Mark this day in history!

Maggie the Wonder Pup, defender of the homestead, did not bark at all last night.  It is a momentous occasion worthy of a blog post, because she has been barking at something (raccoons, squirrels, stray cats, her own reflection...) for weeks now.  Every. Night.  And last night, NO BARKING!  Yea, Maggie!  Keep up the good work.

Merry Early Christmas

Kevin got the new iPhone for Christmas, and he wanted it early.  So we ordered it a couple weeks ago and had it shipped to my office.  It was due to arrive on Friday. The problem with that was my office was closed for the holiday.  So there the coveted iPhone sat, in a box at the FedEx office in Pleasanton.  And at 10:00 this morning, Kevin comes running out with the shipping invoice, stating that he was going to Pleasanton to pick up his phone.  He was like a kid at Christmas.  He's been updating, syncing, transferring, and fiddling with it all day.  He even already called his brother, Dan, to show off a little.  It's been so funny to watch him playing with his new toy.

Dickens Festival

A friend of mine scored some free tickets to the annual Charles Dickens Christmas Festival.  Kevin and I went with her family to observe this fascinating bit of culture.  This is a group of people seriously dedicated to their craft.  They have some pretty intense rules for the costumes and how they act.  Read about it here.  Seriously.  You'll get some enjoyment and head shaking out of it, I promise.

We started with some lunch; traditional Dickens era meat pies.  Seriously delicious and some of the best fair food I've ever had.  Fresh, warm, and oh, so tasty.  Yum.  But the rest of the day was fabulous.  Amelia, our four-year old friend, was my willing model for all sorts of masks and hats.  She struck some poses that did my heart proud.  Plus, she's adorable.  Marley's ghost was wandering around, I saw Scrooge with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.  It was pretty surreal.  The entire book of "A Christmas Carol" was being acted out through various parts of the festival.  It was AWESOME!  Everywhere you went, people were wearing period costumes, speaking in (fairly decent) British accents, and wishing you a Happy Christmas.  Really, it was pretty surreal.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and would love to go back.  It was vastly entertaining.  But don't take my word for it; see the photographic proof below!

Being Davis

I grew up with my Davis cousins (my Mom's side), and we are all pretty close.  But, as happens with all close family units, we have our own "language."  Being Davis has its ups and downs (mostly ups, though).  We are notorious for not being able to do anything musical; we cannot hold a beat, a tune, or dance.  Seriously, watching my aunts and uncles dance at my brother's wedding reception was HILARIOUS.  Some of us are slightly better at some musical things than others, but really, not by much.

On the other hand, we are chocolate connoisseurs.  As long as there is chocolate, life is good.  We are also a pretty inclusive bunch; we are happy to welcome almost anybody to our clan and will give you a fair chance to join our crazy antics before you tiptoe away in possibly sheer horror.  We often use the phrase, "it's Davis" to describe a multitude of things, and I am very glad to be a part of that group.  


There are moments when I wish I was musically inclined; that I could sing, dance, and be able to play an instrument, but at the end of the day, I'm glad to be part Davis and have all the aspects that make up the family legends.  We can truly put the "fun" back in dysfunctional.  

Random Memory

We lived in LA until I was about ten (as most of you know, we moved to Eureka, in Northern California, from Los Angeles) and the school I went to was a concrete jungle.  It was basically two city blocks of asphalt with all the necessary equipment scattered around, enclosed in a 10' tall chain-link fence and no green space to be found.  LA is basically desert (so really no wild animals to speak of).  We would go to the beach frequently, but you never saw any animals out in the wild.  Most of my animal experiences (outside of the usual dogs, cats, etc) occurred at the San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo.

