Chloe's Birthday

"Playing with new toys is just exhausting...", says the birthday girl.

Smog

That layer of brown between the blue sky and the blue water is smog.

When the wind blows from east to west the smog from LA blows out to sea. Normally it sits at the base of the mountains, far away from us.

Awfully Quiet Around Here...

The holiday doesn't start until tomorrow, according to my calendar.

I think the "official" day off for people is the 26th, Monday this year since Christmas falls on a Sunday.

Out and about this morning, I was impressed by an unusual sound -- nothing. It's quiet outside. Not many cars, not many kids playing on the playground. A couple of dogs barking. I could get used to this -- quickly.

It won't last. Maybe we'll have some peace until January 3rd. I think January 2nd is the "day off".

I went about my usual business today. The holiday starts tomorrow.

A New Coffee Activity

Coffee is one of my first thoughts every morning. If I'm an addict, at least it's legal and available everywhere in the world.

I have (had) a great coffee maker. It ground the beans and then brewed the coffee so it is (was) always fresh. In the middle of the night last night, Terry heard a weird noise and when he investigated it turned out to be the coffee pot. He unplugged it and forgot about it.

When I got up and tried the grind cycle, nothing happened. It made a weak noise, attempting to grind the beans but nothing happened. I cleaned it out, tried again. Re-set the machine's functions, tried again, the same. So, we had Nespresso.

I thought I had a spare coffee maker in the garage. I dusted it off, washed it, set it up, set it's clock and tried to make a test pot. The "on" button wouldn't work. The "off" button wouldn't work. It's gone, too.

Shopping was on the agenda anyway, it's a week before Christmas. So, this afternoon, I entered the world of the french press. I've wanted one forever but had a hard time justifying one with a coffee maker and a Nespresso machine (in both places). I bought a 12-cup model (shown above). Twelve cups of french press coffee equal about 36 oz total, or maybe two Starbuck's medium cups (I think it's called Venti but I'm not well-versed in Starbucks lingo). But, it's the biggest model they make.

I saved the brushed stainless thermos carafe from the old coffee pot, perfect to keep french press coffee nice and warm. I'm set.

I dashed home, tore open the packaging to my new french press. I'm not one to read and follow directions. Even when I get something complicated like a computer, I unwrap it, plug it in and play with it until I get stuck before reading anything. Reading is for the details, not macro usage instructions.

But, looking at this thing, I was a bit stumped. How does it work? How do you keep coffee grinds from getting (ick) in the coffee? I had to read the directions. Twice. They still didn't make complete sense, so I decided a late-afternoon pick-me-up was in order. I followed the directions to the letter. Tested, tasted the result. Fabulous.

I'll never go back. It's all set up for tomorrow's first real test.

Updating The Address Book

Sending and receiving Christmas cards is a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and family. The mailman brings pictures, cards, letters every day now. He's almost like Santa.

The Christmas card process has taken on a new dimension this year.

I went and bought cards a week ago. That was the easy part. I made the list of people, OK. I started writing the envelopes. I always do the envelopes, put the stamps on and then get down to the business of writing notes. OK.

For years I've used Palm application on my computer. I have hundreds of names, addresses and phone numbers.

Since I've had an iPHONE, I've slipped up a little bit, now I use the phone to keep the phone numbers, addresses, door codes, etc. So, I have addresses in two places; two different lists. Additionally, I have many friends that I don't even have their address.

Embarrassingly, I've had to call and email quite a few people to get their correct address. Now, that I've finished writing out the cards, I can settle into the new job of editing both lists to make them complete. This job should be done to my satisfaction by the time next year's cards need to be addressed (I hope).

I Picked This For the Label

And the price (under 5 Euro). I wasn't disappointed, but my methods are suspicious.

My Address Book

I am trying to write and mail Christmas cards this week. It used to be pretty easy, I just opened my Palm address book and everyone was in there.

I switched to an iPHONE a few (maybe 3) years ago. My contacts are usually a phone number and an email address. If the people live in Paris, there might be a door code in there somewhere.

So, I've had to email a bunch of people to get their addresses. Sorry, everyone, I'll put them in my Contacts for sure. If I don't hear back from you, you'll be getting an e-card, so I do have options.

Two Sunsets In One Day

Flying from east to west awhile ago, we took off in the light, the sky turned orange and red, sunset. Many hours spent in the dark. Probably over Greenland. Long day and night.

We left the window shades open, it was dark. Eventually it started to get light again. Brilliant daylight for awhile, now my internal clock is really messed up.

We land in the light and grab a cab. As we head due west on Imperial Highway, the sky was, once again, red/orange/yellow. Second sunset in a very long day.