Christmastime is here! Get your Griswold on!

These people down the road went off with their lighting.  

They had an awesome Halloween display too.

Here is our "new" Christmas tree circa 1960.  It rotates when I press a switch.  

How mod!

ooohhh so sparkly.

One vintage ornament, one from Target.

More x-mas pictures coming soon!  

We need to get some more lights in the tree first.  

Going Griswold!

bag heads

Our "kid" Jesse came to town for Thanksgiving.  We didn't know what to do with the paper bags from the store, so we decided to make masks out of them.  

Pretty normal.

uncle ben

guess who?

Happy Holidays from the Neighborhood Mauses!

The Making of Crop Duster IPA

Remember the hops growing in our yard?

They went into a big tea bag and into a batch of Crop Duster IPA!

We had some visitors observing this brew session.  

Make sure you spray everything real good.

Here it comes.  Scott and Adam assist.

yummylicious

shake it

we always have an audience, especially if the sun is out.

Look out for Crop Duster IPA in a sample glass near you soon!

Fun Night @ Surfy Surfy

Another fun night at Surfy Surfy.  Free music, canned beer, and fun neighbors.

waxy waxy

fin selection @ surfy surfy

who wants a plain old white board when you could have one of these?

My awesome new bike

I picked up this awesome Schwinn Collegiate at the Oceanside DAV thrift store.  Ben found it in the back next to the walkers.  Score!  I think I've used up my thrift store karma for the year on this one.

Everything is intact and functioning except the rear brakes which have been fixed.  

Now it's fun and SAFE!

Isn't it pretty?

All shined up and waxed.  

I'm going to do my very best to keep it that way.  

It's me vs. the humid ocean air.

Happy Halloween!

Most importantly, we brought out the mannequins again this year! We dressed them up in our Oktoberfest costumes from last year and got a lot of laughs from passerby's. There is always somebody who will complain about our awesome mannequins, but this year we decided they can just deal.

Here are a few other BBV folks who came over to celebrate before heading to the party around the corner.   We never like to go too far away for a party you know.

Kris as Kick Ass.

Wes and Ale as Chilean miner and CNN Chile reporter.

Ben and I as Yuri and Svetlana, ice dancing champions with bad teeth.

Foul Weather Friends

Time to get out the dominoes and head over to Tea Time.

Chrysanthemum Pu-erh Tea

Tiffany and her assistant.  They always make us great tea with extra hot water and neat little snacks from the far east.

fun with iPhone in the kitchen

 Even though summer pretty much didn't come until October, here are some of our tomato crop.

 S&P shakers from eBay

the kitchen sink

Ben holding the guitar

Good shot Jesse.  He was having a lot more fun that it would appear though.

Ben playing the guitar

Me doing nothing.  Exhausted from doing all those dishes.

Local Establishments

Piñatas at Mexi Mart

Not so fresh produce at Mexi Mart

Nice artwork at Kotija Jr.

Yummy paletas at Kotija Jr.  I'm not being sarcastic on this one.

They really are yummy and homemade.

The Yard

trumpet tree

wine grapes

vines headed to the roof

it's just like tuscany

hops that will someday soon go into ben's beer

you know you want to live in a trailer park

VOTE FOR US!

Holy Cow! We've been selected as one of 20 finalists (out of over 800 entries) for a $10,000 living room makeover from Room & Board and Dwell Magazine! Check out the awesome photos by Taryn Kent Photography that were a vital part in us making it this far.

VOTE FOR US!