Eric loves tools, there's no other way to put it. Over the last few years he's been collecting every sort of tool he could possibly justify buying (and a few he is still trying to justify) but this re-renovation we've got going on has been a great chance for him to go through pretty much every one he's got. For those who've just joined, in addition to renovating the blog, we've been working hard on the house, finishing off the living room, most of the dining room and making real headway into the second bedroom for the first time in what seems like years. Last weekend Eric went to work on the passthrough counter between the dining room and the kitchen. When we moved in, it was a handmade red counter that was convenient and very cool, but also quite old and needed to be replaced. Eric said "I'll get

Well we're all moved in here to the new site, what do you think? We've jumped on board with a company called photographyblogsites.com, a great Wordpress install that lets us showcase our photography in addition to the blog. Sadly the new direct link to blog posts is a little different than it was before, so any links you've bookmarked will take you to a "we can't find this post" page. Just insert /blog/ after the .com and you'll be able to get there. This new site also has a new layout, where we can showcase photos, create different pages and not be tied down by the old Blogger platform. Eric went through and fixed up the RSS feeds, so you shouldn't be interrupted. If you normally read us by email, and don't get any emails, let us know and Eric will look into it. Remember when we moved our image

There is just something different about food when you're living in a culturally diverse place like the San Francisco Bay Area, besides seeing squid in between the chicken and the trout in the Safeway freezer. The unique ways in which different cultures approach cooking the same food is pretty exciting for us, because it makes it really difficult to run out of things to do with the same dish. Take chicken for example. Growing up, Eric ate more baked BBQ chicken that you could possibly imagine. With rice and green beans or peas it was a perfect busy-weekday American style staple. Our friends from Asian or Mexican households tell us about their chicken based staples growing that would use the exact same animal and create a completely different meal that was very basic to them but complicated or foreign to us. This is extremely apparent in a diverse city like

So we all know how obsessed with technology Eric can be and how not obsessed Charisse is. The big lesson learned in this living room re-remodel has absolutely been how we both view things differently. When we agreed to remodel the house and make it a "grown up house" we both came up with lists of what we wanted in the living room: Charisse wanted crown, wainscoting around the TV, new paint, some new furniture and lots of new art. Eric wanted surround sound. Of course that means he wants a new receiver a new subwoofer, a new remote and lots of speakers around the room. Between the holes in the walls, holes in the new cabinet and new stuff showing up every other day Charisse was not a happy camper this past week. What did make us both happy was Charisse's swiss chard stuffed garlic bread, something she pulled