The Bowers Still Exist

Hi!

Long time no blog, eh?  Well, we're still alive. We're just busy. I promise I'll hop back on here after I file my dissertation.

In the meantime, here's a very quick look into my life at the moment.

I'm currently house/garden/18-year-old-cat sitting for my dad while he and my brother are up in Gualala helping Dave work on the house. This is my dissertation station on the kitchen table.

I set up a work station in the studio apartment of the property my dad recently bought in Gualala. It's just two doors down from the Coast House and makes a nice retreat. And since there's no wifi I tend to get a lot done!

On Wednesdays I drive Eddie to/from school as a treat to him. While he's at school, I write in the teen section of our local library.

This handsome guy went mushroom hunting with Eddie and me on Monday. We found LOTS of king boletus. He's pointing to one. You really need a keen eye to find them among the pine needles and grass.

Eddie is now in kindergarten. How did that happen?!  I cannot figure out where the time has gone.

He seems to be doing very well academically. For the last month he's been having some issues pushing his friends and sometimes not listening well to the teacher in the afternoon. I'm hoping it's a phase but I do worry that it'll get worse so we're trying really hard to nip it in the bud (role playing, talking about using verbal communication instead of his body language when he's frustrated, advice from the local family resource center, talking with the teacher every few days for updates, etc.). This behavior coincides with a new, annoying habit of chewing on cloth--like this backpack straps or shirt collar. So it might be stress...? Sigh, parenthood is not always fun or easy.

But dang if he ain't the handsomest boy ever!

I have no idea what led me to the blog...I was just finishing a lit review for my calorimetry chapter...I think it's time for a coffee before I get back to work....

See you in December!

Why no blogging?

I wrote this last week and forgot to post it...the story of my life.

Goodness, have I ever gone a whole month without posting anything?  Probably. I looked at the archives on the blog recently (looking for a recipe I know I posted in a partiuclar month) and it was interesting to see how many posts I created for every year. It has gone down, down, down steadily.

Why?

It seems that life never slows down, lets up, gives in, or calms down. There's always more more more going on. More commitments, more distractions, more house to deal with, more people to deal with, etc. It seems to happen without my consent!  Just kidding. Since moving up here my schedule is less predictable. And our giant, disorganized house is a lot to keep up with. Add John and Dave into the meal mix and I'm always busy.  Plus, I'm trying to save the airport, volunteering on a board of directors, TAing at Davis (I had to be registered as a full time student to qualify for graduation after being on leave), and working with a local group of folks to start a daycare in Gualala. Oh yeah: and my dissertation isn't done yet. (Closer than last month, though!)

Last week was slated to be very productive. I had a load of gardening planned, a goal of submitting another chapter to my committee for review, and more. But then I got strep throat. With a 103.5F fever and so much pain in my throat, the week was lost. I was so sick I couldn't even consider watching a show to pass the time. I just laid in bed trying to sleep but mostly staring at the ceiling.

This week is going better. On Wednesdays I usually spend the day in Point Arena. I drive Eddie to school (instead of have him take the bus) then get breakfast at the co-op. Once the library is open I work there until the afternoon movie starts at the theater (if I want to watch whatever is playing). Today is Le Weekend. The description sounds like something my mom would have LOVED so I'll probably go. I always get a small bucket of the organic popcorn with real butter (swoon!) instead of eating a proper lunch. The movie gets out just in time to pick Eddie up from daycare. Wednesdays are pretty awesome.

Tomorrow I'll spend the day planting our garden. I know, I know, it's nearly June. But we didn't have time to get it done any sooner...and better late than never.

This weekend Eddie and I will go to my brother's house to visit and so Jennifer and I can "run" in the Bay to Breakers. I put "run" in quotes because--let's be honest--there's no way I'll be running the whole thing. I can do 3 miles straight and only SLIGHTLY want to die. Seven miles would kill me. But I'll try. It'll be a run-walk-run-walk situation I'm sure. And besides, it's like a fun costume parade so we definitely won't be the only ones walking!

