Monday, January 03, 2005
Quote of the Day
Nursing does not diminish the beauty of a woman’s breasts; it enhances their charm by making them look lived in and happy. –R. A. Heinlein
Deb hates Elmo. She hates him very, very much, she does.
Trying to ensure that the other parent gets the next crappy diaper has been raised to the level of an artform in this house over the past month, aided and abetted by the lovely people who make Pampers. Anyone who doesn’t think that obnoxious advertising starts early enough, rest assured: Pampers feature Sesame Street characters (and Huggies have Mickey Mouse, but that is unimportant, since we generally make it through about one half-pack of those before she grows out of them, which leads to a rather entertaining sort of shitstorm. But I digress...).
In any case, the quest to foist the next poop on each other has resulted in a shortage of Elmo diapers around these parts. You see, almost from birth I’ve been teaching my daughter to shit on the fuzzy red son of a bitch. So the best way to make the next diaper change a smelly one is to put her in an Elmo diaper. Thus they tend to be hoarded for strategic deployment in the evenings.
Oh, and as far as those baby-changing things go, I’ve never seen anyone use one of the damned things. I sure as hell won’t. I take her back out to the car if she needs changing that badly. Ah, the luxuries of having just one child…
Rest In Peace Frank Kelly Freas
I just learned from Laughing Wolf that Frank Kelly Freas has died. Rite Wing TechnoPagan has more here.
It’s Only Words
I agree with Acidman about words. This is why for a long time I used a quote of my own as an e-mail sig: ”Writing is construction with building blocks of the mind.”
Here is my answer to his challenge to use four particular words in a coherent sentence:
Acidman found himself so blase about obsequious bloggers and their fawning utterances, he could no longer be moved to link any but the most truculent jocularity.
California is weird, example #43,877,012.
I’ve been missing the heck out of Cali lately, but I have to agree with Jen that there are more than three million good reasons not to live there. (I knew Cali was in desperate straits when Mass seemed an improvement, but that is, as they say, a whole other topic.)
In any case, Michelle Malkin has highlighted an article from the Modesto Bee on the latest round of weird legislation in the Bear Flag State. I suppose this sort of thing is only weird if you aren’t the sort of compulsive who thinks that kids ought to be raised the way that the state dictates they should be raised, so consider yourself warned. Each intrusion seems so small and sensible, but together they make up something so ugly as to make the most beautiful of states unlivable.
One of the more interesting side effects of having a baby is that it has brought my libertarian impulse into full flower. On the other hand, when the state dictates whether or not your teenager is allowed to use a tanning booth, or where your kids are allowed to sit in your car, maybe that impulse isn’t so much libertarian as it is just human.
The Sounds of Sadie
Sadie is very “talkative” and has especially been exploring her range lately. I recorded her the other night, in several WAV files, then edited good sections together and created an MP3 of it.
This is mainly for future reference and for the family too far away to see her remotely regularly, but if anyone else wants to hear it, feel free to download the Sadie mix. Be warned: size of the file is about 812k, so you’ll be a while on dialup.
This isn’t as chock full of the prettier sounds she makes so many of when not being recorded as I would like. However, it doesn’t descend into any outright crying fits either.
First Carnival of the Capitalists of 2005
Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft has the first Carnival of the Capitalists for 2005. It’s arranged in an intriguingly different way that fits the time of year, and it’s impressively laden with links to business and economics-related posts of all kinds.
Important reminder: The original address for entries to CotC will be dead today, following a lengthy winding down period. Do not send e-mails regarding CotC to the capitalists -at- elhide -dot- com address. Your entries will no longer get through that way.
The new address is cotcmail -at- gmail -dot- com, and there is also a handy entry form at http://www.gongol.com/random/cotc/ that goes to the right place and prompts you for the appropriate details.
