9/10/2004 Well, I can finally say that I am home. It's a grind every August to be gone from home for four straight weeks with only a day or two home at a time. Sacramento was hot as usual, I spent most of my time at the fair printing photos but in the evenings I wandered around Roseville looking at all the incredible oak trees. I spent about three evenings making the sketch to the left. It was interesting; in the end I don't think that it looks soo much like an oak tree. I intentionally made the branches smaller than they were to keep them in proportion with the size of the trunk, but the effect is that the tree doesn't seem as sturdy and powerful as an oak does when you are looking at it. I also had a hard time getting the foliage to look right; both the visual weight of the pads of foliage and the individual leaves don't look quite correct to me. I hope to try again and make improvement.

Dory and I finally went out and got some deck furniture a week ago. I had been looking around for some for a couple months. The problem I found was that there is the cheap Target stuff that'll run you $150 for a set and last a year or there's the $1500 set of real teak furniture. There are only two stores in San Francisco that sell outdoor furniture and one isn't open to the public...those stupid people down at the design center will only sell you things if you are working with a designer. So, after a dentist appointment for Dory in Walnut Creek we headed out to check out some of the stores over there; but we found that the place we had visited in the city, which was a showroom for a single manufacturer, had nicer teak furniture for about the same price as the larger suburban stores. So we returned to the city and bought a set of two chairs and a table that are bar height. The higher set allows us to easily see over the deck railing making the view while dining nicer. I had breakfast out there this morning and found it quite pleasant.

As many of you already know, Dory is pregnant. I suppose that those of you who didn't know have a big question mark in a bubble on top of your head at the moment...but now you know. Her first ultrasound was last week and you can see the little tike right in the middle: the head is on the left and the body on the right. The doctor said that it's about "walnut size" at the moment. Dory had been feeling nauseous for the last couple months but to this point has managed not to yack once.

I've been trying to get out and go hiking more...when I was in Roseville I generally had a bunch of free time in the morning since Brian and Dory were taking care of my morning chores (mostly watering the plants.) So I went hiking around Folsom Lake on some of the trails. The lake itself isn't that nice looking, it's man-made and at the moment is about 75% empty. Furthermore, they allow horses on most of the trails which makes them really dusty. With each step a little puff of dust flies up and coats your shoes and legs. What was nice was the oak trees. I found one area of Blue oaks that was pristine and looking at it from just the right angle I could almost imagine that I was out in the middle of nowhere on a virgin California savannah. Too bad all the neighboring areas have been cleared for housing developments. I tried to go hiking at San Bruno Mountain when I got back here to the city only to find that the park is now closed Tuesday through Thursday. This puzzles me. I don't understand how closing a park where there is almost no maintenance saves anyone any money. There are signs threatening tickets and imprisonment to people who enter while it is closed...so if they have the money to pay a ranger to give people tickets why can't the park just be open? Besides, what gives them the right to close public land to the public? Argh.

8/23/2004
8/8/2004
7/21/2004
7/2/2004
6/8/2004
5/4/2004
4/20/2004
3/28/2004
3/10/2004
2/10/2004
1/15/2004
12/26/2003
12/13/2003
11/18/2003
10/26/2003
10/13/2003
9/20/2003
9/14/2003
8/13/2003
7/29/2003
7/19/2003
7/8/2003
7/1/2003
6/3/2003
5/29/2003
4/22/2003
3/18/2003
2/27/2003
2/18/2003
2/15/2003
1/31/2003
1/21/2003
12/18/2002

The list grows ever longer.

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