Catching up

Hey all, it's been a while for whatever reason. I'm not going to apologize. It is what it is, so just be happy I'm posting at all, ya ingrates.

Anyway, in the last month quite a bit has happened. We took a quick trip up to NYC (see obligatory Rockefeller Center pic below). We had a great time. The point was to see an off-off broadway play written by the wife of a cartoonist. I read his comic and blog everyday (see "Sheldon" link to the left) and since I find him entertaining, I figured his wife is more of the same. Besides, we won't be doing any major traveling this year (read: no major vacation planned like last year's Napa Valley trip) so little weekend sojourns are the next best thing. I have to say I appreciate NYC more now that I've taken the time to walk around it. I used to think it wasn't all that, but I got to see new neighborhoods and quite enjoyed this trip. Oh, but this was the crowning glory of our time there. One cupcake from that place kept you fed from breadfast until dinner! Hearty doesn't even begin to describe these puppies. On the two separate occasions we went I had the Oreo cupcake and the Red Velvet cupcake, respectively. They were way yummy. Chris had an "Artie Lange" and a coconut cupcake.



On to Memorial Day weekend, or as we like to now refer to it: "the other 'labor' day weekend". To tell you why, I have to tell you a story first. We had our house built back in 2004. As is customary with most new developments these days, especially to profit-mongering developers such as ours (why should they be any different right?), the standard MO is to gut the site of natural resources, blast thru whatever hill they are building into and then backfill your yard with said debris. Then, so as not to show their hand, they plant a couple of measly bushes, mulch the hell out of the site and call it 'landscaping'. Well, in the 3 years we've been here, all but 2 of the original 5 bushes died. This prompted a wild hare to find its way into my nether regions and plant (no pun intended) the idea of ripping out all of the plants, digging up the garden bed and replacing the debris with honest-to-God topsoil/compost perfect for an honest-to-God garden. Now, dear readers, we come to the crux of the story. I point you to Exhibits A-C:

[Exhibit A]This is but 1/3 of what we ripped out of the ground...


[Exhibit B]...to produce this ditch...


[Exhibit C]...and this, too...over two days. When all was said and done we moved in excess of *3 TONS* of earth. 3 TONS, people. And during the hottest weekend to date this year no less. It was about 90 degrees with about 60% humidity or more. Niiiice. Putrid would probably best describe our odor at the end of the day.


Be sure to note where the red clay stains on the stairway facade are...yeah, we dug that deep (it's about a foot if you can't tell). "What's the big deal" you may ask? Did you happen to notice that one of the tools we had to use in Exhibit C was a sledgehammer?!? It's not pictured, but our best friend throughout this whole ordeal was a freakin' pick axe! Shovels were useless. You couldn't go a 1/2 inch without hitting a rock. So yeah, we appreciate 'day laborers' (read: undocumented workers). We labored for a day and didn't get too far. Were we to do this for our livelihood, we would starve to death, no lie. So why did we do it? Because of the aforementioned wild hare, and because of this:


Ain't that a thing of beauty? We were so proud we almost handed out cigars. Now it's ready for some proper plants and flowers, but that's for another day, another blog.