Where oh Where are my Cheeerieees?

This year we gave each other anniversary presents. I gave Jesse exactly what he asked for . . . a shop vac. Apparently other people do not find this gift romantic, but it does come in handy when you need to suck dead leaves from your rock garden. See?

While taking care of the garden, Jesse noticed that one of our trees appeared to be a fruit tree. I have to admit that I was not happy with this news. My only personal experience with a fruit tree involved a messy nasty crab apple tree we had in Portage. Blech. As it turns out, however, our fruit tree is the best type possible: a cherry tree!

We were both quite delighted with this discovery and immediately thought of my dad. He loves cherries. Alot. Because it is very expensive to get them in Thailand, whenever he comes here he buys bags and bags of them and is known to eat a whole pound in one sitting! I thought this would be a great way to entice him to visit soon.

But alas, this year's cherry crop was not meant to be. We fought against two types of critters with mixed results. First, Jesse found out that our tree was infected with a worm, which was why the tree had a number of dead branches. He was, however, able to kill it so we thought we saved our cherries. Oh contraire. Our next match-up was against the longstanding cherry champ: the bird. Just as the cherries appeared to be ripe enough to pick, this deceptively cute pest attacked and gobbled all the good ones up.

Have no fear, however, we will be better prepared next year. We will de-worm the tree in the fall and we got a net to keep the birds away from our precious fruit. Sweet victory will be ours!

It is Finished!

Remember that laundry room project that we have been talking about since, oh, we moved in? Well Jesse tackled it and we finally have a legitimate mud room! As you can see from the first picture, the way the room was originally set up required us to place the washer and dryer side by side due to the shelf above the units. That's fine except that there is no room for shoes anywhere and they were inevitably strewn all over the place and we constantly tripped over them.

Jesse busted out the shelf (major loud demo just like in those house remodeling shows), filled in the holes, repainted where the shelf was, and stacked the washer and dryer. We found some shelves to hold our shoes and finished the look off with an original watercolor Jesse's dad gave us. My favorite part? Each shoe has its own place (not on the floor!) This project was not without its obstacles -- the electric wire wasn't long enough so we had to buy a new one, and the dryer was heavier than he thought so he had to rope a neighbor friend to help lift it because I was completely useless.

Jesse repeatedly asked me throughout this process whether I would be able to reach the buttons on the dryer once it was stacked. I assured him I could . . . see?

Auto Show

We went to the New Mexico auto show recently, and to be honest, I found it lacking compared to NAIAS. Essentially some dealers around town drove their cars to a local convention hall. It was fun but not like Detroit.

Interesting fact: I don't fit in a Lotus.

The engine is in the back!

There were old and new sports cars.

And there was this pretty fantastic 1941 Chevrolet, complete with advertising.

So Sorry!

I haven't posted in quite awhile, so my apologies to everyone out in Web 2.0 land. I hope to post some things soon.

Six Years and Counting

Last weekend Jesse and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Santa Fe. The weather was cool and it drizzled, which was actually refreshing. We had tons of fun walking around and popping into cute shops, galleries, and checking out the Georgia O'Keeffe museum.

We also saw the famous staircase that is both an engineering marvel and a miraculous legend.

The food in Santa Fe didn't disappoint. We had an authentic New Mexican lunch at the Shed and had a romantic Italian meal for dinner.

We also took a detour to Ojo Caliente where we soaked in the hot natural mineral springs and took advantage of the spa's sauna and steam room. Ahhh . . .

The drive there was quite easy (only an hour to Santa Fe and two hours to Ojo Caliente) and, as you can see, it was also quite beautiful.