Goodbye Summer

Last Friday was the official start of Autumn, but it's hard to tell the change of seasons with the mild weather in the Bay Area. On some days, when I get a whiff of fall it makes me want to get in hibernation mode and cook homey food. I haven't been blogging much lately because september turned out to be such a busy month for us.

I said yes to doing some freelance work for two weeks at the end of August. This marks my first time working since the birth of the little D. We found a home daycare by our house in the nick of time. Being back at work and away from the baby was not as hard as I had anticipated. I was actually kind of relief to be a working woman again. Being a stay at home mom can get tiresome as much as I love spending time with my baby. I am also tentatively booked to freelance at the same place for the first two weeks in October.

We were invited to spend Labor day weekend at some friends' cabin on Donner Lake. The weather was amazing, the view was spectacular, and our hosts were wonderful. Maybe it was due to the thinner air in the higher elevation, we all took some pretty long naps during the day. Being at the lake house was so relaxing. Our hosts made the most delicious dinners and waffle breakfast for the two nights we spent there. I am already looking forward to being invited back in the winter when the whole place will be covered in snow. I will have to take some photos of the cabin next time because it is an authentic log cabin built by our friend and his father back in the 1950s. They bought the Sears kit and built the whole thing from the ground up!

This is a little video that Stan (our host) took of the little D and Justin hanging out on the dock. The vivacious boy in the end of the video is Stan's son, Lake and Summer, his daughter. They adore the little D.

Another thing that happened kind of unexpectedly this month was that Justin got a new job. He had previously interviewed at two other companies but didn't get any offers. He went in for couple of interviews at this place without much expectations and was hired within a week. So after giving his two week notice at his old job, he took a week off before starting at the new place. We planned a quick trip to visit some friend in Los Angeles during this short break. 

The friends we stayed with in L.A. is renting a lovely Mediterranean style house in Hollywood on a quiet cul-de-sac. I am bummed that I forgot to take some photos of their cool house to share with you. But take my word for it, it is nice. We stayed in their guest bedroom with a french door that opens up to a lovely court yard surrounded by plants. They have another friend staying in a room with a skylight in the back yard. The old garage had been turned into a study/studio with two walls of windows where our friends work from home. They had a barbeque for us and we had a blast playing charades, trying to guess movie names. Boys versus girls, it was a close game, but the girls kicked the boys asses!

I had in mind to visit the Getty museum and the Museum of Jurassic Technology, but we didn't make it. Justin did a lot of clothes shopping, to make up for the last two years of no shopping. L.A. has great boutiques and really good food. We went to Umami Burger and couple of vegan places. We wanted to to visit Griffith Observatory, but there was a movie shoot on that day, so the observatory was closed to the public. We still got to take in the breath taking view from the top of Griffith park though. 

On day three we were invited by Justin's cousin to the set of a TV show he's filming for. Yep, Justin is related to an actor. We drove around Universal Studios looking at the "Psycho" house and got lost at one point. Then it got late and the cousin was busy filming and the baby was getting sleepy, so we bid adieus and were off. 

We were having such a great time in L.A. that we extended our trip by one whole day. Our final day was action packed. Took a walk in Griffith park with our friends' dogs, did more shopping, I got a free hair cut from a hair stylist to the movie stars (he was a friend of a friend), dinner with friends at a delicious Chinese restaurant. And to top it all off, the little one got a high fever that warranted an emergency room visit late at night. Tests for ear and urinary infections didn't find anything so it was diagnosed as a viral infection, but nothing specific. The fever subsided after he was given tylenol, but returned the next night and we ended in the ER again. But because there was no other symptoms except for the fever we decided to go home after a three hour wait and saw no doctor. The next day we went to see our pediatrician and the diagnose this time was Roseola, a viral infection common in infants and children. They said there was no treatment and the disease usually goes away on its own. That was good news, but about two days too late. 

So we are done with traveling for now after two trips in one month plus the Michigan trip back in July. I am home this week with D, trying to catch up on blogging, deciding which security alarm company to use, and researching for our next big project, replacing the fence.