lots of exclamation marks

I'm really proud of myself because I planted some carrot seeds in my baby garden, and now there are carrot sprouts! A lot of them! (in the shape of a z because I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to gardening) Also, my cherry tomato plant has a little green tomato on it. The miracle of life! This almost makes up for the fact that all four of my basil plants are dying a slow, fungal death. 

Speaking of the miracle of life, my sister-in-law had her baby last night, so now I'm a double aunt! My other sister-in-law was texting Aaron and me photos in the middle of the night, and I didn't really know what was going on until I woke up and looked at my phone. What a great way to start your morning, am I right? 

While I'm sharing good news, here's some more! Not only am I going to Utah for Memorial Day weekend to see my sister Becky off before she leaves for her mission in Carlsbad, CA, but I get to stick around for a couple of weeks and do some chemistry at BYU (provided that the samples we're making right now are good samples...eek). I'm not totally sure how I'm going to get liters of buffer plus protein samples on the plane, but I'll figure it out. 

This means: Utah friends, I want to play with you! Parents, I'm moving back in! Kneaders, I'm coming!

the end.

moldy basil. now that's appetizing.

I was going to write this post about how awesome my plants are doing (2 basil plants + 2 cherry tomato plants + a generic IKEA houseplant that I resent because I wanted a succulent and Aaron said no). But last night I realized that the terracotta pots my basil plants are in are coated in a thin film of white mold. WHITE MOLD. It's disgusting. I'm actually getting pretty awesome at using bleach to solve all my problems, but I can't help but think that might be a bad idea to use on a pot that contains plants I plan to ingest? I actually dreamed about this last night, except in my dream I stuck a fan near the plants to improve the air circulation. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up and realized we don't own a fan. An emergency IKEA run for new pots might be in order instead...darn. I hate it when I just have to go to IKEA by myself so I can spend all the time I want in that huge building full of Swedish home goodness.

Lesson learned: no more terracotta.

green thumb

I'm making plans, a year in advance, to grow a garden on the rooftop patio of our future Philly house. I asked Aaron what I could plant that he would actually eat (he has an aversion to almost all vegetables) and he said edamame! Like the Japanese soybean edamame! Whoa! I guess he was won over by the free appetizers we got while waiting for an hour to be seated (when we had made reservations) at the Japanese shabu shabu restaurant in Anaheim with all the chemists.

So come next May I'm going to plant tomatoes, basil, parsley, strawberries, and edamame. And we shall be so trendy with our Japanese soybean crop. (did you know you can freeze edamame? rad. we shall be trendy all year long!)

Anyone else want to be a gardener? What are you planting?