Weekend in Simi Valley

We got a chance to visit Laurel's parents this past weekend. I was traveling to Irvine on business so we decided to fly Laurel into town on Wednesday and I took an Amtrak up to Simi after work on Friday. It was great to visit with Laurel's parents and with the Gillen's (Laurel's sister's family). I spend most of Saturday helping George build an extension to his aviary. It was a good project and I have the blisters to prove it! We grabbed a big bag-full of oranges before flying home on Sunday night--I'd like to have fruit trees someday.

Monday (Presidents Day) was very relaxing. Laurel and I both had work off. We spent the day sleeping in, running errands, and watching The Office. I also finally taught Laurel how to drive my stick-shift Honda Accord. She did great! We practiced in the church parking lot shifting from 1st to 2nd to 3rd. Then, we drove out on the surface streets and neighborhoods. I think Laurel should have the hang of it soon--she only stalled twice, which is a lot less than I stalled when was learning!

Oh yeah. We found out a couple of weeks ago that we had mold in our apartment. Our apartment gets barely any sun, and there is no fan in the shower, so all the steam from the shower gets in the house and it never really dries. Anyway, we pulled the bed back from the wall and discovered a veritable mold forest growing on our wall. I used Clorox to clean it off. We also bought some Damp-Rid crystals which are supposed to dry out the air. So far we haven't seen any new mold. I think it's probably just lying low to re-group and plan its attack.

Currently Reading:
Patent it Youself
Spiritual Roots of Human Relations
When Genius Failed

Current Obsession:
Mechanical Turk
Remember the Milk

(Author: Doug)

Post Numero Uno

Well, we figured we'd hop on the blog bandwagon. Yes, we struggled with the question, "do we really need a blog?" Or, more fundamentally: "is there anyone who actually cares to read anything we have to say?" I guess our reasons are three-fold:

1. I feel an innate responsibility to use/promote all products Google (e.g. blogger)
2. We hope this site will keep our geographically-dispersed families aware of what we're up to (our adventures and misadventures). We figure, if nothing else, we'll have an audience of 2—my mom and Laurel's mom!
3. I hope that keeping a blog will help gloss over the burning guilt I feel for never keeping a journal

Anyway, we hope you enjoy! We'll try to keep this updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so check back periodically.

(Author: Doug)