Mosh Glass

Ok. Its Sunday, night, and I am writing about Sunday. I am catching up finally. We really slept poorly last night. I am sure its too much rich food and wine. Definitely too much wine. Does not lead to a pleasant wake up. And does not help wih sleeping either. It is self inflicted so I don’t expect any sympathy.

Today I am driving to Visalia to visit my Dad. My brother in law VincenT is going to be here as well. I hope to atop at my favorite meat market and get steaks for dinner. Nice place wih great selection of cuts. Its like a candy store, only its meat.

Emily is spending her day in the glass house doing projects for Christmas. Shebhas alot of projects. She finished up something for my sister for Christmas just in time for me to take it with me. VincenT will be delivering to LA.

I wrapped a few gifts for whoever before I left. I managed to get on the road by noon. Why it takes so damn long to get on the road is truly beyond my understanding. I had wanted to go early but it just would not workout.

The drive to Visalia fromDixon isnusually around four hours. Its 220 miles through the most god awful boring and depressing part of California. The Central Valley. There is not one good place there, nothinf worth seeing, no place worth stopping, no food thats notable. Nothing. And the weather is awful. Don’t move there. Oh, I hate it.

So I drove. And drove. Syopped once for gas. Made it to Visalia in 3.5 hours. Not bad. Had to go to the meat market for staeks. I called Dad to check in and tell him what I was doing. He is going out to dinner. And VincenT is goung to make Iranian Chicken for dinner. I want steak. Ok, so no steak and no dad. I went to See’s Candy to get peanut brittle which I know Dad loves. The mall was insane. To say there was no parking was not strong enough. I could not find a space. And I had to pee. Uh oh. I drove and drove and about a half mile from See’s I found a space. What a pain. I ran into Penneys and used the can. Then walked the half mile to the candy store. Strangly, no one was in it. The clerk told me I just missed the crowd. I told her I did not miss them at all. I got four bixes of brittle and headed for the car. Managed to get to Dads by 4ish.

Dad was getting readybfor his dinner. I had to buxkle his pants for him, the nerves in his hand are shot and render it useless. He cant button his pants because his hand is completely numb.

Any how we visited briefly and he and Mimi rwn off to the Chan’s for dinner.

VincenT and I sat around chatting for awhile and he made dinner. Mostly it was like chicken curry on rice. It was good but I had wanted steak all day and it was chicken.

Dad came home about 730. We had a chance to visit and eat peanut brittle. He was really tires and went to bed around 8.

I was up a couple more hours. Chatting with Vinnie and watching non cable TV. Which is awful.

I decided to go to bed. Which is when I realized there was no bed for me. Dad took his bed. Mimi sleeps in the old spare room. Vince took the back room cuz he got there first. Which leaves me on the floor on couch cushions with a blanket. This kinda sucks. Winning yesterdays writing contest makes me a little happy and this crap with the bed balances that to a little sad. My father and mother (while alive) never had a comfortable house. Crazy people.

I am going to bed or to cushion. Hard to say.

Hi. It’s Sunday now and I am writing about Saturday. I gotta get caught up here. We do have alot planned for today. First and foremost, is another advent gift. I received a container of peanut butter cookies. So, guess what I had for breakfast? Thats right, the cookies. The oerfect accompaniment to coffee and newspaper. Its the weekend, I get a weak paper.

We are leaving at around 10 to go to Auburn to meet our contractor, George, for the first time. I have spoken to him several times on the phone. Not a total stranger and recommended by someone I trust.

But, right now, I am in the front room wrapping Christmas gifts. I need to wrap my dads, his live in’s, my sister and bro in laws gifts because I am headed down to Visalia to see Dad. And Vince the bro in law is visiting so I can do the hand off. I have to wrap about 20 or so things. Includes sissie’s birthday gifts, her day is tomorrow. 59. Ouch. She is still short.

So, I wrapped gifts till 10 am. Emily got done, to an extent, with her glass house work. Truly, she is never really done. Always a project in motion.

We left for Auburn about 10 after. Made a stop for Emily to get a bucket o diet coke at McDonalds and off. We got to the lot very swiftly, well under an hour. Our contractor was there and he was talking to a couple neighbors. Since the only neighbors on the road own the 12,000 sf home at the end of the road, I figured it was them. What kind of person builds a mansion that size? Yes, an asshole. Carl was quite unpleasant, indirectly, in many ways. He went on a rant about how difficult it had been to get his behemoth built with the county and friends of the river, etc. he really was not pleasant. He also clearly stated he thought our property unbuildable and why hadn’t we checked with him before we did anything. Large ego. Thats why he was not wearing a hat. His wife Joan was there as well. She is a balance for him. She was quiet and friendly. Welcome to the hood.

