The worst part about living on this boat (other boats may or may not be better in this respect) is rainy days.

When I was growing up in San Diego, three days was a really long storm, and an inch of rain over the course of a storm was a whole lot. Now we get heavy rain for a week straight, with rainfall of an inch per hour at times.

We get leaks. Rain blows in through the door and hatch unless we close up completely and deal with lack of air circulation. We have to pile stuff up in crazy ways to avoid the leaks. We have to figure out somewhere to put the rain gear, wet shoes, and other general sogginess. koyote's side of the bed gets soaked and he has to sleep out on the couch. The lightning and thunder and pounding rain (and, at one point, walnut sized hail) and wind keeps us all awake.

On the worst days, I'm stuck inside a less than 200 sq. ft. space with a bored toddler ALL DAY, except for perhaps a 30 minute puddle stomp outside. We abuse the DVDs those days.

On the good side, once the rain is over, the small size means that the mess can be cleaned up quite fast. Also, most of the leaks should be fixable. We thought we'd gotten most of them during the last dry spell, but apparently not.

In the middle of all this stormy mess, I spent two days sailboat racing.

No, I didn't think that this was the brightest idea, either. But the race wasn't cancelled, and I didn't want to piss off the woman giving me free sailing lessons by leaving her without crew at the last minute, so I went.

On the first day, when we got outside the breakwater, I was honestly sure I was going to die. It was raining, the surf was storm-high, and the pelting of hail the night before (there were still piles of hail a foot high piled up around storm drains six hours later, and this is LA we're talking about) hadn't left me feeling too confident about the weather.

Just after the race started, the weather cleared up, and the rest of the race was absolutely beautiful. We didn't do too well - two of us were very new to sailing, and the third was more experienced, but had never crewed on this particular boat before. We got off to a poor start and finished last, but another boat didn't finish the race at all, so it could have been worse.

The second day started off beautiful, but it started raining around the start of the race, and never recovered. By the end, it was really pouring, and we were all soaked and miserable, but the miserableness only hit after the race ended. We did a lot better that time - we were ahead of the boat whose crew had taunted us mercilessly the day before for a good stretch, and we may have actually placed decently.

We don't know, though. They threw out the race because one of the markers wasn't where it was supposed to be.

I hate being in wet clothing. I hate having my face sprayed with water. I'm not the world's greatest fan of potentially life-threatening activities, such as scrambling around the slippery deck of a boat leaning at a 45 degree angle in 150 feet of water. Somehow I still managed to love it.

I think I'm addicted now, and may have to move up to the Bay Area, where these conditions are apparently the norm rather than the exception.

Our propane tank ran out the other night. We started it in October or November, and hadn't expected it to last anywhere near this long. Pretty good, especially considering that winter is probably the highest stove-usage season.

So, like I mentioned previously, we're staying here in LA. When the slip opened up, it seemed like the smartest move - koyote was starting to get consulting work down here, and we'd have to borrow from my family in order to get up to Oregon. This way, we'll hopefully be able to save up enough to do it on our own, or at least more of it on our own.

We do still want to head up to Oregon. There are so many benefits (not the least of which is that this marina may not be around in a year!). Just moreso if we don't try to do it right now.

The new marina is nicer. Our old one was basically the boat slums. This is a lot quieter, and in much better repair. The dryers actually dry most loads in one cycle! It's also a short distance from Mother's Beach (a sheltered swimming area, though I'd be a bit hesitant to put a kid in the water), which has a good playground.

Leif is a little movie addict. It's a little strange, since we don't even have a TV, but first thing in the morning he's waving a movie in my face (we watch them on my laptop - I'm currently typing this on my palm). We're not quite sure what to think about this. He's getting more than the 1 hour recommended max per day, but it's all age appropriate since he isn't doing any passive watching of shows we watch (seeing as we don't watch any).

I don't know. I guess we need to work on getting out more. That's one benefit of being semi-permanently settled here - I can go out and find things for us to do with ourselves.

We're also working on getting our sewing business going, both baby carriers and canvaswork for boats. I have one of my old carriers up on ebay now (go bid!), and hope to get some new ones posted soon. Finding time to sew is the problem - Leif tries to get into everything when he's awake, and I don't want to spend every spare minute while he's sleeping on sewing!

Speaking of sleeping, he's been really neat lately. When he's tired, both at nap and bedtime, he goes over to the bed and reaches up to signal that he's ready for bed. Now, if we could just get him to sleep through the night! We're curious as to whether we're doing something right and he actually likes going to bed when he's tired, or if this is just a phase, or because he has a cold.

We now have running water and a working stove/oven (which is a really good thing, as Leif broke the crock pot). Yay! We've joined the 19th century! Still no regular internet access (have to wait till the financial situation improves slightly. Did you know Union Bank charges $100 overdraft fees? I'm considering changing banks, though I've had an account there since I was 8).

There's a houseboat at the end of our dock. They have a dog with cerebral palsy. I just saw it walking along, dragging it's hind legs in a wheeled frame. Neat.

Today Leif developed an attachment to a pair of cherry tomatoes. He took them to the park, where I encouraged him to throw them at a bush. Budding Republican that he is, he refused.

Yes, I realize that was childish of me.

Mooching internet access (and kitchen use. We're baking cookies. yay!) off of a friend tonight...

We got Leif a red moose/dragon/dog-like thing at Ikea, as it was the first stuffed animal besides his cow puppy that he's shown much interest in. He snuggles it, gives it a kiss, and then casually tosses it away. I suspect he's picked up from one of his videos that you're supposed to snuggle stuffed animals, and is mimicking that without really understanding the concept.

He has started giving us throwing his arms around our neck and giving us kisses, though.

Any of you other parents seen the Baby Songs movies? Some of you younger non-parents may have seen them as kids, even. They're quite obviously 80's vintage. The first one we got ("Baby's Busy Day", actually the second one in the series and the source of Leif's stuffed animal knowledge.) is fairly normal, if somewhat inane. The ABC/123/Colors one is stranger. Some of the songs are so amazingly bizarre that I'm tempted to stick them online for others to marvel at. The "Good Night" one, which I bought today, is just wacked, and religious to boot, in a rather UU way.

koyote wishes I would stop buying them and find some other movie for Leif. Leif likes them though, and I find them strangely addicting. He's probably right, though.

Some crazy person is ranting loudly outside. We have lots of crazy people around here, homeless and otherwise, including one who talks about how she has a thing for towheaded babies every time she sees Leif, and insists we get him and ourselves tinfoil hats to protect us from the government brain control waves. Really. We try to avoid her.

I guess that's what we get for living next to a park in LA with covered picnic tables and semi-public showers (they're intended for the users of the guest docks, but the lock code is pretty much general knowledge).

We probably won't be here much longer, though. We're working on moving up to Oregon. Bandon, specifically. It looks like a nice place, except for the lack of public transportation, which could be problematic. We intend to get a car, but I really don't want to have to learn to drive. Bah.

Leif fell asleep at something like 6:30 tonight. I dread to see what time he wakes up in the morning.

I lj-friend people for three reasons - I know them, they friend me and I don't have any specific problem with them, or I find what they write absolutely fascinating for some reason. Two people in the latter category, zeppo and pamamama, deleted their journals at some point in the recent past. This makes me sad.