Winchester Mystery House

Perhaps you've seen this on television. Or maybe you've seen a brochure in the lobby of any hotel in the Bay area (the house is in San Jose). Or maybe you have no idea what the Winchester Mystery House is all about. Well allow me to explain....

Sarah Winchester was the wife of the heir to the Winchester Rifles fortune. Apparently these guns were a big deal during the Civil War. I really don't know anything about guns so I'm not going to elaborate. Sarah and her husband had a baby. It only lived 6 weeks though and she was obviously devastated by the loss of her child. A few years later her husband died of tuberculosis so then she was really, really devastated. She went to a psychic that told her all of these bad things were happening because the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles were angry and trying to get back at her. The only way to get the spirits to chill out was to move out west and build a house. But she couldn't just build a house, she had to always be building a house, as in adding on, not just building a bunch of different homes.

So that's what she did. She built and built and built. She also made the house really odd with stairs that lead to nowhere, doors that open to walls, and such a confusing layout that she had to give maps to all of her new servants so that they wouldn't get lost.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to ruin the tour for those of you that might go one day.

Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the house so you'll have to enjoy a lot of exterior photos.

Waiting for the tour to start

One of the most amazing things about the house is all the stained glass. It was all over the place and it was all made by Tiffany Co. and shipped from New York. I told Jake that he never needs to buy me any Tiffany jewelry if he can promise to build me a home one day filled with Tiffany stained glass.

Here are my two tips for the tour:

1. If Wayne is your tour guide, then ask to go on a different tour. This guy was crazy! He had a psychotic laugh and he laughed a lot at his jokes that didn't make sense. I wish that I could put into words how weird this guy was, but I just can't. On second thought, maybe you should go and request that he be your guide so that you can understand what I'm talking about.

2. For an extra 5 dollars you can take an additional "Behind the Scenes" tour. It's definitely worth the 5 dollars. They take you all over the grounds and into the basement.

I thought the $35 price tag was a bit much for a tour, but we were there for over 2 hours. We learned so much and had a lot of fun so it was definitely worth the price.

A Little Piece of Home

When I was in 9th grade the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup. The playoffs were a huge deal and everyone got really into the sport, including myself. My best friend pointed out a Stars player that she thought was really cute. His name was Mike Modano. And the obsession began. My friend and I watched pretty much every game and drooled over Mike's face. We were fortunate enough to go to a few games during our high school years and we often wore specially made shirts or took big signs with the hope that we'd end up on the Jumbo Tron. The sign that made us famous? "Melanie and Megan love Modano and Morrow (Morrow was our second favorite player)"

Hockey was a big part of our lives. Some of my most memorable life experiences include Dallas Stars hockey. One of them was when we stood in line for hours at a sporting good store to meet Mike and have him sign pictures. We were so in love. I'm pretty sure we said less than 5 words to him, but we did get a picture taken. It was awesome. The second big event occurred after a Stars practice. They occasionally had practices that were open to the public so we went and watched one. After the practice some of the players hung around to autograph things. I happened to have a shirt that said "I heart Morrow" and held it out for him to sign. The adorable smile on his face when he saw it was priceless. He signed the heart ;)

During some point when I was in college, the NHL players went on strike and we went a whole year without hockey. However, some of the NHL players went to play for minor league teams so they could stay in shape and continue playing. Being the lucky girl that I am, Brenden Morrow played for the minor league team in Oklahoma City, about an hour from where I went to school. My roommate (a fellow Stars fan) and I went to see him play. To prove our obsession even more, my roommate and I decorated an entire hallway in our apt when Stars memorabilia.

After college Jake and I moved to Las Vegas and I was no longer able to watch my beloved team until the post season rolled around and the games became nationally televised. They haven't been doing so well the past few years though and weren't exactly big players in the post season. I really haven't kept up with them and I honestly know of two players on the team that were around when I originally became obsessed. One of them is Brenden Morrow.

And a couple of weeks ago when Jake announced that he'd scored free tickets to the San Jose Sharks game, I flipped out. Why would I want to see the Sharks play? Because they were playing the Dallas Stars!

We made plans to go see the game, stay the night in San Jose and then do some more fun things the next day before heading home. I made a sign the day before and hoped that it would bring my team some good luck.

It did NOT bring good luck. In fact, it was probably the worst game I've ever seen the Stars play. The score was 6-0. I was sooooo disappointed that I was never able to jump up and down, wave my sign around and scream in excitement after scoring a goal. I'd waited so long for this, and they let me down. Don't worry though, I'm not about to switch my loyalty to the Sharks. They will always be one of my most hated teams.

However, I do have to give the fans some major credit. I'd heard some horror stories in the days leading up to the game that Sharks fans were crazy and they were sure to heckle the lone Stars fan in the crowd. As it turns out, I had nothing to be scared of. They were so incredibly nice. Several people smiled when they saw my sign and some even commented that the liked the sign.

Alright, enough chatting, here are the rest of the pictures.....P.S. Brenden Morrow is number 10. I went a little paparazzi on him.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. We had AMAZING seats. Center ice, row 6.






Stay tuned for more of our fun adventures in the bay area...

Syd's New Habit & Zu's Seat Belt

Unattended drinking glasses are not safe in this house. Sydney has taken to drinking out of any that are left behind. If it weren't so cute, then I would be highly irritated that I have to use several new glasses a day now.

mmm...I'm so thirsty. That silly puppy drinks all of my water so I must do whatever it takes to survive.

What? I shouldn't be drinking out of your glass?