Next week’s Carnival of the Capitalists, the January 10 edition, is scheduled for Odyssey of the Mind.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Just damn! If that doesn’t strike a little too close to home…
Stupid quizzes! 
|
Your New Years Resolution Should Be: Get rid of your “computer butt” |
You’ve got more than “back” - you’ve got a big, fat ass. And it’s probably because you count multiple IM sessions as exercise So, get yourself on the Hacker’s Diet, stat… And then you can stop pretending that you’re a hot chick in chat rooms. |
Kitties!
Been a ridiculously long time since I linked to the Carnival of the Cats, so I thought I’d note that the forty-first edition is now up over at MartiniPundit.
Arisia Bound
Anyone else out there planning to attend Arisia this year? It’s the big, all-encompassing science fiction convention in Boston. It’s January 21 - 23, which in case you missed it is a date change from the original. The convention is normally the same weekend as MLK Day.
It’s interesting to note that a blood drive is being held during the convention, in association with the Heinlein Society. Sadly, I am unable to give blood. Not because I’ve been to England or anything; just the same reason they have to use the back of my hand for drawing mere samples of blood.
Anyway, we will be there, staying at the Park Plaza Friday and Saturday nights as I prefer to do. It’s not the same if you commute in, what with the almost 24 hour nature of the beast. Unless something changes, we’ll be on the 15th floor. Elevators are crazy during the convention, but that has the benefit of starting empty at the top when going down. Otherwise one of the low floors is the place to be, so taking stairs is practical.
Figured I’d promote it a bit, and see if there’s anyone from blogdom who might want to bump into us that weekend.
An MIA Returnee
Oceanguy is back. He’s been having issues with his oceanguy.com domain, so is on oceanguy.us, at least for the time being.
A Year of Doggies (Well, part of a year…)
Mickey hosts Carnival of the Dogs most weeks. This week, she has given us a complete year in review edition.
Got You On My Mind
Happy anniversary, baby.
It’s been one wonderful year since I made the Best. Move. Ever. It’s almost like a dream, from which I keep expecting to wake each time it occurs to me how my life is now and how amazing that is.
I find myself thinking that if this is what a year is like, then the lengths of time people like my grandparents were married seem too short by, well, forever. I only thought I knew what love was before we met, but the whole “two shall be as one” thing only became clear, and becomes clearer all the time, since you chose to share your life with me.
More Reruns
First…
Mahwidge Is What Bwings Us Toghethah Today
So on the third of January last year, I hurriedly put up this post to confirm what Deb had said in her original post, rerun here. I find it cool to go back and see the comments. Not rerunning that one, as it is not a post of substance except in what it confirms.
Then:
I’m back
On the seventh I posted about my arrival home, sans bride, and some more about the trip, wedding, and followup plans. Around this same time is when Sadie was working on getting herself established and making the cross country commute more exciting a few weeks later.
And Also That Day:
A Few Las Vegas Pictures
Views from our hotel room and of the outside of the hotel. Only a few of the bunch I took. They still look breathtaking to me.
And Now the Biggie, which I rerun completely here, though it is worth seeing the original (note that any links to Deb’s old blog are broken unless I’ve updated them to point to reruns at AV):
Jedi Wedding 04: A New Hope
I can’t begin to say how happy I am, and how lacking in hope I was before a couple months ago. I’m married! To a beautiful woman who adores me and sees me as the most wonderful guy in the world, as much an antidote to past hurts for her as she is for me.
It all started with blogging. In a sense, it started around March or April, when I was still new and Deb first noticed and was intrigued by me. I first noticed her blog sometime after she moved to Blogmosis, as far as I can recall. The big thing I remember is she went straight from new discovery to one of my favorites immediately. Before long (on July 6, to be exact), I read her About page and commented that, alas, I was too old for her. She replied that she should have said “likes older men” there, which made me go “hmmmmm...” Indeed, I might have wondered more about “I appreciate the compliment more than you would probably suspect” had I been thinking straight. One of her concepts on her about page was the “house test.” Could she bear to share a house with someone? The answer for me was yes before we ever met in person. That still astounds me she knew without meeting, but as far as we can tell, it’s absolutely true. All that time together in her apartment and hotels, and hours on end in the car, left us dying to live in the same house and happy with the idea of driving across the country together.
