remember this little guy?

{back when he was just a wee little sprout in a bitty-pot}

*sorry. obviously this plant was somehow gender-ized...due to the fact i am referring to it as a "he"

{and then he got bigger. and grew real-plant leaves!}

...aaaand then he went through what i would call the:
"difficult-officeplant-stage" :
(where he refused to bloom.)

• he grew about two-freaking-feet.
• required a repotting.
• demanded to be put outside for "optimal-full-sunlight."
• and then tried to scare me when he attempted plant-suicide during a particularly wicked rainstorm...

{but we've made it through three months of ups and downs...}
and he finally grew me a flower.

*carlyn has also had a bit of trouble with her zenia...but, her plant-baby has given her much less trouble that mine has.

{plant lineup}
*left: my very-troubled little guy.
*middle: carlyn's less-troubled little guy.

*right: brian's short, stumpy, and well-behaved flowering marigold.

oh, and all those giant sticks and rubberbands are there because our plants INSISTED on growing at least 2 feet before even thinking about flowering.
(great, guys. really nice of you.)

{and this would be carlyn...and her OTHER office-flowers}

{the occasion...?}

oooooh...maybe a recent engagement...or something like that.

plant babies

(yes. this would be my obligatory boring yard-update)


buuuut...it seemed like only yesterday, that the plant-babies were just wee-bitty-sprouts:

{so little. so manageable. so well-weeded...}

and, like all good little plants should do,
they kept growing...and growing...and growing

until they they grew into an uncontrollable mass of squash
(and weeds?)
*i started slacking in my plant-motherhood....

but LOOK squash-blossoms!!
(*this is a good sign: my plant-mothering is obviously not as bad as i thought)

aaaand, squash-blossoms turn into little squash...

{baby-squash-butt? ...i think so.}

However, it's been about two weeks...AAAaaaaaand. the blossoms are STILL THERE. (how slow can squash grow?) i have three rows that should be budding into tasty-edibleness. but, the above-pictured squash-butt would be the ONLY thing that is actually growing.

{ugh.}

and speaking of plants/gardens/yards....um:

i think SOMEONE MOWED MY YARD!?
(i came home from work on tuesday. and it was short--which was definitely not the way that i left it.)

but who randomly mows lawns?!!?

and trust me: i'm very happy about this mysterious do-gooder... (because lets be honest: mowing is not one of my top 5 favs.)

...but, who do i thank?
...and why did they do it?

(does someone not approve my mowing jobs? is one of my neighbors fed up with staring at my uneven mower-lines?...i mean, i can't help it that I have lawn-mowing-dyslexia. and i spastically feel like mowing certain parts horizontal, and other parts vertical...or other parts a bit more...circular(?)







but, just in case you may believe that i am a total gardening and lawn-mowing failure...

i leave you with this:

*i have discovered that i am quite successful in the flower-department.
too bad they aren't very practical.
or edible...

sisters...sisters...

can i just say how much i LOVE this girl?


(happy late-birthday pookie)

the everlasting kiwi....

all my life- i have witnessed the amazing phenomenon of ripening fruit.
(because that's what fruit does: it gets ripe...until it hits a certain point...and then it just gets rotten.)

well, please let me introduce you to

THE EVERLASTING KIWI:



i have been letting this poor little kiwi ripen for FOUR WEEKS...!
(and by now it should be soft/squishy/and pretty much inedible.)

well....
it was almost inedible.
(but only because it was still crunchy and green!!!)


and yes, i realize that there are probably much more interesting things that i could be talking about (besides crunchy-green-unripened-kiwis.)
*but, this thing was a freak of nature. and i just had to share...



in other news:
i am suffering from "working-woman's-tan."
(definition: "a tan that does not exist, due to the working-woman's indoor habitat during all the hours of the day that the sun actually makes you non-ghostly-white)

I knew i wasn't a beach-babe or anything, but i think i had been denying the fact that i GLOW(with whiteness)....
unless i went running last night...
(and a lovely little group of teenage boys decided to participate in some lovely little catcalls...)
and their phrase of choice...?

"Hey white-girl!"

(*which i wouldn't really think anything of....except for the fact that they were VERY VERY VERY caucasian.)



oh.
blasted working-woman's tan.

stanleycup & beans...

so....before moving to pittsburgh, i didn't really know much about hockey. (actually- i don't even know if i ever realized that it was a professional sport?...well, except maybe every 4 years, when the olympics would roll around)

but, thankyou pittsburgh.
(*and your overly-enthused-sports-fans)
because now: i am a lover...of hockey.

