if we were drug dealers, we'd have a scale to be able to weigh exactly how much hops we harvested from our little front yard hops plantation experiment this year...but we don't.

instead, we'll just have to eyeball it and say that we managed to collect a pretty fair amount, especially when you consider it was a first year project, and we really have very little understanding of what we were doing.

my garlic hasn't seemed to fair quite so well. i think it was underwatered, so while i MAY harvest some bulbs later this month, they are probably all going to be kind of puny and sad. oh well. what i do manage to be able to use will be very tasty, i'm sure. and there is nothing stopping me from trying again this fall.

craigslist has been keeping me busy the past few weeks. in addition to trying to sell a bunch of random stuff, i came up with the brilliant plan to try to get OTHER people to do the hard work of pulling up the overwhelming agave plantation that has sprouted up between our yard and our neighbors' yard. jeff had been talking about using a chainsaw to mow down the mystery spikey plants ever since we moved into our place, but thanks to that tv show dual survival, we figured out that what we wanted to mow was agave. and a little more searching on the internet very clearly warned us against trying to use a chainsaw...lest we feel like dealing with a month long, itchy, blistery rash if we got any on our bare skin.

so...after discussing it briefly with our neighbors the other day, i posted pictures of all of the agave and a listing in "free stuff" for any thrifty landscaper who might be interested in saving some $$ on plants. i don't know why i'm surprised by what an overwhelming response we got from people wanting to show up with shovels, including one guy who says he and his fiancee want to take it ALL, but there you go. if other people want to brave the spiders and spikes and that means a lot less manual labor we either have to do ourselves or pay somebody else to do, then GREAT.

the internet is a great thing.

august and september going to be crazy. ben moved down over the weekend. we've got my grandpa's 90th birthday and my father-in-law's birthday to celebrate this weekend. then a welcome back bbq for ben. next weekend, my brother-in-law and his gf will come down for a visit. then i head up to la to first attend trista's bridal shower, and then we all drive back down here for her bachelorette party. after that, possibly a day at the horse races, complete with beer fest and weezer concert. then wedding prep. then wedding.

and then...

THEN jeff and i are off to hawaii. yes, again. yes, we were there in may, and then september of 09. this time, we are just spending 4 nights on oahu. our goal is that it will be a 100% relaxed vacation. we have a tendency to not have much down time when we travel, so we hope that this visit will include a lot of tropical drinks, sand, water, sun, and naps. we are thinking about not even renting a car, and instead get scooters for a few days. we'll shop for aloha shirts and maybe spend some time on beaches we've missed in the past. maybe ride the bus around. it'll be fun.

this will also mark the first time i actually snagged my OWN free roundtrip tickets using airline miles. only appropriate that i splurge, considering how many years of the occasional business trips it took me to earn it. :)

camilles (8:14pm, 8.3.10)