Pay No Attention To That Sign.

Seeing as this could possibly be our last weekend in the desert, we decided to take a trip up the nearby mountain. We ignored the sign telling us our car must have four-wheel drive past this point and began our journey up the winding (and I mean curves til you're sick in the stomach winding) road. The first fifteen miles took us through rocky hillsides covered in saguaros and tiny shrubbery. It was pretty, but it wasn't breathtaking. As we drove up and up, we noticed something on the cars coming down the other way - some of them had mounds of snow hitchhiking on their vehicles. A few more miles and we started seeing snow on the ground where the sun hadn't touched it yet. Then that little bit of snow started to cover the trees, and soon even the ground in the sun had snow on it. We had seen a bit of water on the roadway earlier (lucky for us, it had rained slightly the night before), but now we started to see something else on the ground.


Water that had melted from residual ice or snow (after they paved the roads early this morning) was evaporating into the cold mountain air and turning into mist. We were literally driving through clouds, or at least the very early beginnings of clouds. Clouds! You can imagine how excited I was when H. rolled down the windows and we breathed in that incredible fresh, pine-scented air.

There were a few icy patches that made me hold my breath as we drove through them, but H. was such a pro and got us through everything safely. I still don't understand the drivers that insisted on going much too fast around these steep curves. Thank goodness there were allotted spaces for drivers to pull over and let the jackwagon behind them pass. Sometimes, you just gotta let them learn their lessons.

One of the few straight portions of the roadway.

Gorgeous snow-covered trees.

Some of the trees were smaller than you would think for living on a mountain, but that's because they're relatively new. A wildfire back in 2003 burned about 84,000 acres of land and destroyed around 300 homes within a month. Most of the hillside is filled in with new trees, but up close you can clearly pick out all of the dead tree trunks.

Clouds rolling over the mountainside. 

The highest that we drove was 8200 feet up, and that's where we found the little town I read about online. I was so excited to finally get there, but as we drove around we saw that everything was closed. H. said I should have researched this place more, but it's not like they have a website. Most of the information is from online tour guides and such, and those sites don't exactly post hours of operation. We didn't visit the gift/craft shop, the mountaintop restaurant with a ghostly background story, or the famed cookie shop that sells ginormous cookies and radical flavors of fudge. Sad times for Chuck. I had also planned for us to take a one hour ski lift ride (half an hour up, half an hour down, and we'd get to see the rest of the landscape and maybe even some critters), but I wasn't sure I could spend an hour in the forty degree weather with just jeans and a shirt and my Flames hoodie. We did stop for a lunch break and take in the scenery, though.

Just waiting for the zombies to come storming out.

The drive down the mountain was a little less intriguing. With the mystery of what our destination looks like solved, it almost felt like we'd driven this road a hundred times. There was an interesting sight when we approached the icy patches on the road. We saw a car off on the shoulder with its front bumper (and headlights and nose) missing - we think it slid, crossed over into our lane and hit the guardrail with such force that it shattered the front of the car. The driver must have moved over to the shoulder and called for help, allowing the three passengers to walk around the rubble to look for anything worth saving. Poor guys, but they must've been going pretty fast to manage that wreck.

Watch out for bears playing tag. 

Since I can't stop thinking about that cookie shop, I'm gonna make me a cookie pie of my own. Hope your Saturday is almost as cool as ours. 

The Housewife Chronicles: Spring Cleaning

I realize most of the civilized world just finished disposing of their Halloween jack-o-lanterns, but it might as well be spring here - the weather is pretty much the same as it was eight months ago. And seeing as how we finally got a tentative move date, I've been on the prowl for things to throw in boxes. As of today, we've got eight mid-size boxes and five small boxes packed full of stuff that I hope we don't need to use until after the move. This includes most of our cold weather garb, so cross your fingers for no surprise cold fronts.

Yesterday, as I was sorting through the small piles of paperwork that somehow made their way to the shelves in our TV stand, I pulled out a bubble wrap envelope from a corner of the TV stand and noticed that there was a cobweb on the corner of the envelope. I immediately dropped it, looked all around inside the stand for any possible cobweb creator, then put the envelope in the designated pile of trash papers. I finished packing the keeper papers inside a medium box containing our Xbox and my jewelry box, and a few other things. I taped off this box and placed it with the other finished boxes. 

Then I spent a few hours in the office packing some small boxes with odds and ends. 

After that, I wanted to go to the dollar store and see if they had any cheap alternatives to bubble wrapping our more fragile pieces. I would also be on the lookout for some scouring pads to tackle the bathroom showers with. On my way out the door, I figured I would pick up and take out all of that TV stand trash sitting on the floor of the living room. I got everything into the bag, then reached for the bubble wrap envelope. That's when I saw the hefty spider hanging onto the corner of the envelope. In the same motion, I simultaneously dropped the envelope and let out a short shriek. I ran through the methods of killing such a large spider. I could squish it with my shoes, but they were ten feet away and I'd have to step over the spider to get to them. I could spray it with Lysol, but that was underneath the sink in the kitchen. I had no hard evidence against the theory that the spider was lightning fast and would run as soon as I looked away. 

