a sight to behold

oh, boy, what is this? is true?
he can read?
all this time i thought video games were all he could read. turns out, he is literate. who knew?
dust bought a real book. it is upton sinclair's book titled oil. it is set in southern california, in the 1920's. it is the book that the movie "there will be blood" with daniel day lewis is based on. dustin was telling me yesterday while we were at the coffee shop that he loves how the book describes the process of drilling for oil and the character devlopment. so i sat there listening. he made it sound really interesting. i will probably read it when he is done.
now other gamers, do not be upset by the fact that he is reading a real book. he is still keeping those controls warm. the book only comes out on special occaisions.
**again, no spell check. i can't get that button to work for me. don't know why? any help?
love to all

crazy blog machine

here is a picture of the herb garden i made today. when i went to add a picture in the last blog, i must have hit return instead of something else because it published the blog. i didn't even get to do spell check or re-read it to be sure that it wasn't in cortnese. so i'm sorry if it makes no sense. here are the main points:
1. i made an herb garden.
2. dust had an eye appointment.
he is fine and new contacts are on the way. now he will be able to see how ravashing i am.
3. our neighbors are loud at 6 in the morning.
here is the organic chemistry i have been learning. with the books i got when i registered for the class, came what amounts to a lego set to build various models of molecules. BORING! only a few chapters have required actual building, but today's lesson required a little bit of detective work. the book did a horible job explaing why some molecules are oriented certain ways when others are not. BORING! so i inspector gadgeted my way through the chapter building various molecules to try and find some commonality. and viola. i did. so now i can answer the questions at the end of the chapter and move on. i am a success. maybe tonight i wll get some sleep since i won't have organic chemistry to worry about.

the princess needs her rest because tomorrow is a big day. dust and i get to go visit my brother, his wife and baby emma. and melissa and andy are coming down for the weekend tomorrow night. so see, big day.

**sorry for typos and misspelled words. i keep hitting that button, and it won't spell check the durn thing.

a snoozer

so today was filled with a few things. here we go. i woke up after little sleep thanks to my own insomnia, and our early rising neighbors who faught and then told the mosst hilarious jokes. all i heard was yelling (in a foreign language) and then laughing. it was amazing. dust had his eye appointment for new contacts in oakland, so i mostly had the afternoon off. i walked down to the donut store and got a glazed donut for me and a chocolate covered for dust. then i went in two pet shops. one stunk like pet pee, so i was happy when dust called to tell me he wouldn't need a ride home because the dr said that even though she had dialated his eyes, he would be ok to drive. that was good because i was talking to the man in the stinky pet shop and the phone ringing let me leave without being too rude. i decided to duck in the flower shop that is right down the road from us (i was, afterall, walking since dust had the car). i bought the makings of an herb pot. it is no where near as nice as abby's but it is nice to have some plants around the house.

bit of a pickle

so i have been lusting after these fluevog shoes for ages. and what do you know...they went on sale--and they have my size. here is the dilemma:
1. we have no cash flow coming in right now
2. the shoes are 161 after shipping
3. i would have to have them shipped to my parent's house (and get them when they come out here).
4. i feel like i would be depriving dust of something if i got these new beautiful shoes.

but i really love them. they are purple and aqua mary janes with a one inch heel (which is nothing). dust says i can get them and save some tax money, or just find a way to cut 161 dollars out of my daily routine. that sounds good, but i only spend money on food now as it is. so i am at a loss. do i quit eating and buy the shoes (that always gets my vote), or do i pretend to be a good little wife and pass on the dream shoes? i have decided to sleep on it. and make my decision tomorrow. leave comments as to what you would do. any help is good help. i think i know i should pass on the shoes, but it makes me so sad to do that. i wish they had gone on sale while we were working. dust said it was only a day and a part's worth of work. but we are on vacation. man, this married life is not all it is cracked up to be (financially speaking only--everything else is better than i ever could have hoped). but i really feel like if i get the shoes i will be depriving dust of something. so that is hard. but i do really want the shoes. what would you do?
here is the link to the shoes incase that sways your vote:
http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w%5B0%5D=search%3Akathy&pp=1&view=detail&p=1&colourID=1962

hey, that's my ego you're stepping on!!

so this morning i woke up with a few things on my "to do" list. they included getting an absentee ballot for the vermont primary, and getting the mail really forwarded (i filled out one set of forms to no avail). now i should preface this with the fact that we lived happily in putney for two years. when we moved there, in 2005, the first things i did was change my address and register myself to vote. these two things are always very important to me because, let's face it, i do alot of Internet shopping, and i, unlike a lot of people in my generation, love politics. i know this makes me a touch dorkier to some of you, but--i love voting. in arkansas, they give you the "i voted" sticker when you come out of the polls. my friends and i would drive three hours from college--on a school night--just to vote in our home town--and then drive three hours back to school so we could make it to our wednesday morning classes. so, yes, i value voting. so i called the putney town clerk. she searched for me in the town register. and searched for me in the list of voters. and searched for me in the list of people added since 2007. (i had kept my voter transfer paper (from westminster to putney-- i remember throwing it away in the moving process). she told me "they have no record of me living in putney." she also asked that i come in and actually register to vote. wow. no record. i regestered to get married in putney. i put that putney was my legal town of residence. no questions then. i go to the putney library. i shop at the putney coop. and yet they have NO RECORD of me. i know half the town. and they lost my mail forwarding slip so poor karen and jack are still getting my mail at the farm. how nice. i would like to think i had made some impact on putney people. but i guess not. i made no impact. that is all of my pitty party for today.

let's hear it for the boy

dust is great. he found out my favorite band was playing at the fillmore in san fran in february. we went last sunday to get tickets. success!
so feb 25 (monday) we are going to see built to spill. i am so excited. i have never seen them with dust, and we have seen his favorite band (atmosphere) so many times. so this will be great. i know he will love it. and also there is no smoking in the clubs in california, so we won't stink after the show. oh boy.
on our way to get the tix, we saw these amazing boots. i just thought ya'll would like to see them:


then today, we woke up at 9. scoff if you must. but here is where you new englanders will be jealous....we got opening day tickets to the oakland a's. why will that make you envious? ahhh, my friend, they play boston red sox on opening day. so we got 2 opening day tix and four more then next night when they all play again. maybe we can take my brother and his little wifey. that is what we are planing, but we haven't talked to them yet. so we may have two spare tix. is that not wonderful. we get to see the red sox play against the a's. now in 8th grade i had a small baseball card collection--only a's cards and mostly jose canseco. who knows where they are now, but i had it. so i am pumped about that too. alot is coming up. i hope we can do it all. man, retirement. it is the life. :)


i put out a lot of blogs today--so be sure to keep reading (if you want). you may have to go to page two to see it all.

also happy birthday to ben. he turned 30 on friday. i hope it was perfect, brother! i'm jealous you guys got to go to tj buckley's. we thought about you all day. 30=more fun!! just you wait; you'll see.

one more thing... talked to kristina on monday. they are good. she sent algita paperwork to file in hopes that vytas can become a permanent resident. keep your fingers crossed. they want to come back. she sounded happy, and wanted me to tell you all hello. man, nothing makes me more homesick than talking to her. i miss that lady. and for me, she is vermont. even though i know she and vytas are not there, i have no idea about their life in lithuania, so i just picture her at their trailer in vermont. 'stina if you are reading this-- i can't wait to split a bottle of wine again. let's promise it will be soon!

kitty update

since we got here, we haven't really slept a full night because the kitties get scared of the lights. the kitties also get scared when they hear the neighbors wake up. and the neighbors play house music at an amazing volume for seven am. only a few of those i can find solutions for. so when i finally got to my wit's end with albert, i called my parents and asked advice. "what can i do to keep albert from going crazy as we turn out the lights to go to bed?" up to that point in the night, he is quiet and well behaved, but turn out the lights, and in comes demon kitty. my mom advised night lights. so we got those and that bought us four hours of sleep. that was good. but not good enough. i want more than a nap at night, you know. so then my dad said to run the kitties and then put them in the room. i thought it would be a repeat to new year's eve (the kitties both went crazy and we ended up putting them under the bed.) but i was wrong. putting them in the room with us at night (along with both food dishes, water, and a litter box) was a great idea. we now get to sleep until seven am when the neighbors get up and blast either justin timberlake or house music. the good news is we can go back to sleep as soon as they leave for work, and the kitties are a lot less stressed. as you can imagine, this has done wonders for our moods, and our mental capabilities. it has also saved albert from the "river" as dust screams at four am. i am now able to understand that i can think, i can do what i need to do. i was thinking i was not supposed to be here because albert's behavior was some sort of sign telling us we needed to be someplace else. i was getting worried that i would not be able to sleep when i needed to--ever again. that was a scary thought. we were both getting to the point where we didn't want to go to sleep. that is scary. you know how we value our sleep. now don't get me wrong, we've yet to sleep a full night, but only because we are waiting for the cats to go crazy. and i think we will get to someday soon. we just need to train ourselves. man, i miss our bed. that is a whole new blog post, though. later. not now, you've enough to read!

movie review

we went to see cloverfield. it was not as scary as i thought it would be. it was shot in the same way as bair witch, which could make you sea sick, and for that reason, if you are going to see it, i recommend seeing it on the big screen. you sortof get attached to the kids in the movie, and you hope for them. at one point i was actually running along with them while i was sitting in my seat. poor dust had to grab my leg and stop me before i noticed. a lot of it is far fetched, but it is a monster movie, so that is no downfall to me. i think i liked it, and i hope you will see it.
we also saw charlie wilson's war. set in 1980, it covers how america went about funding afghanistan's war with ussr. it shous how we did it inconspicuosly. sneaky americans. it was really good. phillip seymore hoffman was fabulous in this movie too. so i reccommed this one, too. mostly because people don't know that we trained and armed the afghani's we are fighting now, and it is funny (surprisinly, funny). they also give a shout out to tri delta's. bonus.

california

this is blooming in the flower bed outside of our apartment.

california never ceases to amaze me. we may have hit a rainy spell, but who cares when there are real flowers around.

this is dustin pretending that mona is a beard. it has no relevance for anything, i just thought it was funny and cute. and you all know i will never pass an opportunity to highlight the kitties. ahhh! good times.

and we're BACK!!!

so we had a visit with scott. which was good. it rained the WHOLE time he was here. so we mostly just played video games and ate. the good news is, he has not been working for a while, so we were all on the same schedule. see how rainy it was. five days in a row of rain. yesterday, was the worst. mostly because the forecasters said friday would be sunny, but it was the worst rain yet. so we all got a little grumpy.

just look how wet it is out our window. yucky.

so like i said, alot of food consumed, and rock band played and video games in general. really it was good to have someone here to hang out. now, some of you will remember that scott had a gift waiting for him when he got here. so i wanted to show you the pictures of the unveiling.

this second to last one is a little out of focus because i was laughing too hard. remember how i told you it stank....:) oh it was great. he wore it for so long. he wore it until he said he couldn't smell it anymore.

we found the shopping district of our own town. it is a nice little area with nice shops. so that passed a morning. video games...

we got to also spend a few hours with scott's friend from asheville, sadie. she lives out here now. she works as a yoga teacher at the cliff bar offices. must be nice, but we got a big bag of clif and luna bars for us. she even invited us to her house warming party. so that will be nice.

this girl is sadie. she is funny. she has a good sense of humor. i think you would like her.

this is scott packing up the shirt. just proof that he took it home. he was so worried that we would try to hand off the cup to him. but for one we didn't bring it out here. and for two, we will have to give it too him in a big way. after all, he gave it to us in front of both family and grandparents. so his time with the mug will come. be afraid. be very afraid.

