California Canuk

One of the things I missed the most from "back home" was my daily dose of homemade kombucha. Let me tell you, the store-bought stuff just doesn't cut it.  So I ordered myself a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) from our corporate overlords  Amazon and got brewing.  I bottled my first batch on August 26 and it turned out great! Here's a picture of my second batch bottled and my third batch brewing: So far the second batch has turned out to be as delicious as the first, so I'm pretty pleased with myself right now.  I've gifted bottles to a couple of suckers  friends and they haven't died yet so that's good.  Anyone who brews kombucha knows you get way more of it that you can actually drink so finding people you can con into taking it share it with is a necessity.  So anyone who's thinking about coming to visit us, now you have the added incentive of enjoying my homemade kombucha while you're here. Who knows--maybe I'll g...

Since I decided to give myself a bit of a break from the working world and be a (temporary) stay-at-home-fur-mom, I've found myself overcome by a bout of domesticity that my mother would have been utterly astonished at.  Cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping--these things now make up my daily routine.  About the only stereotypically housewifey thing I haven't indulged in is soap operas (I confess to lying on the couch eating bonbons because, duh). A stay-at-home-fur-mom's life could slip into drudgery if it weren't for the help she gets from her handy home gadgets.  D had an Instant Pot which he bought some time ago but never used, so I've been happily breaking it in.  Let me tell you, it's pretty awesome.  While there are some things it does a merely "okay" job of, there are other things it is spectacular at like quinoa, and lentils which now only take a fraction of the time they would on a stovetop and always turn out perfectly.  I d...

Our cat Jax has been living in California with D since January so he had gotten quite used to being an only child again thankyouverymuch.  Of course, when I arrived on August 1st I had our Frenchie Jacques along with me and we (along with many of you) were eagerly anticipating their reunion and the expected comedy that would ensue.  Sadly it was very anticlimactic but I did get it on video so here it is in all its boring glory: I am happy to report that both animals are adjusting nicely to the other's presence and their relationship has been restored almost back to normal.  Which involves a lot of hissing on Jax's part and a lot of attempted play fighting (with varying degrees of success) on Jacques' part.  These episodes are quite amusing so maybe I'll try to capture one on video and share it with you at some point.

My biggest fear with this move was that I wouldn't be able to adequately deal with all my stuff in time (ie pack/purge everything before the movers came).  As some of you may know, D and I have a lot. of. stuff.  Way too much stuff.  Like, borderline hoarder amounts of stuff.  And while I'm happy to report I managed to eliminate probably around 80% of my stuff, I still feel like I ended up bringing too much with me and now the struggle is finding a place for all of it.  I will now tell you a story in pictures so you can try to grasp even a small inkling of what has dominated my life for the past several months. Literally everything in the above photos has been rehomed.  NONE OF IT CAME TO CALIFORINA.  That is a lot of stuff.  Take a good look--there's a lot going on in these pictures. And that's not even counting the 6 bags of clothes and 4 bags of purses I got rid of earlier. Now, here's what did make it to Californ...

It's been just over a month since I walked away from 45 years of life in Canada to begin anew in California, and all I can say is I have made a terrible mistake. Just kidding! Things are going great so far, so I have begun this blog to regale you with tales of boring minutia  exciting adventure from The Golden State. You may think I would be enjoying my first stretch of unemployment-as-an-adult by sitting around doing as much nothing as possible, but I assure you that is (mostly) not the case. I've been funning and adulting so hard I've only managed to read three novels since I got here! I don't promise any kind of regular posting schedule, so don't panic if I haven't blogged anything for a week or so. I'll try to post on Facebook when I've added a new blog entry, so if you're not on Facebook I guess you're screwed  you'll just have to tune in regularly to see if anything new has gone up. To all my friends and family back in Canada: I m...