Carl and Joan left. We spent the next hour discussing various aspects of our future construction with George. We both like George. Thats a good sign. This full process is probably a year long. We also concluded that the county will never allow us to put up a yurt. George explained that clear as a bell. I am disappointed but we are moving forward. Emily and I have not lost sight of the goal. We wont be living on the property during construction and may need temporary housing to boot since our house is for sale.

We returned home a little after 230. We will be wrapping Christmas gifts till we leave at 4. If not mentioned before, we are going to a wine dinner in Napa tonight. Our neighbors and friends, Barb and Kirk, are going with us.

Emily is a wine club member at Goose Cross Winery in Yountville. We were at a tasting last summer and she decided we should go to this event. Here we are.

We picked up our friends around 415. We made it to the winery by 530 after a leisurely drive. No real traffic. And we are 30 mins early. But, they had some wine for us to drink, surprise. While we were sitting in the greeting area, other guests arriving, the host passed out some little cards for us to record what we are thankful for. They were going to judge the best responses, with winner taking home the nicest bottle they had. Ahh, a competition, and writing to boot. I thought for a couple minutes and decided topical humor was the best approach. Here is my card, I wrote on the back as well.
May not be my best work, I am never satisfied, but ok. Barb really got into the competition factor. I love a competitive game and this was a good one. No rules, write what you want, as much as you want. She was even trash talking. That Barb.

The dinner will be served in the winery/barrel room/wine room whatever you call it.
This dinner is fancy. With well thought out wine pairings. The menu:

The venue:

As fancy as it can get for a wine room. I can say, the entire meal was superb. I got full and kept eating. Good thing there was only five courses. This is what last meals are made of.

We sat for awhile after the meal was done. None of us were able to move anyway. Kept drinking wine and they kept pouring it as well. A fine time was had by all. People were just sitting around in post orgiastic feast, groaning. Like I said, it was good.

So, we got to the part of the evening where the host had a few words to say. Our host, Nick, is a Brit. Has a nice sense of humor, some would say he is funny. Not me. As a matter of fact I compared him to Steve who went to Belize with me a couple months ago. Not funny. Anyway, he got up and said a few words. Then he started into the cards. Remember the cards for what we are thankful for? He had about 50 to 60 entries. He said it was difficult to pick just one blah blah then he got down to it “and the winner is..is Bill Vivier here?” Yep. I won. Take that Barb and your attitude. Ha. So Nick read a few lines of my entry, I got some applause and a very good expensive bottle of wine. Yay Bill. I spoke to Nick afterward, he did not vote for mine. Hence his noted lack of humor. Prick. Several of the other voters (employees) came up over the balance of the evening to tell me how much they appreciated my humor. I have fans. Go figure. When Barb asked earlier if I thought blogging would help me in this contest, lets go with hell yes. And, btw, I am really going to enjoy this wine. And Barb is coming to drink some as well. Which is nice of me. And she is already very upset she lost. Its sad. We love her.

Well, the rest of the evening was short. We went back over to the serving room for wine, coffee and truffles. A nice end to the event. I got a few more congrats while there which is enough to over-inflate my ego a bit. Got to show off my swag bag, the only one in the place of course, when you got the swag, you get to brag. Which is a rhyme, Barb please take note. I rhymed. Love you.

We drove home. I drove. I am least likely to get pulled over. I counted the evenings consumed wine glasses and time. I am good. We had a short trip and really just talked about how nice it was. They did put on a dinner that was a step above everything else. Just fantastic. We are all glad we went.

We got home after midnite. We went straight to bed.

Its Saturday, but this is Friday’s blog post. Sorry.

Had a wonderful beginning to my day. A text message from my veterinarian. As you know, my dog Taffy was in hospital last week and had surgery. You may remember my description of the drives to San Jose. Those were awful as well. Anyway, Taffy ended up having her spleen removed due to a large tumor inside of it. Well, they did send it out for biopsy. Results arrived yesterday. Vet called first thing this morning. To put it straight, she has metastasizing cancer, very aggressive. The little cancer cells are free floating in her bloodstream looking for organs to stick to. Vet says there are treatments but they are very expensive and very unlikely to help. She has 2 weeks to 2 months to live. He is sorry. Me too.

Not sure really what to do. We know the end game when we get a pet. They dont live but 10 to 15 years. We can have several in our lifetimes. But, at the end its still a shock and still incredibly sad. And we have to sit around and wait and watch and then take her into the vet for the last time. And its the Christmas season when all is joy and happiness.

Taffy is my sons dog. He got her when he was 12. She always slept under the covers with him at night. One day, he went to college and we inherited that duty. Its going to be tough for awhile without all the dogs. All three have been with us the last 13 years. I have not lost a dog in 15 years. I dont want to remember what its like. Unfortunately I will be reminded.

Again with the weather. What is it with you and the weather?

Well, actually, the weather is seasonally important to me. Thats a little meteorological humor for today. And today, it is colder than a witches freezer. You thought I was going to something else? Coldest day so far this season I think. Very clear, very sunny, and very cold. I noted the stray dog was under the hay barn and not in rhe hog barn. I assume because it is warmer but you would have to ask him. And he is the quiet type. There is no wind today either. I had hoped to go skiing but I lost my energy somewhere. Even though its cold there has been zero snow for a couple weeks. Some skiing at high elevations but all old pack. Hoping something before Christmas.

I forgot to mention my stupid dog. I know, you are saying which one? Valid question. Jax, let loose in the bedroom last night. Before we kenneled him for the night. That dog truly is a pain. He needs a full time diaper which is also truly a pain.
New toy, new red jacket. Its cold here you know.

I have no appointments today. Only one thing to do, which is go to Jims and drop off Cindy’s Christmas gift. The one to match what Jim bought her. The first gift I have bought her in years. She is quite flustered. She found out I had bought her something and she thought I had been drinking. Which is funny. I haven’t been. At least not when I bought the gift.

I find myself quite unmotivated to go to work. So I blog instead. I just refilled the candy dish with pretzel M & M’s. It had peanut brittle ones in it. Not as good as they could be. Funny flavor. Which is why I swapped out.

I need to go do my thing. I can only delay so much.

No stops on he way to work. Unless you count turning around 300 yds down he road. I forgot something, and at this point I dont remember what.

Good news. I got to work and client Kim had brought in banh mi sandwiches. They are great. Kim occasionally brings us cream puffs too. Ne dnI say, Kim is awesome and we love her. She is really nice besides. I hardly need to say that.

I spent the balance of my day working in various projects. Nothing too strenuous. Made several phone calls. Spent a great deal of time coordinating an exam for one of our ongoing projects. Had to call and text everybody, it seems, for a simple task to be done. And then I hear the complaints. I really need to hear that. But I was successful in getting everything taken care of.

One more thing, PCWA has been calling. They are the water co up in Auburn. They say I have a past due balance for water use. Right. I have no connection to the meter. But, as it turns out, they charge about $40 per month for NOT using any water. Can I have a big group WTF yell?!! Ya, rhe water company pushed conservation so hard now they need to replace use revenue with non use revenue. What a crock.

Managed to complete more administrative tasks. Its my forte. Spent the last 90 minutes of the day on that.

Headed home. Got all my crap in the car. Forgot my phone. I would like to say I walked straight back in and got it. But, at 630 the door closest to my car is locked on the outside. So Inwalked all the way around the buildingbto the only door I can open. I hate that.

Got home after Emily which surprised me. We made leftovers for dinner, enchiladas and chile relleno again!! Gets better every time we reheat them.

Tonight we went through our yurt order to finalize it. We decided on doors and windows, colors, door type. All the extras. Doing his with my widebis stressful. For some reason she freaks out with things like this. I have no idea why. She eventually calmed down.

After that I read the architects contract and signed it. We are moving all forward on the Auburn house. Maybe we can be yurted up by January. And move. Crazy. Gonna be a big move in all respects.

We are sitting around now. TV and snacks. Soon to bed.

Ok, today the wind is gone. Not even a light breeze. But still cold as hell. You cant win. Yesterday I got fooled by the early morning light breeze and thought the blowing was done. And then it kicked up later and blew hard. I hate the wind.

I may have never mentioned how out here in the country there are lots of animals. Ground dwelling birds of every kind – pheasant, quail, grouse. And wild turkeys, of which we have 40 or 50, in a herd, that summer on our land. They roost in our trees and make quite the racket, you know, gobble gobble. Its quite the sight watching them, at sundown, fly up one by one into the tall trees for the night. I dont hunt them though sometimes I give it thought. The Toms tend to be very large and would probably taste quite good. Not like chicken.

In addition to the wild animals there are a million feral cats. Plus domesticated cats that are dumped out here. We have two cats, both former ferals that we tamed. It can be difficult to resist. Over the years we have found, or been adopted by, stray dogs. One a Paparanian, half pom half Papillon. We kept him awhile then found a good home for him. My favorite was Petey, an American Bulldog. Named for the dog in Little Rascals whom he looked like. One hell of a dog. We found him down the road a mile, he was limping and panting and we thought he was not long for the world. We put him in the car lr and took him home. Miracles do happen, by the time we got home his limp was cured and he no longer was overheated. Smart dog. He was big, about 140lbs, and strong as hell. Very friendly and well mannered. He loved to go for long walks. He would take off across the fields at full blast, very impressive speed, turn around a half mile out and tear back to where we stood. Was always scary because it looked like he wasnt going to stop. Last second he would veer off. I watched him on several occasions leap the drainage ditches, about 20 ft, on a dead run. A sight to see. He liked to run straight down the middle of the full irrigation ditch blowing water out each side and over the top of him and at the end blast out and take off. We found him a nice home.

I mention all this, not because of the feral cats Trisha recently grabbed, but because we have a new dog sorta hanging out. It appears to be a cattle dog. Black and white and is a male. Cant say whether its intact or not. The dog is very afraid of people. It can be sitting 100ft from the house and I open the door and the dog runs away. Far away. I have been feeding him and he has moved into the hog barn. I should say, I leave food for him. He is never around when I put the dish down. I do not know how long this will take. We would like to get him calm and people friendly. Once we get that far we can get him to a rescue and get him adopted or to a nice family. Not mine. I dont want more pets.

So what did I do today? Plenty to do. I went to buddy Jims sho. Had to drop off his wife’s Christmas gift. He asked me to pick it out for him. Jim knew I would be better at it than him. He’s right. After Jims I went to see my personal stylist Rachel. I made her a coffee too. Rachel is the gal who lived over our garage for a few years prior to Trisha. She is now pregnant as well. Which is not important here but I thought I would mention it. Afte Rachels I went to the drug store. I needed a gift box. I dropped in on my workout coach. I had an 830am meet up with her yesterday only she did not show up. She claimed it was for today. I think she misses alot of appointments. We rescheduled for Friday am. Hope she is there. I dropped off a package at the UPS store next. That time of year. Friends need gifts shipped to them. I drop big $$ doing so. Merry Christmas. Vacaville beckoned, and I responded. Pictures were ready at Sams Club for Emily. Of course I picked them up for her. I am such a nice guy. One last thing, a trip to the grocers then home. Finally. Put all the crap away and I went upstairs. To do actual work. I pulled copies I needed from the file. I called the IRS for a client, long hold, two transfers, but got what I needed. Which is a true surprise. By this time it was close to five o’clock.

Emily called around five on her way to yoga. But I had most everything handled for dinner. She also had to go to the store. We cant get through the day without hitting some store. Sadly.

I made a roasted pork salad for dinner. Its really nothing more than a green salad topped with a twice cooked pork loin. We baked loin steaks yesterday. Today i chopped them up and fried them and added some spicy habanero jelly to them while they cooked. The pork then goes on top of the salad. Very good and strangley healthy as well. Also diet conscious. Win win baby! For a beverage I made mai tais. Perfect combo. Bad for diet. Lose lose baby!

Not much else to the day. Dishes and put away crap. Emily already went to bed cuz she is a bum. I will head up there soon. Have to water the dogs first.

The wind has died down today. Well, compared to yesterday, the wind has died. Monday it was blowing a tempest, sailor take warning, put the kites away kind of wind. Normal winter day around here. I really, really hate that kind if wind. I sawnon the news yeaterday it was seven times as windy here as it was in our future home of Auburn. I like that. It makes me happy. I am going to be doing some serious leaf raking this weekend. Love yardwork.

OK. Its 2.5 hours later. The wind has picked up not so nicely. I spoke too soon obviously.

Since I first wrote about the wind conditions I went to work out. The gym manager was supposed to meet me at 830 and go over a new workout plan for me. Well, she did not show up for our scheduled appointment. This is rhe second time. Guess I need to go find her during office hours and berate her for dereliction of duty. It sort of worked out, since I was in the gym I did my regular workout. Not a total waste. And I did have to go in early so I got a jump on the day.

After workout I went home for shower and get ready for the day. I am all packed up, got my lunch, loose paperwork and such and am ready to go. I have to ship out another Christmas gift today too. Hoping its not 71$ like yesterday’s. Also, I am going to the gym to see if Denise is in there yet so I can yell at her. She was in the military. I can play drill sergeant to her private. She needs to be slapped around a little. Figuratively, of course.

Well, I got all the way to work and forgot to go ship the package. And I forgot to go to the gym to yell at Denise. I hate the way my brain doesn’t work. I had nothing planned at work today. So I spent the day trying to get anything done I can. It never ceases to amaze me I can work all day and not do anything that is directly billable. Which means, I am not earning money. There are always plenty of administrative tasks for me to complete. No one better than me. It just seems endless.

I can say I did alot of work today. Managed plenty of phone calls, a couple letters, gathered and sent information for an audit, lots of great stuff.

I do have a fine staff of five who do work all day on things I get paid for. They are my saving grace in that respect. I think they are doing a great job at making enough money to pay themselves and me. I should have a party for them.

On the way home this Tuesday I did not go to the carniceria to pick up food for Taco Tuesday. We decided to have leftover enchiladas and chile relleno casserole. Emily made them last night. When I got home around 645 Emily was still not back from yoga. I fed the dogs and sat down and had a glass of wine. Tough work. I read a few catalogs too. We get a huge amount of catalogs this time of year. Emily got home after 730. She had stopped at the store after yoga.

So I finally got to heatbup dinner. I should say it was better the second night. Neither of us had seconds because we would just eat all of it.

After dinner Emily went to watch TV. I wanted to wrap a few Christmas presents. I still need to put out the garbage and water the dogs then its bedtime.

Ok. Today is one of my least favorite kinds of day. And its a Monday to boot. For those of you unaware, we live in a wind tunnel. One of the windiest places in the US. At least when you dont take into account population. Thats why everyone says Chicago is windy. Our average wind speed is more than double theirs. This is the Fairfield Suisun delta area. We get what is charmingly called the “delta breeze”. The wind comes off the delta at a smart clip. Today, I would estimate, it is blowing 40 – 60 mph with gusts up to 25mph higher. Funny thing, we hardly take notice. I have lived in this area of the country since 1990. So windy is windy. When the house starts swaying, and it does, it can make you worry. No sway today. Haha. Also, our house is out in the middle of miles and miles of flat farmland. So the wind has nothing to stop it. It is a wonderful place. And to think I swept the leaves yesterday. I see more of that in the near future. Our new home in Auburn is tucked down a ways in a canyon so will not get anywhere near the severe weather we get here. I do look forward to no wind. I will not miss it.

Today looks like another slow day. I am going to workout before work. Thats it.

Today is my father in laws birthday. 80 years old. Yikes. He had open heart surgery a month ago. Fell on the stairs last week and busted 10 ribs. But today he is 80 so even with the knocks and bruises he got there. Congratulations and happy birthday!!

I do have one meeting in my office today, with an IT guy regarding a website and SEO and managing my online presence. I am not so interested in it but if someone else wants to manage it for me, I might be interested.

I have to respond to an audit notice for a client as well. She lives in WA and I am here in Sacramento so I would need to get it transferred to here. I can think of many solutions, but have to see what the bad guys are willing to do.

Time to ready myself for the workout.

Usual hour workout, no excitement or injuries. I did get a chance to speak to the boss at the gym. She had not contacted me since I started there to give me a new workout. Turns out they are having an IT problem. Her iphone was not communicating with any of the gym members so she did not send any workouts or changes. What a pain. I am meeting her at 830 tomorrow to set up a new workout. Yay. Same old workout does get boring.

After workout and on the way to work, I stopped at the UPS store to ship the Maine in laws their Christmas presents. Only 71$. Yikes. About as much as we spent on the package contents. I went to the bank next to cash a check.

Then off to the office. Drive was not extraordinary. Again, thats what we want.