A couple times I commented on her blog, and she e-mailed me in reply, but I was a slacker about e-mailing back. Finally, on October 3rd, in response to a funny comment I left, she e-mailed me with a subject of “fan mail,” and said: “One of these days I’m going to provoke you into answering when I send you a silly little note. 
”
That got a reply from me, naturally, and could be considered the real beginning of things. Still, there was October 15th, when she appreciated that I was the only one who really seemed to “get” what she was saying - ironically - about marriage. Finally, there was the foot post on October 20th. Wow! My reaction to it was far more inexplicably visceral and intense than the comment “Ooooh, yummy feetses!” could capture. Or for that matter the “…inspiringly purty feet” comment subsequently. That to me was the big milestone.
That started some “virtual flirting.” We’ve exchanged somewhere over 1000 e-mails since then. Our first AIM chat was 4.5 hours. Our first phone call was 8 hours, and it is seldom we have talked for less than 2 hours at a time since then. By the end of October, the plans for my visit at the end of the year were underway, and we were discussing marriage in Vegas, her moving here, and so forth. The phone thing is funny, as getting me to talk on the phone these days is like pulling teeth.
I have never been so anti-nervous with anyone in my life. It was like meeting a new best friend and simply hitting it off in a “shared brain” way. It’s uncanny how we agree on most things, think of the same things at the same times or say things in unison, and can finish each other’s sentences or answer each other’s questions before the other one finishes asking. For instance, “Is it just me, or did they…” “Yup.” *Funny look* “If you’re asking did the wedding chapel people treat us extra nice, then ‘yes’.” We both had the impression that the wedding chapel people thought we were particularly cute and genuine, and so were especially nice to us rather than doing the rote in and out get ‘em hitched thing.
Almost everything that comes up we either agree on or can live with the difference easily; usually the former. She likes my puns and jokes! Now that is compatibility.
The sense of rightness and complete lack of nervousness was amazing for me. There was no doubt or nervousness, ever. I am all about nervousness, to the point where I almost never dated because of what it does to me. Between already “knowing” each other, a little boldness by Deb, and the comfortable nature of online communications, that helped get it going. But there was more than that. It was as if we’d always known each other in lifetimes without measure.
It wasn’t falling in love. It was finally discovering the whereabouts someone we’d loved forever and saying “oh, there you are! You’ve been hiding on the opposite coast.” Nothing like making it difficult, being separated by a continent and thirteen years.
This alacrity is not as strange as it sounds. Her parents, who are way cool, were married three weeks after they met, more than 33 years ago. I told my mother not to be surprised if there was no “real wedding” and I simply turned up married. Despite she and seemingly everyone but me having been irked at my younger brother for going to a JP and letting people know after the fact, she was totally cool with that. I learned that she and my father had done similar. Someone they knew was getting married at the Methodist church in Bryantville, so they borrowed the church and minister immediately afterward, and had just them and two friends for witnesses. I never knew that my parents didn’t care for having a big wedding. That, as with most things, is something Deb and I found a remarkable degree of agreement on.
Another indicator how fast the whole thing went is by her birthday on November 5th I was more than ready to send a present. That took the form of a wireless keyboard and mouse for her laptop, so typing wouldn’t hurt her. That was quite a nice surprise. I forget if it was that shipment or the next, but I also sent her a stack of print pictures. That was a big hit. After Thanksgiving, I sent another box. This one had goodies, gifts for her and her parents and, at the bottom of the box, the famous warm socks. I didn’t mean it to be the most romantic thing ever. It was more a joke about her moving to my cold climate. It just shows you never know, guys, if the context it right. Of course, she was thoughtful too, surprising me touching cards and notes in the mail a number of times.