a picture is worth one thousand dollars

we got up thursday, and went to get donuts at rainbow donuts. they were huge donuts and so yummy. we had to eat them before we got on the train to san francisco. they don't allow food on the train. so we had to hurry to get the gigantic things eaten before we got to the train stop.
just a slight walk from the train station in san fran and we got to see my future house. i like it so much because it is purple. purple is my all time favorite color. just look how nice it is with the white trim. i would love to live in this big purple house.we then found a big building with a lot of fancy shops in it. one sold only mushrooms. they had this loaf of bread with mushrooms growing all over it. they were calling it a "mini farm". i wish i had a lot of money to spend in that big fancy store. there was one area that sold good bread, one that sold only cheese, and my favorite, the ciao bella (gelato) store.
dustin ate at the taylor's automatic refresher. you will remember this fancy eatery because we ate there after visiting my brother. it is the fancy fast food place. i got a soda, but he was in heaven. you'll notice no garlic fries or shake this time. i went back to ciao bella and got cookies and cream gelato. it was quickly becoming our best day. but we had an important errand to run. so we had to be on the move.

view to the left--------view to the right
this is what we saw while waiting for the trolley down at fisherman's wharf. the palm trees in our town always sort of catch me off guard. i 'm not used to seeing them. and the big tower is coyt tower. if you go down lombard street (the world's curviest streeet), you will eventually go up a hill to that tower. you can see the bay and the ocean from the top (if it is not too foggy). so that is pretty cool.

you can tell the tourists on the trolley car make dustin a little crazy. they have not looked at a map to find out even so much as which direction they should head in, or how much the trolley will cost ($1.50), and they all shout their questions at the poor driver (who must be a saint to not only answer them, but yell out their stops when he gets to them, but here is the real clincher--he'll show up the next day to do it again). ahhh, how quickly dust and i settle into our snobby little lives. we are far too busy to be bothered by mere tourists. (we live here--by "live" i mean eat and sleep here). but i am getting off track. we had to get our friend scott a birthday present. and they only sell it at fisherman's wharf. so you know it has to be good. that is after all, a huge tourist mecca. so the gift....

we take great pride in telling scott,"we got you a gift for your birthday." it is so cute because he gets his hopes up. like it is going to be a good gift. but alas, no. we never spend more than $20 on any gift for scott because ultimately, the gift is for us. just to watch his face as he happily unwraps whatever it is, and to watch how crestfallen he gets when he realizes how horrible the gift is. it all started with a cup--a horrible cup we got him. then we got him a shirt (don't read this part sebastian)...the shirt was fine-- it was black and had white lettering. the top part said "the man" and had an arrow pointing up. he saw that part first and he actually said," oh this isn't bad, i expected worse." then he unrolled it to show the bottom that said "the legend" and had an arrow pointing down. everybody i tell that story to sees the humor, but scott just groaned. so we like to get scott gifts. now the genius behind this gift is not only are the stripes printed on, it actually says "alcatraz psycho ward" and "outpatient" stamped over that in red. it was a toss up between this one and one that looked exactly like it but said "alcatraz reject--too cute". now some of you may wish we had gotten that one, but it is only funny on that level. this shirt implies that he is crazy enough to commit a crime that would send him to alcatraz, but has since been let out because he isn't crazy enough for them. sucka! also the shirt stinks. so he will have to let the thing unroll ( a real feat considering the length), then, of course, dust and i will demand scott put it on. and it stinks. so then he will have the stink on him. (i am actually laughing so hard right now, just thinking about it. dust had to pause the guitar-ing and make sure i am ok. ) i only hope i can capture it well enough that you guys can relive it via the blog. that is going to be comic gold. he will be here on tuesday.

friday we just played rock band, i went to target to "get a loofah" (make sure you get the bad santa reference there). i really did get a loofah and a throw pillow (thought of you quinn). not anything interesting enough to warrant pictures. you've all seen us play our amazing 750's band. (we got a jet and a sound man). i think we are even ranked 55000 and something on maps and 89000ish on wanted dead or alive. now , scoff if you will, but you are all jealous. if of nothing else, just that we actually check our stats. hey, what can i say, we had a big day here, yesterday.

today, the cats and i just studied chemistry on the couch. and now we blog. at least the chemistry is cute. mom, you'll be happy to know albert holds me down while mona quizzes me. they are tough little boogers. but i'll make it through.

