How's Robb?

... A bit of wintery delightfulness for all of our blog readers.

... Robb's dad mentioned that he can't really visualize our garden, based on the pictures on our blog. We had a beautiful, sunny day today, and I took the opportunity to do some much-needed weeding. If I wanted to have a wild onion and oxalis plantation, I'd be all set. As it is, our tiny garden is a living museum of the invasive plants of Northern California. After digging out a huge amount of our invasive wild onions, I shot a few photos. And then I spent a stupid amount of time, stitching them together. (I really don't have any grasp of the program that did the work, but I had a lot of fun messing about with it.) This top photograph, can be seen in more detail over at my Flickr site ( click here for the link ). You can see all the stuff of our yard, but the image really makes no sense at all. This photo is more accurate. I'm standing under our pittosporum tree, in front of the Gloriana honeybee hive. From right-to-left, you can see our vintage lawn furnit

... Here's hoping that we're all able to bring some happiness into the lives of others.

... Robb and I want to wish all of our blog-reading friends a very happy holiday season. May the new year bring you peace and joy. Even though we haven't met all of you in person, we've been touched by your friendship and kindness. Thank you, all.

... This pretty much summed up how I was feeling, yesterday. It was time for my annual holiday meltdown. I think that there's so much pressure to have a "perfect" Christmas, that we fail to live in the moment and savor what we have. I was certainly failing yesterday. The last couple of months had been total chaos. Robb broke his back -- again! I was working on a gigantic, tedious, yet artistically unfulfilling project. As soon as that show opened, we had to open another one. And on top of that, we were moving our seventeen THOUSAND square foot warehouse-studio. I was cranky and burned out. I managed to catch a nasty, tenacious cold. Both our cars needed repairs. Our house was in disarray. Robb fell in a gopher hole (or something) in our back yard and jolted his back. And I just sort of imploded. Today is better. Robb has actually pretty much recovered from his broken back. He's returned to swimming, which is wonderful. I'm going to try to tackle the hug

... Last weekend was unseasonably warm, so Robb and I took the opportunity to swap out one of the boxes on our Gloriana hive. The wood had started to crack, and Robb's attempts at repair had proven futile. Robb was concerned that the hive would get waterlogged, which would lead to mold inside the colony. We don't have to worry about snow, like beekeepers in much of the rest of the country, but dampness is something we have to monitor. A soggy hive is an unhealthy hive. Of course, other things than rain get into our hives. This impressive widow-like spider was hanging out, under the outer cover of our hive. The hive has two covers -- one is like a roof, and the other is like a ceiling. I believe this structure offers better weather-proofing than a single cover. After some discussion, Robb flicked this spider into the undergrowth. Where I was planning on standing while I worked on the hive. Robb and I are not spider-killers, but I don't particularly relish the though

... Back in September, I picked a pathetic starving and injured kitten from the side of the road. Neither Robb nor I really expected him to survive, but we spent a lot of energy and money on trying to bring him back to health. Now, three months later, he's a frisky, funny ball of fluff. For a cat who lived on the streets, probably dragging his legs behind him, after having his pelvis shattered, he's completely trusting and happy. He's not one of those animals who bears the scars of his previous rough life. Despite his earnest facial expressions, he's about as content a cat as one could imagine. It's only his eyebrows and his dark little mouth that make him look worried. However, someone should probably tell him that this paws-in-the-air thing is totally unconvincing. Only little kids dressed up as animals in the school play hold their paws like that. Please pay no attention to the dusty rug. I've been in the middle of packing and moving my portion o

x When we moved into our house, we were really blown away by our close-knit community of neighbors. It became clear that everyone was watching out for each other, in an active, yet non-intrusive manner. Many of our neighbors have lived on this block for decades, and have fond memories of growing up on the street. Our across-the-street neighbor Craig is currently home with a serious hip injury. He's very close with all the long-time residents of our block. He's the one who brings food to our elderly neighbors, helps them with their shopping, and generally makes sure that everyone is doing all right. Today was a rough day on our block. Craig hadn't heard from Mrs. Bohannan, his elderly next door neighbor, for over a day. She's like a mother to Craig, and when he realized that her out-of-state relatives also hadn't heard from her, and when she didn't answer her door, he called the police. The police knocked on all her doors, as did Craig. Finally, Craig heard

... In case you've been wondering why the blog has been so quiet, it's because I'm drowning in work, and don't have the energy to write about everything. Last week, we opened a gigantic original gigantic gigantic show at work. This week, we're opening another not-quite-so-huge show. And almost everyone at the theater is moving workspaces. I fear that I'm not going to get all the work done, and then I'll get fired and have to live in a cardboard box on the side of the road.

... We've got nice low tides this weekend, and are thinking about going tidepooling. Robb's broken back is doing so much better, and the humongous gigantic show that has been eating my life opened on Thursday. Assuming the weather isn't horrible, would you like to join us? We'll probably be going to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve , some time after 1pm on Sunday. If you want to go, wear waterproof clothes, and grippy shoes. There's a lot of clambering around on slippery rocks, and soggy kneeling involved in this activity. One Year Ago. Mustache not growing? Seeking Old hot naked ladies? You've come to the right place! Two Years Ago. Reflections on avian photography. Three Years Ago. Robb's parents visit, and we go to wine country. Four Years Ago. Death and Mushrooms with Dem XX Men.

... I've been quietly knitting ear-warmers for the painters in my employ. The theater where I work is moving our scene shop, and as part of the move, all of the heating systems are being ripped out and taken over to the new space. No heat? Giant gaping holes in our roof? Lisa knits hats for her staff. Most of the hats are double-sided earwarmers. They're essentially tubes, knit in a variety of slip-stitch patterns. They've been a lot of fun to knit. Challenging enough not to be boring. Portable, and small enough to get finished before I lose interest. I did this pattern before on a sweater that I designed for my niece. I knit the entire tube, and then grafted the "live" ends together. Some people hate grafting. I rather like it, because the end result is so magical. This hat looks super-complicated, but it's not. I used self-striping yarn and a biased stripe construction.