Boy's back!

I got home from work, and there he was sitting on the front step. Girl's quite relieved, she keeps sniffing him to make sure he's real. Jenne's in Berkeley, but is also quite relieved. Boy's just hungry. I went around on my skateboard and took down all the posters, and told the local cat lady the good news. She's actually quite nice, not one of those crazy cat ladies.

detectives and oil

I didn't know they really existed, but Hope found us a pet detective. We spoke with her on the phone, and she actually sounds pretty legit. She's coming by tomorrow with her cat tracking dog. If nothing else the dog will be able to tell us where Boy hasn't been. We'll see.


In other news, I finally finished the veggie oil conversion! And the car still runs! (I think the photos get bigger if you click on them)


auxiliary pump and pre-pre-filter at fuel tank. note the shinny new axle behind.


engine compartment. the kit is basically everything attached to the aluminum bracket. the yellow thing on the right is a clear pre-filter. it's attached to the main filter. the metal canister to the left of the bracket is a final filter.


the back side of the bracket. the little black box with 2 wires is a thermostat, epoxied to the heater (a few cast iron pipe fittings, an inlet and outlet, and a glowplug).


left, main filter. right, pre-filter. in between is the on/off switch for the heater, and a couple of fuses to keep the car from blowing up.


this is a bi-valve, which lets the unburnt fuel either return to the tank (as it normally would), or recirculate through the heat chamber (if you're running vegetable oil.)

She's about ready for the cross country trek; a couple more bushings, and some new tires, and one annoying squeal... vacuum leak, i think.

The Lost Boy and Rambling On

I went to my second acupuncture appointment on Thursday for my carpal tunnel and she decided to use my left arm (the first time she used my left foot.) She stuck a series of five needles in the underside of my forearm and said that I could move my hand, but that it would feel pretty weird. Not only did it feel really weird, but it felt like a deep aching soreness. I closed my eyes and tried to think of other things, make lists of stuff to do, come up with an idea for dinner...and slowly I felt lightheaded and dizzy. I opened my eyes and stared at the wall in front of me, breathing in and out slowly and with extra care. After about a half hour she came back and took out the needles, we both agreed that I'd had my fill and that we'd work with the foot from now on.

Boy still isn't home and it's truly breaking my heart. I feel like mostly all I can do is just keep taking deep breaths; like the needles in arm: "It's okay it's okay it's okay..." As crazy and ridiculous as it sounds, I believe (I like to believe) I have an extra preceptive intuition. Feeling it when someone close is in an accident or is seriously ill, like the day Ollie became suddenly and inexplicably ill and the few days later when Jenna showed up in the middle of the night to tell me he'd died - I just knew it. The last few times Boy's been up a tree there's been this feeling of urgency - I have to go home from work because I know I can find him, I know he's looking for me. This time I can't feel anything, he's my best little bud - sleeps on my legs every night, wakes up with me every morning, enjoys being carried to the food dish when he's too sleepy to that early, comes running for a little cream when we pour the coffee - and I can't find any sure feeling to latch onto. It's like he's just...disappeared.

I can't tell whether to be confident that he'll just come back because he's a cat and can fend for himself, he is and animal, or accept that he's gone and that's that, or frantically scavenge the bushes for him in his possibly injured state. Girl is absolutely no help and has peed on the couch twice. Our current working theory is that he got shut in a garage or someone's house and they went away for the weekend (our theory changes about every hour.) Sometimes we think that one of the little brats that walks by and likes to yell "KITTY!!" and chase after him managed to drag him off or their parent, noticing he had no collar, decided that he was fair game for the taking. (And I mean it when I say brats.)

It does feel like this needs to be resolved quickly and definitely because we've decided to move to North Carolina for real. I'll be flying out June 22 to hopefully find us an apartment and possibly scout around for a job (or two). If everything goes as "planned" we'll be driving out sometime in the beginning of July. We're 80% settled on packing up all our stuff in a pod-thing from Door to Door and having it shipped out to us, it's a little pricey, but frankly not that much pricier than a U-Haul would be much less of a hassle (we think.) We're also trying to convince James to fly out to California and hang out, help us pack, and drive with us. It sounds like he's not so keen on the driving, but I'm trying to persuade him, we're hoping to make it in just a few days maybe stopping in Albuquerque and...oh..say... Garland?