you like "blogging"

we saw this guy and i had to take a picture of him from our car. there is a little dog in the back wagon he is pulling on his bike. i knew people out here went ga ga for their pets, but this doggie rides in the back of the bike. i love this town.

so i am true to my word. another entry. i talked to most of you on sunday, so the shea part will be quick. we woke up at 7 (am) to meet shea in sacremento for breakfast. now i had been a little ill the day before and hoped it would end before we saw him. no avail. we got to the tower (the breakfast spot) and it was really nice. an packed. shea had already scored a table so we were set. dust ate some sort of mexican scramble and i got blueberry pancakes made with corn meal. yummy.

then we went to a record store where i got to hear the new rufus wainright cd where he redoes judy garland's performance at carnegie (sp) hall. wonderful. then we drove to a mall and paid $5 to just to park because the place was sort of crummy. we walked around town forgetting how much parking was going to cost us, and racked up quite a parking bill. we left shea at like 2 and drove almost directly home--only stopping at in-n-out burger. then i took a four hour nap to recoup. while dust played with some of you'ns on rock band.

next day. still crummy. but i managed to start running. one mile down. i found this cute little track by our house and it is dirt, so less risk of injury. nice. then we did laundry. then we hurried into the city (san fran) to see marcia for dinner. she took us to the mission district. lots of the buildings have crazy murals on the sides. it is nice. that is the one area we didn't make it to during the honeymoon. it is a shame, too because they have fabulous shopping and mexican food there. so of course i loved it. that marcia was a good tour guide. she pointed out trendy bars and bakeries and shops (or shoppes for the fancy). it was fun. we talked like girls and that made me happy. she promised to go with us to the built to spill show in february. so that will be good.

today we did basically nothing. my brother got his wisdom teeth out today. so i woke up thinking about him. then around 2 we decided that we should leave the house and eat (two things we had yet to do). so off to noah's bagels we went. we discovered a line of cute shops that stretch from our town to oakland (not really hard to do). but we found some little hand warmers for allison (no fingers and skull and cross bones knitted right in--and in nice colors--greens, browns, or black and white). too bad her birthday is not so soon (or in cold weather times). we then went to look for books in emeryville. we got books and cupcakes. not a bad day. and my sickness was practically gone. we all win. i came home to call my brother and found out my parents had booked a flight out here on their spring break. so i was pumped. and my brother was pretty much fine--little swelling, little pain and blood, but he would make it. i was relieved. also i found out that i can watch netflix for free on the computer. add one more free or already paid for activity to my daily routine:

wake up

shower

breakfast

read sebastian's blog

read allison's blog

check email

check people.com to get the gossip

watch netflick

be a good little capitalist--go purchase what we need for the day (food, entertainment, treats...)

man, just looking at my day makes me realize how exciting my life really is. i know you guys are all so jealous of us being here in berkeley. with access to everything. just look at the amazing ways we spend our time.

today i watched mean girls just to "try it out". you know you have to try it out. and dust was "reading" so he didn't mind. i forget how funny that movie is. i always think i don't like that lindsey lohan, but she was funny in that movie. and man, do you hate that rachel mc adams in it, too. so that has been the last few days. now that the sickness has been overcome, and the finger almost healed, tying a blog should get more timely. i will talk to you all soon.

xoxo

clm

d@mn, it feels good to be a gangsta...

we were walking down the street one day and heard that song (see title), and i realized
a.) what a good song it is
b.) you don't hear that song playing enough out random car windows. (especially in vt)
c.) what a good blog title it would make (dustin pointed that out).

so now we're stuck with it. i told you guys about the brother visit. nothing has really happened since then.
i cut my finger really badly and blood would not stop coming. so we put a band aid on it. blood dripped down the bottom. when i went to the sink to turn the finger upside down to try and stop the blood coming out the bottom, it just poured out the top. like it just sits nicely on top of the finger in the nice ring of band aid up there until someone comes and dumps it out. so anyway. dust got me all fixed up with a cotton ball to absorb the leaky blood and a band aid tohold that in place. it was fabulous. it looked like brock sampson's mullet. i loved my new cut finger.

