We Regret to Inform You...

From: The Corcoran

Dear Heidi: We regret to inform you that you will be incurring a ridiculous amount of debt over the next 2 years as you have been accepted into the Master of Arts in Interior Design degree program for admission for the fall 2008 semester.

Woohoo! (happy dance)

Weekend Update:
One of the things that I really took away from my backpacking experience is the idea of not having a plan. When I boarded the plane in September, I had no idea where I would be going, how I would get there, and what I was going to do whenever I got to whereever I was going. And it was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I like to employ that tactic whenever possible.

And so I went into this weekend with no plan and it turned out to be fantastic! Thursday night I decided that I was going to join some friends out in Virginia for part of the weekend. So Friday after work, I drove out to the mountains of Virginia for a little "camping trip". Overcoming flashbacks to the junior year spring break camping trip to Hontoon Island that still sends Sean and I into a slight state of panic, I was pleasantly surprised to pull up to a huge house sitting atop a mountain. The house was gorgeous: complete with a pool table, ski-ball machine, swinging bench on the front balcony, and huge front yard sporting a horseshoe pit. Now this is my kind of camping. This is the view out the front porch:

After Tommy and I dominated Whitey and Mike in pool (ok... mostly Tommy... and it was a close game), we had a chill evening playing a really fun game called Salad Bowl. It's basically a combination of Taboo and Charades with one more round thrown in there. One of the best parts was watching Jackie intermittently fall asleep (I swear she has a minor case of narcolepsy) then spring to action for an answer and then promptly pass back out.

Christine and Mike had planned a whole itinerary for us to visit some of the wineries in the area on Saturday.

First up: 3 whites and 4 reds at Rappahannock Cellars. Their Meritage was definitely one of my favorites of the day.

Then we rushed off to The Oasis for the tour of their facility and then another tasting. This is the inside of the Oasis: Then as you go down into the cellar, this is an area that the woman explained was for the wine master's little experiments. There are all of these bottles piled up with different years and tags on them that he...experiments with. Not sure what that means, but it looks cool.

Then she showed us the reserve bottles of "champagne. Oh wait, I'm not allowed to call it champagne. This is our sparkling wine. Whatever, it's the same thing." and the crazy contraption that corks the sparkling wine:

She explained the different kinds of barrels - French barrels versus American barrels. And how the steel barrels keep the fruity juices in, so it makes a sweeter wine; whereas the wooden barrels produce a dryer wine. Also, the bottling, corking, labeling, foiling machines that were pretty sweet.

Finally we went upstairs and got to taste the wine. The limo got stuck trying to turn around while we were doing the tasting, but the really awesome tour guide/wine tasting provider pulled a wonder woman and pushed it out of the mud all on her own. We tried two whites, two reds, and their Brut sparkling wine. Took some time to snap some pictures of the beautiful scenery.
Casey and Jimmy (this Irish dude with an awesome accent and funny little irish-isms.)

Actually got Tommy to take a picture:

My favorite picture of the twins: Flannery being super-animated as she's telling a story and Tommy looking at her like she's nuts.
And of course a little sketching action of the barrel stools:

Then we moved on to the last stop: Unicorn Winery. This one was a doozy. We tried 4 whites, 1 blush (aptly called Slightly Embarrassed), 5 reds, and a port-style dessert wine called Obsidian (what a cool name).

Jimmy: Where does the name of the winery come from?
Winery Man: You're irish right, you know the song? Green alligators, long neck geese...
Heidi: Humpty back camels and some chimpan... (no one else is singing. Everyone is looking at me. Damn.)

The Obsidian was my top choice for the day, but a bottle of the 2006 Pinot Gris came home with me instead: "Tart apple and lime flavors with aromas of rose petals, apple blossoms and pears make this perfect with your favorite summer salad or by itself while sitting on our deck." Ahhhh....doesn't that just sound like summertime in a bottle?

There was some creep action going on on the ride back up the mountain. Can you believe this is after 23 wines?

When we got back, Jackie and I decided to roll down the hill in the front yard because it was a really steep hill of soft grass. Unfortunately there were little death spikes hidden under the grass. Sadly I was stone-cold sober for this event. Ouch. See the battle scars on the bottom of my foot; I think there are some spikes still in there:

"It's Not My Real Birthday"
Then it was time to head up to Baltimore for "Sean's Birfday Celebration". We played a really fun game that Sean invented. I crocheted Sean's little alien baby for him:

I think he liked it:

Today I completed my monthly task of waking up on Kelsey and Sean's couch, using my girlfriend toothbrush, and driving back home.

Vara moved in for a few days until we can get into our new apartment.

I did a photoshoot for Amy, modeling her amazing crochet creations. God she's good.

Have a wonderful week! Stay tuned for the light grey hemp wrap-around skirt that is on my crochet hook at the moment :)