Thursday Eddie will get his last kindergarten shots. I can't believe he'll be in real school in a few months. Most people already have a second or third child by the time their oldest enters school. People keep asking us when we'll have another baby and at this point we often look at Eddie being crazy (whining about everything, bouncing off the walls with so.much.energy., refusing to do anything when asked, etc.) and think, "Do we really want to have another one?  We are exhausted with THIS ONE!"  Four-five year old boys are definitely a good form of birth control.

Kayaking, Fishing, Horse Puppets, and Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago we had a jam-packed fun time.

Edward and Jennifer came up to visit us the weekend after my birthday. They arrived Thursday night and Jennifer worked remotely Friday while Dave worked. I did some school stuff, errands, took Eddie to school, etc. and then spent a good amount of time getting our fishing gear organized. We all bought fishing licenses that afternoon after having an adult-only (!!) lunch downtown. Fishing didn't work out on Friday because we failed to check the tide calendar.

That evening we had a hot dog and deli salad dinner at one of John's burn piles in the woods. We've done these a lot recently and it was fun to have more people with us this time. I love these dinners because preparations are a snap and there's virtually no clean up!

Papa John and Eddie messing around while we got dinner organized.

Saturday morning I went up to Point Arena to the school to be a judge for the cupcake wars fundraiser. I had to taste all 28 cupcake entries...ouf. Luckily our friend was there selling his coffee and there was a kid selling hotdogs to cut the sweetness.  The event was a raging success, selling out of cupcakes and raising just over $2000 for the school.  I'm glad I participated and hope that I can do it again next year...unless I enter in the adult category!

Edward and Jennifer brought Eddie up to the school once the cupcake thing opened to the public at noon. Dave had met up with a fellow daycare dad to haul big rig loads of donated wood chips up to the preschool. He met us at the school for cupcake treats when he was done.

As soon as we had gulped down our coffee and hot dogs, Jennifer and I met up with my friend Naomi and went down the street to the Arena Theater.  We saw a showing of the London Theater's War Horse play, using the most amazingly engineered puppets. The story is sad but the puppetry was just incredible. You should check out this video of a horse puppet meeting real horses--the acting done by the puppeteers is so life like!

After getting back to Gualala that afternoon we lazed around a bit before having a nice dinner.

Sunday morning we took off to Cook's Beach for another fishing attempt, this time at low tide. Edward, Jennifer, and I biked there (it took all of 5 minutes down Highway 1) while Eddie, the dogs, and Dave drove.  We climbed out onto the rocks to fish, using squid for bait. No one caught anything but we did get some nibbles. I'm not sure if they were from fish or crabs, though. Regardless of the lack of fish for supper that night, we had lots of fun. Eddie had a gaggle of adults to build castles in the sand, the dogs convinced random people on the beach to throw sticks for them, and we all enjoyed the warm sunshiny weather.

Auntie Jennifer fishing!

Eddie, the dogs, and Dave prepping the fishing gear. Well, I guess the dogs are just there to lick up the squid juice.

Edward and Jennifer.

Edward immediately hooked his line on the rocks below us. He spent about a half hour dealing with it, including a climb down the rocks to the water's edge. I would cut the line!

Eddie's pointing to a purple star fish we spied on the rocks in the tide pools. 

That afternoon we rented kayaks and took them up river.  Eddie and I were in a double and it was his first time kayaking. He did great, even paddling a little. Mostly, though, he collected sticks on the beach and then launched them like arrows from the elastic cargo bungee on the front of the raft. We were happy to run into Naomi and her two doggies playing in the river. Eddie wanted to go home with her and the dogs!  But we convinced him to keep playing in the water with us.

We picnicked on a gravel beach just south of a fly fisherman. Our egg salad and chips lunch was delicious.  Just nearby the beach we saw an otter, which was very cool.

Me and Eddie!

Our picnic on the beach.

Edward.

Jennifer in her single and Eddie and I in our double.

After getting home from the river, our visitors packed up their stuff and took off down the road. I sent them off with butterscotch lattes to go so they could have an enjoyable ride. It was a busy, fun, and somewhat exhausting weekend...I can't wait to have them visit again soon!

