I Gotta Goleta

Today is a happy day, because today is our one-year wedding anniversary. I love you, Edgar.

On Thursday, Edgar emailed me at work with "What do you think about Solvang for the weekend?" to which I responded with a resounding "Hell yes." Solvang is a small town north of Santa Barbara in the Santa Ynez Valley that's a great spot to go for wine tasting. If you saw the movie Sideways, you'll know what it looks like. So on Saturday morning we hopped in the car around 10:00 and began the 2 1/2 hour trek north. Incidentally, there is a town that you pass on the way up called Goleta, which to me sounds like it should be either a verb or an STD. Jack and Jill are about to have sex for the first time. Jack sits Jill down and says "Jill, I need to tell you something before we do this. My last girlfriend gave me herpes and goleta."

When we got to Solvang, we realized that we came during Danish Days, meaning that the place was packed with lots of people wearing funny clothes. We went to several different tastings before ending up at Mandolina, a perennial favorite for our trips to Solvang. And, after not having lunch, or dinner, for that matter, we spent over four hours in their tasting room. Sonja, the Mandolina employee that was helping us....well, bless her heart. We did the standard tasting, but she also gave us samples of other wines that weren't on the list. I even took a picture with her and told her that I would put her on my blog, however I look absolutely TERRIBLE in the picture, so that is a promise that will just have to be broken. Edgar (who shall now be known as Drunk Ass) even convinced me that there would be no better idea of all the ideas that will ever be in this world that we should sign up for their wine club, meaning that by the time we left we were lugging 5 bottles of wine and will now get shipments every two months, along with a nice $50 charge on my credit card. But our tastings will always be free, so there's that.

We met a lot of cool and interesting people during our residence at Mandolina as well, such as a Charger fan wearing a viking hat who we talked a lot of football with, a nice older couple from Woodland Hills who had a long haired miniature dachschund named Moose that was the most chill and relaxed dog I have ever met (who, incidentally, weighed LESS THAN OUR CAT), and Mary and Debbie from Fontana and Ontario, who we bonded with over the fact that we, too, used to live in San Bernardino County.

Everything in Solvang closes pretty early, so we went back to the hotel after that, where Edgar certainly DID NOT puke his guts out. I repeat, he DID NOT puke his guts out. And, since I can't see puke without puking, I certainly DID NOT puke either. Again, I DID NOT do that.

We got home around noon today (anniversary or not, Drunk Ass can't miss his Steelers game). Mercifully, Fiyero did not punish us by crapping on the floor or hacking up a hairball while we were gone, as he normally does when we are so insolent as to leave him by himself overnight. Thanks, kitty, I owe you one.