Gung Hay Fat Choy !

While it is only "day 48" of 2018 -- it is also the Chinese New Year -- the year of the dog! We did not see any parades in the streets of Healdsburg along with the fireworks and all, but if we still lived in San Francisco, that would be a different matter entirely.

Huge celebrations were shown on TV and more firecrackers than ever before. It is a fun tradition to see unfolding through the bay area and many other locations throughout the world. It is the kind of news that we expect to see and enjoy.

Dino is right in there with the celebration. Actually, as long as he gets his two meals and his daily allotment of treats, one day is pretty much the same as the next. And that is the way that we like it as well.

Today it is going to be about 70°. That is a bit cooler than the last two weeks but supposedly much warmer than what they are predicting for the next several days. The cold front from Seattle is making its way to the North Bay -- too bad the rain from Seattle is not.

Valentine's Day has come and gone -- but half the cake is still with us. We are so fortunate to have a "baker" living across the street from us who loves to let us critique her work before she lets the general public taste.

This pure moist, fluffy chocolate cake enveloped in a chocolate ganache is "out-of-this-world" and would win awards in any competition.


We are parsing it out so that it lasts for several days. We add a dollop of vanilla ice cream and savor the moments that we have each night as our nightly treat -- wow!

The cake made celebrating the day special and gives us something else to look forward to after dinner time. The consistency of the cake is so good -- it reminds me of my Mother's favorite -- her chocolate "dump" cake, which she loved making for us.

 Of course, what would Valentine's Day be without a puzzle -- and in this case a unique wooden puzzle from Liberty Puzzles.

In this case, "The Tree of Life" brightly colored and so far interesting to work on (when we feel like it).

Gail puts two pieces together and then says she is stumped but shortly after concentrating a bit she gets a few more. And so it will go for a few weeks.

This puzzle does not have the traditional straight-sided edge pieces so that makes it challenging as well. We can leave it set up and then sit (or stand) to work on it when the urge strikes us.

Also colorful is the new needlepoint that Gail is working on currently (I just view). She works on the needlepoint when she is inclined to do so and frequently spends quite a bit of time "in her knitting den".

She often puts on "background" TV to keep her company and Dino often sleeps by her side while she works.

She is awaiting a few more needlepoint projects to arrive and this one is just a filler until they do. It is so nice that she has the needlepoint, the puzzle, and some games on her iPad to vary her activities during the day.

Also these last several days, a trip outback gives us a glimpse of what springtime will be bringing our way.

Already -- and each year it starts with ONE poppy and then grows like wildflowers into many many poppies.

Then there are the Meyer lemons -- lots of them currently. Because of the predicted coming weather in the next few days, we are going to pick most of them due to the freezing.

The bucket in the middle of the picture is displaying our solar powered water pump -- which really does work, but only if there is sunlight.  The hippo hasn't moved since last year and the purple blossoms are fun to see again.

Overall, loads of color in our daily routines -- we enjoy it -- we're old . . .

Lastly, we have been watching some of the Olympic Winter Games -- it is hard to coordinate the recording of "new" events and not keep seeing the same events over and over. And due to the time changes -- we often have heard about the results of events before viewing them -- very confusing.

The U.S. has a ways to go to be in a leadership position with respect to medal winnings. There still is another full week of events and I can only hope that "curling" at some point will be featured.

We will watch the events that strike our interest but not necessarily "all the action". It can get to be repetitive in a hurry, so we'll be choosing selectively. And it really helps to have things recorded so that we can "power" through when we need to . . .

We do look forward to watching the "closing ceremonies" though. It is amazing to think that these athletes work for four years to get to the next Olympic games and for some, it is over so quickly.

That is a bit of our week, see you all "in a few" ! 😍