Earthquake Number Two

We've lived here for 15 months now, and we just had our second earthquake. This was a big one, but a lot farther away. It was a 5.4* magnitude just east of LA, probably 120 miles from where we live.

There was a long, low rumble, and I heard some moving of picture frames, maybe, and then it was done. Compared to the first one I was in, this was longer and lower and less generally thrilling. However, I knew what it was pretty quickly this time.

The first thing I did was to run down to check on the foundation that is currently in a state of limbo. More to come on that project, but for now just know that nothing shifted here, temporary foundation and all.

Post-posting edit. I was too quick on the draw with my post -- the quake was just downgraded from 5.8 to a 5.4.

Fire in the Hole

Well, not exactly in the hole, but relatively nearby. So far, the biggest problem we've seen in our part of Santa Barbara from the Gap Fire is intermittent power issues. While that makes it particularly difficult to blog, it is otherwise just a nuissance in our current power-crazed lives. You like power, I like power. It's normal American stuff.

Last night, power went out about 7:15 and was out at our house until 11:30, according to the clocks that kicked in somewhere in the night. The problem was all linked to a big power line that was brought down by the fire. To restore power to all of us crazy light-loving fools, they switched us to a smaller power line. They are describing the current situation to be similar to having 12 strings of Christmas lights plugged into the same outlet. AKA, we're in for more electricity fun....sans electricity. Tonight, power was only out for about 2 hours, so here I am posting.

In case any of you are worried about me, don't be -- we're fine. We're not in the path of the Big Sur fire that you've seen in the news -- that's quite a ways north from us. We're looking out our backdoor at a fire that just started Tuesday night, and has grown quickly, but no structures have been damaged as a result yet, and there are no casualties so far. GB got back from a work conference in France last night...during the power outage...and is currently sleeping off his jet lag. We're still probably 7-10 miles from the fire, so while we can see it, with little-to-no wind, that's a long way away.

This is a picture of the smoke line as seen from our house near sunset this evening. The smoke is so thick that it makes the whole sky look gray. The sun was been bright red during sunset the last two nights. It's stunningly beautiful, until you remember why the colors are so fierce.

We'll definitely continue to watch this one. I'll keep you posted on what we see from here.

Parading with the Big Dogs

This weekend, we went to the Big Dog Parade. Odd phenomenon, that one. The concept is simple enough: dress up your dog and walk through the streets as part of the procession. However, that little synopsis hardly does this even justice, and that would be because there are some incredibly creative people in the world. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites.

Here, a Spuds Mackensie lookalike rides a bike in a most uncomfortable-looking position. Regardless of how uncomfortable it looks, I can attest he hung out there for at least the five minutes we could see him.

I loved the giant dog dressed up like a clydesdale, and accessorily, I loved the mini-kegs in the back of his wagon. Hee hee!

The retired greyhound group was too cute dressed as busses and RVs. Winnegreygo is a surprisingly funny word to say out loud. Go ahead and try it.

Apparently, if you don't want to dress up your dog, you can just paint him. It was a good paint job, too, since I had to do a double-take to be sure what I was seeing.

Token hot dog costume. Someone had to do it, and I'm glad they did.

One group emphasizing the need for environmental awareness wore shirts saying "Reduce your carbon paw print", and hooked up a passal of dogs to this makeshift car they named the Hounda (there were several other puns around this one, but now I don't remember them). I put more info here, because I know my picture didn't turn out that well.

Anyway, the point was that it was fun. There were a lot of zany costumes, and some where the people looked funnier than the dogs, but most of them made me laugh in one way or the other. I don't think I would be one of those people that dresses up her pets, but for something like this I could make an exception. How about you -- would you dress up your dog or cat? Any fun ideas for funny pet costumes?

Blind Date #2

Yesterday I went on my second blind date with a girl from my Craigslist experiment. You can read the result of the first, here.

This second date wasn't quite as great as the first one. We met for happy hour, and she drank water, which immediately made me uncomfortable with my margarita order. However, the conversation flowed smoothly, and I'm sure we'll get together again. So, while I say it wasn't as great as the first, it still was great in its own more-subdued way. I'm hoping this is just one of those relationships that starts out more slowly, but builds to something deeper over time.

So far, I'm two for two. There will be second dates in both cases. Woohoo!

In the Not-Sure-How-That-Happened Camp

The six-month offer process on our hours came to a close about a week ago. I haven't written about it, mostly, because of a whole host of reasons. Let me try to go into them here.

1. I'm not completely convinced it was real. Besides the fact that in this state you sign documents and then wait a couple of days for the really anti-climactic "closing" to happen, maybe, it really feels like the second shoe is waiting to drop.