We recently invested in a puppy seat belt for Zulu. She can now cruise around safely and in style.

Yippee! Dad is taking me for a drive!

Little does he know...I'm going to pee in the seat before we make it back home! Hehehe

Pear Festival Poster Entry

Remember when I talked about taking pictures for a painting I was going to do? Well, I finally finished it! Just in time too...the deadline to enter the poster contest is April 1st.

I'm excited to drop this off and be done with it. As much as I enjoy painting, I really haven't had the energy to work on this very much. Somebody (some puppy) has been keeping me up all night and working on this has been kind of low on my list of priorities. But now I can veg out in front of the television every night and not feel guilty. Actually, I have a couple other craft projects to work on so I'm sure I'll stay busy. Cross your fingers for me!

Napa Valley Trail Run

This was my first trail run, well unless you count the old high school cross country days, but I can tell you with confidence: cross country was NOT the same. I had visions of running down dirt paths in a state park, but this was no "dirt path" running. This was hiking up a mountain and occasionally jogging on parts of the path that were safe enough to do so. It was awesome.

I ran the 10k, but they also had a marathon and a half marathon going on. I have NO idea how anyone could complete this half marathon, much less the full marathon, but they did and I was impressed.

It has been raining cats and dogs the past few weeks and most of the course involved running through several inches of mud. I cannot believe that I didn't fall down, though I came close more than once. There were also fallen trees to climb over and raging streams and rivers to cross. One was so extreme that people partnered up and held hands while crossing. I've definitely never needed to hold hands with someone during a race before. But the thing is, this wasn't really a "race". It was pretty impossible to pass people during most of it because the path was so narrow. But even if you could pass people, you probably wouldn't need or want to. It was nice to have people in front to guide the way. Also, nobody worries about how long it takes to finish because it's impossible to compare to any other race. While some road races are more challenging than others, it's completely different than hiking up a mountain and dealing with so many obstacles.

I loved running this thing and I can't wait to do another. Unfortunately, most of these races only allow for a couple hundred people and the ones within a two hour radius of where I live have already filled up so I might have to wait until next year to do another one. I'll definitely be on the lookout though.

Don't let this paved path fool you. This was the end of the race and only a small portion was paved.

I bought these shoes specifically for this race because they are made for trail running. I might need to clean them off a bit before the next race.

My Baby is 5!

Well, we don't actually know when her birthday is, but we got her about 4 years ago and the adoption company told us she was about a year old. My mom and I just recently decided that her birthday should be 3-21. I can't believe we've had her 4 years! She is such a wonderful little baby and my heart aches for her as she learns to adjust to the crazy puppy that's running around her domain. Although I selfishly want the puppy to calm down for my own sake, I desperately want her to calm down for Sydney's too. I miss the days when it was just the three of us. She would excitedly greet us at the door all the time and constantly climb up to the couch so we could love on her. Now she has to retreat to puppy free areas and cautiously moves around when she goes from one place to the next.

I know it will get better and I truly believe that one day they will be good friends, but until that day comes, I will continue to give her special attention and extra cat treats for putting up with crazy Zulu.Her grandma sent her special treats for her b-day: wet cat food and a pretty collar!

Sorry it's blurry. She was inhaling her food and wouldn't stay still, but it's the same collar that my mom's puppy has!

2nd Annual Olive Festival

You might remember when we went to the Olive Festival last year. We had a great time and found some yummy treats so we were really excited to go this year. Again, they didn't have many olives, but they had several types of olive oil. We had fun testing all the varieties. However, we made the mistake of purchasing one of the first ones we tried and then later found one we REALLY wanted, but we were all out of cash. We'll know better next time.


Here is our loot: We purchased two types of bread, spicy garlic, and garlic infused olive oil.


The red peppers in there were quite hot. Not habanero hot, but still quite spicy. They gave me hiccups.

Puppy Pictures

I'm sure you all (mom) have been missing pictures of Zulu the past couple of weeks. I finally got around to snapping a few of her yesterday. She's growing more and more every day. We had her spade almost 2 weeks ago and she will be going to the vet on Wednesday to have her stitches removed.


She's been quite the rascal lately. She's improving in some aspects and getting worse in others. She's more calm around the house and while we are constantly telling her "no" and shaking a can of change (the loud noise gets her to stop), she is getting much better at being out of her cubby and just hanging out around the house. She's asleep on the floor as I type this.


One thing that is actually getting worse is her sleeping habits. A few weeks ago she was only getting up once during the night and occasionally sleeping all the way through. Not so much anymore. She now wakes up at 3:00 or 4:00 and goes out to potty. Then she'll sleep for about an hour or so before deciding that it's time to get up. She barks off an on until we finally wake up and let her out. Actually getting up is tricky though. We don't want her to think we're getting up because she's barking so we have to wait for a lull in between the barks before we can get up and start our day at around 5:00 am. I usually get up between 5:30 and 6:00 anyway, but the barking is really taking a toll. We've been super exhausted lately due to our lack of sleep. I think we're going to start keeping ear plugs next to the bed.


She is still so cute though and very sweet so I guess we'll keep her around. Just look at that face!

My Current Favorite Anthro Items

Here are a few of my favorite things from my favorite store. I'll definitely be checking the clearance section for these items in the future. It's a really good think that I live two hours from the nearest Anthropologie.

Winking Wisecracker Jar

Spiral Vine Curtain

If...Then Pillow

Dream Menagerie Rug

Flamenco Shower Curtain