Fostino Wedding

Our friends John and Carolyn got married on July 22. The girls met up with Carolyn the morning of the big day and kept her company while she got her hair and make-up done. She was such a beautiful bride! After her appointments, we drove Carolyn down to the Fortino Winery in Gilroy where the wedding took place. Gilroy is about 20 degrees warmer than San Jose and we were in the middle of the big CA heat wave - it was around 118 degrees when we arrived. Yikes! Good thing the bride's room was air conditioned. We helped Carolyn get dressed and then got ready ourselves while she and John went down to the barrel room for pictures. The ceremony started at 5pm, followed by the reception. It was the quickest ceremony I'd ever been to, probably about 5-10 minutes long. It was great! The reception was a lot of fun. John and Carolyn provided margaritas from Fiesta del Mar (their favorite Mexican restaurant) and boy, were they potent! We all danced the night away. It was great to see everyone and celebrate with the Fostinos on their special day. View more pictures

Burning Rubber

I've always wanted to be a race car driver. Today, I got my chance....well, sort of. I took my Acura out for a little action at Thunderhill track in Willows which is about 90 miles north of Sacramento. I signed up for a novice/instructional course with NCRC (Northern California Racing Club). Benjamin races his motorcycle at Thunderhill, so he was able to give me pointers and prep me for track day. We started with a classroom course in the morning where I learned the basics and then we broke out into our 20 minute track sessions. I had a seasoned driver sitting in the passenger seat with me at all times. It was such a blast! The first few laps were pretty slow, trying to get a feel for the track and familiarize myself with the different turns (there are 15 of them). The sessions after were progressively better. I picked up speed, learned correct cornering techniques (brake, turn in, apex, exit) and started feeling more like Mario Andretti. It was such a fun experience, I'll definitely do it again! Photos courtesy of bkd photography

Louie Family Vacation

A mere three days after I moved into Benjamin's, our first house guests arrived! My brother Tony, sister Kathy and brother-in-law Chris, came into town from Oregon for a little vacation. Yep, it was a Louie family invasion. Poor Benjamin, he was such a good sport putting up with the crew. He had met Kathy once before, so it was nice for the rest of the fam to get to know him too. Next up are the parents but that should be a peice of cake. Don't worry honey. :) We went to Alcatraz - it was my first time in the entire 6 years of living in the bay area. It was quite interesting. They also wanted to visit the Winchester Mystery House but luckily Benjamin and I got out of that one. We ate way too much, including a delicious dinner at Slanted Door in the city and dessert at La Fondue.

Tony cooking in Benjamin's new kitchen/group pic in front of La Fondue









Kathy at Alcatraz: