Nice, huh? And now, back to the story.

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.