Earl has been instructed not to read this (seeing as he’s the administrator of this site, it’s impossible to keep secrets from him if I want to write about them here).

But, I will let you all in on a surprise, as he’s promised not to read.

Guess what? Over New Years, I am taking my beloved away on a romantic trip! Our first real vacation in over a year and a half!!! This is very exciting because it punctuates the end of my period of “unemployment” and “career change” and “being broke” and all the sad, empty wallet and second guessing/soul searching side effects that come with that decision.

We’re heading down the coast to a bed and breakfast Pescadero and Ano Nuevo State Park to see elephant seal mating season. Star watching, oceanside picnics, mountaintop hikes, bottles of champagne, wine tasting and potbellied pigs are all on the agenda. You heard right. The bed and breakfast we’re staying at has a pet pot bellied pig! So cute, right? :) We’re even bringing Linus, so I wonder how he will react when meeting the pig, who is apparently housebroken and lives in the main house, using his own piggy-sized doggie door to come and go at his leisure.

Here is the “room” (it’s a 2-story tower! we get the whole thing) where we will be staying:

We shall be sitting on that balcony at midnight on New Years Eve, looking out over the ocean, sharing a snog and toasting to the new decade!

and here es le oinker:

I am so, SO excited for this trip and all that it represents. It fills me with joy to be able to pay for us to do something like this myself, FINALLY. Even though this trip is just a small weekend, it makes me very happy to do something special for Earl after all of the love and support he has given me over the past year and a half.

Here is to a marvelous start to 2010!