A short word to the wise

This post is not about kayaks. It's not about my cats. It's not even about the wonders of living in California.

No, this is a short post reminding people that Names Are Not Unique. I mean that. No, really. In an online world, you must remember that the "Judy" you're getting an IM from may not be your buddy "Judy" from down the street.

Yesterday I got an IM confession from a coworker who had just confused another person with the same name in the organization with me. He was horribly embarassed. She had started the conversation totally expecting a work conversation, only to be greeted with "Hello My Little Pagan Minx!"

When I saw this, I cried I was laughing so hard. But you know, he's darn lucky she has a sense of humor too. That could have been grounds for harassment.

So, the moral of this story - which is not about kayaks, cats, or California - be _sure_ you know who your IM's are from, who your emails are going to, and what your audience might let out.

Signed,

the Little Pagan Minx

The Kayak Choice

After yet another fantastic weekend of kayaking, this time just inside the Golden Gate Bridge, my sweetheart and I have found The Kayaks. We didn't exactly expect to, but we tried a new place to rent from and voila! we were amazed and astounded. Since we started back in early May, we've tried around 10 different makes and models of kayak. There are certainly more to try, but these will do nicely.

However, while I'm sure you're thrilled for us, you'd probably like to know which kayaks we chose, and, more importantly, WHAT COLOR??!! That color question was a hard one, let me tell you. To go with a complementary color for my purple dry suit and red PFD, or a bright vivid clashing color so as to be seen....

So - drumroll please!

My kayak is the Valley Avocet: http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/avocet.htm
Color choice = yellow, white trimming (similar to what's in the picture on the website; difference is that has black trimming)

** UPDATE! Turns out if we can get our kayaks a whole bunch of weeks sooner if we get red for me and yellow for my sweetie! So, yay! I like Red. Still need to figure out how to pimp it out, tho'...

My sweetheart is getting the Valley Aquanaut LV: http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/aquanautlv.htm
Color choice: Pacific Blue

His kayak was a _very_ close second choice for me, and vice versa, so we'll have fun trading kayaks now and again.

There's only one problem. These kayaks are made in England. You know, across that other big ocean on the other side of the country. Which means, since the dealer didn't have any in stock, we're looking at August for a delivery date. Bummer. We'll get free rentals out of the store while we're waiting, but it's still a bummer.

Ah, well. At least this gives me time to answer the next important question: how shall I pimp my kayak?

Wine Country

Being in the Bay area of California, it is a requirement that one goes to see the wine country north of the Bay. It's not far at all - just about 50 miles from San Francisco to Napa. I just got back, having spent the weekend there with my mother and her husband.

Believe it or not, wine country doesn't just have fantastic wineries! We also got to see one of only three "old faithful" geysers in the world. That was cool - I'd never seen an honest to goodness not-on-tv geyser before. There's also a petrified forest up there, a really old cemetery, and other historic things. But then, of course, there are the wineries. We're talking everything from warehouse to castle to chateau.

I think in terms of pure ambiance, the Castillo di Amaroso was my favorite. It's been under construction for 14 years, and has just opened 2 months ago. The wine there was some of the best we tasted, but you can't buy it in stores. Just onsite or on the Internet. There was actually a fair amount of wine in the area like that - definitely made it worth it to go explore. The Rubicon, Francis Ford Coppola's winery, was also on the "A" list. I most definitely need to increase my circle of local friends to help me drink the wine I brought back!

I did perhaps have a bit _too_ much wine on Sunday, but I maintain I would have been fine if we hadn't then on Monday decided to follow the GPS route to some of the other wineries, this time in Sonoma. That route took us through twisty windy mountain roads, with poor me in the back seat. I mean, I get a bit carsick under normal circumstances, so that was just a recipe for great discomfort. Michael, mother's husband, said I was green. I said I was fashionably pale, but they didn't go for it. Mother, as she realized how peaked I was feeling, developed a new fondness for the word "puke" and had to use it repeatedly. Witch. I told her I never liked her anyway.

I do hope to get back there again soon. We didn't actually get to tour the castle, and there's a lot more to the Rubicon that I want to see. I will, however, wait for the, um, car sickness to wear off. Couldn't be a hangover, really.