Dave Quiz

Let's play a game.

You might be married to Dave if (select all that apply):

A. You get emails like this:

B. You get calendar event invitations like this:

C. Everything in your husband's office is at least 20% larger than normal (desk, chair, mouse, monitor, computer tower), leaving you unable to use the office in his absence because you are not 20% larger than most wives.

D. You have to set the table with cocktail sauce when it's taco or burrito night because it's a must-have condiment for your husband (and his dad).

E. You find yourself refusing to pack food into his lunchbox because you're grossed out that there is mold growing inside and you are teased for being dramatic and overly concerned as he throws his food into the box himself. Ew, mold.

F. You find a zillion extra pictures on your phone if you let him be in charge of taking the picture. You discover that he just snaps away, even when you're not ready yet.


G. Your 5000 square foot house routinely uses only $70 in electricity in a month. Related: you are used to hearing your husband spout off how much money it costs per hour to run such-and-such light fixture and seeing him daydream when he talks about LED fixtures for the garage and kitchen remodel.

H. He asks you to plot the propane usage so he can calculate how much lower the electric bill will be once we switch from the electric stove to the propane stove. And you do it.

I. You fear for your life when you have to drive his truck.

You should have answered all of the above. 

The Dogs and Their Kitty

Given the number of dogs-staring-at-the-cat pictures I have on my phone, I figured it was appropriate for a post about it.

How the dogs interact with the cat varies over the course of the day. While us humans are at work or school, the kitty has free roam of the house and the dogs are locked up in the office. She seems to enjoy having free rein over the house, as evidenced by the tongue lick marks I've found on the butter when we forget to cover it, things she's knocked off the coffee table, and occasionally finding her hiding somewhere weird when we get home.  She'll sometimes be up high on a shelf or in a pile of as-yet unpacked moving boxes because the dogs were let out before she could run back her to laundry room.

But when we are home, a feline-canine magnetism develops that is hard to ignore.

Taters turns into a statue, positioning himself with a good view of the kitty. He won't move a muscle unless you offer him food or suggest a romp outside. And sometimes not even then. We think he stares at her in hopes that SOMEDAY she'll surprise him and want to be chased through the house. But I think he'll have to wait a looooooooong time for that to happen.

Ruby gets magnetized sometimes, too.

 I don't know how they can stand to stare at her for so long. Once bedtime rolls around, they make sure to get a good spot for horizontal position staring while we get ready to sleep.  Usually we place Nina on a king sized pillow between the headboard and my pillow. She used to stay there for quite some time but has recently decided that she'd rather walk around the entire bed to find the perfect nest, despite the crazy dogs lurk

If Nina would allow it, Ruby would have her snout shoved into Nina's fur (or better yet, her "undercarriage") whenever they're in bed.

Pretty girls!

Clearly, Nina is not too perturbed by the canine affections.

Sometimes, Ruby will get too tired to actually stare at the kitty so they'll snuggle up for a bit. Nina tries to groom Ruby, but Ruby always growls.

Our sleeping arrangements shift depending on our moods (do we want a cat taking up space in the bed tonight?) and Eddie's requests (sometimes he wants Nina to sleep with him). Like I said, she usually sleeps on a pillow in our bed. But sometimes she sleeps with Eddie--and half of those times he ends up in our room in the middle of the night complaining that Nina is walking all over him. So then we put her outside the hallway and she goes about her nocturnal feline business.

Eddie and kitty!

I get up to pee nearly every night and lately I've been finding Nina and Taters snuggled up together in the middle of the bed, where Taters sleeps every night.

ISN'T THAT ADORABLE?

Here's another one in case you didn't realize just how cute it is to see your dog and cat (and husband) snuggling.

Sometimes Nina chooses the weirdest places to sleep. She's soooooo soft and silky and warm that I put up with it.

I think they'd snuggle this way during the day if it weren't for annoying Ruby trying to police the situation. We call her the Yard Duty, except she growls and barks instead of blows a whistle.