melissa was going to come for a visit. but her car died. really died. she had to have it towed away to the car graveyard. so no visit just yet. she says they will have a new car in a few weeks and then there will be no stopping getting her here. that makes me happy.

we realized that we had met no one so last night we went on a quest to meet people. at least be seen in town. and it was friday night... so we went to this bar called the missouri. it was a dive bar, but clean. and we did talk to a few people. so mission accomplished . we came home not out too much money and happy. now none of these people even know our name, but it is just nice to know that if we want to, we CAN go out and talk to people. on the walk home we got a piece of cake at the coffee shop across the street from our house. and it was in the top seven of my best chocolate cake pieces i ever bought. it was so good. so we had a nice night. it was like a little date.

today we took the BART ( thanks hillary) to san fran. now we just stayed in the market district. it was nice, though, because it made us realize that san fran is close (i know we can see it from the high way, but now we can be there in twenty minutes). so it was nice. we went through sacks fifth avenue. man, that store reminds me what a consumer i could become if i had ALOT of money. one day i would like to walk in there and know i could buy what ever i wanted. it was amazing. watching people with armloads of designer clothes. they looked like it was nothing, and i felt like the toad in the corner--and we all know how cute i am. maybe they just need those expensive, designer clothes to make them as cute as me. right....but it makes me feel better. :) that is what counts. we also got to eat at this indian place i really like. it is called curry and naan. it amounts to fast food indian because it is open 24 hours a day,but it is good. i asked for my palak paneer to be spicy. i was not let down. it was hot. so that was nice. we came back to berkeley and there was some sort of bazaar at the bart station. it was crazy all the different stuff they had there. knock off purses, boxer shorts, movies, plants, cashmere scarfs, you name it. they even had a big drum circle (my personal hell), but their best day. so it was nice. we got ice cream and came home. that is the day.

tomorrow we go (before 8 am) to see shea and possibly adriana in sacremento. we will meet at a breakfast place and then see the town. it will be nice to see them. so i will have more news soon.
miss you all.
clm

today we blog

i promise only one blog today. not the six. i don't want you guys to start expecting all of that from me. i am only a mortal after all. if you want all the info you have to come out. but for now this will have to tide you over.

today we drove through the grey and the misty rain to visit my brother, meredith and their new baby, emma. when i called to tell my brother we had left, he told me he was sick. not just any sick, yukie sick.

we arrived just as nap time was ending. good timing. then we went to meredith's winery so she could feed the wee one. we got a little wine and then a couple came in for a tour. my poor sick bro had to give the tasting. turns out they have a house in ne portland. so we had a bit to talk about. they had a nice time, and ended up joining the "wine club". ben even got them to buy 125$ worth of wine. now if i spent $125 on wine, i would have a lot of $6 bottles. but these people were hilarious with their snobbery. it was amazing. i was so impressed with my brother. not only was he sick, he was telling people about wines he had no hand in. and he sold four bottles of the six they tasted. he is amazing! he later left to yuke in the employee bathroom and we took he and the baby home. while he showered, we entertained the baby and called my ma. she was pumped. now usually i am not a huge baby person. in fact this is the first baby i ever held who didn't erupt when i held her. well she did erupt on one end, but i (yes, me) changed her and all was well. then she fell asleep as i walked her through the house. i guess i am losing my edge. :) she is cuter than i expected, but i am probably biased. it was also nice to see ben and meredith so happy with her. i'll tell you that baby is and will be smothered in kisses. i cannot wait for my parents to meet her. they will go ape sh#t for that kid. i did accidentally call her an "it" in front of meredith. she was not pumped and corrected me, but we all laughed about it so i think all is still good.

after we left, we went to this place called taylor's automatic refresher. a crazy name for a fast food place, but it is the only 4star (****) fast food place in america. so we had to go, right. for thirty one dollars we got a veggie burger, a blue chee-bacon-onion ring-bar be que sauce burger for dust, fries tossed in garlic butter, a chocolate shake (probably the best shake i EVER had) and a coke. somehow sitting in the cold night, both of us felt like we had gotten our moneys worth. fast freaking food. thirty dollars. who would have thought?

