Paul and I went to the lovely V. Sattui winery in St. Helena today. The weather was perfect as we sat on the lawn under the shade of a tree, talking, people watching (unfortunately, one woman we watched passed out), eating some very delicious sandwiches, and, of course, drinking a glass of wine.  V. Sattui is one of my favorite places to go because they have this amazing barbecued tri-tip. I seriously have no idea how they make the tri-tip so tender and flavorful, but I have never had anything like it anywhere else in my whole life! Suffice it to say, I highly recommend visiting the V. Sattui winery. 

Summer weather is here! Hurray! 

I feel like we are past due for an update on our blog. Which reminds me that we have some overdue library books as well... Anyway, today is the last day of our week-long spring break. We had a really good vacation - we were able to accomplish a few projects around the house, spend time with friends and family, and recreate. (This is a tangent, but I just read somewhere that the word recreation is generally misused these days to simply mean to go for a bike ride or something, when really it originally meant to stop, think, and "re-create." Although, I do think that going for a long walk and thinking about one's life seem to go hand and hand. So maybe the modern definition of the word is not so far from its origin.) I could go into great detail about all of the things that we did, but I'm feeling rather lazy. And no one really wants to read all of that junk anyway, right? The pictures above were taken on Easter Sunday post-sunrise (I guess that's obvious!); the following picture was taken pre-sunrise of that amazing full moon.

The photograph doesn't do it justice, but I can still picture in my mind how truly breathtaking that morning was. Everything was so still and quiet and pristine. Paul and I got up before dawn that day, feeling pretty sleepy and grumpy and a little overwhelmed by the things we had to accomplish before heading off to church, but when we saw that moon, we suddenly remembered what day it was and what was important (and not so important) about that day. We spent a long time in silent awe.    

Anyway, Paul is bugging me to get off the computer and watch something with him. But for those who have been to our house, I have to post a picture of our latest improvement. Last night we had the bright idea to move our computer out of the dining room and into the small alcove between the kitchen and the back porch. The computer is basically just sitting on a board that is attached to the wall, but it makes a great desk area, which we sorely needed. I don't know about Paul, but I feel more prepared to face the last nine weeks of school already. (Yay! Only nine weeks left!!)

Hasta luego,

erica

P.S. Can anyone please tell me why you can't click on the pictures in these posts to make them open up full size in another window? I haven't changed the settings, and I can't figure it out. The only thing that has changed is that we now use Safari instead of Firefox. Also, why is one paragraph of this post spaced differently? 

The weather has been fantastic the last couple of days around here and it reminded me of how wonderful it is to live in California as others are still braving ice and snow. (Seventy-three degrees in February?!) These pictures remind me of a lazy summer day, the kind of day that Paul and I are quite eager to return to. It seems to me that the picture of the sidewalk should have a wayward scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on it. 

Before we get to summer vacation though school will be quite busy. Paul is organizing an art show that will be held next Friday, and shortly thereafter we'll be holding a speech meet, spelling bee, and science fair. Then we'll have spirit week, diem compite, an old-fashioned school-wide picnic, Butter and Eggs Day parade, and the school auction. Many activities to cram into only fifty-seven school days! But I think we can handle fifty-seven days of craziness, knowing that summer vacation is on its way. =)

By the way, it's probably obvious, but I didn't take either one of those pictures. They really are both in Petaluma, but I found them on flickr. 

Signs of spring are all around! Trees are budding, flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising, and our cat is mating. Yes, our beloved little kitty is apparently "in heat" right now. So perhaps we'll have some kittens running around come April. (No, we haven't had our cat spayed yet and yes, she become an out of doors cat. And yes, we are horrible, irresponsible human beings.) 

Latin class is going very well. It's very challenging, but in a good way. Translating sentences is really fun because of all of the declensions - it's like a puzzle that you have to piece together, with little clues to guide you along the way. We had our first test two weeks ago, and both of our tests came back with "optime" written on them because both received an A+! We have another test this week and I'm really hoping we'll both get an A+ again. Which reminds me that I really should probably be doing something other than writing this blog. Valete! 

If there is any more rain, we're going to have to grow gills. Yesterday it rained steadily from dawn till dusk and more rain clouds are expected to head our way over the next few days. We don't mind though. Last night Paul and I put on our water-resistant jackets, pulled the hoods up over our heads, and took a stroll around the downtown in the midst of the down-pour, feeling a bit like little kids (minus the splashing in puddles and picking up worms). This morning we went for a walk around the neighborhood and I took some pictures of the effect El Nino had on our little 150 year old town.

Today Paul and I went thrift store shopping and it was so much fun! We got so many useful and unique items in great condition for a fraction of what we would normally pay - I'm totally sold on thrift store shopping now (Paul was convinced long ago). I still don't really want to wear someone else's old clothes, but I'll use their gently used dishes and furniture in a heartbeat. The chair pictured above has a tag on the underside of the seat from some fancy schmancy Scandinavian furniture store in San Francisco and the turquoise creamer is from the 1940's. We picked up some other stuff too, but those were my favorite.  We also went to this used bookstore called Odyssey in Novato that is going out of business and has therefore slashed their prices to 80% of the already marked down price. It was amazing. I did the math and on average we paid 93 cents per book (and two of them were N.T. Wright books that sell on Amazon for over thirty dollars). Even though we spent money, we paid so little and got so much that it felt like we were somehow being good stewards. I guess if we had just stayed home we wouldn't have spent a dime though. Oh... but if we had stayed home we wouldn't have given our charitable donation to the Boys and Girls Club or the Hospice of Petaluma!  

On another note, Paul and I start taking Latin at the Petaluma junior college on Tuesday. We're both super excited. Perhaps we'll be able to read Winnie Ille Pu by June! (I'm kind of being facetious, but that would be cool.)