Bacara Bliss

The weekend of March 24th was an incredible, luxurious, relaxing and fun one thanks to my company's owner Terrence and his fab bride Cat.

We are a virtual office, you see, and the four of us work in different locations. Me - NoCal, Marjorie - Southern New Mexico, Rodney - El Paso TX and finally Terrence - Santa Barbara. Thanks to the modern conveniences of phone, instant messaging, web cams we work pretty seamlessly.

There are pitfalls to this arrangement. For one, I hadn't seen T-Man since November 2004. I hadn't seen Marjorie since she moved to NM in March 2004 and I had never met Rodney! This weekend was a wonderful time to bond and have fun. Really, it seemed like we had been working in the same office all along. It's a very easy bunch of folks with which to chill.

So, T-Man and Cat arranged for us all to have a relaxing weekend together at the Bacara Spa Resort in Santa Barbara. I had not heard of this place before but upon further education I found it is a hot spot for the Hollywood types. Apparently Oprah visits often. I hope she doesn't run into any writers while she's there!

So, a weekend of strolling, eating, drinking and being merry were on the agenda. Saturday was an all day spa day for each of us. Lounging in robes sipping cucumber or orange water between treatments. FAB! We had a delish dinner and more libations at Lucky's in Montecito. Our server Guy was a delight. Yours unruly experienced her first e'scargot! Quite tasty if a bit chewy. Those pesky little garden invaders of mine better look out or it's the fiery pan for them! The garden pests of today are supposedly one and the same. Story goes - some French feller brought his snails over to the Americas hoping to introduce the delicacy. I guess some of the critters escaped and viola! I don't know if it's true, but it's a fun story.

What a weekend!

Bacara weekend photos

Photos (l - r)

Andie, Rodney, Marjorie & Terrence - Packaging Concepts photo

Andie on nature trail at Bacara

View from Andie's bedroom window - hello mighty Pacific!

i dunno, she shrugged

take a plain shrug and make it noro-iffic! i varied the "ribbed shrug" shown here http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/web_projects/Shrugs_instructions.pdf and made the length longer so it would be long instead of 3/4 sleeve. i had two balls of noro silk garden in reds since october and had no idea what to do with it. yes, i have yarn-itis and will buy "pretty yarn" i see even if i have no project in mind. i know, i know. and i always buy two because i think "well, i can always make another scarf". luckily i was able to purchase 2 more balls in the same dye lot and voila created this shrug. i adore it! it's very comfy and the colors are so ME!

oxygen mask theory

in the event of oxygen masks drops during a flight one is instructed to put their mask on before assisting others. the point being you're no good to anyone if you're belly up not breathing. i've often tried to subscribe to this thinking in my own personal life. as a full time mom, full time employee, girl scout leader blah de blah....i know that i have to take care of myself physically AND mentally in order to play the game of life at my peak.

my dear friend andrew sent me an article and cited me as being brilliant for thinking of something far in advance of cnn's report :) i can't claim the credit for the theory, i think i read it ages ago, but it's a great article and in today's world, we can all use the reminder to slip that oxygen mask on and maintain balance for ourselves so we can be effective for those we love. kids deffo pick up on the energy we produce, be it negative but hopefully more positive.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/03/21/moms.and.depression.ap/index.html

so, grab a mask and suck it up people! high quality O!

v dub in da hooooooouse

happy (rainy) first day of spring y'all! now that's out of the way let's move onto more important things. as i've mentioned the dream of being a v-dub owner came to fruition in december. some days i'm driving it and hardly believe after 26 years of wanting a bug, i've got one!

so nothing could make me happier than some new snappy adverts from vw. when the new beetle came out the ads were so happy and partridge family. loved them. but i have to say i dig these new "representing deutschland" much better. peter stormare is one of my favorite unknown actors. best loved to me as the wood chipper dude in "fargo". he's had a long list of credits, if you search on him in imdb. let's not forget him in his tour de force performance of the "frogger" episode of seinfeld as slippery pete! well, i abso adore peter's work in these commercials. maybe one day pete will get the recognition that one of my fave actors recently has. PSH or known to the rest of the world as capote's philip seymour hoffman.

well, i digress (as usual) feast your eyes kids.

http://www.adverblog.com/archives/002386.htm