are completely beyond my ken.

And all your Barbies? Sorry, kneejerk, can't help it (RIP, Andy).

Good to see you ehab. It sounds like your life is purring along pretty happily, and that's great to see.

Who me? I'm a fixture. A little less shiny than I used to be, but still pretty sturdy. Still loving the PNW, though missing friends and family back east. Still geeking over eagles and swans and tulips and mountains and the sheer beauty of my adopted state. Still settling in, as H seems to feel that structural and technical fixes to the house matter more than getting those last boxes unpacked. I hope to have banished brown cardboard forever by Christmas. We'll see.

ehap - I used to live in Downey, and often shopped at the El Cerrito Mall. So not that obscure.

Oh and went to El Cerrito Community college for a time.

I have had 3 different El Cerrito addresses in my life. I remember how the El Cerrito Mall used to be and it confuses the heck out of me when I'm in town now. Sure wish that Trader Joes had been there when I lived near Central and Lexington.

Waving hello to the lurkers. Come out, come out. We want to meet you.

I too spend a ton of time in El Cerrito, since Emmett's school is three blocks away from the BART station and I frequently shop at the TJ's in El Cerrito Mall.

Two different El Cerritos. Mine was in greater LA area of S.Cal near Long Beach. So two El Cerritos in California. I wonder which Ehab lives in.

Hah! Typo Boy I was just going to post that Downey is nowhere nearby and that we have no Community College in town. Are you sure you're not thinking of El Centro?

I only ask about El Centro, because I have a yearbook from HS for El Centro, because the printer screwed up our town name. Yes, I still live in the town I was raised in, which is North of Albany & Berkeley.

SuziQ, I miss Capwell's at the Mall. The Mall that exists now is completely odd to me but redeemed by TJs.

DavidS, that must mean Emmett's in middle school now? Despite living in the town I grew up in, not a single school I attended exists in the form it was when I attended. Every single one has been torn down (& rebuilt) for being unsafe. Well okay, my middle school still exists, but no one is allowed inside.

ETA: Typo Boy, Cerritos maybe? El Centro is near Mexicali...

El Cerrito Plaza. Not Mall. Typo tripped me up. I've been to El Cerritos also, but just passing through.

I grew up in Berkeley, moved to El Cerrito, moved to another place in El Cerrito, then to Alameda, up to Washington state, back to Alameda, another place in Alameda, then back to El Cerrito, back to Alameda, into the house some of you have visited in Alameda, then off to Colorado.

Yes, the Plaza.

I too have lived all around the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and briefly in Portland, OR. I lived in Alameda, in a basement apartment of an old Vic in the Gold Rush part of town. And in Emeryville, in a brief, failed experiment at high rise living.

I've also lived in Berkeley, Oakland, and in a few different places in El Cerrito.

Like you, SuziQ, I moved around a lot without going too far. There was a period where I moved 8 times in two years. Ugh.

ehab, I highly recommend the bay area buffistas. I miss them terribly. When you are ready to be social, post something in F2F.

Yes misremembered part of the name. This: [link]