San Diego

We spent last week in sunny San Diego. I forget how bright the sun is when it really shines. Also, what my shadow looks like.

Anyway, first we went to the desert to see the wildflowers blooming. Driving up there, we drove past many of the areas that were burned in the fires last October. It was a little strange, since a gentle, downy, green spring grass was growing on all the hillsides. It made things not look so bad. And then you noticed that the trees were all charred and leaf-less. At one point we drove by the place where the fire had crossed the freeway and I just realized how big a fire had to be to burn down one hillside, cross eight lanes of freeway, and burn up the other hillside despite the best efforts of the fire department. Big.

But the wildflowers in the desert were so pretty. Also, so atypical, compared to how the desert looks the rest of the year. I am not really a desert fan, but this really was very scenic. We got up early one morning in time to see the sun rise and get in a hike before the heat of the day. Here are some pictures from that morning:Also, on the hike we saw a cloud shaped like a fish:We also hung out in San Diego, spending time with our favorite two vegan political theorists and my family from San Francisco. My allergies were bothering me a lot in San Diego, so I wasn't feeling the picture vibe quite so much [also, I noticed in my pictures from the desert that I haven't quite figured out how to adjust for bright sun. I'll be working on that, I guess. . . .].

I did manage to take a few pictures, though:

Mike getting a lesson from my grandmother on how to make margaritas.Cinnamon rollsSucculentsBaby Emma [isn't she adorable?]The scholar hard at work.And then we came back to Seattle. And it snowed.

Etc.

Well, I'm finally done with my last externship for my new career. I feel like I'm rejoining the world of the living again.

To celebrate, here are some pictures - first of a belated Valentine's Day rose and then of a tree in bloom at the lake near our house.Although the picture above was taken on a sunny day, we haven't had too many of those recently. Yesterday morning, it was 39 degrees in the city when we woke up. So we are really still in the eagerly-awaiting-spring's-arrival phase.

In other news, my dresser broke. Or, really, I should say: In other news, we gave up on my broken dresser. The dresser hadn't been in great shape before we moved to Japan, and the journey to and from the storage place didn't really help things. I sort of accepted the dresser; it was willful beast whose drawers stuck frequently, but, in the end, I could always yank the drawers and make things work. That is, until last week when the drawers became so hopelessly stuck that I couldn't get my clothes out. I was actually planning my days around which clothes were not in the dresser.

But, with the upcoming move, buying a new dresser seemed dumb. On a number of levels [levels, stairs, whatever, get it?]. And buying a cheap dresser from that Swedish place was what got us into this mess in the first place.

So we went plastic. And light. And, yes, sort of lame and pathetic.
We posted the old dresser on freecycle, and had several offers within a few hours [fools!]. I will say, though, that this dresser met a better end than Dr. M's dresser [her dresser was, in weird twist of cheap and functionality-induced decision-making, the exact same model] which her father hated so much that was always threatening to hack up with an ax every time he helped her move. Did I mention how heavy the darn thing was? Her father may have actually taken an ax to the dresser in the end. The dresser certainly deserved it.

Thus endeth the dresser saga. Talk about a boring post. . . .

Oh, and as for what we'll name the blog - you all are such a creative lot! I especially liked the suggestion of "burritos for breakfast". I also like "(deep in the heart of) fish for breakfast". So we'll see. I'm also thinking about a re-design of the blog to accompany the move and the new name.

You know, now that I have all this time on my hands.

Fort Worth, Fort Woof, Etc.

This July, Kate and I will be moving to Fort Worth, Texas, because of a job that I got. I am extremely excited about this job, and I am also excited about moving to Fort Worth. One of the nice things about that city that Kate just noticed is that their dog park is called Fort Woof. That is a good name for a dog park.

We named our blog "fish for breakfast" shortly before we moved to Japan, and its name is a reference to traditional Japanese breakfasts. Now that we are moving to Texas, we are contemplating changing the name of our blog. We have a few good ideas, but we would appreciate ideas from our scores of loyal readers as well. So, loyal readers, what should we call our blog?

Oregon

We had a great few days of mini-break. Remarkably, it was sunny - it feels so much like spring that it's hard to believe that the rain will be back [but, oh, it will . . . ]

First, we went to the Oregon coast. We were lucky enough to be staying in someone else's beach house and visiting with a friend of Mike's from the ag. school.
On Monday, we headed north. We stopped at my favorite Oregon coastal attraction. We also visited Blue Heron French Cheese company, which was a first for me. The best part of Blue Heron? Why, the wildlife, of course!
We spent Monday night in southern Washington, on the coast. The best thing there? Well, while walking on the beach, we saw a bald eagle.

