Random Update

Been hot here, 90F+ in the full sun, but only about 20% humidity, so it's very pleasant.

I plan to try and scan in some old family photos this week sometime if I can, so stay tuned if you're interested.

Also, green tea ice cream tastes absolutely amazing and I hope I can find it when I go back to England.

Mmhmmm

You haven't truly lived until you've sat through a high-falutin', gourmet breakfast in a crowded restaurant with a constantly and unrepentantly farting almost-toddler.

Mendocino

Just a few photos...

Heading toward Main Street in town.



The view from our window, above.



B in front of where we're staying (gorgeous Victorian hotel).


Playing outside in the well-kept gardens, enjoying the sunshine. B is off for a hot tub soak soon.

Nostalgia

I've been hit by major waves of nostalgia this trip. B and I visited my childhood park and my Montessori pre-school, one town over from this one (about a 10 minute drive). I lived on a boat until I was three, and then we moved into an apartment in the same town, right across the street from the park and the library. We lived there until I was six.

And... there's said apartment, above the little shop there. I parked right across from it, and then B, E and I walked to the park...


...where this little guy got to go on the swings. You know, it seemed to me like the park had shrunk. Rationally, I know it was me that changed, but still... it was odd seeing eye to eye with the top of the tall slide, and that jungle gym wasn't very large after all.



Bad attempt at a self-portrait in the headlands above the bridge, looking across the bay. I was squinting because I had to take my sunglasses off!


Beginning the drive down, looking out toward SF across the bay. B snapped these two photos.


The Point Bonita lighthouse, the last manned one on the CA coast.


Elijah and I on Rodeo Beach, with a tanker heading into port in the distance behind us.

Below, a few photos of our day yesterday... my best friend in high school got married to her long-term beau at the Frank Lloyd Wright building (Civic Center). It's the same place my parents got married many years ago. You might recognize it as the setting for the movie Gattaca.







It was a very pleasant ceremony in a nice garden, and I got to catch up with an old friend I hadn't seen in ages. It was so hot that we kept joking we'd accidentally-on-purpose fall into the fountain, but we restrained ourselves. Apparently, however, one member of a wedding party did recently fall in!



Afterward, we had a barbecue at the nearby beach... where I used to go with my elementary/middle school for an end-of-the-year field trip. Ah, nostalgia.

Deer...

This morning when B and I were getting ready to leave, we had visitors in the yard. Two stags, with velvet still clinging to their antlers, were busy chewing leaves off the branches Dad had just pruned. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw them - after moving to London I haven't been used to seeing deer in the suburbs.


Not sure if Elijah even noticed them, but he's been having fun and enjoying the weather and extra attention. He's cutting a new tooth, though, so he's a tad sensitive, poor chap.

Update from CA

We've been busy fighting jet lag and making big plans. Oh, and enjoying the weather. It was about 95F today in the full-on sun. That's about 35C or so, for you Euros.

A few pics....


Elijah in his great-great-grandmother's chair, with Grandpa nearby keeping a watchful eye out for toppling. I used the chair as a child; so did my dad.


We visited a park today, one I played at as a child, near the library where I used to work. Elijah enjoyed watching older children on the swings.


The old mill, what the valley and the area are named after.


We met up with friends and their dogs for a walk this afternoon. If you look closely, you can see the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking over the hill in the distance.


The dogs went swimming, and we were a bit jealous... it was hot hot hot!


Allllll tuckered out in our bed.

Tomorrow we're off shopping, Sunday we're going to a barbeque at my godparents' (now godGRANDparents!), Monday we're going to the wedding of one of my oldest and best friends, Wednesday we leave for Mendocino for a few days, 150 miles up the coast or so. Bruno had a massage and a hot tub and a sauna yesterday... there's a small spa about 5 mins walk away. Things are great right now, and we're slowly getting the jet lag controlled. Had burritos and cold root beer for dinner this evening, two things I miss like crazy when I'm in England.

That's all for now!

We're Off, But First...

... a few pics of the new flat. (And then I'm frantically packing the rest of my stuff and going to bed to try and get some sleep before the big morning.)

The living room. The place came part-furnished. It's a bit more cluttered now :)

Our yard. The wooden thing is a hammock stand. Works great.

Hallway and small front garden.


Kitchen, with lurking baby. He likes to open and shut the cat flap. Odd child. Must take after his daddy.


Said hammock in action.


Gettin' dirty.


Gettin' clean.

That's all I've got time for, off to pack for California!

Strange Happenings

This morning I rose at 5:50am and took an hour and a half walk before breakfast.

Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Want to know the reality?

A certain young gentleman arose at 5:30, wanted feeding, and then was just too wide awake to go back to sleep. I wanted to let B sleep in since he needed it, and I didn't fancy riding herd on an active boy in a non-babyproofed flat. So out we went, and then I had a midmorning nap when I came back... and was awoken with a nice breakfast of French toast and tea.

The second strange happening occurred just before noon. B and I were sitting in the living room when we heard drums. My first thought was Oh NO... is it the neighbors? Are we going to have problems again?!

B sat upright and said, "Is that... a brass band marching down the road? Because it sure sounds like one."

Turns out, he was right. It was a brass band.



This evening, I expect there'll be a circus trundling through the neighborhood, or perhaps a skydiver landing on the roof, or maybe I'll run into Michael Jackson or something. Don't strange things tend to happen in threes? Stay tuned!

Series

We've moved into the new flat, although there's a lot to be done still! The most important thing, however, is that we're finally away from those horrible neighbors. I walked over there on Thursday to say a final goodbye to the place, and our yard is already re-filled with dog feces and assorted garbage. Now it's not our problem anymore!

Here's a (probable overload) of everyone's favorite little guy, with several humorous "series" of photos that had me laughing when I reviewed them.

Someone's discovered bookshelves, and perhaps more importantly, the attention it brings him when he pulls books off them!




For some reason he enjoys biting B's hair. He gives cuddles afterward to make up for it, though.



He is not, I hasten to add, an actual biter-biter. These faces are misleading, albeit funny. What he's actually doing is sliming my knee. And then he gives sunny smiles afterward.



More pictures (and of the new place) are forthcoming. We're off to California next week and are looking forward to that immensely.

Politics

I don't usually talk about politics on this blog, but I feel I'm entitled to an occasional blog post about it... especially when it affects my family.

This evening we got a letter through the door informing us that Elijah's information is now being held on a central database. Actually, it wasn't even a letter, it was a pamphlet, laid out in a kind of slick, propaganda-magazine style.

ContactPoint, the government's new database, includes Elijah's full name, age, address, name of his doctor, school information, and information about us, his parents.

And no, we don't get to opt out, it's mandatory. So... joy of joys, Elijah's information is now out there for pedophiles to search through. Of course, there's a "limited amount" of people who can access the database, but with Britain's shoddy security record, it's a given that there will be unwanted eyes roaming over the information in ContactPoint.

Oh, and there's the small matter of users being able to search the data for the "prevention or detection of crime"

This from a government who stores genetic fingerprints from about 750,000 under-18s (including innocent children).

To say that I'm hacked off with this is a bit of an understatement.

I think Americans tend to get the impression that Britain is just a meek, rainy island with lots of castles and tea parties. Don't get me wrong: I like it here, but the government is downright scary. Sure, it's currently in turmoil, but it's still rolling out stuff like ContactPoint, and the National ID card scheme, which requires everyone to be fingerprinted.

Yes, we're

Or... maybe we're really not.