We're excited and sad. I don't really want to leave without Boy or at least knowing ... where he is? what happened?

Any support/advice welcome.

P.S.- The acupuncture is helping the carpal tunnel, my wrist doesn't feel as swollen, most of the shooting pains have subsided and there hasn't been any numbness and only manageable aching. I'm optimistic.

Gone Wandering

Boy has decided to take a vacation - we don't know where he went or when he's coming back or even if he's coming back. We scoped out all the trees he's been stuck in and have found nothing but leaves.

(Based on the neighbor cat's recent yawling-which he never does-I feel like something is ... amiss.)

In the meantime we're trying to be patient and respectful of his need for space and listening intently for meowing (that isn't Rusty.)

Two tidbits

1) There are two cop cars outside the house (presumably 'visiting' the apartment complex on the other side of our neighbors' house.)

2) I'll have some cupcakes to share with you in a few hours.

Summer is upon us

The National Weather Service tells me that it's going to be 101 degrees in San Anselmo on Thursday. !!!! Holy crap! This is news that makes me appreciate two things: a) our apartment stays relatively cool due to the lack of sun and b) that I won't be in San Anselmo on Thursday! Ha! Liz and I are driving up to Portland to see Liz and Mike! Originally George and Yannick were going to come along but George can't tear himself away from the railing-building and I think Yannick flat out forgot and probably doesn't want to come if George isn't going (there are few people who would want to spend ten hours in a car with Liz and I.)

Tomorrow (only 90 degree day) is the day our veggie conversion kit is slated to arrive! George is pretty excited.

The carpal tunnel is subsiding, the nightly bracing seems to be helping, even if it chaffing the inside of my thumb raw. My panic is subsiding as well.

Diagnosis: CTS or An Account of the Week

A session of dishwashing at home last Monday left me with a funky thumb problem - I couldn't put any pressure on it without awful shooting pains, no jar opening, no mug lifting, no supporting myself as I climbed down from the loft.

Then on Tuesday I was getting weird feelings in the back of my hand - not pain, but I could just feel everything.

Wednesday morning started with a bang in the first ten minutes: getting out of bed...feeling nauseous, ears ringing, vision darkening, chills, clammy, freaking out...to being completely normal. This has, in fact, happened to me twice already in my life: eight years ago and four or five months ago. Fearing brain problems, I made an appointment at the community clinic.

I learned that the weird freaking out is almost fainting, pre-vasovagal syncope. A nerve in the body sends out a signal that slows the heart rate, thereby draining the blood from the head and down you go! (Maybe.) Apparently it can be triggered by..oh..anything and the only danger to a person is if they actually pass out and hurt themselves in the fall. I also learned that I'm not anemic and I'm not diabetic. As for all my wrist/thumb issues, it's straight-up, good old y2k fashioned carpal tunnel syndrome. The doc seemed fairly nonchalant about this, granted it's not really a serious, life-threatening, exotic injury and it's mostly inconvenient, but so far it's seriously putting cramp in everything. I've been working with a brace, which is bulky, awkward, and extremely frustrating, icing it every night, wearing the brace to sleep, I stopped knitting my sweater, I can't do the dishes, open containers, use a can opener, teeth brushing has good and bad moments, as does getting dressed. Before this my days were spent working, then coming home to knit or maybe ride my bike, and now it's mostly searching the internet and checking my email left handed.

We made it to the farmers market yesterday and came home with artichokes, broccoli, cider (wicked pricey but delicious cider), yogurt, a kiwi, and bought some roasted chestnuts but they didn't make it home. We always bring the camera so we can show you how big this market is (HUGE) but when we get overwhelmed by the number of pushy people and children we're trying not to trip over and forget.

Pictures of things soon!

stimulate this, economy.

$5.15 per gallon of biodiesel!? Fortunately, our [least] favorite president has come to our aid! (in the form of $600). In an effort to do our part in saving the economy, we've decided to stop paying for fuel all together. I ordered a veggie oil conversion kit! (plus a couple of upgrades, all tax free over the internet, naturally). We still have to find a source for used oil. A minor hurdle. We're on pretty good terms with Chef Tony. And there are well over a dozen other places nearby... come to think of it, our landlady owns a taqueria.

In other economical/automotive news, the cv joints were completely shot and the mechanic quoted me $1300 to replace them. ack. I found full axle assemblies for $189 each, and some very thorough instructions. I think it was one of the smoother car fixings I've performed. All that practice on the Rabbit has paid off.

