Valentine's Day ski trip to Tahoe

No, I don't have any pictures of skiing - I stayed safely in the lodge... But from the yawns and wiped out expressions, you'll notice everyone else DID go skiing. Even still, a few of our really ambitious friends cooked up a Valentine's Day Fondue dinner for us that was delicious!

A solemn month

January was a solemn month, with 3 family deaths: cousin Bobby, Bob's Grandpa and Aunt Joy.

December on the road

Since JoAnne wasn't ready for us to move in until January, we thought December would be a good time to catch up with some people we hadn't seen in awhile.

First we drove to Montana and visited some folks...



Leon & Karen



Eileen, Seth, Amanda & Merryn.



Next we flew to New Jersey to see some more folks...



take a day trip to the American Museum of Natural History (and the tree at Rockefeller Center) in New York City...



another day trip to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania - it was cold...



and open some presents.





Then we flew back to Idaho to celebrate New Years...



And headed back to California with a stop in Portland, Oregon to see Craig & Laura...



And a tour of the northern coast of California - including some redwood viewing.

Thanksgiving

Shortly before Thanksgiving, our 93 year old friend JoAnne asked us if we'd be willing to come live with her. (Big shock!) We said we'd give it a shot, but she wasn't ready for us to move in until January, so we thought maybe Thanksgiving day together would be an appropriate precursor. We started with a pancake breakfast...notice the ceramic filter cone from previous posts.





She lives in an older house, 1930's era, and most everything in the house is at least that old - including the kitchen! As you'll notice, it's a little short on counter space and storage so we had to carefully stage our cooking. We also had to get a little creative with cookware as she only cooks for one and has gotten rid of anything extra (due to lack of storage space I guess).



The supplies...



Making stuffing...



The bird...



And the table - JoAnne's very particular about having a well presented table.

House hunting in San Francisco

When we returned to San Francisco, from our summer in San Diego, we started looking for a place to live - I never realized there was so much to finding an apartment! We looked at scores of places, all in relatively the same price range, but with VERY differing ranges of quality.

For any of you who've ever wanted to know what the inside of those Victorians look like, we've posted a few videos from our house hunting forays...

First apartment - top floor of a courtyard apartment complex in Cole Valley...



An apartment with lots of potential, but didn't work out - the ground floor of a nice Victorian also in Cole Valley...



We got discouraged with Cole Valley so moved on to the Sunset - here's a walkthru of a sizable house in Golden Gate Heights, on the edge of the Inner Sunset, that also had much potential until we started talking leases...



After several unsuccessful experiences in the city, we decided to expand our search to Marin - Mill Valley, Sausalito, etc. This video of the houseboat is for all you who're curious what the inside of one of those looks like. Unfortunately it had a slight, permanent lean as well as some healthy mold...



And then there was our favorite - the 6 VERY steep flights of stairs up to a house with no potential at all - imagine the heat bill! This was in Sausalito, on the side of a hill facing east and surrounded by overgrown vegetation.



Actually, our favorite was in Sausalito - another Victorian attic apartment with a deck over the ocean - sigh, that didn't work out either.

Congratulations Emborgs...

...on the newest addition to the family - Atlee James Walter - born October 6 at 7:59 am after MUCH anticipation!

Bees!

Our final Southern CA noteworthy event comes with a story better told in person. It involves Bob and some local beehives that had been, unbeknown to their owners, taken over by killer bees... we'll let the pictures tell the story.













Notice the rapidly increasing number of bees - the end result was several hours trying to escape the bees, multiple stings especially around the ankles and 2 days of recovery while the swelling reduced enough to walk!

Interesting tidbit: a paste of baking soda and water helps reduce swelling when you don't have any clay handy.