wine…
including a very special one with no label and the cork not even popped all the way in. you see….it’s not released yet!
and then of course, we tucked the bees in for the night…
since AT LEAST august 18th on the same branch. must be these agapostemons know where the party is!!!
all i can say is….with friends like this…who needs to get up for work on time on a monday morning. sometime it is worth risking a wine and cake hangover just to have a good time. mellow and fun.
Filed under: animals, dogs, farms, friends, love, travel, wine | Tags: animals, dogs, farming, friends, love, sheep, vineyards, weddings, wine
well, to sum it up, it was such a stress free day. which made a beautiful wedding day, if you ask me. we met in the garden and had a short ceremony while the butterflies and bees industriously worked the flowers in the background. afterwards we went to brunch, just the 8 of us from the ceremony. here is our lovely bride now….
her father took a snap of her and the groom with his mobile phone, so she is saving that picture for him so it pops up when she calls.
next we changed and hopped in a minivan for the trek to the vineyards. we went to several, but…one had sheep!!!
a rain storm had popped up, so it was quite muddy. this sheep seemed to really like being photographed…
i couldn’t stay out there photographing livestock all day….my companions were already ahead of me in the wine sampling.
it was a really good activity for the small group. better than garter tosses and bouquet tosses and doing the electric slide. do they still do that at weddings?
we rolled on from one vineyard to the next. the last vineyard had a couple dogs. this one was so aloof, but i got to him finally and he let me cuddle him.
meanwhile, i had gotten behind on the sampling again!
just kidding, i wasn’t really behind. in fact, at this point i had jumped ahead.
we then went to a delicious restaurant where we laughed and pigged out and ate the super yummy cake you saw in today’s earlier post.
so, it was a good day. i wish them years of fun and happiness and success.
in case you wondered….the bride and groom are mindy‘s parents…
oh, and i’m sure you’re all wondering which wines i preferred… well, it was the reds, the dry ones. so dry that if you look hard enough…there’s a little purple tumble weed swishing around in the bottom of the glass. the sweety wines are not preferred here at cody bear’s friends. in fact, one or two of the ones we tasted yesterday reminded me of some of the libby’s juiceboxes my friends’ kids drink. and the best quote of the day (unless you’re the vintner) was a.h. whispering “this is horrible…it tastes like silly putty.” i, too, hate the silly putty wines.
so, we went out for italian food friday night.
here is a.h.’s lasagna…
it’s the size of a loaf of bread!
here’s the statue by our table….
it was the only statue in the entire place that wasn’t indecent.
also, we got this mini-bottle of wine…
just kidding…its a big bottle of wine, i just have a HUGE face and those are my glasses. no…it was a mini- bottle of wine.
Filed under: animals, dogs, pets, photography, wine | Tags: animals, dogs, life, pets, photography, wine
2008 so far:
new camera: 20d enabling me to take special shots of my guy….cody bear:
that’s him in a dark room…no fixin’ the picture there. and, yes, he’s already sick of the new camera.
to sum up 08, i’ve been working hard, but here are two pics from my tiny vacation:
i know this is a bad picture because of the blurry girl, but she just happened into the frame. i’m just learning how to use this camera, and i don’t know anything about photography, but i love how happy the kids are in this historic mission.
and….a taste from the creepy vintner…
i admit it…i expected more from my first trip to a winery. while we had fun…the first tasting was staffed by a creepy narcissist with a dirty pocket knife. is that normal????
let’s review: some fun, some love, it is only march 6th. i’m off to a huge start for the year of the rat.
Filed under: agility, animals, blogs, canine, dogs, mutts, pets, photography | Tags: agility, animals, dogs, pets, photography, wine
to find out why we’re so tired, you can catch cody bear’s blog later. but, to sum it up…agility drained us emotionally and made us both unfashionably hungry. here is a shot of cody bear, post agility class:
“please mommy, put more kibble in my molecuball.” oh, and here’s a bottle of wine…we’ll get to that…
but first, the dog. alot of people take agility class to exercise their dogs. i have to exercise my dog before and after agility class. that’s fine, we love it, but….i’m super tired.
back to the wine….and how it relates to agility class. so,….there was a dog fight tonight, cody bear was NOT involved. we were in a separate area, fortunately. if there hadn’t been a fence dividing us, i know he would have pounced. it taxed my nerves. so, maybe a person thinks they NEED a taste of the grape after that….
as it just so happens, last night i was shopping and i popped across that dog tail fire hydrant red! so, needing a tibble after a spastic class of more unruly dogs and “missy comes” i popped open that screw top. it was really tasty. so much better than the washington state merlot i chanced a few days ago. muffled the raw dog nerve a bit, too. and of course the label is cute.
ok, if you’re interested in cody bear’s agility class: poddler.wordpress.com
Filed under: farms, life, photography, sisters, wine | Tags: cars, life, travel, wine
as i mentioned a couple days ago, vacation in so called”wine country” wasn’t what i expected.
we show up at this winery, the one with the old car, and it just….was weird.
the guy ignored us when we walked in.(for quite sometime. we almost walked out) they had portas, and …when i asked which wine went well with chocolate…he produced a piece of candy, told me i had to split it between the 3 of us and then cut it with a pocket knife.
the place was a wreck! i’ve wanted to do a wine tour for so long, and this place, well….it sucked. messy place, jerky guy. the next two wineries had nice people and one was very pretty. but ultimately, it was still heaps of fun…because i was with people i love.
cody bear's friends 
