Lemon Tree Update

My life in California is pretty boring 98% of the time. I go to work, I come home and make something for dinner (sometimes, other times its popcorn....like yesterday), and watch some tv before reading and going to bed. The weekends aren't too much different except there is a bit more sleeping and tv watching and throw in some grocery shopping so I can feed myself during the week. I am quite boring when I don't have visitors or don't visit others. This leads to the obsession with my lemon tree.

If you follow me on Pinterest you'll know I have a whole board dedicated to the elusive lemon harvest. It has recipes and a few links to citrus growing forums or potted plant growing tips. I love all things lemon. If there is a possibility of lemon being an ingredient in a recipe I will consider that recipe before and above all others. My favorite way to make green beans involves lemon and bacon. I think it's the perfect way to jazz something up without adding fat/salt/sugar. I know my tree won't allow me to sample all these recipes but I cannot wait for the seven surviving lemons to become ripe!

Lesson #1 in lemon cultivation: Lemons take a long time to grow.
I got the tree in September, shortly after moving in to my apartment and at that time the tree had some buds and was just about to bloom. There were a zillion blooms and a zillion subsequent baby lemons. Unfortunately my small tree cannot support that many lemons to full term so there was quite a bit of fruit drop. Since then I have had a couple more blooms and a few lemons have also clung on but I do not have very high hopes for them as the seven remaining from the original bloom are hogging all the nutrients. Ideally a potted lemon tree should be able to have ripe fruit year round but my tree is still very young and this is it's first mature harvest. And that's probably more about lemons than you ever wanted to know.

Here are some pictures, taken this evening, of my little lemons that could!

Some of my troopers and more buds on their way!

The bottom two are sitting in my hand, for size comparison

I have had the pot inside my apartment for about the past two months. It gets too cold in the evening to leave it outside all the time. At first I would lug it outside during the day and back in again at night but that pot is quite heavy, and I am quite lazy. Lately I had just been opening the blinds during the day and leaving the pot by the patio door. Does that make me a bad tree mom?

One thing I did not expect while having the tree indoors was for aphids to find their way in! I think it started while I was away over Christmas and then I was sick a couple of weeks ago and didn't pay much attention to the tree and then BAM it was like aphid city. I did some research and apparently they're an issue for inside fruit plants because their natural predators are all taken away and there isn't wind or rain to blow/wash them away. I found an organic soap spray to douse them with and that is actually why the above pictures were taken outside. I had taken the tree outside to hose it off and then I decided to leave it out there for a couple days to let the stragglers get blown away by the wind or something. I am happy to report the soap spray did wonders and my tree now appears to be critter free! 

So there you have it, my number one hobby in California is watching a tree grow. Good thing I already have a boyfriend....

Segways and Alcatraz

So I didn't post again right away, sorry folks. But I have a good excuse! I didn't just have the sniffles, I went back to the doctor (after getting sick of being sick and deciding I had had a fever too long) and discovered that I had a "super bacterial infection" meaning I had a couple different bacterial infections going on. And they all happened to be concentrated in my head. Not too fun but I am looking forward to being back in the office tomorrow and am feeling 1000x better after a round of much needed antibiotics.

Back to what you want to hear about: my adventures with Hailey! Two weeks ago my comrade Hailey, who I trained with and does my same job but in New Jersey, was visiting the California office to get started a new project. We are two peas in a pod, discovering we have the same shoes and fashion sense during training, whenever we get a chance to talk we find ourselves lamenting that we aren't in the same office anymore. It's truly tragic but probably a good thing for our productivity.

In the weeks leading up to her trip out west, Hailey had emailed our entire training class out in CA to see who would be interested in taking a segway tour. Obviously I responded immediately and in all caps that I was ready to roll. Unfortunately the other young kids in my office aren't as cool as we were so they missed out and it was just Hailey and I on the tour. She also found that the tour company (SF Electric) did a joint package with tickets to Alcatraz. Normally these sell out fairly far in advance so we jumped on that opportunity right away too. We decided to to do the warf tour which was much more than just the warf. We made our way in to Little Italy and to the base of Coit Tower. However we didn't go all the way up to the tower because that requires some advanced skills that beginners aren't taught their first time out. If Hailey comes back, we're going on the advanced tour.

Segways are SO. MUCH. FUN. We straight up giggled for the first 20min. Here is a barrage of pictures. I highly recommend a segway tour if you ever have the option. It was a great, unique way to see parts of the city.