In this case, Ruby was warning Dave to stop bothering her. He was stroking Ruby's head with one of Nina's shed whiskers and she was NOT happy about it. Of course, I could have taken a similar picture when Ruby is "protecting" Nina from Taters....Ruby seems to think Nina needs protecting sometimes.

Ruby wasn't thrilled at getting a bath from Nina. 

Oh, the complexities of inter-species homes...

Work, Study, Play Weekend

Saturday I volunteered us to help at Eddie's daycare workday. We worked with two other dads to install a 30'x20' wooden border around the swing set. In a couple of weeks a dump truck load of wood chips will be delivered and we'll rake those around the swings for a soft cushion. I got to dig some of the post holes, something I hadn't done since the last time we did a daycare work day in 2011. 

Eddie got into each of the 24 holes we dug to make SURE they were deep enough. He was a happy, dirty kid that day.

There was one other kid there, two year old Drake, who had a grand time running around with Eddie. Toward the end, the kids and I went to the general store to get burritos and chips for everyone.

Drake and Eddie picked all the yellow sour grass flowers and floated them in the rain water the pooled inside the giant tires.

When we got home, Dave spent some time studying for his upcoming water operator exam. I took a short nap while Eddie watched some shows. Since I didn't take any pictures on Saturday afternoon, I had to work really hard to remember what we did the rest of the day.  It's crazy (embarrassing?) that I find myself forgetting what happened just a few days ago.  I was able to determine that we went running at the airport together before eating a lasagna dinner with Papa at our house. Oh, and I know I made a double batch of America's Test Kitchen Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (the name doesn't lie).  

Sunday was the start of Daylight Saving and we had a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, grits, and venison sausage with gravy. Dave went to the office to study while Eddie and I did our usual Saturday chores--washing the sheets, cleaning the bathrooms, and vacuuming.  Eddie's room was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER and it took him a 1.5 hours to clean it all up--and a third of that was with me "helping" him (read: getting on his case about NOT playing with everything and just putting it all away). He and Dave are going to be gone one night this coming weekend and you better believe that I'll be removing about 30% of the stuff from his room. Less stuff, less to clean up! He doesn't play with much of it anyway, it's just in the way of the toys he wants to find.

That afternoon Eddie had a 6 year old girl, Tali, over for a movie. It was this sweet child who held Eddie's hand when he was scared to get on the big scary school bus for the first time and sat next to him in the "preschool" seats for the whole first week.  (Bless her heart!)

Anyway, she brought stuffed animals and popcorn to share. I brought out the tubs of my own stuffed animals from childhood and we all had a grand time digging through them. We even found one of my mom's topsy-turvy doll, a toy that probably lived here on the coast back in the 1940s. Eventually we settled on the couch downstairs to watch Mulan. I wanted to watch something new that none of us had seen, but kids are kids and they wanted something familiar. It was a sweet change to have a calm little girl in the house who sat contentedly, petting the dogs, and cuddling her stuffed toys.  Before her grandma picked her up, we all drew chalk art outside.

I  made clam chowder that night, which was ready when Dave got home. Mmmmmm, if I didn't know how much butter was in it I would want to eat it every night.

Taters made a good bed desk for Dave.

A text conversation between Dave and I. He's slightly obsessed with anime.
PS. I adore our profile pictures--both of Eddie with pirate face paint from a day at Cassie's when he was a wee tot.

Biscotti

Ever since tasting a biscotti sample at the grocery store before Christmas, I've been on a biscotti kick. Last week I finally decided to make some. It was my first time and they came out super good. Next time I want to make a copy-cat version of the ones I tasted at the store (chocolate chunk and pistachio).

I used this recipe as a guide, but modified it by adding orange zest, almonds, and chocolate chips, and swapping out half the sugar for maple syrup.

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon orange or mandarin zest
• 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat wet ingredients plus zest in large bowl. Mix flour and powder in a small bowl, then stir into wet ingredients. Mix in almonds and chocolate chips. Scoop out half the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicon sheets. Oil your hands and shape dough into a rope shape the length of the pan. Pat down to 1/2" thick. It will be about 4" wide, depending on your pan length. Repeat on a second pan. Bake 25-30 minutes until slightly browned. Cool on racks until you can handle them. Cut with a pizza cutter into 1/2" thick slices. Return to pans, cut side up and bake for 6-10 minutes. Flip over to other cut side for another 6-10 minutes. They should cool to be crispy, perfect for dunking in coffee, milk, or cocoa. 