The closest thing to me was 409. So that's what I used. 

After spraying half a bottle's worth of the antibacterial, I started a text to H. telling him what to expect when he came home from work. There was no way I was getting rid of that surprise spider myself. In the middle of the text, I received his text saying he was heading home to the apartment. At least, that's what I read after I picked my phone up off the floor - his text made my phone buzz which made me shriek again and drop the phone. I called him, left a shaky voice message detailing my battle, then contemplated my next move. I was still ten feet from my shoes. I gathered up whatever courage I had left, dumped another gallon of cleaner onto the tiny arachnid, and made a terrifying leap towards the front door. Once I had my shoes on, I felt much more protected, and headed out of the apartment with the smallest bit of accomplishment. 

The logical side of my brain tells me that after that first spray of cleaner there's no way that spider could have done anything to me. It's like a paralytic, somehow, and that spider was down for the count. The logical side of my brain tells me I could have picked up the bubble wrap envelope myself and throw it away without H.'s help. The irrational side of my brain screams at me that nothing's dead til its blood 'n guts are squished all over that envelope. That the spider could pretend to be dead, and when I wasn't looking it would take off into some dark corner of the apartment and I'd have to deal with it all over again. The irrational side of my brain tells me that if I picked up that envelope, the spider would recognize me and make a last ditch effort to end me. 

I'm just glad H. is so accommodating when it comes to getting rid of spiders. It might have something to do with all the tears coming out of my eyes as I told him what happened. All I know is that in our new apartment, Heaven help me, I'm never going to have paper pile up in a dark corner ever, ever again. 

Sunday Morning.

I don't remember how I found this, but yesterday I came across the most scrumptious cupcakes I ever did want to have magically appear in front of me. They're called Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes.

From Bakingdom. 

Please excuse the drool, I honestly can't help it. This is a chocolate cake recipe infused with exquisite coffee flavor. Once baked, you scoop out a portion of the cupcake, pour in some homemade salted caramel, and replace the removed portion. Add coffee whip cream, drizzle more caramel on top, and finish with sprinkles. I can't stop looking at these and wondering why in the world H. thinks they would be too rich to eat. Also, those little cupcake cups are adorable!

Yesterday I made the mistake of asking H. to help me clear out the dishwasher while I was busily making dinner. He ended up putting the forks in the knives spot, the knives in the spoons spot, and the spoons in the forks spot. When I went to get a spoon for my yogurt, I almost cut myself because I wasn't looking. He also put all of the cups away without stacking them inside one another. This translates to lots of cups taking over our cupboard space, which really threw me off. The best part was he did all that on purpose, just to mess with me. Maybe I'll put green food coloring in his eggs and bacon on Monday.

I found something on the interwebs today that really made me giggle (H. says that is difficult to accomplish). It's 'Business Cat': a picture of a cat in a suit and tie with intermittently funny captions, and so far this is my favorite version. There's a whole slew of pictures on the main site, but some are better than others, so don't expect tip top stuff every time.

Yup, that concludes this Sunday's interlude.

Intangible Plans.

No official move date as of yet. Did I mention how much there is to do once we have a set date? Did I mention how much I really, really need to know when we're moving in order to ensure we have a place to live after the move? Right now, there's an ominous cloud of stress floating above my head. It's still a good distance above me, but with each day that passes it gets closer, and one day I'll be shrouded in moving stress.

I am applying to graduate school, but not in the way you would think. It'll be as a non-degree seeking student, and I am looking to take between one and four classes over the spring and summer terms (dependent on what's available). I will definitely look into taking that one extra course and see if I could change my degree to Molecular Biology. The only class I absolutely need to take is statistics, and I need it in my repertoire to apply for the Clinical Laboratory Sciences (CLS) program at Texas Tech.

Some of you may recognize Texas Tech - that's because H.'s dad (my favorite father-in-law) is currently in their med school program. The CLS program I'm interested in is nothing like medical school. Instead, after completing the one year program I would take a certification test and then become a certified medical technologist (also known as a clinical lab scientist, very interchangeable terms that were confusing at first, but now I've got the hang of it). That means I get to work in the basement of a hospital. Yay! The CLS program is the only one in Texas that you can complete online. Well, most of it is online. There is a condition that I be present for six days each of the first two semesters to complete a lab exam. After those two semesters, I would start a preceptorship at an affiliated hospital where I would work under the guidance of the hospital staff. There are three hospitals in the Dallas area that I could work with, which is exciting news. I'm kind of tired of all this moving already.

