I’ve been in a very good mood lately. Not sure why, but I’m definitely enjoying it. Maybe it’s the holiday spirit. Maybe it’s because the writing has been going well lately (‘though I need to ramp it up a little bit this week, after a fairly light weekend). Maybe it’s just ‘cause life is good. Life _is_ good.

Saturday we took Brian & Morgana to the airport; they’ll be gone until early January (boo!) visiting family and friends in Oregon. When we got back, we helped some SCA folks who are moving into Darach. Really cool people: former King and Queen of Caid; into periodicity in an enthusiastic, encourage-by-example, happy-to-teach kind of way; wry senses of humor. After the unpacking of the truck was finished, we hung around with the various other people who’d helped, eating pizza and drinking margaritas. (Yet another reason Gerhardt & Una are cool. Gerhardt, examining margarita mix bottle: “Five to one ratio? That can’t be right.” Calls to wife. “What ratio do we usually use?” Una: “Two to one. Better be safe and use three to one, though.” Yup, my kind of people.)

Today we headed for Heritage Square, an area where they’ve moved and rebuilt a number of local Victorian homes. We got sucked into an antique shop first, where I bought a non-antique but festive autumn wreath for next year. So we had to come home to drop that back off, and ended up going food shopping, because we also needed cash for the Victorian home tours. After unloading the food, we tried again to walk to Heritage Square, and this time we succeeded. The homes were gorgeous, although most are being used as offices and many of the rooms weren’t available for view. We bought two books on the history of Oxnard; the author was there and autographed them for us. A quick flip through both didn’t show any historic pictures that include our house, but we’ll peruse them more closely.

Then we swung by our storage unit and were successful in finding the Yule tree stand, more metal shelving (to put up in the big office closet for supplies), and various and sundry other items. After that, we took a wander through the antique store where we bought our Hoosier cabinet and princess dresser; it’s a warehouse that’s only open one weekend every few months. We were better this time and didn’t buy anything. It helped that although there were many prettysparklyshiny things, they didn’t have any of the pieces we’re specifically looking for.

We finally opened the crate of artwork and hung some pictures. My beautiful Daughter of the River (Anne Suddeworth) is hanging over my study desk, and Anne’s Long Meg and Her Daughters is in the bedroom. The Magic Circle (Waterhouse) is in the dining room. The poem Ken wrote for me on ginko leaves in Korea is also in the bedroom. I think my grandparents’ wedding portrait, and the companion portrait of my grandfather, will be in the upstairs hall. I only wish we knew what happened to the companion portrait of my grandmother; no-one in the family has it.

Cat dropped by to give me a gift of Wallace & Grommit Wensleydale cheese that she’d found. I’ve done a bit of work here and there, and need to do a bit more before I call it a night and we settle down to watch the deliciously perverse and fun “Desperate Housewives”.

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I wrote a bit more on one of the erotica stories that Teresa and I are collaborating on, and sent it to her. She’s just sent me the beginning of the one she started, and I’ll work on that tomorrow. Much writing goodness abounds. Many fun projects. Yes, I’m happy.