As you all know, Mr. and Mrs. Twinkie's 10 year wedding anniversary was September 19th. We went up to Avila for the weekend but we spent little time there. Instead, we spent our first day in Paso Robles, wine tasting.. then the next day in Santa Barbara and Solvang. I'll share details and a recap for those interested.. in a three part series.

OK so my little adventure begins Friday morning with some breakfast at the Roadhouse Grill or something like that.. it's basically your typical truck stop with the cute gift shop as you walk in.

We decided against breakfast thought because we didn't want to mess up our palettes for the wine tasting later. So we each had a sandwich on toast. Except for DAMN they put so much mayonnaise on it! It made us both gag. Thank GOD we'd said LIGHT on the mayo because I can't even imagine...

So off we go wine tasting... we strolled into town (Paso Robles) about 11:00-ish.. and stopped at our favorite winery, Tobin James.

If you are ever driving through Paso Robles.. you HAVE to stop at Tobin's. That place is soooo cool, and relaxed, and friendly, and FUN. My favorite wine from them is their Riesling. But their "Fat Boy" Zinfandel and their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is damn good too.

Tobin James Fatboy wine review:  Perfect example of an *excellent* fruit bomb. Tons of luscious fruit, but still balanced. Crushed raspberries on the nose, great fruit on the palate.

Tobin James Riesling wine review: Fermented grape perfume nose. Palate: Candied apples, pears, peaches, subtle complexity of grapefruit, lemon, lime. Clean, dry, balanced, zesty lively swallow.

Tobin James Silver Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wine review: Nose of dark, overripe fruits. Very dark garnet/purple in color. Flavors of plum, fig, and dust. Nicely structured, very good!

Our wine taster dude... what would his title be? anyways... he was really cool and outgoing which honestly is a prerequisite for ANYBODY that works there. They always make you feel right at home.

We talked to him for a bit and found out he is originally from Paso, but he moved out of state for about 5 years where he worked in different areas of the restaurant business. But his last job was in golf course construction in Arizona.

I always find it interesting how people end up working at wineries. Or not just at wineries.. just wherever you are in life. How did you get there? what roads did you travel? What did you leave behind? 

It's never EVER a dull story. EVER.

OK, so our new friend's story goes a little something like this:

For some reason construction came to a halt for a few months so he decided to come home and visit while they called him back. His dad worked at Tobin James so he told him if he wanted a job, it was crushing season and they could probably use his help for the next few months. By the time crushing season was over, he'd fallen in love with the wine/vineyard business so he decided to stay.

So there he is, doing something he loves. Drinking, and selling wine for a living. It can't get much better than that, right? Mr. Twinkie said to quit being so damn nosy but I said, "NO!" And kept asking questions.

Then I told him it was our 10 year anniversary and he seemed excited for us. I asked if we took a picture with him and he was glad to do it. In fact, he knew the perfect spot, with the perfect background.  

Even Tobin James' history/background is interesting. It turns out he has a Cincinnati connection which you can read about HERE! To give you a little background, however, I will tell you this. He was a wine maker's assistant who followed his dreams and now he's living it.  

 *taken from THIS website: My Wine Education

 He moved out to Paso Robles about 25 years ago to work with Gary Eberle when Gary was the winemaker at Estrella River Winery - before it became Meridian. Gary left to start Eberle Winery and Toby went with him.

Toby worked at Eberle for over 10 years, then went to Peachy Canyon with Doug Beckett. He made the first 2 or 3 vintages there before heading out on his own. The rest is history.

  Our next stop was:

 

I've been wanting to go there ever since it opened because Andrew Firestone was on one of my favorite ABC T.V. Reality Shows, The Bachelor. I'll blog about that and more later... basically though..

We're getting ready to head out to yet another Pee-Wee tackle football game when I hear Mr. Twinkie say, "I can't wait till next weekend!" 

I respond, "WHY? What's next weekend?" I shudder at the thought of MORE football.

The weekend before we went our kids game at 2:00, our friend's kid's game at 5:00, and my brother in law's team he coaches at 7:00.

The Princess Twinkie also happens to coach their cheerleaders, which is another reason why we HAD to go.

Mr. Twinkie asks, "BABE??? SERIOUSLY?" 

"Seriously WHAT?" I answer with a question.