The recipe made two giant cookies.

I used a pizza cutter to slice them while still warm.

After the second baking I let them cool a bit...

...and then made a silly face instead. 

I brought them to the office so folks can munch on them with an afternoon coffee now that we have a Keurig maker. One of the guys said, "How DARE you bring those in here? Ooooh that's dangerous, girl." I laughed and pointed out that he didn't have to open the tin, he could have just walked on by. He said, "I have to tell you, those are the third best biscotti I've ever had...no wait, those are the three best biscotti I've ever had. I ate three already this morning!" What a nice compliment!

Eddie's Songs

I'm in the living room working on the couch and Dave is down the hall in our room. Eddie's in his room, singing loudly, even though he's supposed to be asleep.

Summer 2013 Garden Tally

Well, I am finally done processing all of my 2013 garden produce. I know, it's just about time to start planting the 2014 garden.

What got me to the finish line were the dried spices I had stowed away in the laundry room until I had time to deal with them.  In the evenings I like to settle down on the couch to watch a show before bed. I like to have something for my hands to do while in front of the TV and rubbing the seeds off dried plants filled that need.

Throughout last summer I collected dill seed heads whenever I was in the garden and spotted some. I stuffed them into paper sacks, which I left open to dry. It took me weeks of rubbing, but I finally finished with a quart jar nearly overflowing.

Last spring I planted cilantro here in Gualala during spring break. By the time we moved up here the place was a weed-veggie jungle and I didn't remember anything about the cilantro. I found the scraggly plants when I was weeding one of the beds. By then it was flowering and the honey bees really liked it, so I left it alone to go to seed. The heads were sort of scattered throughout the plant so I hacked them all down once they had dried in the garden and brought them home. Our kitchen table was piled high with the dead plants for a few days. Dave and I would watch something on the laptop while rubbing the seeds off. We got a whole quart!

In the fall, before it got too cold (not that it ever really got cold this last year), we walked around the neighborhood and collected wild fennel seed heads.  The stuff is a weed around here. One of our neighbors asked what we were doing and he commented that he'd never even tasted fennel. I said it was a common spice in sausage and after he smelled some that I crushed in my hand he realized he had eaten it his whole life. I was able to get a pint so I might take a few tablespoons to him so he can try cooking with it.

As I was putting the dill and fennel away this morning I realized just how many seasonings I've been able to grow.  Herbs are obvious: the green or "herbaceous" part of any plant like basil. But spices always seemed like something regular people just purchase, rather than grown. Not so: I was able to grow lots of seeds for seasoning.

Top: serrano peppers from my dad, lemon verbena leaves, fennel seeds, mint leaves, Thai peppers from my dad.
Bottom: dried onions, coriander, dill leaves, dill seeds, tarragon leaves.

And here is some of the rest of our dried foods stash. We haven't tried everything yet, but I can report that the zucchini works well in lasagna instead of noodles (just rehydrate for a few minutes with hot water until they're pliable) and the carrots resemble fresh ones when cooked in soup. The bell peppers are good enough to eat like crackers!

Some of our dried veggies and fruits from last year. Zucchini and yellow squash, bell peppers, carrots, apples, peaches, apricots, beans, and eggplant. I haven't tried the eggplant yet but I'm not confident that we'll like it.  Maybe in lasagna?

