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But my car is not.

So there we were, minding our own business, driving straight and at a slow pace headed for the freeway on-ramp, when this white Corvette exits the freeway too fast and loses control. We didn’t see that at first. What we saw was the car in front of us do this funny little swerve that we couldn’t figure out. Then there was the one second of “Oh No!” And then…Bam! We managed to get to the side of the road, but now my poor baby car won’t start. (I dunno how fast the guy was going, but he hit us quite hard.)

We’re okay (mostly), just banged up a bit from the seat belts and what not. I can tell, however, that tomorrow will be distinctly un-fun already. Sigh.

sniffle

Well, my quest is at an end. As you can see from my terrible photograph taken through the widscreen of the car.

The story of its location goes a little something like this…

The other day my husband went out for a drive and thought, “If I can find the Orange House for Celticlibrarian it will make her happy and I will be her hero!”
So, he went where I had said we should try next, and ‘lo he found it!
When he came home, he told me he had located the elusive house. And I…got all territorial about my quest. And the fact that he’d gone out and found it without me.
So there you see the difference in our thought processes. Le sigh.
After a bit I managed to get down off of my territorial-quest high horse and I demanded that he take me to see the Orange House, narrating all the while how he found it. Poor man. But, he did it. And now my quest is at an end.

Except…I need a better photo of the front of the house, so I may try to swing by one more time. I wish I knew a bit more about the house, but at least I’ve found it.

(And my husband is my hero.)

I found this video over at Heroes not Zombies and I just had to share it. I actually teared up a bit. Enjoy the dancing. Makes me want to get out there and travel.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

For all that our Anniversary Trip Mark 1 was troublesome and stressful, we did manage to get a few decent pictures. I’ve finally managed to get through my photos from day one and here is what I have to offer:

The rocky bits in the middle of the picture look a bit like a face to me. North Beach is just one of the beaches that Point Reyes has to offer. It is the only one we have visited so far.

One of the things I have noticed about North Beach is the “Post Apocalyptic” vibe it seems to have. Probably the Teepees have something to do with this. I’ve noticed that driftwood sculptures seem to be quite popular on Northern California beaches, and this beach was no exception. This is the first time I’ve encountered Driftwood Sculptures with interior seating, though.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse has been around since 1870. I’ve visited it before, and I think it’s really interesting. We didn’t manage to make it before they’d closed for the day so we don’t have any closer pictures than this. I’m not too upset by this as…

There are 308 steps down to the lighthouse. Not so bad going down, but there are benches by the steps for a reason. That is a climb of many stories. I’ve done it once, and boy howdy.

Once we were done with the lighthouse (and my hands were numb with cold) we went back to North beach to photograph the sunset, then on to try some night shots of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way home. My camera doesn’t really do night shots.

There you are. The good parts version of the doomed weekend, day one.

On Sunday afternoon I got into the car with Koshvader. On the way to get a little lunch, I mentioned that I had some things I wanted to finish that evening so perhaps we shouldn’t stay out that long.

Famous last words.

As we were heading up the road towards the freeway I said, “Hey! What’s up this road past the freeway? We’ve never been up there before.” So, we went and had a look. It turns out that the College of San Mateo is at the top of that road. Who knew? We turned down a side road, and drove for a bit, encountering a lovely little shopping area on the way.

And then, we encountered a road called “Crystal Springs.” This is not an uncommon road name. In fact we know people that live on a road with the same name in another town. What could we do but drive up the road? Imagine my surprise when the hubby pulled of the road and parked…under 280. Yes, Under 280! As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, we were literally in the shadow of the freeway.

The hill above where we parked…and 280.

Koshvader’s Photograph of a Jellyfish taken with his camera

Over Memorial Day weekend, Koshvader and I ran off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Somehow, along the way, we picked up a membership to said institution. Perhaps this has something to do with the mere 103 miles separating our place from that water wonderland. We checked the Trip Odometer and everything. Now, we can pop by the Aquarium whenever we feel like it.

*ahem* Muahahahaha…

As predicted, the aquarium was really crowded. Have I mentioned that I don’t like crowds? Well, I don’t. We ended up eating at the sit-down restaurant instead of the self-service place just to get some peace and quiet. The food was really good this time around. I even had some green apple sorbet. Yum! While we were eating, we had a bit of an audience. Two cute little East Indian boys on the self-service side of the partition kept popping their heads up over the wall to watch us. I’m guessing that they were about 6 and 4 respectively. I know that I shouldn’t have encouraged their behaviour, but it was fun talking to them, and the rest of their party wasn’t saying anything about it. *shrug* Apparently they were having lots of fun looking at the penguins.