"THINK about it really hard." he says.

"BABEEEEEE. Just tell me. WHAT IS NEXT WEEKEND??????"

"Forget it then." he responds and I can tell he's hurt that I can't remember.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!! Our ANNIVERSARY GETAWAY???? I'm sorry honey!" I say as I run up to hug him and kiss him and squeeze him and show him how much I love him.

He starts laughing because it's soooo typical of me to forget anything and everything including special events and so he teases me like he's mad, but he's really not. He's used to it.

So yes, 10 years ago I lured the unsuspecting Mr. Twinkie with my twinkieness.... (of course in MY case, the IT guy is the "it" guy.... because I knew he was it for me.

He proposed two weeks after we officially got together... and a few months later had a twinkilicous wedding with only close family and friends... (about 200-300 of them)

Months after that.... we started our Twinkilicious family...

And we've lived blissfully ever after.

*In between all the non-blissful, typical marriage stuff made up of Ding Dong fights and Yoo-Hoo arguments, of course.

So anyways... now that you know our story... can I just add.....

Happy Anniversary Mr. Twinkie! I love you babe!

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I feel like a pig right now. It's no wonder since I just finished a WHOLE BOX of Fiddle Faddle.

See, Princess Twinkie started working.

YES. She got a job.

She gets out of school for 7th period and goes to work (about 2:15) and I pick her up and take her straight to work.

Of course this means I have to use my lunch hour to pick her up and drop her off so I bring my lunch to work since I don't have time to eat when I pick her up! Well, today I ate a little earlier than usual. I was STARVING.

*And as I'm sitting here typing I just remembered and realized why I was so hungry...

I took a sleeping pill last night. I haven't been able to sleep for about a week and a half and I was desperate to get some rest so I finally broke down and took one last night. Well, a side effect is I'm RAVENOUS the next day.

So anyways... I ate my lunch about 11:00. I felt like I could eat more.. but knew I should be full so I just poured myself some water and decided to tough it out.

Well, then later I went to pick up Princess Twinkie and dropped her off at Starbucks and as I was driving back to work, I got this sudden urge for a soft drink. Well, I only had $2.00 and some change and so I decided to go to the Dollar Tree and grab a soda there.

Once there, I got another sudden craving.. for Fiddle Faddle. I grabbed a box and a drink, and headed back to work with full intentions on sharing the Fiddle Faddle. On my way out this lady smiles at me and looks in my bag.

I feel the need to explain myself and say, "NICE LUNCH, hu?" 

She laughs then says, "Then we wonder why we look the way we look!"
 

I say, "NO KIDDING, hu?" 

Then I realize she might have meant it as an insult towards me but by that time I'd had such a good laugh I decided to let it go.

Besides, she's right. I could have proved her wrong and only eaten a handful and saved the rest for tomorrow and the next day, etc. BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... I ate the WHOLE BOX.

And I'm still hungry. Gaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwd I'm such a pig!!! 

*I got this by email today and thought it was true and funny. Enjoy!

"Whatever you give a woman, she is going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, you will receive a ton of shit."

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This morning as I was putting my makeup on I came across this old shade of lipstick I'd retired a while back.

It's a pink and it was an "impulse buy" and I wore it a few times because I thought it would "soften" my features but everytime I wore it I always felt like a gramma... or like my skin tone looked "washed out or pale."

So then I bought a lip liner a few shades darker to try to "liven it up" but then it was a pain in the ass to reapply my lipstick AND my lip liner throughout the day. Plus, even with the lip liner I wasn't fully convinced that it was "my color."

Anyways... I came across it this morning and decided to give  it a try again.

Once again, I thought it might "soften" my features yadda yadda, having quickly forgotten WHY I'd retired it to begin with.

So I get to work this morning and my day started out a little like this:

brutally honest co-worker laughs then says: "Damn girl! You look like HELL!"

me: Laughs, flips him the bird then retorts, "Eff you a-hole."

We both laugh harder and continue walking.

I clock in. Go to the bathroom. Wipe off my pink lipstick, and reapply my favorite Mary Kay Downtown Brown I always use.

I shrug my shoulders then I think to myself... "AH!-HA.. so THAT'S why I never wear this shade. I'd forgotten!"

