Digging for gold

Golden showers are $10.99. What a bargain!



Old trim ripped out. Spray foam squirted in. Ready to accept new trim.



This room has a history of obnoxious paint colors.



Makeshift clamping mechanism. This MDF stuff is hard to work with. Great because it's indestructable, but nearly impossible to nail without an industrial strength nail gun. There may be an industrial strength nail gun in my future.

Icing

Nancy's delicious un-birthday cake. But it's not all that it seems to be. The back of the cake is actually open and the insides of it hollow from my eating the cake before I got the chance to take a decent picture. So you must marvel at the structural integrity of the cake. Such rich decadent chocolate double layered cake. Each bite requires an entire glass of milk to wash it down. Whole milk.



Fuzzy fungus that's growing in my compost bin today. I think this is how they make Hostess sno-balls.



Extreme close up of a pink flowered variety of rosemary that's blooming today. Totally appropriate as I had a nice lunch with my old friend Rosemary this afternoon.



Replacement papaya tree. The previous tenant turned into mush during the ice storm. Let's hope we don't have anymore frost or ice or snow.

Take a gander

Finally pulled out the cast iron grill grates to re-season them. It's been 5 years since I last used them, having been too lazy to brush off the rust and re-season them for grilling duty. But now, oh the beautiful dark grill marks it makes on food. Such a wonderous thing.



Backyard terracing project begins again. This time, the rocks will slow down and gently guide rain water into the catch basin instead of the mad tidal wave of mud that usually surfs down the side yard when it rains.



Mulched AND planted with camelias, gardenias, clivia, and azaleas. This is the "ia" garden. Boulders heavy.



Giant pile of citrus branches all chipped and shredded, awaiting future mulch duty. Thems lots of mulch. It's amazing how much plant matter my little plot of land generates.



Sharkie thermometer joins the gang. But not for long. I'm planning on separating the saltwater animals from the freshwater animals on different sides of the pool.



Trying to cook the Ying family duck recipe in my quest to learn Chinese food. It's very hard for me not to add butter or parmesan cheese to this. $3.80 duck from the Chinese supermarket. What a bargain! This duck reminds me of...



A pokemon that brandishes a leek as it's weapon of choice.



I failed to make the duck pretty. So I shredded the meat in hopes of rescuing dinner from blog photo embarassment.

Animal addition

Preston is introduced to 'Possum.



Pantry obsessively reorganized into powdery things, drinks and breakfast, food ingredients, snack things, dried things, and canned things. I guess I could be worse and label each shelf. But I did think an awful long time about labeling the shelves. But thought against it because I would have to go upstairs to get the Brother P-touch labeler- AND have to change the cartridge because the clear labels wouldn't be legible on the dark wood.



'Possum is eviscerated within 20 minutes.



Ducky thermometer and Dolphin thermometer joins Alligator thermometer. They're cool because they all wear shades.



Spaghetti squash and clams. Yummy clams. A change of pace from normal pasta.



'Possum has not paid it's dues yet, so it's not allowed on Preston's bed like the rest of his eviserated animals. The things this dog does scares me sometimes.

Hap-pee Birthday Nancy

I planted pee nees in honor of Nancy's birthday. Pee nees from Costco!



Tomatos are upgraded from the seed trays into their own individual pots. Bonus points to the one who can spot the five leafed plant first.



Candied tangerine peels drying on a rack. These are way more trouble than the deliciousness they contain. At the end of the day they taste like really good fruit jelly candies. But still, fruit jelly candies.



Beginnings of Nancy's birthday cake. Which will soon be Nancy's un-birthday cake because I don't have the time or inclination to finish it tonight.



Making cookies. But these aren't as good as the usual because I used raspberry swirl chocolate chips instead of my usual dark chocolate chips. Why do I get suckered into buying colorful things?



The last of the split peas in the pantry cleaning effort. It shouldn't be this hard to find a hamhock in Los Angeles. Damn yuppie organical hippies.

Blades of death

Strawberry plants taking advantage of nice 80 degree weather to spawn little strawberries.



Narcissisisis are blooming right now. They look great, but the stink when there's a mass of them.



Flowering quince. I was disappointed when I brought this home to find out that it's the kind grown for flowers and not the fruit. I was so set on eating quince.



Azaleas are happy planted in their near permanent locations. They're all developing flowers.



The fishies like the new lucky bamboo plants. Domestically grown in the USA to avoid that nasty death dealing tiger mosquito infestation from Asia. But bought from IKEA.



Whirring blades of death. The wood chipper was feeling a bit like it had dentures, so I took it apart to sharpen the blades. No blood was shed. Unlike the Preston nail trimming incident- my blood, not Preston's.

Fruit scents

Preston gets a dorsal fin after his baths. Which he usually flattens down after a few hours by rolling around in dirt.



Massive inefficiencies in storing brittle dried Chen Pees.



Apparently, bat guano doesn't merit a product image.



Artificially flavoured apples that taste like grape bubbalicious. It's nasty. What was I thinking? I kept washing my hands like Lady MacBeth because the smell won't come off my fingers. Ick Ick Ick.



Hannah is currently vegan.

Skins

Preston knows it's almost superbowl. He dragged out the football from the bottom of his toy pile. At least one of us is interested. I have no clue who is playing.



Sink of tangerines. Lots of scubbing to get the squirrel cooties off.



Playing football makes me tired.



Beef noodle soup. Part of my aim to learn to cook Chinese food this year.



Making Chen Pee. Dried tangerine peels. They cure something in traditional Chinese medicine. But all I know is that they make orange flavored beef with it.

Food chain

I'm not sure why the animal shelter has trouble getting chickens adopted. I'm certain the Colonel at KFC will take these in a heartbeat.



Guinea fowl. I saw an Iron Chef episode on this.



The alligator has never been adopted. This same alligator was there when I brought home Preston nearly 10 years ago. Now, if they'd just feed the alligator those chickens and bunnies, they would have more room at the shelter.



Poor lampshaded dog. It wanted to come home with me. But it wouldn't be able to fit through the dog door.



Korean Spam!



Canned silkworm pupae. Nice to know that all the leftover bits are used after they make ties with the cocoons.



When I saw boobie plums at the Korean market, my tummy said, "I must eat these."