Hobby Swap

Here's a swap meet I'd love to go to. Hobby swap! Bring your old hobbies and go home with secondhand hobbies you get from someone else!

I'll probably never make candles again, so I'd bring my books and molds and paraffin and colors. I'll bring my rollerblades with elbow and knee pads. I'll bring my cake decorating books and my collection of fancy icing tips. I might go home with pliers & dowel & a bunch of thick wire to turn into chain mail, or perhaps a power sander, or a beginner's archery bow and arm guard.

Trip report from this past weekend: Temecula

Last weekend rfrench and I flew to Temecula to get a balloon ride. Some impressions:

That Saratoga sure is a nice traveling machine.

There is nothing to do in Temecula on a Saturday night unless you like restaurants (not Rob) or movies (not me). Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Balloon flights tend to happen at dawn. There was champagne, orange juice, and an assortment of munchies for us to enjoy while we rode in the basket. We promptly made mimosas.

I was very VERY grateful for Rob's thoughtful request of a small stool for me to sit on. YAY! It made our little segment of the balloon basket crowded, but it really helped me.

The demographics are weird there. Apparently if you live in Temecula you are either an old-timer -- a retired schoolteacher or nurse who used to work in San Diego, a winery employee, a balloonist -- or you are a middle manager for some huge company and you commute over an hour each way to and from San Diego daily. The old-timers can't afford to move because they can't afford property tax calculated at modern rates. The middle managers pay $500K to $1M for houses they barely ever see. The old-timers hate and scorn the new people, of course; it's probably the only fun thing to do in town. And then there's a small minority of actual winery owners. Temecula is wine country.

Wilson Creek's Almond Champagne is wow. If you don't like a touch of bitterness with your almond flavor, you'll not love it, but me, I was swooning. They sell it in tiny bottles, so I got a big handful of those.

We stopped at a flea market sort of thing set up on some winery's front lawn. Does Rob know the way to my heart or what? I bought Christmas gifts for my mother and for some local friends. Rob bought two beautiful pieces of art.

We had time for one more winery, so we went to Bella Vista. The folks there were friendly. I liked some of the wines I tasted, but not quiiiiite enough to go home with them.

After lunch back at the mall, we flew back to Palo Alto. Rob hung a new piece of art in the entry hall and we climbed into the hot tub with a tiny bottle of almond champagne. Mmmmmmm. :-)

My sleep pattern is just about back to normal two days later. :-)