After lunch we were faced with the horrible truth. Koshvader’s DSLR camera had run out of battery power. So, like the loving wife I am…I loaned him my little point and shoot.

The requested Cuttlefish pic as taken by Koshvader for my sister.

(Don’t worry, Sister Mine, he actually took 6 pictures of your favorite Cuttlefish with my camera. I have the big versions if you would like them.)

My sister informs me that I need to post more pictures, so here are a few of the survivors from the 200+ pics I took at the aquarium.

A Black Sea Nettle

Mediterranean Jellies

I must’ve taken fifty shots of this little fish. Luckily, one came out.

As you can see, the Moon Jellies are popular.

(for more pics, and larger formats, check out my flickr photostream)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

So, eventually we left the beach and began to head home. Then, my hubby had an idea. Why not go to Cameron’s Pub for dinner? (Provided that we could find it, that is.) So, we turned around and headed off along Highway 1 towards Half Moon Bay. As you can see from the picture above, they are still working on construction over there. (I seem to recall that they are trying to re-route the road by making a tunnel. Don’t quote me on that, though.)

What is that little building way up there?

This last picture is literally of the Tsunami Escape Route as indicated by signs that we passed on the way. Question? Why does the Tsunami Escape Route roughly parallel the water? It probably doesn’t actually do that, but that’s what it looks like.

We actually found the pub and had dinner there. They also have a wee British Food shop there. I popped in to take a look, and realized that…I already had some of each item that I usually enjoy. (I need to buy some crumpets today, now that I think about it, to tide me over until I attempt to make some more.)

After a lovely meal, and in my case a Cider, we headed for home. When you get into the car with Koshvader you never know where you’ll end up. The trick is to bring your camera and enjoy the ride, apparently.

(These photos didn’t shrink particularly well, so if you want to see the larger versions, check out my flickr photostream.)

…when you get into the car with my husband.

So, on Friday we left the house in search of lunch and, much more importantly, Air Conditioning. Have I mentioned that our apartment lacks this vital modern marvel? Friday was warm, as was the rest of the week. Okay, Koshvader insists that “warm” is an understatement, but you get the idea.

We set out for Johnny Rockets. We arrived, and discovered…that they had no A/C either. (It’s a plot, I tell you!) We ate quickly as 1) it was warm and 2) we had no change for the jukebox. I love those little jukeboxes in 50s cafes. Why is it that so many of them don’t work these days? It makes me crazy to only be able to look at the song lists and not inflict my choices on others. This may have something to do with the fact that I know most of the songs and enjoy singing along. (Come to think of it, they probably have a kill switch for when they see me coming. This would explain a lot of things.)

Anyway, we continued our great A/C hunt at Fry’s Electronics. This time we were successful. It was really nice in there. Fry’s was also my best hope for a copy of the Revenger’s Tragedy DVD that I was hunting for. No luck on that front. (Today I finally gave in an ordered it online. You hear that Matt? I bought it…so you can watch it when it arrives.)

Eventually we ran out of things to look at and not buy. That’s right. We actually escaped Fry’s empty handed. Then, the car door closed and the adventure began. I thought we might go to Best Buy or head home, but that was not the case. We drove and we drove. We passed by the cool house off of 280 that is now orange. I remember driving past it as a kid a couple of times.

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Hello folks. I know that things have been a wee bit quiet over here of late. Sorry about that. To make up for it, here is a whopping great post about things that I’ve been up to.

Let’s see now…well, two weeks ago I had a week of vacation. I had planned to go to L.A. and attend the Gallifrey One Doctor Who Convention with Koskvader, My Evil Twin, and My Evil Twin’s Dad. Before that was to have been the Great Ceremonial Returning of my Mother-in-Law to her home (after being stuck at my place for two months due to weird schedules and inclement weather. Poor woman.) What actually happened was:

Monday, 11 February - I worked. I even managed to get two weeks worth of schedules done, as I am currently the desk scheduler. Go me. I didn’t quite tidy up my desk as much as I would have liked, but there you are.

Tuesday, 12 February - As near as I can recollect I worked on my blogs on this day, and packed my things. It was decided that Koshvader would be taking his Mum home, while I would be driving down to L.A. on my own. Oh! And I took my Car in to be serviced. Gaia needed an oil change and a new belt.

