I'm sitting at a Tully's in Woodinville, across from the old Hollywood Schoolhouse, watching the cars go around the roundabout. There's a couple outside looking around and pointing at a brochure map. Probably on a winery tour.

They've redone this place completely in the last four years. New roundabouts, flowers everywhere, signs and maps to help the tourists get from one winery to the next. A lot of people aren't pleased with what the developers are doing to the valley, which is still a very green place, knock on wood. Sometimes it looks like Tuscany, at least that's how I feel. I'm proud to be from wine country, close enough to Chateau St. Michelle winery that you can hear James Taylor and Chicago playing shows on summer weekends, close to the river trail that leads into Seattle, close to Redhook Brewery....

My friends and I used to come to this Tully's in high school when they had their free coffee ice cream deals. The Hollywood Schoolhouse is where my friends Nick and Jennifer got married. Our gym, Goldcreek, is just down the street. There's a winery across the roundabout where my mom and Catherine and I went tasting and I thought about asking for a pouring job. Some of my sorority sisters picked up winery jobs in Walla Walla. That's not why I didn't ask, though.

I'll be coming here a lot this week. I have so much to do.