I feel refreshed.....

and I wanna go back. We just got back from taking a little jump up to the Napa Valley we live a mere 45 minute ride to one of the most beautiful places*I think* in California. I have always loved the Napa Valley this weekend I fell in lust all over again. I literally looked at my hubby and I was like I want to move here. Which if anyone knows, they know that I am a city girl through and through...maybe it is because I am getting older or it is because we have a family now but every time I go up to Napa I truly, truly relax. And no,  it is not because of the spa treatments and wine *it helps* it is because of the miles and miles of beautiful vineyard space and the people who are just super awesome and laid the f*ck back it is refreshing to be around people like that. I also love the houses that are located in this quaint little town called Yountville - I mean this area was put on the map because of the world renowned Mr. Thomas Keller of the 3 Michelin Star rated French Laundry and I am telling you in a block radius of that town you have more Michelin Star rated restaurants then anywhere in the world. Besides that more than a handful of star chefs have been on Top Chef one my favorite shows from that town.  I know to some peeps this doesn't mean shit but when you are as into cooking, baking and chefs as hubby and I this area is the holy grail for foodies. Throw in the that it looks like a small town in France and I am f*ckin hooked. On the way up we stopped in downtown Napa to grab a bite and found this amazing little french place...all I can say is Mmmmm smack my lips good so going back cuz food was amazing and the staff was super helpful. Because as all of us know toddlers have the attention span of guppy fish when it is time to sit down at a restaurant and have a meal. Hubby and I shared an appetizer of steak tartar which was super good then I ordered the Croque Monsieur ou Madame - Parisian Ham and Gruyere on Country Bread which I have not had since I have been in Paris. I could only eat half  because it was so rich but boy was it DAMN good. 

Angele Restaurant 2 thumbs wayyyy up 

Pommes Frites for my little mama

 Croque Monsieur ou Madame - Parisian Ham and Gruyere on Country Bread, Mixed Green Salad

LDG taking a rest

Beautiful mosaic fountain by the Napa River 

After a long walk we got back to the car and headed to Yountville at the Bardessono Resort....Ahhh bliss we were greeted at the front desk with........ you guessed it more wine.

Our room 

The Jacuzzi tub was the shit 

The grounds 

Very ultra modern property 

We rested, spa'd and then headed to dinner at Bottega which was f*ckin  amazing. I am telling you gang I have tried most of the restaurants up here and you never ever go wrong with the food. Yes I am a food snob and I will not make apologies for it! Life is to short to eat bad junky food.

Happy...happy...joy..joy

Yep this is the modern day babysitter when you want to get through a meal in a nice place 

Check out copper water goblets

Soooo like we do not have photos of what we ate because hubby and I got so carried away with just smelling,  drooling and eating t food we forgot to take pics.....It was sad we went through a food porn moment. 

Food Porn 

I usually do not have dessert at restaurants however I made an exception for this 

Sweet mini donuts with raspberry and lemon custard dips oh yeahhhhhh

At this point we were done,  we need to walk and get little ms sassy pants out of Bottega. LDG had made it through an hour and half of quietly sitting through dinner but I could tell that LDG was getting over it and a "spaz"  moment was about to happen so we got the hell out of dodge before she broke down. It was a beautiful crisp night so we decided to walk off the 10,000 calories of food and wine we had eaten through the day. The great thing is everything is within walking distance in this town so you park your car and have wine and walk...what more could you want out of life?
The whole town was lit up with lights for the holidays...so pretty.
These pics kinda of suck cuz I had some wine......OK a bit of wine...lol

It was a perfect quick get away to make before the end of the year. Hubby and I are going to make this an annual trip.  I think though,  that next time I will be leaving LDG with grandpa our auntie K. Don't get me wrong she was great on the trip but we truly want to enjoy the dinning experience which is very hard to do when you are trying to get through the meal before the melt down happens. And this food is so good you want to to take your time to savor every little last bite. I am going to be planning the next trip with hubby. I will be trying to make reservations for the French Laundry - 2 month waiting list just to get on the waiting list so we are talking  some major shit....but I have figured out a way to get in there so I am going to try it out and I will let you know if it works. All and all and awesome few days. Looking forward to chilling out this weekend with my family and getting the menus ready for the house for the next week. As of January 1st we are all back on 1,500 calories and daily work outs. Time to get back in the healthy train.
Wow this was a long post...sorry about that!

Happy New Year MoFo's

It's Spamama Time.....

I am off to the wine country and spa  for some R&R before the start of the New Year. It is time to get refocused on my goals for the upcoming 2012 year and what better way to do it then getting a facial and massage at a Napa Spa followed by a fabulous dinner with my hubby and lovely daughter at one of the top restaurants in the area. I am looking forward to spending some time with my man and LDG.....just the three of us.

