Tuesday, December 18th

Another shot from the webcam at Georgetown. We loved that little town in Colorado, but we're glad we live in California! I've never noticed traffic when looking at the webcam, so I had to go to a Colorado traffic report. It's amazing what you can find out on the internet.

ALERT:
I-70 Georgetown
Existing Conditions: (dry)

Restrictions in Place: Expect periodic 20 minute delays, Tue-Thu, 10:30 am to 5 pm, rock scaling.

I wonder what rock scaling is? I'm an L.A. woman - I don't think we do "rock scaling" in L.A.

It's raining where we live today, and I just happened to schedule a work at home day. Timing is everything, but we have some errands to run - the library that is only open on Tuesdays, the PO Box, and then the dentist. The house is cold, but instead of turning on the heat, we just all hang out in the office where the computers keep it warm as long as the door isn't wide open. There are even 3 cats in here, but the mail delivery person just rang the bell and they scattered.

And because Alex is King and wants to be different than the others (I can relate) he is behind the monitor on the DVD player, and couldn't be captured in the same picture.Do you know how hard it is to capture all 3 cats in one picture? Our friends have 12 cats (yes, it's a lot of cats, but when you find cats wandering down the street, and you love cats, you end up with 12), and I don't know if they've ever had them all in the same room, let alone attempted a family picture. This picture of our three cats was not taken today. Mowry (orange) looking out the window, Alex (big black and white) on some piece of electrical equiment, and Cinders (smaller black) all curled up on the cat bed trying to pretend there aren't other cats in the room, and that people aren't trying to take her picture. She's 17, so do you think she'd know by now that WE ARE THE DOMINATE SPECIES? Opposable thumbs and all that.

And because we're the humans and they are cats, we can do things to them that are funny to us, but possibly undignified to them. This picture is of Alex in his box. He's probably doing his last minute excavating.

I bought this yarn at a garage sale from an older lady who had intended on a project (I never asked what) but didn't do it. There are several skeins of very old Bernat Glenspun English Tweed 100% virgin wool worsted. It says "Permanently moth proofed" on the label. I don't think I've seen that on any modern yarn. I tried finding it online, but it's not there.
It's very thin, and each skein is 185 yards. I doubled it and made this scarf. It used two skeins (only because it was doubled). I probably could have made something like a vest, but after the vest I'm attempting now, I thought I'd rather do a scarf. I haven't decided if I'm keeping it or giving it as a present, but I have enough yarn to make another should I decide to keep it.

Thursday, December 13th

It's chilly, but beautiful out there today. How cold was it? While on the BART platform I could see my breath, and earlier I noticed that our trash cans had frost on them! I kid you not! But I couldn't see my breath walking in SF, so maybe it had warmed up a little by then.
BART was gross this morning.

I may buy a bunch of those small tissue packs and sell them on BART since no one seems to carry tissues. Would they even know what to do with a tissue if they had one? Sniffing, snorting, coughing (hopefully with enough sense to cover their mouths, but I doubt it), etc. If I mark up the cost of the tissues, I can even make a profit with a side business.

(The picture of the clock is here because this blog saved with the spacing weird unless I inserted a picture. The words were all mushed together without paragraphs!)

I just saw something on TV that they are teaching children to cough into their arms instead of their hands in the hope of keeping the spread of germs to a minimum. I try to wash my hands often, and while I'm not a germaphobe, just someone who doesn't want the germs and yuck of others, with these clueless, disgusting people all around me, there's not much I can do. I know people sneeze and need to blow their noses and get colds and such, but at least they can be considerate of those around them and USE A TISSUE. Of course those people don't read my blog, nor would I want them to!

I go from Union City to Embarcardero. Luckily I had a seat by the window today so I could read and try to ignore the people around me. It really is better than driving, but some days, I have to ask the question. I had clever thoughts about what I wanted to write today, but now that I'm writing, I can barely remember what I had wanted to say. I can be clever once, and today it was in my head. Sometimes when I type something clever and then it doesn't get saved, or I can't find where I saved it - same thing. It's hard to be clever twice.

And because a blog with pictures is more interesting than one without, here is a thought for the day in a picture:

Most days I think my cats are smarter than some of the people I encounter in a day. And even when they aren't, I like them better than most people I encounter in a day. That doesn't include the people I choose to encounter, just those I happen to to encounter.

