my romantic Valentine's Day gift

Sorry that I've been gone so long. I seem to write here in spurts, with breaks in between.

Valentine's Day was two weeks ago, and it is also one of our three anniversaries. We were married in San Francisco on Valentine's Day 2004 when Gavin Newsome was mayor and authorized same sex marriages. That marriage was later declared "null and void" by the California Supreme Court, but we married in August 2008 when it was legal. We also celebrate the date of our first date in July 1991.

So David bought me the most romantic Valentine's Day gift that you can imagine... a composter. Yes, that's right, a kitchen scraps composter. You plug it in, add your kitchen scraps, some sawdust pellets (for the "browns" to go along with the kitchen "greens"), the machine turns the stuff every four hours, and it just a few days you have steaming (literally) compost. I had tried worm composting in the past, and I now realize that the environment in the box wasn't right, because all the worms wanted out, and we found them all over the garage - David was not happy about that. I'll report back how the compost turns out. The first batch should be ready soon.

Leo loses another tooth

Last night when I came home my 7 year old son Leo was in the shower. David, my husband, told me that Leo had something to show me. David was getting a five dollar bill out of his wallet, and said that I could probably figure out what Leo had to show me based on the $5, but that gave me no clue. Leo told me to look on the counter when I went in the bathroom and I saw another of his teeth there. (We don't do the Tooth Fairy thing with him, we just give him $5 and keep the tooth.) I congratulated Leo on losing another tooth. He told me how he removed the tooth. "It wouldn't come out, so this is how I got it out." He then made a fist and mimicked punching himself in the face. I was very surprised and asked if that is really how he got it out, since he had just pulled the last 3 out. Both he and David agreed that he had indeed punched himself in the mouth. "There was blood everywhere" David added. It is logical I guess, at least to a 7 year old.

first flowers of spring

Over the weekend I saw the first tree in bloom this year. There is another tree that I pass on the way to work that is my guide to the end of winter, and the last two days it has been blooming. It's some kind of fruit tree I believe, and it usually blooms around February 1st, so it is right on time. The days are getting longer, and I had to wear sunglasses for the first time in a long while on the way to work today. I realize that much of the Midwest and East Coast of the US are in a major snowstorm the last few days, but the first signs of spring are here in Northern California. Of course it is still cold here, and it may continue to rain, which we need, but still, spring is on the way.