and… we are done!

Well, mostly.  There are knickknacks to go back on book shelves, and I want to think about those more.  But we are done.  We looked at everything (or so we thought - we later discovered we had forgotten an inconsequential box, weeded out a lot, packed the rest up.  

It was after 6 when we were done.  We finally showered and headed over to Mama M f

or a thoroughly satisfying dinner there.  Tofu!  

Shishito peppers!  

Sashimi!  

It was good.

But ahhhhhhh…. I love and miss Christmas, but I am so glad to be done!

this is bittersweet

Good morning, happy Saturday!  Back from Santa Ynez, which I will blog about later in the weekend, and up at a decent hour this morning.  I haven’t gone out on a walk yet.  Instead, I’ve been doing the easy parts of taking down Christmas and putting it away.  The last time seeing so many of these items that evoke such memories and emotions until the next holiday season.  I hate having to do this, but I will appreciate having the condo back to normal and tidy.  A bittersweet start to the weekend, I admit.

yep, still, sigh

I am much improved since Saturday, I am happy to say.  Not 100%, no, but improved.  But, alas, still positive.

There are plans afoot for Friday and Saturday.  I am fine if I need to be masked for those, but I do want to feel my best for them.  We shall see.

I am, however, not merely lying in bed, and I have made it out and about in the condo as needed! 

Masked, and far from Conrad, of course.

first weekend of February

Happy Sunday, happy February!  It's been a good weekend at home - some of our usual fun, some things done.  So I'm happy to check in and share a little of what we did.  Ready?  Let's go!

Friday means Maestro, and we duly found ourselves at a corner of the bar. 

A mocktail

and some guacamole to start with, and then we dug into the special LA dining week menu.  Tetela for Conrad and Van each to start with,

calamari for me. 

I had duck carnitas as my meal,

and then each of us ordered the jericalla for dessert. 

An early meal, and a mild, early night - Van had headed home by 7:30, and Conrad and I just relaxed with reading and music the rest of the night.

Saturday morning was a lovely morning for a walk on the earlier side, then over to Amara, each of us having what we so often do. 

A decaf latte for me,

an arepa for my breakfast. 

Satisfying!

And then we came home and got stuff done.  Post-Christmas de-cluttering, badly needed.  Wines in the new wine fridge, books weeded out and the shelves re-arranged.  It was quite the undertaking, truly.  But ah, I love seeing those tidier shelves!

Last night we spent the evening at Van's.  We had every intention of a full night of Drag Race, but we only made it through one episode after dinner.  Nice enough dinner, though:  steak topped with caramelized onions and blue cheese. 

Cooked perhaps too rare, but ah well.  Huge steaks!  Not one of us could finish them.  A pear crisp for dessert as well - that was a nice one.  I sipped some red wine with dinner -

February 1, and my dry month was done.  We actually each had a cocktail to start with -

Last Words, of course -

and I have to say that after a month of no drinking, that cocktail was POTENT.  I shan't have anything with our pizza and the Grammys tonight, and I'll keep things under control in days and weeks ahead.

A good weekend, not yet done.  I've managed a lot of reading, listened to some new music, did a five-mile walk this morning by myself.  Laundry is on the go.  Productive, relaxing.  A great mix.

clean up begins

Oh, how I wish it could be clean up for the thousands of people now homeless in Altadena, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Malibu, and more.  How awful for them.  So much destruction.  We really did get off lightly here.

I've been catching up on some work today now that my wifi is running smoothly, staying inside, tending to laundry as well.  Conrad, bless him, ran errands and picked up things needed for clean up.  He's out in the back courtyard now, sweeping up the debris and ashes for disposal. 

Our poor plants so badly need a good watering as well.

Clean up around the metro will not come for days.  A long process ahead.  We will go see the damage when we are allowed up there, but I won't share photos of other people's devastating circumstances.  Just see Conrad sweeping up our little mess here and imagine how extraordinarily worse it is for so many.

still safe

We’ve been indoors at home for two days now.  The fire appears to have stopped growing, or at least it is growing away from us.  We did not have to evacuate, but we remain ready to do so.  Air quality is abysmal and dangerous:  a reading of 321 this morning!!  When we finally get outside, we will need to clean up the dirt blown into our courtyard and the ash fallen.

