New Year In Ringing (Drumming)

The Soltice/christmas time is past. We celebrated well. On the 25th we had good friends and family over. The weather was warm. We hung out on the deck . We laughed, we ate (a beautiful rib roast and many salads and side dishes), we drank (very nice wines), the kids played (without bickering :)), the sun set (it was beautiful) . Our good friend Dom, brought his Dad over (visiting rom England) and it was so great to finally meet him- Dom is like family to us and meeting his dad was like adding to the family. At night we watched A Christmas Story.

Today I pulled the last of the tomato plants out of the garden and planted more of our cover crop. The house has been cleaned .New projects are prepped and ready to begin after the weekend. This weekend we are ringing in the New Year at Dom's ( an off and on tradition for Fred and I since 1999).

Leonard Marcus interview

Winter Solstice in England

Winter Solstice

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Winter Solstice

Wonders of the Universe: Egyptian Winster Solstice

Mayan Winter Solstice

Bolivian Winter Solstice

Solstice history.

An a picture in in Shell Beach a couple of minutes ago. Happy Solstice everyone!

Happy Winter Solstice!

The original "reason for the season".

Morning in the Fish Tank

Totally Great TED talk passed on my yoginni Lori

Zombies and Yoga and a Winter Garden

The current tv diversion we are into is Walking Dead. A show about a virus infecting the people of the earth and turing them into zombies. A totally fun and scary (we both jump and gasp) mind clearer at the end of the day.

I took a break from yoga after a shoulder issue for a couple of weeks, but now I'm back and digging it...even though the last number of classes have been a bit chilly by Bikram standards. I love our yoga family. Today I caught up with friend , Leslie, who has been in Peru with the Peace Corp this last year and has a a year more to go.

Today I also cleared out the last of the tomato plant and planted more cover crop. My hubbie needs to get busy on my worm bin...he should be happy he has a wife who isn't interested in diamonds or trinkets, but would be ecstatic over a worm bin that will make beautiful soil for next year's garden. That's what I think anyways...

The Art of Wearable Communication

The Talking Heads CBGB's 1975

Spaces

I've been thinking about spaces today. I was thinking about this interview I hear once on TED (I think that's where I heard it..)...anyhow, it was with David Byrne. He was talking about how the space in which music was being performed, shaped the creation of that music He gave as one example his early performances at CBGB's in NYC in the late 70's when he was with the Talking Heads. He said that because it was a small place filled with a lot of additional noise, like clanking glasses and people talking, the music had to be played in such a way that it could be heard under those circumstances and the space helped to create the music.

I have a friend who has designed the bedrooms in her house with only beds and storage- no work spaces, no clutter, no additional elements to distract from the function of that room. Sleep and rest.

Here is my work space. I have been meaning to write about it since Christopher Cheng , the ever positive and endlessly creative author and lecturer and SCBWI board member, asked me to participate in his series called Look at my Desk. I have been so slow in sitting down and thinking about my work space/desk. Today I was thinking about why that might be and I think it is this; my workspace needs some help and I don't totally love it yet. The main issue is storage. The part that you don't see in this picture are the layouts from 2 books, 2 piles of tax stuff, files with unfinished manuscripts I'm working on...The trouble with this space it that there isn't a lot of wall space. it is mostly windows an it has lots of little spaces where the wall juts this way and that... Now- finding a solution/s....

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Kumon

After years of wanting to start Tristam in Kumon, on Monday, Fred and I finally signed him up. Kumon has been such a great help to my niece and nephews and over the past few years, friends here have also chimed in. I hope he puts n the effort to have this help him...

Reflections on Life

Another anniversary passed this week for me and Fred and it reminded me of what my parents said 5 and a half years ago- almost 6, at their 40th wedding anniversary: The server at their 40th wedding anniversary said, "Wow! 40 years! Amazing! How did you do it?What is your secret??" And my parents looked at the kid and said, "It wasn't hard. Find the RIGHT person." and I agree- it's not hard...find the right person. I haven't compromised anything and either has Fred- we remain the people we have always been- the beliefs, the values...there have been no major compromises- no major arguments, no life goals and wishes abandoned....we are more ourselves than ever and every year we are stronger as a couple because of it. We have both been in relationships where we did compromise and we did bury our deepest desire for the sake of the "relationship", but luckily, we both had a strong sense of ourselves and eventually, the misery of that (the not healthy relationships) made room for us. We have 2 anniversaries a year- we plan to get married to each other over and over again at different times in various places, so we can have lots of anniversaries every year. Lucky us!!! I hope the same for you- don't compromise- to thine own self be true- was that Shakespeare?

Space Horse

A part of a sketch from an outer space scene involving a horse.

Holiday garland catches the sun in the living room.

A little surprise in the flower pot.

The Weekend

Here it again, the weekend. This week went by like *snap*.

A new version of Photoshop is now installed on my computer and now I have to learn to use it. It looks AMAZING! The brushes, the content aware feature, the puppet wrap feature...coupled with the drawing tablet, it's a whole new world. Now, I have to learn how to make the most of it and go into student mode in between project work.

All the holiday shopping is done. Our cards arrived from the printer yesterday and this weekend we're getting those ready to send out. We're also hoping to catch the Nutcracker ballet tomorrow night- Tristam's hip hop dance teacher is a professional ballet dance by profession. I think it seeing him perform will be a really great experience for the kid. We also have making holiday gifts on our list for the weekend and I have some work to do.

Brrrr! It's cold in here tonight. It's been freezing outside all week (that's a relative statement-freezing for the central coast). I've been heating up this bean bag thing in the microwave and putting it at the foot of our bed under the covers so that our bed is toasty when we get in.

*Yawn* speak of which- I'm done for tonight...an episode of Arrested Development and then cuddling with my Pookie.

Strange Beliefs

Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got

Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got

SLO Holiday Parade

Also we went to the annual San Luis Obispo Christmas Parade with friends...I love living in a small town. A friend described the parade as, "trucks, flatbeds and bicycles filled with people waving at people they know lining the streets who are waving back at them. "

Holiday Decoration....

This year the house is decorated with shiny things and white lights...no big tree, just little ones like this here and there...

Olives, Art, Friends....

This weekend we went to our 2nd olive harvest at a good friends farm and life as art haven. Around 150 friends and family of the Ritters / Ritterbucks were there to harvest this year's olive crop. We were sarenaded by a mariachi band as we harvested olives. The kids were in heaven bouncing on the trampoline, exploring the grounds , taking tractor rides and chasing each other around. Afterwards we were treated to a lunch of tri-tip sandwiches, beans and salad and sat in the sun chatting. It was devine. Here are some photos of this beautiful place created by out friends.