2. I'm not sure that buying a house in an expensive market in an economy that is approaching depression (or at least recession) during a mortgage crisis is the smartest financial move we've made. More likely the worst one.

3. Until the owner removes her belongings from the house (circa 2030 at the current rate of things), it's pretty hard for us to start doing the remodeling that I know will get me all excited about owning a house again.

4. The first mortgage bill hasn't come, and until that happens, I can't really be sure the loan went through (see item #1).

5. I don't have another reason, but five reasons just seemed more symmetrical than four.

So, we have a house. And I'm a little freaked out. But I expect that to pass as we start doing more and more crazy things to it. Fast-forward to the nifty idea we just discussed about a secret passageway to the basement from the stairs in the living room for an idea of the direction we're planning to head. Expect pictures to chronicle the craziness that will be our improvements.

Blind Date

I know I've been MIA for a while, but traveling and house-buying and general craziness has been going on. I'll be filling you in on all those things that have already passed, but in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about my blind date from yesterday.

Yes, I went on a blind lunch date yesterday. It was in response to a Craigslist personal ad. It is as sad and pathetic as it sounds. And it went loverly.

I've decided that this whole trying-to-make-friends thing is WAY harder than I expected it to be. I knew I worked from home and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of ways to meet people, but I really expected everyone in this town not to be so, well, old. There are college kids over by campus, but I've been out of college a long time now. I've met some people watching basketball at sports bars, but they are all widowed men over 70. Not, precisely, my type for the casual friendship. Now, if I wanted a sugar daddy, I'm sure I'd have no trouble. But, see, I don't want a sugar daddy. I've met some wonderful ladies at my church, but I'm younger than the group I know by a good 20 years. At least. Lovely ladies, but not likely to join me for a cocktail on a Friday night. My neighbors avoid me like the plague. I'm assuming that's just carryover from the previous owner who everyone seems to have hated, rather than something aimed at me for all the wild parties we host here. Even the people standing next to me in lines look at me like a mental assylum escapee when I try to strike up conversations with them. It's like I violate every known rule of polite society when I go to the grocery store.

So, I responded to a few personal ads from other desperate women, like me, looking for that elusive friendship in this town. The first face-to-face meeting was lunch, yesterday. I really felt like I was prepping for a date. I referred to it as my blind date with GB, which made him just laugh at me. I was nervous, and prepped a few conversation re-starting questions, should they be necessary. Would she like me? Would she think I'm a dork? Would we have anything to talk about? Would she be fake? Will I hope to get that hour of my life back?

It turns out I had nothing to fear. Heather and I hit it off immediately. How couldn't we? -- we have the same name! After the two-hour lunch, with margaritas, we wandered over to the rose garden, which is just exploding with smells and beauty this spring. After a few more hours, we headed to our respective homes with vehement statements about how we must do this again, real soon.

I have my next blind date from this experience on Monday for Happy Hour. Be sure to check back to see how that went. Already, though, I feel better. My meeting on Monday is likely to have so many less nerves than yesterday did. Maybe I should have done a practice blind date to prepare for it....

Death and Taxes

Today I would prefer death to taxes. Well, not really, but man did they suck this year. Combine the fact that we sold our big deduction-stuffer with moving to a state where we have to pay 10% income taxes over and above the federal taxes, and they just were not pretty this time around. The sales tax is maybe half a percent higher in Texas with no income tax, so this was a rude, rude awakening. Where does all that money go? I can tell you it doesn't go into the highways. At least not the ones I drive on. I feel like I'm paying the state government for the good weather. I'm just going to assume that money is used on services that don't apply to me, which while not particularly ideal, makes me feel better than some alternative idea that some politicians or lobbyists are getting fat on my 10%.

Oregon Trails

We returned last night from our long weekend trip to Oregon. We took the train up there...correction...We took the train to Sacramento, and then mudslides on the tracks required us to take a bus the rest of the way. The train ride was wonderful, the bus ride was cramped and awful. Let's just talk about the train ride and pretend the bus ride didn't happen.

The train runs along the coast from where we caught it in Santa Barbara up to just about San Francisco. You've got the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other, and it's like you're in this gorgeous mural. It just doesn't seem real -- the colors are too bright or something. The train was also very relaxing. We were just hanging out in coach, but the seats are like first class on an airplane with a nearly full recline, foot rests, and extra-wide seats. It makes it confortable for sleeping when you're on the train for 12 hours at a stretch. Then, you don't have to stay in your seat -- you can get up and walk around, sit at a dining table for lunch, or strike up a game of cards with one of the strangers you're traveling with. Very relaxing and almost luxurious travel. It's cheaper than flying, but takes longer than driving, so there's your tradeoff.

