Just one more coal for the fire sir...

So, I am freezing in our meatlocker of an office. The building that I work in would benefit from a complete demolition....it is old, nasty, has no windows and was built during a period of ugly architecture. Very ugly architecture.

I keep thinking that I will turn around and see Scrooge holding a bag of coal in the corner saying, "One piece for the whole day...that is all you get."

This weekend the sky finally cleared up. The onshore winds finally kicked in and blew the ash and smoke away and there was blue sky! On Sunday, went for a bike ride and ended up in Riviera Village where we went and had lunch at the Petit Casino...a little french restaurant that has pretty good crossiant sandwiches. I went next door after that to look at Xmas cards at a little boutique called Card de a. They have the best cards for the holidays. I cannot believe I am already shopping for the holidays. I do not have any of my gift shopping done at all and I am afraid it might once again get down to the wire and I will get all freaked out that I have not gotten the right gifts...it happens every year.

This weekend we also had a trial run with a kitty in our house. I am not sure that I would call Woody a kitty as he is more like a 30 pound dat or cog....he is enormous and what is weird is that I do not believe all of it is due to weight...it is more like he is a muscle builder cat. Anyway, my new nick name for him is my "fat fraidy cat" because he is so scared of everything. He searched out the living room and then opened the bottom pot and pan cabinet in our kitchen and hid out in there most of Sunday afternoon.

He finally came out while I was sitting on the couch reading and he sat at my feet. He gets along fine with me, but I wish he was more of a lap sitter....maybe he just feels self conscious about his weight and that is why he would not join me on the couch.

So, I am hoping that he is ok at the house today, I just found out from someone that it is hot outside so I have an odd feeling that Mr. Fat Fraidy Cat is once again in the pot and pan cabinet. He seems to like it in there, so as long as he is happy I am good with it. He is our cupboard kitty.

The Sky is falling

Yes, in fact the sky is falling in flakes of ash...everywhere. So, Southern California is surrounded by fire and even though I live far away from the fires, they are causing chaos everywhere. The sensors that let meterologists know that it is raining keep letting them know that we are in a rain storm....only it is not rain, it is ash. This morning when I got to my car it was covered and now I can actually see little white flakes in the air. They are saying we should try to stay inside and breath only filtered air. Hopefully for the people that are near the fires we will be able to get them under control soon. They leave fantastic sunsets, but the damage that it has already left with over a hundred homes destroyed is just unbelievable.

It may be hard to see, but the photo above is the table on the patio...covered in ash...if you look up at the top of the table near the lime tree (that has actual limes on it-yeah!) you can see the one spot where there was a candle sitting.

In other news this week, I am trying to eat healthier and make more veggies. I made my first spaghetti squash last week and it was a hit...we will do that again soon.Unfortunately, I also decided that this week would be a good time to clean out the cabinets and start using some of the food that was stashed in there. I found a spice cake mix, so of course I decided...why not...let's make an October cake. I made it last night and as you can see enjoyed two pieces before it went off to the fridge.

My last weekend was one of relaxation and doing absolutely nothing in terms of cleaning up or any work type stuff. I rode my bike to the library and checked out some books and then picked up some buffalo mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes from Whole Foods (whole paycheck) and watched some movies....The Queen (made me want some Corgis) and Cold Comfort Farm (most bizarre and I think they cut out some needed scenes).

Jon on the other had was in the middle of no where in a desert sand storm on his manly camping trip:

Poor truck got stuck: On his way back on Sunday, he almost did not make it due to some of the fires. Here is a view of what he had to drive through on the way back.

Lazy Pink Weekend

So, I have been hard at work trying to get ready for this conference that we finally had on Friday of this last week. Everything was done in pink and brown for the Women's Wellness Conference and the theme was Power of Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. We had over 500 women attend on Friday and our keynote speaker was Ann Jillian. I was not so sure how she would do, but she gave a fantastic speech and kept tying in our hospital and Breast Center so that was good.
Our office has been inundated with pink and I think I am finally ready to get rid of it all...here are a few of the items we had at our conference.Norah flew in on Saturday to stay with us before work on Monday. We spent the afternoon relaxing around the South Bay and hanging out at the pier where Norah tried the largest pinball machine...unfortunately Hercules was not working that well and needs some TLC from the Fun Factory Folks.The next day we took the long road (Mulholland Dr.) toward downtown to drop Norah off at the Westin Bonaventure and stayed to have a drink in the revolving lounge on the 35th Flr.
Work on Monday was back to normal. Wrapping up after the conference and figuring out all the money. I went grocery shopping after work and due to the pomegranate conversations I had with Norah, I had to get this local large pom at the grocery.There was also an interesting package from Mom...and it was a good thing I saw the return label on the package, otherwise it would have been so strange to have gotten this squeezy brain scull. Jon just love's it.