What do you do, again?

So many times we are asked, "What is it Michael does for a living?" We all know he works and travels a lot. We know he does something with computers ... but what does he do??

For some people, pictures are worth a thousand words. So, here are a couple photos taken of Michael working hard on a recent job in San Francisco. He's running the graphics from back stage for an event. The nice thing is that he can create the graphics at home. But he does travel quite a bit to actually run them for the client shows.

Enjoy the candid photos below.




And when he's at work (as opposed to his home office) he really has all the eyes on him as you can see below. No pressure or anything.



And if this wasn't enough for you ... there is an entire gallery of show photos by clicking here.


Enjoy!

Awwwwwwe!

Okay, so he was totally asleep and had his little white belly showing. And when I tiptoed up to him (CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP!) to take a picture (CLICK! FLASH!) he woke up. It's so hard to get him still.

Field Tripping

What an amazing weekend. Friday started with another field trip for Valerie's class. We went to a living history trapper camp, much like the one I went on with Rex's class a couple of years ago. So, an hour in the car with 6 fourth graders was actually pretty fun (on the way there). We learned about trapping, trading, camp keeping, hunting and what it was like along the Sacramento River before gold was discovered. This was followed by a picnic in the park.

Here you see Valerie helping the "Camp Keeper" with the water buckets. Although it looks like some poor other chap has to do the heavy lifting.



Of course, usually healthy as a horse, I ignored the sinus headache that had been coming on a couple of days earlier. And on the drive home I was crushed under the weight of pain. My eyes hurt, my teeth hurt, my ears hurt. I had a vision of traumatizing the kids as my head might have exploded all over the windshield. Fortunately, this did not happen. But after dumping the kids off I went and got some medicine to relieve the sinus pressure and took a nap in the car until the kids were dismissed. Then I crawled through the hall and propped myself on the floor against the wall outside of Amira's class. I was unable to put on the air of having everything being okay.

So, I went home and proceeded to drink tons of my gypsy cold care tea (I swear by this) and rinse my sinuses with the netty pot. My friend Holly sent over some herbs and I picked up a bunch of homeopathic stuff. Miraculously by Saturday, although still tired and stuffed, the pain was gone.



The kids had some friends over and I was well enough to bake them some snickerdoodles, get together a big batch of kale chips, and start charring pablano peppers for the chiles rellenos I was going to make for a pot luck on Sunday.

By Sunday I was feeling way better. And I was surprised to see that it was raining outside. The potluck was still on. So, I scrambled together my rellenos, a salad and cut up the most amazing casaba melon I picked up from GRUB and then a pretty terrific salad complete with pomegranate from my backyard.

May I interject here that I love GRUB? This is the best CSA ever!



We arrived at Holly's house to celebrate the 100th Birthday of her House. Also, she and Casey had made homemade Carnitas with homemade tortillas. I should mention here, this was all compliments of Vino, Holly's pig who was so lovingly cared for and now was nourishing her family and friends. And there was some talk at the party of going in on a pig share with some other families. I think I totally want to do that.

Anyhow, people brought roasted garlic and onions, sourdough bread, homemade potato salad, pies and Eric grilled up some crazy catfish in fig leaves. I don't think I'll ever be hungry again. Oh, did I mention the black beans with homemade andouille sausage? This was a foodie/locavore delight. And Portia is always good for bringing an amazing cake. I wish I had a picture. There were little peas, corn, tomatoes and pumpkins complete with their vines decorating the sides of the cake.

My camera card is full. So, I will have to deal with that and get it ready for our next adventure so I can post here.

I don't want to jinx it, but I am slowly feeling better. If any of you get a horrible sinus head cold, start drinking the Gypsy Cold Care tea by Traditional Medincinals. Also, Sinusalia and Cold Calm put out by Boiron are good supplements. And a netty pot is indispensable. And if you have a friend with access to kick ass Chinese herbs, take her up on it. With Michael traveling so much this month, I have to stay healthy-ish.

Remember September

Once again, it has been so long since visiting, that I don't know where to begin! First, let me say that we are reeling with assorted pet tragedy. You may have heard that we lost our dear Turbo Fluff just before returning from Costa Rica. Upon our return we had a little memorial for him.

