Hi, There.

It's been a week of getting stuff done. Monday I rode my bicycle to the bus and took the bus to the tax man and now my taxes are done, WHEW!, and I have a nice amount of money coming back too. (And I didn't spend gas on that trip into Eureka, which is great, because gas is still somewhere around $4.60-$4.79 a gallon, depending on where you fill up.) Tuesday I took Baby for a really long walk and got a lot of catch-up work done, listed some stuff on eBay. Wednesday, we drove to Fort Bragg (three hours each way) and hand-delivered a lot of glass to our favorite gallery down there, and brought back a nice chunk of change in exchange. Yesterday I listed more on eBay. I went for a walk AND a bike ride. And I made banana bread. I used two different recipes, one that I cut off a bag of bananas that I bought at Kalscheur's Fine Foods in Mount Horeb (WI - as if anyone reads this that wouldn't know that, ha ha) so long ago, and the other one from a cookbook Grandma gave me just before I moved here. I didn't have all the ingredients listed in either, but with a little bit of creativity and modifying, I made some pretty darn good bread. Mom always said cooking was art more than chemistry, but a little bit of chemistry too. (See, Mom, I was sort of paying attention.) I think it's easier to do that with baking though. Baking, I get. Cooking, I'm still figuring out. Mike has taught me a lot. He's pretty innovative.

I've walked or biked now just about every day consistently for the last two weeks. Not crummy little distances either. And I've been doing pushups too. It's hard, but I can feel myself getting stronger and that is exciting. There is also this huge hill by my house that I have finally managed to bike all the way up. I thought my lungs might explode by the time I got to the top, but I made it up, so that's what's important.

I've also learned a tremendous amount this week about what is involved in being self-employed, and I think I can do this. I really do. Guess it's what I'm doing, so might as well go with that.

So that's my week in a nutshell. The weather has been cool and foggy, much like Humboldt, though it has been warm enough for teeshirts around here this summer on a semi-regular basis, which is different than last summer was. There are still lots of fires around me, but the sky is not smoky where we live. I think the fog protects us. I read in the paper yesterday that the fires have already cost something like 31 million dollars, and there is no end in site. I read online that it's raining like mad in southern California, so it seems we have changed places with our other half. It was also over a hundred degrees in San Francisco last week or the week before, which is record-breaking crazy. This weather, man, this weather. What else can you say?

Now I am going to package and ship marbles to the good folks who buy them from us. And then I am going to take some more pictures of marbles (I am beginning to fall in love with art marbles, which are truly mesmerizing. I can see why people collect them! You could see too! Just check out http://myworld.ebay.com/openfireglass/ ... I would say just kidding, but let's be honest here.)

I've got about 10 projects going all at once, and the kids come back next week! Mike's mom will also be in town, so I will get to meet her. I got a lot of stuff to get done while I still have some relative peace and quiet!