Whiteout

This was Ellen's nursery, before and after. It's something I made for her myself. Should I feel bad that it's now a bland white cube?

Fixer-upper

I spent a few days back in Minnesota working on the house. It still sits unsold, after five months on the market. Besides doing some work to eliminate pet odors in the basement and some minor repairs, I had most of the interior repainted. The bedroom and living areas looked better with fresher coats of paint. We restored Ellen's room to white. That was a bit sad -- I had painted that room myself to turn it into a nursery. Now, that's all erased.

Four

Ellen celebrated her fourth birthday a few weeks early, with her family at the Wisconsin lake house. We don't really know anyone in California to invite to a birthday party.

After midnight

We're taking the red-eye to Milwaukee to visit the family lake house. Ellen is a seasoned flyer by now.

Blowing smoke

More smoke! This giant plume is actually from a backfire set to stop the progress of the wildfire. It still looks like someone is nuking the mountains.

Birthday pie

Rachel made me a Meyer lemon meringue pie. This is a great way to celebrate a birthday.

Smoke gets on my car

Ashfall from the Station Fire speckled my Prius. Every morning, there was fresh ash on my car.