Week 1

Welcome to a New Year on the blog!  Thanks for checking in on us. Despite our current weather situation I do feel like 2023 will be a good year.  At least all this rain is helping with the drought and we do need that.  Definitely grateful to have a safe and dry place to shelter as needed and look forward to more chances of sunshine to warm the body and soul as we progress through the weeks.

Have a look at the pictures from our first full week in 2023:

Day 1- Sunday, 1/1/23

New Year's Day started with a family picture minutes after ringing in the new year and ended with a nice surf and turf dinner.  Justin prepared the lobster tails with John's instruction and they turned out perfect.  It was a nice relaxing day and a good way to kick off another year.

Day 2- Monday, 1/2/23

Today is a work holiday for the new year since it fell on a Sunday, but I still had to run into work and feed cultures.  At least I was treated to a beautiful sunrise on my way back home.

Day 3- Tuesday, 1/3/23

Back to work for real today and it was a full and exhausting day.  When I'm on break I forget how physically demanding and tiring my job can be.  Later I was able to unwind with a glass of wine and some yummy turnovers for dessert.  The air fryer really does a great job baking those.  Also this fancy wine glass came as a set in a gift pack for Christmas and I love how pretty they are reflecting the light. 

Day 4- Wednesday, 1/4/23

Rusty knows the best way to deal with stormy weather--curl up in a tight ball and sleep through it on a warm blanket preferably with extra heat from a human.  It's been crazy here with the wind and rain and thunder and lightening and even some hail!  We have multiple systems lined up in the pacific just waiting to hit us and one with a cyclone bomb expected to drop tonight. Over the weekend we had a neighbor's tree end up in our pool.  Thank goodness it was a tall skinny birch and didn't cause any real damage. Today it was touch and go making it to work but I don't mind my rainy view out the lab window.  Everyone is heading home early during an afternoon break in the storm to beat the next wave which is supposed to be the worst of it.

Day 5- Thursday, 1/5/23

We had a work dinner planned with the ladies for tonight but weren't sure with the storm it would really happen.  Thankfully the flooding and power outages were not that bad and things actually cleared up today for a nice sunny break so we all made it to our get-together!  Dinner included wine, pizza and cake for all.  Plus I found a new friend.  This is Pico and apparently he likes me a lot.  LOL!

Day 6- Friday, 1/6/23

 I got this fun enchanted moon light for Christmas and was excited to see the the cool lighting effect it also makes on the ceiling.

Day 7- Saturday, 1/7/23

This is Brandon's way of dealing with winter storms.  It's all fun and games until you lose power.  He's also connecting with his girlfriend by playing these games with her online and recently helped her study to pass her written driving-permit test.

Day 8- Sunday, 1/8/23

This is what I woke up too.  I think the overnight storm that hit last night was way worse than the "cyclone bomb" Wednesday night.  Our only issue was this small leak in the dinning room but many are without power including Tyler and Lupe plus there is scattered flooding on surface streets and also many fallen trees causing severe damage to homes, cars and those power lines.  Our gas station was out of power so I couldn't fill my tank today but the stores were at least open for me to pick up what I needed for a nice warm and comforting lasagna dinner.  Tyler and Lupe were super appreciative of that.  Current update--they finally got their power back this morning (Tuesday).  Thankfully they have a gas heater in their place so they kept warm and live close enough to us to help with other things as needed.

That wraps up the first full, wet, and windy week.  See you next Tuesday for more fun and hopefully dryer conditions although it's not looking to be much better.

Wishing you all the best year ever!