A seething mass of turgid drama.

Monday we flew to LA for a quick vacation.
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And now back to catching up on work.

Short version: I am going "blah blah blah," not that I was blah about the event.
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I am tired today. Not sore, but weary from being social and a bit wrung out from the whole thing. I would have liked to take today off but after last week's vacation, I can't justify that. So I should get back to work.

We flew to San Diego for a quick getaway. I know we went to Italy a few months ago, but this was a somewhat spur-of-the-moment weekend vacation.
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Seeing "destination" art often is not worth the buildup. I've seen the Mona Lisa multiple times when I lived in Paris; most times it was just being crushed in a sea of people for a painting that has been over-saturated in cultural life. In the Uffizi, The Birth of Venus was similar.

An exception: Michelangelo's David. Yes, we are all over-familiar with the sculpture. But knowing the image didn't undermine the impact that seeing the huge, perfect sculpture does in real life - even with crowds of people and tour guides blathering on.

Spoiler-free review: it was okay. Not spectacular, but it follows the inverse-Star Trek movie rule - the odd-numbered ones are better. I wouldn't have minded seeing it at home rather than the theater, but I don't mind having seen it on the big screen (unlike, say, Solo).

In other news, we are finally moving ahead with the long-delayed 2020 anniversary trip to Florence. We're getting an SCA acquaintance who does Italian tours to arrange an itinerary. It's a bit pricier than doing it ourselves, but this way it gets done. I'd rather spend with an SCA acquaintance than a tour company, and she also has the background to know what might be important to us. Plus connections to skip lines, etc.

My TSA pre-approval got approved in one business day. Granted, the next available interview is in October... but we're looking at going in late April (after our 24th anniversary), so not a problem. And I fully expect the interview to be a rubber stamp.

I took Thursday and Friday off for my birthday. I had tentatively planned to go for a hike in one of the open space preserves, but realized that it was cold and the trails were likely to be mucky. So instead I was a slug/blanket fort for much of the day. It was rather nice.

We went out to a very nice restaurant where my dad had given us a gift certificate. They do a five course prix fixe (and nothing else) with five additional bite-size dishes. Everything was quite good. Nothing groundbreaking - it was all California/French, but I don't mean that in a condescending way! We were there for nearly three hours but it never felt like it.

Back to work and the real world tomorrow.

Today honestly feels like just another day, except that I am taking a few days off work. After about 25-30 birthdays aren't the significant marking points they once were. I will be walking down to an Irish bar to celebrate the birthday of Irish coffee in the US; the wife and I are going to the Legion for an exhibit on pastels from the Renaissance through modern (probably mostly modern, but hey); and dinner at a local Sardinian restaurant we like.

I took yesterday off work for the wife's birthday. We had a relaxing day, punctuated by a drive down to a local open space preserve for a hike. It was a glorious day for it. I would have been happier with redwoods, but what we got was still nice - chaparral and a lake with ducks and geese.

I took today off work. The plan was to go for a hike in a local open space preserve.

Instead, we took Hilde to the emergency vet because she had thrown up a couple times and was listless. It turns out she has a fever. More importantly, she is FLV-positive. Which - since it spreads through "prolonged saliva contact" - means we will have to get Bea tested, but it's a good assumption she'll turn up positive as well. Even if she didn't I don't think we'd want to re-home her.

They'll both go in for tests in about six weeks. At that point we'll see. They may have shorter lives, they may not. Either way we will love them as long as we can.

I took yesterday off work. Even with the shelter-in-place order, I wanted to not be concentrating on work for our 20^th anniversary. Because dammit, with the stress of current life and losing Galen - I figured I needed a break to focus on something a bit more positive.

Obviously we couldn't go out for dinner. The wife suggested we go to one of the local open space preserves and get out in the fresh air. Brilliant! I suppose this goes against strictly staying inside, but we really were going for exercise which is allowed. Some of the areas are closed because people have been crowding (including the one she suggested), but I picked one that is relatively out-of-the way and we figured it would be okay on a late morning weekday.

After a pretty and not-crowded short drive, we arrived and the parking lot wasn't full so we were all good. We hiked about 4 miles up and downhill, among redwoods and oaks and stunning views. We didn't see very many people. It was refreshing and really what we needed. We even picnicked on the trail with high-end sandwiches: Acme rolls, house-made Frankenham, stinky cheese from upstairs, and arugula. Aruuuugula.

We did take a bit of effort for dinner, both dressing up. I cooked duck breast. We opened a bottle of port from our wedding year, which was a vintage year. (We stocked up a bit and have been opening them at 5-year intervals.) As I recall the port at 5 was way too young, 10 was a bit rough, 15 was nice, and 20 was pretty damn good.