looking at the moon tonight

when i took ketzl for his walk
there was still some color in the sky
and the tips of the crescent moon (waxing, i was told cuz the curve is like the D) were pointing to two planets: Venus and Saturn? maybe someone out there knows.
it is a special time, pondering the movement in space of things so far away, looking so close.

dinner tonight with razmik and christine and charlie was fun. after we went back to razmik's house for tea and dessert and to play with the dogs. jeff comes home tomorrow. he is missed.

i snuck into the house (a deaf cat doesn't hear me or the alarm going off as i open the front door) and ketzl is still sleeping in the front window. i wonder how long it will take until he figures out i'm back home.

there is a fatal flaw that inhabits my father's ancient computer.
every time i try to log on to my blog, the entire internet connection shuts down. repeatedly. and again.
so that's how it got from Tues to Saturday nite without a blog entry.

weds nite was a totally wonderful dinner Chez Nath and Darren, where Jackie and i were treated to a parade of yummy dishes (miso soup, pot stickers, grilled salmon with black and white sesame seeds, sauteed choy sum and dessert with a side of fresh cranberry sauce, a fabulous segue to the thanksgiving weekend. more than the dinner (well almost) was discovering that we are both (Jackie and I) persona most grata with HuNu (as in who knew, i think) the sweetest tiny female resident feline. she did not run away, she stayed and rubbed. it was wonderful and we were duly flattered.

so this is the 3rd night of me here. things are noticeably slower in all areas, physical as well as mental for my father. it is pretty difficult to watch.
thanksgiving day included traditional foods. friday was out on a few errands, to lunch (yummy japanese) with Loren and Jack, and a drive around (Loren is very knowledgeable) and then in the early evening, Inga came for a visit. it had been a long time, and there was a stockpile of things to give her. wow the difference in longitude makes such a difference. by 5 PM it is totally dark here. earlier than San Jose, but who knows.
saturday (today) was a trip to Sears to purchase a new washing machine (to be delivered Tuesday) and a new toaster oven. it gets a lot of use (baking something almost every day: yams, fish, toast). it was successful and i am happy. about 3 PM Bea Yoga and Adam and Livi arrived. we left Jack to his yoga and went for a walk down the 3rd street promenade, complete with a selection of street artists, musicians, a guy (like the Peking acrobats) tossing bowls up to the top of his head. it was a good walk. adam reminded me (good thing he had clear recollection) of last year's thanksgiving. it really was Linda's favorite holiday. we cooked a lot of food. everyone was there. david and julia made a trip to the mac store, adam recalled. Daphne came and Linda fixed her a big thanksgiving plate. why was she trimming in November, i wonder.... Nath came with pies late at night. a lot of food was consumed, a house full of people. we had done the week in barcelona and then London at the end of October. including the great trip to Wimbledon.

did not in 3 days make it to the beach. well to be honest it was only 2 real days.
there is time next week.
we will all (northern california us) be down next Saturday for Jack's 91st birthday, plans for which are incomplete at best, fuzzy, maybe murky. to be discussed later.
but unless i get up at 6AM, i think the ocean trip will have to wait.

i need to get rid of the dark polish and trim my toenails. they are just too bright and un-me. and the nails are much longer than i'd like to keep them.
ah well. it was my 2nd pedicure ever. next time i'll go with more neutral polish if at all.

so off to sleep. tomorrow will be an early morning as i need to leave about 9:30 AM.

that was written Saturday night.
it is now Sunday evening, and i was home for a while and then went walking in Santana Row with Razmik and Scooter, a cute little dog who is a total magnet for kids, adults and other dogs. fun. dinner planned later with Razmik, Christine and Charlie and maybe Nath and Darren. but for now, Ketzl wants a walk.

