Here it is...

We're moving to Asheville, North Carolina.

Clearly we've had no intention of staying in California, and while things keep appearing to be ironing out - finally arranging the apartment so it's comfortably livable, the rabbit runs, we see Liz all the time, we're spending more and more time with George's new co-worker who's awesome, other people from Vermont are popping up in front of us every time we go to the grocery store, when it gets right down to it there's an awkwardness to living here that won't go away. I feel like I'm someone else when I go out to do things, most of my free time is spent checking my email, knitting & listening to Sherlock Holmes podcasts - nothing new, exciting, or progressive is being accomplished and I don't like it.

I do like Liz and Yannick and Dyani and Shannon and Emily and our neighbors and the quaintness of our apartment - but I also like Hope and the east coast and a bedroom I can stand up in and a closet that's not a hallway to the bathroom and antique stores I can afford to shop at...

We did seriously consider moving back to Vermont, but I'm not ready for that, I've got stuff to do. (It is only a 14 hour drive or short JetBlue flight away...)

Same ol', same ol'.

We're back and nothing has changed. We both went to work on Thursday which was a pretty big bummer, there was no pleasant savoring of vacation time, no breath-catching...

We were back just in time for lots and lots of rain! Last night the creek was up to the bottom of the cement pylons behind the house, which is something like eleven feet from the bottom of the creek. Word on the street is that the flooding point for downtown San Anselmo is about eleven or twelve feet, which explains why we heard the flood horns going off last night. Naturally we had to mosey down and see what all the fuss was about. Just as we got to the beginning of downtown the police were blocking the road and rerouting traffic, so we drove around the main drag and found some pretty big bitchin' puddles to drive the rabbit through. In the middle of the night the rain let up and it's been kind of cloudy all day, but it's supposed to pick up again tonight. Ooo!

To keep you occupied in the meantime, the Marin IJ has made this great interactive map where residents can mark and describe the storminess in their area. I suggest scrolling over the points around Fairfax and San Anselmo. Some of my favorites include, "Nannies unable to get to work due to flooding - parents forced to watch own kids," "Hippies massing in parkade, trying to look all alternative and misunderstoof." (That's right, stoof.), "Emergency meeting called at Marin IJ to discuss rampant misuse of interactive map", "Goth Girl behind counter at Book Beat still not smiling."

"The haul"

"The haul"
Originally uploaded by average lavender

I've been lazy about the blog posts but that doesn't mean that I've been lazy. We've spent most of our trip driving around Vermont - to Burlington, to Montpelier, to Burlington, to Woodbury, to Greensboro, to East Hardwick, to Woodbury, to Burlington....

Now we're in Cambridge. Today has been a day of good deals. Actually, it all started when we rented a car to drive down here, a steal at $70 for a sweet '08 Saturn Aura. Today it started with George's new handmade mug (made in Somerville), continued with some 1,300 yards of superfine alpaca yarn for my first ever sweater-knitting adventure, and ended with...a computer!

Sitting around with Cynthia, Leland, and George - each of them showing off their own computers I felt ... like I lived in the Dark Ages. Obviously I use a computer every day, it's just not mine, and in a world where technology is slowly taking over (for better or worse) I decided I either needed to get with the times or build a fall-out shelter and plan for the apocalypse. After browsing the Apple store, and the Dell store and the Dell refurbished store and deciding immediately that Windows Vista would not be allowed near me, I perused the Small Business section and stumbled upon the Latitude D820. The starting price for this computer was about $1,400 ...with a $758 instant rebate. All in all the bill came out to ... $662. Free shipping. Free shipping. I squirreled my way around sales tax by having it mailed to a friend in Oregon - which doesn't have any sales tax! It was like a secret surprise, I thought New Hampshire was the only one!

We are very excited.

We are less excited to go back to California; we officially recognize that we do not belong on the west coast. (And we agree that we do not belong.)

On flying.

