We spent ski week – February 12th to the 21st – at home. There were several reasons for this. One big one was that the pandemic was in full swing, with a spike in cases during the winter. And it was always awkward for Mike to take a vacation only 6 weeks after winter break. Also, staying home in February was part of our plan when we adopted the kittens: we wanted a good long span of time with them at home before taking a vacation, leaving them at home, and figuring out a pet sitter. So we stayed home, and Mike took a day or two off work at the end of the week. It was a quiet week. Manya came by and met the kittens. We hadn’t seen her in person in a long time, so this was a special occurrence. We went to the Farmer’s Market, Mike and I alternating weeks and leaving the kids at home. I would pick up produce and take pictures of the things Mike wanted or that I wanted him to look up. I focused on vegetables and would rely on his advice on where to get fruit, and he’d focus on fruit and relied on my advice on where to get vegetables. But we didn’t bring the kids. It was too many people, both to expose them to, and to bring with us. On Valentine’s Day I made a nice dinner of mussels, squid, and merguez sausage, and Mike made a chocolate cake for dessert – delicious! The kids are older now, and Lela has a bedtime similar to ours -- so we generally celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family together as we can no longer wait till after they go to bed, ha ha ha. We watched episodes of The Hunt again – this is one of our favorite David Attenborough series, all about predation. I really like the approach he took, examining how difficult predation is, and how often it fails. To our delight, the cats were intrigued by the TV and appeared to watch it too, and we got some nice pictures. No idea if they perceive the pictures like we do, but they certainly do attend to the movement, changing light, and sound. One of our big days was a hike at Castle Rock. We were so rusty, though, about preparing for a day trip as a family that we forgot one of our two backpacks – the one with the lunch in it. We brought the one with the water. We decided to take the hike anyway, as it was a cool, pleasant day and something of a drive to get there, so going back for the lunch wasn’t really an option. We would have canceled if we’d forgotten the water though. It was a beautiful hike! Cool, overcast weather, beautiful trail that we hadn’t done before. It was good to get outside, and into the woods. We were pretty hungry when we got home, though, around 1:30. We ate our picnic lunch around the dining room table, hahaha. On another day I got home to see two little kitty faces watching me out of the window next to the door! It was really cute, and a new experience to return home to happy pets who were glad to see me. Later in the week we went to Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz to do their bluff hike. It was a gorgeous day, with that warm, late-afternoon light and clear skies. The kids played on the giant tree in the farmyard, always a highlight. Then we went to Mentone for dinner! This is David Kinch’s new restaurant in Aptos, a pizza place. It had been scheduled to open right before the pandemic. Then the pandemic had hit, and like many restaurants, they had had to scramble to find a way to survive. They decided to focus on take-out pizza and appetizers. Then, when it was allowed, they’d added a little outdoor dining. We’d gotten take-out pizza from them in January when we were staying in Pajaro, but now in February we decided it would be okay to eat out at the restaurant! This was our FIRST meal at a restaurant since the start of the pandemic. A big deal. It felt so good to be out, and to interact with other people. We ordered several pizzas, which were fabulous, and had a good time, feeling like we were emerging from a cave. We even had the server take our picture. Then we went to Maryann’s for ice cream, and went to the bluff to watch the sunset over the Pacific. It was a beautiful day. I spent some time organizing the workbench area of the garage later in the break. Not very exciting, but this was the first larger organization project I’d done since October, when I’d finished moving us in and organizing all our stuff in the new house. I was so tired after that, and winter was settling in, and I’d just wanted to LIVE in the new house, that I took four months off. But in February I felt the itch again and directed my energy toward solving some corners of clutter, including the workbench. Christmas gifts from my friend Kristin arrived in February, too, and we had fun opening those. She gave some 3D puzzles to the girls and they did them that evening – shoe-shaped pencil holders! Those were a hit. It was a quiet but rewarding break. Some hikes, some home improvement, a dinner out, and lots of playing with kittens!