 I love to have people around but sometimes it is fun just hanging out with your hard core crew. I have allot to think about with the start of 2012. LDG will be starting preschool this upcoming year so I need to figure out what I want to do with my 2 day a week free time. I want to start working again but I know that I do not want to work for a major corporation like I did in the past, not worth the stress and the time away from home.  I made some awesome money but in the end it was totally not worth the doctor bills.  I want to be my own boss and I want to do this on my own.  I have figured what it will be, now it is time to do the research and implement it. I need to believe in myself and not be scared to take a chance. I know that it will be hard and at times I will be doubting myself but it needs to be done I need to tell myself I have nothing to lose and the time to do it - Dammit!  My family has been through some minor shit this year on the work front and my mentality on what needs to be done has definitely changed. This must be my only focus besides raising my daughter. So to say the least........

I am looking forward to doing allot of this

A little bit of this.....this will be gone come the NY no wine for a few months.....fingers crossed

Definitely quite a bit of this - some awesome shopping outlets in the area

And finally this

I am very excited and ready to have my family around me for the next few days.

Cheers guys!

I want to ride my

bicycle! That is the recurring lyric  from the Queen song that floats through my head every time I cruise my little beach city by the bay. The other thought that goes through my head while watching the many many bikes riders in this town....I f*ckin hate bike riders!  Bike people I don't want to hate you but you make it almost impossible to like you. About a month ago I was speaking to a mommy friend and she is like

"You know what you should post on your blog about the hell we go through on a daily basis with the bike riders in this town." What a great idea I will do that for you M child.

Let me give you a little background I live on this small amazing beach community town 10 minutes from San Francisco. I grew up in the City but hubby and I left SF a few years ago to get away from the party scene we needed a break and decided that the slow paced life in this small community would help us re group and calm our asses down a bit...did both and we got a bonus with that our beautiful daughter LDG. Anyway all around us are forestry type places and mountains were bike riders love to congregate which means a shit load of serious Lycra short/shirt Lance Armstrong helmet wearing riders. These dudes and dudettes are hard core and I make no apologies in saying a bunch of a**holes. Why because most of them are. I say most cuz I have good friends that bike and they respect others and the road. Our town is flooded with professional riders and OMG the tourist rider which is the worst cuz they have no idea what they are doing and going. The tourist riders come over in droves during the summer time and it scares the shit out of me because all they have his a helmet, a map and no sense of direction.  Listen when I travel I avoid Vespa's, Fiats and bikes in a strange land.

Why bikers piss me off:

1. They do not abide by the road rules. i.e. they run stop signs and red lights like MoFo's and then the dip shits give you the evil eye as if you did something wrong by going through your GREEN light. 
2. Most of them are just plain rude and evil mean. You are riding because it is supposed to relax and make you happy so wtf is up with the mean expression on your faces all the time.  I know that the small bike seat is probably cutting the circulation to your nut sack but try and smile once and awhile it makes us drivers not want to ram your bike from behind. 
3. When a driver is nice enough to make you go though your obvious stop so you do not have to stop your bike be kind enough to give us an acknowledgement that hey cool thanks dude instead of once again -  giving us the evil eye. This makes you a SUCKY ass person!
4. Stop darting in between cars I can only see what I can via my mirrors and if you are darting in and out like a crazed fucking jumping bean I can not guarantee that you will not be hit
5. Hand signals...... HELLO learn to use them
6. Stay in your damn bike lane single row people single row do not take up the road making it impossible to go around your slow ass
7. When I am trying to make a right turn and I have had my turning signal on for the last 4 blocks can you please either speed up or slow the f*ck down because it seems like you slow down on purpose. 

This message has been brought you you by a concerned citizen and mommy

Yo you share the road with huge massive steel vehicles all we ask is that you OBEY the rules of the road

Thank you....that is the rant of the day...

Wow I feel like....

I have been gone forever from bloggy world in fact it as only been a couple of days. Hope all you fabulous gals and pals had a great Christmas and holiday....Mine was awesome and it was great to spend some quality time with family an friends. Today it is all about cleaning up and getting myself back into organization mode. My body {and liver}take a beating when I host large dinner parties - no joke. Between planning and executing the menu to setting the themed table to the 2 day clean up and all it goes with it it can get really tiring. Yesterday all I did was hang out with my hubby and LDG and we did a big fat NOTHING *OK little lie there I actually did about 2 loads of laundry and unloaded many a dishwasher!*  
We have one more event coming up this week and that will be the couple days up in the Napa Valley Wine Country. We will be dining at Bottega {love me some Chef Chiarello} which I am looking forward to. We do not usually go out for NYE because we hate dealing with amateurs - sorry but it is true we spent way to many years in the party circuit to deal with peeps on NYE.  After Napa It will then be time to get back to my regular work out schedule  - 5 days a week and I am getting back to the Mediterranean diet.

