sneJ’s journal

Diana and I develop these mild fascinations with things, usually exotic and exotically-named things. One such thing is the Pawpaw, a fruit native to the eastern US. It's no relative of the papaya; rather, it's a kissing cousin of the cherimoya and soursop. Besides having an awesome name, it's kind of mind-boggling to us that an exotic tropical-esque fruit comes from non-exotic places like Pennsylvania. People on the east coast might not find it weird, but imagine if you discovered that there was a type of durian native to Nevada.

We'd never seen or eaten pawpaws, though, so Diana couldn't resist the opportunity to mail-order some fruit, even though the minimum order was ten pounds and the shipping was far from cheap. Now our fridge and our bellies are stuffed with pawpaws of four different varieties. (A little too stuffed, in the latter case, although I'm feeling better now.)

Turns out they really are a lot like cherimoyas. Soft skin, soft custardy flesh with a subtle tropical-fruit flavor, big oblong black seeds. Quite yummy. Diana made some into a pie by mixing them up with condensed milk and an egg, and our friend *** came over yesterday and helped us eat it.

I've already gotten in my good deed for the day:

• Rescued a long-leggedy spider that was drowning in the sink, and set it free on the lawn outside.

(Does it count as a good deed if I was responsible, even accidentally, for the misfortune I averted?)

Thanks to the mighty Buzz, I'm no longer a "starter" and can actually write things here. (Which lets me try out the keen WYSIWYG editor, at least in Camino.) So this is my "hello world" post.

Hello, world!

I am liking Vox thus far. I've been a LiveJournal user for nearly five years , and I have a love/hate relationship with it. The social networking features are great, but the site's design and usability have always been incredibly clunky. It's been getting better slowly, but now here's Vox ... which is really what I was hoping LJ would turn into after 6apart bought it.

I just hope there'll be a way I can turn off the ads here. Ads do not belong on a personal journal, dammit. (6apart, can I pay you to turn off the ads?)