MILK the movie

what a contrast
from the play "Execution of Justice" from a variety of perspectives
to the movie, a cutting between scenes and narration by Milk into a small tape recorder. thx to Marci for the pass. the theater was not completely full for the preview tonite at Camera 12. the movie is well done. starts with b/w footage from years before, with arrests (Stonewall? LA, etc) to Milk's move to San Francisco, looking very much the hippie. Sean Penn does a really good job of capturing Milk's energy. the marches and big rallies were impressive. in the beginning, Milk knew that the people needed to go somewhere and he asked the police to grant him permission to lead a march to city hall (otherwise with so many people hanging around without a purpose, violence could have ensued). amazingly, Reagan was opposed to Prop 6 (similar to our Prop 8), along with Mayor Moscone. it was eerie how many similarities there were, 30 years later. Milk was brilliant and the movie is very effective. i totally recommend it. just found out that Dianne Feinstein gave an interview (only the 2nd) since Moscone and Milk were killed. it is available on abc7.com or something.

and....
people have holiday lights out already
and retailers are falling all over themselves to be the earliest opening on Friday morning. the season is in full swing.

this afternoon i picked Meeka up from the airport, after she flew home from LA. the airport will always be an evocative place for me. so many trips that first year before Linda moved to California. and then the next 8 years: LA, NY, Europe, Hawaii, FL, Vancouver...lots of time at SJC. at dinner last night, one of the topics was how difficult flying alone is. i think my trip home from Germany in September was one of the longest ever ever.

and yet, there are connections in the real time present, which give me strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other. it's all about the journey.

with wishes for a happy thanksgiving. it was one of Linda's favorite holidays, whether with her family in NY, or Florida after grandparents moved there, or in her home in Ohio where it was an open house for all of Adam's and David's friends. here in california we would share the holiday at the home of friends or invite people here. may we all give thanks this year for our blessings, and for having had Linda in our lives as well. enjoy your turkey breast and crispy skin, the cranberry relish, the dressing, and of course marshmallows on your yams. :~)

short week begins

tonite i hope i didn't violate any rules. i had dinner with one of the men from the partner loss support group. we didn't have a meeting today for thanksgiving week. to the new regular, tee nee thai. it was pleasant, a good idea he said. and i have leftover sticky rice with mango for breakfast. how perfect.

Elinor is back east. tomorrow is a travel day for her, bus and train eventually from NH to NJ. cold back there for a california girl.

so much to do. laundry, dishes, papers. bills. lists. the Linda/alphabet. homework from the attorney.

not having the heat on cuz it has been so warm has good outcome: two months PG&E is less than $80. less heat. less hot water. less computer usage, less electricity overall. everything is less. cat is more. he's really liking his walks. sniffs a lot but sometimes actually gets the concept.

weekend, it's a wrap

sunday night
think i figured out how to re-set the timer on the outside lights. good.
yesterday was a fun day. jeremy drove to scruz and we picked up the new very sturdy cat tree. ketzl was on it directly, almost before the two halves (easier for transport) were attached. it's a bit more vertical (and taller) so he needs to learn new ways of getting up there. watched a squirrel from the middle tray. the guy was really nice, makes them by hand; semi-retired but still does them. let me know if anyone needs a really solid piece of cat furniture.

then there was the requisite walk in downtown santa cruz, a stop in Stephan's jewelers for old times sake (from whence the blue/green opal ring came), then sushi at Pink Godzilla, a visit with a friend of jeremy's from Barefoot, insiders tour of Verve coffee (next door to sushi!) and then a stop at the supply place to get two espresso and 2 cappuccino cups, a tamp, spoons. jeremy will now drink his coffee at work in real cups and one day a week will give instruction for those who want to learn how to pull a decent espresso.

on the way home jeremy updated me on his friends from UCSC and high school, the ones i know. then when we got home, he assembled the tree. now i need to take the old one apart (made of pressboard, not real wood, and cardboard tubes covered with sisal -- not the kind of material for such as ketzl). it has so many shims, supports and props...but it served pretty well for 3+ years. i guess it's my guilt coming out; ketzl is deprived of me during the day -- he might as well have a decent tree. now he does. platinum level. solid as a rock and heavy.

i am wearing tonight something that i probably will never give away: the really large purple polar fleece YAHOO! top that was given to us by Razmik in his yahoo bling days. it is warm and snuggly and huge on me. and i don't care.

the closet is interesting...one more section of my blouses but still full of sweaters and shoes of Linda's. there is comfort in that.

go badgers! go buckeyes! go bears! 3 nice football wins yesterday. (sorry stanford)
ok time to think about dinner and getting ready for the coming short week.

