Christmas at Jessica's house

It's a bit late to post pictures from Christmas, but I'm including these. We took them at Jessica's house. She made an amazing party and we had a great time on Christmas eve! :)

We're ready for Christmas!

With Christmas lights in place, we are ready for Christmas! :)

Sunday's dinner

Tonight broccoli and red bell peppers with caper, water chestnuts and sweet peas, seasoned with paprika, Cayenne pepper and organic turmeric.

That's just sad

Seen in a Saphora store. No further comments required.

Aaand dinner time

Tonight water chestnuts and red bell pepper with black olives and sweet peas!

Lunch time!

Today: yellow squash and asparagus with black olives and parsley, slightly fried on a bit of olive oil with turmeric and smoked paprika. Smeels very good!!

Strong rain today!

Check out the strong rain we had in Houston this Saturday morning!

Breakfast time!

Today is a rainy day in Houston, a good day to stay home, have breakfast and don't go anywhere! :)

Grey day in Houston

Biking from work back home

Today (12/18/2013) was a great sunny day in Houston, so I decided to go to work with my bicycle.

This is me biking back from work to have lunch at home.

Biking to work again

Today was such a great day, I decided to bike to work again. :)

Beer tasting

This one is called Censored, and is from a small town in California called Lagunitas. I camped there last year during my bike trip to Canada!

Cycling to work

This weekend Arnika left her car to be fixed, and needed to use mine to go to work. So I worked mostly from home. By the end of the afternoon though, I needed some code I had at the office, so I decided to ride my bicycle there. It was agood ride although Houston is probably in the top 5 worst cities to ride a bike at in the whole planet.

Here are some pictures I took riding back home. The house with Christmas lights is actually the University of Saint Thomas.

Dinner is on the way!

Today I'm cooking bell peppers with asparagus, and quinoa with lentils on the side. Smells awesome!!

Preparing the containers

My plan was to put the cups into the container lids, and have the water in the container. Then I'd use the air pump to move the water around, add oxygen, etc. In order to do that, I needed to cut 11 openings in each container lid. Cutting those 3 inches holes into the container was challenge though. I couldn't use a drill, or a knife, because it would take too long and the wholes wouldn't come out perfectly round to support the plastic cups.

So I though maybe it'd be easier to melt the holes into the container lid. I noticed the sweet pea can here have exactly 3 inches in diameter. So I emptied one while we cooked, and used the stove to heat it up. Next, I pressed the hot can against the lid and... guess what? A perfect 3 inches wide hole was carved! 

Check it out:

Now I only need to make a few more of those and I'll have the first container ready. Then I need to prepare the other two container lids, and start working on the support for these containers. :D

Starting to assemble the hydroponics

I'm starting to assemble the hydroponics system I'll build! Today I received a few more supplies from Amazon, and got a few more things I needed from Home Depot. This morning I started putting everything together. I tested the air pump, and I was able to pump water upwards just fine using it.

On the pictures below you can see the cups I'll use to support the plants, all lined up on top of a container lid. My plan is to carve holes into the lid to support the cups. Then use the container to store the water with nutrients. The plants will be placed in stone-like ground that I'll fill up the cups with, and that will enable to water to go through it and reach the roots.

Indoor garden

Since Arnika and I removed the plants from the indoor garden they have been transferred to vases, and now rest on the area which previously hosted the garden soil.

It actually looks pretty good!

I'm looking into hydroponics and might build something along those lines pretty soon!

Busy day at the office

Today was a very busy day at the office, as we spproach one more release is our product.  And this is just Monday!

Organic everything

We can still make 100% organic groceries in the united states, including eggs from pasture raised chickens... Not everything is lost!

At the Galleria mall

It is so crowded here, it took us 35 mins just to get in and park!