Hello! I thought it was about time I wrote here. It's been a while. But the truth is that not a whole lot is happening around now. Maybe I need to lower my standards a bit. Actually, a couple of exciting things did happen last week. Last Thursday I traveled to San Francisco (The City, to locals) after work to go to the California Academy of Sciences (a science museum in Golden Gate Park). Every Thursday night they open the museum to people 21+. All of the exhibits in the museum are open (including the rainforest, planetarium, aquarium, traditional natural history, and the living roof), there are lectures you can see, there is a dj and music, and there is also alcohol for purchase (hence the 21+ age limit). This event sells out each week. There was a lot of people there, and I met Melinda and Jerome, Kim, who was visiting from Virgina, their friend Jamie, visiting from Colorado, and Melinda's friend Velvet, who lives in the city. We had a great time! The only bummer of the evening is that we wanted to see the rainforest, but we had drinks in hand before we realized that you can't take your drink in. We waited, but then we waited too long and it closed before we could see it. It closes at 8 pm so that the animals can go to sleep.

The crowd at this event was pretty interesting. I expected adults of all ages, but it was really mostly just people in their 20's. I've never been somewhere like that that had such a narrow demographic. And compared to going to an aquarium or museum on a typical Saturday afternoon, this crowd was much more CHILL. It's amazing to me in the first place that so many people go to do something fun on vacation or for the weekend, and they spend the whole time stressed out. You can see it in peoples' faces and how they talk to others in moving around the place. This evening crowd wasn't like that at all. Everyone was pleasant, courteous, talking about exhibits with each other, and mellow. I enjoyed the atmosphere very much. Of course I think it's important for kids to do all these things, but it was pretty awesome to be doing this and have no kids around, or their often annoying parents. I send mental hints to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to set up an evening like this too!

Last Saturday was a busy day for me. First we took Max to the vet. He actually really likes going to the vet, I think because someone nice is there who spends like 15 minutes doing nothing but paying attention to him and touching him and talking nicely to him. He kept following the dr. around the room even. That was first thing in the morning, so afterwards we went to have breakfast. That was nice too! Then we bought dog food, some people food, and headed home. Once there, I got a call from the lady who I was hoping to buy a washer machine from. It was ready, and I drove over to Santa Rosa to pick it up from her. Only $25! And it works fine, presumably, because she did laundry in it that morning! After that I went downtown and met with Megan at a new yarn shop. She was a little late, but I made the most of that at the thrift shops across the street. I had big scores there! A desk chair for Spencer (his third since we've been here), a tea kettle to get us through until when we find a good one to buy, some round pans, a bowl, and a big fat book to put my monitor on. It's important to have the right book for that job. This book was right because it was $0.75, and its title is "The Vogue Sewing Book". So this looks out at me from under my monitor now. I bought some lovely yarn at the yarn store when Megan arrived, and then we knitted, visited, and drank coffee in a nearby coffeeshop (though it is a really expensive shop and I don't think we'll be hanging out there again). It was really nice to visit with her, and we'll be doing more sit-and-knits more often. Awesome.

Other than that stuff, not much is going on. Our house is slowly coming together. Spencer got the garden planted, yesterday I found a rug on craigslist for the living room, I finished painting our dining room table and chairs (they look much better!), and we are settling in. Spencer is working just about non-stop now, and he turns in his thesis in less than a month. Today I'm doing this (the blog), I will do laundry (still have to go to the laundromat because our new washer isn't hooked up yet), clean the house, buy some flowers for some pots outside and plant them, and probably do some knitting too.

Check out my new list over on the right. These are birds we see at our house. We will update as we see new ones!

Have a good weekend!