Christmas in Cali

As previously noted, no Baja for me. So enjoying empty IV and catsitting for Keely. Last night I had dinner with fellow in-town-for-christmas-person Sara; what I made didn't really flow, but individually they were good dishes: 1) delicata squash roasted whole. Cut in half, save seeds. Toast fennel, coriander, cumin, added 'butter' (the cream top from Strauss organic milk), garlic and a chile from Ventura at Givens Farms. Add roughly cubed squash (skin intact). Awesome. Kinda north african french cooking. 2) chopped red russian kale from the garden, Strauss heavy whipping cream, vermouth, a little garlic. Steam. Added bay scallops at the end and cooked them for just a few minutes. Quite good. Pretty traditional french cooking. Post-apartheid South Africa rice separated the two on the plate. Sara made pie dough and wrapped individual apple slices in small pieces of dough. It was a clever dish.

Slept in until 6:20, Magic. Watched the ocean for a while, it was small, but it is also christmas, so what else was I going to do? Ocean was pretty slow, but got 2 great waves. It was really shallow, less than 1' of water where it was barreling. Hit bottom with various body parts, my right hand is kinda messed up right now -- jammed it on the bottom twice.

Freebin has been good to me this week. Found a nice merino wool sweater. The State's Shirt Project is at 36 shirts/states. I got an unusual one this week, North Dakota, but small states like Delaware and Rhode Island are going to be tough, I reckon. Also I've been finding shirts made with organic cotton and even hemp, so pretty stoked on that. When I was there today someone returned a book to the bin that I had put there a week ago -- nice to see stuff is getting passed along.

Am writing this at Keely's. Having fun with her cat, Nala. There was a ton of basketball on today. L*kers lost, which is always good. The (heavily depleted) Blazers beat the Nuggets. Bummed about all of the injuries, but was happy to see them on tv.

Merry Christmas to all.