Mouse, Memorial & Crab Feed

We had a mouse in the house a few weeks ago! Grady woke up and made eye contact with the little guy early in the morning. That set the tone for the day and he was determined that he and Steve would "catch" the mouse (not kill it). Well, when they came home in the afternoon they had another face-to-face meeting with the little mouse and caught it by placing a bowl on top of it and sliding a flattened cereal box underneath it. They took it out to the field behind our house where Steve "launched" the mouse.

Steve and Grady were heading out of town and Grady decided to give me some sage advice. "Mom, if you see the mouse and get scared - just go into my bedroom and get my turkey feather collection and flap them in the air. The mouse will think you're a bird and mice are scared of birds, okay?" Where does he come up with this stuff?

It was a long week without the guys as they ventured down to Southern California for Thanksgiving with Steve's family. I worked most of the weekend and was under the weather. To make myself feel better, I ventured to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg for one of the lowest tides of the year (-1.8") on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. That definitely lifted my spirits. I traveled with Shona, a fellow seaglass lover and we gathered over 500 pieces each. It was a gorgeous, long day. When I returned home, I received the sad news that a childhood friend had passed away earlier that morning. I was sad to hear that, but glad he was surrounded by family.



I flew down to Southern California for the memorial of Jack Hill, who turned 40 on New Year's Day 2007. It definitely made me pause and think about slowing down, loving your friends and family more, and try to appreciate each and every day here on earth.

It was a quick trip and when I arrived home on Sunday, we went directly to the Valley Ford Crab Feed (which is an all-you-can-eat feast of crab, pasta, bread, etc.). The dessert table is fabulous too and it was a nice reminder of why I love living out here and how much I love my kidlet, friends, husband and family.

I've been making improvements to the shop lately with new shelving and moving a block of wine to the back corner of the shop for easier display. It's pretty quiet on the coast in December, but the weather has been really nice. The shop already feels infused with new life with just the minimal changes. We are in the process of buying the building the shop is in and when that closes, we look forward to doing bigger changes.

I won't be posting for a little while, but will update about all of the December happenings at the beginning of the year. Until then...take care.

Thanksgiving in SoCal

I was lucky enough to be able to take Grady down to SoCal for my favorite family holiday - Thanksgiving. It's been about 6 or 7 years since I've been with everyone for the big day and it was really special for Grady to finally share in the festivities.

After a brief stay in Paso Robles at the amazing Melody Ranch Motel (room 8) on Tuesday night, Grady and I spent about 7 hours getting to Newport Beach for a long awaited Bulldog. It was good to be there.

Turkey Day started with Dave, Cindy and the kids arriving - Grady had been REALLY looking forward to seeing Kerrigan and was very excited to finally see her. And he hardly left her alone. Until his cousin Mya arrived. After a short acclamation period, they broke out the instruments and before you knew it, they were holding hands and having dinner together. We have some cute kids in the family.


After all was said and done, Grady got to spend a laughter-filled family holiday with many of his cousins, aunt, uncles, grandparents and even his great-grandmother Bea. Next year, I hope that Tammi can join us so that we have our entire family together.

In the days following Thanksgiving, Grady got to go for a boat ride with Popo...
Had dinner with Grandma Bea, Uncle Bob, Grandma Jan & Popo and Kerrigan...
And even got to spend some time with his buddies Jack & Harry.

It was a great trip and can't wait for the next one...
Steve