 The final tally for all frozen, canned, and dried "put up" food for 2013 was:

• 12 quarts plum pulp (will make jam or fruit leather later)
• 14 pints no-pectin plum jam
• 12 pints pectin plum jam
• 3 trays dried apricots
• 24 quarts canned apricots (for FIL)
• 7 gallons frozen apricots (for pies)
• 26 cups frozen strawberry peaches (for pies)
• 14 pints pineapple apricot jam
• 11 pints low-sugar apricot jam
• 9 pints low-sugar apricot peach jam
• 4 quarts apricot simple syrup (left over from canning--excellent mixed with champagne or rum)
• 24 quarts canned pears (my dad actually did this for me using pears given to the Bowers by their lawyer...the guy's family operates a produce packing plant and gave them some cases of fruit after one of their meetings...weird, right?)
• 2 quarts canned pear simple syrup (good with champagne)
• 5 dehydrator loads of zucchini
• 4 pints dried onions (grown in Davis)
• 2 gallons frozen blackberries (for jam or pies)
• 30 pounds canned green beans (my dad and Jennifer helped with this)
• 5 gallons frozen green beans
• 10 quarts Gravenstein apples (for pies)
• 6 quarts dried Gravenstein apples (for snacking)
• 14 pints candied jalapenos (canned)
• 12 cups frozen pesto
• 4.5 quarts fermented peppers for hot sauce (jalapenos, peppinos, Hungarian hot wax--will be ready next month)
• 3 quarts fermented cayenne-garlic (accidentally got some yogurt along with the whey inoculate in there)
• 7.5 quarts canned tomato basil sauce
• 11 quarts frozen rosemary pizza sauce
• 9 quarts frozen ratatouille
• 4 quarts frozen chopped chard
• 7 quarts frozen hot salsa fresca
• 15 pints canned chipotle salsa verde
• 18 pints canned salsa verde
• 1 pint dried bell peppers (store bought)
• 1 quart dried carrots
• 1 quart dried figs (from a local family)
• 1 quart coriander seed
• 1 quart dill seed
• 1 pint fennel seed (wild)

We purchased some of the produce from a local family ranch (some basil and tomatoes and beans) but most of it was from our garden. You can see why settling down to write my dissertation was so hard during the summer--never mind the distractions of moving, starting a new job, and my mom's passing. In the next few weeks I'll spend my evenings planting seeds in peet pellets to get our 2014 garden started. 

Rainy Friday and Last Week's Vacation

Another week has gone by. I really do feel like I trot along at a brisk pace each day just to keep my family going going going. 

Lately I've been daydreaming about having one floor of the Coast House completely finished and livable. That'll be a lovely change, in part because it means we can consider having a cleaner come a couple times a month to do deep cleaning. How amazing would it be to have some of our weekend chores done for us so our weekends can be more 'family play time' instead of 'getting ready for the upcoming week time'? With all the dusty construction and us using rooms on both floors it doesn't make sense to clean some of the rooms, let alone pay someone else to do it. 

Last week was a nice change of pace because Eddie was out of school for President's Week--something I never got as a student. All of us had President's Day off on Monday and Eddie went to daycare on Tuesday while I worked. That day we tried carpooling for the first time with a first grader named Tali. Her grandma dropped her off in the morning and I drove the kids to daycare. Eddie loved having a friend to ride with! Tali's grandma did the drive home and Eddie seemed to get a kick out of driving in a different car and in a big-kid booster seat. We still haven't moved him to a seat belted booster yet because the five-point harness seats are safer, but we keep thinking about it since it's hard for him to unbuckle himself. 

Wednesday morning Eddie and I packed up the van with bikes and clothes, dropped some things off at the office, and headed to Auntie and Uncle's in Mountain View for a vacation. We had a grand time of seeing friends and a movie, biking, playing tennis and hockey, eating at Google, watching the Olympics, sleeping late, and eating at a brewery with some of Edward and Jennifer’s friends. Less fun (but not traumatic) was doing all the ‘town’ shopping—Costco, Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, the international market, Michael’s and Jo-Ann Fabric, a Craigslist purchase…I think that’s it.

I let Eddie pick out a Redbox movie in Petaluma for the drive down 101, which we return in Mountain View when we arrive. This time he got a Barbie Christmas movie. On the way back home he picked out a Barbie twin princess movie. Our headrest DVD player broke so I just fold the middle van seat down and bungee cord my laptop to it, using a USB player. The only issue with this cheap set up is that I can’t reach back to turn the volume off when he falls asleep so I often have to listen to the annoying dialog or songs. Or I just crank up the volume on my podcasts.

