So, 2009 is winding quickly to a close. In fact Glasgow is already in 2010 by now.
Overall, I think it's been a good year for me. There were good times in Glasgow with castles, and friends and singing and the rest. There was victory at last in the immigration hurdles. There was moving back to California and settling with friends here. There was greeting my new "niece" and watching her grow through her first year. There has been a return to the SCA, to craft projects, and a new attempt at writing a novel.
The holidays were good. Ron and I went on a whirlwind tour of the relatives living within easy reach--grandparents, aunts, uncles, some cousins, my dad and stepmom. Ron finally met the last of my close family and renewed acquaintance with others he'd met only briefly years ago. And much tasty food was consumed by all.
There were somber moments too. We also went to lay my late grampa in his final resting place at the new Veteran's Cemetery outside Sacramento. I can still hear his laugh in my head. I hope that never fades.
Our plans for new year's eve are fairly modest: we're baking pizza (I just scorched the first one while writing this post! Oops.) and going to hang out playing board games till midnight when we'll toast in the New Year. Half the house, including the teens are out at various parties, so it's just the two married couples and the baby but it sounds like a fun New Year's for me.
As for the coming year and resolutions and all that...I don't know. I have so many things I'd like to work on in my life. Building a better relationship with God again, working diligently and methodically on my novel, trying to live a healthier lifestyle the more exercise once more, and many more. How would I choose just one? But I certainly have plenty on my plate to work on in 2010.
Happy New Year to you all, or Happy Hogmany if you will! May the New Year find you in health and happiness!
Thursday 31 December 2009
Saturday 19 December 2009
I Survived Year One as an Auntie!
Sky turned one today and we held a party. The party largely celebrated the adults surviving the first year of her life. To that end, the birthday cake said "Happy Birthday Sky" on the top, but something along the lines of "Go Red House Adults" on the side.
I also began rewatching season one of Buffy--one of my birthday presents from a couple weeks ago--during my babysitting shifts today. Great fun. I always marvel at just how cheesy it was in the beginning...and yet, at the same time, I have to marvel at how decent it was with good likable characters and cute witty dialogue right from the beginning even if some of the special effects are a bit laughable now and some of the pacing drags compared to later stuff. And I think Season One had one of the best Big Bads. The Master was classic. He had the niceties and polished language of Season Three's mayor baddie with the evil look of the Season Seven ubervamps.
We've also been having "winter faerie" presents at Red House, a non-religious excuse for holiday fun and tiny little gifts. The winter faerie commissioned me to write a few poems for people for their gifts and it has been challenging but great fun to stoke up the poetic fires again. I used to write poetry prolifically and compulsively back in junior high, but not much since. I took a poetry writing class in college that was fun and produced a few decent pieces. But it's been some time since I had to sit down and write something on a given topic with a deadline. It's been good though, and the two recipients seemed pleased with the results which is the real heart warming part.
I also began rewatching season one of Buffy--one of my birthday presents from a couple weeks ago--during my babysitting shifts today. Great fun. I always marvel at just how cheesy it was in the beginning...and yet, at the same time, I have to marvel at how decent it was with good likable characters and cute witty dialogue right from the beginning even if some of the special effects are a bit laughable now and some of the pacing drags compared to later stuff. And I think Season One had one of the best Big Bads. The Master was classic. He had the niceties and polished language of Season Three's mayor baddie with the evil look of the Season Seven ubervamps.
We've also been having "winter faerie" presents at Red House, a non-religious excuse for holiday fun and tiny little gifts. The winter faerie commissioned me to write a few poems for people for their gifts and it has been challenging but great fun to stoke up the poetic fires again. I used to write poetry prolifically and compulsively back in junior high, but not much since. I took a poetry writing class in college that was fun and produced a few decent pieces. But it's been some time since I had to sit down and write something on a given topic with a deadline. It's been good though, and the two recipients seemed pleased with the results which is the real heart warming part.
Friday 18 December 2009
Fictiony Goodness and Holiday Chaos
Well I had some fictiony fun the past couple days. I went back over to Martha Wells website to have a look at which issues of Black Gate Magazine I would need to get from back order to get ahold of her short stories featuring Ilias and Gilead...and, behold!, several of them are up on the website for free now! I guess good things do come to those who wait. There was a short story about Kade Carrion too, one of my favorite heroines of all time...though it wasn't exactly a happy tale.
