The raspberry branch featured in tonight’s post (below) had three or four ripe raspberries yesterday and then all of these new ones featured tonight. Truly, how can a person not gasp in amazement.

Truly a banner day today for the union of galvanized bees in my back yard. Good job guys. I’m totally bringing in bagels on Monday to celebrate.

Who knew that starfish could such a dazzling bright orange?! Pinkish purple! I captured these photos (plus a dozen more) just outside Bodega Bay, while traveling up the coast on Christmas Eve’s eve. I only included three photos here (more than that and the page would take forever to load).

Creating smaller .jpgs for the website also somewhat dulled the magnificent colors on these beauties.

I found a starfish washed up on shore when I entered this bay and picked it up. It was soft and prickly, obviously still alive. I named it, “Starry.” I know, I know. Not very original.

I took it to a rock in a tidal pool and within about seven minutes, it was completely attached. Yay! Starry lives!

I wonder if he still thinks of me.

This is where I live - 166 Henry Ave. San Francisco, CA 94114

Have you met Franco? You should. He’s quite remarkable.

You know how everyone loves finger puppets? Well, over Mother’s Day weekend, we added a new member to our Huntley family: FRANCO!

Sure there was some resistance at first, but Franco’s charm soon won over the Mannings’ hearts. And now, Franco is one of the family. Welcome.

Dad and Franco catching some ZZzzzzzzzzzzz’s.

Andrea and Franco discuss politics.

Eileen and Franco solve a crossword puzzle together.

As I prepare my home for selling, I was forced to do something I once swore I would not do: tear down my X-men wallpaper. Well, it wasn’t so much wallpaper as dozens of X-men comic books ripped apart and glued to the walls with a fairly toxic 3M adhesive.

((Extended Sidenote: at my consulting firm we were doing an e-learning project with 3M at the time I was using this adhesive to plaster the X-men all over the john. I proudly told my 3M client contact that I was using their product and it was working well. She asked me, ‘What kind of respirator are you wearing while using that particular spray glue?”

“None.” I replied.

“Oh.” She said quietly. “You REALLY should.”

I still didn’t quite catch her seriousness, until FedEx arrived the next day with a full-facial, rubber 3M respirator complete with breathing cannisters accompanied by a note from her pleading with me to use it.  Uh…oh.))

Anyway. It’s a buyers market right now, so alas and alack…I rented a wallpaper steamer and down came the Uncanny X-men. Here are the ‘Exciting Before’ and ‘Dull After’ photos.

I couldn’t resist uploading a few pictures I took of our massive snowfall last week. These pics were taken of the table on my back deck, just as I was gearing up to shovel out the entire driveway and path to the back fence. THAT little job took almost two hours.

I’m sure folks in warmer climates are shuddering at the thought of shoveling, but I’m telling you: warm clothes and an iPod and you are set. It’s really quite a lovely experience.

The pics below were taken about two minutes apart. I used a flash for two of the pics and the other did not…but check out the difference in how they pictures turned out. Rather fascinating.

I love photographing snow as it falls - you can never quite capture it, except as giant blurry circles.

Them little snowflakes must be shy fellers, guess.

My hotel/casino for the first night was full of artistic expression. In fact, there was a life-sized sculpture right at the front entrance. It was like being at the Louvre.

And what’s the one side dish that could make Chinese food even better? Men dressed like trashy gieshas doing Barabara Streisand impressions. This town has got it all!

Nothing says “authentic Japanese dining” than…

Although, I gotta say. The restaurant *does* lose points in my book for not having strippers, drag queens, drag kings, an all-male stripper review, or Celion Dion.

Friends of mine - let’s call them Don and Dave (even though in the *real world* their names are Dave and Don) - decided on a holiday tradition that I absolutely must nip in the bud. First you must know this:

Lovely fellows.

Charming gents.

But they have made it their business to gift me at Christmas with a movie that they’ve purchased and hate. (They also buy me holiday peeps every year, but somehow this tradition is okay.) Christmas 2006, I unwrapped Suspect Zero. They bought it - and then heard such horrible things about the film that they didn’t even bother to watch it. They laughed when I opened it, eagerly explaining how liberating it was for them to unload this dreadful movie.

Um, yes. And Merry Christmas to you.

This tradition started a year ago when they offered me three Christmas gifts, but in a “Price Is Right” kind of deal, I had to either ACCEPT ALL THREE or get none. (Do you go through this kind of rigamarole for gifts from friends? Do you?) I knew one gift was the aforementioned peeps. I knew the second gift was most likely National Treasure, a movie they despised. You see, when I asked them (oh…six months before that year’s Christmas) if I could borrow National Treasure from their DVD collection, Don eagerly agreed on the condition that I never return the flick.

Well, I hated it too. Ugh. Bad movie. So once while visiting them, I snuck the movie into a box of their breakfast cereal. (Hmmm. The more I tell of this story, the more it sounds like, perhaps, I am the originator of this hijinks. But to get distracted by who-started-what would be missing the point: I want revenge.)

My goal is now to sneak Suspect Zero back into their house. This is made slightly more difficult by the fact that they now frisk me when I enter their home, fearing I’m secretly returning National Treasure. Wow, are they paranoid.

So I have decided to Trojan Horse their asses.

Tomorrow morning I’ll ring their front door and cheerfully gift them with a lovely frozen peanut butter pie in appreciation for…oh, I’ll think of something. Dave LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES frozen peanut butter pie. It seems rather cruel to use his favorite dessert against him. Well, I guess that’s just the kind of guy I am. I have to make sure I do this early in the day so they don’t invite me to enjoy a piece with them; I’ve got to be far away when they discover the pie is a sham.

Actually, I’m leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow, so this works out nicely.