Last week, it was fire. Well, not here, but several wild fires in the area made it pretty smokey outside.

This week, it's rain. The temperature dropped at the same time. The snow level dropped to 4500 feet, about 20 or 30 miles to the east.

We found some new leaks, but nothing serious. Alas, it was a little worse outside. We had gusts near 60 mph, which is hard on the little things.

Luckily, I had just finished the pond renovations. I dug it out to increase the capacity and Susie and I added a berm to prevent topsoil and horse poo washing in. The pool in the foreground is a siltpool, constructed to allow retrieval of the eroded topsoil until we get that under control.

The drain in the driveway backed up. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the big pool that resulted, but here's the after shot, once I waded in a cleaned it out and added the straw bag.

The top of one of the digger pines broke off and took out part of a fence. Here's what the tree looks like now. It would be even more impressive if I had a picture of it before.

After the power went out for the second time, true to the nature of the males in my family, I decided it was time to fire up the grill. I can remember my dad grilling in snow, thunderstorms, and tornado warnings.

Naturally, we provided shelter for anybody who asked.
- posted by Colin @ 6:41 PM

 
Freezow! We got married! First, the facts:

WHERE
=====
Palo Alto, at the home of Susie's parents

WHEN
====
October 2nd, at about 430pm

HOW
===
By Reverend Margret Lee, of the Universal Life Church

Oh, and it was a total surprise to everybody, except us, Margie, and her husband, Don. Heehee.

Obviously, we've been planning this for a while. Way before Britney. We asked Margie, who introduced us, to do the honors. We had planned on getting her deputized by the State to do the deed, but she went whole hog. What an angel :-)

Refer back to the suprise proposal. Susie's dad, Vernon, issued the ultimate challenge: "Don't try to put on over on me." Oh, my, oh my, was it on. We spun the story of wanting an engagement party and asking her folks to host it for us. They were gracious enough to do so, and made it a very nice event. The weather was perfect. We waited until our conversation skills had lulled everyone into complacency and then we sprung the trap. Even Jaz, the neighbor's dog, was excited. So, with family and friends at hand, we read our vows to each other (I'll post the actual ceremony later). Rings were exchanged and fun was had. Susie's dad, Vernon, gave us a toast. Then, there was general milling about. Can there be any doubt about my taste? Oh, I think not. Things got serious later.

Isn't she stunning?
- posted by Colin @ 8:58 PM