and in the morning there is light

when i got back from the walk this morning, the rays of light coming through the prism attached to the glass door in the family room were playing on the corner of the laptop sitting on the couch. good morning, sweetie. thanks for the morning rainbow. :-)
ketzl just came in from the backyard and with the door having been opened and closed, now the rainbows are bouncing all around the room.

we aren't all alone in the dark

that was the closing line of Grey's Anatomy tonight.
when Denny came back to Izzie. not exactly uplifting fare.

garbage night included bringing through the house the barrel of vines i trimmed last saturday talking on the cell phone in the backyard. didn't drop a one. it worked well because ketzl was outside. later he was running through the house again, and spotted a cat just outside the sliding glass door. big fluffy ketzl. hissing and spitting and pawing the glass. i stay away at those times, even when i'm wearing jeans. i still remember the time he bit me, but that was when he saw a raccoon.

elinor is getting ready to go back east for 9 days. i'm looking into different facilities up here for our dear sweet father to consider. well, for us to consider. there's a part of him that wants to be closer to us. but a move would be difficult in other ways. back to the mantra we had when considering bringing both parents up: if it were any easy decision, we would have made it already. still holds.

finishing the other half of the italian wedding soup. turned on the bed heater aka an electric mattress pad. makes it just a bit easier to get into bed, almost alone in the dark.

friends are so important.

one never knows...

when something will set one on a weepy moment.
this morning on the way in i was listening to Red Hot by Divisi, the women's acappella group from Univ of Oregon (featuring Lisa Forkish, daughter of Tim's first boss in the south bay)...and the last song on the cd has the words "you will always be my baby." and it just hit me. and here i thought there were days passing when i didn't cry. well, they may have happened, but today was not one of them.

gas was $2.13 tonight at costco. pretty good until i saw $2.11 at valero on the way home. but i get 3% cash back on my costco gas purchase. 3% of $4 is more than 3% of $2.13 but it's all good. i won't be purchasing much stuff at costco after this year anyway. like the 5300 Q-tips. that's a really big supply for me. anyone need some Q-tips? i'm happy to share.

so the Calif Supreme Court will hear the petitions about Prop 8. ironic that Jerry Brown as the state Atty General has to argue the side of the passage of the totally wrong headed proposition. a huge slew of documents is available online via the courage campaign website. lots and lots of pages. just heard on TV that the case will be heard after March.

the dow-jones is down 40% for the year. holy cow. below 8000 today. well i guess that's the other side of $2.13/gallon gas.

i'm ordering a new custom cat tree. no glue. real wood. designed for big cats. i think he deserves it.

i need sleep. don't we all?

alphabet and more

Fran added C is for Camp Owaissa (where they met)
David added U is for University of Akron
and there are L is for laugh in addition to S is for smile and souvenir. Adam added E is for eggs (scrambled well in butter), T is for Tamiami Trail (the street in Akron where they lived), M is for Masters in Taxation, S is for Scrabble and R for Rummikub. what about G is for grammarian? keep them coming.

There is no group next Monday. Thanksgiving vacation. Plans call for me flying to LA on Thursday for 3 nights. It will be nice to be leisurely so I can spend some time on my own instead of feeling tied to the apartment.

Huzzah!! I am started on the process of having a trust/will/financial plan created. First meeting with the very nice attorney who is working with Elinor. She is a former sociology professor before law school, and is an expert on the politics of the religious right in America. wow. i borrowed a copy of one of her four books.

check out Wanda Sykes on Prop 8 from the Ellen DeGeneres show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5M3iS2O0Es

i'm seriously thinking about getting a custom cat tree for Ketzl, who is meowing in the background, wanting to go out at night but he won't any more tonite. there is a custom outfit and it would be real wood, no glue and sturdy. now the flimsy ones we got when he was little sport extra posts held together with bungee cords, propped with boxes, shims, etc. i feel as though he needs extra stuff cuz i am gone all day. now he is playing in the paper in a large packing box. more meowing. ketzl got into a bit of a tussle in the grass outside this morning. good thing i had the door open so i was able to react quickly when i heard the yowls. nice tricolor long hair was the adversary who ran away quickly. it was a heated exchange.

livi texted that there was snow in DC today. we are both such Calif. girls. i called as she was dressing to go see the Israeli Philharmonic and she said the snow lasted all of 5 minutes. hey, flakes is flakes. ok, flakes are flakes. shelley says it is cold and wet and also snow. but they are used to it in ohio. tomorrow's highs in the high 60's. it is California, after all. we will put up with chilly mornings and evenings.

the alphabet is coming along nicely...