On Wednesday night Edward and Jennifer put on a "cowboy dinner" for Batiste as a late birthday present. He loves all things horse and cowboy so it was perfect. We listened to authentic country music (according to Edward who actually researched it), wore cowboy garb, and ate pork/beans/cornbread. It was really fun.

Eddie was upset that he doesn't own cowboy boots so I offered to let him be a sheriff instead--and since sheriffs sometimes have to run after the 'bad guys' that his regular shoes would be best because who can run fast in cowboy boots?  (No one.) Then he was upset that he'd broken his sheriff badge...so I gathered up all the brooches from my mom's 1960s jewelry box and let him pick one to wear as an alternative. You can see in the picture that he chose the sparkling rhinestone one. We ended up bringing all of them so everyone could wear one. It was so sweet that all of us humored him by donning a fancy brooch. The options included: a few long stem roses, a turtle, a donkey from Jerusalem, and an engraved name plate.

On Friday we played tennis with Jeremy and Janine and then ate at Google for dinner as Jeremy's guests. It was yummy and fun! Edward always says he'd work at Google just for the free, delicious food...now I know why. We got dessert after filling our dinner plates because it always runs out. All these geeky Google guys were in line to get some mascarpone berry pie, taking a long time to balance their dinner plates while trying to cut/serve a piece of pie. I noticed a single piece left in a pan next to the long line and everyone just ignored it. So I slide out of line, took the whole pie pan, and scooted another whole pie to the front of the counter. That prompted the line to split into two so folks could serve from two pies instead of just one. Aren't these Google people supposed to be good problem solvers?

Auntie, Eddie, and I biked to the movie theater to see the LEGO movie. Uncle had some major scrapes on his leg and hands so he had to drive to the movies and we met him there. That was SUCH a fun movie. I can't wait to see it again when it comes to our local theater.

  

To get to the theater we had to go up and over 101 on a path. Every other time we've done this, Eddie's had to walk his bike part way up the overpass because it was too steep for him.  Not this time!  We were so proud of him for biking up up up all by himself. 

We watched the USA men's hockey game against Canada so Eddie wanted to play some hockey before we left. 

Blurry Ninja Turtle family photo before we left for home.

I made sure to get us back to Gualala on Saturday night so we would have Sunday to get ready for the week. It was nice to spend time with Dave on Sunday, having not seen him since Wednesday morning. He'd taken PTO on Thursday and Friday to work on insulating/sheetrocking the garage for his workshop. It's coming along nicely!

Sunday afternoon we moved horse manure from the neighbor's dumping spot to our composting spot at the airport. I drove the big rig up there, something that is fun but difficult because the seat doesn't move close enough for me to use the pedals so I have to perch on the end of the chair. 

Dave was veeeeeeeery patient with me while I slowly and clumsily maneuvered the backhoe to load the dump truck. He took over the mixing and stacking after it was dumped. The way he operates that thing makes it look like an extension of his own body. Is there anything sexier than watching your husband expertly stack manure for you to make compost? For me it ranks only second to watching him hold a baby.

When we were in Mountain View we went to a thrift store where I scored a(nother) Donvier ice cream maker. So of course we had to make some ice cream that night.

This is rocky road, made using our leftover rainbow marshmallows. It is super yummy.

 The end of this week brought a storm from the south. We enjoy watching the weather change outside the window each morning while we get ready for the day.

I love seeing layers of clouds, each a different color.

We watched a dense rain squall move toward the house yesterday. Sadly, it went north of us...I was looking forward to a brief pounding of rain.

There is currently a gale force wind advisory in effect up here--lasting 1.5 days. So far we've experienced one power outage blip here in the office and my FIL had a water customer at his door early this morning because a branch fell on her water line and caused a major leak.

If the wind isn't too crazy tonight and there's power in Point Arena, we're planning on having a pizza and salad dinner at the pier after work. Eddie should really enjoy that. On my list for today is finding references for two statements in my second chapter/second draft, making all the verb tenses the same, sending it off for review, and doing data crunching for my third chapter.