Pics from the Sea Ranch

Happy Passover, and please pass the matza. We all had a great weekend at the Sea Ranch. Tennis balls were chased, deer were growled at, matza was gummed until it became a lumpy paste-like substance that I wiped on my pants. And Samson started to sit up! On his own! For extended periods of time! I'm still kind of shocked!

More pics are on Picasa Web.

Now it's all about counting the minutes until Auntie Mir gets into town tonight. I thinks it's around 540 minutes.

Back to Basics

We're off to the Sea Ranch for the weekend to spend Passover with our families. Samson gets all the benefits of being the first grandchild (even though his paternal cousin is 5 weeks older) and is sure to spend the whole weekend being whisked from lap to lap, being taken for walks, cuddled up nice and good, and shown more patience than he deserves. He's actually been awesome to be around this week, ever since I upped his calories per the doctor's recommendation and started giving him an ounce of prune juice a day. All it took was more food and a daily poop. See, he really IS just like us!

Medium sized update

So I went up to the Sea Ranch for 3 days last week to get my bearings in regards to the wedding. The wedding that's in exactly one month. Ahem.

The verdict: boy did we pick the right place to start the rest of our lives together. Thanks to mom and dad's scouting skills and their intrepid ability to test fancy restaurants for us in our absence, the food will match the beauty and the intensity that is the Northern California coast and redwoods. And that's really what a wedding is all about, right?

Once again, I'm torn by how happy we are to have a nice, simple, intimate (aka "small") ceremony, one that's more or less devoid of stress and time-intensive decisions about tablecloths and seating arrangements, and my desire to share this wonderful place and this wonderful event with all of my nearest and dearest. Thankfully, our friends and family understand, and they support our decision. And that makes me feel less torn.

On to the story of Ozzylocks and the Three Deer. Well, there's no story really. There were these three deer grazing outside our house, and Ozzy watched them and made deeply primal growly noises. As if, Oz. They have horns, buddy. Horns.



Nanna, of course, had more important things to worry about. Like all of these sticks! Who left all of these sticks lying around here?? How am I supposed to fetch ALL OF THESE STICKS???



Other business: Max will be home in 2 short weeks! The movers will come to pack up the rest our belongings in Dublin in a week or so, then I get my best friend back, my bringer of milkshakes and not-so-secret Degrassi TNG watching pal. Life is good.

Other other business: the AIDS Walk went really, really well last Sunday. Extra super fantastic THANK YOUs to everyone who supported me by donating. I met my fundraising goal, and was able to take part in something really special and helpful to my community. I walked the whole 10K with team captain Laura and her dad, not to mention my four-legged cohorts. Oz and Nanna did splendidly, and were incredible tuckered out by the end of the weekend--three days chasing sticks in the ocean, multiple trips to the dog park, and one heck of a long walk through a fog-filled Golden Gate Park. I think they've finally forgiven me for leaving them for a year.

Mini Update

I am still here--busy with work, and a fabulous pre-wedding fact-gathering mission to the Sea Ranch. More about this later, and pictures of Ozzy's not-so-close encounter with a trio of deer.

One other thing: big hugs and warm thoughts for my good friend Tiny Trousers (and her ever loving mom). Who knew an Australian shepherd mix (or whatever the lying sack of crap at the pet store said you were), who is almost certainly part mountain goat, could get herself stranded on the dusty crags of my heart and mind for so long? Well, I guess I knew.

Sea Ranch, underneath the water. Sea Ranch, at the bottom of the sea.

I just got my Lomo pictures back from the weekend before Valentine's Day which we spent at the Sea Ranch (known historically as the weekend Ozzy walked by at least three piles of horse poop and DIDN'T roll in any of them. He's a darn good dog.). It really seems like ages ago; so many things have happened since then. Not the least of which is my newly acquired knitting expretise.



The moody weather made for excellent Uno-playing opportunities. And what's more fun than a brightly colored card game where your boyfriend and your dad can conspire to cheat just so the game will end and they can go about their business? I can't say as I blame them--it was a rather long game of Uno. And everyone knew it was only a matter of time before I decimated them with my mad Uno skills.