It Happened On Park Boulevard

The End Of 2010

    Here we are, less than a handful of hours away from 2011.  From house hunting & getting our new home to our first anniversary & everything else... This year has been a wonderful year and we have accomplished so much!
I am looking forward to all that 2011 has to offer and all that it will bring.  Already the calendar seems to be filling up with different adventures and things to do!

    As promised from the earlier post, here is a photo of our home with this year's Christmas lights (Click photo to see larger version).  As time moves forward we hope to add a few more each year, but this was a very good start and made our new home quite charming for the holiday season!  We were also happy to see that there are plenty of neighbors that decorate their homes too, so our new neighborhood was festive too.

    See you all next year!

 

Happy Holidays!

This was our first Christmas in the new house, and I love it even more.  April is the master decorator and between the two of us we were able to get lights up on the house.  Sure not as many as we would like, but it is a good start for our first year here. (I'll try to post a picture up here soon.)

The inside of the house was well decorated too.  With our living room having a very high vaulted ceiling  I was  determined to have a much taller tree than I ever have had before.  In the apartment we would usually get a 5 foot tree... This year it was time to double it, and it is beautiful! (Click photo so see full size)

This year we also hosted our 5th annual cookie party.  And being that we have always hosted it at the old apartment we were limited on space.  With this being the first one in the house we were able to host more friends and family.  It was great having new  friends attend and having old friends that have been with us since the original cookie party.

All in all we are setteling in well to the new house.  With the holiday season coming to a close in the next few days, soon it will be time to get back to work on the various projects around the house.  But first I need to figure out how in the heck we are going to get this tree out of the house!

Kicking Butt & Taking Out Plants In The Front Yard

I believe it was shortly after deciding to make an offer on the house that both April and I mutually commented that the large front window was one of the things we were looking for in a home.  Affectionately referred to as, "The Xmas Tree Window" this window was to be the window that you could see our tree from.

Well, if you have seen our place you know that 90% of the window is covered by 5 or 6 different species of plants that have been planted in years past.  And if you haven't seen our place you can just see the photo above.  My guess is that some were planted by the original owners and some were planted more recently.  Either way it is obvious that it has been a long long time since they have been tended to and, well, it is time for them to go.

Now that you see what it has looked like since we moved in... Click "Continue reading..." below to see what it looks like after today

Yard Work - An Infinite Project

Last week I started to work in the garden.  Yes, we have a garden.  There's just no fruit or vegetables growing there.   Yet.

The plan is to have the backyard all set by the early part of Spring so we can have a garden of the fruit & vegetable nature.

First goal, to remove the never ending ground cover.  (See photos)  This stuff is insane.  It is not true ice-plant, but it is very similar in that it retains a lot of water and seems to grow in any soil condition with little to no water - I really don't know how this stuff does it, but it does.  It also just continuously grows over itself year after year.  Thus the amount of plant under the green part is usually very surprising and a lot more than you would imagine.  Oh, and don't get me started on the roots!

While removing the first small section of this stuff I also removed two more rose bushes that had grown through the pots they had been sitting if for a long time, (roots well over an inch and a half thick, so yeah, a really long time).  I also unearthed a 'dead' irrigation system that was about a foot below the soil and  a series of 4 x 4 pieces of wood that were/are sunk about 2 feet deep.  I am not sure what they were for, but I am guessing there was once a trellis of some sort there.  So far I have removed two of at least 5 that I know of.

After the ground cover was removed and two more of the root-bound rose bushed were removed I turned over the soil and added some organic materials such as coffee grounds, plant clippings, apple left overs and banana peels.  The goal is to start composting to help amend the rather poor soil we have here.

I guess it is fair to say we have officiall started gardening.  I am hopeful that if I keep knocking out a little bit each week, by the time planting season hits for Spring of 2011 we can get strawberry plants in and maybe a few other things.

 

 

 

Two Car Garage...

...with two cars in it!

A major milestone was achived today!  With the monster of a heatwave that has hit the area this week, there was plenty of motivation this morning (when it was 80 degrees at 9:AM) to finish this long drawn-out project.  I must say it was rather nice that we were already so close to getting the garage squared away so both cars could in there.  (The last box to go to Goodwill is in my car, should be donated today!)

 

Allbeit, there is still a lot to organize in the garage because a lot of stuff was just piled up against the walls to make room for now.  But there is room, and both cars are in!

 

And at least when it hits 100 degrees during this Autum heatwave, both cars will be out of the direct sun and hopefully stay a bit cooler, even if it is 90 in the garage.

Brad Paisley!

You may or may not recall that April & I used a couple of Brad Paisley's songs during or wedding reception, (one of my favorites She's Everything). I even thought about taking April to see him in concert when he was here in town a couple years back. But it was a Sunday night and out of our budget given that we were saving for our wedding.