The frustrating thing was she in Fresno and I in Massachusetts. When and how would we meet? I fairly quickly noticed the confluence of holidays at the end of the year and the fact those are surrounded by slow days for my big client. We looked at flights and timing. The marriage was better taking place in 2004, a new tax year, plus it fit the Star Wars episode numbering used in the title here. We’d originally planned for her to move to Massachusetts, which she declared the ideal scenario with no persuading by me, in June or July. Ha! It didn’t take long to know we’d never last all that time. Our phone bills sure wouldn’t take it. During a mere three weeks of separation, we are averaging at least two hours a day on the phone, plus several e-mails.
We settled on the flight that left on Christmas and returned on the 6th because it was over $100 lower than tickets for 12/26 - 1/5 we’d originally considered. That left me minimal coverage needed at the office. So by the time a month had passed, I had the flight booked, the move planned, and had put my search for a better apartment that would become ours into high gear.
We chose 1-2-4 chosen as a wedding date because it’s a neat number combination. Almost nobody on my side knew it, and one of the people I did tell freaked enough to cement my silence. It’s hard to convey how certain it’s the right thing I was. Deb told her family, which helped nudge her brother into planning a wedding to his girlfriend near the same time as ours.
I flew to LAX on American, then on an American Eagle flight to Fresno. At the Fresno airport, I came walking down the hall, saw her, grinned (as Deb put it, “I know you!"), made a beeline in her direction, shared a perfect hug and off we went. If there was any uncertainty at all, the moment we met in person ended it. We’ve had a wonderful week or so together, some of which I have posted about here. That included going to Monterey to meet Ith and Nin, which we highly recommend. They are amazingly cool people.
What Deb said about the relationship is exactly right. She’s my best friend, soulmate, lover, missing piece of the incomplete puzzle that is me. I feel lucky and amazed every day.
The wedding day itself was funny. We drove for 7 hours to get to Vegas, after getting our usual early start. Traffic sucked big time in places, if not nearly so much as it did for people heading the other way. The Strip is a sight to behold. Now that I have, there’ll be no particular need ever to return there again. Then again, the hotel is awfully nice, and the view from our window was wonderful.
I always say if it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. We seem to do a lot of that. After looking at rings online for weeks, including unique titanium ones, we ended up at a jewlery store, Rogers, in a mall, just before closing the night before the wedding. We got matching, white gold bands that are nothing fancy, but are still gorgeous. Even if they do scratch easily. She didn’t want a diamond. Just as well, given my budget. Mine is wider than hers, as befits my size, and mine is 12 1/2 to her 6, but color and style match perfectly, just as we do. Despite the last minute, we had a perfect experience buying them. We both liked the sales guy so much of course we weren’t going to check any other stores. He was funny, personable, and treated us just the same as a customer making a fancy purchase worth thousands. Plus he was cute, or so she tells me. To avoid forgetting them, they got packed in the laptop bag. Thus they’d either get here with us, or we’d be even more seriously bumming.
After arriving in Vegas, we checked into the hotel and resisted the urge to collapse. Drove down the strip attempting to find Third Street at the opposite end. Managed to get confused after bearing left onto Fourth, but found Third anyway, and finally the marriage bureau for our license. Busy place! Luckily we beat the huge line.
If you ever do this, beware. Outside the marriage bureau lurk a pack of saleswolves on the sidewalk, accosting couples as they go into and out of the building to get their licenses. They represent some of the various local wedding chapels, and thrust their offers at you mercilesssly. Pick me! Pick me! We had planned simply to go to the nearby courthouse and get a civil marriage, rather than do a chapel.