Tuesday December 11th

I'm working from home today. I did a little work, and a lot of other stuff. We mailed most of our holiday cards (business calendar/cards for me, business cards for Will, and newsletters to those we don't see often, cards to some of the rest). The newsletter has my blog address on it, so I guess I need to update this more often in case I get more than 4 readers! I sealed SEVERAL newsletters in regular white envelopes with handmade return address labels and clear labels that I typed for each of the mailing addresses, when I noticed the bottom said "Have a happy 2007". Yes, just like major law firms and other businesses do, I used last year's newsletter as the template for this year's newsletter. And my personal editor (that would be Will) also missed it. I am a great editor, but I will tell you that does not apply to editing my own work. So after a brief hissy fit meltdown by me, Will sliced each envelope, took out the old one, replaced it with the new one, and taped each one. What a great guy! I shredded the bad ones.

It's been cold for those of us who are "California Weather Wimps", but not as cold as some places. Above is a picture from the webcam at Georgetown, CO today where it was 7 degrees and snowing.

I guess 41 degrees in the morning is not really that cold. Yesterday I took the ACE train, and then a shuttle to Santa Clara University for a seminar where I spoke. Instead of giving out the usual conference bags, we got tiny umbrellas. Perfect for me to put in my backpack that goes with me to clients.

It's still in its wrapper, but isn't the animal print cool? You can see how small it is next to Mowry's head and on my keyboard. "Why must you always bother me when I'm trying to sleep" is probably what Mowry is thinking.

As long as I'm awake, I guess I'll do a little cat bath. What a tongue on that little kitty.

And now, if you'll leave me alone, I am going back to my nap.

Tonight Will is meeting a friend of his for dinner at Original Joe's in San Jose (http://www.originaljoes.com/), so I need to do all these things, but let's be honest, maybe not all tonight? finish a scarf, work on a present I'm knitting that I was happy with until I started piecing it together and now I'm not sure if it will work, make fudge for the people at our P.O. mailbox, watch TV, wrap some presents, read (I have several books out from the library, but I'll get some reading time on Bart tomorrow, Thursday and Friday) etc. etc. etc. Oops, I left out laundry!

Thursday I'm in SF, but I need to leave early because one of Will's clients has invited us to their office party. Last year I think it was on a weekend night at someone's home, and was quite lovely, but this year they've "upgraded" to a restaurant, but it's on a Thursday, so I have to get home and start the dress up process before we trek over the bridge to Palo Alto.

No, it's not the wicked witch, it's just Mow Mow - I must have been annoying him again because he completely turned around so his back paws and tail were on my keyboard and his head was hidden way at the back of my desk.

And last, but not least, check out this game: http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/
It's a game of hangman that you can play on your computer!

Saturday

Today we went to the once-a-month flea market at the local community college. It's still nice because it's in a beautiful setting, and sometimes I find fun things, but today I noticed a few too many new weird stuff amongst a little of the old fun stuff. I manage to find a few things. The campus is beautiful.

Then we went across the street from the campus for a burger. We decided we'd share a double burger and thus eat less carbs with one half bun per person. It was actually a sourdough roll and was realy good, but half of a double burger was the perfect portion. I took this picture while we were waiting for our order!! I didn't even think of taking a picture of the hamburger!We drove home and walked into town. Today was the Niles Home Tour, which we didn't go on, but we saw lots of people walking around going to the houses on the tour. There were also lots of people in the shops, which is great for business. We did go in to two houses - one was selling handmade soap that was delicious smelling. I bought a cinnamon orange that is curing in my bathroom because it's fresh and not quite ready, but smells great. We went into the other house because we know the woman and she was standing outside directing people in, and she invited us in. She had so many decorations, and her house is old and wonderful. My favorite was the tree in the bathroom with sample sized bathroom items for ornaments, appropriately called her "Toilet-tree".

We also went to two open houses in the neighborhood, and finally got the meet the wife of the husband-wife realtor team who sold us our house.

On our walk we enjoyed seeing the hills that are turning green. This seems to be everyone's favorite time of year. I don't mind when the hills are gold in summer because it's just another phase of nature, but this truly is the prettiest. Those black spots near the Niles sign are cows.Some of the trees are still bearing leaves with magnificent fall colors.

When people complain about no fall colors in California, they either don't go on the streets I do, or they just miss it, and that is a shame. Maybe we don't have as many trees with their leaves changing colors, but we have enough to keep me happy.We walked by my Local Yarn Store but I didn't go in today. That's it below. All the merchants on Niles Blvd. have their windows painted for the holidays, and my LYS is no exception.

Another leather recliner?

