The Madness Ebbs, the Office Empties, the Spirits Rise

Flowers my sister gave me for Christmas.  Presents that are alive are good (not puppies). 

 
My friend Chris sent an e-mail a few days ago that began,  "AT LAST, Christmas is over!"

But he was wrong.  Christmas isn't over until the world goes back to work and to school and leaves the weekdays to retirees, stay-at-home-moms, and people who work at home.

That would be the day after tomorrow, Monday, January 4, 2016.  I've been thinking about that day since Thanksgiving.  It's the day when the madness ebbs, and  life returns to more or less normal.

* * * * * 

On New Year's Day,  Jerry and I went to Pt. Reyes, where it was clear, cold, and mobbed.  He looked like the Michelin Man, wearing a heavy sweatshirt over a down vest..  I wore a scarf and gloves, fleece pullover, jacket, and an determined expression--I wanted out of the house, even if I had to brave the cold.

A little puffy, not entirely from holiday treats

 We huddled in our car at the Visitor's Center, eating sandwiches and swilling hot chocolate.  Then we drove to the Estero Trail, hiked out to the bridge, and took some pictures:

Low tide

Flowing out to the sea

Then we made a quick swing by North Beach, only to be astounded by 50 cars in the parking lot (Jerry counted) and what seemed like legions of people walking the beach, considering how cold it was.

North Beach parking lot.  I was amazed (but then why were we there?)

Windy!

Happy New Year.  Happy New Beginnings.  Happy Peace and Quiet.

 * * * * *

Just before Christmas, my computer rebelled and stopped typing "O's".  I took it off to the Thai man who fixes its hardware. 

As he tinkered, he announced, vehemently,  "Donald Tump [sic] is bullshit."

Jerry and I are so taken with this that we now just refer to "Tump."  It sums up the ridiculousness of the man.  Better than thinking about him actually becoming President.

* * * * *

We set a deadline of December 31 to have Jerry's campus office empty, and we just about made it.  These photos were taken New Year's Eve:

 

 

214 Wellman Hall, Jerry's office for 48 years.  Note the recycling waiting for pick-up.

The office is empty, but numerous--nine but who's counting?--boxes of correspondence, research files, and God knows what now litter the dining room and the basement.  I've checked out, though.  It's over, as far as I'm concerned, except for a little light nagging.

Lurking in a corner of the dining room

The dining table, but it's a year until next Christmas, when we might actually use it

 

The workbench in the basement.  Four more boxes are parked on the garden furniture stashed for the winter.  It's getting crowded down there.

 * * * * *

One of my top goals for 2016--and much more interesting than getting a colonoscopy and updating the earthquake kit--is to play as much as I can.  Read this article in the New York Times and see if you don't agree.

Quilters Show Creations and Eat Candy At the Same Time

Last weekend, my quilt mini-group held its annual Christmas party.   Some members brought quilts they're finishing up, and you get a preview in this post.

Most of these quilts will be shown in "Voices in Cloth," the East Bay Heritage Quilters show on March 19-20 next year.












Here we are, quilters ranging in age from our early sixties to 93:

The No Problem Quilters, 2015.  Missing: Claudia, who took the photo, and Marion, who couldn't make it.  Visiting: Sue and Alice, daughters of our oldest member

On to the quilts.

Here's Ann's latest masterpiece:

Ann is holding the right-hand corner.  On the coffee table but out of sight: a box of See's candy that served as an hors d'oeuvre.  (Why not?  It's Christmas).

Claudia with her latest top

 

Peg, our oldest member

Angie hiding behind her quilt, with a bird flying over it

Alice, Peg's daughter, with an applique quilt her mother worked on for years. Alice finished it, and Angie quilted it.

Detail

Mabry (standing) with a quilt she finished for her great-grandson.  He chose the fabrics.

Merry Christmas!

Didn't We Just Do This?

Red and green!  The holidays are here!  Is  anybody looking forward to it?   Or let me put it this way:  Is there anyone without grandchildren who's looking forward to it?

Sigh.

Gump's has been flogging its Christmas-ornaments-for-tourists since October, little Golden Gates Bridges and Coit Towers.   Starbuck's is doing both pumpkin-spice and peppermint-chocolate drinks--which holiday are they exploiting, anyway?  The catalogs are arriving, even the Shaker Workshops.

Oxymoron, somehow: what happened to simple-and-free?

I'm doing Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year.  There's no way out, because my sister's birthday is on T-giving Day and asking her to wrestle with a clammy-cold turkey that morning is too much to ask.   I think.

My friend Mabry says a woman has only so many dinners in her.   My quota of holiday dinners was filled about 25 years ago.  Also, my quota of Christmas shopping, although the internet makes it a lot easier. 

Onward.  Can't leap forward to January 1, so might as well make the best of it.

* * * * *

Retail:   I just bought a pair of clogs!  Yes, I did, despite wearing size 41 (11 US size).  They are surprisingly comfortable.  I clomp, but there you are.  I feel taller and more confident when I'm wearing them.  Only with pants, though.  With skirts, they make me look like a cartoon character, all feet.

On Tuesday, for the first time, I deliberately bought a pair of fat-jeans.  My closet is full of semi-skinny jeans I've been talked into by salespeople.  I can't breathe in them!  Can't sit down!  To hell with it.  So I bought a pair a size up, not skinny (see photo, above).  They're baggy, but so what?  AND they were on sale.

I also bought a couple of pairs of my usual size because Not Your Daughter's Jeans has slyly figured out how to incorporate an invisible maternity panel at the tummy.  Oh, yes!   They must have, because these jeans  are quite comfortable, extremely forgiving, even a bit skinny.

