I [Heart] My Life

Postcard from the Cottage: Our Noisy Neighbors

This fall, the sea lions down at the wharf are LOUD! Barking constantly as they fight for the ladies and a sunny piece of real estate. There are literally hundreds down there right now. Sometimes they even wake me up with their barking. So Thursday morning I walked down to see just who these noisy neighbors are.



This is a video I took on my camera of some sea lions swimming. It isn't very good quality, but they are so graceful when they swim that I thought I'd include it. Such a contrast to how they are on land! Click to download the file. There is no sound (unfortunately!).
Download DSCF7040.AVI

Steps Toward Going Green

Since July I've made a couple changes in my life in an effort to be more "green," to reduce my carbon footprint. I was really inspired by all the bike-riding that took place in Copenhagen, so when Joe and I returned home I decided to purchase a bike that I could use to commute to work. I ended up with this awesome ride (and, yeah, I can do sweet jumps on it!):

My goal is to bike to work (about 6 mi one way from the cottage) at least once a week. For the last 5 weeks or so, I've met that goal. The Bianchi Milano (aka "Cafe Racer") is a great bike for getting around our hilly beach town. It's a cruiser with some muscle! I really recommend it to anyone in the market for a beach cruiser with gears. It is fast, too, which makes it a great commuter bike. Since taking the above picture, I've added a basket to the back which is essential for grocery shopping, visits to the farmer's market, taking my laptop downtown to the coffee shop, and other errands that are now possible without driving. It feels really good to use a car less.

Speaking of car, though, the second change just occurred this week: I finally followed through on a dream I'd had for some time. I bought a diesel Volkswagon, which I'll run on bio-diesel. I couldn't be more happy with my new-to-me car, a 2005 Passat. I haven't filled the tank with soy oil yet, but I'll let you know how it goes when I do!

Two of my friends are really committed to green living: Megan is making changes to live a more sustainable life, while also starting her own green events company. Check her out at Savvy Girl Events (Megan was huge in helping us plan our wedding last year).  And Julie is in the business of eco-friendly landscape design. But when she isn't doing that, we're coworkers & she's busy finding ways to make our office in Capitola more Earth-friendly (increased recycling, biodegradable kitchen-ware that is made from corn and sugar, etc). Watch for Julie at Julie Orr Designs. (She's helping us design a beautiful drought-resistant front yard with many native plants.)

August Greetings

Summer in Santa Cruz is so nice! A couple weekends ago, I had an opportunity to go out sailing on the Monterey Bay aboard one of the local charter sail boats. For $50, the Chardonnay crew will take you out for 2 hours of great luxury and site seeing (they feed you & provide tasty beverages).

I went with Lauren, my soon to be sister-in-law (middle), her sister Molly (left), and my cousin, Casey (also a bride-to-be). We had a great time. I really recommend  the boat for any special occasion!

Later we went to Wilder Ranch and these gals joined us briefly:

Is this goat not smiling for the camera??

Finally, we capped the day with dinner at 515 Kitchen & Cocktails.

Postcard From the Cottage

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. Things are all good. We are officially totally settled into the cottage now. I returned this week from a business trip to Washington DC, and it felt really good to "come home" to the cottage. This cottage is so peaceful, it just felt to good to shrug off the trip here.

Kalli seems really comfortable. She loves hanging out in the bedroom on the window sill, watching the driveway. I have a feeling she's watching some neighborhood kitties, or maybe an opossum. Either way, she seems very content to stay inside. So we've decided that she'll probably be an indoor kitty for the duration of our cottage stay. We feel pretty relieved about this primarily because there is a certified Cat Woman living a few doors down with her 30 cats! We hear these cats fighting at night & definitely don't want our Kalli getting involved!

The Summer Cottage

Sun Rising over the Wharf -- First Impressions

After emailing this to a friend, I thought it would make for a good post, too:

We spent our first night in the cottage last night. Man, yesterday was a L O N G day! George was set to arrive at 12p to start taking a few big things to the cottage in his truck (bed, bike, coffee table, etc). So we got up at 9a to load our cars and do some other last minute things. Around 10a we noticed that Kalli wasn't well -- she was showing signs of a bladder infection (her second in 10 days!). So I rushed to the pet store to buy a carrier for her while Joe called the vet. Then I whisked Kalli down to the vet where she stayed all day (should I mention that I ended up crying at the vet because it just felt like too much to be happening all in one day?) Then we basically had to get all the moving done by 5p so we could pick her up again. George ended up running late so that bought us a little extra packing time and then the whole thing took 2 trips across town. It really wasn't that much to move but with beach traffic it took a lot longer than expected. So we got done moving by 3:30, had a quick lunch with George & Dale at the Crepe Place and then went and got Kalli to take her to her summer home.

I think we got to the Cottage around 6p -- from then till midnight we were unpacking and getting Kalli used to the place. It was nice to wander around and unpack and hang a few things on the wall. I forgot how nice it is to do that. Meanwhile Kalli was getting pretty comfortable pretty fast with the new place. We were really impressed. When we moved her to Harbor she was really overwhelmed but this time she was only scared for a little while and then her curiosity got the better of her. I think it was either the relief to not be at the vet anymore, or I bought this Glade-plug-in like thing that emits kitty facial pheromone and is supposed to really calm cats down -- so maybe that really did the trick (thanks Julie!!).

So all that was good, but then the hard part was after we went to bed -- Kalli really wanted to go outside. So for the rest of the night she climbed all over us and meowed and just seemed restless. I think it has a lot to do with her bladder infection. She has the urge to pee constantly, but nothing comes out. And she isn't used to using a litter box so she wants to go outside every time she has the urge. So we didn't get much sleep last night. Finally this morning around 6a, she settled down to sleep in the closet. Hopefully as we start giving her the antibiotics that will get better because we hope to keep her indoors for at least a couple of weeks so she can get to really know this place as "home."

Anyway, we had a long night and there is some getting used to it to come, but all in all, we are happy in the cottage and just have a bit more packing to do at Harbor. The end is in sight!

The best part: When I walked out to my car to drive to work this morning, the sun was just rising over the wharf, sparkling on the water. What a sight! :)

320 West Cliff Dr.

So where are Joe & I moving? We are moving back to the Westside -- into a 1886 cottage behind a big, beautiful Victorian called "Epworth-By-The-Sea." We'll be there from April 9th till approximately September 30th. This will be quite a change for us. The cottage is teeny tiny. But, it is right across the street from Cowell's Beach! How lovely to summer on W. Cliff!

Being back on the westside, we are looking forward to visiting our favorites from when we lived on Van Ness: Cafe Brazil for breakfast, Coffeetopia & Emily's, Riva's on the wharf for gelato, O'Mei & Avanti, The Herb Room, and I'm excited to try the new tappas bar, Cafe Del Mar.

It is going to be a fun summer! (All this plus our month in Copenhagen -- more on that later!)

(Photo credit goes to Scott Haefner's aerial kite photography. Awesome idea!)