In all the hub-bub of moving I never wrote up about our 4th anniversary (the picture is of the M&M's my mom sent us that have our names and 4 years on them). This anniversary also marks 5 years of this blog!! Happy Anniversary, Blog! I know I haven't been keeping it up as much due to being busy while teaching. Also I think it's less necessary now that so many of us are on Facebook. I always share my photos there. But this year I should have more time to devote to the blog since I will not be working full time. I am trying to catch up with it a little.

With the uncertainty of where we would be moving, I didn't think it would be possible to commit to a school/get involved in a district. We took awhile to find this place and the application process to get into this place was literally a nightmare. This is a low income property and it is owned by the state so there were a lot of extra hoops to jump through. We weren't sure we would be in before September or if we would get it at all.

Since our move was entirely dependent on where we found a wheelchair accessible place, it would have made searching for a teaching job very hard. I will be tutoring at 2 schools in Palo Alto in AVID classes. It will be very familiar because I taught AVID at SLH for 2 years. The other reason it would not have made much sense to get a full time teaching job this year is because we will be moving again in a year. I know, the big news keeps on coming! This is because Drew has almost gone as far as is possible in comedy here in the Bay Area. It's not something you can make a career of here much. He performs every night, he gets booked gigs and is well liked in the area. But he wants to do more and use his talents more broadly. He has decided on Los Angeles for opportunities in writing (ie: for other comics or for TV). He would still perform stand up, too. It's hard to imagine moving again or living in L.A. but at least it isn't too far away from our families.


Okay, so back to our anniversary. We celebrated with dinner at Massimo's, a pretty upscale place in Walnut Creek. We had a gift certificate for the restaurant from 6 years ago, when we first moved in together! We never used it because Drew was bed bound so much for the following two years. It is amazing to think how much things have improved since then in terms of his health. We have the evidence of all the hardship he went through right here in the blog archives.


After our fancy dinner, which included the creme brulee above, we took a 3 day trip to Mendocino County to Fort Bragg. Neither of us had ever been up there and we'd heard so much about it being beautiful. So we stayed at the Sea Bird Lodge. We reserved it on Orbitz and of course they did not reserve a handicapped room although we asked for one. So when we got there we had to change the room. But it was a nice place, clean, inexpensive with friendly people. I caught that sunset from the parking lot. They had a breakfast place attached that was good. I had pigs in a blanket for the first time since I was a little kid.



Then we went down to Glass Beach, near one of the other hotels. It would have been nice to stay there because they had a great ocean view. This beach was really lovely when the sun was out. Drew couldn't go down to the sand but there's a bridge across the beach from the hotel to the parking lot which still gave us a beautiful view. Drew was excited to see so many dogs on the beach. The sun didn't stay out for long though. It was cold and overcast most of the time we were in Mendocino.


Next we went to Pomo Bluff Beach. It was great because it was very flat so Drew could roll up quite close to the edge to see everything. It was very intriguing with all the craggy rocks and crashing waves. Definitely great atmosphere for writing or reading a brooding novel. There was a little dingy (I think that's what they're called) boat going by with a light. It was all the light you could see in the fog.


I decided I was determined to see a lighthouse while we were there. So I walked down to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse in Caspar. It was quite a trek! Drew stayed in the car because the walking path was very narrow, rocky and steep on the way back. But it was a beautiful location. Made up for not seeing all the lighthouses I wanted to last summer in PEI. Or at least it will tide me over until I go back to PEI.


All in all we had a great trip. I even got some pictures of the redwoods on the way driving back. It was not really possible to get out and take pictures there. I have more photos here: Summer 2010 Photos

So in case you have not heard we have moved to San Jose about a week ago. We have moved into a 2 bedroom apartment on the 6th floor. It was the only 2 BD place we found with any semblance of wheelchair access. Neither of us have ever lived this high up! So we finally have Drew's bed out of the living room! It has its own room. In some regards it is more wheelchair accessible than our last place, in other ways it is not. But once we have gotten the management to fix the problem areas that we are pushing them to do (because it's the law!) it should be pretty good. There are some issues in the bathroom, there are no handicap parking spots (!) and the exterior doors are too heavy/close too quickly. The kitchen is large and has all new appliances, which is nice. The counters and microwave are too high for Drew though. The microwave can probably be lowered. There are also no wheel under cut outs but that probably can't be changed. We have a balcony with a great view. We have a lot more windows all with nice views. We are very close to the laundry room (which has machines that Drew can reach), the fitness room and the BBQ patio area that can be reserved for parties. Hannah's room has a walk-in closet (with a light!) and Drew's has a balcony. We are centrally located in town and close to the freeway, which is helpful. Oh and we have air conditioning! Once we get everything unpacked and set up I'll post more photos (and that aren't from my phone) but here are some for now. As you can see the kitchen and bathroom are unpacked but the rest we're still in the process of finishing up. Let us know if you need our new address.

Here are the after photos:




There are more (lots more!) photos here:
Our New Pad
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