I'm still working on that fancy railing. I think I've had about enough of doing silly work for silly rich people. The rail's pretty cool, but that's all it is. I'd like to be using my time for something at least a little more meaningful...

Ahoy, Festive Friday

Kitchen line up
Originally uploaded by average lavender

It's true, once I finish work I usually want to bake something when I get home - when I bake at home I get to bake what I want and how I want. Today is Sourdough Friday, the day at work when I mix the sourdough, and I figured that I should take this opportunity, sprinkled with time and ambition to make some at home with the starter that James gave me when we were home. This poor starter's had a rough time since leaving James' well-maintained stock; first the flight across the country under a plane, malnourished most of the time...on at least three occasions I was convinced I'd killed it and wasn't going to have the heart to tell James of my neglectful ways. Luckily I was mistaken and now it's doing great and is fulfilling its destiny!

Simultaneously, I'm having my afternoon coffee. Instead of being lazy and using our handy little electric 4-cupper I'm meticulously and patiently using our beautiful ceramic dripper. George and I have yet to really master the art of making an amazing cup of coffee with this, it's really hit or miss. Sometimes it's the best you've ever had, here or in Europe, and other times it's like you're drinking the twice reheated dregs from a day old pot of Folgers made by Luke (i.e. like mud.) Today the coffee is passable.

By "found" he means "bought"

New wheels
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Friday Liz called me at work and clearly stated it was the day I was going to get a new bike. I stayed pretty skeptical until we started calling around SF bike shops searching for the right one: the Surly Long Haul Trucker. After being referred to three other shops the fourth, San Francisco Cyclery, came through: yes, they had a LHT, size 52 - in fact they had a whole bike and just a frame set. We hurriedly consulted George, jumped up and down, deposited a paycheck and set out. The girl who helped me was confident that the 52 was going to be too big and I believed her but felt growing panic and disappointment because there's no way they'd have any others in stock. Ooooh ye of little faith: they just *happened* to have a 50 hiding in the top row! Now there are plans for new handle bars - either the ones from my old bike (same drop style, just wider) or something a little more classic like the Albatross bars from Rivendell (of course.) I look forward to taking all the stickers off and some day getting a new stem that isn't as clunky and fat as the one it came with. This morning I took a little ride down to Mill Valley and back and it impressed upon me how out of shape I am.

We've also planted the beginning of our tiny potted garden: basil, parsley from Liz, one sun gold tomato plant from one of the women I work with, another sun gold because one just wasn't going to cut it, snap peas because George loves them, and lettuce to somehow inspire us to eat more salads. The tomatoes each have their own big pot and living across the driveway in front of the neighbors house because they get way more sun. Here's hoping it doesn't all die.

Jenne found a bike!

Two birthdays!

Happy birthday, Jenne's mom and George's brother!

Meh

It's true, most of my energy focuses on bagels. My boss is great vat of ideas but takes her sweet time implementing them so I've been trying to be really excited and really pushy about things at work. Next up: homemade organic marshmallow, the gateway to rice crispy treats. Other foods of note recently include some mediocre granola I made for breakfast this morning, the lemon tart slated for this afternoon and the earl gray cupcakes from last week. I went to the extent of using cake flour for them and was really pleased with how they turned out - light, airy, one may even say delicate. The earl gray flavor wasn't overwhelming and they weren't too sugary. The first few I brought home I just dusted with powdered sugar because George is never keen on the buttercream and after he, Yannick and James tried them we (me, Yannick) decided they really needed the buttercream which made them all the silkier.

I have yet to find a replacement for my bike and while I have a Schwinn to tide me over it's a completely different style of riding. Slowly I'm feeling more and more defeated, strangely outcast and sad about my lack of road bike, there's a fantastic freedom in zipping around efficiently and I miss it. Craigslist isn't helping and ebay makes me feel crazy and apparently everyone else in the Bay Area is looking for a 52cm road frame. Soon I may bite the bullet and just buy myself a *new* bike.

Yesterday I finished the back of the sweater I started, today I work on the left and right front. I knit and elephant and a piece of pie.

