Snow! It got COLD last night and we could see snow on the East Bay hills from our apartment in SF. So pretty!

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Double

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Sunny but cold Saturday morning, 45°.

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11.2 Singing in the Rain

This year has been the least that I've written on my blog since I started blogging in 2005. 1st off, I can't believe that I've been blogging 10 years! Just writing that down kinda surprises me. But I've been relatively consistent most Novembers to post an almost daily snippet of something that I'm happy is part of my life. So here I go again, in an attempt to pay attention to those little things and to get back into blogging...

We got a little bit of rain last night. It was so nice waking up to the pitter patter sounds of rain. I'm curious to see what winter will look like out our windows this year. I'm still in awe over how much happens in our skies.

Less Hijinx, More Fun

Aside from the one day's hijinx, the rest of the week was a lot of fun. There weren't as many of us, a total of 12 with 6 different families represented.
The other 3 were at their own cabin closer to the lake.

We've got a pretty good routine that we stick with time and again.
Lots of jumping from rocks.

Touchdown fetching stuff from the lake.

Great smiles.

Lots of boys on the boat.
Max and I were the only girls this year.

And of course, smores every night that we weren't so tired that all we wanted to do when we got home was have dinner then hit the sack.

This year we had unpredictable summer weather.

3 of the days bordered on cold. Notice the boys wearing the shirts under their lifejackets.

A downpour cut our afternoon short on our 1st day. No complaints though, we all treasured the rain.

But another evening we had this view.

We had a few new events:
Reggie's old enough to pilot the boat by himself.

And our wrap around deck is finally done!!

We admit that we so very much love it. It was worth the 3 year wait.

12.12: Glad Tidings

Wandering around this amazing city searching for Christmas Trees everyday has been a fun little adventure. I already knew we lived in a beautiful city, but it's a lot of fun keeping an eye out for a little extra Christmas Cheer.

This funny Santa elf made me laugh as I was walking by. Despite his sunglasses, he gave me a little twinkle of his eye so I couldn't resist a snapshot.

It was still raining significantly this morning, but definitely a lot calmer than yesterday.

I came across several amazing office lobby trees while I was out.
This relatively simple tree is perfect for this lobby with a living wall.

This one brings the woods to the concrete jungle.

While this one brings us the Artic.

No shortage of adorable polar bears at this office building.

After a fully day and a busy evening making goodies, we got a text from a friend asking if we wanted to see a late night movie. Couldn't resist, even though I was yawning till the movie started. We saw John Wick. The storyline was little out of control but watching it was easy on the eyes. Point of the story, be nice to puppies.

12.11 Trending: _____mageddon

So we had a little rain today. Everyone's been a little flipped out about the whole thing. It's sort of ridiculous. I know there's been a lot of flooding and a lot of trees have come down, and we had significant power outages, but the labels people have been giving our storm make it seem like the world was coming to an end. If I hear insert "bad weather related adjective-mageddon" anymore, my head just might explode (but not literally, haha).

Luckily, in our bubble world, living in a modern high rise, we didn't see any adverse affects of the weather. Both of us stayed home and got a lot done.
I spent some time working on my Christmas cards. I still have 15 more to design and make. Then write them out...so on and so forth.

Saturday is the Yuen's Annual Christmas Cookie Party. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go, but Jimmy will. So I made my chocolate toffee bars so he doesn't show up empty handed.

Since I never stepped out of the building lest I melt in the pouring rain, and since it's Throwback Thursday, here's a photo I took of a tree at Macy's in Union Square a few days ago:
So it's technically not the tree of the day, but I still wanted to share a tree photo.

Here's another Throwback Thursday photo. Because why not!
Maui, Dec 1998.

Adios April

It's hot in the city today! It was in the 90s downtown. Jimmy came home from work and said, lets go to the beach to cool off and watch the sunset. We walked almost 2 miles with our feet in the water, soaking my jeans up to my knees even though I had rolled them up. What a great way to say goodbye to a month that went way too fast!

Marching On

Saying goodbye to the 3rd month of 2014...how quickly it flew by! Here are a few snapshots of my March...
Gandhi Statue at the Ferry Building.

Taxi and bike turning onto Market Street.

My brother-in-law works here.

Sunset on March 15th. Too cold for me to dip my toes in. Jimmy's braver than me.

Same day as above, only about an hour before. The fog lifted just in time for sunset.

A different day, the setting sun glowing on Alcatraz.

That apartment building fire was the opposite side of the ballpark from us but we could see the black smoke from our living room window. We drove by the devastation one Saturday afternoon.

Today, the last day of the month. Cold, windy, stormy. Raining sideways, umbrellas barely made a difference.

Paula Cole was in Berkeley on the 27th and we saw her at an awesome venue called Freight and Salvage. We had front row seats. No photos allowed during the performance, but I got one of her afterwards signing cd's.

Practicing barre chords. They are hard but I love them for some reason. I think because they are challenging. Although every part of learning the guitar is challenging. And rewarding. And that half gold dinosaur makes me laugh. Who would buy that??

Yes guitar is taking up most of my creative energy right now. But I still managed to do a decent bit of paper crafting too.



Our drive to the hideaway was gorgeous last weekend. A beautiful sunny spring day where our normally golden brown hills were fresh green.



California poppies.

A new friend...shy at first...

but as curious about us as we were about her.

Then just a day and a half later, we had just a little bit of snow on the ground.


"The March wind roars
Like a lion in the sky,
And makes us shiver
As he passes by.
When winds are soft,
And the days are warm and clear,
Just like a gentle lamb,
Then spring is here."
- Author Unknown