Katie's BMT Updates

Thanks to my friend, Jonny, I am sort of addicted to Blip FM. It's this web site where you can essentially DJ by "blipping" songs. I am totally reliving my college DJ name, even using my old handle ("Lovecat") as my user name. I get on the computer, intending to blip one or two songs and then get caught up in the vibe of the playlist. I just gotta keep it going. Before you know it, I'm whoring all over the web looking for the next "perfect" song. It's grand fun.

Lots has happened since I last wrote. Most notably, Ian, Zach and I went on a road trip, first down to L.A. for Disneyland and then to San Diego for the annual Zarling family reunion. Zach loved Disneyland. In fact, we all loved Disneyland. It's largely the same as it's ever been except that some of the rides have been retooled to reflect current characters. For example, what used to be the Swiss Family Robinson House is now the Tarzan tree house and the submarine ride is totally Nemo. Of course we went on "It's a Small World," which always seems to have an extra couple of rooms (Zach was entranced). We also tried the Buzz Light Year ride, which is totally cool because you get to shoot lasers at targets for points. On Thursday night, we stayed for the fireworks (probably the best I've ever seen). And we rode the train ... and the monorail ... and the tram .... and the train again.

On Friday afternoon, we headed south toward San Diego. The freeways throughout Los Angeles are insane. You only need two passengers to qualify as a carpool, yet most cars contain single drivers. Traffic is horrible and it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get anywhere. We finally did get to San Diego around dinnertime and let the festivities begin. My uncle owns a second home in Rancho Bernardo, which my cousin Beth lives in full-time, so we convened there. All Zarling family reunions are focused around two things: Food and wine ... and mostly wine. Now, I left to go back to the hotel around 9pm and I heard at least five more bottles were consumed after my departure ... Somewhat of a blind taste among five notable Pinot Noirs. The diehards -- my uncles and a few of my cousins -- stayed up until 3am and were somehow ready and able to go wine tasting by 10:30am the next day.

On Saturday, we visited two wineries and had a lavish lunch at a third. Back at the house that evening, my Uncle Ed made dinner starting off with, get this, plantain, refried beans, cheese and sausage (yes, arranged all together in a stack) hors devours. Now I would've never in a million years put those four things together, but it was actually quite good. Then came the burger ... It was stuffed with goodness and topped with -- are you ready? -- pulled pork and deep fried breaded onions. It was tasty, but I think I only made it through a third of the sandwich. For dessert, my Aunt Jamie procured a chocolate cake in honor of my birthday (I'm 38! A totally irrelevant marketing demographic!), which was also awesome. Oh, and there was also some wine. I don't know where all I put it, but I was asleep on the couch by 8:30pm and thus missed night two of debaucherous wine tasting.

We've been back home now for almost two weeks and have easily fallen back into the step of life. Some good news is that we *FINALLY* got a permit from the city to start construction on the upstairs -- and it got approved according to our "best case scenario" plans. Horray! I also think I may have solved an outstanding health insurance payment snafu ... It's amazing what some carriers will do to put off payment of large number claims. Honestly, the state of our healthcare industry blows my mind when I try to think about it -- and we have good insurance. But that's another story.

Well, I hope you are all well (I am, did I say that?) ...

much love,
Katie