He's been really into cuddling with us on the couch with a book. It's pretty darned cute.

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Here is an interesting company designing incredibly small houses which appear to be very livable from the looks of it:

My name is Jay Shafer, and since 1997 I have been living in houses smaller than some people's bathrooms. I call the first of my little handbuilt houses Tumbleweed (left). My decision to inhabit just 100 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I just do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space.

I love how there are a few designs named after Emerson, Thoreau, etc. I can't find a link but a few years ago I saw a design for a house named after Thoreau (I think) -- and the bathroom or workshop or other irrelevant room was larger than Thoreau's entire house on Walden Pond. Irony indeed.

- Re-building porch stairs that were rotted out - buy the pre-built stringers, just trust me on this (pics later)
- Watching Garden State - not bad
- Making salsa from stuff that came either my garden or down the street, and taking it to a party where everyone else did the same thing - mmm.

... at much slower than Flash Mob speed:

http://www.jerkvision.com/mob/

Happy birthday Matthew!

Some friends of ours, who now live just down the street since we moved a few houses away from them, had a potluck yesterday to celebrate the birth of their child. I broke out the bread gear and made some anadama bread, which is the same thing I made right before we moved out of our old place. Anadama is a great bread, terrific for sandwiches. Warm out of the oven, with a little butter and honey, it's an exerience that I just can't describe.

Our avocado stove actually seems to be doing a pretty good job, which didn't stop us from shopping for a new one this weekend, while we were looking for a fridge. We really need a new fridge. Anyway, the bread was even, maybe ever so slightly undercooked, and it could've used a little more time to rise (if I waited any longer, we never would've made it to the party). It sat for a few minutes while I took a shower, and then we headed over. I was a little worried about the bread, I wasn't sure how good it would be.

And everyone loved it! It was pretty trippy really. This bread was not my best effort, and I got a lot of compliments for it. Funny how I can be so critical of myself, for something that lots of other people really enjoyed.