Creating an account for the Fall (now a few weeks into Winter) is a bit of a trial, thanks to the laziness of the Quail Cottage historians and the business of their lives of late. But living in four distinct time zones in the space of a month created opportunities, stories, chaos, and good bragging rights. September finished with an Autumn birthday, October raced by with choir concerts, Swarthmore events, and many, many dinners with newfound (and oldfound) friends, including Kayla, Devin, Josh & Jesse. EFN delightfully lost themselves in a straw maze at a pumpkin patch, and netted the Cottage three quaint pumpkins, which were sadly left un-carved in the excitement that became the Winter. Dinners in Quail Cottage with mutual college friends — Fraser from Swarthmore, and Eric from Lawrence — created a new happy couple (pleasingly, more frequent visitors thanks to Fraser's Stanford domicile). WhiskeyFest Palo Alto was held, on the second day of Entropy Week, as unfortunately the California Bach Society concert occurred during WhiskeyFest San Francisco. And at the end, the Cottage was bedded down for a cold, lonely December which saw merely two occupied days.
Some years back in his old apartment at 528 Everett, John was looking for games suitable for EFN activities and found a good selection of jigsaw puzzles at a toy store next to the Prolific Oven coffee house on Waverly. The 1500 piece soothing French Impressionist café scene was completed on the kitchen table at 528 within a few days; the 1000 piece beach sea shell puzzle was unwrapped in anticipation, although never started. Yet a mysterious dark horse — a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle depicting a painting of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel — was left wrapped, to be seen by more adventurous parties. Thus began Entropy Week, the idea to finally piece together this puzzle, on the floor of Quail Cottage, open to any and all that would brave the chaos. From Friday night to Friday night, it would last eight full days (or from 7-11pm, work schedules being what they are), with drinks and snacks helping everyone in their fight. Monitored by webcam (attached to the Mac Mini media center) and by digital SLR (mounted on tripod with a fisheye lens), Entropy Week was publicized heavily, attempting to attract many foolhardy revelers to gather as much help as possible to finish the puzzle. Unfortunately, the event was a distinct failure; only two friends outside of EFN actually made it to the Cottage, and the puzzle was left, less than a tenth finished, mocking us from the floor on which it sat. Packaged up carefully, it will hopefully grace the floors of a few more friends before it gets completed; although the exact plans should remain secret, as they involve people that may be reading this journal as soon as we post it ... !
Shortly after Entropy Week, we began occupying ourselves with preparations for one of our largest trips yet: a vacation to several countries in Africa! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had planned to visit Leah, a good friend of Autumn's from childhood, who had been in Namibia for the past two years working for the Peace Corps. Preparing ourselves meant getting vaccinated against Yellow Fever, Malaria, and Typhoid, and figuring out what exact pieces of luggage we wanted to travel with us to a different continent. After a final cleaning of the fridge and trash bins, we shut off the heat, parked the car that wasn't on loan to Autumn's parents on the patio, filed for a month-long mail hold, renewed the lease on the Cottage, and flew the coop! Cushioned by an amazing pie-baking class a week before we left, Thanksgiving in Maryland was an amazing conglomerate of food, wine, family, and great relaxation.
Gratefully, the stories and happenings of Quail Cottage were pretty darn silent while the occupants were in Africa. With a great friend and neighbor watching over the Cottage, it survived the rains of December and the cold absence of body heat for a full month and change. Autumn arrived back home, after much Air Kenya, Air France, and Virgin America tribulation, to change her clothes two days before Christmas, and promptly continue onto Santa Cruz. (John didn't get back to the cottage until two days before New Years'.) A few pounds of mail were picked up, the car moved back out, the heat turned back on, and the fridge re-stocked. A new year begins now after a champagne party with city friends, and the prospects of another full year in the Cottage raise our spirits with fanciful dreams of new gardens, more advanced mead, and many, many more dinner parties.
The wine (& beer/mead) cellar is restocked now with some African imports, and 30 pounds of local honey lay waiting to be mixed and fermented. Cheers to a new year! Cheers to new dreams! and Cheers to the return of friends and family to our lovely Cottage, while we welcome them with tasty food in the oven and an extra drink in hand. Good night!