But we are still safe.  Happily.  Van is safe at his house as well, and we wish we were all together.

all gone for ten or so months

Sigh.

Loud sigh of sadness.

Sigh.

It's all gone, all put away.  The tree and other decor we'd had up in the condo are boxed and in storage.  See you in November, my friends.  December at the latest!  And now a fresh start for at home in the new year.  Or something like that.

Sigh.

I really do love Christmas, you know.

Party!

Gosh, it's been a long time.  So very long.  I think the last time we had a party that wasn't a dinner party was, oh, August of 2019.  We did a wine tasting, the weather was terribly warm, and it was a fun time.  Add last night to the (meager) list of our parties.  A cold April night, wine and cocktails.  We had a fun time.

I have to say, all the work that Van did on the planters really paid off.  And all the work that Conrad and I did on swapping out artwork and tidying did as well.  The condo looked great.  I set up a nice spread of things to nibble on, and we were ready for guests to arrive at 7.

I didn't take many photos during the party.  For one thing, I was stationed at the bar I had set up in the kitchen,

making cocktails. 

And - much to my surprise - folks wanted cocktails, not wine.  So be it.  But there were people who came over we hadn't seen in so long, like Carrie and Ron. 

Almost 5 years!  Too long.  So good to see them.  So I caught a few photos, like of Jennifer

and Erik,

but not many more.  I was just too busy enjoying the talking with friends.

What a late night, though.  Clean up was done by one, but I was too wired to go to sleep.  I think I was in bed at 2 AM, and awake again at 7:30.  Oh yes, a Sunday morning nap was needed.

I joked with Van earlier today that I have now become a dinner party person.  Yes, cooking for folks is exhausting, but unlike last night, at least I get to sit down!

more small improvements

We have a bit of a party planned for tonight, friends and drinks and little nibbles set out.  That's been great impetus for us to actually tidy our place a little more.  Finding home for piles of things or putting them in storage.  Swapping out artwork what with the stuff having come from Vancouver.  Replacing the toilet seats even!

We did the bedroom first.  No, we're not entertaining there, but we will be giving some folks the tour of the condo.  It all seemed pretty impressive to me once we were done. 

There's more we want to accomplish - we'll be swapping out the rug and the oval table and adding some lighting there eventually - but I was pretty pleased.  I'm loving looking around here in the dining room where I am parked at the table at the pieces we now have hanging on the wall as well.  Over time, I'll capture some of them in additional photos for sharing.

the landscaper at work

So here's the deal:  Conrad and I are indifferent at best when it comes to potted plants.  And that is being very very generous.  For years we've had some succulents in pots, and we willfully ignored them.  Occasion watering, pruning once, never transplanting or replacing.  The plants were out there, and that was about it.

But honestly?  We wanted better.  And hey, there's Van, who tends to all the plants on his large patio and knows his stuff.  Apparently I bring cooking, Conrad brings engineering, and Van brings green thumbery to the relationship.  So we gave him a budget and let him do his thing.

Last week he cleared out every pot but one.  Today he got the pots (and more) filled and rearranged.

Friends, it looks good.  It's so different, and while we kept one succulent, it was good to have some other things, including flowers.

Van, thank you.  We have a party coming up this weekend, so it will be great for people to see the new greenery and admire it.

so what have I (we) been up to this week?

It's not all catching up on The Bachelor and American Idol these days, you know.  There's been some real stuff done.

I've mentioned previously that we sold the condo.  That sale closed last Thursday, the new owners took possession last Friday.  And prior to that, Conrad and Van had gone up to close up the condo, get rid of the things we no longer needed/wanted, and oversee the pick-up of things to be shipped to the United States.  On Tuesday, those things arrived.

