antimony

I hit the blog post picture limit again. Damnit. Earlier this week the first morning glory flower opened. I love it! Here's the vine as of today, running off to explore my upstairs neighbor's balcony:

Here is my lovely tomato... I picked 7 tomatoes off of it today, we ate them with little buffalo mozerellas, fresh basil, and balsamic vinegar. I haven't shown the basil lately, take a look! Here's the other tomato plant, it's turning into a total jungle, it's really taken off since I re-potted it. It's got a bunch of little green tomatoes on it. The peppers are showing no signs at all of ripening: The roses are putting out new buds, I'll have more flowers soon: I think there's as much strawberry foliage outside the pot as inside:

My tomato is getting so heavy, it's actually hanging crooked: One cluster of ripening tomatoes: Another cluster of ripening tomatoes: Look at all of these peppers! Here's the experimental tomato, it has really perked up amazingly since being re-potted. In this picture, you can see the support I'm using. It's designed to hold a flowerpot, but it makes a pretty tomato support. Remember that little morning glory bud I posted last weekend? (Scroll down, I'll wait ) This is what it looked like tonight: I'm pretty sure this one has got to be a moonflower bud, since it looks so different from the other one:

Between 3 and 3:30 eastern time today, exam results come out!!!! I am completely useless today. There's a message board for actuaries (I guess there's one for everything!) and I keep reloading, looking to see if results are out early. I mean, I'm working and all, but not very efficiently. Oof.

The signage in most airports makes finding your gate pretty simple. The one piece of advice I will give you is if they tell you your gate when you check in, chect the TV monitors anyway. Gates do get changed and the desk staff don't always know about it. The monitors are all over the place in the airport, though, so it's easy to take 30 seconds and check. As for missing your flight on your layover, it's very unlikely you would be scheduled on a flight you wouldn't be able to make. A 45 minute layover is plenty if you will be heading out of the same terminal, a little tight if you have to change terminals. An hour or more, and you are totally fine. Of course, go find your outgoing gate *before* getting food or coffee, even if there is a starbucks on the way between your arriving and leaving gates. Don't freak out, it will be *fine*.

I think gardens are a lot more forgiving than people think... The key is doing a little research beforehand. (And don't count on the people at Lowes or Home Depot to be any help at all) Figure out which USDA Zone you are in, and use that to help pick your plants. Also, where it says on plant tags full sun/partial sun/shade/etc, those are not set in stone, but a lot of shade plants thrive in partial sun, but when they say a plant needs full sun they probably mean it. So match the plants to the conditions, but don't feel too restricted. Finally, it sounds like your previous tomatoes had blossom end rot... sprinkle some crushed egg shells around your plants, and kind of rake them into the soil to prevent it on your current tomatoes.

Oh my god, I had my first fresh tomatoes today, and they were *divine*. Nothing at all like store-bought. This will be a wonderful summer. So, I re-potted the experimental tomato (I felt so bad for it). The pot is actually plastic, and is nice and light. Oddly enough, the little tomato started ripening right after I re-potted the plant. This little tomato was about 2/3 of an inch across: Here's the plant in it's little pot: The big tomato also had a tomato ripen. (I was out of town all weekend, and ofcourse they started ripening as soon as I wasn't there to see it) Here's the tomato on the plant: Here it is on a little saucer: It's just over an inch across. Here's the whole brutish plant. The roses need to be deadheaded. Also, check out the dragon guarding my little garden (I got him on clearance at Target today) My pepper plant is still very bushy, and *dripping* in peppers: I'm thinking or naming my strawberry plants, "The Rapunzels": Finally, I think I have my very first morning glory/moonflower bud! I don't actually know which.

Does the Church of the Subgenius have ministers?

