This is Kody...

...short for Kodiak. We met him coming out of Jim and Dana's house after our somewhat pointless meeting with the insurance broker. He is a Keeshund with impossibly long fur. His owner (or 'guardian', as has been decreed by the city of Berkeley) told us that they got a robotic vacuum cleaner and that her husband has to disassemble it every time they use it in order to disentangle all the hair. He is beautifully behaved and had spotted his guardian reaching for the treats when I took this shot. He then proceeded to roll over, shake hands paw,  and dance on his hind legs. We had a nice chat with the woman whose name we never asked. But of course we know the name of her dog.

It's a good thing we went to Jim's because he works from home and 1) has the perfect two huge monitor set-up. and  2)the expertise to use all this technology effectively. This was useful when the broker's minion called John who didn't have his phone with him but the call did come through on his watch. For some reason the zoom connection wasn't working, but with the call transferred to his high tech phone speaker, we sorted out the insurance fairly quickly. For some reason, all the California Fair Plan companies have decided to cancel (not renew) all their current policies, but we should be able to re-sign up for what we had before, undoubtedly at greater expense. He didn't give us a quote which is what we thought this call was for. I knew the Fair Plan was unfairly expensive but was shocked to learn that we pay three times what Jim and Dana do for a bigger house only a mile away.

I dropped another bundle at the grocery store, hauled it all into the house put it away, and then went to pick up my sewing machine which is fixed but as John, the owner of the shop said when I said I was considering buying a new one, 'it's probably a good idea. This one has a million miles of sewing on it'. It was a no brainer to buy a new one that is almost exactly the same, isn't electronic, doesn't do embroidery, and costs considerably less money than the ones that are/do..

In another sign of how helpful these people are, a little German lady cane in and said she had bought a new machine, but it was too complicated, she didn't know how to use it and wanted a 'simpler' machine. When John questioned her about what she found most difficult about it ,she said she couldn't thread it and it was just too complicated. he patiently explained that with sewing machines, 'simpler wasn't necessarily easier'.  After a few more questions, she said she hadn't even opened the box. We all looked at each other and shook our heads, but John just patiently suggested that she sit down with one of the assistants who could go over it with her. I was even more impressed with this place. Everybody loves it, and, best of all, John is quite young! 

I'm still waiting for my fabric which has been in Stockton  CA for three days....