Friday, October 31, 2008

I want to suck your blood....

I had the pleasure of joining some customers in their annual fund raiser, the Translyvania Golf Classic. It was night golfing, complete with glow-in-the-dark balls, glow sticks, glow necklaces, and using your spidey senses to guess where you were hitting the ball. It was a blast! Costumes were also encouraged, although I was quite concerned when I showed up to check-in, and everyone decided to dress up as golfers. Here is a self portrait of what I came up with last minute. I like to call it "looking for Studio 54."




I think the bad exposure and Playtex machine in the background only add to the whole look.



Thursday, October 30, 2008

In San Diego....

....where I am starting to feel the effects of multiple planes and too many hotels! Nothing says home like a grilled cheese and tomato soup, and this one was one of the best. Still doesn't quite hold a candle to the one that P. can chef up at home, though!


Fontina grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes and fresh basil with a side of roasted tomato bisque. To die for!

A peek out the window this morning.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

In Seattle....

.....where I have found myself at one of my favorite spots, The Sorrento Hotel. I haven't stayed here in years, and it really is as great as I remember. This year marks their 100th year in business, and apparently President Taft was their first guest. Who knew? I have attached a few pics of the hotel, since I didn't have any extra time to get much further than the lobby and to a few meetings across the street.


View of the entrance.

A glimpse of the mini bar.
Between the Tanqueray, Pelligrino, and Amstel Light, it looked like a mini version of the fridge at home.

Turndown service.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Happy Birthday Eeps!

You look mah-velous!

A kodak moment from the 1st Annual Sausalito Pub Crawl in honor of EP's b-day.
More pics and details to follow....

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Nothing like a good coaster ride

Here's a video captured during our visit to Sweden in August. On the video besides myself and The Frog is Brother Joe, in the blue shirt. Liseberg is Scandinavia's largest amusement park and the rollercoaster we are on is called the Lisebergbanan. When it first opened, in the 80's, it was the longest and fastest in Europe. Unfortunately we were not able to capture the entire video as the camera shut down after the first drop due to the heavy g-loads. Good times, good times.


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

My ship has finally come in

So after spending some time sailing in the Med this August (more to come on that later) I was finally fed up with not having a boat available to me at any given time. The pull of the ocean was too great so I gave in and bought myself a little boat, The Maltese Falcon. As you all know I always go big and this was no exception. Although slightly used she looks almost brand new and was built by the famous Italian shipbuilders Perini Navi in 2006 for venture capitalist billionaire Tom Perkins (who happens to live across from us in Belvedere). As times have been tough in the financial industry Tom was forced to put her on the market and there I was ready to snap her up for a mere $190 million. Quite a bargain at the time. Last week she finally arrived here in SF for me to take delivery and as you can see she created quite a lot of attention.


As soon as she had entered Richardson Bay I had the tender come pick me up and I took her for a quick spin around the Bay. She really is quite fast.....I was able to get her to do about 18 knots going downwind with a 15 knot offshore breeze.


Finally at her new home, anchored south of our house.

As it was a little difficult to keep any eye on her from my office I asked the crew to move her 300 meters north so that I would have a clear view of her from all rooms of the house.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Although I amortized the payments over 20 years that still works out to about $900,000 per month, however, what I really hadn't anticipated was the cost of the 14 crew members ($5 million per year). In addition, it costs me $800,000 every time we have to fill her up (go figure, I thought the fuel costs would be low because she has sails....apparently it has something to do with the generators needed to power all the electronics and winches for the sails). So she is now back on the market at a heavily discounted price....ready to sell fast. I'm asking a mere $155 Million USD or 115 Million Euros, whatever you may prefer. For more details you can visit: Yacht World

Monday, October 13, 2008

Still burning....

As of the crack of dawn this morning, Angel Island is still on fire.  Here are a few more pics......




Sunday, October 12, 2008

Why camping should be banned

At 9pm local time this evening a fire broke out on Angel Island (which is located across from Sausalito on the southern point of Richardson Bay). Angel Island, which is a state park, has a number of camping areas all over the island and it was at one of these that the fire broke out. At approximately 10pm there were 40 fire fighters from Marin on site. Interviews with Park Rangers on Angel Island revealed that there were about a dozen campers on the island tonight. At this time no injuries were reported but we can always hope that those camping hippies that started the fire were slightly scorched. Stay posted for my petition to ban camping all across California.



Sunday, October 5, 2008

While the Frog is away.....

....the Monkey will play. While I was working like a dog over the weekend, it looks like I missed out on some good VanNielsen times. I heard there was not only a Lyle Lovett tribute, but The Grateful Dead was actually played in my house! And here I am drinking gin and tonics in a cigar bar? What is wrong with this picture?? Here are a few pics that were sent to me during some late night antics. Miss you guys!


Saturday, October 4, 2008

Time for a Second Cup....


Went for a walk through the city today for a cup of coffee. I really needed one after I went and visited Peter's old stomping ground the night before: Stogie's. He really seemed to have made an impression there, as I was very well taken care of after I told them I was the wife of Pete Marvelous. Being here in Montreal and seeing a Tim Horton's on every corner, passing the BMO, scraping the bottom of my bag for a Tooney to give the cab driver, and watching MUCH Music late at night makes me miss Halifax and all of the shenanigans that usually take place there.
Ah, good times in the Maritimes.


Walking through the city....

Friday, October 3, 2008

Bonjour!


Montreal is a beautiful city with amazing archetecture, great coffee (no, not Tim Horton's!), and fantastic restaurants. I was also fortunate to be able to hit the sticks at Golf Saint-Raphaël.
Although it was freezing, it was so beautiful since the leaves were changing colors. Plus, I would rather freeze my clubs off than be sitting in my office anyday!



The crew
Beautiful. (too bad it was out of focus...was having technical difficulties)
Yes, it really was that cold.
The classic T. golfing pose
Big Bertha was treating me well

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Oh Canada.....

Okay, so I haven't been in Palm Springs for the past 3 weeks. I have recently discovered that working really gets in the way of my playtime! I am still going through pics of our adventures across the pond back in August, birthdays have been missed (Happy Birthday Joof!), and several moments have not been captured. Thanks to everyone for checking in, despite any attempt by either of us (that means you Monkey!) to update our adventures.

With that said, I am off to Montreal for a conference. It is our biggest conference of the year, which will involve a little golf, a lot of eating, schmoozing, minimal sleep, and hopefully copious amounts of refreshing Canadian beer. I actually brought the camera with me, so hopefully I will be able to snap some shots that are more exciting than the inside of the convention center!

Until then, it's time to fly......