So there you have it. The only snag in my plan is that non-degree students do not qualify for financial aid. I'm worried about how much it will cost to accomplish all of this, but H. is very supportive and assures me that we can make it work. I won't lie and say I'm not nervous, but I will say the excitement of it all eases my nerves quite a bit.

We Are Always Running For The Thrill Of It.

I have some good news and I have some bad news. The bad news is I found a fairly large spider in my bathroom and now I'm paranoid that they're all over the apartment. The good news is I won't be paranoid for very long because we're gettin' our bee-hinds back to Texas! I have started looking at apartments, and while I found four places that look good, H. is concerned about moving into an apartment that we've never set foot in. As such, we might request the aide of our family members in apartment scouting in the near future. We haven't actually set a date as to when the move will happen, but I have a feeling it will be in mid to late November.

We'll be renting a moving truck that will tow my car, and H.'s car will follow behind it. Am I nervous about making a 16 hour trip as a caravan? If you count planning where to buy gas based on the rental truck's mileage, then yes. The worst part about it will be that H. and I can't talk along the way (although, he is thinking about getting walkie talkies). I'll most likely listen to music most of the way, which means I'll be making twelve cd's full of all the songs I love. That might be a stretch - I technically have 2.1 days worth of music according to iTunes, but that includes all those songs that you think you like but end up getting sick of a month after purchasing. I might also look into an audio book. Assuming the rental truck comes with a cd player, H. will most likely stock up on Ticket audio for the ride there.

In my assessment of how much stuff we have in an attempt to determine the number of boxes to buy, I decided that it would be too much work to take my plants with us. Even if I could pry them out of the blinds and away from the window ledge, I don't know where we would put them in either vehicle where they would be safe from sharp box edges. I do intend to make a bouquet out of 'em before we head out, though. I thought for sure the first sunflower would be fully in bloom by now, but it turns out I'm wrong.

That purple dome center thing seems to be growing upward while the
frou-frou bits grow outward. I have absolutely no idea why it's doing this. 

As you can see, it's almost completely fuzzified. Theoretically, after the
fuzz covers it, the flower will slowly wither and leave seeds behind.
Hypothetically, I could harvest these seeds and plant them in Tejas.
H. is not very fond of eating the seeds, but I don't see why.

This is the shortest flower. The rest of the blooms begin
a foot or more above this one. 

As of today, there are four buds in full bloom, three buds with the beginner yellow petals unfurling, and five more buds in the "crown" stage. The oldest bloom is not the tallest at 2' 6"; the tallest is 3' 5", and is the second oldest. I would like to wait until the fuzzy centers all fill out before fitting them into a vase, but I might just clip them all a week before the move and enjoy the sunshine.

For the past two weeks I've had to remind myself that it's October. It doesn't feel like October here, it feels like August. The trees look the same, the bushes look the same, and the heat is the same. The hundred-degree weather has left, but it's still in the nineties every single day. I am looking forward to drinking tea and hot chocolate and eating spiced muffins. I'm looking forward to wearing pants and sweaters and long sleeved shirts and layers and fancy boots.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends for the first time in five months. It feels much longer than that, and I'm incredibly excited to have that back in my life. See you guys soon!

I Throw My Hands Up In The Air Sometimes.

Well, today was a teeny bit of a rollercoaster.

The good news is I had an interview at Michael's for a part-time position. I arrived early, the guy interviewing me was ten minutes late, but he was friendly and I felt it went really well. He said that this particular store is consistently in the top five in the nation, but I don't know if I believe that. Maybe people out here are more crafty because there's less to do, but maybe he meant to say state. He asked me three different times if I knew how to run a cash register, and I said yes all three times. I guess they have people working there who don't know how to run one. The guy said he's let me know in a day or two about the job. The entire interview took about twenty minutes (fairly quick) and then I was out the door.

H. and I hit the C-to-the-ostco to pick up some necessities and almost got run over a hundred times. As a side note, these are the worst drivers I've seen. I think it has something to do with the average age being 92 years old. We survived, if only by the skin of our teeth, and made our way back to the apartment.

This is when I checked my phone and saw I had a voicemail. It was the interview guy saying that they had filled all of the positions, but he'll keep my file for future openings. I'm fairly upset that I can't even land a part-time job, but then the unemployment rate here is quite high. Not Detroit high, but pretty high. I'm angry, but I'm just glad he called me today instead of waiting until the weekend is over.

I guess it's back to the daily grind for me. Yesterday I made progress on my painting project, and I'll probably pick it up again tomorrow, but today I'm hanging out with H. and loving the sixty-something degree weather.

Sonnenblume.