I'm working from home today, and it's a good day to be home because it's drizzly/rainy outside. I like the rain, but I like it best when I'm inside and not commuting to an office. It's also trash pickup day, so I got out there early to sweep up the Crepe Myrtle tree leaves from the sidewalk. Our yard waste/food scrap green bin is almost full, but not quite. If it wasn't raining, I'd happily stop working and go outside and sweep some more, but it is raining, so 3/4 full is fine. I was outside clipping lavender in the rain, but it's lavender - who cares if it's raining. Our 91 year old neighbor almost always puts out a green bin, but some of the younger people on the block don't. Maybe they have gardners who take away the waste, but in most cases I don't think that is the case. I missed having a green bin when we lived in the townhouse for 8 years.

Tuesday was the first night of Chanukah. Our menorah has been well used - you can see by the wax drippings that we haven't cleaned off from last year! Chanukah is one of my favorite Jewish holidays because I enjoy lighting the candles.

Cinders is on the left, and Alex (with white on his paws and ears) is on the right. I was trying to capture the size differential, but it's hard to see. Alex is MUCH larger than Cinders.

These are the fingerless mitts and short scarf I made my mother-in-law who lives in Washington state where they are having terrible storms. She's wearing a fur hat to keep herself warm, but maybe these will work inside or when the weather warms up a little. I don't think it EVER gets warm there!

I thought I was done with this post, and then I was perusing Craigslist free (http://www.craigslist.com/) and found a leather recliner in Fremont. It was received from a friend for free for the woman's 90 year old grandmother, but she had trouble getting in and out of it, so she was giving it away. Will is 6' 1" so it will work for him.

The Clampetts are at it again. Just when you think we won't be carrying furniture hanging out of our van or car, here we go!
And yes, it was drizzly and rainy when we picked this up, but it was in Fremont, so I guess that's okay. It is pretty close in color to my chair in the background by the window. The new one is in the foreground.

Tuesday, December 4th

Today I took BART to SF. They didn't charge us because there was a power problem at the station I go to, and they assured me it wouldn't be a problem on the other end. Then there was a switching problem, so there weren't any direct trains to SF, so we had to take another train and switch. The driver told us we could get off at a particular station (the next one up) so several of us did, but once there we noticed there weren't any SF trains posted, and we ended up having to take another train, go two stops, get off, switch to a SF train. So I guess a "switching problem" means we'll be doing a lot of switching trains. If only the first driver had a clue, I would have stayed on the first train to the stop 3 stops away, and switched once. I was only about 20 minutes late, so it wasn't bad, but it was interesting watching the lemmings get off one train, on another, on another, off...well, you get the picture. At least I got a seat each time so I could read my novel. Whether it was because of the construction going on at the station, a power issue or because it rained last night and BART burps when it rains, it still beats driving ANY time.

Tonight is Open Mic. We haven't gone in about 4 or 5 weeks. Will has a funny story to read, and he's practiced on his new bongos to play with a guy who plays guitar quite well. He hasn't played music at Open Mic because he can't exactly haul his drum kit, but with the bongos he can do this. I will knit while we watch the acts perform. Hopefully the woman who frequents Open Mic and talks the whole time will NOT be there. I'm not sure why she comes if she talks loud enough for us all to hear her while people are performing. She can just as easily get up and perform if that's her gig.

Tomorrow I'm back in SF. Sorry, no pictures today.

Saturday December 1st

One month from today will be 2008. WOW! Today was the usual errand day, minus garage sales because garage sale season is over until it gets warmer, which it isn't right now. Above is a nice sunbeam on the cat beds that is on the sofa in the spare bedroom - notice there aren't any cats drinking in the warm sunbeam? It was below 40 this morning (not to be confused with 40 below), and Will had to go out to get milk because he ran out and forgot to get some yesterday. I don't drink the stuff, so it's his thing. So he got a half gallon this morning, and then a quart when we went to Trader Joe's - just in case - you never know when he'll run out again. Last night he actually ate dry Cheerios for a snack - something I do every day. I like it that way!

You can see our beautiful crepe myrtle tree out our bedroom window. Its leaves have changed colors and the leaves will be falling off soon.

I had the blue scarf about 3/4 of the way done, but I decided I wanted it narrower so it's easily tied, like the black fun fur/wool-eese scarf I made myself, so I rip rip ripped the WHOLE thing and started over last night. This picture is after - I worked on it for a long time last night. No wonder my finger was sore, but it's fine today. OK, not fine, but back to where it usually is, and that's the way it is.I'm always ready to take my knitting with me.