Wednesday, 13 February - Realizing that Koshvader would have to drive his Boat up the mountain, as my lovely all wheel drive Subaru was going to L.A. with me, we took Dark Star to get some work done as well. On the way back to our place, I stopped at Border’s to get a book on CD to listen to on the way. I ended up with the Arkangel Shakespeare’s As You Like It. (No David Tennant in this one. He is in Romeo and Juliet, by the way.) I sort of wanted Much Ado, but there were only two titles to choose from, and that wasn’t one of them. Of course, I also bought the Doctor Who Magazine, but that’s what I generally get there. Somewhere along the way it was decided that I should just go ahead and leave that day, while Koshvader was actually reachable by phone. This made too much sense. When I got over that, I left. Along the way…in the traffic, I received a call from my sweet husband informing me that there seemed to be an oil leak in my parking spot. So, once I was done eating at Pea Soup Andersen’s a while later, I moved my car and checked my parking spot. Yep. Oil, but not too much. I made it to L.A. with no further misadventures, but I’d really like to avoid driving all that way in the future. By the time I arrived it was well dark. I spent a wee bit of time with my Evil Twin (who I shall hereafter refer to as Steed, as he loves The Avengers as much as I do) then I went to bed. I was staying at his place, you see.

Thursday, 14 February - We had this day free, so Steed and I went over to Santa Monica after he, I and his Dad had brunch at a decent Chinese buffet. Our first stop in Santa Monica was at the Harry Potter store - Whimsic Alley. I’ve bought stuff from them in the past through their internet shop, but going there was a lot more fun. They have all kinds of things there. I only managed to restrain myself by thinking about the shopping possibilities at the Con. I bought myself a Ravenclaw bumpersticker, a Ravenclaw Prefect badge, and some Blood Pops for my Husband. Steed and I then wended our way over to Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Yes, there is one that is not in Red Bank, NJ. It was fun, tucked away as it was in the back of a DVD shop, but I managed not to buy anything. Taking a look at the time as we left the shop, we realized that we would be better off eating in Santa Monica than trying to make our way back through all of the traffic. So…we went to Hooters. Yes, you read that right. I’d heard that they had great wings. That turned out to be an understatement. Their Garlic Wings were a religious experience. Our waitress, Rain, was a big sweetie. (Well, small sweetie, but you get the idea.) All of the food was good, and so was my beer. I had such a good time that I bought some pyjamas with cute owls on them. They have merchandise, you know. We packed up our leftovers to bring back to Dad and headed out. And then…we stopped at a light. On my right was my Mother’s High School. Of course I had to ring her up to tell her this. (My Father-in-law also graduated from Santa Monica High, we discovered a few years back.) My Mum seemed to quite enjoy the fact that I was near her Alma Mater. Well, as it was V-Day, and a Thursday, the traffic was horrendous. I managed to see quite a lot of cool shops as we worked our way homeward through the back streets. Upon our arrival, Dad agreed with us about the food. Even reheated leftovers were good.

Friday, 15 February - We started out the day by taking Dad to the Doctor’s office. I am very glad that I brought my knitting. That took quite a while. Then we stopped at Denny’s for lunch and on to the Con. If you want an in depth discussion of my first day at the Con, I recommend that you go here, as I’ve already written it up.

Saturday, 16 February - Surprise! I’ve already written this day up, too. You can find it here. I did get to spend the day with an acquaintance who works at JPL and then have dinner over at their place. It was really nice to see them again, and let me just tell you that they have a gorgeous library in their house, with a ladder on a rail and everything. Also, we had fabulous Chicken and Dumplings. Meeting their son was really cool, as he was celebrating his 5th birthday that night. (Also, he’s brilliant.)

And I’m going to leave it here for now, as It’s late and I’m off to bed. Just so y’all know, my new hard drive is on its way. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a picture of my new PJs when it arrives. Night!

Our romantic fireplace.

Today we shopped and walked a lot.

Did I mention the walking? (Yeah. My legs are tired.)

We walked out to the American Tin Cannery for breakfast and shopping. We had breakfast at First Awakenings. Or rather, brunch, as we both managed to sleep through the free food this morning. Sigh. KoshVader went with the Lemon Chicken sandwich which was “pretty good” and I went with the fruit crepe which was okay. Brunch was actually fun, as there was a little bird in the building, and two kids kept trying to sneak up on it. I swear that they moved like cats. Very amusing.

