Just a quick note to point out that all the archives and search functions on this site have been improved. You can always return to the index by clicking the orchid sketch on the top left. Also, I imported some journal entries from 2001 forward into my WordPress database, so check out either the Categories Read more >>

We finally broke down and got a room air conditioner, so we’ve moved into what is CURRENTLY the bedroom but will soon be just the office (our bedroom is full of bamboo flooring and boxes from our move, so the bed doesn’t fit in there yet). It’s a darling room, full of light. It’s a Read more >>

Paul Graham is singing my pain. This article is EXACTLY on. “Good programmers manage to get a lot done anyway. But often it requires practically an act of rebellion against the organizations that employ them. Perhaps it will help to understand that the way programmers behave is driven by the demands of the work they Read more >>

Last Friday night as the sun went down, I raided the candle cupboard (yes, my mother had so many candles that an entire cupboard of the four cupboards available for storage is wholly devoted to Things for Burning) and lined the deck with lit candles. A year ago, we’d had the candles burning for days. Read more >>

Yield Originally uploaded by briannaorg These wild strawberries are taking over the front flower bed. If you hike a little ways up the creek, you can find scads of them. This is what I rescued before the birds found them.

Utopian Illusions Originally uploaded by briannaorg The Life magazine advertisement that I found when I was in middle school, that later became the inspiration for the name Utopian.net.

Did you ever have one of those decisions where the pros and cons were so evenly divided that you waffled one way or another forever, hoping that some external force or sign would help you decide? Yeah. I’ve decided to withdraw from my graduate program and not travel to Austria. It is one of those Read more >>

About an hour ago, I was making coffee in the kitchen when the house was rocked by a large concussion, followed by a shorter one. I ran to find Josh, thinking a transformer had blown or something. Josh ran to find me, thinking it was an earthquake. In five years living in California, he’s only Read more >>

This has been the week of dance. I was actually waiting to write this entry, hoping to post pics of Jenn’s daughter dressed up in a Dalmatian tutu for her recital on Saturday, but I forgot my camera. Argh. Suffice it to say, it was overwhelmingly cute. Little girls bashful and bouncing onstage. Still – Read more >>

A brief trip into town, past the Hot Rods and Harleys show at the local cafe, which was tying up all the traffic on the half-mile main drag. So we stopped at the garden center and bought a rake and came outside, whereupon I discovered a fuzzy baby blackbird flopping around on the asphalt, dangerously Read more >>