Hey everyone! I don’t post here very often, but I thought I should post that I have a new website: vansunder.com.  It’s not designed to replace this one, but rather to separate two different types of content. This blog is geared more towards personal things.  You know the kind of things you do that make you too busy to post about them? Yeah those things. The other blog at vansunder.com is for more professional observations about technology, business and people in general.  So, if you want to stay tuned here, I might post occasionally, but I will definitely be posting more frequently on my other blog.  It’s fitting in a way that this post is post 200 on this blog because I think my new blog is a dramatic departure and what better way to commemorate it than to make it my 200th post here?  Well, that’s all for now.  If you want more content by me, you now know where to go!

Drangaroo_van_Sunder

Originally uploaded by vansunder.

Here is our entry in the Hyper Nonsense podcast Drangaroo Coloring Contest. It was a family effort. Our 19 month old son did most of the work, but Talli and I colored a little to teach him how. It’s obvious (for the most part) which parts he colored. Then the scanner went ahead and recolored the originally black lines. So, I guess I would have to say that our scanner colored part of it. Now, we just have to sit back and see if we win.

Today, the city sent someone over to plant the tree that we requested for in front of our house. We were shocked. They just started digging. Within fifteen minutes, we had a new Pistachio tree. It looks great.

Now, our next step is to break out two squares of bricks to either side of the tree to plant some other plants. I’m not sure if it will be bushes or a couple dwarf trees. I have to make sure that they don’t grow too near the yellow fire hydrant that you see in the photo. That’s why dwarf trees might work better. I’m also going to remove the plant growing around the tree since it’s ugly and not really so healthy.

Planting the Tree

Originally uploaded by vansunder.

Now for some updates. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Sorry, guys. Them’s the breaks. I’ve been so busy and I’ve been spending 14+ hours a day on the computer. So, I didn’t have time to post. Every moment I was on the computer, I was working.

I figured out some ways to make some money online, tried them out and they’ll probably turn some profit, but I’m not sure how much I like the work. So, I’ll be taking a step back from what I’ve been doing and try some other things that I can see myself doing for the long term. No, I won’t tell you all what I’ve been doing, yet. I’m a secretive guy, what can I say? Plus, it’s just a difficult thing to express without demonstrating and blogs don’t lend themselves to that without adding video. I’m not going to put work into doing that.

New Pistachio Tree

Originally uploaded by vansunder.

Well, tonight Talli and I are heading to the Bahamas for 5 days. It’s going to be great. I need the time to rest, read, meditate, relax and maybe work on the tan a little. Hopefully, it won’t rain much. There are some thunderstorms in the forecast.

Talli and I will be celebrating our fifth anniversary! We’ve had lots of good times and good fortune over the last five years, so it will be great to reflect on that while we’re there. I can hardly wait. Happy annniversary Talli. I love you very much! Here’s to the next five exciting years! I’m looking forward to it. When we get back, we’ll be off to Monterey for three months since Talli got a job there with a corporate apartment. Another in a string of adventures. Life is great!

Yesterday, we went to a surprise birthday party for one of our friends, Roy. His daughter, Christine, found our email address off of Talli’s podcast, Being Healthy with Talli. Luckily, we were able to make it to Christine’s house for his party.

The house was beautiful and the food was great. Most importantly, Roy was looking good, as always, and seemed to be enjoying himself. We’re glad that we could be a part of Roy’s big day. Happy Birthday, Roy. Next party at 100!

Unfortunately, we had to leave Roy’s party a little early, so that we could go to my parent’s 34th wedding anniversary dinner. It was a nice dinner and was a lot of fun. It was a small gathering, just my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and Talli and myself.

Thanks again for inviting us, mom and dad and, once again, Happy Anniversary!

As promised, here’s the cross section of the mutant orange we picked from our yard. It doesn’t look too bad here in this picture. I sampled the orange and the first section tasted alright if a bit tangy, but the other bits weren’t so good and went right into our yard waste.

Time for the iTunes update for our podcasts. Both shows have been doing great lately and now Talli’s Being Healthy podcast is heating up as well. Here are our current rankings.

Millionaire or Bust:
Personal Finance ranking: 3
Business Ranking: 3
All Podcasts Ranking: 66

Being Healthy with Talli:
Fitness & Nurition: 25
Health: 88

Things are cranking along. We appreciate all the support from our loyal fans and we’ll be taking it up another notch. Thanks everyone and enjoy!

Here’s a picture of a mutant orange fresh from our tree. At least it was fresh when this picture was taken. I found it on the day of my birthday party over a week ago. I still haven’t taken the time to cut it open yet though. I guess I get busy and just forget. Now it’s a little late and I’d rather blog than cut. I will cut it open soon and taste it if it looks edible. Then, I’ll post a blog with the pics and the review.

On a non garden front, everything has been pretty busy lately. I’m kicking around one business idea right now. It sounds fairly promising. It’s not a huge money maker, but sufficient and it affords me a lot of flexibility. Plus, it won’t cost much to get into it or require expensive marketing. Right now I’m crunching the numbers. If it works out, you’ll all here about it later.

Good night, everyone.

First things first. Before any of my friends complain about how they look in this picture, I look the worst. Second, it was great to see everyone today. Talli (not pictured) and I went down to San Jose to visit Vincent and check out his new apartment. It’s a really nice studio apartment. Vincent keeps it on the spartan side, but I kind of like that style myself. It just seems like we accumulate stuff too quickly to manage it. Peggy and Doug came down as well. After the tour, we all went out to a Korean place in Santa Clara for lunch.

Lunch was pretty good. We enjoyed it and Vincent was kind enough to pay, partially because it was my birthday recently and partially because he’s a really nice guy. Next time, we’ll take you out Vincent.

I haven’t seen Vincent in a long time and Peggy….well it’s literally been years. I guess everyone has been too busy. I’m going to try to be better about seeing everyone and maybe we’ll be able to drag everyone back together again sometime before a year has passed. Maybe we can even do something before the end of the year. We can only hope.

David Before Shave

Originally uploaded by vansunder.

It’s official! I survived 30 full years on this planet. It was quite an accomplishment, let me tell you. Do you know how many cars had to not hit me when I was crossing the street? How many bad drivers had to not slam into me going really fast. How many diseases had to attack someone else? Well, I’ve been lucky so far and I’m going to press my luck and go for a few more years.

In case the beard has become too recognizable to all the dangerous people out there, I’ve shaved the sides off and gone with the goatee. This way I won’t be recognized for awhile.

My birthday was a lot of fun. There was the party on Sunday, the Mission Pizza on Tuesday with Talli, the mini celebration with family on Wednesday complete with an organic chocolate mousse that Talli made for me and port to finish it off. Well, it’s over. I mean the runon sentence of course, I might try to stretch the festivities until the weekend. It is my thirtieth after all. If everyone gets to ask me how it feels, at least I get to take some time to truly ponder it while celebrating!