Karmyn Tyler sings and acts!

I got an email over the weekend asking what was new with my actress/singer friend Karmyn Tyler. If you have been following me or get our monthly newsletter you will know that we have a friend who lives in Beverly Hills and is working hard to make it in entertainment industry. She is a wonderful singer, actress and podcaster. It has been fun for us to follow her career and hear about the things she is doing. Karmyn had some wonderful insights about the recently ended writers strike and is now keeping us updated with information about the actor’s contract. I just learned that she filmed another episode for Boston Legal. You can count on us watching the show carefully to see her; I think she plays an assistant DA in a scene with Candice Bergen.

During the writers’ strike she spent her time working and releasing two new songs. I think they are both great and Michael downloaded them for my iPod. If you want to meet or catch-up with Karmyn you can watch her “KarmKast 32” at www.karmynkast.net or listen to her two new songs here.

If you like what you hear, make sure you let Karmyn know and let her know I sent you. I am anxious for her to get into a series or do a National commercial because I want to go help her buy a house.

BTW, we have a new listing that should be coming on the market tomorrow. It is another short sale and should be a fun one so check our home page at www.jalone.com tomorrow.

Wine Adventure

We just got back from an overnight trip up to Amador County where we helped our good friends and clients bottle the barrel of wine they made. It was all done at Amador Cellars where the owner winemaker, Larry, makes wonderful wine and went out of his way to make all of us feel like we were part of the winery family.

Although it was work, we had a blast bottling, corking, capping and labeling the wine. Best of all the wine, a 2006 Zinfandel, is excellent and has the potential to get even better. Joe and Erin joined what is called Amador Cellar’s Crush Club and this was their weekend to bottle the wine they made.

I am thinking about doing the same thing for some of my clients and referral sources. Think of the fun we could have over the 18 months from selecting the grapes to bottling.

We got 24 cases of “Old Gold Hill” and would have had 25 had we not liberally tasted during the day….we had 16 people on the bottling crew!

Thanks Joe and Erin, we had a great time and see a future for us in wine making, err or maybe wine drinking.

Discovery Kingdom

Over the past weekend we spent some time at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. They have changed the park and the name from Marine World. It kind of reminds me of the park back in the days that it was Marine World Africa USA which I think is what they called it back in the days when it was in San Mateo.

The changes are very positive, with more exhibits, shows, food concessions and a better family feeling. I didn’t see any roving gangs of teenagers like the last time we were there and although still expensive there is a better selection of food and they are spread out more around the park. A minor disappointment was the water ski/boat show is no longer being done. We saw the dolphin show which was great, the killer whale show which was a bit lackluster but always fascinating to see a mammal that big. We had some young children in our group so we tended to stay in the kids areas. The new Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit was well done but designed for the youngest of children. Mikie who has long been an enthusiast but now past the target age was delighted to see Thomas pulling Annie and Clarabelle but the wait and length of the ride were disappointing.

All in all, we had a great day and had fun sharing the adventure with our friends and we will go back. By the way, you can now park at the Marriott across the street for a few dollars more than the Six Flags parking lot and avoid the long walk to your car. At the end of the day you will be very glad the car is close!