The shopping at the ATC was actually quite fruitful. We managed to find KoshVader some new shoes that were not black. (Don’t faint, Linds and Dani.) We popped into many of the shops. There was one place that said it was open, but you needed to go downstairs to a different store and ask if you wanted to browse. Normally, that is not the sort of thing that we would do. Introverted tends to be a fairly good descriptor for both of us. Today, however, KoshVader really wanted to browse in the gem and rock shop. (He collects minerals.) So, downstairs we went. The little shop was very nice. Lots of eye candy. Oh, to win the lottery. I love jewelry. Have I mentioned? I have a metal allergy, but that doesn’t stop the love. It…just stops me from wearing earrings very often. I purchased nothing (*wistful sigh*), but KoshVader found a nice Spinnel.

New Not-Black Shoes enjoying the firelight.

What’s a Spinnel? This is a Spinnel. Specifically, the pink bit. The white rock is just the vehicle, apparently.

We ended up not playing Blacklight Miniature Golf, even though it looked really fun and kitschy. Our hands were full by then. Well, too full to easily play golf, anyway. Sadly, we didn’t make it back over there in the evening, either. A wee bit more shopping found us no size 5 shoes for my Mother-in-Law. Yes, I’m doing my Christmas shopping on my vacation. As such, I have only purchased a book and a little St. Andrew’s Cross flag for myself. Witness my virtue! Okay…really, I just like saving time, and it’s the right time for such shopping. Add to that interesting shops and small crowds and you have shopping paradise for the Celtic Angel.

Where was I? Oh, yes. My Mother-in-law wears size 5 shoes, so I’ve picked up the habit of checking out any shoe store I enter to see if they have something she might wear. Oh, speaking of shoes, KoshVader’s new ones were 60% off. The ones I liked, but did not need, were only 30% off. Not good enough.

After our shopping excursion at the American Tin Cannery in Pacific Grove we trekked back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. As luck would have it, we only had a half an hour left until the wine and cheese reception when we arrived. So, we killed some time and then headed on over. They were offering a couple of 2005 local wines, which is a bit young in my opinion. At least the Syrah tasted young. It wasn’t terrible, but I was glad to have the cheese, grapes, and cute butterfly cracker to cut the tannins. KoshVader was glad to see that they were also offering lemonade.

After our break we headed back to Cannery Row. We enjoyed the Steinbeck Wax Museum. It was a total tourist trap and was obviously hasn’t been updated since the 1960s, if the Kit Carson reference is anything to go on, but that didn’t stop it from being educational. Yes, we have a thing for tourist traps. After more wandering, KoshVader tried to take some pictures down at the beach. That was when the batteries died on our camera. With the light going, we went on a battery hunt. The lady from the flag store didn’t let us down. We loaded up the camera and headed back to the spot.

Here is the result:

Straight ahead is the Fish Hopper.
To the left is the Blue Moon Bistro/a hotel that I forget the name of.

Eventually, we had dinner at The Fish Hopper again. This time I had the Ahi and KoshVader had the Halibut. The Halibut was great. I felt that the Ahi wasn’t as good as the previous time we had it. The seasoning was a bit different. *shrug* After dinner we went to a Garlic Gift Shop. There we found some of the Joe Perry hot sauce we like. Yay for the not having to pay to have it shipped! We spent some time in the hotel room before heading out for dessert, and here comes the angry part.

After much staring at menus on the side of buildings we stopped at the Blue Moon Bistro for dessert. The atmosphere was romantic. The service was good and the dessert really tasty. That’s not the the angry part. You see, KoshVader and I sometimes play cards while we wait for food to arrive. It doesn’t generally last too long, and we have been told several times in the past by servers and friends that it was a clever way to pass the time. Tonight…well, tonight another patron took it upon himself to tell us that the sound of shuffling cards had no place in a restaurant like that. In short, he yelled at me, and then he left. Now, I do not deal well with being yelled at in the best of times. Generally, I either burst into tears or just barely manage to stop myself. But lately, my emotions have been a lot closer to the surface. It totally destroyed my enjoyment of the evening. I burst into tears in public, and KoshVader sent some angry parting words after the fellow in question. Luckily, the restaurant wasn’t brightly lit so my bright red nose wasn’t that noticeable. When the waiter returned with our drinks, I couldn’t even talk. It was *so* embarrassing. Hey, but I managed not to smudge my mascara somehow. When we explained what had happened to the server later, as I didn’t want him to think we’d disliked any aspect of the meal experience itself, he told us that they had no problem with us playing cards there. (For the record, there are many places we do not play cards, but this place seemed relaxed enough for it.) So, wherever that fellow is, I hope that he’s happy. Growl.

Don’t worry. I large dose of LolCats cheered us right up. We’re leaving tomorrow, so I’m off to pack up. Night!