Monday night Jeffrey and I were out and about.  We stopped by Starbucks where I tried their espresso truffle latte.  Uh...YUM.  Then we went next door to Dimple Records.  I didn't buy the "White Trash Christmas" CD, but we did pick up a few things, including a couple of their $1 grab bags (each includes a movie DVD and 2 music CD's).  Among my purchases was a tasty new Robert Cray "live at the bbc" CD which features performances from 1988 and 199.  Let me tell you, Young Bob's killin' on that thing.  :)

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Sunday morning I went to the drive-thru near I-80 that's only about 8 blocks from our house.  Made a call while I was waiting in line.  Our cells have to be hands-free since July 1, so we have Velcro on the backs of our cells to attach them to the steering wheel.  Sunday afternoon was spent watching the 49ers/Jets game.  My brother and sister-in-law were at the game.  He's a life-long Packers fan...which means he still loves Brett Favre...

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The tule fog in California's Central Valley this time of year can make our little downtown look rather desolate...

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A Widow for One Year

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J in his groove...2:30 am...

I apologize for the redundancy (since this is another shot of our home office area).  I swapped cameras with my sister-in-law the night of the 4th, but by the time I got batteries in the camera it was late.  Went to bed, having forgotten to shoot something for December Views.  I woke up about 2:30 and Jeffrey still wasn't in bed.  Found him at his workstation, going through old cassettes, uploading songs to his recorder so he can eventually put them on his computer.  So I joined him and listened in on some old (good) stuff.  ;)

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Baby Mama

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home office

Twitter replies page

Shelagh's wonderful holiday project

H turned 18 on the 2nd, but I already acknowledged that in the first December Views post.  He had a nice day, I think. 

The top photo here is of our home office, which is where our dining table used to be (half of the kitchen).  When H moved into our teensy house, we had to reconfigure.  I still don't know how we've managed to fit everything we have into this tiny space (and having a garage helps big-time), but somehow I just keep finding little spaces to store things.  I thought maybe I'd tidy up all the stacks of papers before taking the photo, but that seemed disingenius. This is what it typically looks like.  :)  That tiny B&W TV (which is 40 years old) is one I inherited from my mother years ago.  I've only recently pulled it out and put it in the office...figure we might as well enjoy free TV while we can (since starting in February, we lose it).  :)

As most of you know, I've been spending most of my online time this past year at Twitter.  That's a screen shot of my replies page. If you're not a Twitterer, I realize it's probably hard to understand the appeal.  It's gotten so hugely popular that now more often than not, people are using it to market and sell stuff--either themselves (the place has become rife with 'social media experts') or their products.  But I joined Twitter 1-1/2 years ago for the same reason I use it now--the conversation.  It's been a sanity-saver for me this past year.

The last photo is of Shelagh's wonderful post about her holiday gift-giving project inspired by Three Cups of Tea.  I urge you to read it--and if you can give $5 (or more), to contribute to this very worthwhile project.

December Views

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new driver for his birthday

I'm going to once again participate in Darlene's "December Views."  (I really enjoyed doing it last year.)  Some participants post only photos without text, some add words.  However you want to do it is, I'm sure, okay with Darlene.  If you'd like to read the details and maybe join in, go here. 

H. turns 18 tomorrow, but we gave him his gifts a day early--surprising him with them when he got home from school today.  My brother's family borrowed my camera for their Thanksgiving vacation, so I'll have more daily photos when I get it back in a day or two.  (This was shot with a borrowed camera.)  But today was really all about getting his birthday goodies ready..  We've waited a long, long time for him to turn 18 (for some complicated reasons).  Today we simply savored the last day of his 17th year as we stand on the cusp of that big day.

December Views

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This wasn't a quick decision--it's one I'd been mulling for months.  I started this Vox blog in November '06.  It was never meant to be my full-time blog.  I started it as a side blog just because I thought it was kind of a cool interface.  When I began to feel suffocated at my TypePad blog, Vox was an easy escape.

Vox, you've been good to me, but I miss the flexibility I had at TypePad.  I miss being able to have the kinds of sidebars I want.  I need to move on for other reasons, as well.  I toyed with going with Wordpress, but it just didn't feel right (at least not right now). 

On Saturday I cleaned up and organized a bunch of paperwork at home.  I completely de-cluttered the top of our desk...and I can't tell you what a difference it made in how I felt sitting down at the computer.  That process, combined with reconnecting with a dear blog friend yesterday--and where one of her posts led me--made the time feel right to make the change.

So, without further ado, here's tongue and groove.  And if you're wondering about the name, it's what I wanted Jeffrey to call his jazz trio when we lived in Portland, but he went for a self-titled group...so I'm claiming it.  Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together.  That's what I'll try to do there.  You'll find links in the sidebar to , Moojo Cafe, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Bloggers for Darfur...and, oh yeah, I started a tumble log awhile back. ;)

Those of you who choose to follow me to the new site, thanks for hanging with me.  xoxo

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Been having some computer issues this morning (nothing major...just the universe's way of telling me to get off this machine).  ;)  I wanted to bring you up to date.  Around midnight on Thursday night, our school board voted 3-2 to keep our secondary schools configured the way they are now for one more year.  What that means is that the 9th graders will remain at the junior highs instead of making our high school a 4-year one, and all three junior highs (including the one where I work) will remain open.

I barely had time to let the reality of that late-night decision sink in though because first thing Friday morning the principal called those of us who work in the classified union into her office to remind us that cuts to our union are coming next.  I don't know what that will mean for my job.  The next board meeting is April 17 and I don't know what will be on the agenda.

I appreciate everyone's support through what's been an anxious couple of months.  Now that the school has been saved, I need to turn my focus inward and figure out what *I* want to do next (school) year.  Because I don't want to put a lot of energy into trying to keep some sort of (even cobbled-together) position there for next year if my heart's not in it. 

I'm feeling WAY behind personally...with online stuff...going through paperwork at home...we need to still do our tax returns...and getting myself fully healthy again.  (We'll see if my brother's home remedy of local honey makes a difference in my hay fever--just bought a jar at the farmer's market.)  ;)  I need to get back into my own good graces (if that makes sense).  Not to mention that it's the 5th and I haven't written a single poem yet for National Poetry Month. 

I'm craving some decompression time this weekend.  Quiet time...looking inward.  I did want to mention though that today is my 'sobriety birthday'--18 years sober today.  That's my proudest accomplishment--because no one or no thing can ever take that away from me. 

I woke this morning thinking about trust.  I'm having a hard time trusting people in my 'real' life--getting burned a lot lately.  I fear this will sound horribly cynical and I honestly don't mean it that way:  I all too easily forget that big-hearted actions tend not to accompany small mindedness.  And the result is that I end up feeling hurt.  I tend to want to offer things up coming from a big-hearted place and it can feel painful when one's heart offerings are rejected or not even acknowledged.  I'm not going through any heavy-duty thing--if you were a fly on the wall, you might even wonder what I'm referring to.  It's just this:  We can't make people receive gifts...we can only offer them.  Sometimes the lack of receptivity can start to wear us down.  Come late summer, I'd like to find myself in a place where my gifts are welcomed.  That's all. 

And now I'm going to step away from the computer and enjoy some of this sunshine.  Have a wonderful weekend!

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