Emily took this picture of me in NYC.


And then she kindly clipped out the head shot and Kristofer and I made me a nifty website.
While we were in NYC, we met a lot of terrific folks and saw some shiny art


as well as a good deal of lawn



and some swell party duds



At Coney Island we rode the Cyclone which made something inside my chest crack
or pop distressingly, but that was not nearly as distressing as the
Shoot the Freak game, which involved a weapon and a dark skinned man with a
nard guard. That was disturbing.


Anyhoo, Emily invited me to move in to her LOVELY home, and I did just that.



It's just up the hill from Lake Merritt (scroll right to get the whole image)



The house is on a hill called Ivy Hill, though it seems more of a Palm hill than an Ivy hill to me



Here's the reverse view.



Now, being San Franciscan has been a huge part of my identity for a long time...
and as overjoyed as I was to be moving into such a lovely home with such a
fabulous partner, I needed some reassurance from the Universe...
and I got it first in the form of a fantastically framed view of Mount Tam which greets me
every time I get on 580 from our Park Boulevard on-ramp.



And OH MY GOODNESS it is wonderful to be 10 minutes from the forest. Like, genuine, deep, quiet forest!



with lovely Mount Tam still visible all the way over in Marin.



And though it's not quite the "Dorothy" trail, somehow this trail in Joaquin-Miller Park
seems welcoming and familiar for the SF transplant.


And patient hikers on the famous Freedom Trail in Redwood Regional Park,
if they're very lucky, may run into Yoshi and Mario and Luigi at this junction, and maybe
share a lunch of spotted mushroom power-ups.



The trees have seduced me away from the bike for a while I fear...




Leading up to my birthday, I puttered all over these hills, trying to find the perfect spot...
this darn bench was beautiful but the view was obscured...



But from a grassy clearing just up the hill, you can see this view of the whole Redwood Park valley
(scroll right)



Emily swears she was surprised but she must have wondered what was up because I
put on a tie and brought her up to this view at sunrise on my birthday. Then I asked her to wear
my headphones and listen to the song I'd written for her...cuz I was too shy to play it live...(ahem)...

She said yes!

And we zipped over to Colorado for Thanksgiving.

It's cold there.



We gave serious thanks


Apologies to Dad and Neena, that picture entertains me much more than it probably should...
And that's all I got for now...

Happy Holidays Everyone!