When we moved north, we started to see wild animals in their natural habitat.  On one of our exploration trips, before we officially moved, we saw a bear cub on the side of the highway!  Deer were frequently spotted standing on the side of the road.  And then we started at our new elementary school.  It was on the edge of a forest, with a huge green field used for soccer and such.  Deer used to come out of the forest during school hours and munch on the grass field.  It was amazing; I would stop and watch every time it happened and could not figure out why my classmates were not similarly amazed.  My junior high and high school were the same basic setup; on the edge of the forests with huge green fields that deer would come out and munch on.  My behavior remained the same; I would stop and watch the animals in their natural habitats and just be fascinated.

To this day I love to see animals in nature.  I love seeing a deer wander out of the woods and start nibbling on the grass.  I could watch dolphins breaking out of the waves at the beach for hours (and do every year at the Beach House).  Nature fascinates me, and I am endlessly intrigued by the interactions that I am able to have with it.

Displaced hair

I have been shedding a lot lately.  At the rate I am going, I will be bald by 2012.  Every time I turn around, there is hair all over me.  I can't figure it out.  It's getting colder, but I am shedding like a dog in the summer.  It's getting annoying.  I don't think I have ever lost this much hair before and I can't figure it out.  It's on me, my clothes, the carpet, my chair at work, the seats of our cars, and littering streets and sidewalks wherever I have chanced to walk.

On the other hand, I have figured that I am now a main contributor to birds nests across several states and throughout Northern and Southern California.  If I have to go bald, at least birds can live in fluffy comfort with a colorful nest.

A wedding, vacation, and reception

This is an EXTREMELY long post.  With photos.  You have been warned. 

Last week we drove out to Las Vegas, where my brother Jeff and his beautiful fiance were married in the Shark Tank at Mandalay Bay.  It was very intimate and beautiful.  Kerry was lovely and Jeff glowed with happiness.  It was fabulous to have our whole family gathered together.  My dad's sister and her family came out from Arizona.  I saw my Klima cousins, who I haven't seen in five to ten years (one of each).  It was a fabulous reunion.  Since the reception was in LA the next Saturday, we took the days in-between to have a little vacation.

First stop was a tour of Hoover Dam.  It was built in the 1930s and I geeked out over all the Art Deco details and took tons of photos.  Art Deco is one of my favorite architectural periods.  Hoover Dam is amazing.  It generates enough energy to pay for itself and an engineering marvel.  There are several ingenious methods that were created in order to build the dam.  Seriously, amazing.

Next was the Grand Canyon.  Neither of us had been there before.  It was amazing.  The colors at sunset are beautiful.  There are some fabulous buildings that were constructed in the 1930s, with the architecture reminiscent of native peoples.  Amazing.  The canyon did look like it was the painted backdrop of a movie set; it kind of looked fake.  It is astonishing what nature can do over millions of years.  It was FREEZING cold while we were there.  We were camping and the temperature dropped into the teens.  Like 16*.  I was a frozen popsicle almost the whole time we were there.  The bonus of going in the extreme off-season is that we practically had the place to ourselves and could linger as long as we wanted without having to jostle around crowds.

Some bonuses of camping were the wildlife that wandered into our campsite.  There was a buck (7-8 years old) that wandered through on our first day (I was only a couple feet from him!) and a herd of elk on our last day (10-15 mothers and babies).  I love to see wildlife in their natural habitat.  It is always so cool to me.

Next was the trip to LA for the reception.  We decided to drive Route 66 through AZ to CA.  it was interesting.  There are a lot of little blink-and-you-miss-it towns and a VERY curvy road, but it was interesting nonetheless.  I want to drive the whole thing someday.

LA was fabulous.  I saw all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins at the reception.  I was able to spend some time down in Long Beach and hung out with the girls who still live in the area.  We went to dinner, I got a pedicure and manicure at my favorite nail salon EVER, and made a trip to Sweet Jills, the best bakery ever.  It was a fabulous trip, full of fun and catching up.

Enjoy the random photo montage below.

The newlyweds: Jeff & Kerry.  10/30/2011

Hoover Dam

At the Grand Canyon

Watchtower at the Grand Canyon

Gettin' our kicks on Route 66!

Sunset at the Grand Canyon