For those of you who don't know, Martha Wells is one of my favorite authors. I've liked or loved everything she's ever written.Element of Fire I read in the free online version because it was out of print (and my attempt to buy a used copy never arrived, much to my dismay). I hate reading lengthy things on computer screens and there are only a few other books I've read that way, but I reread Element of Fire over and over. I finally got my hands on a paper copy (actually Amanda got the paper copy) and it was fun to read it as an actual book. Her heroines tend to be rye, nobody's fools, and look at the world kind of sideways.
Anyway, it was a little tricky trying to read fiction that was tied to a computer with the baby trying to pull down the keyboard, pull apart the computer, steal the mouse or crawl off in search of choking hazards, but she did give me a few good stretches of contentedly playing with her new wooden blocks.
I'm a little jealous of her wooden blocks actually. She has the coolest wooden blocks ever. They came from ThinkGeak.com and feature little pictures with the letter that goes with the scene. T is for Tentacles. H is for Henchmen. D is for Dirigible. And so on. There are some truly fantastic ones though. I think our favorite is K is for Potassium! (Come on, think back to chemistry class...). U is for Underground Lair is also great but you've got to see the visual to get the full effect.
Things are a little extra frantic around here with all the holiday planning. Nearly everyone is clearing out at one time or another though I think we'll all be back for New Year.
I went to see the Nutcracker for the first time this year. It was quite an epic journey, all they way to Folsom via San Fransisco but Tim, a friend of mine, was dancing in it and it was the first time I'd seen him dance. It was very fun. Shiny in the literal as well as figurative sense. And Tim was great (Snow Prince and Russian for those for whom that means anything) especially considering he was filling in at the last minute and had only a couple days to learn his choreography. I would never have guessed he hadn't been rehearsing for months like the rest of them. It went off flawlessly.
Anyway, I got a quick visit with my Grandma and Dad before heading back and crashing in San Fransisco before going the rest of the way home in the morning. It was great to see both the friends and some family that I don't get to see nearly often enough. Sacramento and, even more so, San Fransisco don't seem very far away on the map, especially considering all those years I've spent in Scotland or Georgia (the state, not the country. Yes, people sometimes ask. Ok, usually not Americans, but some people.), yet somehow on a day to day basis it seems a nearly insurmountable distance. Well, maybe now that Ron has his license it will be a bit more surmountable. Though I'm not sure I would inflict SF roads on him just yet.
Anyway, we finally have our holiday plans all worked out and bus tickets bought. If you're one of those wondering where we'll be, give me a call or email. We're going to be going to Reno first, then Sac, then back to Los Gatos (no, for the record, since there seems to be a lot of misconception on the topic, I do not live in Santa Cruz any more. Los Gatos is closer to San Jose though Santa Cruz is still only half an hour away.).
For those of you who don't know, Martha Wells is one of my favorite authors. I've liked or loved everything she's ever written.Element of Fire I read in the free online version because it was out of print (and my attempt to buy a used copy never arrived, much to my dismay). I hate reading lengthy things on computer screens and there are only a few other books I've read that way, but I reread Element of Fire over and over. I finally got my hands on a paper copy (actually Amanda got the paper copy) and it was fun to read it as an actual book. Her heroines tend to be rye, nobody's fools, and look at the world kind of sideways.
Anyway, it was a little tricky trying to read fiction that was tied to a computer with the baby trying to pull down the keyboard, pull apart the computer, steal the mouse or crawl off in search of choking hazards, but she did give me a few good stretches of contentedly playing with her new wooden blocks.
I'm a little jealous of her wooden blocks actually. She has the coolest wooden blocks ever. They came from ThinkGeak.com and feature little pictures with the letter that goes with the scene. T is for Tentacles. H is for Henchmen. D is for Dirigible. And so on. There are some truly fantastic ones though. I think our favorite is K is for Potassium! (Come on, think back to chemistry class...). U is for Underground Lair is also great but you've got to see the visual to get the full effect.
Things are a little extra frantic around here with all the holiday planning. Nearly everyone is clearing out at one time or another though I think we'll all be back for New Year.