Simple and elegant 

I hate the friggin holidays 

The tree 

Yeah that looks healthy......Paula Deans Potato Casserole 

I can tell I have been abusing my body with rich food the last couple of weeks and my body is not used to it. I got on the scale did not gain any weight *chasing a toddler helped*however I feel bloated and and unhealthy and my skin is not cooperating which will not due. No breakouts - I just see a dullness I do not like. Their has been wayyyyy to many desserts in this house which is my fault because I LOVE to bake,  I however informed hubby that I am going on a baking strike fo the next few months so his employees at work will just have to live with that. He was also informed that we will be on a mostly plant and fish eating plan for a bit - he took the news well. I guess I am also freaking out a little because in less than 10 days I will be turning f*ckin

This is not too bad because 42 in Cali is actually 32 and I do not feel 42 and I must say do not act or look 42. Today I am scheduling some more preschool tours I am looking at 3 more than we need to make a choice because I want to get her on the waiting list as soon as I can. Then I need to figure out what do with myself twice a week for a few hours a day. 

I thought I would post some pics of hubby and Jman who helped put together LDG's xmas present on Thursday night. That was fun to watch and document......

Positive start

Dogs were also involved 

Thumbs up they did it

And LDG loves it 

Have a super day!

Merry Christmas....

to all my peeps in the blogging world. Waiting to kick it up a notch in the New Year and looking forward to an awesome holiday season!

WTF Friday...Christmas Edition.....Yes Christmas

Yep that that is right it is Friday before Xmas Eve and I am in rare form. I have so much shit to do it is not even funny. Just finished baking my balls off  Thursday {part 1}and I am now pooped. My super ass hair stylist and friend has some free time on his hands today so he has volunteered to come on over and help put together LDG's Xmas gift with hubby.  As I stated before my husband is super smart when it comes  to most things when it comes to handy dandy work not so much....I love you honey! So here we go gang!

• Who the f*ck staffs Toys R Us? Sorry to say but DAMN these are a bunch of the most useless employees ever....If you do not know who the hell Belle is from Beauty and the Beast then you are in the wrong line of work and you are doing in  it in the wrong damn store. Duhhhhhh and I don't know is the look and help my dad got when he asked the dude behind the register to point him to the Disney product. This is just not one particular store it is an epidemic through out all the TRU stores. when I go in there I want to drill nails into my eyes because the place is such a nightmare.

• If one more person dings my car in the parking lot I am going on a dinging spree
• Hello Macy's you know when I spend almost $500.00 on your merchandise I would really appreciate that you NOT toss my shit in you cheap ass plastic grocery bag. BTW what is up with the plastic sack? You are one shopping bag away from being a Ross. At least at my Ross I get some great customer service and some awesome discounts.

• Everywhere you turn. The crowds, the lines and the grumpy ass people. People are just mean this time of year

• The commercials suck more than usual. If I have to see one more ad were the hubby/wifey gives a present of a super expensive car  or crappy diamond whatever from K jewelers to their significant other during the holiday season I am going to throw up.
• I love LOVE the movie a Christmas Story but come on playing it all day kinda makes me want to get the Red Ryder BB Gun and shoot my own eye out. And yes I have licked the pole and yes my tongue did get stuck - OK that just sounds wrong! Hehehehe I said pole!

• People who go WAYYYYYYY over board with the Xmas lights this is just not pretty and Xmas sweaters AND Xmas light bulb earrings you get my point

• Fake xmas trees drive me insane - Sorry

• Merry Christmas in my house. I know the PC term is Happy Holidays but for me it will always be Merry Christmas.....
• When you string up your outside lights and one bulb is out and f*cks the whole day up
• WTF just because I love Ralphie...and the bunny costume 

Happy Friday Peeps! And to everyone have a really safe holiday and a Merry Christmas!
Smooches Biatches!

The Change....

It is only a month away but the change has begun in the small creature. It has been gradual bur noticed. She is doe eyed and and innocent but stubborn as a mule. She is lithe and quick. She is here one moment gone the next and her speed scares me to death. She uses her cute charms to get what she wants and when she does not we have had moments of defiance. She is too smart for her own good and she will definitely be a handful in the next few months. I always said to myself it would never happen to my little one because she was such a super baby and never gave me any problems BUT it does change believe me! She has not started to spring fangs as of yet......I will however let you know when the ears begin to point and the hair begins to sprout. I am frightened to see what the future will bring but my little one is definitely getting close to the terrible two's. And I am freaking the HELL out!