bear

Sitting in the most beautiful Apple Store (really! I'm staring at all sorts of historical facade detail work right now) with some downtime; popping in to say hello. :)

Since my last update:

- ( chocolate green curry birthday cake! )

- ( holiday concert, where I'm still belting out Whitney Houston arias two weeks later )

- ( all of my cookbooks are shelved now! )

- ( Paso Robles: actually intriguing wines and a cozy book nook )

Interlude: the reason I'm at the Apple Store right now is because my phone reinstall went rogue. Le sigh. At least things are progressing well, but on a four-year-old phone with some newly-discovered physical damage, I know it's probably new phone time sooner rather than later.

- ( Hearst Castle, Morro Bay, the most extravagant cinnamon roll, and one night of Santa Barbara gems )

- And then we knew the storm was coming, so we finished our drive down to LA the next day. Of course there was traffic two days before Christmas, but at least we were coming down the coast and from barely 100 miles away. Leonard and Sara took the valley road, which is faster, but they were driving the whole distance from the Bay in one day, and had to go over the Grapevine, and there were literal tumbleweeds causing crashes. But everyone made it safely; Jane and Uhmuhni's flights came in without too much delay, and we celebrated with curry plates at CoCo Ichibanya.

Still feeling like I want to send out New Year's cards, re-establish contact with those I've lost touch with. Still need to see whether my reach exceeds my grasp here. Still have LA and San Diego to write up. Still aspiring to be in better touch with people, as always, and trying to navigate how to best do that in 2026 with the shifting sands of everything. Miss you all, and here's to getting to hug you in the new year.