My take on the whole "the one" matter has always been a bit more pragmatic. (This is also the advice I have always given my friends, though I do at least practice what I preach) In my opinion, the secret to finding a life partner is to remember that all people have faults, and the secret is finding someone whose faults complement your own. My parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in September, and are still very happy and very sweet together. My father is an absent-minded professor who can barely pick out an outfit without help (What do you mean sandals, green socks and white shorts don't go together?) My mother, on the other hand, is a total Virgo control freak (When did I let you buy green socks? Take those off, I'm throwing them away right now!) Under her iron fist, the household runs smoothly, and he doesn't get in her way. I mean, they are also very sweet and caring to each other. Usually pretty respectful and stuff. That, and at least when I was in high school, I know they were still getting it on, and I doubt they've stopped. But the point is, if my mom was with another control freak, they would drive each other nuts. If my dad was with another careless absent-minded type, nothing would get done. They complement each other. I think a lot of times, people think they've hit the jackpot when they find someone who is just like them, but I think it's harder to make that work in the long term.

Yup. Needing reading glasses is caused by the cornea becoming less flexible in your old age. Has nothing to do with the shape of the cornea, and so lasik won't fix it. Although I didn't have extra light sensitivity, my eye doctor still insisted that I live in sunglasses when I'm outside. Honestly, I just don't see that as such a hardship. More than sunlight sensitivity, be aware that there is a chance of losing some of your night vision. In my case, I had really bad starbursting when I wore glasses, because I had to have the high-refractive-index lenses. Now, I have halos around lights at night, but they are actually less of a problem to me than the huge starbursts were before I had surgery.

Valentina's post on the topic of Karma reminded me of a post I had been meaning to write a few months ago on the exact same topic. First, as a bit of introduction. The summer between my junior and senior years of college I fucked up. Part of it was being 20 years old and personally stupid, and part of it was being naiive and not realizing I was being sucked into a vortex of other people's problems. I won't go into details because it was stupid, and anyway, it happened 6 years ago. The drama culminated in the woman involved in the drama threatening to drive to Nashville and shoot me. Fast forward to a couple of months ago, she calls my mother (my parents phone number was on the lease I signed that summer when I rented their house) trying to track me down. My mom won't give her my contact info, but accidentally let slip I was in St Louis. I'm in the phone book, so it was easy to find me. My mom was nice enough to call me and let me know this woman had called. She had told my mom that she needed "closure". (Let me interject that counselors/therapists/well meaning friends who tell people to dig up people from their past and demand "closure" are jackasses. Seriously, what is the point of trying to stir up 6-year-old shit? To re-open old wounds? Seriously, what is the logic?) Anyway, due to the beauty of caller ID, I screened her calls and let the machine take them. They weren't mean or anything, she just wanted an apology. Well, to paraphrase House, you either get to ask for an apology, or you get to threaten to shoot me, you don't get both. And to be perfectly honest, I have nothing to apologize for other than having been 20 years old and attractive. I didn't actually do any of the things she still firmly believes I did. She left three messages, the last one ending with, "I'm not going to call you again, but you know, I believe in Karma" Snort. You know what, me too. I made mistakes, I learned from them. I apologized when appropriate, and grew the hell up. Got less naive and less stupid. And the more I learn from my mistakes, the smoother my life seems to go. Everyone makes mistakes. Karma isn't just about cosmic retribution, it's about learning. It's about getting smacked upside the head with the clue stick if you can't figure it out for yourself. Well, I figured out what I was doing that was stupid, and I fixed it. No need for the clue-by-four. Her, on the other hand... Well, her life has not been so smooth. Some things beyond her control, but by no means all. Seriously, if she wants to dig up 6 year old shit, she can wallow in it all by her lonesome. And honesly, has no right to complain about the stink, since she's the one who dug it up. I wonder why, if she believes so much in Karma, she can't see that the universe might be trying to tell her that her own hunger for drama is stupid. So, yeah. i don't really know where I was going with this, I just wanted to get off my chest how funny I thought it all was...