Moral of the story? Well, for one thing, as Mr. Twinkie always tells me when I try to revamp a favorite recipe, "Why fix what ain't broken?" 

And moral #2, well, sometimes... it's just the WRONG LIPSTICK.

About my coworker? Well, we ALL need at least ONE BRUTALLY HONEST COWORKER in our lives, right?

Now here's a semi "funny if it wasn't so damn sad" type of financial story... Turns out this whole housing mess is actually KEEPING MARRIAGES TOGETHER. Sounds like great news right? 

That should sound like a right choice, right? I mean, you did say "for better or for worse." And sometimes YES you struggle to get along and make hasty decisions to separate. BUT sometimes you decide to make it work because of the kids, or nowadays because of the house.

And when you're both trying to make it work, regardless of the reason, it usually does. Because guess what? You're BOTH trying... to make it work.

The only time that doesn't help is when only ONE person is trying .. for obvious reasons. I MEAN.. WHAT A CONCEPT RIGHT?????? Th is whole "trying to make it work, for the house" thing might take us right back to the 60's... the Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days time. Where everybody was happy or at least pretended to be long enough to actually buy into it.

Wouldn't that be nice? hmmmmmm......

Yet to me, most of this article makes it sound like "poor poor folks! This damned housing market is screwing up the money divorce lawyers usually get to put in their pockets! HOUSING MARKET BE DA MMED!!!"

hahahahhaahhsnorthahahahahhaahah

I was browsing through Yahoo News and came across this article. This guy, see... had a slutty wife who used to flaunt her infidelities in front of him.

He in return would work odd hours and odd jobs to maintain the type of lifestyle she deserved.... as a teacher.

*what's up with these woman teachers having all these affairs with younger men/boys?

Well, one day he came home from working and found the dude in HIS house. He told the dude to leave, but the dude said NO!

*Cocky little 18 year old, isn't he?!! 

So he then proceeds to take his HIGH POWERED RIFLE he just happened to have in the trunk of his car and ACCIDENTALLY pointed it at the lover and ACCIDENTALLY shot it.

But here is the kicker. He'd recently bought the HIGH POWERED RIFLE to commit suicide.

When Erin McLean got out of the car to get something from the house, Poston said, Eric McLean pulled a rifle from his truck that he had purchased to commit suicide and walked to Powell's car.

DAMN BOY!!!! You sure go all out don't you? I mean, if you're gonna kill yourself, you could always save money and take pills already in your medicine cabinet, right? Or maybe the good 'ol slicing of the wrists. Or if you wanna use a gun, you coulda just bought a small handgun. 

But no!!! This guy wanted to go out the right way. Shooting himself with a HIGH POWERED RIFLE. Yikes! He don't mess around, do he? hahaha..

 I wonder what he takes for indigestion?

click here to read the whole article

There has been speculation from the McCain camp that the "good 'ol boys" club is taking aim at the first female Republican  Vice President nominee, Sarah Palin.

"This nonsense is over," declared senior campaign adviser Steve Schmidt in a written statement.

The statement stood out for its admission that Palin is under siege — it condemns "this vetting controversy" — and for its attempt to blunt questions about how rigorously McCain and his campaign explored the background of a candidate who may get the nation's second most powerful job. It also suggested that Palin is a victim of gender bias in the media.

"The McCain campaign will have no further comment about our long and thorough process," Schmidt said, lashing out at "the old boys' network" that he says runs media organizations.

read the rest of that article by clicking here

Is this true? It's hard to say considering the media does a damn good job at shaping the general public's minds and opinions. They know exactly what to say, what NOT to say, and how to present it so that we the people believe it to be true. Not just in politics, but in everything from fashion, to health issues, etc.

For example, why isn't the media making a big ol' stink about Viagra possibly making men blind around the country, but it did a GREAT job at covering Botox issues a while back. And there are tons of "plastic surgeries gone wrong" shows on t.v.

The latest fashion? Guess who decides what is cool and what isn't? Designers? No! The media. Designers put it out there and the media decides who's hot, and who's not.

So is there "dish" out there on Barack Obama and his V.P. nominee that the media is choosing to toss aside while they focus on Palin? OR does Palin have more juicy details/drama in her life and past that make covering her more interesting? 

These are very interesting questions for this  lil Twinkie who is still learning about the political world and media bias...