The smart saleswolf got us on the other side of the road from the main pack, as we got out of Deb’s truck. He was a great guy, personable, well presented, not pushy in a subtle way that set him apart, and his chapel was closest. We managed to get past them on the way in for the license, but man, they tore into our susceptible flesh when we walked out with the marriage license. I have about five info packets with offers I kept for posterity. It was a riot.
We ended up going with the original one, Vegas Wedding Chapel, which was as good a deal and nice a place as any. We gave the minister $50 instead of the recommended $15 - $30 because he was so great. We either hit a real nerve with them, or they do their jobs well there. They thought the way we met was cool.
I managed to start crying during the ceremony, while Deb stayed stoic. I seem to keep getting all emotional and doing that. Then there’s all the giggling we both did! There may or may not be any pictures. One of the guys takes a roll and sends the film off with you. Unless you pay a huge amount extra for digital. One service they provide that’s great is to get you your official marriage certificate in about a week, rather than waiting up to four months for it. Things like that add to the cost, so be aware you will inevitably not spend the low, base amount the chapel you use officially offers. You could, but it’s unlikely, and it is their job to make money by selling other services and goods. The certificate is worth it, as Deb has to use it to change her name on things in this few weeks before moving. As much as possible, anyway.
We had no idea at the time that Britney Spears was in Vegas, several hours behind us in her joke wedding publicity fling. No, it was not the same chapel. No, we didn’t see her. It does add a funny dimension to our own timing and story for posterity.
I already wrote of our first meal after we married, which was a variety of items from Nathan’s Famous on the food court of the Luxor, followed by ice cream. Mmmm… ice cream! Rather amusing first meal, but it was late and we were there for getting married, no frills, no other reason to be in Vegas. Besides playing the ring toss at Circus Circus, of course. We have both been duly yelled at by people we know at work for failing to take in the more costly culinary delights of the city. Heh.
We had a wonderful drive back to Fresno, with a scenic detour to Utah for lunch. On Monday the 5th her brother married a wonderful woman in a courthouse ceremony. It ended up being less simple than planned. While they married, Deb and I picked up their cake, took it to her grandmother’s, and helped setup for the reception there. It was fun, meeting the extended in-laws and getting to know Deb’s grandmother. It felt a little like having our own reception, but with the focus neatly on someone else. There might be pictures of us from that day, eventually. Deb’s other brother’s girlfriend, who is perfect and should not be allowed to escape, is into photography. Other people took many pictures too, including of us. Naturally I forgot my camera.
The next day I had to leave. That was unbelievably difficult! I surprised Deb by calling her after I landed in LAX. She wouldn’t have expected to hear from me until the next day, or maybe late that night, except e-mail updates from my phone. It’s the little things sometimes guys.
That’s the basic story. It arose from our blogging and being on the same wavelength on most things. It arose from Deb being just assertive enough with her nagging interest in me to get my attention and then ramp it up to self-sustaining levels.
I find myself having to explain what a blog is over and over when telling people how we met online, when I don’t simply leave it at “we met online because we both run fairly popular web sites, read each other and started talking.” Meeting online is right on the threshhold of being considered completely normal rather than odd. The reaction still depends on the person hearing the news, but most people think about how you can really learn plenty about each other ahead of time this way, and go in more certain. It also meant, for us, falling in love with an amazing mind and intriguing personality to such a degree that looks wouldn’t have mattered. Not that I mind being considered “cute” or “handsome,” and not that I mind her being beautiful, almost pixy-like when her glasses are off, but we were predisposed toward each other regardless.
I highly recommend meeting people online. I recommend being open to meeting people through blogging, if you are a single blogger. Who knows, you could meet the love of your life.
It really works!
--
And The Rest…
Wedding pictures from the actual ceremony in Vegas, at our rebel attire, family (and associated stress) free event.
A better picture from the fifth, at the wedding reception of Deb’s brother and his wife, pictured on the left.
A closeup of us at the same event.
There you have it; a nice retrospective. Memories for those who were following along at the time, and something fun to see for those who are new here.