Work was hardly inspired. I managed to respond to the IRS for a client who received an audit notice from the IRS. Tomorrow I need to respond to another notice the same client received from the IRS for the same tax year. Not common. But I need to attempt the fix. I received about 10 phone calls too. It seemed like one on top of another. One was just a call to review his bill and then he made a payment on the bill. Thats a good call. All the others were just noise. One was just a very persistent salesman. Please go away. And maybe drop dead. Ok? Thanks. I am always amazed at how I can stay at work all day. Do things. Accomplish things. Yet, at the end of the day, I am unable to recall what I did all day. It sucks because I have nothing to write about. Also, I spend 1/3 of my day on forgettable work. That does not say much for what I do. Or maybe I just need a new job.

I met with Kyle Porter. He is an IT guy of sorts. He is going to re-jigger my website and manage my businesses online exposure. Maybe bring me more work to complain about. I can only hope. Funny coincidence, on Friday I got a sales call from a company that does the same thing. Immediately after that call, I received a text from Kyle that said he was back to doing this type of work having just left his last job. How strange to get these calls together. I hired Kyle.

After he left, it was getting late. I made several calls to referrals who had called me. Then I left for home. On the drive I called Marika. We had traded calls during the day. She had called just to catch up on her day and mine. Otherwise drive was nothing unusual.

Hey, great news, I got home and Emily had made enchiladas and chile relleno casserole for dinner. Is that awesome? So dinner was most excellent. Not much else going. Emily told me she is going to make meatloaf later this week. This is big news. That means meatloaf sandwiches!!

We are about to go do dishes which means Emily is ready for bed. Thats last.

Finally, I was able to sleep in. Till 8 am. Its really not so important when you get up as it is being able to get out of bed when you want to. Just the feeling of control makes it all better. Neither of us had time sensitive plans for the day. Another key part of the days plans.

I did do something, quite accidental, this morning that sounds stupid but ended up being brilliant. Since that’s how it ended up I am going with being brilliant. So, I get two packets of diet food out of pantry. One is the pancakes (nasty cakes) I have spoken of and the other is oatmeal which I make for Emily. She likes it, I do not. I make it then add a few blueberries and some lite maple flavor syrup (gag). Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. As usual, I mixxed up The oatmeal and put it in the microwave. Then while it cooked its 2.5 mins I went out to get the Sunday paper. I come back in and realize that the circuit breaker, that runs the microwave, has tripped. Happens often, old house, loaded circuit. So I take a guess and add time to microwave. Hit start. Watch it, and it kinda blows up in the bowl. I figure, oh it’s done. With the breaker and such, who knows. It looked weird and was nicely thicker than usual. So on go the berries and syrup. And I take it to Emily upstairs. Then I go downstairs to make my cakes (nasty). But, there is a package of oatmeal on the counter. Oops. I quickly head upstairs and reclaim a bowl of pancakes cooked oatmeal style. Then I make real oatmeal for Em. But, instead of wasting said bowl of cakes, I try it. Awesome. Fantastic. Amazing. Now, the recipe for oatmeal I used has double water and more cooking than the pancakes. But the result is strangely worth posting to some diet site I dont know where. Like I said, brilliant. Who knew Sunday could be so great?

Emily went to school to work on whatever teachers work on when no kids are there. It was 930 and she said she was going shopping after school then home by 12.

I, on the other hand, stayed home and read the paper while drinking coffee. Someboday has got to do it. After the strenous exercise of news reading I went upstairs for morning ablutions and get dressed.

Next stop, outside on the driveway. I wanted to wash the car but felt it better to rake all the leaves off the driveway first. Hard to rake the leaves when they are wet and soggy. Got driveway clear and then washed the car. Damn thing was filthy from all the recent rains so I actually had hard work to do. Even wiping down the sills was extra hard from all the muddy water. The car is now shiny and beautiful
See what I mean. Its ok to be jealous.

After the car I continued with the leaves. I had raked the driveway but still had to rake the back lawn. The walnut tree leaves kill my lawn. I have experience with this. Which is why I rake. It sure isnt because I love yardwork. Because I dont.

The volume of leaves is so great I dont have enough garbage can capacity for them. I do fill the garbage can but I then wheel it out to the burn pile and dump it there. I can torch it after 5/31 due to burn rules. Some idiot is worried about winter air quality. I dont like regulation.