yesterday's big outing included opening a bank account. exciting times. evidently someone at another branch got fired for stealing. it was all the gossip at the bank. much yelling and laughing we had over the whole ordeal. it made it more exciting. and i was glad to be opening my account post stealing person being fired. (more of a chance our money stays in our account--i do have a history with banks, you know.) we also found a divine little ice cream place called ICI. i say it is ick-y. who knows how it is really pronounced. i had toasted caramel ice cream. dust got chocolate covered walnut. they make tiny batches of organic ice cream. they had meyer lemon, and other seasonal flavors, but they promise not to make more than can sell in two days. so it was yummy. dust got a cone. it was homemade and it had chocolate in the tip to keep the melting ice cream from dripping. genius!

we made it out of there just in time to sit in traffic for an hour going five miles an hour on the freeway just to see "before the devil knows you are dead" at the brew and view in oakland. as i told you last week, wednesday is buy one get one free on admission. it was supposed to be a 5 mile trip and only take 13 minutes (according to mapquest). you gotta love traffic. but we did make it in time. so who can complain. like we got so much to do, right. :) it was a movie that was done well, but it reminded me of very bad things. it just kept getting more and more painful to watch. but i had a slice of pizza and a pepsi and i had brought the other half of my cup cake that we got for claudia's birthday. so i would have been happy anywhere. that is pretty much the news here. weird movie, bank account, traffic, cupcakes, brother, wife, and baby. good times.

love to you all.

clm

one more time for this one, because i can't get it off the stinking page. sorry. now i am the dork. :)

berkeley horticultural nusery

we went to a flower shop today. i must say it was really fun. dust even picked up an application to work there. i knew so many of the plants, but it was weird, most of the plants they had as perennials, we sell as specialty annuals. i even got to see a plant called a hebe. i had heard a thing on npr about them. there are many varieties and they come from new zealand. this variety was beautiful. their six packs were for sale for $5 for most of the six's and prices went up from there. and they already had peas and bean starts. (you better get on it, jack:) ). it was nice to walk around the little garden center. the pottery for the most part was lacking, but they had a ton of roses and perenials and everything was labeled really well. also the staff was friendly and they had fish in their water garden. they also had a mini green house full of house plants. we got a pencil cactus. i took a picture.

pretty cool, huh?

again with the blogging.

so here are all the things you would see and know if i saw you everyday, like usual.

mom--i'm keeping the black shoes. you were right. they look so cute on. and they are comfy. also note the red boots. really hot, no? i know it is just shoe notes, but you guys need to know that stuff too. that way you don't miss out.

new digs

i just realized that if you don't have skype, you have not seen where we live. should be self explanatory. here we go:

both ends of the living room. note: tv in fireplace, little blue "oven", and pink sofa next to yellow velvet chair. really lovely. the pile is gone now because we found homes for things, and they are now put away.

if i would have turned around in the picture i am in, i would have headed through the hallway straight into the peachish orange bathroom. we got a bright yellow mat for just outside the little shower with the blue curtain. it is colorful and nice. but the walls make you look orange. it is a little strange. :)just past the little blue stove, you see a doorway. it goes to this little stuffed kitchen. there look to be many cupboards, but they are all FULL of random cooking things. like 10 aluminum pie plates and other useless crap. but there is enough to make due. and i am glad we didn't bring any kitchen stuff because there would be no room for it in here. the last room is the bed room. it is just down from the bathroom. we got a new bedspread and comforter that has purple and green and orange stripes. i love it. also we made those drawers on the right. thank you ikea for wordless directions. nobody reads those anyway. there is plenty of closet space in here because we didn't bring all of our clothes. good we got all those free ikea hangers out of the trash. classy.

this is our amazing little apt from the parking lot/ driveway. now we don't ave a space in the parking lot, so we park just outside the gate. we can see our car from the window upstairs. we are the top apartment. long live TOP TIER!!!

so that is where we live. i hope you like the mini tour. it took longer to read than it would to walk around it, but at least now you will know where we are. hugs and kisses.