I watched a friend's son (YM) for a couple of hours this afternoon so she could run a few non-child-friendly errands. When she came back, we got to chatting and I said something about my tomato plants. She was excited to hear that I was trying to grow veggies and herbs and said she wanted to do something similar but had no gardening experience. Then she offered to let me use part of her backyard for my own plants. Now I'm hardly an experienced gardener or anything, but I am so excited at the idea, particularly if I can find a spot that gets good steady sunlight. I'll probably drop by her place tomorrow afternoon (Ora's been taking short naps lately, so the kids will need something to do and seeing YM will fit the bill), so I can scope out the yard when I'm there.

Squee! I'm excited.

Meanwhile, all of my tomato seedlings have now been transferred to pots -- well, OK, some have been put in repurposed plastic soda bottles instead of pots. Anyway, the tomatoes are one reason why I like the idea of having access to a larger space -- my porch has only so much room for plants that need a lot of light.

I also planted oregano seeds today and saw that my green beans have finally sprouted.

Oh yes, I also put my spider plant babies into proper pots today.

As of today, my patio garden consists of:

* several tomato plants (one bought, the rest seeded and awaiting repotting)
* one bell pepper plant (bought)
* several cucumber vines (bought)
* one strawberry plant (bought)
* basil (seeded and awaiting repotting)
* rosemary (seeded and awaiting repotting)
* chocolate mint (bought)
* green beans (plants but not sprouted yet)
* several pots of flat-leaf parsley (one bought, the rest seeded and awaiting repotting)
* lantana (bought and awaiting repotting)
* wildflower mix (seeds received in package for kids)

I made the first mini-harvest this evening -- a few mint leaves and parsley stems for use in a tomato salad. Yum.

The hardest part so far has been making sure the plants don't drown, given the amount of rain we've had recently. I do hope I'll have better luck than last year, when my tomato and cucumber plants never produced fruit.

Just look at all the pollen that collected on my shoes during an early afternoon walk.



And this is after two days of rain.

Since I had to make a copy of some of our records (a birth certificate and Social Security card, to be precise) to complete some paperwork, I made a trip to the bank yesterday to get the items out of our safety deposit box. As I looked through the box, I also came across our kesuvah and my shtar gerus, which we keep there. It was the first time I've looked at them in a couple of years, and the sight of them made me feel ... I don't know whether I should call it sentimental or what. I just got a sense, looking at them, that these pieces of paper defined my life in a way few other things do. So even though they weren't what I came for, I'm glad I saw them.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be with you in mind.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be wood. Possibly metal. Perhaps a picture. Something written. I might sew you something. Or, I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have ought to put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff!

I am being serenaded while I work -- by the sound of my daughter's snores on the baby monitor.

So: Five years ago, I got married. (Thanksgiving also fell out on the 27th that year, FWIW.)

I'm still happy to be married to my husband. Life with him isn't perfect, but it is rarely boring.

We didn't do anything big to mark the day -- we have some stuff planned, but it wasn't happening today. Well, we did crack open one of the homemade beers N. and S. made for our wedding. (Still tasted good.)

But beyond that, we just sat and talked after the kids were in bed. Which was good.

Y'all were right: Honeycrisp apples are delicious.

I seem to be going through another phase of trying new fruits. When this urge hits, I usually look for tropical or exotic stuff. This time, though, I'm trying out different varieties of pears.

I usually buy Bartlett pears because they're the cheapest. I've had both the red and green varieties of Anjou and am fond of the red Anjou. But the local Publix started putting Bosc on sale a few weeks ago, so I decided to branch out. I tried them and liked them. The taste seems to be milder than Bartlett but the texture is very nice. This week I've tried Seckel, which tasted a lot like red Anjou, and Comice. I'd heard a lot of good things about Comice, so I was looking forward to sampling it. I wasn't blown away. It was good, but the first layer of bites (peel + fruit) tasted more or less like a low-key Bartlett. The second layer (closer to the core, no skin) was better, with a subtle tangy taste.

Once I exhaust the possibilities with pears, I think I'll shift to apples. I usually stick to Gala and Red Delicious, so I'll see what some of the the others are like. (I'll leave Rome off the list, though, since I know I'm not wild about it.)

I usually don't post about politics. I am not convinced there would be a point to it, as I strongly suspect that internet shouting is not conducive to me learning anything or effectively advocating for my point of view. But of course there's writing and then there's reading, and some of the political stuff I have read lately has been nasty enough (IMHO) that it's led me to ponder whether I should ask people on my friends list to set up a filter for politics and leave me out of it.

But in a way, I'm tired of not talking about it ... because one of the reasons I don't talk about it is that I vote Republican, and I don't feel like getting into arguments with my friends who don't. (I expend enough energy avoiding arguments with my yellow-dog Democrat parents, thank you very much.)

But yeah, I do vote Republican. So there. I said it.

I still don't intend to post about politics. But for the record, I am what I am.