Then a few weeks ago Sally (our Americauna from the original batch of chickens) started staggering around the backyard not looking so good. I didn't know what was wrong or what to do about it. I had to admit it had been a while since I'd treated the chickens for parasites, so I went to my source for Ivermectin. Sadly, I believe I aspirated my poor dear Sally of the delightfully green eggs with 1/2 cc of medicine. That's all it takes.

On the first day of school this year for Amira and Valerie, the excitement was tempered with loss. To add insult to injury, I had Sally sent to UC Davis for a necropsy. The result? Other than drowning in her medicine, she was a healthy chicken. I felt terrible. But in other news ... no salmonella or other crazy chicken diseases. And I still don't know why she was staggering. Whatever it was is not of the usual contagious disease variety.

Here's a picture of Sally & Buffy. Sally is the darker hen laying down.







So, along comes the end of September and we are all ready to do our annual trip to see Uncle Dave in Santa Cruz. Every year we have a three day stint where we go to the Monterey Aquarium, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the beach. Well, along the way down there something came over me that we just had to have a bunny. The house felt so empty. And every time I had a bunch of cilantro in my hands, it felt odd to not feed it to a furry little critter. Anyway, we found an organization called Rabbit Haven . They hooked us up with our new little guy, Napoleon Bunnyparts. Or, as the kids have proclaimed, "Napoleon Bunnyparts Dynamite Santa Cruz".



He's a crazy little guy. We think he is pretty young. He's a dwarf agouti bunny. He likes to hang out on the book shelf behind the chair at night and listen to stories. He loves to run around the living room rug like a race track. And he is litter box trained. What a good little bunny!!



Upon bringing our new family member home, our excitement was tempered by yet another loss. Our little cuckoo maran, Lucky, went missing Friday afternoon while we were gone. And a red tail hawk had been spotted sitting in our yard Wednesday before we left town. While harvesting squash from the garden I found the crime scene. Pretty sure it was a hawk. Poor Lucky probably never saw it coming. She was the sweetest, dumbest chicken I've ever had. I will miss feeling her little feathers on my legs when I hang out laundry. She had a knack for digging in the laundry basket looking for treats and running around my ankles.

Here's a picture of the four "chicks" we got in March. Lucky is the black and white speckled hen. And, of course Happy turned out to be a rooster. So, of all these guys we just have Olive and Perch. (Olive looks like Sally and Perch is the fluffy white chicken).



So, we are officially down to 4 chickens. We have Buffy (our menopausal hen), Agnes (who is in molt), Perch (who is broody as all get out) and Olive who has also gone broody. Not so many eggs for this chicken family. Oh the irony have having this much chicken poop and no eggs!

Anyhow, that is our sad news. Now, on to the fun stuff! Santa Cruz was a blast. Each year the kids get a little taller and are able to ride more of the rides. And although not taller, I was conned into getting on a roller coaster with Valerie.













Also, the aquarium has some new features like these interactive videos where they pop your face up on a screen. But I have to say we miss the big tank.



Rex and Valerie grabbed the camera and got some great shots of seals out in the bay.



I think Uncle Dave survived. Not sure. We haven't heard from him since returning.

In other news I went on an overnight field trip with Valerie's class to the Grinding Rock State Park where we camped like Miwok in Umach'cas (bark tee pees). One of the dads was in charge of all the cooking and menu planning. That was a relief to me. And how nice was it to wake to nice hot coffee in the morning. Usually I'm brewing it. I tell you, camping has never appealed to me because it's like all the cooking and cleaning I do anyway but more difficult because it's all dirty. This was actually fun. And the weather was fantastic. I didn't even need a sweatshirt.





The kids got to go on a night hike, hear Native American tales by the fire, drink hot cocoa, make honor bead necklaces and medicine pouches and help with all those chores like cooking, cleaning, hauling water, etc.



Lastly, on the long drive home there was much monkey business in the back of my van (what with five kids and all!) Anyhow, Valerie stuck something in her mouth, someone else ripped it out and her bottom tooth went flying through the air and was caught by another student.

When she got home she was re-enacting the story to Amira. And as Amira ripped some cloth out of Valerie's mouth, out popped the bottom tooth on the otherside. Here's Valerie showing off her toothless smile.