Yesterday, I stood at the office window and looked forlornly into the mass of fuzzy green leaves accumulating at the western end of the window box. What could that featherduster of a plant be? After no success with a leaf description search, I tried yellow flower, hoping that maybe I could scan through the images and determine whether the leaves were fuzzy. Then it hit me. What type of flower grows very, very tall, has bright yellow petals, and a dark center?

Holla at yo plant.

I think I have a sunflower. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but there are dwarf varieties that reach between two and three feet in height, and this one is about 28" tall. Also, the yellow petals are the only petals that are present. The other yellow highlights are from the tiny fuzzy things sprouting from the middle violet thing (so scientific, I know).

Say hello to my little friends.  

Over time, the rest of the purple bud will spring forth with tiny yellow and brown things. Then it will look much more like a sunflower and much less like an alien is growing inside of it. It really did freak me out when there was just these yellow extensions and a great big purple monster brain. H. thinks that the flower will tip over and droop without some staking, but the way it's sitting now, the blinds are doing a pretty good job of keeping it upright. Just as long as the bloom doesn't get much bigger.

Here's the video that convinced me I might be growing a sunflower: Sunflower Time Lapse. The intro is kind of boring, but right around 1:55 it gets mesmerizing. Time lapse videos are so cool.

I never knew that there were so many types of sunflowers! The purple center is really throwing me off in pinpointing which kind I have, but this website has a couple varieties listed under three feet. I must say I'm kind of sad I didn't end up with the Teddy Bear variety. Now, however, I have to research how and when sunflowers create their famous seeds, and whether these ones will be edible. We shall see!

I Spy.

As I was taking out the trash yesterday, I spun around to close the door behind me and was startled by what was chilling on the door frame.

Did she see me?

He looks quite large in the pictures, but in reality he couldn't have been more than two inches long. He didn't even flinch when I opened or closed the door. I guess he was just tired or too hot or wanted some attention. I can't believe he didn't move while I was taking pictures. They're so fast that you couldn't step on one if you tried, usually. Cross another thing off my desert bucket list.

I finally got a callback from a retail store. The lady I spoke with said she felt I would be good for the job considering my work experience with Senor Kohls. That'll be easy money, hopefully, and I think I might even like the atmosphere (from what I've seen as a customer).

It's been cooler as of late - low to mid nineties since the middle of last week. I dare say our hundred degree weather is over (cross your fingers). I'm so incredibly ready for long sleeved shirts and jeans and sweaters and jackets and hot chocolate! Fall is probably a three month season here, taking over Winter's job in December and January. Even with the coldest of cold weather last year, where every state save this one experienced mounds of snow, all we got was a two-night freeze with no precipitation. You could say I'm kinda jealous of the northern states right now.

Well, time to go spruce up the apartment. Tallyho!

Hey Mama.

Yesterday the Texas Rangers let our sports hopes down with their loss to the Rays. H. had loaned me one of his Rangers shirts for the occasion, but even that couldn't help the team win. Tonight's game had better turn out differently, otherwise I'll be breaking out ye olde tissue box.

Also yesterday, I dyed hair.

Turns out it's difficult to take a decent picture of the back of your head. 

I remember Susan telling me about the temporary dyes at the pharmacy store, so I picked up the darkest brown they had and gave it a shot. H. didn't even notice, and looking at these pictures, I don't blame him. It only made my hair a smidge darker than usual, although I like that it kind of kept all of the natural highlights I've got going on. Now when I feel like being a brunette-blonde mix, I can do it and wash it out the next day.

On Thursday I had a craving for Mexican food, specifically Chipotle, but I wanted to make something myself. Introducing the easiest chicken quesadillas ever.

Crackling Chicken Quesadillas
1 rotisserie chicken (a la Costco)
1 can black beans
1 can whole kernel corn
fresh cilantro
cheese of choice
uncooked flour tortillas

Pull apart chicken meat, chop into small pieces, place in large mixing bowl. Drain black beans and corn, place into a pot. Cook until veggies are warmed through. Chop cilantro, add to veggies, cook for another five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and add to chicken. Grate cheese, add to mixture. Cook flour tortillas half-done on both sides, add filling, return to pan and cook until cheese melts. 


The best part is that you can refrigerate the mix, then cook up fresh tortillas every time. Add guacamole and sour cream, and these are unstoppable. Plus, they've lasted us five meals (ten quesadillas), so top notch in my book.

The Rangers just started playing, so the rest of this might be a little choppy, but let's talk gardening! I've got many things happening in my window box, so let's start off with the new flowers.

Teeny tiny flowers!

These delicate white flowers make up about forty percent of the bloomage in my window at the moment. I think there are four plants (maybe five, it's hard to tell where one plant starts and another one ends these days) that have all started sprouting these beauties. The only thing I don't like is the maze of leaves this plant creates - it's the reason my blinds are so wonky now.