Well life offered up a unique situation that not only gave us the good fortune of seeing him in concert from some pretty good seats, for free... But to also meet him and his family on our turf.

Brad Paisley and family came to the zoo last week and as luck would have it, everyone was very busy with Reptilemania (a big zoo wide celebration of sorts all about reptiles). And thus I was asked to help with the tour!

Without going into too much detail let's just say I spent about 5 hours with him and his family at the zoo. April got to meet them too during the Children's Zoo VIP stop. I made sure she got a photo with Brad, I mean Brad got a photo with the alligator that April just happened to be holding... :-) Then we were given tickets to his concert that was held that night (Friday the 17th of Sept) and so April & I got to see him LIVE!

The photo to the right was taken from my iPhone so I apologize for the poor quality, but at least we got a  photo! (Here's another one of my favorites from the concert Waitin' On A Woman.)

Garage Sale Success!

April & I had our first ever garage sale today at the new house and all-in-all I'd say it was a success.  Sure we would have liked to have sold more of the smaller knick-nack type items, but with the sale of all of the big items we made out quite well.

We posted a few signs in the neighborhood and a couple of postings on Craigslist and that was it for advertising.  Sure enough the "professional" garage sale buyers showed up nearly 30 minutes early, but whatever.  They all bought stuff so I guess we can't complain.

The "cherry on top" was that the only big item left over was the box part of the TV stand that was too big for us to move anywhere without a truck.  Given that it was in poor condition I moved to the sidewalk at the end of the day with a FREE sign on it.  By 5:35PM ot was gone!

Now it is just a matter of donating the smaller stuff  and organizing a few things and then BOTH cars get to live in the garage!

Our First Wedding Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to us!  Yes it is true - it has been a WHOLE year!

We lucked out that our anniversary this year landed on a Tuesday this year because we are usually both off on 
Tuesdays.  Thus we were able to have a lovely lunch date at the Hotel Del Coronado.  As we walked to the Hotel Del we stopped off at the beach that is right there to say "hello" to the spot where we swapped "I-do's" just a year  before.

 

We had a delicious lunch at the Hotel's restaurant, Sheerwater.  Yummy!  It was great, we had a beautiful table on the patio overlooking the grassy area a nd gardens.  Not sure what was more fun, watching the birds or watching the people.  From there we wandered over to Moo-Time Creamery to have some delicious waffle cones filled with ice cream!  So yeah, it was a really good day!

 

Of course we received all sorts of wonderful gifts, but hands down the one from Tristan (pictured below) was the most thematic and gave us the biggest laugh. As he said, "Well, it is your paper anniversary."

If you can't see exactly what's going on here, let me break it down for you... There was a paper dollar bill, wrapped in lined notebook paper, wrapped in tissue paper, wrapped in toilet paper, wrapped in a small paper bag.

 

(For both images -Click on them to see a larger version)

First Day Of Middle School

Up until today there were a lot of questions. Some concerns.  Mostly the topic was trying to figure out the unknowns before the unknowns even presented themselves.  What can I say? I'm pretty much the same way.

Plan. Anticipate. Survive.

True, this is just middle school.  But when you're just a few months shy of turning 12 and going to middle school for the first time, this isn't just middle school.  It is your life.

A warrior knows, you need to make sure the unknown that unsettles you is just as unsettled by you.  If for no other reason but to level the playing field.

 

Needles to say, this warrior survived the unknowns.  He even found out, like most of us do, the unknowns were not nearly as bad as he thought they might be.  And though he may never admit it, some were even kind of cool.

House Update

Today we finally got to door between the garage and the house re-keyed. We finally have it all set up so ONE key opens all locks on all doors! So much better than our apartment that had a different key for every lock. That was two keys per door plus the screen door had its own key too!

I am spending the day tomorrow getting ready for my Sunday morning flight (and trip) to the Galapagos Islands. Seriously can't wrap my head around this trip. But I am sure I will do my best to soak it all in once I am there.

This is a work trip; obviously I could not afford this on my own and if I could I would take April with me. I am going with the Zoo's videographer with the goal being to capture as many shots of the tort's and marine iguanas as possible along with any other wildlife. We are also to interview the people that work at the Darwin Research Center about the conservation work being done on the islands.

One side note that is pretty cool, the Zoo has asked that I take still images with my dSLR camera. The request was based out of the fact that I am going and the zoo photographer is not. However I see this as a chance to get my photos published in the future through the zoo or the zoo's magazine. Either way, I can no boast that I was paid to take photos!

Okay.. Time get some sleep. I'll try to post one more time before I head out on my adventure.