Directly after training and in formation, ready to hit the road!
Somehow, Hailey and I scored the front row spots.

Pure delight :D

Look ma, no hands!

Posing with our destination for later that day, Alcatraz!

Yes, this is my new favorite picture of myself.

After the tour our guide gave us some suggestions of places to go in the area, one of them being The Buena Vista. I had heard about this place when I came to look for apartments here back in June with my mom, aunt and cousin but we never made it far enough to check it out. They're famous for their Irish coffee and the seriously awesome bartenders who take the Irish coffee art very seriously. Our bartender also happened to be a magician. 

Hailey liked it, I did not

Unfortunately at this point in the day I was starting to feel the scratchy-ness in my throat that would eventually turn into the plague of this past week. The hot coffee and very heavy hand in the whiskey did not work well with my ailment so I did not enjoy it very much and actually didn't even finish. Hailey, however, seemed to very much enjoy hers. So if you like Irish coffee, I'd recommend it! And even if you don't, watching the bartenders make multiple Irish coffees at a time is a sight to behold.

After the coffees we made our way to pier 33 where we would catch the ferry to go and see ALCATRAZ!! I had wanted to see this when the sisters visited back in October but unfortunately that was during the government shut down and Alcatraz is a National Park so it was also shut down. The audio tour of the cell block that comes with admission to the island is a must-do. I've done quite a few audio tours from my european travel days and this surpassed them all. It was like being told a story, from several different narrators, with cool sound effects to boot! There were several different things to see beyond the audio tour and unfortunately we didn't get to all of them. It was a gloomy day and we didn't want to be outside in the fog/mist very long. Here are some pictures from inside The Rock. 

Indians occupied the island for a little while after it was no longer a jail

Looking down "Broadway", cells on both sides

They got me!

After the Alcatraz adventure we got dinner, headed back to the suburbs and called it a night. It was great to have a friend from training come and visit the California office! Others have visited but Hailey and I just get along so well, it was a delight to have her visit and hear what things are like in New Jersey. 

Now this week I am finally back to work after the longest break ever. I've only been to the office for 2 days and 2 hours since being back from Christmas vacation. This past week I was working from home but it's just not the same as being in the office. Wish me luck getting back into the swing of things!

Happy Belated New Year!

Hello Readers!

2013 was a crazy year: I got offered two jobs and had to make the difficult decision to move to California, Graduated college, met my wonderful boyfriend, spent 6 weeks training in New Jersey, moved to California and lived in a hotel for the first 2 weeks, found my apartment and settled into solo life, entertained many visitors, and had a wonderful holiday back home in Chicago. 

We went on a double date with our friends, Jacob and Tess, to Medieval Times
(which I had never been to before, it was awesome) 

So far in 2014 I had the "pleasure" of experiencing the below zero temperatures and the "joys" that come along with canceled flights. I really did jinx myself on that one. When I left the office before coming home for the holidays I debated whether or not to bring my work computer with me. Since I didn't bring it, that was strike number one. Then on the Saturday evening before I was supposed to fly back to SF I thought to myself, "I should have booked my flight for tonight instead of tomorrow, being winter and all I bet my flight tomorrow will be canceled". Really Saturday wouldn't have been any better but I would have had a jump start of a day on rescheduling the travel. Then there was the whole build up to the sub-zero temperatures and my bragging that I would be getting out of dodge the day before it got truly bone chilling. Welp, my flight was canceled for Sunday and I wasn't able to leave Chicago until Wednesday. However it wasn't all bad as I was able to be with my family and boyfriend a few extra days. 

Also in 2014 I am currently experiencing what it's like to be sick in the real world without your mom to make you food. I struggle normally cooking for myself and these past few days have been the same only worse. I even went to the doctor on Saturday and he basically told me, "it's a virus, we can't do anything". Cool Doc, real cool. This morning I went into work for a few hours then worked the rest of the day from my apartment, thankfully there is a bug going around the office and many people are out so I don't look like a pansy. 

Later this week, perhaps tomorrow, I'll blog about the fun I had before giving into the sickness this weekend. My friend Hailey, who I met in training and does my same job but in Hoboken, was in the California office this past week and we went on a segway tour of the warf as well as the tour of Alcatraz! It was great fun, I have lots of pictures, I'll put it all in another post so this one doesn't get crazy long. 

I have a feeling 2014 will be another great year of change and I am looking forward to it! What am I most looking forward to? At the moment, meeting my first nephew! Just under 2 months until we meet the little goober!