We're mostly exhausted and stretched just a little too thin. We'll be taking a quick trip to Portland mid-May with Liz and Yannick which can only be fun, exciting, refreshing, and exhausting. Liz and I are looking forward to rollerskating.

bagels and scrapers

jenne's been bageling again. i ate the sunflower one.


i was forced to sharpen the scrapers as payment.


this is james (we went to RISD together). He's TIG welding the stainless steel rail we're building. for a wealthy couple in Tiburon.


that's me using an aircraft grade epoxy to inlay cherry into the stainless steel channel.

we're off to a bar-b-q at yannick's. we'll be a fashionable 2hrs late.

transport updates

Here's a photo of Jenne's mashed frame.


She removed all the good bits. It was a sad day. I might be able to bend the tubing back and weld gusset plates to either side... In the meantime everybody's looking for a new frame, even the neighbors. Here's one we like.


I finally fixed the leaky oil gauge. (that's the old one) the ring around the outside is actually a tube, as the oil pressure builds it tries to straighten out, causing that little arm on top to pivot, which turns a gear on the shaft, making the needle (removed) go up. beautiful.

P.S.

Like, three hours after that last post I was riding my bike to have lunch with George and Yannick and got into a bad situation and hit a parked car with my bike and ruined the frame beyond repair. Only minor damage to myself but R.I.P new bike.

=(

The Tree

The Tree
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Here's the tree Boy was up yesterday, if you follow the link to Flickr there's a note that shows where he was. It's sort of difficult to really grasp the landscape he was in from this picture, or maybe not. Off to the left and mostly below the tree is the creek and only the creek so really there was only one way down, luckily he made it.

Whew!

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!

Craft time

Jenne sews

George sews

Ho, ho, ho

Kitchen christmas!
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Christmas felt like just another day around here, except Liz was here and we were given the exciting task of unwrapping things. Being festive, "Christmasy", jolly, etc is virtually impossible in the land of no snow, fake Christmas trees outnumbering real trees, and people who think snowflakes are stars. We tried though. We put up some lights and even got some of those glass ornament balls, we had a wreath...we listened to all the holiday news on NPR... So without the cheer we just tore the paper off the packages and soaked up all the kitchen-gift-related goodness depicted here.

Next step for the kitchen? Triple it's size, magically.

It's nice to know we're not alone.

Homesick

(by Joeseph Lambert, George found it in Seven Days.)

Okay, I'm back.

Time has passed and some things have happened, but none of them are earth-shatteringly exciting - I swear.

Jesse was here to visit and we did a lot of driving around and looking at things and watched him take a lot of pictures. He's got a fancy new Canon PowerShot G9 and can't seem to put it down. Now he's in China for an undetermined amount of time, but he was excited and happy to go.

We had Thanksgiving at the bakery with my boss, co-worker Emily, her husband and some more of Shannon's friends. While it was nice have a big meal and do something other than work I helped with a lot of the preparations and most of the clean up, so it was kind of like being at work. There were two turkeys (one brined, one not), sweet potato gratin, gravy, mashed potatoes, some other stuff, and a bunch of pies - of which only three slices were eaten.

Emily had her baby. A little boy named Ethan Danger - healthy, content, home. I still haven't met him because I've been sick for the past week and decided a week old human probably doesn't need this.

George has put in something like 53 hours at work this week starting and finishing up the $10,000 shoebox. He tried to sucker me into sanding but it was no use. His boss called last night to tell him how good it looked. It's the kind of thing that I can't even begin to describe but hopefully he'll get some pictures of it before they bring it to the client.

We're slowly getting into the Christmas spirit here in the land of drab drizzly winters. We've been cranking out gingerbread people and houses at work, sugar cookies shaped like candy canes, Santa's hat, and snowflakes - which, interestingly enough, everyone here calls a star. To celebrate the birth of our fair Jesus we're thinking about hitting up a different beach this year, maybe south of here, possibly Santa Cruz, possibly for two days and a night, or maybe we'll just do a beach day trip. We haven't accepted the possibility of rain, but no one wants to be at the beach in winter when it's raining. Regardless, we'll be with Liz and maybe Iran and Anu? (nudge nudge)

I'm trying to figure out how to make Flickr and Blogger talk nicely so I can put more pictures up with less hassle...

Jesse is here. Mostly we eat and sit around. We've gone to the top of Mount Tam and today he and George went to the Marin Headlands. Also they fixed the Rabbit.

