A new beginning!

So, I'm not sure why the paper dropped my column, but I did hear rumblings that they thought I wrote about my upcoming wedding too much (three times in nine weeks!), and that Charlotte appears too much.

Frankly, everywhere I go, people in the community tell me how much they love to hear about my granddaughter (OK, maybe they are grannies themselves, I don't know), and the best part is that here on the internet, you can see the most maddening child in the world for yourself. Like the photo above. See the ornery expression? That's Charlotte.

Last weekend we went to Napa to celebrate my youngest daughter's engagement. She's marrying an assistant winemaker who, despite the fact that he works at Cade, a beautiful winery in the mecca of California wine country, took a job with a winery on Long Island. Did YOU know they made wine in New York? Yeah, me neither.

So my daughter is moving 3,000 miles away, immediately after my wedding, and I'm kinda heartbroken. The happy couple points out that I only see her half a dozen times a year anyway, and she can fly from N.Y. just as easily as she can from San Francisco, but I point out that it's not as cheap from there.

So we all flew up to the Bay Area and had a party in a vineyard where my future son-in-law lives. His landlord is a retired doctor who lives in S.F. during the week and comes home on weekends to his little spot of heaven, where the rows of grapevines come right up to the patio.

If I were a wine-lover, it would have been even more amazing, because fellow vintners came to the party bearing bottles of reserve and estate wines from their own bottlings, and everyone seemed to be very happy. Me, I was drinking gin and tonic.

You can get wine everywhere in Napa; it's insane. We went to a hamburger joint that's obviously very popular, judging by the lines. You order at a Dairy Queen-like window, then take your food to picnic tables out back. And they have a wine list that would put many Antelope Valley restaurants to shame.

The next day, we toured Cade, and it is a marvel of design. They built the wine cave themselves, and it's difficult to believe that a hole in the side of a hill could be so stylish. My photos don't do it justice.

My daughter's fiance tapped a cask of wine that goes for about $200 a bottle. I gave mine to my kid. It was wasted on me. I can't tell the difference between the good stuff and Two-Buck Chuck. I can tell fine wine from Ripple or Annie Green Springs, but that's about it.

So we got to meet the prospective in-laws, who are lovely people, and my daughter's friends, who are sad to see her go.

Charlotte's mother, brave soul that she is, undertook this journey sans husband, and her blog about it is here. Charlotte liked the winery fine, although, like me, she never drinks wine. And she got to stay up at the party so long she had to put on her PJs.

I'm still getting the hang of this blogging stuff: I had to call the mommy-blogger for advice, but let me know how you like the new space. See you next week....