Three lives down, six to go...

We just spent the last two hours trying to get Boy down from a tree. He weaseled his way about thirty feet up a tree that has one branch on the way up. He was fine for a while, then started meowing, then started panting, then started circumnavigating the trunk, then started drooling...

Meanwhile, we're all pacing and making phone calls to find someone with a ladder long enough for us to get close to him. (FYI - the fire department will not help you in this situation. Neither will the police. Neither will anybody.) We tried calling a couple tree services, the one man we got a hold of said that he would help, but he'd thrown his back out and had to go to his father's eighty-seventh birthday party. We finally got a hold of Yannick who, in fact, had an extension ladder at home, so George took off to get it.

Meanwhile, our neighbor Johann and I stood under Boy with a blanket, ready for the inevitable fall. (Girl tried to help by jumping up into the tree also - which is amazing because she doesn't even like to jump onto the table, it was completely out of character for her.)

Only...he didn't fall. He shuffled his way down, panting, drooling, sideways. It sounds all calm and anti-climatic now, but let me tell you, when he decided it was a good idea to move from the branch and scoot around the trunk - big pieces of bark falling, him teetering on the skinny little branch he came to...it was a little difficult.

One of our other neighbors thought it was pretty ridiculous to be so worried and the guy who owns the Buddha store next door (who noticed Boy up the tree) couldn't watch.


Pictures to follow after we eat some dinner. Along with more news and photos.

Stay tuned!

vw update

We almost lost her to a tree limb.

As of yesterday she's down off the blocks, with five speeds and a new clutch. Time to gussy her up and try to make a sale... maybe we'll go cruising first though.

Bagelin'

Before:


After:


The first bagel recipe I ever tried was from the Tassajara Bread Book and it was essentially challah donuts and honestly, it wasn't very tasty, even for challah. The next recipe I tried was from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and they turned out bubbly, thin and ugly. From my limited bagel knowledge I would say they're more of a Montreal bagel instead of the New York that I was looking for. The bagel recipe I've been trying out now is from Baking Illustrated is great and I would argue ideal for the home baker - simple, straightforward, delicious. The only change I would make to their directions is in forming the bagel: instead of rolling out a round of dough into little dough snake and sticking the ends together it's way easier to take the round of dough and push your thumbs through the middle and stretch out a hole.

Sid Luscious and The Pants: awesome. Also: Sid Luscious is Anu! (For those of you who aren't a Sawyer - Anu is George's cousin Iran's husband...so George's cousin-in-law?) Surprise!

people doing stuff at museums

Look, it's my Pa! He's famous.

We took the afternoon off and went to the MOMA to see Olafur Eliasson.

Tomorrow evening we're going to see Sid Luscious and the Pants, per an invite from Iran. Oddly enough it's also at a museum.

Halley's here attending the Game Developers Conference (oddly it's not at a museum).

benz fleet

granted it's a very small fleet... but we like it. yannick's is an '81 wagon with 225,ooo miles. apparently over 75% of these cars are still on the road. mercedes has a high mileage club.


left to right: curtis, liz, pia, jenne, turbo, consuelo, zoe, yannick


jenne has named her evinrude. we gave her a wash and wax today.

It's for true.

George definitely bought the Mercedes.

Benz Blitz

It's true. I think we're going to buy it. I was on the freeway last week and noticed all the traffic going in the opposite direction had stopped. In the middle of the road was a car, or rather half a car, rather a car half the length a car should be. It had been rear ended by some big SUV... and it was newer car too. It got me thinking about what would happen to the Rabbit if it got in an accident... I'm sure the results would not be pretty. I decided that as much as I like the idea of the Rabbit (small, good gas mileage, alternative fuel, sweet design, easy to work on)... I'd much prefer to be alive. So I started looking for cars that had some of these qualities, but would also leave the occupant intact in an accident. The Mercedes 300D is perfect. It's built like a tank, as opposed to a tin can, it will run just fine on biodiesel (in fact this one has been for 2yrs), it's pretty easy to work on (and unlike the rabbit it'll be reliable), and in it's own way it's a pretty sweet design. I wasn't planning on actually getting one until after the Rabbit had sold, but this opportunity is too good to pass up. It's rare to find one with under 200k miles, even around here, in the Mercedes Mecca. They usually make it to at least 500k. This one was driven by a little old German lady named Ulga (I think) for the first ~120k miles. It turns out Yannick went to highshool with the current owner. He's had it for 2 1/2 years, and the only reason he's selling is that he's headed to Australia.