Once we got up to Oregon, we saw several plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A Midsummer Night's Dream had been done in a 70's disco style, and was a lot of fun. High energy and happy people in the audience always make a play more fun to be at. We ended up seeing Coriolanus on opening night, and it was clear there was still some rust to be worked out, but it's a good story on class struggles that, while it's not one of Shakespeare's most commonly done play, is a good thought-provoking study. I'm sure this one will get better as the season progresses. Then we saw two non-Shakespeare plays, too. One was a play that had been commissioned for OSF called Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter. This was a different take on the war play, focusing on the difficulty of one returning vet to readjust back into civilian life after her experience. It was well done, with great little quirky characters to keep it from getting too heavy. Finally, we saw August Wilson's Fences. This is GB's favorite play, and I can see why. The characters have such powerful relationships with each other, and they're such good people struggling with the changes in the world, that the poignancy is strongly applicable to virtually everyone (okay, awkward sentence, but I'm moving on). When you have a play where three separate characters move you to tears, there is no way to get out of the theatre afterwards without everyone knowing you've been crying -- red face, puffy eyes, the works. But a great story, and really well done.

All in all, a great weekend. The kind that makes you ready to get back to work and hit the ground running. Time to get back to that!

My First Earthquake

I believe that I just experienced my first earthquake a few moments ago. I was sitting here at my computer working on something unimportant and then there was this rumbling noise and the floor shook like the house just got crashed into by a car. It was subtle and really low. I ran downstairs and outside to see if anyone was around to ask if that really was an earthquake, but no one else seemed to see it as any big deal.

Conveniently, I found this website that lists all the earthquakes in the last 7 days. And that confirmed it -- indeed I just experienced my first quake:

Magnitude	UTC Date-Time	Latitude	Longitude	Depth	Region
2.6	2007/11/17 02:55:19	34.376	-119.651	0.0	SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL, CALIFORNIA
3.4	2007/11/17 02:45:08	34.390	-119.658	10.3	SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL, CALIFORNIA

I have to say, it was sort of exciting. A 3.4 quake followed by a 2.6 one, and I could feel them and nothing bad happened. I think anything over a 5 would scare me out of my wits, but for now, that was cool.

Strange Sound

I got up to start working this morning, and heard a strange sound outside. Wouldn't you know it -- it was raining! It didn't last long, but it did get the ground wet, which was nice to see. This is a big deal to me, because it's the first rain we've gotten out here. It rained once before, but not even enough to wet the sidewalk. This time wasn't much either -- just barely above the official "trace", but it was real rain. Rain you could hear and feel and see. It was nice.

Trader Joe's Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be

As we started telling people we were moving to California, the unsolicited commentary seemed to be that we were embarking on the coolest of grocery-ing phenomena: Trader Joe's. After a few brief months in this state, I can safely say I don't get it.

I will admit that they have one of the most extensive and tastiest selections of dried fruits and nuts. I think I'm already addicted to the black pepper cashews and the granny smith dried apples. But beyond that, I don't see much reason to shop there.

The produce is of poor quality and overpriced. Similarly, the meat (unless you need kosher meat -- I guess they have a decent selection then), is of poor grade and too expensive. The selection of general grocery needs is minimal. I walked over there one day because I really wanted to bake cookies, but I needed baking powder. After staring at the baking shelf (they had flour, sugar, etc.), and giving up, I asked someone, and they told me they don't carry baking powder. Really? So, I walked back by a drugstore, and bought my baking powder there and baked my cookies anyway.

Then, I'm a scotch snob. I'll readily admit it. And more than that, I'm a fan of Macallan, as you'd be able to tell by the 4 bottles of various years of the stuff in my liquor cabinet. Trader Joe's seems to be in some sort of bottling agreement with my favorite of whiskies, and they bottle 12 year old Macallan in Trader Joe's bottles. I can't bring myself to buy one to see if it's the same stuff on the inside of the bottle as they seem to claim on the outside of the bottle, because it costs exactly as much as the real thing! Honestly, why would anyone buy a "Rolex" from a street vendor in NY for the same price as a real one? Obviously, someone (or a lot of someones) are doing this, since they seem to keep having this stuff on their shelves.

Anyway, just seems like a lot of hype for something that, like a lot of other hyped things, isn't all that.

