Happy New Year!

Bodega Harbor Sunset 12/31/2007

I consider any year that has no death in the family or no major illnesses a very good year. I have many dear friends who did not have such a great year in those regards. Here's to all of us having a wonderful and healthy ʻ08. I celebrated the last day of 2007 by taking my new car out on my favorite drive - to Occidental, then Coleman Valley Road and down the coast. There were lots of people out there enjoying the last of the light of 2007. It was sunny and nary a breeze. The sunset was unbelievable. We considered having a few friends over tonight, but after having 29 people here for Christmas, we're done with that for awhile. We'll go out to the front porch at midnight and blow the conch shells.

I live on Coleman Valley Road and I am wearing my winter coat.





"Mommy, some lady's taking pictures of me."




It looked like somebody airbrushed a squiggly in the sky



Last sunlight of 2007 on the town of Bodega Bay.


Sunset on Bodega Bay

Egret or a Heron? Must learn my birds.


"X" Marks the spot.

Sick

I can no longer brag about not having a cold for the last 4 years. Since I never get sick, I'm a total baby about it when I do, and I've done nothing but shower and lay around in my jammies today. At least I helped Amelia put away the Christmas tree decorations. We were smart this year, and actually separated out the ones that we never use. They are boxed up for Goodwill, and our Christmas stash is now much better organized.

Yesterday, Dave, Ross, Sibyl & I took a bike ride from Graton to Forestville, back to Graton, over to Sebastopol and back. 18 miles. We dawdled around Sebastopol for awhile by getting a bagel sandwich for Amelia, who was working at Earthchild, and getting a tour of Medteck(?), where Ross works. I saw two ex-co-workers: Karina from the PD and Tim Gonzales from HP/Agilent. It was super cold (in the 40's,) and we just got back before the rain began. I'm not sure if that ride was a good thing for my cold or a bad thing. I think a good thing. But today a good thing is jammies & blanket & Toast & tea. If I can snag the TV, I'll watch Keali`i's Kukahi that Judy sent today.

Christmas '07

The core Lorenz group
Velva, Jo, Sandra, Suzanne & Dave

The Christmas gathering was at our house this year. It was our biggest one ever - 29 of us total!! Almost everyone could make it, except for Linda, Karen & Family, Nina & Lorcan, Andrew & Adrian. It was nice to have my brother Glen & his family join us. We rented tables & chairs and set up out in the "Dave's Garage." We even rented steam chafing dishes to be able to keep the food warm, which was a good idea, because there was ..... too much food. Way too much food. If I ever do this again; I'm going to remember this and mastermind a way to "slim" it down a bit. I'm totally guilty of over-creating, as I got into a baking and cooking binge for a couple of days beforehand. So did everyone else, apparently. It just seems like cooking from scratch is the thing to do this time of year, so many of us really (over) enjoy it. The food was fabulous. Someone suggested channeling our creative energy into a charitable cause next time. Good idea. We had 9 kids, so they all got presents, and then of course the adults did the White Elephant. It was chaotic as ever, but thankfully we had Santa Clause (aka Keith) doing crowd control. We had 2 performances; our friend Ernie did his political-satire Puppet show, totally appreciated by this crowd, and Rachel and Kim did some piano/violin duets. I even heard some singing by Velva while they did "Amazing Grace." I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, and we are lucky to have all these people in our lives.

RIP Chicken "C"

We lost "C" last week. She didn't come home to roost like she always does, so we knew something bad had happened. I looked all around the yard, but she was nowhere to be found. When the doorbell rang, it was Diane Davis from the Christmas tree farm next door, standing there holding a small wreath. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you," she said. Then she explained how some kids had found Chicken C in the Christmas tree farm; violently mutilated by some animal; probably a raccoon. She was so big that the kids thought she was a turkey. Diane had one of her guys bury her. She expressed her condolences, because her family had grown accustomed to having our chickens hang out on their property over the years. She said they called them "The Spice Girls!" It was nice of Diane to come over and give us the news, and the beautiful wreath. It's really hard to accept that she was attacked and killed in a violent way. Chicken "C" was about 7 years old. She was number 3 in the pecking order; hence her name "C." She was large, and black with long shiny golden feathers on her head and around her neck. We will miss her. We are down to one chicken now; Chicken A, our big-old kick ass Red Hen. She's the boss of only herself now. Weʻll have to get her some company come Spring.