Growing an Avocado Tree

I read an article in the Lawrence Journal World the other day about growing avocados and dates from their pits. The dates will have to wait until another day, but Sweet Husband and I had tacos the other night, which left a spare avocado pit lying around ripe for experimenting.
I'll skip linking to the article in the paper. It borrowed very, very heavily from this article on diy.net which has better instructions anyway. It's basically the same idea as keeping a cutting or forcing bulbs in water. You suspend the pit over a glass of water, with the water just barely in contact with the bottom. Eventually it will put out roots and begin to sprout. Many, many years from now it will bear fruit, but in the meantime it supposedly makes a nice little plant.

I really like the shape and texture of the pit. It looks like it would be really hard, but it actually has quite a bit of give. The toothpicks pushed right into it. The outside skin has a very silky texture. It's almost like the avocado meat itself, but more substantial. I think it looks like a little peach and green colored space ship hovering over my jar.