This used to be updated automatically, but it hasn't been for a long time. Current entries are at http://loosestrife.dreamwidth.org.

Rain: lots of it last night, more this morning, more coming over the next day or three. This is California so someone has to say THAT DOESN'T MEAN THE DROUGHT IS OVER. Well of course, but still, it's nice. Also nice that there was a lull just now, because Betty and I have just returned from an enjoyable walk outside without getting drenched. I'm ( Read more... )

Almost a month ago I mentioned how springlike autumn is here, with tiny vivid shoots everywhere. That continues. Sparkling colors, lush green hills, flaming leaves, expressive skies, &c.. Some early flashes of yellow sorrel, now and then even a camellia blossom. We're supposed to get a little more rain tonight. That'll be lovely.

Not so lovely: what ( Read more... )

First, the product reviews.

1. Romanesco broccoli dog toy. I generally roll my eyes at dog toys designed to amuse humans -- the aisles are full not only of plush skunks and reptiles but of giant chewy joints, six-packs, or bottles of rosé or tequila -- but around the end of August I succumbed to the weirdly realistic rubber romanesco broccoli from ( Read more... )

This morning we woke up at 5:30 and drove down to Santa Clara for Jon's permanent residency interview. That's what they call the "green card". You have most of the rights of a citizen, but you don't get to vote.

It was a long drive all the way down 880. The field office is in a hideous bunker-like building, glaring white, adjacent to the southwest ( Read more... )

I don't think I'll ever have lived in California long enough not to be surprised and delighted by how everything gleams and sparkles after the first good rain of the year. Betty was briefly taken aback by water falling out of the sky making her face wet, but also excited because plants suddenly burst into life and amplify their scents. (The ( Read more... )

She was the smallest, flightiest, scrappiest, and probably the oldest of the three chickens. Until the latest battens-and-netting setup, she'd flap up over the fence, then stand on the outside of the enclosure squawking to be let back in. She had absolutely no fear of Betty. Until this year, she laid cinnamon-brown eggs, occasionally with speckles.

( Read more... )

It turns out that after all Betty will be in at least one show, so Lisa scooped her up yesterday afternoon to take her back to Modesto for whatever prep and training she needs in the roughly ten days beforehand. The show is in Angels Camp up in the Sierra foothills. Angels Camp! What a name for a place.

I'm grateful for the break. Puppy-raising is ( Read more... )

Jon's exemption to leave Aus came through, so tomorrow night he gets on a 17-hour flight to Singapore. Then a four-and-a-half-hour layover at Changi, another seven-and-a-half hour flight to Brisbane, and directly to jail for two weeks, during which he'll have to prepare a briefing book for an FDA drug filing. The big question now is whether Dan ( Read more... )

Jon often rolls his eyes about how people here overstate the positives. Things can't be merely satisfactory, they have to be GREAT. You can't be pleased to announce something, you have to be SUPER EXCITED. So although things are generally fine here, for the sake of perspective I'll devote this entry to things that aren't good at all.

In the northern ( Read more... )