I had an awesome experience with Lasik. I went from -5.5 in one eye and -6 in the other to 20/20 vision. Not to sound like an infomercial, but it radically changed my life! That said, my parents paid through the nose (it was my college graduation present) to have it done by the top corneal surgeon in the region (coincidentally, he was also our family eye doctor - we had started going to him when his practice was much younger and he hadn't "made a name" for himself yet) Although there are some procedures that go bad that no one could have expected, the rate of problems is *much* lower for surgeons who are more experienced, affiliated with established corneal surgery programs, etc. The $500/eye people who advertise in the paper are *far* more risky. Partially because the conditions aren't the same as having it done in a serious surgical center, and partially because they are less likely to honestly tell you if you are not a good candidate for the procedure. Before I got mine done, I had at least two different apointments where they mapped and measured and re-checked my eyes. My doctor was always very clear with me that if he saw any red flags, that he wasn't going to do the surgery, and would strongly suggest I not go anywhere else. In the end, I was a good candidate, and it went off without a hitch.

I'm going to start with the seriously most spectacular thing in my rarden right now: The runners on my strawberries are putting out runners! My tomato is gi-normous!!! Check out the little green tomatos! And my peppers are looking petty awesome too: Finally, my vines have made it well up and over the railing:

Oh. my. god. Just tell him to start looking for a new job already. Sit him down on his butt with a nice glass of iced tea and Monster.com and make him do it! It's not Mr. Snarky's fault his boss can't manage his way out of a brown paper bag. And as for his coworkers, if they have two brain cells to rub together to make a spark (which I'm assuming they do), they will all also eventually get the hell out of dodge, he doesn't need to worry about them. There is no such thing as a moral obligation to stay in a job that is killing him! That whole waiting until Labor day thing needs to be scrapped, I think colapsing and going to the hospital is a big honking neon sign saying, "start looking NOW!"

I'm sure no one noticed that I'm late with my update this week... And to make it worse, some of the pictures are terribly out of focus. I took these pictures of a bloom on my rose last week - The bloom is about 1.5 inches across: (There are a total of 7 unopened buds on the plants) This are the plants again on sunday. It's blury, like I said, but you can see a bunch of buds opening: See my strawberry plants putting out runners: Although the picture is blury, you can see what a behemoth my tomato plant has become: Finally, my morning glories/moonflowers have made it as high as the railing... I don't expect blooms for another month or so, but I hope once they grow into a space with more sunlight, they'll grow faster:

Oh my god, your flowers are going to be spectacular! (And the rest of your wedding too, of course)

I've been on the forum forever. Like, I joined when it wasn't even bpal.org yet. I have a double-digit member number, and what looks like a ton of posts, but when you spread it out over how long I've been here... Anyway, the forum has gotten huge, and I don't feel like I connect very much anymore. I feel like the bulk of the community (at least the people talking) are students or artists, or whatever. And my spreadsheet-jockey, buisiness-casual lifestyle really doesn't fit in. And the funny thing is, I feel like I used to. Certainly the community has opened up to wholeheartedly embrace all kinds of people, but every thread that bashes private colleges or higher education just turns my stomach. Every thread that dumps on people essentially for having disposable income and then, gasp, spending it! Maybe I'm just being over-sensitive, but I'm not taking away from anyone else by being successful, and the pattern of every time lifestyle/socioeconomic class/income/etc comes up in a thread, the undercurrent is that is is somehow inherently immoral to be well off just irritates the crap out of me. I work hard, have a valuable skill, and made some good choices. I earned my good life. I did not grow up rich. I did not grow up priveledged. We moved to the US when I was a little kid, My dad was a professor at a state college, and my mom was a post-doc. But they worked hard, and I learned a lot about what it takes to "make it." I am not evil. I am envionmentally conscious. I drive a fairly fuel-efficient car, and live close to work so I won't have a crazy commute. I grow vegetables on my balcony. I believe in universal access to health care, and education. I believe in having a social safety net. But I also believe that once you give everyone the same opportunity for success, that's it. People deserve the same opportunities, they don't deserve the same outcomes. Your life is what you make of it. My life is what I made of it too. I don't know what brought this on... Certainly not a specific thread recently... I guess I'm just feeling like I like it a lot better over here on the blog side where the community is a lot smaller, and we're all following each other's lives in a personal way. Over here, I don't feel reduced to a cartoon yuppie. I don't feel like a freak for my "egg brain" I don't feel like I'm making anyone else feel bad about themselves over here, either. Grr.