Anyway. I just got the proper bracket for the transmission. I'd better go reassemble ol' bun rab. It's been good, but I think this is a smart move. Plus the 300D has "modern" features! power steering! and a sunroof! and it's oh so quiet....

Manic panic

If only this had been the case.

No, no. We ended our Thursday and started our Friday with some manic panicking - well, no, that's not accurate, only I panicked. We let Boy and Girl out last night around dinner and by 9, 10, 11...only Girl had come in for the night. By 8:30 this morning Boy was still unaccounted for; the last time this happened Boy was waiting eagerly for breakfast. I came home from work and we scoured the yard - under the house, by the creek, under the cars, in the bushes, in other parking lots - nothing. We were 99% sure that Boy doesn't wander beyond the houses on either side of us and occasionally across the street, so we tried across the street. Out of no where comes mysterious, nervous and loud meowing! With the help of our well honed deductive reasoning skills and ears we tracked him up a tree, where Boy was poised between two branches, eyes as big as golf balls. George climbed the tree, plucked the my-claws-are-still-embedded-in-the-bark cat, brought him inside and we promptly stuffed him full of cat food and half and half and put eye drops in his scratched cornea. He's been sleeping for about five hours.

Continuing our automobile epic: the transmission has yet to be installed due to having the incorrect transmission mount, I think. Luckily, the fellow George bought the transmission from has the correct one and is being nice enough to drop it off tomorrow morning, so by afternoon we should operating on all five speeds. The real auto excitement takes place tonight though - when we look at a 1985 Mercedes 300D! It's true, we're considering a different car. Why? Well, something to do with safety, reliability...etc. Apparently the owner of this particular Mercedes is leaving for 10 months starting tomorrow, so this one may not work out.

Weird: A couple guys in a big, old, piece of shit car just pulled into our driveway and either deposited a lot of glass bottles or took a lot of glass bottles from our recycling.

Ye olde bullet style...

- Curtis found a place in Berkeley.
- Got to play with Dyani's new kittens!
- Saw the Whoreshoes and had dinner at Suppenkuche.
- Boy got his cornea scratched and third eyelid cut. We took him to the vet and the doctor used a stain to see if Boy had any cuts in his eye and it made him look like he was crying antifreeze. (Now he's got eye drops and should be fine.)
- Jenne's sick. And got a raise!
- It's 60 and sunny.
- Finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and was astounded it was actually three hours long - George believes it's one of the worst movies he's ever seen, Jenne would like to see it again because, naturally, she was too tired to really pay attention.
- Finally saw Juno and loved it. (Like everybody else.)

The most exciting bullet:
- George is working on replacing our four-speed transmission with a "new," fancy five-speed! He got the old one out yesterday and as soon as he has some more free time will get the new one in...along with a brand new clutch! (He might put up some pictures later.)

Moving update, etc.

Don't worry, we're still moving. Despite my optimism and wishful thinking it looks like the move will be pushed back to April/May. I keep feeling like we're not actually going to leave and that it'll keep getting pushed back more and more but George is standing strong that we're still going. All the reasons we're not leaving in March are sort of out of our hands (but if we really wanted to be gone we'd go.)

My computer came! It looks almost exactly like George's!

Curtis is here! He showed up a few days ago with all his stuff in his car and we've been dragging him around the area. Today he starts his hunt for a place to live in Berkeley.

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!

Rabbot

update on car restoration:

-fixed wiring to fuel stop solenoid (engine turns off when ignition is shut off!)
-new(ish) seats w/ better seatbelts and electric bases (1990's technology!)
-new (rebuilt) fuel injection pump
-new (slightly used) shocks and struts - not yet installed

minor setback
-dash lights are out. one lowbeam headlight out. tail lights are out. i think they're all connected...



no more vinyl w/ ducktape.


i'm getting really good at installing the injection pump.
so is boy.


in other news, we found wolaver's!