Early Hint
We were already planning for the big day on November 1, 2003 when I dropped this hint.
It was crystal clear in a matter of days, as the whole thing didn’t go serious until October 21. When I posted on November 1 we knew we’d do it. It was like lightning.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Interesting Result…
|
Your New Years Resolution Should Be: Tell your boss to screw off |
Seriously. You know you really, really want to. Life’s too short to have a job you hate… And though you may be a success, you’re secretly miserable. Time to try out a new career - maybe one involving g-strings? |
Via Ben
A Post That Doesn’t Resolve Anything
Speaking of plans and goals and being resolute for the year ahead, we have a terrible problem with lack of space and adequate organization for our stuff.
We’d looked at kitchen tables, small ones, before deciding this probably wouldn’t work in such a small space. Somewhere along the line, we saw a butcher block style island/organizer that would work perferctly to help with counter and storage space. Eventually we decided that would be what we’d do, rather than bothering with a table. We can get one of those when we have a bigger place.
So that was on Deb’s Christmas list; one of those floating counter/storage units for the kitchen. This was unabashedly our year of “for the house” presents.
I ended up seeing this baby in Wal-Mart:
It was different from what we’d seen previously, around half the price - a bargain, in fact, and had the advantage of being 19” wide with the extensions down, and 40” wide with both extensions up. Yay for extra counter space when making cookies!
It has three baskets that can hold much we have no other room for, and a supplemental drawer for some of the overflow of utinsels or whatnot. It’s mobile, with brakes if you want it to stay put. Part of what slowed us down getting something like this was the baby’s swing living in the middle of the kitchen floor. She’s growing so fast, its days will be numbered, and in the meantime it’s easy to do a “which thing hogs the center of the kitchen” dance as needed.
It was impractical to sneak this in and wrap it (or wrap it at all), I couldn’t leave it in the back of the truck, didn’t feel like hiding it at the office, and didn’t think of hiding it in the cellar. So it was an early “present” that was really for the house. She had it on the list of stuff she wanted, and was thrilled. With the other stuff too, like the new mixer, pans, etc. Which was why I got a book too. There had to be something that was neither edible (mmm… Lindt truffles) nor for the house.
I managed to improve our storage slightly around the same time, just by taking some hooks I’ve had for years, screwing them into holes that were already there on cabinet ends and such, and hanging things like pans and cutting boards from them. Yay for creative simplicity.
Speaking of gifts, another gift she especially liked was this shirt:
Heh. Her brother sent that, and you can see how pleased she was. Ah, the old alma mater.
I’ve been tempted to do some kind of post about the year ahead, goals and such, but haven’t been able to come up with something yet. Doesn’t help to be slogging through a sickness-induced fog. I am not one for “resolutions,” but it does work as a demarcation time for evaluating things and planning or pondering what’s next. I’m certainly doing some of that, if quietly.
Heard At Our House On Christmas
Me,while holding block for Deb to see:*
“Look, it’s Frank J.!”
* Sadie got a set of nine wooden alphabet blocks, and some of the sides of each one have the cutest critter pictures on them, one each of different types like domesticated, wild, insect, and sea. Santa tells me they can be purchased in one of the shops in the mercantile building in Stowe, Vermont for $15 the set.
Year End/Beginning Stuff and More
There’s some great stuff over at Hennessy’s View.
I enjoyed his predictions, and his year in review, but there’s more there as well
Best.Resolution.Ever.
A rerun.
First posted on the original Accidental Jedi blog, January 1, 2004:
Leap of Faith
Tomorrow I’m going to do something I would have considered myself absolutely insane for doing a year ago. I don’t mean eccentric-like-your-great-aunt-Rosie insane, either; I mean lock-you-up-you’re-a-danger-to-self-and-others insane. Hell, when I started this little blogaventure last March, I’d have committed myself if I was planning to do what I’m now planning to do.
