Goodbye, popcorn ceilings, goodbye.

As reward for our diligence, we're off to Carmel tomorrow, for the annual Kimbell-Tanouye fest, otherwise known as, the Kimbells' rental of a house in the village neighborhood for the month of August, which we like to crash each year (well, we do stay in a hotel, of course).

Congrats to MariCris who gave birth to 9-pound Avery last week! Now Connor has a sister. Happy birthday to Regina, Craig, Tarek, and soon, John, Heather and Katie too.

We're in! And the hot water works! Stay tuned...

Guilty break... from packing our mountains and mountains of stuff! How did we fit all this into 900 square feet? Beats me, but over 9 years it all seemed to find its place. Now, it's a mishmosh of small, separate piles of dusty, musty, not-quite-junk, and somehow we've got to get it all organized before next Saturday. Akhil alone has nearly 30 file boxes full of papers and files from grad school and beyond. Human beings are not terribly efficient, that's for sure.

A week to go before we vacate California Ave. for good. Bittersweet...