Links to things:

Mount Tam
Marin Headlands
Rabbit
Pie crust
Sweet potato fries
Pacific Catch
Japanese Joinery

Toxic slick: coming to a beach near you...er.. us.

Last Wednesday a container ship ran into the Bay Bridge, dumping 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the bay. As for the cause, it's being attributed to "human error," which is believable and there was some serious fog that morning, but honestly--it's not like those pylons are tiny and they're equipped with radar. It's scary to think of what the marine life is going to be like around here in the coming years. In the meantime, officials seem to have everything under control.

George continues to pluck away at the Rabbit without much luck. The fuel lines have been replaced with stronger, clear tubing so it won't degrade as quickly from the biodiesel and we can see if the fuel pump is actually getting fuel, which it is. This afternoon his focus is on the fuel pump and whether something is amiss with it; he bought the pump used, but (supposedly) resealed from a fellow on ... ebay? craigslist? and has since emailed him to see if he can shed any light on the subject. Or find out if he got ripped off. Whichever. We're hoping it'll magically get fixed by Tuesday night when we have to head to the airport to pick up Jesse!

Yesterday we spent our rainy afternoon listening to Agatha Christie podcasts. Last week I painted the underside of our loft (which is the ceiling for the dining area) and it ended up a greenish yellow that Geo describes as glow-in-the-dark paint that doesn't glow in the dark. That's pretty accurate. This week I'll paint our new window shelf and then take a few pictures so you can watch the evolution of our weird apartment.

Part two: other stuff

Saturday night was a 40th birthday party for George's boss at the local winery. His wife is good friends with the owner, so he closed it down so we could have dinner there which was provided by the Puerto Rican restaurant Sol Food. Usually hanging out with the Coutures is entertaining and enjoyable, however this time is was the Coutures and the rest of their friends, who--aside from the other guys in the office--are all about 40 and from Marin. It was an awkward evening that with every "oh what do you do?" conversation drove home the feeling that we don't belong here. We don't have kids, we don't own a home, have a modern car, I'm not a contractor nor a designer, George isn't a business wheeler-dealer or wear a tie, we don't watch sports or even have TV, we know nothing about wine, we haven't traveled much, and we don't care about any of these things. We had a pretty nice conversation with one woman who'd grown up around here and seemed to understand that a lot of the residents in this area are completely intolerable, we liked her.

Sunday night we were psyched to be going into the city to have dinner with George's cousin, Iran, but didn't get to go because the Rabbit developed a fuel leak. George spent the whole day trying to fix it and when he thought he'd got it the car wouldn't start at all (instead of starting and sputtering.) We're both becoming more and more frustrated with this car, but probably will never part with it.

We finally found a place in the apartment for some bike hooks and got the bikes up off the floor! It feels a little less like we're living in a garage. George built a fancy new shelf to go under with window by the table, which replaces a skinny, ill-attached shelf the cats would sit on. Today I'm hoping we can agree on a color for the new shelf and for the underside of the loft, because while I can't put my finger on it I'm convinced that painting the right thing the right color in this place will magically transform it into a more comfortable, homey living space. Or I'm crazy and fickle about interior paint colors.

What we're really excited for is the middle of November when Jesse comes to visit! He'll be here for a whole two weeks around Thanksgiving, which we'll be celebrating at the 2nd Annual Fat Angel T-Day Feast. Maybe we'll get to take an exciting trip to some other part of this God forsaken state, or at the very least have a few days where we can all hang out with anyone having to go to work.

Today's fascinating lunch: mac & cheese with tuna fish. Tonight's fascinating dinner: sweet potatoes and chicken.

Part one: the food.

We really did try as hard as we could to put together our costumes, but it just didn't work out. Luckily, by the time we finished with dinner it was 11pm and even Liz, the party girl that she is, was fine with ducking out on Halloween festivities. Chez Panisse was one of the most elegant meals I've ever had--big plates with consumable-size portions precisely, yet nonchalantly arranged food, the waiter actually used a crumber. The menus are printed for the specific day and they have a great print on the cover. I think the vegetarian menu had an eggplant...or grapes, equally as beautiful as the tomato plant.


The best courses: the appetizer and dessert. The mozzarella was mild and cheesey without being rubbery like big pieces of mozzarella tend to be. The fig crostata was wicked figgy (a crostata is essentially an Italian galette but much flakier), and the fennel ice cream cut the intensity perfectly. George and I plan to go back at least one more time before we leave the Bay area. (Most of the things to do before we leave are eat at certain places.)

