Whoo hoo! My 5 lbs. of dried organic mango slices just arrived. I became hooked on them two years ago when my Aunt Brenda received said quantity from a friend who runs a mail-order business. She shared them with Jennifer and I while we were staying at her place over the holidays. Though they are a little expensive, they are a much healthier snack than potato chips/cookies/chocolate/etc.When I discovered that the Whole Foods in San Francisco carried them in their bulk section, I new I was in trouble. Every time I walked past the store during my morning and evening commutes I had to restrain myself from going in because there was no way I was going to leave without at least a pound of them.I was severely disappointed when I found that the Whole Foods near our house in Michigan does not carry the dried mango slices. Occasionally they will carry dried mango chunks which aren’t nearly as good. They don’t have nearly the flavor of the mango slices, so they are often coated with sugar to compensate.Thank goodness for the Internet. After a particularly strong hankering for the orange goodness, I came across an online shop that sells them called SunRidge Farms in Santa Cruz, CA. The mangos they sell are a little more expensive than the mangos that I had been buying from Whole Foods, considering I also needed to pay for shipping. But I just ripped open the bag and they actually taste quite a bit better. They have a bit more flavor and aren’t as dry or as tough, probably because they have not been sitting in a bulk bin in a forced-air building for several days.Now, I’m not usually one to fall for bribes, but if anytime in the future you want to sway me one way or another, dried mango slices would be a good place to start. 😉

The interesting times never stop here at Casa Windeler.Our house is at the end of a T intersection within our neighborhood. When we first looked at this house, I remember wondering if the owners had had any problems with cars failing to stop at the intersection and driving onto the lawn. I never asked them if they had, but I don’t have to wonder any longer. Two nights ago we received a few inches of snow. At about 11 am yesterday I opened up our front door to retreive a package that the UPS delivery person left on the front porch and noticed a dark patch in the ditch at the front of the property. Looking a little closer, I noticed a set of tire tracks in the snow that ran along the front of the yard to our driveway. Apparently as a reflection of the old fogie that I seem to be becoming, my first thought was “Great, we’ve got some $*#% teenagers going for joy rides across our front lawn.” Then I realized that the roads were probably pretty slick and that somebody had slid off the road into the ditch. They weren’t able to back out, so they drove forward and then to our driveway. I wonder how many more times that will happen this year.Last night we received a few inches more of snow. I was up late doing some work, so I woke up a little later than usual. I had just finished eating breakfast and started doing the dishes at the kitchen sink when I heard a rumbling sound from our driveway. I looked up from the sink and out the window only to see a visible stretch of black pavement. I hadn’t gotten around to shoveling yet, so the driveway should still have been covered with a decent blanket of snow. I commented to Jennifer about this, and we walked over to the window that faced the rest of our driveway. There, in a beat up old red Ford truck with an equally beat up yellow plow attached to the front of it, were two guys plowing away like there was no tomorrow. In less than 10 minutes the driveway was cleared and they were off. When they pulled out of the driveway they didn’t even stop at any of the neighbors. We don’t pay for a plowing service. We didn’t recognize them. They didn’t leave a service brochure or anything. We don’t know if they were friends of the previous owners who don’t know that they’ve moved or what. We’re guessing that maybe they were friends of the people who slid into our yard the previous morning and they’re doing it as a “Let us make it up to you” gesture. Regardless, Thank You Mysterious Plow People! You saved us a lot of work. Perhaps you could stop by the next time we get a few inches of snow?

It’s been a while, so I figured I’d give an update to what’s new with Kaija. What kind of parent would I be if I didn’t talk about my kid?At 12 1/2 months old, she now has 12 teeth. Her molars have started poking through, which of course meant a number of nights of restless sleeping and drooling non-stop during the day.A few weeks ago she started kissing us back. Sometimes she would just walk up to us while playing and kiss us. Occasionally when we would ask her for a kiss, she would give one (or more!) to us.She has started to learn a number of baby signs, though she probably has a slightly different meanings for them. She learned “more” quickly, though she uses it more like “I’m hungry” or “Feed me”, as she’ll do the sign without having had anything to eat yet. She also learned “hat”, though we think she might think it means “I’m sleepy” because it’s one of the signs we go through while flipping through the Word Signs book before going to sleep. Most recently, she’s learned “milk” for when she wants Jennifer to breast feed her. She will also wave when people are leaving and stretch her hands out with her palms up when she doesn’t know where something went.She still likes going for walks with us, though getting her dressed up for the cold can be frustrating. She doesn’t like to wear hats or mittens and will try to take them off while indoors. Once we get outside, though, she’s fairly good about leaving them on.Overall, I think she’s adjusting to Michigan life pretty well. She definitely likes all of the space in our new house to run around in. And she loves that her grandparents live so close now. She gets a big smile on her face and reaches out to be held when one of them walks in the door.

This morning, as I was reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I needed to wake up, Jennifer shouted over to me from the window by our master bathroom. “Brahm! There’s a deer in our back yard!” Now the previous owners of our house said they saw deer quite frequently, but I had yet to see any in the month or so since we moved in. Jennifer saw one a few weeks back in our back yard as she was driving into our driveway but it ran off as she approached our garage. This deer was scavenging in the ground cover that runs between our back yard and our neighbor’s back yard. It wasn’t there long before finding some shelter under a nearby pine tree. As it walked it had a slight limp, as if its left rear leg was sprained.Later today, as I was coming home from the office and driving into the driveway, I was startled to see another deer to the right of the driveway near the back of our property. It stood and turned its head momentarily, then turned back and fled to the back of the neighbor’s yard.So after not seeing any deer at all for a month, I saw two in one day. It’s nice to know that the suburban sprawl hasn’t totally displaced the wildlife in our area.