I went to see the Nutcracker for the first time this year. It was quite an epic journey, all they way to Folsom via San Fransisco but Tim, a friend of mine, was dancing in it and it was the first time I'd seen him dance. It was very fun. Shiny in the literal as well as figurative sense. And Tim was great (Snow Prince and Russian for those for whom that means anything) especially considering he was filling in at the last minute and had only a couple days to learn his choreography. I would never have guessed he hadn't been rehearsing for months like the rest of them. It went off flawlessly.
Anyway, I got a quick visit with my Grandma and Dad before heading back and crashing in San Fransisco before going the rest of the way home in the morning. It was great to see both the friends and some family that I don't get to see nearly often enough. Sacramento and, even more so, San Fransisco don't seem very far away on the map, especially considering all those years I've spent in Scotland or Georgia (the state, not the country. Yes, people sometimes ask. Ok, usually not Americans, but some people.), yet somehow on a day to day basis it seems a nearly insurmountable distance. Well, maybe now that Ron has his license it will be a bit more surmountable. Though I'm not sure I would inflict SF roads on him just yet.
Anyway, we finally have our holiday plans all worked out and bus tickets bought. If you're one of those wondering where we'll be, give me a call or email. We're going to be going to Reno first, then Sac, then back to Los Gatos (no, for the record, since there seems to be a lot of misconception on the topic, I do not live in Santa Cruz any more. Los Gatos is closer to San Jose though Santa Cruz is still only half an hour away.).
Thursday 17 December 2009
Driviness
Sorry everyone, I've been very negligent of this blog this year. But I've been poked and prodded and so I've decided to have another go at it.
I'm not going to try to backtrack to all my news since my last sparse posts, but let's see, recent news...
The most recent is that yesterday Ron got his driving license. Huzzah! Now the two of us can leave the premises without having to find another adult willing to take us. I have to say, living at Red House is the most remote location I've ever lived--UCSC's campus included--for all that it's fifteen minutes drive from one of the biggest cities in America.
Did you know that San Jose is ranked as the 10th largest (most populous) city in the US? That it ranks above San Francisco now (in 12th place)? Crazy, huh? And it seems even crazier that Atlanta, which always felt huge and sprawling and inescapable, is way down at 33, right above Fresno (35) and Sacramento (36)! And Glasgow, which always felt like a relatively small city for all that I knew it was the largest in Scotland--after all, it didn't have much competition really--is actually about the population of Boston which is 21st in the US ranking. I suppose it just shows how subjective a feel of a place can be. So the smallest place I've ever lived till now was actually Aptos (a tiny 9100 population) while commuting in to Santa Cruz (still small at around 55,000). Los Gatos is technically between the two in size at 29,000 but we're up in the mountains, just a bit too remote from the town proper to actually walk in. Actually, I could walk in, but I'd have to walk along the Old Santa Cruz Hwy which is a bit too hair raising for my taste.
Oh well, it seems duty calls and I'm not to get any further today. Perhaps I'll have time to circle back around to my own live next time. (You see my problem?!)
I'm not going to try to backtrack to all my news since my last sparse posts, but let's see, recent news...
The most recent is that yesterday Ron got his driving license. Huzzah! Now the two of us can leave the premises without having to find another adult willing to take us. I have to say, living at Red House is the most remote location I've ever lived--UCSC's campus included--for all that it's fifteen minutes drive from one of the biggest cities in America.
Did you know that San Jose is ranked as the 10th largest (most populous) city in the US? That it ranks above San Francisco now (in 12th place)? Crazy, huh? And it seems even crazier that Atlanta, which always felt huge and sprawling and inescapable, is way down at 33, right above Fresno (35) and Sacramento (36)! And Glasgow, which always felt like a relatively small city for all that I knew it was the largest in Scotland--after all, it didn't have much competition really--is actually about the population of Boston which is 21st in the US ranking. I suppose it just shows how subjective a feel of a place can be. So the smallest place I've ever lived till now was actually Aptos (a tiny 9100 population) while commuting in to Santa Cruz (still small at around 55,000). Los Gatos is technically between the two in size at 29,000 but we're up in the mountains, just a bit too remote from the town proper to actually walk in. Actually, I could walk in, but I'd have to walk along the Old Santa Cruz Hwy which is a bit too hair raising for my taste.
Oh well, it seems duty calls and I'm not to get any further today. Perhaps I'll have time to circle back around to my own live next time. (You see my problem?!)
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