(*who would have guessed?)

aaaand, for those of you who have yet to cross over to the hockey-enlightened side of life, this is what happened in pittsburgh this weekend:

{the stanley-cup}

Aaaaand, happiness is abounding in the steel city.


how much happiness?
(well, let me give you an example)....

on sunday -(keep in mind...almost 48 hours after the triumphal-victory)- i'm at the grocery store. on the canned-goods aisle...in the bean section (*and really...does it get any lamer than the bean section?) and while trying to simultaneous juggle about 6 cans of assorted bean varieties and scope out the sale-beans-- random man approaches...aaaand, ...well- i'm going to do my best to re-create our dialogue:

Random Man: "AWSOME!"
Me: (thinking) ...he is also a fan of beans?
R.M: "Just, INCREDIBLE! INCREDIBLE! I LOVE IT!"
Me: (thinking) ...can't be beans....
R.M: "I mean- did you see it!? FLEURY!? (at this point begins impersonating hockey-moves? i am assuming?) He was all over the place!...and CROSBY! WE JUST WENT ON FIRE WHEN HE LEFT!!!
Me: (holding extravagant quantity of beans) "yep. pretty amazing...." (feeling (comparatively) extraordinarily-unenthusiastic at this point. and very laden-down with beans)
R.M: (shaking head, VEHEMENTLY) "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! PITTSBURGH IS UNSTOPPABLE!"
Me: (still bean-laden) "yep."
R.M: (although unaffected by my comparative lack of enthusiasm, decides he will find a more energetic fan to reminisce with.)

---2 minutes later--- (in the cereal-aisle)

R.M: (shaking head) "STILL AMAZING!!"
Me: (this time sans-beans) "yep"
R.M: "I JUST CAN'T GET OVER IT!!!"
Me: (schlinking-away....silently making mental notes to work on my sports-fan-enthusiasm.....)

my little corner of love.

this would be the little corner-plot about 2 weeks ago:


and now there are actual SPROUTS in it! like...LEGIT-SPROUTS!!!!!


*and as soon as i remember to take pictures (instead of just swooning over my little plants) --i will post photographic evidence of my little plant-babies.

miss american...pie?

so...i was cleaning out my fridge a little while ago. (which -(i know, i know!)- is a fairly lame sunday-evening activity.) but, you have to do it at some point...you know: inventory fridge contents. assess what is lacking. etc...

and during fridge cleaning/inventory/assessment, i discovered that i have a ridiculous quantity of apples...(*but, unfortunately- they were the sort of apples that had passed up the preferable "crispy" stage...and had gone on to the "mealy" stage....but, not quite mealy enough to justify throwing them away.)

so what do you do with a fridgefull of mealy-apples?
(bake them!)
*baked apples make a great snack: very healthy. and pretty tasty ...?

and i've discovered apple-peeling/slicing/dicing is a very mindless and theraputic activity....(because before i knew it--i was standing above a PILE of apples.) I don't know how it got so big...or how many apples went in there, but i knew that this was way too much for just plain old plain baked-apples....

and that is how the late-night-apple-pie-baking-adventure began.

aaaand...being so late...and me feeling so spontaneously-bakingly-adventurous...i decided to bake the pie sans-recipe. (which, actually turned out really good!)
*for some reason, i always have this feeling of very-smug-satisfaction when i can cook something without a recipe (and it actually works)

the only unfortunate parts of this pie-baking-adventure would be my definite lack of a pie-pan. woops(?)

so- i substituted a bread-pan. (which works...but, is a lot trickier....a LOT trickier....)

oh, and since my camera happened to be in the kitchen, and i was feeling rather proud of my spontaneous-inspirational-baking, you get to see my proud little pie-photos:

step 1:
apples (slightly pre-baked in microwave. with cinnamon, nutmeg, molassas, tapioca, cornstarch, and a dash of splenda)

step 2:
(cheater-(pre-made)-pie-crust) cut for bread-pan dimensions....with a little lovin' in the middle.

step 3:
apples meet crust. (and yes- this was a bottomless-pie....so, i guess kindof a cobbler-pie? ish?

step 4:
bake and take out when golden brown!

step 5:
(what you do with the awkward-ends of a circular pie-crust when baking in a rectangular-dish. (make apple-filled-....things.)

*and though they may look like little apple-poops...don't be fooled they were TASTY. (and are at this moment currently being consumed: hot. and full of late-night-apple-glory.)