Please, parents, people charged with small children, anyone, do not bring kids on red eye flights. Seriously. Our hopes for the flight from SFO to JFK went down and up and down and down and down. Getting to the airport a good two and half hours early we killed some time drinking soda and water and watching all the people on the level below us in front of what happened to be our departure gate. This is when I spied the woman with the dog: big woman, tiny barking dog. After boarding we discovered the plane was fairly empty and that we had all three seats to ourselves! During take off and, oh, ninety percent of the flight the two kids behind us shreiked and screamed and kicked and howled...at the absolute top of their lungs. It was one of the worst flights we have ever been on. EVER.

After a few more hours waiting at JFK we boarded for the fifty minute flight to Burlington, which was also pretty empty and also pretty child-free.

We're at our respective homes now, tired and achey.

After the storm.

After the storm.
Originally uploaded by average lavender

The creek behind our house is usually bone dry and it's a common hang out spot for the little punk ass kids during lunch time. The storm that just passed through was pretty serious and the creek was pretty seriously excited about it. Marin had a wicked storm a couple years ago that flooded most of the downtowns and ruined many houses and businesses. Apparently the water rose up to the top of the bank, which is a couple feet higher than what you can see on the right side of the photo. Marin takes a beating..

Some of the most exciting and surreal things that happened during the storm were five big-rigs getting blown over on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge - the bridge we take to get to Liz's house. Not one but FIVE! Debris, falling trees, tipping trucks...

Power at the bakery flickered a few times but never stayed out which many people appreciated - especially when they couldn't use their electric coffee makers. Down the street the facade of a business flew off the building - yep, the whole facade. It turns out the building is actually brick. A big redwood fell across one of the two main streets but was cleaned up surprisingly fast.

Comcast came and fixed our cable yesterday which we were thankful for and they seemed happy to do. [The line down in the road was in fact the cable - which someone cut to get out of the road.] They had to have been two of the nicest repair guys - despite working on the weekend and probably the day off they were polite, helpful, chatty, and overall not grumpy.

Today the skies are blue and clear.

umbrellas don't work

when it's windy, that is. i made it a few blocks before deciding that my job really isn't that important. when i got back to the house i found a wire down in the road. i think it's just for cable...

jenne's coming home to give me a ride to work. ain't she sweet.

more rain.

the rain's even bigger today. and windier. jenne called me at 7am to have me rescue the outdoor plants. lucky me, she also stole the car. i put some leather goop on my shoes, so i should be all set unless i step in a knee deep puddle. (quite likely). the cats are totally bored. 55mph winds on the bridges. a panel truck just got blown over on the richmond - san rafael bridge.
time to go to work. wish me luck.

It's rainin' rain.

While the northeastern part of the country is getting all sorts of snow we've started getting all sorts of rain. Today was dark and rainy and even windy. In fact, it was noticeably windy. Luckily I spent the whole day inside the bakery twiddling my thumbs and watching the clock hands move painstakingly slowly. Outside the trees were shaking, umbrellas were bustling and customers who stopped in told me harrowing tales of branches being in the road between here and Point Reyes. When I finally came home I discovered our basil plant launched from it's place holding our screen door open on the stoop and laying dis-potted on the other side of the stoop and the big beautiful pot smashed. San Anselmo is no good for our plants. We had a perfect little about-to-bloom yellow rose bush stolen (despite the fact it probably weighed over 50lbs), at least five plants - indoors and out - have come down with some blight or other, the over dramatic basil smashing...

My biggest beef with inclement weather is our mail. We've got a cute little urbany mailbox on the side of the house and it's got a little lid and little arms to hold the newspaper we don't get and it's all well and cute aside from the fact it's outdated and mostly useless. Mail these days tends to get big and fat and awkward and doesn't fit well in this well intentioned box so the lid can't close and everything gets completely soaked. I want to put a plastic bag out for the mailman to put the mail in but doubt that he'd get it. George mentioned building a roof for it, which is a fairly good idea. I'd consider looking for a new mailbox but after mailbox hunting with Hope it's a task I'd rather no tackle - especially for house I don't own or plan on sticking around in.

Tonight we try and make our own pad thai.

Homeward bound

Depart SFO: January 14 11pm
Arrive BTV: January 15 11am

Depart BOS: January 23 11am
Arrive SFO: January 23 2:40pm

That's right! We finally bought our plane tickets, the trip is pretty short, and we're flying out of Boston on the way home!