Lease on Life

Moving from the Austin housing market to the Santa Barbara housing market made this an easy choice for us. When you can't buy, you have to rent. Closed case. This wouldn't have been our first choice, but there are a couple of things we had forgotten about renting, and we have become reacquainted with those benefits.

The biggest benefit is the house maintenance, or the lack thereof. When we moved in there was a non-working furnace. Since then we've had poles fall over in the back yard, a mouse infestation, and a garbage can mishap. In every case we just call the landlady and magically people fix things without expecting money from us. It's been shockingly great. We haven't had to dig through the phone book to find someone that is (hopefully) reputable, and we just generally haven't had to worry about anything. I did change one light bulb once, but that's about it in the maintenance department.

Then, since it's not our house, the owner is the one who is responsible for the yard. I can't remember the last weekend when we didn't need to work in the yard. Not that we worked in the yard every weekend by any means, but we needed to. Now, we don't. A gardening trio comes every other Monday to make the yard beautiful, and we just eat the ginger and the oranges that grow there. And the grapes, once those are ready. We're not even responsible for the water bill. Crazy, I tell you!

Renting is phenomenally cheaper than buying in this town. We are living in a much more expensive part of town than we could afford to buy in, and we're sort of getting spoiled. We have a bigger place than we did in Austin, but we're still putting away a decent amount each month. How weird is that? By the way, we love this part of town -- anyone want to donate to the Help-Heather-Buy-The-House-She-Lives-In fund? Nobody buy this house while we're working on building up that fund, okay? Fat chance, I know. Our furniture has made this place seriously appealling and it's starting to annoy me. If one more realtor tells me how great our furniture looks in the house (grrrr)...but back to the point at hand...

With all the time and money we save not working on the house or in the yard, we can actually enjoy our weekends. Some of this comes from my fancy schedule where I'm done working at 3pm and have this whole giant afternoon to do the stuff that has to get done, but some of it is that there is just less stuff to be done. This weekend we went to the Botanic Gardens, and figured out what that nifty tree we saw on our first hike was. It had this dark, smooth bark, and these light green leaves, and the almost backward-ness of this coloring was really pretty. Well, now we know it was a variety of manzanita. And now we've seen about 30 more varieties from groundcovers to bushes to trees, some with berries and some without, and I believe I am smitten. Then we drove to the top of La Cumbre peak. It's only 4000 feet, but next time we go to the top of that mountain, it'll be on bikes.

Next weekend we have an appointment with the chalk-drawing festival that goes down on the grounds of the Old Mission. No worries -- you'll get an update of that, but I'm looking forward to it. The great weekend excursion opportunities make me want to cancel that trip to Texas in a couple of weeks for the company summer party and the annual triathlon of the women in my family. But I won't -- it'll just make me enjoy the weekends when I'm in town that much more.

Making Lemonade

We're pretty well settled into our new place out here, and we're figuring out the working from home/biking to work stuff. We're also living in a house that is on the market, and that has led to some interesting challenges.

Since I work at home, that means I have to plan to be out of the house anytime they want to show it. This is the house.

There. Now it's been shown. Then, once a month, we have to be gone all afternoon for an open house. Why did we take a lease with those kinds of requirements? We really like the area, and wouldn't otherwise be able to live in this part of town. Oh, and this is the backyard. You can't see the orange trees, but if you were here you could smell them.

We really like the house. Also, we think the owner is asking way too much for it, and we don't think it'll sell.

Conveniently, they have to give decent notice for these inconveniences, so we're making the best of it. I plan trips to the grocery store when they show the house during the day. This past weekend was the first open house that we had to be gone for, so we decided to do more than go run errands.

We drove up to Ojai and went hiking in the mountains. The goal of the hike were the waterfalls in Matilija Canyon, but we didn't quite make it. The views were beautiful, with these dormant purple trees mixed in with the green ones up and down the mountain sides. The river made for pretty stop-offs and cool, relaxing breaks. And then we came to the spot along the river that meant we wouldn't make it to the waterfalls. We found a large, deep pool, and we had no choice -- it was time for a swim. We jumped in the nice cold water and enjoyed the sun through the trees. It was indulgent. Afterwards we laid on the rocks drying out and then headed back.

We did pass someone who was returning from the waterfalls, and he said they were the most beautiful he'd ever seen. But we just didn't have time. We'll have to go back, and make it an overnight trip next time. I'd be up for that. I mean, really, who could pass up the most beautiful waterfalls? We just got sidetracked by a great pool, and didn't quite make it. It was still a great hike -- about 6 hours, and we were glad we went.

There appear to be lots of these great hikes around here, so we'll have to make sure to see more of them.