Continuing with food, I have three different cakey things to share with you. The first are some hi-hat cupcakes I made for Emily's birthday back in October. They're a chocolate cupcake frosted with a mound of marshmallowy stuff, dipped in a chocolate shell. I pawned most of them off on George's office.




At work I've been playing around with frosting some more cakes, the most recent a spice cake Shannon had leftover. I put some chopped apples and unsweetened whipped cream in the middle which was what really made it. Next time the apples need to be chopped smaller and more of them.




Most recently I made cashew, carrot, cardamom cupcakes with cashew cream cheese frosting from a recipe at Cupcake Bakeshop. The best way to describe them is with their name: they're exactly that. They're delicious in the way that cashews are buttery, soft, and salty.

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

We can finally leave California! We felt our very first earthquake. Honestly it felt like when the garbage men throw the cans against the house after emptying them. Kind of pathetic, but I don't think I want anything bigger.

Apparently it was a 5.6 on the richter scale, just north of San Jose.

From the USGS site:

"A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles)."

you're looking to waste some time?

Why not finely grate one pound of baby carrots? That's what I did.

the rabbit's got one boot

As we speak George is (hopefully) an hour or so away from having the Rabbit complete and running for real. Now it's got new axles/CV joints, one new boot, new tie rods, new oversize battery, and a new lease on life. If all goes well and according to plan we're hoping to celebrate by going to one of our new favorite restaurants, Sorella Cafe.

One of the projects George is working on is kind of the prime example of the ridiculous ways people spend money when they have too much of it: a mobile name tag holder for a church which George's vague estimate prices out to be $10,000 in the end. I haven't seen the design, so I can't say whether or not it's going to be really cool. It's just so silly that someone would hire a designer to solve their pesky name-tag-jumble problem. Peg board? Everyone responsible for their own tag? Card catalog style?

After my boss came back, my co-worker and her husband went to Japan for two weeks and upon coming home she promptly came down with walking pneumonia. Which means George and I haven't been having any grand adventures aside from the usual go-to-work-come-home-sit-around. With Liz back in town we've been trying to at least get over to Berkeley. Luckily we've got her hooked on watching the show Alias with us so we can lure her over at least once a week. For Liz's birthday/Halloween we're going to Chez Panisse with her, her dad and step mom. We're hoping after dinner we'll still have time to get out and do something for Halloween; Liz is going to be Rainbow Brite, I'm planning on being the Morton Salt girl, and George is wavering between Speed Racer, Wolverine, or a number 2 pencil.

Last night for dinner we had Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from the cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance. Neither of us is vegan but it's nice to have a a group of recipes that rely more on vegetables than meat and butter, like this one for example. If you're going to make it you'll need...

3 16-oz. cand chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
3 large carrots, grated (2 cups)
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets (4 cups)
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced chives
1/2 C. bread crumbs
3 T. olive oil
1 C. vegetable broth
1 tsp. salt

Then you'll want to...

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mash the chickpeas well, it takes about two minutes with a potato masher (or pastry blender in my case) and they're good and mashed when they're done. Add the vegetables and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and mix. Then the oil and mix. Add the broth and salt, then mix. Dump it all into a glass or ceramic 9"x13" pan pressing the mixture in firmly. Cover with aluminum foil, bake 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more. Ta da!

My boss finally took a vacation and went to Italy for a week for a friend's wedding. Consequently, I'm working eleven days in a row--which started last Thursday.

Last week George was supposed to get the last of the parts he needed to finish the Rabbit, we even drove up to Petaluma to the the package because UPS wouldn't leave it without a signature. The next day he discovered that they'd sent him the wrong part!

It's a long week.

bulleted

The bike

For all practical purposes, my bike is complete!






One of her flashiest features are the tires: SpeedBlends made specially for Rivendell. When they're rolling the colors merge and have a nice teal-to-pink progression.




A couple other things I really enjoy are the microfiber bar tape, the waxed thread securing it, and the sleek, attractive stem. (Notice the u-lock attached to the bike...) The next step for it will be a shorter stem so I'm not reaching as far and a little saddle bag so I don't have to carry around a bag on my back.


