Quick Week

Fred has been working from home this week. I'm learning how to share the space during the day...

Fred says these things that just put things into perspective. When we have Tristam he's big on saying, " In your life time, I bet you'll see ________or you won't even know what it is to _______ or people will be _________." In the morning there is that tv show where where they wish a "happy birthday" to people who are at least 100 years old. I often sit there and do the math in my head and think, "Wow, that person was born before cars were common place...or whatever." When I think of my own life in those terms, it really puts the timeline of a life span into persepevtive.

While Fred has been downstairs working, I've been up in my office working on some book stuff.

Friday we close on the house. Friday night, we celebrate with some wine and sushi in the new house!

Wee!

Here we go! It's that crazy time warp time again...only a couple of months until the SCBWI conference in LA. This time I signed up early and got into all of the things I wanted to...last year I dilly dallied and wound up missing out.

Good news! Our mini cooper is awaiting transport from Oxford, England and should arrive in the next few weeks. Just in time too- my poor old car is on its last legs...

Sorting...Piling and Clearing the Air...

I'm sitting here in my studio and it is a disaster...somewhere in the last few weeks of working on book projects, traveling and buying a house, this room became the destination for piles of paper and things that are hal finished. I'm on a mission today to get some order going in here..it is driving me NUTS!

This weeks projects include a round of tight sketches for an upcoming chapter book, closing on the house, and starting to get the remodeling projects organized for the house.

I have the last chapter of the Ekhart Tolle book to go. That book has been so interesting and helpful. There is one story in particular I keep thinking about. It's a story about these two monks who are walking along and come across a young lady trying to cross the road in a place where these is this big muddy area. Now, monks are not supposed to touch women , but one of the monks picks her up and carries her accros the muddy mess and sets her down on the other side and continues on. Several hours later, the other monk says, " I can't believe you carried that young lady, you're not supposed touch a woman." To which the other monk replies, " Are you still carrying that young lady? I set her down hours ago. "...good story...something I struggle with. I'll rehash some stupid thing that happened ages ago in my head and keep it alive. I'm trying to be more aware of it and train myself not to do it so much... There is a woman that Fred and I know who lives 15 years in the past and she's a mess, I try to think of her and what happens to your health and ability to live when you can't be in the present and let go of things that are dead and gone...

Projects

Life has gone from pretty busy to every minute being schedule out. List of things that need to be done have grown and we're starting to lean on our schedules and lists to keep forward momentum going and to keep from being completely overwhelmed.

Our first big project with the house will be a kitchen remodel. We'll be removing some grainy oak cupboards, 8o's tiles and a peeling vinyl floor and replacing them with something that we hope makes a lot more sense, works really well and is beautiful.

The woman who lived in the house before was a heavy smoker, so we have to replace lots of surfaces. We are having a blast looking at the possibilities and it's actually great to have a budget and be forced to be more creative with things...

Flutter

I'm off to a horrible start with the blog posts this month...I'm still very much trying to catch up with work and everything else at the moment. Time is zipping along so quickly. I'm a bit surprised by it actually.

In the last couple of weeks we added 2 birds to our big lead and zinc free cage. Now we have a flock of 3. This picture isn't that great, but it's a good one of Max (light green and yellow) who has gone from small picked on baby to ruling the roost in the space of a week. Jack is the blue one with the yellow head. He's our acrobat and of course, there Kiwi- who is ummmm...well, she's a bitch, really. She's a mean bird with few moments of kindness towards the other two...maybe the other two will help her with her sad lack of social skills.

I have lots of work on my tables at the moment. Tonight is going to be a late night- tomorrow will be also.

Fred and I took Tristam to see the new house today. He dug his new room and wants to do an outspace sort of decorating scheme in there. Our wonderful new neighbors, Diana and Rob, took some time to chat with us a bit and were very patient with Tristam. We're stoked to have such cool neighbors.

Well- back to it- I'll try to be better at posting more regularly.

Oh! and very exciting news- Gretel Parker will be creating one of her fabulous creations for me!

Diversions

The things that are occupying my mind today...eco-friendly home stuff, kitchen design, bath design, house colors, room colors...fun.

Here's a thing we found for the masterbath - recycled glass countertops

We found that and lots of other beautiful things at this website, and also this one and this one. Yummy, huh?

Sort of a Nutty Week or So...

So...a few days ago we came back from Seattle and went to an open house at this place...today we bought it. We hadn't really planned on it. It needs a bit of work...a new paint job (inside and out), some new flooring, that landscape has to go....it only a few blocks away from here. Fred and I put in an offer a couple of days ago and never thought they would go for it...they did!

Behind

Lots to catch up on...I've been horrible at keeping up with the blog as of late. Some reasons include jetting off to Washington, various illustration projects, being a Steph-mom, Fred has influenza "a"and doing some estate planning .....It's a really interesting experience writing wills and setting up trusts and so on....life is short.

I'll post again shortly but in the meantime, cruise over to Vienna for Beginners. It is one of my favorite places to day dream of places far away...well, I guess just about Vienna really, but still...

Pull...Push

I'm off to the post office to mail my taxes...last minute again...

Lots of deadlines, lots of stuff on the "to do" list...

Weekend Happenings

This last Friday, Fred and I took off for Oakland. First stop- Yoshi's to gorge ourselves on sushi and see Omar Sosa. Really good sushi (not the best ever, but fresh and basic)...and a really fabulous show afterwards. The thing about Oakland...well, the thing about Jack London Square in Oakland, is that there is a fricken freight train rolling through (right though) the middle of the square about every hour...Friday night brought little sleep....

Saturday morning we were up and out to Mountain View to pick out our mini. Then further south to Gilroy (garlic capital of the world), to the le creuset outlet shop. We bought this Moroccan cooking gizmo thingy- it works fabulously.

Then on Sunday we took Tristam to Cayucos to the beach there. After the beach we went to a restaurant where a very nice man sang songs to Tristam about flying cheese sandwiches. He thought that was outstanding.

Soon!

Reach

Little Ivan

This Saturday at about 11pm Ivan started having a siezure. Fred gently held him and spoke softly to him...then we made made the decision to take Ivan into the emergency vet. Ivan has been sick for a couple of weeks now and really not getting better or enjoying his life...just sitting in a hostipal cage with a heat lamp on him and having to take all kinds of medications...he had become very thin and weak, but had days where he chirped and ate a lot... We made the decision to have him put to sleep. We did the right thing, I just hope he didn't suffer too much- that's the thing...I wish people had the same option.

The E.R. vet said that it looked like heavy metal poisoning to her. She said that a lot of bird toys are made in China and that they contain lead and zinc and there are no regulations about toxic metals for animals. The vet said that once the bird injests the metal, there is really nothing to be done. They never regain their health.

We had a funeral for Ivan yesterday. We wrapped him in a cloth napkin and put him in a nice wooden box. We buried him in the backyard and Fred, Tristam and myself talked about our good memories of Ivan. We don't know if Tristam really got what was going on. We told him that we were burying Ivan's body, but that the energy that was Ivan was no longer there- that it had left and gone someplace else...maybe to become something else.

So...this weekend we ordered a zinc and lead free cage (a big one- 7ft tall, 2 feet wide) and removed any toys in Kiwi's cage that are painted or have metal on them. We also got Kiwi a new friend- Jack! Fred and I went to the pet store and Fred watched all of the parakeets for a long time and decided that Jack was the one..smart, spunky, big enough to stand up to Kiwi and very playful. I'll post a picture soon- he's a good looking fella too- Now Fred want to get 3 more....We're going to have a loud house, but birds are so fun to have around...lively happy little creatures.

Snow Cake

Usually when I see a movie I can make some predictions on what is going to happen...this one, I didn't get one thing right. Instead I was totally caught off guard and enjoyed it completely.

Plus it has Alan Rickman...what is it about that guy? So likable.

Sunny Morning, Foggy Eyes

Lots of late nights for Fred and myself...another one last night. We finally got to bed at 12:30 only to wake up at 6:30 because Tristam's mother decided to take some sort of early morning class. Tristam was dropped of half asleep...we were half asleep too, so I guess that worked out. I am already day dreaming about sleep and it's just a bit past 9am...

I"m off to the gym to try to get my blood moving and clear the fog a little. The next 3 weeks are going to be nuts! Next weekend we're heading up to San Francisco to order our new car (mine is seriously on it's last legs...15 years old and 150,000 miles on the odemeter). While we're up there we're hoping to go to Yoshi's and if we can swing it, lunch at Chez Panisse. Fred and I have been talking about going to Yoshi's for about 9 years now- jazz and sushi! In the last 2 years I have become obsessed with Alice Waters and her philosophies on food and her edible classroom project- what a treat it would be to eat her famous restaurant!

The weekend after that we're heading to Seattle for a few days. Fred has a business meeting and then we're going to take a look around the area and check it out.

In addition to all of that there are projects and deadlines and taxes and and and... I really like our pace of life, but I am so going to dig our next vacation!

Really? Did Nobody Notice? Is it Just Me?

Okay, so I get this e-mail that there is a new "Sally" book out ....Anything odd about this dog's face? Bestseller...that's what I hear...

Bubbles