This morning we begin the tasks that will occupy us for the next few weeks. Today: the backyard, the junk drawer, more bins in the garage, and maybe some work in the family room.

My parents left for Russia yesterday via Finland via Amsterdam via San Francisco. It's going to be a long trip for them.

Snark and I spent the day in Oakland wandering the Farmers Market off of Grand and Lakeshore. My favorite buy were two overflowing baskets of the sweetest organic strawberries for $6. (I guess I had forgotten how tasty strawberries can be, and maybe because of that, I devoured about half of them yesterday evening.)

In the afternoon, we walked around Berkeley on Telegraph, ate fat, hot egg rolls (50 cents each) sitting on the curb in the sunshine, walked a bit more, and had a beer at Raleigh's while people-watching. Our last stop was my grandma's favorite cheese shop on Shattuck; it was crammed full of people even in the late afternoon.

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I'm still thinking about my friends in Bisbee, wondering how the fires in the Huachucas and Chiricahuas have affected them and tourism in old town; if the people I know outside of town are okay, if they had to leave their homes; how startling it is to lose the lush canyon/forest areas near them...