Morning!

How much do I love mornings?

Just all over the place.  I sit in my little office in Wellington, drinking a cup of tea and marveling at how lucky I am to live here.  To have this cute, cozy house.  To work in this great little library with my sweet little view out the front.  To have my comfy couch and my fig tree.  My (this close to) perfect husband who has been my best friend for 32 years.  My two kids who are happy and healthy and growing up into nice little people.  And my fluffy kitty cat who found us almost two years ago.

Come to think of it, she's the lucky one.  She was living on the street for years, and now she gets to live in Wellington as she relaxes into her old-lady-cat days.  With three and a half people at her beck and call.  All the kitty crunchies she can eat.  Occasional bits of tuna and three laps to choose from every evening.  Spoiled thing.

Benicia Bungalows

Here are a couple of bungalows I walked by recently.  They're both located on West K Street. 

Are they absolutely adorable?  Yes!  This is my favorite type of architecture right now.

I noticed this teeny little nest in someone's trellis.  It's empty now, but I bet it used to contain a black capped chickadee family.

Here is a house The Hub and I looked at when we were house-hunting.  I still think it's adorable.  I love the little separate house in the back.  And the basement you can't really see in this pic.  But it's on a busy street.  And the owners were selling the yard separately which sort of rubbed me the wrong way.  You couldn't just buy the house and let someone else own the yard.  That's just dumb.  We never even went inside.  But I still think it's a cute one.

We worked in the garden a bit today.  This is the time of year that I always wish was springier than it is.  We get a couple of warm days (64°) and I get all excited about gardening, but then it freezes up again, so don't be fooled!  I'm fooled every year.  That's okay.  It makes life interesting.

Photos on my Desktop

Like most people, I have all kinds of weird things lurking on my desktop.  The Little Boy, who is a tech guy, says I should clear it off now and then because it makes my computer run more slowly.  This evening I was going through the folders, creating shortcuts for important files and deleting things I didn't need.  Before I deleted these random photos, I thought I would shove them up her on the blog just for fun.

This first one is a local MLS photo I thought was funny.  I was planning to send it to my Mom so we could have a chuckle.  I never got around to it.

This is some Realtor's idea of an amenity.  I think a general rule of thumb is, don't take a photo of a toilet.  Sometimes a toilet sneaks into a photo, and that's fine.  Make sure the lid is down, and just try to ignore it.  But what is going on here?  Is that someone's purse?  And what amenity is this supposed to showcase?  Does this photo make you want to buy this house?  Me neither.

 Here is a photo I got off of some website I was looking at.  I can't remember which, or I would provide a link.  This photo just made me feel good, so I saved it.  I love that little pool house with its lower level.  I think it's some teeny little basement.  I don't know, but it tweaks my imagination, so I saved it and now I'm putting it here.

 Here is my cat.  She was sitting on my desk looking out the window, so I snapped a picture with my webcam and sent it to The Dot.

 Speaking of the kitty.  This morning it was cold, cold, COLD in Wellington.  I think it was about twenty something outside.  Inside it was 60 degrees!  That's cold for Northern California.  And it's cold for 17 year old kitties with old bones.  So once the heat came on, she decided she needed to cozy up to the heater.  Just for an hour or so.  Just to get the creaks out.

Interestingly I just realized these two photos are backwards.  Hmmm.

Here is another MLS photo for a local $3,000,000 house.  I just liked this little room.  It looks like a wedgey room you would find in some old house.  But this house was built in the early 2000s.  Cozy!  Much better marketing than a toilet w/purse.  Good job!

Okay, now I can delete these from my desktop.  When I need them again, I'll just come back here.  You can, too.

Point Reyes Light House

Less than 100 miles from Wellington is the Point Reyes Lighthouse.  We haven't gone there recently.  But I ran across these photos I took last time we went. 

You have to park about a mile from the lighthouse and walk down hundreds of steps.  Plus it's on the Northern California coast.  So unless you're really lucky, it's going to be foggy and cold.

It was foggy and cold.  But we still felt lucky because we were together and had a great time.  Everything was all grey, white and orange.  It was positively invigorating.

With little out buildings and rusty old fire hydrants.

Wellington is so beautifully situated, we can go from coastline to mountain peak.  Countryside to city.  We're spoiled, and I don't take it for granted.

Post Christmas Post and a Trip to The City

The Dot is toying with the idea of moving to San Francisco where she works.  Last week we took BART to the city to look at an apartment.  This isn't it.  But it was on this street.  It's a very old building, but has been updated.  It's really cute, but we like her at home.  Hopefully she'll wait a bit.  Her commute to The City isn't too bad right now.

Here's the city in question.  I didn't take this picture the day we went on BART, obviously.  Because BART goes under the bay.  Right before Christmas, The Fam drove to San Francisco (35 minutes) to see a production of A Christmas Carol.  It was very enjoyable.  No pics because they don't allow you to take pics once you're inside the theater. 

Here is one of the pictures I took inside the theater.  The other one is worse.

This is what BART looks like when it's approaching.  It was all very exciting. 

Here is another house on the same street as The Dot's apartment she's not getting.

We had a nice day toodling around the City.  We took Muni which I thought was a bus, but it turns out to sometimes be a train.  It was pretty cool.  You can ride it for four hours for $2.  Unless you're a student - then it's only 75 cents.  We weren't.  The Dot used her "Clipper Card" which she just slid through this slot.  I had to fumble with money and sort of drop my bags and hold everything up.  But otherwise I pretty much looked like I knew what I was doing.  The seats were plastic which makes them more "hose"-able.  BART's seats are cloth and that always makes me wonder about germs.  But mostly I try not to think about it and just enjoy myself, for crying out loud.

We had lunch in Golden Gate Park.  It was very close to The Dot's non-apartment. 

I think I forgot to include these two desserts on the last post and I'm too lazy to go back and insert them.  This was a rum cake I made when we went to the family Christmas gathering.  Below is the Buche de Noel (French for "chocolate cake in the shape of a log") that The Dot made because some people don't eat rum cake and plus she's practically half French.  It was really good.

Below is my Creepy Santa collection.  Loyal readers will recall that I collect really creepy Santas.  It all started one year when I bought an old bag of "picks" from my favorite Thrift Store in Danville.  The whole bag cost $1 and inside were the three lovely little guys in front on the right.  I have since seen them in a Martha Stewart magazine as collectibles from Germany!  I like them because they're pretty creepy.  In former posts I had close-ups.  The one second from the right has a pretty scary expression and a very red face.  The one third from the right is holding a sharp skewer.  I think it used to have something Christmassy attached to it.  My newest one is second from the left in the back.

Here he is close-up.  Isn't he great?  I got him in March at the Benicia Pedlar's Faire.  I don't know why his eyeballs are so askew, but I'm glad they are.

Now I'm going to go make my New Year's Resolutions.  I won't say what they will probably be, but I think the theme will mostly likely be "consumption".  Either too much or too little, depending on the thing being consumed which may or may not be chocolate and water.