Oubliette
I'm writing this from our cabin in Idyllwild. I'm so glad Paula and I decided to do this. It's such a wonderfully fulfilling thing to see the place looking so good and to know that we made it happen. The leak that I was afraid might be in the wall has reared it's ugly head. The closet in the Hudson Bay Room had mold on the wall. (heh thanks to internet we found out you can kill mold with bleach and water so we sprayed it last night, closed the door and this morning - like modern chemistry its gone - but we know its still there inside - Paula) I'm digging into that wall today to see if I can expose those pipes. Could be worse. I could be coming through an exposed wall. Having it hidded in the closet makes it a great do it yourself project. My mistakes won't show much. Even that kind of stuff is fun when its your own place and your doing work that will benefit your family.

We bought a bbq for Oubliette in early December and it's been in the back of Paula's car from then till this weekend. I've got the box here on the porch along with a propane tank I bought on the way up here at the Home Depot in Temecula. Paula's Brother and his partner are joining us today and I'm hoping I can convince them to put it together. I'm going to have my hands full today with those pipes. Sounds like a working weekend but these projects are paltry, especially when compared to what we've already done. They won't take too much time. We won't let work get in the way of our relaxing time in the forest.

Another thing we want to do this weekend is create a website for Oubliette. We'll be taking lots of pictures and using some online tools and I will finally be able to show this place off to you all. I'll put a link on this blog once I have the site. And any time any of you are planning a trip to Southern California, you have to spend some time at Oubliette. Its funny but this is the first house that Paula and I have ever lived in where we could actually accomodate guests. I've got to do the Aerobed in the living room in San Diego if someone comes over. But I've got the Balcony Bedroom for you here in Idyllwild.

Its so cool to see so many members of our family participating with links on David's Blog. What a great way to keep up with everyone especially since we don't get to spend as much time with everyone as we'd like. I hope those who haven't jumped on the bandwagon will get jealous and want to give it a try!

Super Bowl 40

It almost more fun to watch this when you don't care who wins. It's rare when the game is any good, you can count the really good Super Bowl games on one hand. But it is amazing to this aging shadow baby boomer to watch those superbowl numbers keep growing. Wasn't it just last year that the superbowl logo was an X superimposted over a ref signaling touchdown? Feels like it anyway.

The dog had me running the other day on her "walk". My body still hasn't recovered. Who knew that I could ever be in this poor physical shape. I'm coming to terms with this new reality though. It means my daily life is about a lot more brains and a lot less muscles. While I do miss that feeling of physical invincibility, I get a lot more satisfaction out of configuring a network, or setting up a website, or writing to a blog.

I ran into the guy who was the Executive Director of The Stage Company the other day. He's now helming the leading hispanic cultural center in town. We had a nice conversation about what we were doing then versus what we are doing now. I came to the realization that I really don't miss that life. I still have that creative spark in me and I really do want to produce again someday, but there's no empty place in my life that needs to be filled with the creative output from producing. Frankly I thought that there would be by now.

We should find out about our season pretty soon. Once I have that information, Paula and I can figure out what week we want to use at The Ridge. I prefer the summer even though its a winter kind of place. Skiing is a memory for me now and snow is basically a pain otherwise so I'm much happier in the sunshine.

Looking forward to next weekend. We are finally going to get back to Idyllwild. Our cabin, Oubliette, is calling us. We've not been able to go up the hill since Thanksgiving. With all the hours I've been putting into work I'm finally being given a Friday/Monday off and we are heading up the hill. We'll take the time to create a very complete online presence for the cabin. It's been available for rent but hasn't had a lot of action so we are getting poised to place it better in the market. We've also got a bit of work to do up there. Paula has a bit of decorating to do and I have to check some plumbing. I'm convinced that there's a leak in the wall near the hot water heater so I have to tear into the wall and take a look. We've also got a lot of squirrels to feed and naps to take so we're going up the hill to take care of business.