USA - Smartville (California)

We visited Bill's aunt in Smartville, California, in the foothills of Sierra-Nevada mountains. They live on a hill with a creek in their back yard which was pretty, but it pained me to have to drive my treasured Audi over the unpaved gravel road.

This is the creek in the back yard.

This is the unpaved, gravel road that we had to drive on.

This area was all gold mines during the Gold Rush. This is Bill looking for gold in the river. I guess there are still flecks of gold in the river washed down from the hills. Bill was very happy at having found a couple flecks that looked suspiciously like dirt.

This is me trying to avoid getting any sun - no freckles!!

E = MC2

We were delivered the two little port-a-potty looking storage containers shown on the top. It's going to take some physics genius or magic to fit all our stuff, including furniture, in there. Bill is in the process of taking all the furniture apart to make them less bulky. Whether he will be able to put them back together upon our return, we shall see...

Bill unemployed - Day 1

I am in the office working when I get the following email from Bill:

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From: Bill Miller
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 2:48 PM

You so missed Jerry Springer's 3000th episode special today . . . Jerry, Jerry, Jerry . . .
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I think Bill needs some errands to run.

Bill's last day at work

I woke up today to Bill dancing around the bed singing 'it's my last day!!'. I, on the other hand, was in a fetal position sucking on my thumb as images of us having to sell my last Fendi bag for food flashed before my eyes...

(Actually, Bill is getting a leave of absence from his firm so it won't be that bad, but not having income for a year is a bit scary)