She Makes the Best of What's Around

Brussels sprouts are one of those things I never know how to cook, even though when I eat them other places I always end up liking them. Well, this recipe for golden-crusted brussels sprouts sounds INCREDIBLE! Thanks for the link, beautyofgrey!

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Today I planted! Momma had brought home way too many impatiens, and I took the flat she didn't use. I now have oodles of them in my backyard flowerbed. When they grow & fill out, they'll be super-thick and the colors will be really random. Since they're mixed in with the periwinkles & these really neat little flowers (of which I cannot recall the name! I need to take a pic so we can identify them!) that I planted 2 years ago and have lived through BOTH winters including the ice storm, and my asiatic lilies, it's going to have this neat, wildflower effect. It doesn't have any kind of intentional arrangement or anything, which is not my usual way about things. Momma got me this hilarious tiny planter for my porch as well: it's a gnome! He's standing by a bucket holding a shovel. I planted a variegated coral impatien in his bucket. He looks very happy.

My porch containers: one large bucket, one hanging basket, and one long, narrow, window-box type container are all filled with lettuce, as I was inspired last summer by velvetpage. She grew her own lettuce & got great mileage out of it, so I'm going to try it this summer. After reading up a bit, I found a few varieties that people have success in growing in my area in the shade. I have super-tiny little lettuce plants. SO CUTE.

On the pool deck, which is the only place I have full-sun, I planted a Cherokee purple tomato, a sweet basil, and a dark opal basil, which is a glorious purple color. I have such a thing for black/purple veggies. I may go & find one of those black beauty pepper plants again; I had great success with it last year. Unlike the tomatoes, squirrels showed no interest in the peppers. YAY ANTHOCYANINS!

Also I baked brownies. They do not contain anthocyanins but they are Ghirardelli dark chocolate. I ate them for supper and that was a bad idea, because now I'm on sugar overload. Bleh.

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Bryan should be back tomorrow from Hot Springs. He went on Sunday for a workshop. It's so funny to talk to him on the phone & online. You know that list of reasons to date geeks? I think "Geek Guys Are Worth It"? I am reminded of those things every time I talk to him. He pings me online during the workshop; they have wireless & he busted out the laptop. He started to send me links & talk about how this one website was too distracting for him to look at during the workshop. It was full of stupid criminals, and Bryan loves stupid criminal stories. He actually took his Xbox 360 with him, because he'd been thinking about it when Nathan, the other math teacher who went, called & asked if he was planning on it. That made Bryan's decision. Now there are 2 geeky high school math teachers playing Xbox 360 in a hotel room in Hot Springs. I wish their students knew what their teachers did in the evenings & on weekends...and that these teachers could lay waste to any of them on any number of video games. :)

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Ganon was exhausted by 4:30. He'd spent most of the day having fun outside; he helped me turn over the soil in the flowerbed. He drove his tiny lawn tractor around. That thing is actually useful; he drove my impatiens to the house from Momma's, he moved a bag of potting soil for me, and he drove my pool deck plants over all at once, saving me some trips. He's a VERY good driver, too. He steers wonderfully, and can actually use the reverse properly; he turns one way to get himself out of a bind, and then puts it back in drive and turns the wheel to go the other way. He ran all over the place, played on the swingset, and climbed everything. He was completely tuckered out & wanting to be held, so Momma sent him inside with me...which he did not like. There was the epic Battle of the Afternoon Nap. I won, but not without losing quite a few hit points. By the time he laid down, he was so spent that he fell asleep in about a minute. At that point, exhausted myself, I just flopped down on his trundle and went to sleep.

...We didn't wake up until 8pm. CRAP. I had the hardest time waking him up, but I knew I had to or we'd be up at 4am. So he's awake now, and after insisting on 2 rounds of MarioKart, he decided watching Thomas would be fine. A slice of peanut butter bread, a glass of juice, and Thomas the Tank Engine. This is the price I paid for writing this entry without a toddler on my lap, demanding to take his own picture with Photobooth.

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I'm working on yet another Aibhlinn. I know; you'd think I was in love with that pattern or something. ^_~ I got 2 skeins of Noro Taiyo at YarnMart in Little Rock on Saturday, and for those of you who are knitters or crocheters and like cotton--this is my favorite cotton/silk blend ever! It's so soft, has such a wonderful drape, and of course the colors are so NORO. This is possibly my favorite yarn ever; it's certainly up there with Silk Garden.