Just a couple of buildings I saw in LA! The Library, The Biltmore, and the Courthouse.

On MLK Jr. Day I sit alone in a very empty office in the middle of a sleepy farm town. No one is emailing me, no one is online, and the phone has not rang once. Normally this would be an opportunity to accomplish numerous tasks, but since I am new to this job and still pretty new to this city, it is just a time to sit and wish I had the day off like everyone else. I can hear kids running by the office every now and then and the church bells ringing to remind me another hour has slowly ticked away. I should appreciate the calmness before the storm. Tomorrow I am flying to LA with my new boss to take part in a design charrete - no pressure there.
The last few days have been very cold. Cold for Oregon standards and very cold for California, but at least it is sunny. It is supposed to slowly return to normal but our trip this weekend to Palm Springs may not be in the 70's like we had hoped for.
Currently I have KINK 102 from Portland playing over my computer as if I was right there in Salem working again. I don't think I'll be able to do it too often without being homesick. We've been pretty busy ever since we got back from our Christmas vacation and so I haven't thought a lot about it, although I keep waiting for the HS bug to bite. Rosana and I have started going to the gym. Bob has two classes that go on into the evening so it has helped to have something to look forward to after work. We even took a belly dancing class last week. We were hilarious. I have a new found respect for hula dancers as well as belly dancers; it is hard work.

Christmas Time

Here are a few pictures to sum up our time at home. So from baked breakfast goods to matching sweaters to my friends' kids to snowshoeing here it is. We had a great time, but there is never enough time to see everyone and do everything. I just hope we get better at it. I'll try to post more soon.

Trip to the Capitol

When my sister was here to visit, we took a short drive to Old Town Sacramento and then walked to the capitol building. It has been recently restored and is beautiful.

There are many differences between California and Oregon and soon I can tell that this will become a place where I post titles such as, "What were they thinking when they designed this freeway" to "You call this a recycling program", but until then, I'll keep posting pretty photos.

Woodland Office

I promise I'll post Christmas photos soon, but in the meantime, here is our car with its spiffy rack to transport us and our stuff along I-5. The car is parked in front of my office in Woodland. If we had a ladder we'd be picking those oranges.