Just Another Week...

My camera cord was somehow taken to Nephew's house and until we drive all the way over to West Sacramento to get it, there will be no pictures to post. Boo. West Sac isn't all that far away--maybe about a 15 minute drive--but we're so conscious of our time and gas that we won't drive down the highway for only one reason. So I will probably not get my cord until we drop the babies (read: dogs) off at Mike and Bernie's on Friday.

Dave and I will have to get up at 3:30am on Saturday to catch our flight to Chattanooga, TN for a week of hanging out with my dad's side of the family. Edward and Allison will be driving down from NY with Emmy in tow. We're all SO excited to be going to the South! On GoogleChat everyday, Edward and I will make lists of all the things we are looking forward to:

• Hanging out with our beloved Great Uncle Walter
• Hanging out with all our deep-south relatives (cousins, cousins, and more cousins!)
• Eating Southern food: turnip greens, black-eyed peas, corn bread, pulled pork sandwiches, grits, ANYTHING at the Dairy Dip
• Showing Dave and Allison around the teeny town of La Fayette, GA
• Seeing the Tennessee Aquarium (both buildings) and going on the "behind the scenes" tour. Edward and I make a point of going to aquariums or zoos wherever we are in the world. This aquarium is probably the best I've even been to. If you're ever nearby you should definitely go.
• Rain! California hasn't seen rain since...January? I'm craving precipitation and I know the South will deliver. (Edward isn't so keen on this...but it rains all the time in NY. They have what you call an Ustic soil moisture regime--hey I remembered something from my soils class!)

In other news, Dave hurt his back last week and didn't end up working for this dad (for now). He's hoping that they are still doing timber harvest when we return from GA so he can work on that for a while. His dad promised me that he won't be out there on the ground with a giant chainsaw, that he'd make sure to put him in a safe skidder or backhoe with a roll cage instead.

After much discussion this past weekend in Gualala, everyone except for John decided that this just isn't "the time" for Dave to start working for his dad. Perhaps he'll work up north for a few weeks until he finds a job down here, but certainly not permanently. His dad couldn't really pay him enough, couldn't give him worker's comp insurance at all or medical insurance for 3 months. I was thinking "you want my husband to work under falling redwood trees without insurance of any kind? No way, no how." I think that if this were the right thing for Dave to do right now, then things like good salary and proper insurance would have fallen into place. He's applied to several jobs (including two here in Davis) but hasn't heard anything yet. I guess he'll just work for his dad on a weekly basis until he lands a good job here.

But for this past week he was at home again, laying down a lot because of his back. Once he started feeling better he finished the crown moudling in the kitchen and the hallway and finally installed the "picture hanger" trim in the guest room. All of them look sooooooooo nice! Before installing the kitchen and hallway stuff we had to paint those ceilings white. Dave's back was hurt from all the pre-paint washing we did in the kitchen to remove 1.5 years of grease. I'd forgotten how much I loathe painting, especially ceilings. After the kitchen was done the top of my head was all white with paint. I had to wash it 3 times and then just resolve to walking around town with white strands of hair in my pony tail for a few days.

Anyway, Dave and I are about to do a workout video together in the living room. If you happen to walk by our living room window and see us trying our best to do hip-hop dance moves, please don't laugh at us!

PS. I saw our FIRST tomato fruit this morning! It is only the size of a large marble but it is very exciting to me. Hopefully there will be lots of them by the time we're back from vacation.