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Well boys and girls and kids of ages. It's Sunday afternoon a little after four o'clock and it feels strange to be typing a blog. I don't know when I sent one out to you and don't even care its just good to be typing away.
I am sitting in my new office at Chateau Cronin Winery/Circle D Ranch.
 Right outside my office window is a fountain so I can hear the dribble dribble of water occasionally interrupted by the robin calls, wood pecker knockin, and the anticipation of the two horned owls that will visit in a few hours.
What an adventure this has been. Thank God for good friends like Dennis, Jerene, Mike, Patti, Linda, Dan, Mary Kate, and even Elizabeth who paid her own airfare to come here and get bossed around. We could not have done it without you and hope you all feel welcome to show up anytime, to enjoy the place.
Despite our daily workload, we managed to wrap up by 5 or 5:30 and enjoy Veranda Time. It is when we sit on the Veranda and enjoy good friends like Glen Livet, Glen Fiddich, Glen Morangie, Chateauneuf de Pape, Joseph Phelps, Bacardi Dark, to name a few. The light chill of the evening is offset by the gas heaters overhead keeping everyone comfy as we decide where to have dinner.
Most evenings we are tempted by the wonderful fare of Hanna's, but due to our various degrees of ripeness chose to offend those in lesser establishments. Friends and Rosa's Cantina got some of our business when were not picking up Italian grub from San Giovanni's.
We have had about 8 or 9 very long days of moving, packing, and supervising and are now just getting to the point where we can sit in most rooms and find clothes.
Last Tuesday was out first night and after the move, Devin and I were quite grubby. She was the first to try the Car Wash. Devin named the master bath Car Wash, because it looks like one. There are sprayer and hoses and faucets going every which way. She warned me on the second walk through that she would want to change that all out, which I was sure would be a costly change over.
She got in while I was walking the 3 acres of our new home, settling at the Bocce Ball court with a 2002 Sequoia Grove Cabernet and staring at the sparkling belt of Orion.
When I walked in the house I heard her yell from upstairs. Oh My God, I love the shower. She was totally invigorated by the Car Wash. As usual, I was happy she was happy. The next morning would be my turn.
I woke up and since Jack had permission to play hooky for the day, I walked the entire property and then decided to take a shower. Once in the Car Wash, I was totally intimidated by handles and faucet handles on the wall. A brief tutorial by Devin and I had water attacking my body from every angle imaginable.
It caused severe anxiety as I was dodging intrusive sprays of high pressure water. All the while I knew the hot wax light would start blinking and I would have a shiny pudgy body. I eventually relaxed enough to grab for my razor. As I reached for the razor, nozzle number 17 sprayed in a place that got my total attention.
As I emerged from the Car Wash, shaken and exhausted, Devin was there to great me and say, "Wasn't that something else?" That was one way to describe it.
In other highlights of the new house, we have a lighting system by a company called Lutron. Now Lutron is a Latvian word meaning "ridiculously complicated". We have been in the house 5 nights and still cannot figure out how to turn on and off only the lights we want to turn on and off.
Each wall has at least one bank of programmed light switches which allow you to adjust the intensity of each light in the room allowing you to create "scenes". The problem is you can cross scenes and actually turn on the light in one room, walk to another pad and turn the light off. Don't worry we got a guy for that.
We got guys coming out the wazzoo. Everyday we have a heard of folk walking around the house. Many could be strangers and I would not know. It is kind of cool because you can act like a worker and they have no idea you are the owner. Admittedly it is a stretch for me to act like a worker, but it is a little fun.
Speaking of working, I have learned how to prune vines. We have around 325 vines in our vineyard. It is a nice blend of Cabernet Clone 337 (That is the part where you are supposed to say "oooooooo!"), merlot of equal quality and a few chardonnay.
After watching 11 videos on Youtube, I am now an expert at pruning vines. To make sure I am an expert I asked Antonio our foreman and the consultants Dave Hanna brought in to asses the situation. So I took a whack at pruning. Here are the results:
Before
After
I only have 320 vines to go. Mmmmmmmm.
As we walk around our place, it is amazing tho think we really live here. Here are a couple of shots to share some of the views we enjoy.
Fountain
Pool
We knew we had settled in when our new next door neighbor Cindy was calling Devin's name from her humble abode up the hill. After two calls we answered and they had a nice house warming gift for us, so we opened the gates and had 3 hours of beautiful banter and a couple of glasses of wine.
Devin enjoyed the 2007 Roger Sabon Prestige Chateauneuf de Pape,
while Cindy, Lefty and their friend Shelly enjoyed a 2005 Fusion V by DeToren Cab blend.
Devin eventually shifted to the Clos De Brusquirees 2007 CdP
while the rest of us went to the Mondavi Family (Michael and Rob) Emblem 2006.
It was a wonderful evening with our neighbors.
I followed the evening by enjoying Veranda Time with a cup of tea early the next morning,
after I had pruned a couple more vines.
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