Adam added Z is for Zip, which is what students at Univ of Akron are. not sure what a Zip is. though i do recall that Zippy won the national mascot competition recently. so it will be ready for publication soon. keep the suggestions coming. multiple entries per letter still welcome.

thank you Charlie for reattaching the cover for the cold air return. he can reach the screws while standing on the floor. omg. something that would not ever have occurred to me. like when Adam replaced the lamps in the bathroom and took down the fixture while standing. me, i climb up on the counter. ah well.

as a result of the large clean out done by elinor and audrey, the larder is pretty empty. i was looking for a chicken sausage. not in freezer. too bad. i was looking forward to sausage and red cabbage. so i had half a can of italian wedding soup, which was one of Linda's favorites. i think i'll supplement it with a piece of toast and jelly. still not eating a lot.

ketzl spent a good deal of time outside in a box in the sunshine. i trimmed a lot of vines while talking on the phone (free weekend minutes). he's out for a nighttime romp. we had a nice walk this afternoon. he actually "got" what a walk is about, for a short time.

i still can't figure out how to turn off the alarm on the phone base in the bedroom. and when i think i've changed the time of the alarm, it still reverts to just before 7 AM. i think. i'll keep at it.

tissue alert maybe
so i figured out that i'm not crying every day. or maybe i am and just not realizing it. it hit me on thursday: November 13. 7 months. somehow that hit me much more than 6 months in October. i guess because 7 months is the beginning of the 2nd half of the first year. yargh. that feels really strange. that in less than 5 months, i will be saying it has been one year...ok ok ok don't rush it. not there yet. but somehow being on the 2nd half really hit me.

from the back cover of "Letting Go With Love: The Grieving Process," by Nancy O'Connor. the words are in the shape of a butterfly, which is partly what attracted me to the book. "Life and grief go hand in hand. The process of grieving is the way we release old ways of thinking and feeling to make room for new ones. Endings and beginnings: birth and death, starts and finishes: these are the unavoidable rhythms and cycles that make life a totally dynamic ever-changing process."

i'll bring these books back to group tomorrow and get new ones. the alphabet one has a good premise. each letter has something and then ends with an affirmation: i can, or i will. a lot of it is about accepting help from others. i do my best.

elinor was in LA this weekend. she said the smoke was really bad. not a good time to go out for a walk.

daph and kevin went to the SF rally yesterday and said it was amazing.

Garrison Keillor's article from Nov 12...

Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning. He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool.
Chicago is cool. Chicago!!!

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnist/chi-oped1112keillornov12,0,4283187.column

sorry i'm not literate yet.

it will be a busy week. time to retrieve the cat and head to bed.

"Execution of Justice" and unbelievable rallies

a very well done play at Santa Clara Univ tonight, as the Kristin groupies attended. it is the story of the trial of Dan White, and Kristin played the defense attorney, originally written for a man. excellent staging, stirring plot...timed maybe to be around the election and definitely the approaching 30th anniversary of the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

and then there were the thousands of people who turned out at city halls across California and the country in support of marriage equality. i drove by San Jose City Hall at 1:30 PM, 3 hours after the 10:30 AM start, and there were still maybe 30 people there and cars still driving by, with more signs, honking. turns out that one of Kristin's friends at the play had been there about when i was there, and i remember his sign: totally gay for marriage equality. 7500 in San Francisco. more in Sacramento. Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis all made one of the evening news shows. so it may turn out that prop 8 passing was actually better in the long run in terms of national education and progress. we'll see.

re Lindalphabet: thanks for the contributions. how could i have forgotten N is for Nectarine? Q is for Q-tip.

