December Update

It's been far too long since I've posted. I'm mulling resolutions for 2015 these days and "more blogging" is on the list. Again. I'm thinking of rechristening them goals, or at least attaching more concrete outcomes to the list this year. So, "more blogging" will probably become "blog at least once a month" which is the minimum output I'd prefer - don't know about your preferences, but then it's not really about you, is it? :)

Part of why I haven't blogged is because life's adventures have been modest of late. Luckily, work has mellowed to normal levels of stress from the freakishly high they were for a month or so since that also makes it hard to post.

The front yard project is coming along well. M has been working very hard removing the top six inches or so of soil, replacing it with good dirt, and pouring concrete pavers. I've been offering helpful design advice and assisting with the plants. It will still take a year or two for all of the new ground covers (elfin and creeping thyme, sedum, and dymondia mostly) to get established and spread to every nook and cranny of the yard, but even with just the new soil replacing the dead "lawn" it looks much better.

I'm not much of a Halloween celebrator, but our Accounting Department makes a big deal of it every year. I suggested they let the whole office know the theme this year so we could all join in. I hope you can tell the theme they chose from the photo below, taken with my friends Monique and Mace. Monique and I walked to the nearby grocery store to pick up lunch in our Old West attire, and it was kinda fun being out and about in dress-up getup.

M and I took a motorcycle ride to a place we'd tried to see before but were turned back because of fire: The Geysers. We weren't allowed very close to the plant, but there are tours a few times a year. It was a little unnerving seeing a whole valley threaded with pipes and steam rising from a couple of buildings. Apparently tapping the steam has increased the number of earthquakes in the area. It was a lovely ride through a very remote area.



Thanksgiving was a fine holiday. I took two additional days off of work, and that was great. I went up early to Mom's and got some extra relaxation in. Arienne, Christin, and Scott came up with M the next day, as did JeriLu and having a few more family members made it extra festive. The food was great of course. Booze flowed freely.

We played games in the evening, which was a fun change - Cards Against Humanity - once in between hands of 31 - and Pictionary! Team Women won against Team Men. We worked on a puzzle. The weather was clear at first then got a little wet, but we were able to squeeze in a walk on the Stornetta Public Lands.

With Mom at Starcross

 Arienne, Christin, and Scott had to leave on Saturday; M and I stayed til Sunday. Mom and I did some holiday shopping at Starcross, a monastic community in Annapolis, at the Gualala Arts Festival of the Trees. We stopped off at the Sea Ranch Chapel, a particularly lovely little building that I'd never actually been to before, though have passed probably a gazillion (at least!) times in my travels up and down the coast lo these many years. Here's the Flickr album for Thanksgiving.

We finally got some rain! The mushrooms have gone mad this year. We also had a storm last Thursday. The various authorities were really hyping it, so most people were prepared. Unfortunately, the city did not clean out the culvert at the end of our street, so the water flooded the gutters and washed away much of M's hard work on the front part of our yard. It's mostly just a matter of getting more soil, but a frustrating setback in time and a little money.

Of course, it could have been much worse. On the bright side, we're happy with how the yard is coming along generally. There's a lot of planting left to do, and now we're a little worried about timing. We want to get in as much as we can when it's cool and rainy, but we don't want to have more wash away, either. Given the drought, we didn't anticipate that that would be a problem!