Backyard beautification project

In an effort to make the backyard more manageable, the boy has slowly but surely been replacing the ultra-invasive ivy with gravel and dirt. His next project involved erecting a fence off the back of the house, outlining a clear path of travel around the back of the house, while also blocking the view of our douchebag renter neighbors;

By this afternoon the fence had been cemented in place as well as a header and planter box installed.

 In the planter box we've got a grape vine planted that will hopefully climb its way up and over to provide a little greenery. I love it - it looks fabulous! The next project will involve bringing in more bricks to outline the edge of the grass and then laying down more gravel.

This week was a co-worker's birthday that I put together a birthday celebration for on Thursday. A fan of hunting and shooting, I ordered camouflage cupcakes as his 'cake';

I also decorated his office with camouflage decorations - a camo birthday banner and orange and brown balloons.

The best part? Can you see the banner? It actually says "BiBthday". It's so hard to find good Chinese child labor anymore...

Other recent activities include the purchase of a smoker for all of our meat cooking adventures.

We took it on its maiden voyage last weekend with a 3 pound tri tip from the Mexican meat market up in P-town pre-seasoned with the spices of my people. Can you say ahhh-mazing!

We threw some brats on there too, towards the end, that came out with a crispy skin and smelled like a smokey dream. Today we smoked up a corned beef (think pastrami) and some turkey sausages. How did we live this long without one of these toys?