About 26" tall right now. 

Fuzzy has grown into a fine young specimen. Along with the one visible bud on top, there's a second one leaning into the window and a third developing along another separate stem.

I think this one's gonna be yellow. 

Despite much internet research, I still have no clue what this plant is. I thought 'fuzzy leaves' would be enough to give me a small selection of plants to go through, but it turns out that many plants are fuzzy. One species I did identify was my very first bloomer (the purple cluster plant), Phlox subulata. One down, three to go.

Windowsill squatter.

I didn't put much effort into identifying this guy. I figured it would be hard to find a plant name that matched the description 'pink flowers vine plant'. But then there's always Google Image searches.

And that concludes our post for today. I hope to be more forthcoming with my posts in the future, so stay tuned for Twitter updates about what I'm eating for lunch. Have a great weekend!

A Growing Concern.

Before I get to my problem, look what I found on my neighbor's doorstep.

Om nom nom. 

He's too cute to refute. 

Back to my problem. I'm a tad bit worried about my plant babies taking over the window. Most of them have crawled out of the planter and in between the plastic blinds in the window. This isn't a big deal in the daytime, but when I want to close the blinds at night I have to do so gingerly. The greenies are probably stronger than I think, and they might not even notice the closed blinds, but now that some of them are flowering I'm a little more protective. 

View from above. 

Yeah, it's a hot mess. The tiny compulsive part of me wishes I'd organized their growth a bit. Everything's connected to everything else, and the blinds definitely don't close all the way anymore.

Jack's bean has a cousin.

Take Leo, for instance. Since last we spoke, the main stem has grown three shoots which want nothing to do with the main stem and require their own real estate. Guess how many buds are on the three offshoots? 14. Guess how many buds are still unopened on the main stem? 11. Holy smokes I'm about to have a lot of flowers. There would've been two more buds, but I forgot to water the plants over the weekend and two of them dried up and fell off when I was rearranging the greenery.

Breast Cancer Awareness Flower. 

It was difficult to get a good picture of the flowers - since the stem is growing upwards, the blooms are pressed up against the window all day, which makes them flat on one side. At this point, I'm suspicious of Leo being a climbing vine.

Just another super sunny morning with my monster greens.

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the one random bud that is definitely not pink. It's on the main stem near the top, and the bud opened up a little this morning. I hope it's not cream colored from lack of water (it wouldn't open if there wasn't enough water, right?), but I'm wondering why in the world it's not pink.

Pink bud in the background for comparison. 

You might've noticed the only plant not growing toward the sunlight at the far left of the planter. The Fuzz has gotten mighty robust the past few days.

View from the far end. 

If it wasn't for Leo, I'd crown the King the tallest plant I have. Out of all the leaves springing from one spot in the dirt grew a tall stem that produces its own set of leaves. For days I've watched it, waiting for a bloom to appear, but nothing has grown as of yet.

Looks like he's got a crown of his own. 

I can't wait to see what comes of this plant. 

Other than King Prickly and Leo, there hasn't been much blooming activity out of the rest of the plants. The only thing that comes close is the pinkish-purplish petal plant.

I thought this was another Leo, but now I'm not so sure. 

In non-environmental news, I won my second week of fantasy football. I went up against a guy that had Tom Brady and two other Patriots, and he was taunting me that Mark Sanchez wouldn't beat the Golden Boy (Brady's nickname). True, Brady earned more points than Sanchez, but I ended up beating this guy by forty points (huge margin of victory) and had the highest score of anyone that week. HECK YEAH!


Before I go, word to the wise - never EVER buy Chai Tea Spice syrup. I bought it for use in my morning coffee because I love chai tea to death, and that particular brand is laden with cloves*. It smells like cloves, it tastes like cloves, and the lingering aftertaste is heavy with cloves. Actually made me nauseous. I'm going back to the store today to get French Vanilla. Hopefully that flavor doesn't have cloves in it.

* I'm not against cloves. I put them in muffins and other baked goods, only in small amounts. I am against clove coffee, though.

Shwell, it's time to go do some apartmental compartmental cleaning. Have an awesome day!

Tut-tut.

It's been raining almost all day. The weather reports said it would be ninety-three degrees today, but it's only gotten up to seventy. I guess this thunderstorm wasn't something the meteorologists were expecting. That must be why I've got an insane headache invading my skull. Medicine isn't helping, but I'm wishing for the clouds to move on to somewhere that doesn't involve me.

Filling out job applications is exciting. Okay, that was a lie. Filling out job applications for something that would use my degree is exciting; filling out applications for retail jobs and front desk jobs lacks that sparkling quality. The crack in my skull makes answering questions like Tell us three skills you have that make you stand out in the crowd and Tell us your career life story, what you've accomplished and what you plan to do next almost impossible. There's a certain level of commitment required to pretend that I want to work for a temp agency for the rest of my life and write why I would want to work for your company in particular.

