Time for a new fence!

A few years ago, the Santa Ana winds blew over the longest part of our fence. Together with our neighbors behind us, we got a new one built.

This time on May 13th, the front side of our fence got taken out by the wind. We tried to prop it up again, but that didn't last a day until it fell over the other way. :P

This part of our fence has been up since we moved into the house in 1993, so at least it lasted that long. I'm not sure when we'll be getting a new one put in, but it has to be sometime soon because of HOAs.

It could be worse. This was around the same time that all those wildfires started in San Diego - we live sort of close to the Cocos/San Marcos Fire, but I'm glad it stayed on the other side of the freeway the whole time. So, the good thing is that at least the fence was only blown down by the wind and not burnt in a fire or we would have to replace so much more than just our fence.

As you can see, our grass is pretty much dead as well, so all that dry grass would've been good fuel for a fire. They talk a lot about having "defensible space" on the news, but up where I live, there's pretty much no defensible space that would keep a fire away from our house, so I'm very glad we dodged another bullet with the fires. They've always come close, but luckily never dangerously close to do any damage in our neighborhood.

Blanket pilling...

I should have known not to buy a fleece blanket that didn't specifically say it was "anti-pill". Ah well, lesson learned. I bought it (Tommy Hilfiger Full/Queen Plush Fleece Blanket) months ago and it did occur to me that it could pill, but I never expected it to do it so much. It just felt so soft in the store and I couldn't resist getting it.

I thought maybe the pilling would go away after a few washes, but no such luck. Everything gets covered in tiny little balls of fleece - the bed, my clothes, the floor, my hair. I might as well just stop using it, but then I'd feel that would be a waste of the money I spent on it. Next time, I'll shop around some more and actually look at some reviews first.

For anyone who sees this blanket in a store, walk away! Don't waste your money like I did, unless you like being covered in fuzz.

Finally! A new blender!

It's been a long time since we've had a real blender. Our old one from probably the 70s broke many years ago and I've made do with one of those hand blenders for the longest time - I'm not sure what brand it is; you'd think I'd know it since I see it on the blender itself every time I use it, but I'll probably know it when I see it. I think it's one of those that was first advertised on TV back when hand blenders were kind of a new thing. It's been good for me for making smoothies, but really takes a long time to blend when anything is frozen. It just hasn't been a high priority to get a new one, so we never got another one until recently.

I actually haven't used the new one yet, but it's a Ninja Kitchen System Pulse (BL201) - so it's one of those multifunction devices that works as a food processor, blender, and apparently can also be used for making dough.

Like I said, I haven't used it yet. Someone else used it as a food processor, and I think it worked out pretty well for them. I'll most likely be using the single serve cups a lot! I probably won't be using the dough attachments that much, but it'd be interesting to give it a try to see how well it actually works. I'm definitely looking forward to making my next smoothie with this!