No, there isn't a lot.  We didn't need the Vancouver furniture, nor did we want the expense of transporting it across the border to us to have to deal with.  We gave it all away (save for a few things we sold to the new owners).  But we did want a fine carpet that we'd had for a number of years.  And we did want all the artwork that we had on the walls before the staging of the condo.  And we did want the Russel Wright ware that I had been collecting and we had been using.  And lo!  Those things arrived with us on Tuesday afternoon.

I'd taken Tuesday off work to be available for the delivery, and then I unpacked the Russel Wright.  Happily, it all made it just fine (which wasn't the case for every piece the guys had packed back with them in their suitcases).  All of it now has a home on the shelving in the dining room, and I think it looks pretty good there. 

Over time, I may add a bit more.  We shall see.

The artwork still sits in the living room.  When Conrad gets home tomorrow, we'll shift it around, and I think it will make for an interesting weekend project if we swap out some of what we have and move it to storage, making room for the pieces from Vancouver that we haven't been able to enjoy for a handful of years.  The carpet will go for a cleaning, a badly needed cleaning.  And then I have plans for it to be unfurled and used in the bedroom.

Ah, but that's not all that happened on Tuesday.  I can only claim to have helped a small bit with the other big project underway.  Van came over to work on our potted plants.  And by work on them, I mean get rid of most of them.  It was badly needed.  Here's the truth:  Conrad and I are indifferent plant parents, and we have never properly cared for the collection of succulents that were getting more and more unruly (and probably potbound) over the years.  We've badly wanted to do something about it, and Van came to the rescue.  You see, he takes care of all the pots and planters on his deck, planning and changing things out as needed.  So there he was on Tuesday afternoon, ridding us of the fire stick that was once so nice and now was ragged.  And the jades that had become spindly.  And more.  He left one pot untouched. 

Once the several lawn trash bags were carted away, we had a barren-looking front and back to the condo.

We trust in him, though, and what he's thinking for sprucing the place up in the days ahead.

Busy times, then, and getting some things accomplished, which always feels good.  And that, friends, is in part what has been going on this past week.

end of an era

Conrad and Van are in Vancouver, and I am not.  Yesterday they sorted the things that are being shipped down to Pasadena and got them ready for pick-up tomorrow.  Today they (and Marie has been there, too) worked to get all of the furniture out, save for a few pieces that the new owners have purchased from us.  By early afternoon, the place was pretty much empty.

And so that's it.  The end of an era.  We own the condo for two more weeks, but I won't see it in that time (my passport is off in Ottawa for renewal).  Last September (or was it October?) was the last time I saw it.  Staged, ready for sale.  And that was it.

We bought the place in 2007, taking possession in May of that year.  Marie moved in, and we would use the spare bedroom every time we visited.  After our wedding in 2011, Conrad and I took it over, and until 2019 we were able to use it any time we wanted, just walking on in and settling in.  We had a fully furnished second home there.  We kept clothes there.  We needed nothing.  And I loved it.  The views, the space.  We had Christmases there and birthdays and more.  So many mornings running and walking in and around the city from there.  Every time we started our day at Safari.  Every time we wandered up to Mamie Taylor's for a good dinner at the bar.

And then in 2019, the condo association voted to remove the rental cap on the building.  Just like that, we were vulnerable to the empty homes tax, and we were forced to rent the place out.  September of that year we had a tenant move in.  I didn't see the place for four years, not until last fall when the tenants moved out and we began the work of putting the condo on the market.

I'm so happy that Conrad and Van and Marie got so much done.  I am happy that the stress of selling is behind us, and we can invest the gains on the sale into our retirement.  But I sit here before dinner in Pasadena, feeling melancholy.  I wish we still had the place, but only if we could use it.  I wish we didn't have to sell - I know we don't HAVE to, but we don't want to be landlords.  I wish I could have seen it again.

Thank you, Vancouver condo, for so many good memories.  I will miss you greatly.

weather station

It's always fun to play with all the new toys Santa brought, right?  Earlier this afternoon, I headed up to the roof with this butch fella,

helping him (a little!) with the installation of a weather station on the roof of our condo building.

  Temperature and rain gauges, both. 

We'll geek out on the data regularly.🤣