This headache really has me in a funk.

I found another recipe that uses chai tea to make baked goods: Chai Tea Eggnog Cookies. Now we're talking. It's a shame there's a lot of people who don't like chai tea, and a whole other group that doesn't like eggnog. I guess I'll just chow down with the other few crazy people who accept both of those flavors in cookie form. That sentence feels like a run-on.

My flowers are doing alright. There are now four blooms on Leo/Leona, and I've still got the purple cluster as well. There's one other plant that never had a bud, but there are suspicious violet 'leaves' sprouting from the growing end of the plant. I thought this was the second Leo (the leaves look very similar), but I could be wrong. The fuzzy plant seems to be growing a stalk. Up until now, the leaves have all come from the base of the plant, but now there's a stalk with leaves protecting something inside. Well, that's what it looks like, anyways. I'll grab some pics later, just not right now.

H. ended up beating me in points in our FF league. This week I'm going up against the guy who had the most points last week, so I expect to lose this one. But maybe his quarterback and wide receiver and running back (who are all on the same team) will have game day injuries. It's bad form to root for player injuries, right? Maybe they'll just all have the flu.

We don't have an umbrella. We never thought we'd need one. The raining every other day might change my mind. I was going to clear my head and take a walk down to get the mail (it's been in the high eighties for the better part of the week), and I was even prepared to wear my rainboots that I've only worn once before. Very exciting stuff. But we don't have an umbrella, and I don't have a waterproof jacket, so I never went. Something to add to the grocery list, I suppose.

Other than talking about how I can't get brown fall boots off of my mind (see exhibits A B C D), that's about it. This debilitating headache is still with me, but as long as I don't look into bright lights or stand up quickly or listen to obstructive music, it doesn't get worse. Now if only it would start getting better.

Friday, At Last.

H. and I just got back from the movie theater - we saw Contagion, and we both really liked it. What we didn't like was the syndrome everyone else at the theater had. A husband had to repeat a lot of dialogue to his hard-of-hearing wife, and he did so by repeating things loudly in the middle of another character talking. Behind us there were two whispering soccer moms who kept telling each other their theories about what was going to happen next. Then there was the lady in the front row who would say "Oh they're doing _____ now", and fill that blank with whatever was on screen. She was a super old lady that was trying to acknowledge to herself what was going on, or at least that's what it seemed like. If someone was talking on a phone, I think H. and I might have walked out. There must be something in the water here that makes people turn into awful movie-goers.

H. is feeling better, although not 100%, and suggested that I get my own straw for the drink we shared during the movie. Somewhere between getting up from my seat and coming back with the straw I had a twinge in my back. I had trouble sitting comfortably, and even now (two and a half hours later) I'm still in pain. It's only on my right side, and it hurts when I breathe, twist, or cross my left hand over to the right side of my body (like when I tried to pick up our drink from the holder and couldn't do it). I thought maybe there was a knot in my back, but after a little back massage from H., it's definitely not that. I really hope the ibuprofen will take effect soon.

Last night's football game was actually pretty exciting. I had two players I was rooting for, and H. had one player to root for, all of them on the Packers, and all of them receivers. We would cheer when one of our guys caught the ball, and boo when someone else did. As of right now, H. has more points than I do, but the weekend isn't over yet. I want those chocolates!

Two recipes that sound scrum-diddly-umptious that I ran across today: Pumpkin Donuts with Buttermilk Maple Glaze and Chai Tea S'Mores. I have a very healthy addiction to chai tea, and making a cookie-like dough out of it sounds absolutely heavenly. The donuts are probably unhealthy, but they're pumpkin, people! With a maple glaze! Excuse me while I daydream about eating both of those delicious delicacies. drool.

That's about all I'm going to write. I've gotta find somewhere more accommodating to my back to sit for the season finale of Rookie Blue. 

Football and Flowers II.

I wanted to post this yesterday, but I ended up with zero energy after grocery shopping three times. Actually, the shopping was fine. It was the cooling down part in between each trip that zapped all of my get-up-and-go. I might cave and buy one of those fancy travel cups just so I can put ice cubes and water in it. Lots of ice cubes.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a wonderful sight in my rainforest.

More flowers!

Well, Leo's definitely a she. Maybe I should call her Leona now. I didn't think the blooms would be pink - I meant to take a picture of the buds the night before the blooms, but you'll have to take my word that they were purple. An orange-y purple. But I'm not about to force those petals back in and request a different color come out.

Here's what they look like from the front. 

I'm not sure how big they'll get, maybe an inch in diameter? They're very slowly emerging from their living shells, so it'll be a day or two before they're fully open. 

