Kids Are Coming! - Day 21

Today we are getting ready for the arrival of Stephanie, Corvyn and Denika!

For me, this means a trip to one of my favourite store:  Fresh everything :)

Brett even sneaked in one of his favourite meals :  Cioppino

 (fish stew originating in San Francisco) 

Less is fine - Day 20

Question:  What do we really need in a space to live?

It looks like this for me:  

My love

 A good bed

 A full kitchen

  Cozy sitting area

 A desk for working

 Beautiful windows with a great view and lots of light.

  Washer / Dryer and dishwasher. A good size closet. That's it really!

It's so easy to get caught up in space and having enough to put all the "stuff" we have.  I have to be honest, I love the simplicity of condo living.  In this case the place is much smaller than our home.  Yet, I find this quality charming. Everything is within reach. There is a togetherness  created which engenders an intimate and relaxing home. 

This experience really helps us make our transition as we decide where to move next.  We want a condo!  

Note to self:  when choosing a condo make sure you pick the one on top floor and not the one under it.

We have settled in very nicely here.  Were it not for the crappy road and living hanging off the side of the mountain

( just saying, I like my feet touching the ground ),  this would be amazing.

We will really miss this place when we move into our cozy cottage in 10 days.  Glad we are here.

A Little Gem - Day 19

Wednesday night and Saturday mornings are the official groceries day.  Little by little we are getting to know the store and neighbourhoods.  This week we are desperately searching for meat.  Not much luck so far.  So, I found a butcher shop which I am hoping has good, well cut, real meat.  So this is close to where we will be moving in Oct.  

As we make our way I notice the streets are even and straight! 

 The streets are lined with lovely shops and restaurants.  This actually feels more like our style!!

Getting excited !!!  Gourmet Ghetto is a great neighbourhood.  

Sadly, the butcher and the speciality grocery store turned out to be a disappointment.   Back to veggies.

 Universe what are you trying to tell me?

Hey, what's that over there?

Food Trucks!!!!!!! 

 Every Wednesday night Off The Grid hosts about 10 food trucks for dinner service.  Looks like we will be taking walks on Wednesdays when we move :)

Acclimatize, Accustom or Customize? - Day 18

ACCLIMATIZE

Early one morning as we pulled ourselves out of be I found myself saying,  "I think the heater is working today.  It doesn't feel so cold ".

Brett just laughed and said, " Nope it's not working.  You are just getting acclimatized."   

Yikes  -  who wants to travel all the way to sunny California,  to wake up acclimatized to being cold????  Not my idea of living the dream…..

The truth is  -   it is cold and humid  -  and we have not been able to figure out how to work the furnace the way we want.  Every morning after I drop off Brett, I come home and tackle the thermometer.  I cajole, fondle and beg until my efforts are rewarded.  I never really know what did it and for the life of me cannot reproduce it at night (neither can Brett, by the way).  This has been an ongoing battle.  When the heat is on - all is mostly good :)

 Do not be fooled by the 74 degrees.  It lies.

I guess the jumbo space heater in the living room could have been a red flag????

ACCUSTOM

One day later,  in my descent from the top of the mountain where Brett does his research, as I am winding my way around the curves above the lovely views,  I suddenly understand why people would live all the way up here and navigate these roads all the time.  At least on this mountain they have two way lanes -- so basically a real road with double yellow lines in the middle.  (This my friends has become a luxury in my life now).

Now up my one lane wobbly, crooked full of cracks and holes one lane road (with parking, pedestrians and bikers on it as well).  A thought is floating around the car.    "It's not that bad".  

What kind of a thought is that?  Totally shocked.  How fickle are you?  Only a few days of going up and down and you can be swayed this easily.  Was not prepared for this one either.

So what is really going on…..

CUSTOMIZE

I guess the brain can work that way.  It can modify body temperature to make mornings more pleasant.  It can make the road seem poetic  (thanks mainly to my amazing Volvo -  with seat warmers and really good traction).  It took me one week to customize my surroundings and make the environment work  even though it was a really good deal,  it just needed a few adjustment.  :)

I want a tutorial - Day 17

Lazy Saturday on the program today.

Leaving our place for early morning grocery shopping.  The only time time things are peaceful.... 

 the streets are deserted at 9 AM on Saturdays :)

Later in the afternoon we strolled down the hill and made our way downtown to check things out.

Outdoor sellers on the street.

   

Finally back at the condo I am ready for my lesson:

I'm tired of being clueless about computers.  I feel left behind and all of it my doing.  My blessing is that I am married to a computer god so I never needed to know.

Today I asked him to take me from the beginning.  What is actually my computer, what are the wires and what is wifi?

We went through basics with words like hard drive, discs, fire wire etc. 

Cool!

Now I want to understand the internet.

Brett:  What do you know about the internet?

Marie:  Well, it's abstract, it's everywhere and it knows everything. .  Like God.

Brett shaking his head.  Ughhhhhh

Space Shuttle Piggy Back Berkeley - Day 16

From our balcony!

Are you kidding me?? Day 15

This week had some repairs done in the area by the electrical company and these are the signs that were put up on our ziggyzaggy, curving uphill single lane roads...

How is this different from any other day?  Oh yeah,  we usually don't have orange cones and orange signs.

Fog please come back… I know I wasn't overjoyed with the fog every morning but today was the first day we had sunshine first thing.  Lovely for the mood, lovely for the view but not so lovely for going down and up mountains with curvy one lane roads where you can't really see!  Fog  please please come back from 8:45 to 9:30 for drop off time.