I am now officially chore free for today. Its 125. I am going into Vacaville to do some stocking shopping. Probably run into Emily. She just called. I think I will take the convertible and give it a run. Its a sunny day and kinda cold but top down might be refreshing. And I can always crank the heater.

What a pain. The first store I went to did not have what I needed. They were out. No rainchecks on the sale either. When they do get more I will have to argue with them for sale price. I have a couple particular things I needed for Ems stocking and that one thing is available at only this store. Its proprietary. I moved on to other stores and continually struck out. It really starts to annoy when you cant find any gifts. But I pushed onward. I hit the hardware store, on recommendation of another store. They had housewares but not what I wanted. Then off to Target. And nothing there either. Christ. Then off to Grocery Outlet. Thats right, go to a grocery store for stocking stuffers. Found a few things that were just fine. And a great deal on garbage bags to boot. From there to Nugget Market, another grocery store but they have loads of overpriced stocking stuffers. Found a few more things, all on sale. I should stick to grocery stores. Found some good stuff for stockings. Then to Bed Bath and Beyond where I got a few more items I could not live without. Or she cant. Then I went home. And, at 530 sun down, it was brisk and cold. Heater way up, which is a freeze and fry situation with heat at feet and cold wind at top. Hey, its a convertible, get used to it.

Emily was home and had been all day. She did her shopping much earlier today. We had a cocktail, which really tops off the long day. We made dinner, pork loin steaks with a sweet habanero sauce. Plus some roasted asparagus on the side. We had wine with dinner as well. We have far too much wine inventory in the house.

Then we watched TV for an hour or so. Emily finished off the bottle. Hey, an extra glass isnt that much. The TV upstairs is not working, again, so we have to watch downstairs. Oh well. Quieter when I go to bed, at the least, with no TV. So here we sit.

While we sit here, my idiot son has been texting me. Lots of inane chatter and not much else out of him. I think he is not as funny as he thinks he is. Obviously. Anyhow, we are watching TV downstairs, again. TV upstairs still broke. So, I went upstairs, managed to get the TV box, which was dead, to reset. So, 15 minutes of rebooting and we have TV. Too bad. Now Emily will go to sleep with the TV on, she drops off VERY quickly, and I cant shut it off because she claims she watches it in her sleep. Or she says she was not asleep. Snoring be damned.

I read a book for a few minutes and went to sleep.

We have an appointment this am with a home designer and an engineer up in Auburn. We will be meeting at a Starbucks in Auburn to have a first meeting, the meet and greet meeting to see if we even can get along. Sort of like last nights meeting with the architect.

So, unfortunately, we were up earlier than I want on a Saturday. Usual rush through of duties but no lunch to make. I managed to get the paper read without Emily noticing. I made up the time by racing thru my shower. Im still cleqn, relax. We got out of the house a little later than we wanted. Had to text our appointment that we were running late. She was OK with that. Not like she really has a choice. We are the buyers in this transaction which is where all the power resides. Not that I want to be a dick.

So we had a nice drive to Auburn. We are meeting at a Starbucks near Save Mart. Her office is another 10+ miles farther up rhe hiway so we opted for closer. Marni, the designer, brought along Craig, an engineer. They are a package deal if we choose them. We chatted about the design and building process for an hour and a half. Lots to discuss. Then went for a site visit. Craig is ready to jump into this job. He made that very cleqr once he saw the site. I think he said “Im ready to do it. Lets go”. Clear enough. Now Emily and I need to compare and discuss until we know which of these folks we want to work with. Tough choice. I know which way I lean. Now I need to ascertain Emilys opinion without giving her mine. I dont want to color her choice. Its going to be an interesting process.

After our meeting we headed down the hill to home. We stopped in for a few minutes to let the dogs out. Then off to Berkeley for Christmas shopping. We hit all the fourth street stores, as usual. First place we stopped, what do we buy for Christmas? Nothing. We bought lights for the yurt. They were on sale and we need lights. Right? Sometimes you buy for yourself at Christmas. We did. After that it was store to store looking for sticking stuffers and gifts of whatever for whoever. We managed to drop a few bills. We also stopped at Convert, one of Emilys faves. They have something I really like, several bottles of nice bourbon and rye at the register. Self serve as well. I tried a couple. Its a nice touch. We also ended up dropping some cash there as well. But we did have a few shots. Fair trade. I stopped at our favorite kitchen store there, Sur la Table. I wqs assigned a dutybof picking out a rather nice gift for a friends wife. Price range runs 199 to 5500 dollars. I ended up buying something that is usually 1000 for 550. A good deal and I really love it. I can’t say what it us, its not Christmas yet and I dont want anyone’s Christmas spoiled. Its fun to spend someone elses money. I am glad he had me do it. One disappointment, the gourmet grocer there was closed before we had a chance to shop. I was counting on them for nice stocking stuffers. I need a few more things.