Trips and visitors

My trip to Asheville was great, I got to spend time with Hope which is something I really could stand to do more of. We spent most of our time tearing paneling out of the littlest room in the house and painting painting painting. When I left we'd finished the walls & trim in the bedroom and almost all of the studio and the first coat in the kitchen. The time we spent away from the fumes was filled with trips to Lowe's, going out for food, touring around the city, and a really sucessful trip to and antique mall where we walked out with a chrome breadbox, a set of rectangular chrome kitchen canisters, a little kitchen table (mostly for the heavy-duty base, not the paint-splattered institution-like top), and two awesome chairs.

Dyani and Conor have arrived in California, Conor will be starting classes at U.C. Davis anytime now. They came down for the weekend where Dyani got a new bike: a new Volpe! She'd been looking for a nice touring bike and I, naturally, couldn't shut up about how amazing the Volpe is and pointed her to a bike shop that had one the last time George and I were there. After test riding and discovering it was on sale and loving it, she decided to get it. Hooray!

Liz is coming back tonight! We like Liz, she makes us feel like we have friends and know how to have fun.


The Rabbit

George has been plugging away at Rabbit repairs. I'm not too sure of the specifics, but I know that lately the work has been unfortunately frustrating. Parts not fitting and having to be reordered, bolts in ridiculous, hard-to-get-to places. Maybe he'll make his own post someday about it and it'll be more in-depth and interesting than mine. (hint hint)

funday

today george got a big ol' box full of rabbit parts! the new head gasket, brake pads, door gaskets, new head bolts, a new door latch, thermostat, and ... a water pump! and a green o-ring.

boy got to chase ants around the window sill.

girl got to be chased into the house by another mean dog. last night a dog bolted from the sidewalk into the driveway barking and snapping his evil jaw at her. she managed to scramble away and under the house. this morning she was sitting on the threshold of the door and the dog almost busted into the house. i'm not impressed with these san anselmo pooches.

and tonight i got to go to the doctor for a mysteriously swollen achey weird knee problem. it kind of went like my dentist visit, except this time the doctor was just late to work, apparently. after waiting in the exam room for an hour, he came in, moved my knee around a little, and determined that i probably have a little tear or some other damage in the joint, but it doesn't appear to be severe enough to warrant x-rays. however, if by next monday it's still all "jacked up," as my co-worker emily would say, then i get to go back in and possibly get some x-rays and then depending on what they find the great possiblity: surgery. i'm hoping it'll just get better.

tomorrow we may drive up to jenner and beyond and see what's whats up north or we may stay home and i'll sit on the couch. regardless we're heading to hilda's coffee shop for breakfast.

scrappins and mitch

last weekend my boss made a big cake that looked like a wine bottle and had tons of cake scraps leftover, so i took them and made scrappins the polar bear cake.



george thought he looked silly without a mouth, so he gave scrappins one. at first the cake was going to be a tower, then a panda, and finally a polar bear, but he looks most like a dog. regardless it's pretty delicious.

yesterday as i went out to do the laundry this little bird started making noise at me and fluttering around and i figured i'd just spooked him. later when i went out to put the laundry in the dryer boy and girl were harassing him in front of our neighbors house. i picked him up with a towel because it looked like they were more toying with him and less eating his flesh at that point.



after calling george and george calling susan we took mitch (i named him mitch) inside and cleaned up his feathers with rubbing alcohol which really woke him up and he started flappin' around. we put him back in the area where i'd first seen him, up in a box that houses electric meters and gave him a little food. i checked on him later and he was up and walking around making noise...and being stalked by the neighbor cat, rusty. i didn't bother to move him or shoo rusty because unless mitch jumped he would be safe. hours later i went to check on him again...and.. he...was face down in the dirt with flies around his head. i blame rusty.

in less morbid news, at the end of the month i'll be going to north carolina! hope and her husband are buying a house in west asheville and she'll be going down to do the closing and some cleaning and invited me along!. i'm looking forward to some time away from here and the adventure of travel and new places.

rabbit surgery

well. i've officially gone too far to turn back. i pulled the poor little bunny's heart out today. last weekend i popped its head off to change the gasket, and started seeing leaks all over the place. apparently a lot of the old seals don't stand up to bio-diesel. turns 'em to mush. i think i've found somebody who will rebuild it. i don't really want to get inside that thing. too many little bits.

should run like new once it's all back together...

gotta go. ice coffee time.

look. i'm famous!