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Thanks Boris -- that looks like what it is!!
Now I'm curious to compare it to other ciids at the Essig Museum, if I can have enough patience with these tiny beetles. I still have the specimens. At least I can compare them to the only Hadraule there, which is actually the same species Phil pointed out on the Santa Barbara MNH site.

I posted this photo to show a group shot. I put it under Hadraule; I don't know if that's premature or not.

Based on Essig specimens, this is probably Hadraule blaisdelli (the same one Phil linked to at the SBMNH).

The pronotum color of the Essig specimens varied -- most were light, some were dark like mine. Antennal clubs match. All the other ciids in the collection are rounder. There are no other Hadraule species in the collection. There are H. blaisdelli specimens from southern CA (south of me) and Mendocino County (north of me), so presumably they are here in Alameda County too.

American Beetles has a drawing of H. blaisdelli on page 407, which is a good match for my beetle. Also, it says that this species is widely distributed, whereas the other two Hadraule don't seem to be (elongatula is known from New Brunswick; explanata is known from Maine).

This beetle also had the distinction of being the smallest ciid in Essig the collection -- just dark specks when not under a microscope. The other ciids are slightly larger, rounder dark specks. Ugh. This and the fact that I'm not a ciid expert is why I'm only moving this to Hadraule for now but if someone thinks it should move to H. blaisdelli (or anywhere else) that is fine with me.

Here is a satellite image of where I found this beetle. If you zoom in you can even sort of make out the dead tree they were in (gray area).

Well, the habitat should have been a clue.

things considered, looks like a better bet. Joyce does such a nice job with the little stuff, its easy to think these are larger. While, not this sp. - Hadraule looks pretty good.

I realize you weren't asking me, but what I have been doing recently is getting a pixel count on a good side, ventral, or dorsal view in which the long axis of the subject is at right angles to the line of sight through the camera. If I am shooting at 22x, I divide my known number of pixels equaling one millimeter (690) into the pixel count for the subject to arrive at 0.37mm or whatever.

How do I count the pixels for the subject? In PhotoShop I do a temporary crop of just the subject, nose to hind end, and check the size of that image. I then go to Edit and click Undo Crop.

I put two more photos here to help with the size issue. All I could really tell with the measuring tape was that the beetle was a little larger than 1mm. After looking at the photos on the toothpick, and measuring the toothpick, I'd say the size is closer to 1.5mm, but can't be any larger than that. These beetles were tiny.

I also think that it is a Trogossitidae.