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We moved into our tree house on 3/4 and moved out of butterfly town 3/11, the day of the Tsunami warning in California. Tomorrow all our stuff from LA arrives––a Tsunami of furniture, and belongings you might say. Moves are so incredibly dramatic. We really didn't need the backdrop of a major catastrophe. Our daughter lives in Santa Cruz. It's estimated that the harbor there suffered anywhere from 10M to 20M in damages. On the 11th, the day I was cleaning out our rental I thought what a bummer it would be to leave this world while cleaning out a refrigerator. Then I thought of all the devastation and I just can't get my head around it. It's so much. People here are talking about radiation and carrying Geiger counters and iodine pills and closing the two plants we have in Southern California. And I can't even find the lids to my pans.

We moved ourselves out of butterfly town, and left it to the professionals to move our stuff up from LA. It took us eight days to move everything. Every night I needed two Advil, a ton of water and lots of hand lotion. I can't get enough hand lotion.

And in the middle of all of this we had a gigantic surprise. My daughter flew in from FL and Joe's best friend flew in from LA to join his mom and Mx and we all had an amazing celebration of our new tree house and our 25th wedding anniversary. It was my first surprise ever and I absolutely loved it. The girls and I climbed one of our trees and our house really became a home that day.

We hiked Pinnacles for our 25th anniversary on Valentine's Day. It's the perfect place for writers of fantasy and for couples in love. On our drive over we tried to list all the places we've celebrated our anniversary over the years and we remembered every single one. It's funny which ones stand out. What makes an anniversary truly special. The stand outs are lessons in good story telling, filled with surprises.

Today is my brother's birthday! We've had four birthdays in about as many weeks. Mom always baked our birthday cakes when we were little. She was one busy lady come January/February. I was always bummed because I had to wait SO LONG for my birthday in May. I remember when I was little it was torture to have to wait that long when my bros and sis had their's all in a row. But Mom had to wait too, so that made it a little better.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

I love this little town that we've called home for the last seven months. I open my window every night to let the fresh air in and hear the the waves, sometimes foghorns, barking seals, and occasionally, when the wind is right, TAPS wends its way down from the Presidio. Every now and again after I get up in the middle of the night for another glass of water I'll see the brightly lit squid boats out on Monterey Bay. I've never lived like this before. And, I like it. We will be moving again soon. Hubby and I will celebrate our 25th Anniversary in a few days so milestones are on my mind. Today I have a smile on my face because as differently as we have lived these past few years, we are doing the very same thing we were doing in February of 1986, we are in escrow on a house.