We haven't had a house party in a while, so we scrubbed the place down and invited everyone over. I'm a big fan of giving people a theme for parties, so we recycled an old idea we had a few years ago called Halfway to Halloween. From the invite time to the party is approximately halfway to Halloween, so the idea is to ask people to wear half of a costume. It's a great ice breaker to get the conversation going.
Everyone who came really put in a lot of work in their costumes and made the evening very fun. Julie and I went all out -
if you're not going to do it right for a party at your own house, when will you? We were the best of both worlds, and split the girl and guy right down the middle. :) Darren, of course, bucked the trend and had a real half-assed costume, and Shac, who flew down from NorCal, was definitely in costume - he had hair!
I also enjoyed Shagma and Velgy (Scooby Doo's Shaggy and Velma, but Kelley and Zach mixed up the bottoms and Zach wore a mini skirt all night!), the Rock Band characters in real life (emo all the way!), the sign twirlers, Princess Peach and Mario, the referees, the half army guy, 60's girl, the football and basketball players, Minnie Mouse, the porn stars, and the people in various stages of undress (nice!).
Hope to see everyone again soon.
This weekend Aaron and I finally got around to taking out the corn from our raised garden bed which made room for some new crops. We went to the Yamaguchi nursery for the first time and it's now officially our nursery of choice. They had a great selection, everything was in great condition, amazingly low prices, and best part of all.... owned by our neighbor across the street! I can't believe we've been pumping money into the chain store Armstrong's this whole time when we could have been supporting our neighbor. 
Also, say hello to our squirrel friend who watched us work today. He and his buddies hang out in our backyard with Alex. Alex certainly notices when they are around, but they must have worked out some sort of agreement because Alex doesn't chase them away. They try to help us with our planting, too - today when I was digging to put in the broccoli I found a fruit item clearly "planted" by the squirrel. It had his teeth marks in it and we matched it to the fruit that came from neighbor Dave's tree. I've found loads of peanuts throughout the yard, too. Someone on the street must be giving them peanuts.
One of my very best friends, Lisa, has recently taken a new job and had some time in between. Since we live on opposite coasts we don't get to see each other as often as we like, so she took advantage of the free time and came to visit for a week!
This past weekend Aaron played in a volleyball tournament in San Diego, so we made a quick trip down south. We got to stay with my Aunt and Uncle which was great - it had been so long since I'd been to their place that I didn't even recognize it! They fixed a great meal and we caught up over a glass of wine. More photos from the tournament are here.
