Thar She Blows!

This past week was quite a wet one for us in the Bay Area, and apparently there is some more rain in store, which , is a very good thing...we need it, however, it hasn't come without a price.

I left a few minutes early for work on Friday, as I knew the worst part of the storm was scheduled to hit during commute hours. I ended up taking side roads to work (which led to an unscheduled drive thru stop at McD's when I realized I was going to be 15 min early). All the way to work I could see that the storm had already wreaked some damage. Thankfully, it wasn't storming too badly while I was out in it.

The roadways which hadn't been driven on much (early shift at work) were strewn with leaves, branches and various debris. It wasn't until co-workers started mingling in later in the day that I heard about downed trees and major traffic accidents. My hunny called at one point, and said that the gazebo in the backyard had been blown against the fence and the other furniture that started off covered was no longer covered. He hadn't had much time to survey the damage, as he had to hurry to work. Not too much later Mom called to tell me all about the havoc the storm had wreaked on the backyard.

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I got home, but I went straight for my camera, got it set up, then headed to the backyard. Here's what I found:

One comical note, all the furniture that was covered lost their covers, but the one BBQ that wasn't covered ended up covered (it's the glob-ish shape under the tarp)

Another comical note...take a look at the door in this pic...

...that would be Kali trying awfully hard to make a break for freedom (later we let her dart out, and it was all great till her paws hit the wet cement...hahahaha)

Picture Time!

I finally got some Christmas Day Pics Uploaded...YAY!  It's a pretty big slide show, but I hope you enjoy sharing our Cali Christmas!  I have another slide show or two in the works, so check back soon for those!

I hope you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a wonderful time off!

Wow, did those holidays fly by or what?  I can hardly believe that I am back at work already!  Ugh!  While I am sitting here feeling sorry for myself, I remembered that I should at least be grateful for the week and a half off I had from here.  My poor hunny works retail and he only had Christmas Day off...ew!  Of course I am grateful for the time I had off, but I still want more.  And of course, I would like him to have more time off, as well.  I guess if we could hit the lotto, maybe.  Who knows!

Well, I don't have a lot to report for my time off, though.  It was nice and relaxing and I did get a few things done that I've been wanting to. 

A couple months back I had a string of dreams in which I always had to flee the house.  Sometimes it was a fire and I had to get out immediately, and others we had time to pack a few things, but in each dream I was trying to think of the most important things to try to save from the devastation that was looming.  The people in the house were always ok and able to get out on their own, so of course, the cats were the top priority, but then came the material items.  My mind always went to the computer and how so many hundreds of cherished photos are stored on there.  So, that became the focus of my dreams, getting it out.  Finally, my waking conscience caught on, and decided I should do something about that, so I purchased an external hard drive to back up our photos and various important files on, and I was able to get it loaded and stored safely in the fire safe.  YAY!  Now I will look into the online backups, as well, as that has been recommended by numerous friends. 

Along the computer lines, I have also been wanting to download my CD's to the computer so I can play them whenever and not have to hunt them down.  For some this may not be a major undertaking, but for me, I have close to or more than a thousand CD's so it was quite a process, but I am happy to say that it is one that is completed now....YAY!  Don't worry, though, no illegal copying or sharing is going on, though...just making the most of my listening options on MY own computer!  =-)  (I heard about the lady that has to pay $9000 a CD that was shared...OUCH!)

I also had the opportunity to visit a dear Uncle in Lodi.  That was nice.  He's my Mom's Uncle, and since we don't get to see him very often, so it was nice to spend some time with him.

Wow, so many little things happened during that time, now that I think about it.  I could go on and on, but I will save your eyeballs from all that for now.  I'll post more, though in a day or so, and some pics of Christmas in our Home.

I hope 2008 is a magical year for everyone.  I have been prompting friends and family to find the magic in the season, but I realized that there is magic in every day...you just have to be on the lookout for it oh, yeah and BELIEVE (even just a little)!

Here's to finding the magic EVERY Day in '08 and the rest of our lives!