Y’all know where this is going, don’t you?
Jay and I have been planning all along to go to Vegas, because it’s close and he’s never been there and with any weather luck we can go to the Grand Canyon the next day before hurrying home in that end-of-vacation panic that always seems to grip one the last day or two of said vacation.
Convenient location to be heading for, as it turns out.
I’m doing something tomorrow that I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d do: I’m getting married. And not only am I getting married, but I’m marrying a man who for years I believed didn’t--couldn’t--exist. I never expected to meet someone who fits with me so perfectly that it feels like we’ve known each other for several lifetimes. I never expected to find someone who would laugh at my bullshit and cry at my jokes and hold me when I need him and let me hold him when he needs me, who knows the importance of good thick socks and the power of a hug.
He’s my best friend, my lover, and the light of my life, and I’m a very lucky girl.
As I’ve said before, I’m not going to let this one get away. So I told him that of course I would marry him, and I’m spiriting him off to Vegas before he can come to his senses.
Wish us luck, ‘eh?
My Hero
I don’t recall stores closing early on New Year’s Eve as Deb encountered. However, she is definitely my hero. Thanks to the Halls cough drops and generic Nyquil in pill form, I got as much as five hours of sleep before the cough overcame the sleep and I got up to wander around and take more drugs.
I’ve been absolutely miserable, but laying down to try to sleep has been nearly impossible. Even sitting in the recliner stopped working as well. I haven’t been this sick in ages.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Only A Year And A Day
So a year ago yesterday (sorry, a day late doing this) (and some, because it’s taken me much of the day to go through pictures in between being too sick to function), the Monterrey monsoon was over, and it was a fine day for driving from Gilroy back to Fresno, via some stops.
Marina Beach was one of those. San Juan Bautista was another. Plus Donut Nation in Los Banos, but no pictures of that. At the risk of tastelessness due to current world events, here are some pictures.
As always, click for larger versions. The beach pictures were inherently smaller and so the larger size is the original full size, less than 800 pixels wide. Older camera. The Bautista pictures are a full 800 in the larger size. A lot of it is simply scenic, perhaps not anything outrageously special.
This is before you scramble down to the beach, looking roughly west toward the peninsula. The water in all of these is rougher and colored differently than it might have had there not just been such a storm…
I was impressed with the surf. This was my first encounter with the Pacific. I waded in the Gulf of Mexico in 1988 or so, in Galveston. And of course I grew up near the Atlantic.
It didn’t seem to bother the duck, or whatever type of bird it was:
Sometimes you just have to get wet. Luckily there was a convenient place to change pants…
Finally, the obligatory pictures of each of us, including one in which Deb appears to be fleeing the big waves…
San Juan Bautista was one of the early missions, many of them setup by one intensely dedicated priest. It’s noted for being right on the San Andreas and yet… being there still. I am enough into the geology thing that seeing the San Andreas was more of a thrill than it would be for most of the population.
Here are the bells as they appear from the vicinity of the San Andreas exhibit…
Here’s a plaque on a rock about the San Andreas exhibit, most readable if you click for the 800 pixel wide version…
The nicer looking of the two directions down the walk that goes right along the fault…
Another look down at the fault, along the line of brush where the land drops off on the other side of the walk. It’s really not much to look at, but it doesn’t need to be to command respect…
Finally, some pictures in the gardens behind the mission and its exhibits. The second one is fuzzy, but still nice in an almost impressionist sort of way…
And that’s it for a year ago December 30th. We did nothing special the 31st, and on the first we bought the rings:
At least that’s the day we think we remember doing it. We were trying to get to the jewelry stores before everything closed early that day. We checked one we’d been recommended, that was not in a mall, and it was actually closed for the day. At least we had some idea what we wanted, having started looking at rings online long before I went out there.
There you have it, a bit of boring history and some relatively cool pictures. No doubt there will be more along these lines Sunday, so watch out.