We did not drive directly back home. We stopped in Vacaville for some groceries and dinner. We went to Napoli, an Italin place off Nut Tree Rd. It is a favorite. We used to more often go to Pietros but they have become very expensive. And Napolis is easily as good or better and more generous servings as well. Sounds kinda win win to me.

We got home around 930. First thing feed the dogs. You know a dog dies of starvation in just a few hours or so it seems from the dogs behavior. We unloaded all our take and got it put away. Not much else to do.

We have been watching TV for the past hour. Nothing much on Saturday nights. The local newscaster does not understandbthe news she is reading. Sad. Probably smart as a box of rocks. Though her verbal abilities are very entertaining. In a sad way but still entertaining.

If Im lucky we will be going to bed soon.

Today was a day unlike any other. Actually, no it wasnt. My entire morning was exactly the same as yesterday and that is just fine by me. This morning I did everything I do as always, breakfast, dogs, coffee. But, I forgot to make Emily’s lunch. Oops. Happens. No matter how much I operate on habit, I still am able to forget obvious things. Fortunately, none of what I do in the morning is life threatening when skipped. She ended up getting a “chicken something” at Carls. It was horrible. Or so she says. There is a little fallout for missing her lunch.

I did go to workout after reading the paper. Paper was, as usual, of little consequence. It may be that the paper has always been this way and I just dont remember. Or maybe, back in the day, all we had was the paper so it seemed more important. I dont know.

Workout was great. Lasts just under an hour. The elliptical I warmup on has a TV. Very few channels, no sound, plus subtitles. Makes the warmup half as boring. Plus side is I am probably getting into better shape. We can only hope.

After workout I went hone and showered and got ready for the day. It takes awhile to get the dogs ready. Its kinda cold and crisp outside and my old dogs need to be wearing their jackets outside. I have to get them dressed so they stay warm. Taffy is still recuperating from her surgery so she stays inside. But I put a jacket on her too. She needs to have her stitches covered as well and the jacket works well as that. So no “cone of shame” for her to wear.

I left for work awhile later. Unfortunately I forgot to go to the bank as I intended. Today I am having a bad memory day. I need less to remember. Again, as I think about my day I have a hard time remembering anything I actually accomplished. I did do payroll, it is Friday.

Emily and I had an appointment with an architect at 4 pm. His office is next to Curtis Park. We talked for about an hour and a half. He knows everything and does some really cool shit. We saw a few pictures of past work and his office is really cool as well. He would be very good to work with. He really works as a guide and consultant and we would choose what the destination was and what stops to make on the way. Of course, he would draw the plans as well. Tomorrow morning we are speaking with a home designer up in Auburn. She has alot of experience in home design in our area and comes highly
recommended as well. Seems it will be a tough choice. Will see.

After our meeting we decided to grab a bite. Since we were next to Curtis Park, we headed down Franklin Blvd to Pangaea Cafe. Its owned by a client and I owe him a visit. I seldom get past the Hideaway, another clients place, which is up the street. They have great burgera and its a bar so I have that too. Pangaea has an award winning burger which is what I ordered along with loaded fries, loaded with shredded meat and bbq sauce and pickled onion. Tasty.

While we were there a car hit a pedestrian in the crosswalk out front. It was like a floor show for our dinner. We had people, injured girl screaming, cops fire trucks, craziness. Not the kind of thing you see every day. At least I don’t.

Most of that excitement was done by the time we left. Just cops milling around talking to people. The traffic down Franklin moves at a really fast clip and drivers dont pay attention. So no big surprise there are problems.

We drove home after dinner. We got here and rousted the dogs and got rhem fed. I received some Christmas gifts in the mail so I wrapped those. No sense in waiting till later. Then we just watched TV for a couple hours. Emily is actually asleep in front of the fire. She always claims she listens to the TV in her sleep. Right.

Its bed time. I am going to water the dogs and put the wife to bed. Then me too.