Picture from this morning. S-l-o-w-l-y opening.

There are about six of the buds on Leona, and so far three of them have popped open. I don't mind waiting for the rest of them to open, so long as I have something pretty to look at in the meantime. 

Picture from this afternoon. The third bud tries his hand at photo bombing. 

Any idea what this flower is? I haven't touched them yet, but the petals look very delicate, much like a sweet pea's. I wonder if one of these buds will open up and a slip of paper pops out with the specifics on its identification. 

The purple posse. They follow each other everywhere.
Maybe it's because they're all joined at the stem. 

Don't worry, I didn't forget about my first-to-bloom. As you can tell, there are about ten of these guys now. The very first one has already finished blooming and withdrawn back into its pod. I think it lasted for five days, so these will probably last me into next week. 

Messy picture, but this is from the right-hand side of the planter. 

I worry about the purple panthers a little, just because they continue to grow toward the window in the shadow of Leona, who is essentially a brick house. I've tried to gently move the stem out from behind the behemoth, but they just end up back in the shadow. I guess that's where they want to be.

Poor H. has a bit of a cold. Thank goodness he has tomorrow off, because he really needs the rest. His voice is at about fifty percent, and he might lose it entirely tomorrow. I got him the gold standard in over-the-counter care with a jug of orange juice, vitamin C pills, and the tastiest generic version of NyQuil. It's one of those rare times that I'm glad we're living in a ridiculous time zone, because the football game tonight starts at 5:30 PM, and H. can even get to bed early. Can you tell I'm fretting a little? I just hope he gets better soon. 

Football tonight means H. and I are going head-to-head with our fantasy football teams. Now I see why his dad doesn't like fantasy teams. On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys play the New York Jets. On my team I've got two Dallas players and the NYJ defense (which is easier than picking a thousand linemen to be on your team). Here's the predicament: inside of fantasy land, I cheer for the two Dallas players to get yards and touchdowns which translate into points for my team. At the same time, I cheer for the NYJ defense to stop any Dallas touchdowns, to completely cut out any chance for the receivers to gain yards on the play, and that scores me points for my team. Basically, I'll only get half the points either way. 

Like I said, H. and I are duking it out this weekend. We even made a friendly wager, a husband and wife bet. If my team has more points than his, he has to buy me a box of chocolates. It was the first thing that popped into my head, believe it or not. If H.'s team has more points than mine, he gets one hour of Silent Time during which I have to be quiet. He's already asked if he uses it while I'm sleeping and I don't remember, does that mean he gets double the quiet time later, to which I said absolutely not. He's pretty crafty, that one. Oh, and I also get to brag about how he got beat by a girl if I win, so there might be more pressure for him to win. 

In my parting paragraph, I'd like to show you this scary photo (what were they thinking?). Football in tee minus one hour and fifteen minutes. 

Flowers and Football.

This is going to be another pic-heavy post, as I'm proud of mah little green babies (them plant things).

I woke up yesterday, went to go water my plants, and gasped when I saw what was waiting for me.

FLOWER!

It's so cute and pretty and it makes me smile every time I go look at it. It's actually on one of the plant varieties that sprouted later than everything else, so it must have a pretty short budding time. I went to check on it that afternoon, and then I found this.

There's two of them!

Cue onslaught of zoomed in pictures to show the teeny tiny flower details. 

See the incredible violet color on the stamens? If there was a bumblebee
grabbing some pollen, his legs would be purple. He'd have purple leggings.

And then there's the teeny pointy petal things that make it look fierce.

If each of these buds, I'ma have a bona fide bouquet of the
tiniest flowers you ever did see.

So far, there's just the two of them, but that's enough for me. I kept them alive long enough to have flowers! It's been almost 90 days, so I suppose this would be prime flowering season from a systematic standpoint. Or at least, that's when a couple of websites say that plants flower. Leo's also got some buds forming, but I'm not entirely sure they'll turn into flowers. I haven't been keeping an eye on him, but these look fairly different from what's on him now. 

Zoomed out view of the stem. 

The buds have fuzzy prickles on them. Which, as far as Leo is
concerned, is something new and exciting. 

There's about six of these, so if they really are flowers,
I'm about to be an octomom. 

I can't wait to see what each and every one of those wildflowers turns out to be. If they sprout at about the same time, I might have enough for a vase. A small bouquet that I can put next to the tv and spruce it up. Super excited.

As some of you may know, H. is a huge football fan. He watched a college game last night on his computer, and he wasn't even a fan of either team. It was just interesting, so he watched it. Well. Well, well, well. A couple of weeks ago, H. was invited into a fantasy football league at his work, and he said that he'd probably be watching quite a bit of random football games in the coming season. I said whatevs, what else is new, and told him to have fun storming the castle. 