i'm still surprised that i put out one small bag of garbage weekly.
that i run the dishwasher once a week. that i do two loads of laundry at a time and it lasts for a long time. speaking of which i need to retrieve the next load while ketzl is out for his evening jaunt.

alphabet more and cat walk

well i will write in reverse order.
when an 18 pound cat doesn't want to cross the street, he creates a lot of inertia which needs to be overcome. wow. but we had a nice meander late afternoon. there were lots of bushes to sniff.

today was the opening of Downtown Ice, an outdoor rink near the Fairmont Hotel and the SJ Museum of Art. problem was, today was at least 78 degrees. felt nice and warm, but harder to keep the rink frozen. otherwise it will be downtown water.

with thanks to some (you know who you are)
the Lindalphabet is coming along nicely. i could use some help on E,N,R,T,W,Y,Z.

tomorrow will be a big day.

why do we talk to a deaf cat? etc.

but everyone does. as if he hears. as if he understands what we are saying. good cat. he was asleep when i left, and i forgot he had his harness on. so it was on all day.

stopped at the Dollar Store on my way home, looking for hand lotion for the women's bathroom. found some but without a pump. hmmmmmm. also Pears soap...always good to have some of that on hand. plus gold and silver wrapping paper. and gum. an easy night. other than getting the frames for the photographs for Linda's memorial service, i don't think i've been in the dollar store since Linda died. probably a good thing. Linda and i used to go there for recreational shopping sometimes. we got a lot of useful items, but also probably a lot of things that were not necessary. some of them are still here in the house.

last night i discovered that i have 5 pairs of Linda's glasses. wow. plus the glasses care kit with wipes, small tool kits, etc. there are so many things, and this was just looking on the bookshelf in the bedroom. a lot of things.

this weekend will be a massive series of demonstrations at city halls around the country in opposition to the passage of proposition 8 here in california. i hope i will be able to get to the one here. if not, i'm sure there will be more activities.

cute cat. he's sleeping next to me on top of the grey and white blanket (his colors) on the family room couch. not sure if he'll wake up and come with me to the bedroom.

what am i going to do with all the stuff?

other contributions to the alphabet of Linda: G is for generous. and guitar. P is for passionate. J is for Jewish. C is for courageous. D for devoted.

my chiropractic appointment seems to have done good things. i don't really hurt anywhere and feel more pulled together. quarterly tune ups, that's the ticket.

tonight is a full moon. that's all for the astronomy report for tonight.
and time for sleep.

tuesday ramble

ketzl has cantaloupe, the heat is on. ketzl is on the heater after eating cantaloupe. life is good. keith olbermann on prop 8 is amazing.

today for the 2nd time in recent weeks, i came home to find the fan and light on in the living room. i can only assume that ketzl is walking on the remote which was left on the coffee table. and that i left the master wall switch turned on (maybe from when Linda F was here and we sat down there and she saw Europe pix before the dinner on Saturday). that's the only thing i can figure.

elinor has started her new job. marcy is back from washington dc. things move on. elinor is going to LA this weekend. i'm going thanksgiving. we are ramping up the visits.

my visit to the chiropractor for my quarterly tune-up showed nothing really to worry about. just life. got a cute new stretch to help my left shoulder.

i'm not really eating much 4 dinner these days. i'm just not hungry. but i got a really nice spaghetti squash at the farmers market and i'll try it in the microwave so i don't have to worry about hacking into the thick skin. then some butter and maybe nutmeg. yum.

vigils and writings

tonight there were candlelight vigils in San Jose. one of them was on my way to the support group at Hospice. so i drove through and honked. it was actually more emotional than i would have thought. i hope there will be more so i can participate.

today the facilitator passed out a list of topics and invited us each to share a reflection. something we wished we had done or said; what special memories do i have that i want to keep alive; what do i miss most; what did i value most about our relationship. good questions. good sharing. people said they changed their minds about which question to answer as other people shared. one woman has a tape of her husband telling stories and how much he loved her and how much fun he had with her mother. i regret not going with Linda to places in California like Yosemite and Tahoe. i'm very sorry i don't have Linda on tape, audio or video.