The Ups and Downs of Posting a Stamp - Day 14

We needed to mail a letter to Calgary  -   actually we needed to mail it 5 days ago.

This week-end we set out to buy an envelope and a stamp.  No easy feat.  We found envelopes but only in packages of 40 or 50.  Now at home this would be just fine.  Here, it's different.  We are moving into a COZY cottage ( code for tiny ) in three weeks.  Our CAR was already packed to the max  ( as seen in Blog #1 )  plus what we have acquired for every day needs,  shampoo, food, toilet paper, etc,  I am getting really concerned as to how we will transport all of this since our check out time is 10 AM and check in is 4PM.   Brett suggested I live out of the car for 6 hours.   So as you can see every purchase is greatly calculated and even 39 or 49 empty envelopes can be a challenge.

That was the easy part…..

Next searching for a post office.  Good Luck and when we finally found one it was closed for the week-end.  Now we wait until Monday.  OR  maybe  we can buy a stamp at the drugstore!

Enter Walgreens.  Stand in line with at least 10 people before me.  Fine.  Get to counter and ask, "  Do you sell stamps?"  The nice young man behind the counter quickly steps back and puts both hands up and says,  " Ohhhh  Noooooo we don't sell those."  Wait, did I just ask for a dildo?

Upon more research Brett prepares me for my big adventure on Monday,  "When you go in to the post office,  do not be surprised if they are not the most cooperative.  There were many posts on the internet  that say the service can be rude and not easy. "

Well here it is.  I went down the zigzag one lane streets built in 1888  ( here's the proof ) 

down many many steps and down more streets (straight ones this time)

 and made my way to the post office where I waited for at least 5 minutes in a really shabby post office that does not inspire much trust in sending and delivering anything.  But the girls knew what I wanted when I said I wanted to buy an International Stamp  ( I had been told by my friend to say international and not Canada ) .  She asked me what country and then I told her Canada.  Thank you My Lucky Stars

My envelope is now posted  :)

Now back up the  hill…….

No jokes guys, these are really only part of the trek up.  Workout today.... (check)

Powerful Sniffer - Day 13

While staying in Fort Bragg I was woken up at 2 AM by the smell of Skunk!  What?  A skunk in the middle of the night?  Well city girl here.  I am told they are nocturnal.   This is my favourite place in California staying at a hotel directly on the ocean.  It's always a perfect sleep since we leave the patio door open and can hear the waves.  So I wake Brett up and ask him if he can smell the skunk.  

"No I don't smell anything".  

I know I can smell it.  I then get up to shut the door a little because we do not have a screen and now I worry a skunk can walk into our room.  Finally after 10 min and my nose still full of skunk smell I fall asleep again.  

The next morning as we get into the car and get on the road on our way for breakfast, we see the poor skunk flat out on the pavement.   Let me tell you, that this is at least 40 feet from our room and that we had no window open on the side of the road.  Brett says I have a super sniffer.

NO PICTURES NEEDED 

Again???? - Day 12

What a huge disappointment.  Supper was yuucckk again.  The meat here is just awful.  The chicken was rubber.  I have never seen anything like it.  This week-end we went and tried a restaurant and my chicken was tough.  I thought maybe the way it was cooked but could not understand how that would happen.  Now I know.  It's just plain bad chicken.   Even the meat at Whole Foods does not look good.  The cuts on the tenderloin are atrocious.  
Desperately on the lookout for a butcher.  Failing this, we will be vegetarians for the next four months.

Or I need to start hunting.  NOT

I warned Brett that tomorrow will be veggies only for supper.  That I know is fresh.

Not What I Thought - Day 11

 Quiet day at home.  Nice :)

Went to see Brett's research place. 

In order to get there we need to go down our twisty windy road to the bottom and then go up twisty windy road up the mountain for about ten minutes.  Beautiful views though.  

Brett the Photographer having fun.

Cooking a nice Sunday night supper. 

Not so fast !!!!! 

Turns out I muffed up the supper big time.  I actually feel like a new bride that doesn't know how to cook…..  :(

As I had mentioned yesterday the meat department was pretty bad and I decided to get something even though I had never used such a piece of meat.  Looked up a recipe on the internet and since the wifi here is really slow, I picked the first on I found.  Usually at home I would check out at least 5 and choose what feels right for me.  Plus I do not have my usual kitchen equipment.  Well you guessed it it was a disaster.  The meat was tough AND bad, the potatoes and carrots uncooked and we were starved.  So Brett, made me,  go out for supper.

Saturday Out and About With My Guy! - Day 10

Guess when you decide you will sleep in for the week-end, you may have just jinxed yourself.....6:30AM we were both awake and ready for a day of adventure.  And it was....

First the long awaited 30 min trek to the nearest Walmart.  Well, I could not have been more shocked.  The building was old, the shelves were old and some were even bare with very few products.  I have never seen anything like this.   Very Sad.

The morning was mostly running around getting groceries. After our unfortunate trip to WM we decided to play it safe and go to Safeway.  Another shock.  Again with the old building, very small selections  (they did not have Dad's cookies!!!!)  and a meat department the size of a post stamp.

We did not let that put a damper on our day.  Out we went for a walk on the UC grounds and around the streets with infinite small bistros and restaurants.

 Lovely day:)