Kim and i gave up our community garden plot.  We have too much going on still at home and we weren't taking care of things.  It's the first time we haven't gardened since our very early days together, other than my GBS year.

Dad and Mom came to California to visit me and Paul in December; Mom said that he was very insistent and, well, when a 92-year-old is almost desperate to see his kids, you can guess what might be going through his head.  Turns out that his health started declining soon after his return, where he couldn't keep any food down.  They found a mass in his stomach that was blocking the entrance, and we hope to have the biopsy results... today?  Welp, tomorrow, then.  Again, at 92, it seems immaterial.  He's got a feeding tube installed now, plus a catheter because he's had trouble urinating, too.  They had just pulled the trigger on a house in The Villages and now it seems unlikely that he'll move from Quito, given his health.

My department at work only got 30% of the headcount they requested, so i, sadly, remain an employee of the contracting agency and not Google.  But my contract was renewed for a full year, so it's not all bad.

Finished week 2 at Google (on contract). It's quite a relief to get a job where i'm given a task and am not micromanaged (even if all my various facets of existence within the Google hivemind have yet to fully coalesce, which hindered my ability to work until this Wednesday).  I've had to thrash against the limits of my ignorance yet, after establishing the initial parameters, managed to surpass obstacles on my own, needing only once to ask for clarification.

Plumbing and electric work on the new house is nearly done, which will allow us to insure it.  The garage at the current house has been obliterated and removed, and the dogs are greatly loving the new roaming grounds.  Memo hates shovels and, when faced with the Bobcat that remained overnight (the garage demolition took two days), felt that it was his duty to bite the largest shovel he'd ever seen.

Our grandson Elliott drew some capybaras during his last visit. They now grace our fridge.