from group i borrowed a book, the ABC of Healthy Grieving. on the drive home, i thought i might like to create an ABC of Linda. not being limited to one word or thought per letter. and there is liberty to be taken, so that X could be "eXacting." for those of you out there in blogland, feel free to email your contributions. so: S is of course for smile. B is for brilliant. and Bubbles. D is for Dancing Queen. W for words. keep them coming. i'll share as it develops.

meanwhile i have two new books to read, and i'll take some of mine in to share next week, when we also bring a photo.

writings: there are suggestions, from the above questions and others, like how will we spend Thanksgiving, what will we change, what keep the same, etc. i've started a series of "Letters to Linda," and now think i will also write a series of other pieces. Vicki (the facilitator) says it will be useful to look back on them in months to come, to show how far we've come.

thursday is a movie as part of the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival, tho this one is in Palo Alto. a documentary about Ladino music, followed by a live concert. i will be attending as a tribute to my cousin Judy, founder of Voice of the Turtle. bring tissues.

excitement and accomplishment

yesterday my neighbor Carl expressed his concern about a white lexus parked across the street for more than a week. also because once someone got out of the car and walked around the corner and got into another vehicle. so he called the police and they came and put on one of those electronic bugs. today, the car left and returned. when it got back, Hannah called me to invite me outside where there were 5 or 6 unmarked (or personal) cars and 10 police officers. they had nabbed the suspect. found out the car had been stolen at gunpoint over a week ago. that he was a real baddy-baddy, lived nearby and this was just a convenient quiet place to park the car which he occasionally used on not good business. so one team was one duty and the other teams came down in full gear and they got him. they were very happy. pretty exciting.

technological excitement: Julia told David how to do a skype conference call, so they two and Audrey and I talked for a while (and i stepped out to check on the police activity outside).

now as i was typing, Aud called on the house phone, Jeremy on the cell, and then Adam skyped.

Jeremy called to invite me to dinner, so i will miss CBS 60 minutes tonite analyzing the Obama strategy.

got the mattress rotated, bed heater plugged in, furnace filters replaced, some of the heater vents vacuumed, and ready for winter!!

off to dinner

whew the week is over...

tonight was fun, the Connie Doolan Quartet, now maybe known as Connie and the Perfect Gentlemen, or, the audience favorite: Yes, Connie! she has a great voice and the instrumentalists were fantastic. www.conniedoolanquartet.com the bass player, Steven Strauss, has hands the size of a baseball glove and he also played the ukelele!! Mike Wollenberg does some delicious guitar, and Julian Smedley plays guitar, violin, and viola. nice jazzy stuff. some latin flavor. celtic. portuguese. wow. nice mix, great venue at Mission City Coffee Roasting, put on by Fiddling Cricket.

ketzl would love go out again. there is a cat in the backyard. lots of yowling here tonight.

the video of the march in San Francisco tonight was amazing. it will be very interesting to see where all this goes. court challenges (can't violate the federal constitutional protection of equal rights), investigate the Mormon Church's non-profit status, No on Hate.

the economic situation continues to get really ugly. just don't open the statements showing how low our accounts have fallen. we can't do anything about it & it will only make us crazy.

we made it! almost...

well, for the most part. Obama won. new era for our country and the world. with the exception of the (not insignificant) win of Prop 8, things went pretty well.

Linda would have been upset at how many reporters misused the word "enormity," to describe Obama's victory. enormity has large negative connotation. to refer to large size, it's enormous. or, to quote adam, ginormous. but i think she would have been ecstatic alongside the rest of us at the major changes we are about to see. so many young people have not experienced a Democratic president. wonderful also that young people are energized about participating in the political system. they are no longer turned off by "politics as usual" which we all had experienced over the last several administrations. elizabeth dole got whomped...one of the many gains in the house and senate...there is real cause for optimism, despite the gloomy financial situation. it was the triumph of hope over fear. too bad McCain's last speech was by far his best. sorry about that.

from a friend of Linda's from whiteplains high school, whose daughter is in the army:

Other than driving down highway 90 in Arizona of all places when the voice on the radio announced that John McCain would be giving his concession speech in a few moments, yesterday evening was one in which I can’t find words to explain. I put my uniform on this morning with a great deal more pride and hope for the future! You will most likely witness a great deal of coverage from military members who voted for Senator McCain on the news for the next few days, but as a military member who supported President-elect Barak Obama, I wanted to thank you for your vote!

