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So, I have delayed posting the riveting tales of my trip to San Diego, because I wanted to post a couple of simple photos to illustrate. Well, the photos won’t load. And I’m giving up.

So, you will just have to imagine the whimsical nautical theme of the W San Diego. And you’ll just have to take my word that Jeff’s dear friend Rob joined my co-worker Michele and me for $11 mojitos.

Without photos, the trip is fairly ordinary, to be honest. The flights were on time and uneventful. The W hotel was hip, but still just a place to sleep…albeit with cool bath products and beach ball pillows on the bed. And Starbucks in San Diego tastes very much like Starbucks in San Francisco.

All in all, a very nice, quick business trip with time for laughs.

Oh, I DID notice an interesting new item in the in-flight SkyMall catalog. No, it wasn’t the Harry Potter wand or the Batman money clip (please). It was the doggy steps that caught my eye. If you recall, I ran across the deal of the century on As Seen on TV Doggy Steps–two for $39. Well these same steps (ok, same LOOKING) were $79.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.

Just a friendly tip from your favorite thrifty shopper 🙂

Our fireplace is without a doubt, the BEST addition we have made to our home…hands down. And days like today remind us.

First day of spring? I don’t think so. Yes, the rains returned…again. Sigh. (Not that anyone ELSE is enjoying spring: Tuesday in Muskegon 35F, Richmond 39F, Washington 36F, New York 42F. Makes our 52F seem like a heat wave!)

So, tonight, it was Buster’s turn to curl up by the fire and dream of that elusive sunbeam.

When it was rainy, the blog well ran dry. But this weekend, the sun came out, and Jeff and I wandered outside, blinking at the cloudless skies. Glorious.

On both Saturday and Sunday, we took our bikes out. Just a short warm-up on Saturday, but a nice, full afternoon today. We threw the bikes on the car rack, and drove down to Palo Alto and the Stanford campus–a beautiful (and flat) rambling campus with plenty of bike-friendly areas.

One highlight was stopping to look inside the Memorial Church, which opened in 1903. It dominates the main quad with its huge mosaics–inside and out. Hopefully, Jeff will post some of the interior photos.

And of course, I did try and find some of the whimsy of the day…

The rains return tomorrow, but we’ve got other pictures from the weekend to post through the week.

[Warning…more weather talk!!]

So, today began with some blue skies in between low clouds. I drove south to Sunnyvale this afternoon, and found the mountains off to the east to be snow capped…an sight that definitely causes a double-take here. I made it home in time for the rain to return (again).

Of course, this is becoming a broken record…some might say I’ve taken the record and stuck it through a shredder. So, I figure that I needed a new hook to keep me interesting. This drove me to think of my iPod soundtrack for our Great Flood. iTunes gave me some sweet memories:

• Rain
• Mandolin Rain
• Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain
• Singing in the Rain
• Its Raining Again
• Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
• Rainy Days and Mondays

And the LEAST appropriate iTunes match: Brooke Shields’ Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression. Oh my. Some light listening.

So, here are some classic rain pictures from my St. Michaels, Maryland series.

Well, once again, the “Alaskan storm” that is hugging the California coast sent some odd snowy, icy stuff down from the heavens. This time, it hailed just long enough to dust our cars, make the sidewalks and roads slick, and accent our potted plants. Of course, it melted by the time that we left to go to dinner, but it still made for some unusual San Francisco photos.

The hail or sleet or icy snow was accompanied by a spectacular lightning display. Rolling thunder just isn’t commonplace here, so the storm really took us back to warm summer nights in Virginia and Michigan.

Not that it is remotely warm here. Its frickin’ COLD, Mr. Bigglesworth.

Speaking of cold…Elena wrote from Russia. She is diligent. Here is an excerpt.

“Today our organization suits a holiday for all women. Invited singers and actors. Now while actors act I have a free timeand decided to go to the Internet-cafe to write to you the letter. Then we shall congratulate all women of our company. We yesterday bought many flowers and cards.”

[An addendum. The papers and news outlets have thrown around lots of words to describe our wintery precipitation. The latest I saw was “snow pellets”, which seems like a made up catch-all meaning “white frozen sh**”! I’m sticking with hail, because its the only one you can use in cringe-worthy puns like “When the hail is this blog going to end…”]