Catching up

I've been a bit busy these last few weeks - too busy to put pictures up, but not too busy to be taking them. Now I have a few days to catch my breath; Mike and I have just returned from a lovely sojourn on the Oregon coast.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks. I'll put the Oregon pictures up in the next few days:

Hooray for cupcakes!
My most recent knitting creation, expertly modeled. The cutest baby on earth:Rare, clear, sunny winter day:Cat:Super-delicious cookies!Green Lake, frozen in January:

stories like

this

make me cry.

[since it's actually a happy story, probably you won't cry. I don't know why I am such a freak]

A great video

Nakamura Kinniku (translated as "Nakamura Muscles") is brought in as a "muscle food researcher" to talk to some chefs. He dumps "muscle cinnamon powder" on their cakes. They are unhappy with that. He asks for permission to apologize. His apology consists of a dance that includes much flexing. The chefs are not impressed, and he dumps more powder on their cakes.

It makes more sense in video form.

to the mystery person

who sent me a subscription to Dog Fancy magazine: you are amazing. Thank you!

p.s. who are you?

Great news!

First, that big opportunity that Mike has been hoping for for about 8 years just worked out. Mike got a job offer somewhere warmer, and there's the possibility of at least one competing offer. It looks like we'll be leaving Seattle mid-summer.

Now that that's out in the open, I also have pictures to share from San Diego.
The beach:The succulents:Tidy Tips and Greyling, my grandmother's cats:My grandmother and (yes! for real!) her new cellphone (for emergencies only).

Happy New Year!

I'm back from a wonderful week in San Diego. I have pictures of the beach, my grandmother, and my grandmother's plants, but I can't seem to upload them. So, soon.

Also, the BIG STORM mostly missed San Diego. But you should have heard the local news. . . .

Hope 2008 is off to a good start for all!

These days

Here's a round-up of what we've been up to the past few days.

We've been dog-sitting for this cute creature:I also baked A LOT of cookies. The first baking party with SYL yielded three different cookies: chai shortbread, black and white striped cookies, and a classic sugar cookie.My observations: fresh ground cardamom will leave your kitchen smelling like cardamom for a long time; the black and white cookies were really good, but sooooo much work; and, by the time you've made all these cookies, the last thing you feel like doing is icing the sugar cookies.

The second round of baking was with Scott and Meh. They'd make sugar cookies and I brought some gingerbread. We'd planned to do this Christmas Day, but then it looked like this:Which is nice for memories, but bad for driving.

So we postponed our cookie-decorating party for a day. Here are the results:I still have more cookies left to bake for our family holiday swap. I'm making gingerbread, plus something else. Right now I'm leaning toward the chai shortbread, but we'll see. . . .

Christmas morning, I made these 90-minute cinnamon rolls. I've never had good luck with cinnamon rolls before, but these worked out great - and they really only did take 90 minutes from start to finish. I'd totally make these again.Last night we had a lovely dinner with Scott, Meh, B-hatch, Jenji, and a special visitor from the frozen lands.

A few of my favorite things

When the baby sleepsWhen the librarian bakesWhen the dog poses

Warrrrshington DeeShee

The last stop on our east coat tour was our nation's capital. We were mostly there for the nuptials of one of our friends from grad school, but we managed to squeeze in a few other things as well.

We stayed with one of Mike's friends from high school. Can you find him in the picture below?And here are the boys playing stratego:We also saw Marianne's mom for a very delicious brunch. She gave us some fudge and other treats, which we've been enjoying mightily!

The wedding was lovely - the bride beautiful, the groom happy, the food delicious - a good time was had by all!We also saw a few other folks in D.C. - a friend from grad school, and a friend of Mike's from college. Alas, no pictures there - I always bring my camera, but then I feel weird taking pictures when nothing "significant" is happening. I think this is only going to get worse, since it seems like our point-and-shoot camera is on the way out, meaning that we'll be relying on my baby more frequently. The only problem is that my other camera isn't exactly purse-friendly or easy to take pictures with on the sly. Oh well.

Knitting

As promised, here's a shot of my gift from Marianne. Amazing, no?
And here's a quick hat I knit for Mike to match his coat. It was all one skein of yarn, so it was sort of neat to see the colors change and fade as I kept knitting.