Style M10K43B4337, if you're interested.

It's getting to be the time of year when I can wear a scarf without triggering a hot flash.   I took a look in my scarf drawer:  total disaster.  I can never find what I'm looking for;  I rummage around frantically, and then give up because if I find one I want to wear, it's always a wrinkled mess that needs ironing.

So, I took a handful of 20%-off coupons to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought two of these:

$4.99 each

They are splendid! I ironed my scarves and looped them through. 

 There's so little left in the scarf drawer that I can actually find things:

Did you know that BB&B coupons are good indefinitely, even if there's an end date printed on them?  Also, you can use one for a group of things, instead of one per item.  Learned that yesterday.

* * * * *

For months,  ever since Jerry found out he'd have to vacate his campus office in Wellman Hall, we've worked a few hours each weekend packing up books and reprints to bring home.  Or, better yet, to leave in a big sloppy stack outside his office door to be recycled.  We owe the Recycle Gremlin a great big bottle of bourbon.

Here we were last weekend:

My role is to badger and direct.  I read the Sunday New York Times until I see that he's bogged down and putting way too much stuff aside to be saved.  Then I'm ruthless.  No, no, and no.  He pretty much goes along, mostly because his home study is already full.

He's a big fan of old oak office furniture

Acres of books and reprints removed...

...almost removed, anyway.  To go WHERE, is the question.

My favorite sign

Half the room is empty.  But the other half:

Worse than my scarf drawer

Left for the Recycle Gremlin at the end of the day.  Week after week, it disappears like magic.

 We're aiming to be finished with this by the end of the year.  Stay tuned.

New Year, New Quilt, More Trips, New Mantra

We all made it!  Survived Christmas.  Hundreds of days until it rolls around again.  Yippee!

* * * * *

In my studio yesterday morning:

Strips leftover from a quilt I made three years ago.

No idea what they will all become.  Whatever it is, it will most likely end up as a quilt auctioned off here to benefit the Berkeley Food Pantry.

* * * * *

"Do it now," is what a lot of elderly travelers have said to us, and we're by God doing that in 2015. We have trips planned this year to a) Costa Rica/Panama Canal/New Orleans/Key West and b) Scandinavia/St. Petersburg/Paris/Normandy/England.

The details take up two binders and a lot of my brain.

I've got two blank books...

 ...standing by to join these:

Our trips since 2006.  What are you going to remember on your deathbed? (Not a new bathroom)

 * * * * *

New mantra:  "What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail?"

Maybe tap-dancing.  Quilts that are a bit more adventurous.   A family history that tells the truth.  A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Lots more.  Have to think.

Happy New Year!  Or anyway Post-Christmas... 

Is that bathroom remodel done YET? And how much tiramisu can you eat in 24 hours?

A.  Bathroom remodel is complete, but bathroom looks like a model home before staging: bare.   Hence, the reveal is delayed.  Except for this:

Jerry taped paper over the window for a little privacy.

A. Two large servings and two small within 24 hours of Christmas dinner.   No picture available.

Q.  Why are you showing us a tied-up box of See's candy?
A.  My sister tied it up to prevent me from eating the remaining chocolates so I could offer them to Food Pantry clients on Monday.

Q.  Why is there another picture of a tied-up See's candy box?
A.  Because I cut the knotted-up ribbon and ate two pieces.   See lower right where snip occurred. And below, post-snip:

 Two chocolates missing.

 Q.  Why ANOTHER picture?
 A.  Because I knotted the ribbon again.

 Q.  How many people think I won't eat more chocolates before 1 pm tomorrow?

Looking for Something to Want

So, with the construction dragging on, I've become a slobbette who unhooks her bra as soon as the workmen leave and settles in her chair to binge on "Income Property."  (Canadians!  They all say "hoose.")

I'm supposed to be getting a Christmas list together for my sister and Jerry, because we like sitting in the living room on Christmas Day opening a small pile of gifts and joking around.  But I've been useless coming up with anything, although I've looked:

I even went online to Nordstrom to see if there's yet another robe Jerry could get me to replace the ancient $20 robe from Target that can't be beat (he loves Nordstrom's 800-number ladies, very helpful, AND they gift wrap).  Plus magazines, newspapers, Amazon.  Here's what I found:

Scented is big:

 Especially this--scented sticks.  Very big.

Watches are big:

Dopey sweaters are still  big. (Can you see Jerry in this?):

This caught me off-guard--am I the only one?

Also everywhere:  cashmere sweaters and scarves.  Everyone but me  likes these (scratchy!).

I found things I can't imagine wanting, like a sleeve for a succulent:

And a green tag that says you eat plants:

Why?

Sometimes the copy was the best part:

Infinitely on trend?   

Finally, I came up with a very short list which I'm going to give you right now, in case you are casting about for things you don't need but would like.  Otherwise, skip it.  I don't want to add to the pressure.

A quilt book
A travel umbrella
A Streetwise plastic map of Paris (swear by them)
Bobbi Brown eye cream (trying to offset encroaching hagdom)
A Mighty Bright book light
Also, more in the Jerry budget:  A Le Creuset grill pan, big enough for two, because we're too cheap (and daunted) to buy an actual grill.

In the meantime,  look who I got to sit on the toilet parked in my studio:

Yes, Mr. Adorable visited last weekend and was open to being bribed into posing for a picture.  (He chose a Tootsie Roll Pop over a See's sucker--no accounting for tastes.)