For those of you that are following the progress of my garden, here are this week's pictures: Please excuse my complete inability to work the autofocus this week. The enormous tomato: (It's a one-plant jungle) I finally did give in and loosely tie the stems to the hanging hook with old knee-highs, since I was starting to feel concerned that the stems were getting *really* heavy. Here's a cluster of little tomatoes: And here's the tomato I showed you guys last week. It's cherry-sized, but instead of being round, it's shaped like a regular tomato! The experimental tomato, however, is still languishing. Not dead, but not really all that alive either: The pepper is taking off, it's covered in buds, and I'm really looking forward to having a huge crop of habaneros in a month or two: The strawberries? The plants look healthy enough, but they are still not growing flowers: Finally, check out my morning glories/moonflowers: (I've made them a trellis out of jute twine) Despite the look of the picture, they are not speeding acoss my balcony at 60mph!

I'm glad to see you posting! After I collapsed in a fit of rant-itude in my blog last week, there was some discussion that there is a lot more personal connecting and getting-to-know you going on over here on the blog side. Obviously, it's no excuse for a real-life social life, but at least it's a venue for some sort of interpersonal connection.

Stomachace? Ooof. My personal psychosomatic symptom of choice is this very specific combination of mild heartburn and heart palpitations. In general, I get this feeling whenever I feel guilty, that I have made a big mistake, let someone down, etc. Unfortunately, I get the exact same symptoms from sudafed or two much caffeine. This results in me having a sudden moments where I have no idea what it is I feel so guilty about, and then I realize I just had too much strong iced tea.

I just changed my ring tone to "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction. #1) It's slow enough to make a good ring tone. I really hate when someone's phone rings something really frenetic #2) I am amused by the idea of having my phone go off in my very conservative office and play a song about heroin addicts. (Not that I think there's anything glamorous about heroin, I don't. The juxtaposition just amuses me.)

It's not even the perpetual arguments about how much people spend on bpal (though those annoy me too - who the hell cares?) I know I said there wasn't a single thing... but that thread in the books forum about the girl who plagerized, how it seemed to degenerate into some kind of bitchfest about how every kid at a private university was a spoiled brat who bought their way in just really left a rotten, nasty taste in my mouth. (Especially in light of that assenine argument I had a few months ago with Bluestar about why mentally retarded people, while valuable members of the human race, were, by definition, not capable of getting a PhD.) I don't know, there just seems to be an ongoing undercurrent of class-based bitterness... Though it may well be just a handfull of bitter people, but sometimes that's all it takes. I also like this description. I have always prefered, in my real life, to have fewer better friends instead of a lot of aquaintances. And the atmosphere over here is a lot more like the social interaction I'm used to. I like it. And, of course, it helps that you guys are actually interesting!

I had too many pictures for one post... Here are my mini roses, I have 5 buds that will be opening in the next week or two. As prissy as they are, the roses are pretty rewarding. I got more indoor plants this week too, I ordered an African Violet from Bluebird Greenhouse - By the way, they are *awesome* - The plants came in beautiful condition, and they sent me a free gift plant! I decided to go with a fancy greenhouse because I didn't want to risk getting a buggy plant from Lowes or Home Depot. This is the one I ordered, Newton Quiet Resolve. I have seen picture's of other people's plants on the web, and this one often has very variagated leaves. Mine aren't showing much in the way of variagation yet, but the plant will be in my office under my flourescent desk lamp 9 hours a day, so the variagation will hopefully become more pronounced. (Check out the one about 1/3 of the way down on this page) This is the free gift, Aca's Passionate. This one is going to live in my bedroom.

My current ringtone is just a really subtle chime, I changed it once when I needed an unobtrusive ringtone and forgot to change it back. I need to find something really fun and funky for my phone... thanks for the inspiration! When I had a phone that only did the beepy monophonic ringtones, I had Bellisima, an electronic track by DJ Quicksilver. In fact, I don't much like the song because the reall song is all beepy, but it translated into a great ringtone.

Awesome!!! Congratulations!