I was sworn in this morning as a Deputy Commissioner of Civil Marriages at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse so I can legally marry my brother and Dino this weekend. It's pretty exciting. I'm really looking forward to saying "By virtue of the authority vested in me as a Commissioner of Civil Marriages, I now pronounce you married."


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My tomatoes are going full tilt now. Here's today's harvest of Romas:


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I got the drawings back for the design of a new back porch to replace existing deck. I'm really pleased with the look and this design creates a small room under the deck for storage or for guests. Unfortunately, it's a lot more than I'd planned on spending.


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The Cylinder Project was written up in the Wall Street Journal again.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122100522362717305.html

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A few weeks ago I posted an ad on Craigslist in the free section offering mulch made from ground up truck tires that was in my yard. I had planned on taking it to the dump, but I thought I'd see if anybody wanted it first. Surprisingly (to me), several people responded and a fellow named Haskel Cole came over to take it. While he was at my house we ( Read more... )

Krista's family sailed down from Monterrey to the Channel Islands a few weeks ago and I took the ferry from Ventura out to Santa Cruz Island to meet them. We spent the night on the boat and then sailed back to Santa Barbara.


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I went to the Cotati Accordion Festival this weekend with my brother and Dino and a bunch of their friends. There were about 25 groups performing over the two days. We went on Saturday and the crowd was a mix of geriatric Italians with accordion music in their blood and punk rock kids who watched Amelie one too many times and then decided to start ( Read more... )

Earthquake!

God, that felt good (posting in LJ, not the earthquake).

I'm in DC at Sam's house now, working on the database. Tonight I went with his wife to the ballet. I've never been to the ballet before. It's so gay. It really is just about the most affected artform imaginable. Men in tights and girls in tutus jumping around waving their arms around. Tomorrow we take the train up to NY to meet with Michael and the ( Read more... )