Recent goings on...

Well, just to catch everyone up (which apparently is necessary my mom complained today that the blog needs updating)... **My grandmother is doing...OK. She was in the hospital a few days ago for some serious nausea and pain after her first round of chemo - bad news. She had an MRI a couple of days ago and everything looks normal - good news. So, we're kind of all over the place. Obviously, I want her to be feeling as good as possible, which doesn't work out 100% of the time. I try to send positive thoughts her way rather than worrying about her, but who knows if that helps. Thanks to anyone who has been doing the same or praying or whatever have you. So, everything else is going to sound trivial after that. But, life goes on even while serious things are happening, I guess? Last Friday, Dan and I took a day trip to Marin - it was kind of a pre-Vegas birthday/save Kristin's sanity trip - to visit the creamery where our favorite cheese is made. Yummmmmmm. We got a "tour" where they tell us how their cheese is made, got to watch said cheese making and then got to taste all 8 of the different kinds they make. It's nice to find out that our favorite cheese is made from the same local milk we buy our milk from, and use alternative energy to power their factory. Yay. I would totally go back and even survive the long windy drive to hang out in the TINY town they make it in, because the tiny town is super hippy sustainable-tastic. EVERYTHING was organic, compostable, local and whatnot. It blew my mind. I thought Berkeley was intense about it - we have nothing on these folks. The coffee shop we went in, there was a container with a sign that said "Please put used stir sticks here to recycle. They make great kindling!" um, wow. Killing two birds with one stone, our favorite cheese is made closeby to where some of the best oysters in SF are actually (sustainably!) harvested. So, we went to get Dan some fresh-right-out-of-the-bay oysters (I am not a fan). The folks who work there clearly have no patience for the folks who come in from the city to eat oysters, so they don't shuck them and give you about a 3 second lesson on how to open them yourself. Ha, it was fun to watch. But, as you can see below, Dan did OK. Took probably longer than it needed to for him to shuck 6 oysters but hey, he said they were delicious. Cheese=perfect food. Favorite. Dan's (open!) oysters Clearly, they know what they're doing. Cow. There were quite a few. We were out in the country. I took the Friday off to take this trip because the creamery only does tours on Fridays, but also because work has been craaaaaaaaaazy the past couple of weeks. We're right in the middle of choosing the RAs for next year, and the Wed/Thurs AND Sat/Sun of the same week we went to Marin, I was interviewing RA candidates for big chunks of time, as well as doing, you know, my regular job. I was also slammed because I have been teaching my first RAD class in the evenings. So, I was certified to teach a women's self defense program back in October, and this is the first class I have taught (with two other instructors). We had 5 students, and they did SO AMAZING. They started feeling scared and quiet and finished up loud, empowered and confident. This is something I will now totally be doing all the time, that makes me feel like I'm doing something right and good and helpful. It's a nice feeling. To come: Many fun filled kitty photos, to hold you over until Dan and I get back from Vegas this weekend! It's Dan's birthday trip, just a little late. Hooray.