Mountains Ahead

Dolores Park on a warm fall day (Ingrid Taylar)

The Bay Area's hallmark late summer seems to have come at last, three days before the official beginning of autumn. After fog and wind all summer, it's been 80 degrees with warm nights and bright sunshine. It is a cruel trick for visitors to this region that our summer starts as soon as tourist season ends, indulges us for a month, and then gives way to a chilly fall. This morning, I took a minute to look out over the channel where the bay meets the ocean on my way home from work. Stunning. It does make up for missing the brilliant red and gold leaves of the East Coast. I sense that our sunshiny autumn will bring exciting change and mountains to climb!

Clean, white paint instead of baby blue/taupe/coffee.

At home, B has been hard at work to brighten up our ground floor apartment -- he loaded up the storage shelves that we built, which freed up some much-needed room, and then he painted two rooms by himself! We had chosen the colors many weeks ago, but he finally decided that he would paint before he starts work again. The bedroom was a pinkish-beige color; we opted instead for a more neutral golden-cream. It looks beautiful! The bathroom was a tiny, multicolored space with a bright yellow bathtub, so for that we chose a clean, white gloss. It looks like an entirely new place. Apparently, latex paint can take up to a month to cure, so we are camping in our living room for the time being. It's fun to have a makeshift studio.

I have managed to put our little Siamese on a successful diet (she was gaining weight due to her asthma medication), and she looks pleased with our place thus far. She likes to sit in the window seat in the sunshine, or else to guard our front door. I have also found a few minutes here and there to finally hang our pictures and put away odds and ends. Our living room is wood-paneled (including the ceiling), so after the exams I'm going to look a way to bring more light in.

B's delicious home-made whole-wheat flatbread zucchini pizza!

On the work front, B has been approved for his internship! I'm so glad he painted the house already. We were both surprised that he would start on a weekday, but apparently there was a motion to be filed this Friday, so they needed all hands on deck. My own lab project has been challenging, but I finally managed to sub-clone the gene I am working on, so my boss left for her conference on Friday a slightly happier woman. And of course, the boards are coming ever closer. I manage not to be nervous while actively studying, but when I'm speaking with coworkers or attending research meetings, there is a tiny undercurrent of dread always ready to claim my soul :) We (especially B) have been cooking and freezing up a storm in anticipation of my boards studying in the evenings and his working from 6 am -7 pm every day. The feline friend will have to find something to occupy her time with both of us at work all day! Right now, her strategy is to yell loudly anytime anyone approaches the front door.

I guard: No-one in + no-one out = happy cat.