The day before yesterday, H. called and asked if I would consider making a fantasy football team. He said that his league needed one more person to make it even, and apparently things work better when people are in pairs, so I said yes. I was nervous, but H. said not to worry - I wouldn't be the only girl in the league that couldn't name five players in the NFL. Which I took offense to, so I named five quarterbacks and then some other offense people. H. laughed at me, and went back to work. 

Today was the draft. Without going into too much detail, it was an auction draft - someone would nominate a player and people would bid on him. We each had $200 imaginary dollars to spend on 15 real players. It was actually a lot of fun watching who people picked. One lady kept on picking people, winning the bid, then her husband would say, "Doesn't he have a neck injury?" Clearly, husbands had no interest in helping their wives. I did pretty well, and if you have any interest at all in my team, you can see them here. So it appears you can't link to your team. Here's a screenshot instead, click to enlarge.

Shwell, it's about time for some pizza. We haven't had that in a while, and all this football talk makes me crave pizza. For the past two nights I made burgers for us lovebirds, and they turned out nicely.

96% lean beef, turkey bacon with 5% fat, cheese, and barbecue sauce.
Also,  toasted sesame seed buns. Really makes a difference. 

And that ends tonight's post. Enjoy your football, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend. 

The Constant Gardener.

I'm having a very dizzy day. Actually, that's not right - it's more lightheaded with a bit of dizzy thrown in. Maybe it was the Zyrtec I took this morning on an empty stomach. In any case, it feels like I'm wearing a football helmet with the trouble hearing and the weird light pressure. At least there's no pain. I took a multivitamin with my lunch, so maybe that will help a little.

In the meantime, I would like to show you my wildflowers. True, they haven't budded yet, but they're getting there (I hope). It seems like every day I find the stems in different positions. One day they're over here, the next day they've grown over there; perhaps they're following the sunlight throughout the day. Here's what the window box looks like now, compared to a month ago.

It's a forest. 

At this point, everything is spilling over the edge of the box - which, if you think about it, is pretty smart for a plant. I remember a month ago seeing a plant that was withering from lack of sun, and gingerly placing one of its leaves over the edge of the box. That was all it needed, and now it's a thriving young sucker.

Leo was the first plant to figure out the edge trick. I have a sneaking suspicion that his root system is more advanced than any of the other plants, judging by how much he's grown in relation to them. Leo now hangs out between the blinds on the window ledge.

This is Leo. His stem must be pretty strong to not bend over the edge.

Even though he gets the most sunlight by chilling out on the ledge, his leaves bend under themselves like they're not getting enough water. Which I find hard to believe because of his supposed extensive root system. It's a balancing act, watering him more than the others, but he hasn't died yet, so I feel like I'm doing alright.

Leo's the only plant with a red-purple stem. 

That's a slightly better representation of all the bending he's done. I've he pretty much snaked his way down to the ledge, then grew straight up once he was there. Well, straight up as in his stem now resembles a U shape. Oh, a couple of days ago, there was a beetle nibbling away at Leo's leaves, much like a caterpillar would. There aren't any pictures, because now that beetle lives in the sewage system. I think I caught the beetle early enough that it didn't damage any of the leaves too badly.

Leo's stem, again. With some friends.

When the sprouts were young, I thought I only had five varieties. Now that the plants have started to mature, I think there are seven varieties. You can see in the picture above that the leaves have different colors, now. They also feel different to the touch. I am just hoping they'll all make it to the budding stage so I can identify what I've got. 

Even though Leo's the only plant I can remember the name of, he's not my favorite one of the bunch. That would be the fuzzy leaf plant that lives on the end of the block. Huge leaves, central sprouting instead of a stalk, and sensational to the touch.

Hey guys, what's up? Nothin' much here, just hanging out. 

Little needles covering every inch of leaf. 

It should feel like a cactus, but it feels like a cat. Super soft.

Those 'buds' are just leaves that haven't grown up yet. 

I must admit that I like looking at the patterns that the plants are creating. There's one in particular that shoots off secondary stems from the main line, and these grow straight up and sprout stars on the end. This is probably the most pretty plant so far. 

Blurry, but you see what I mean. Super cute, too.

Here's a look from above the window box. A nice panoramic from a person's perspective. Don't mind the pile of leaves on the southern edge of the box. I try to trim off the leaves that look like they're on their way out. I think the plant prefers that to holding onto a withering leaf. They'll thank me later.

It's a puzzle where you have to follow one stem to the end to get a prize.

And that concludes today's botany course. I feel a little less dizzy, so maybe this spell is almost over. It's a good thing last night's dinner carries over into tonight's. Otherwise, we might have had to suffer through delivery pizza. Hope all is well with all of you.