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Well the tree has finally been making good avocados. And when it rains it pours. Right now we have 16 sitting on the counter:

And that’s not all of them. We probably have eaten or given away another dozen or so in the past few weeks, and there are still a few in the tree still. Overall they taste really good; the only downside is that their skins are really thin, so you have to be a bit careful getting the good stuff out. The lemon on the other hand is better suited for our “grazing” lifestyle. We have been slowly pulling them off when we need them (Kaye drinks a lot of hot lemon water…mmm), and there are still a bunch on the tree (maybe 30 or 40?).

Tonight, I get to go see the librarian that inspired an action-figure, Nancy Pearl.

I just read a book about the life and times of one of the most notorious guerrilla fighters in Union controlled Missouri.

Bill Anderson was a pivotal character in the Civil War front lines in Missouri. He did some pretty atrocious things including leading the Lawrence Massacre and the Centralia Massacre. Ultimately he ended up riding with the likes of William Quantrill, and Frank and Jesse James.

Definitely a great read for those interested in the the beginnings of the post Civil War bandit period (Anderson lead what is considered the first daylight bank robbery in the United States).

If you guys aren’t familiar with the glories of Grocery Outlet, I suggest you become so. Expensive Kerrygold cheese? Normally $6, at Grocery Outlet, 2 bucks. Energy saving lightbulbs? 25 cents each. Amy’s? 1.99. You may laugh, but go in there! Go before you do your regular shopping, and go with an open mind. We’ve found staples there that exist nowhere else on the planet–such as apricot flavored toothpaste and FiddleFaddle.

We borrowed the neighbors’ electric lawn mower and plowed through all the clover. In fact, we went on a yard work rampage, and worked outside for five hours! We had a lot of fun, and the place no longer looks abandoned. Matthias took great pleasure in showing me how to properly prune fruit trees with my new pruners, we turned the compost, took out weeds, trimmed all the plants, tried out the fruit picker (verdict, avocados are not ready yet!) and had a good time. After having such a nasty cold last week, it felt great to get out. The weather was really lovely too.

Matthias and I really need to take some pictures, but the house is coming along nicely. Due to some crazy clover that grows all over the area abundantly, and a little bit of rain, we now have foot-high greenery in the front and back lawns. I hear that it will all die back in May or so, and then we will have to do something. For the moment, we need to mow the lawn, but I want a push mower, and somehow, that doesn’t seem so convenient. 1. We have to get one. 2. We will need to get it sharpened. 3. Shopping for used mowers isn’t that enticing of a weekend project.

The lemon and orange trees are producing nice big, fat fruits. They are a little bit too acidic, but the lemons are coming in handy for some of our recent cooking projects. I think by next year, they should be fantastic.

We haven’t posted to this site in a really long time. Lots of things have changed in the past year. Kaye started a new job at a San Jose Public Library, and is really enjoying her work. I’ve also moved, but I’m still within Etrade. I just needed a change of pace, different challenges; you get the idea.

However the biggest news is that Kaye and I just bought a house. It’s a 3 bed, 2 bath Spanish style house that was built in the 40s. It definitely has some issues that need prompt care, but it also has good fundamentals, and some great aspects too. Most notably are the hard wood floors, and the avocado trees, and a couple of fruit and citrus trees. On the less positive side, it has old knob and tube wiring, and the lawn is entirely dead because the previous owner stopped watering the grass. Take a look at the gallery.

I’m hoping this year to keep posting to this site a bit more often. We’ll see how well I do. Keep in touch

It’s been a while since we have posted, but recently i was informed that this blog was getting blog spammed. I guess i never locked it down. Now we are running Spam Karma, which automatically blocks spam. You might notice when you leave a comment you need to enter a captcha. I also figured I’d put some more pictures of Stella up. We recently took Stella to Montara State Beach, which is officially her first long trip. She hated the ocean, but looked very cute lying on the beach. I also loaded some more pictures of the little animal, including some where she is super duper cute. Also Stella has become more mellow when we are not around. I guess our efforts to break her of her anxiety have worked!

So, as adorable as Stella is, she isn’t quite the little angel that we bargained for. She has developed separation anxiety after some health problems that she experienced, and in the neighbor’s words, she “squeals” during the day. Matthias and I worked on training her this weekend to not freak out when we leave. We were in the bedroom hiding (a training exercise advocated by vets!), and this harpy-dog made shrieking noises that made us laugh in shame for our neurotic animal. I think now that Mommy is off Prozac, little Stella will have to go on it.

Well, we finally got the color wedding photographs scanned and loaded onto the site. You can find them in our main gallery, on the wedding page. We hope to get our black & white photographs scanned soon, and loaded onto the site.