I’m feeling behind . . . in, like, everything. A week ago, I stood upon the regal steps of CIA Greystone (I so love that place)  . . .

. . . for the Worlds of Flavor Conference and took all kinds of cool shots—of the food [FYI . . . all that food was on my own little platter, just for me. And that wasn’t even the main event!] . . .

. . . of the vineyards, of the groovy ‘marketplace’ they had that evening—with the best intentions of posting them all post haste. But then Ana Maria came to dinner on Sunday and that bumped out CIA for my Tuesday post. Luckily, FoodGal did some awesome reporting of the event: here, an interview with Cat Cora, and here another with the Chef of A16.

And then yesterday, I was driving home from dropping Noemi off at daycare—on another GORGEOUS day . . . it’s been in the 70s and 80s with ocean-blue skies and all the leaves in full glory—and I ran across a balloon being blown up. The big kind. That holds people.

So rather than just zip on by, I pulled over, put on my hazards and jogged across the street to snap a few pics with the best intentions . . . you know the drill.

Loved the grape theme.

The wildest thing was that as I looked closer (I figured out in that moment how to zoom in on my Blackberry), I realized that the woman was holding a bouquet of flowers . . . and then I saw the sign hanging from the balloon’s basket. “JUST MARRIED.” How cool.

Of course, they were probably freaked out by the voyeur perched on a rock taking pictures with her cell phone, but oh well. Even wilder . . . I was headed south, almost to Santa Rosa, two hours later and what did I spot in the sky? Uh huh.

Then Friday rolled around and I remembered that I was going to kick off the Braisy Chain again today. That’s right, y’all seemed awfully fired up about that braised beef daube, so despite the fact that it’s 82 outside right now in Healdsburg and I’ve got all the windows open, I’m throwing out the call for the best braises in the blogosphere. Click here for more details. If I get enough entries by the end of this month to post a roundup, great. Otherwise, we’ll plan on a Nov/Dec roundup just before the new year.

You know, come to think of it, maybe I’ll just write about all three . . .