A new day is upon us and we finally have a President and Commander in Chief we can believe in!

there are marches and vigils all over California demonstrating against the passage of Proposition 8. more than 18,000 couples married over the last 4 months. 3 lawsuits have already been filed. one of the main issues is equal protection. my view is, if you don't like same sex marriage, then don't marry someone of the same gender.

President-Elect Obama. has a nice ring. what a nice smile he has.

i wish i weren't so tired. it was a very long day yesterday.

hey 51% waxing gibbous moon...it was lovely tonight.
it is getting cold...well, cold for California. we whimper when it gets below 40. this weekend REALLY will be getting the electric bed heater hooked up and the heater ready. it is 63 inside now and my nose is cold.

Saturday Night's Presidential Bash etc.

Tina Fey is so awesome as Sarah Palin. Unbelievable. She nails it. Maverick.
"Marriage is a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers." Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill was pretty good too.

I went out to check on the cat and he was screeching around the corner of the grasses, chasing something. Not a bird at this hour.

One item that I didn't mention from the Halloween party: a dachshund in a crocodile costume.

So tonight was the first of 6 sessions of the partner loss support group at Hospice of the Valley. It went pretty well. Some new people. Others have been there for a while. The facilitator does it pro bono. She has a private practice up the peninsula.
Two men, both lost wives to oral cancer. It is a good place where we can all be safe and be "not okay." One of the men mentioned the difficulty of flying somewhere and not having anyone to call to say "I've landed safely." Seems like many have problems with piles of papers and lists of things to be done. That is reassuring. And we also talked about the upcoming holidays. The facilitator is going to collect recipes, identifying them with the contributor and the lost spouse...I think I'll add Linda's brisket recipe, and maybe matzo meal pancakes. and for the season, cranberry orange walnut sauce...not really sauce. More of a relish. One of the pages had suggestions of things to do at the holidays: like take a time at a holiday meal to share a story. That might be a nice thing to do in our family.

Tomorrow is an early day for me. I volunteered to be the staff person tomorrow morning at 6 AM when the poll workers arrive at the synagogue. But I'll get to come home earlier. It's going to be a long day.

omg costumes

the daughter of the hosts as Amy Winehouse was spectacular
outdone only by Rochelle as Frieda Kahlo (and Steve as Diego Rivera).
wow. lots of yummy food. kevin's apple/cranberry cake was our favorite. followed closely by christine's swiss chocolates.

fortunately is wasn't raining when i got home, so ketzl got a bit of outside time.

learning....

so i bought less at the farmers market today.
i'm listening to myself.

take good care of yourself, people have said.
so today i got a manicure and pedicure at the place where i get my hair cut.
most of the staff has been there more than 10 years. nice family feeling.
fingernails are cotton candy: light pink with opalescence.
toes were supposed to be purple but they are more of a purplish dark red.
now that it is winter and my feet will be in sox, only ketzl and i will see the color.

tonight is the halloween party. there will be a LOT of food, if past experience is any indicator.

brent musberger is getting old.
roger moore is 82. omg. how did THAT happen?
we are all getting older.

i won't miss the tv ads, but there are some wonderful youtube videos circulating. if i were more skillful, i would embed them here. "oy mc cainia" is a very nice one, as it the hockey mama for obama.

i subscribe to several green orgs that send good information. one of the latest from New American Dream was something to make you stop and think before you make a credit card purchase: you download (recycling the back of a piece of paper) and fold and tape it and make a holder for your credit card(s). the text of the protector says on one side: Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value. On the other side are a series of questions to ask onesself before making a purchase: Do I need this and do I need it now? Was it made sustainably? Were the workers who made it treated well? Does it have too much packaging? Is it worth the money? Make a difference.
if you want to see it, go to www.newdream.org it's called the wallet buddy.

ketzl is not happy about the rain, and not being able to go out, but he gave up whining and went to sleep. welcome to winter, cat.

3 more days. or 2 if you are counting differently.
give money to keep No on 8 ads on the air. that's going to be tough.