I’m really just testing out how stuff works on my mac… here’s a picture of our garden. And the top of Tim’s head. Hi, Tim!

Please don’t freeze tonight, garden.

Well, hello!  I thought I’d swing by the ol blog for a quick update.  Pardon me, but I’m going to do this bullet style, as I have a bunch of unconnected stuff to say, and a headache. Also, it is nearly 10:00 PM. So basically this is what I’ve been up to since Wednesday…

• Wednesday, the kids and I drove into Elko (2 hour drive) to go hang out with Tim (he had that work class there and had been gone since Monday night), and just to get out of town.  Elko isn’t an exciting town but they’ve got a little more to offer than Winnemucca, so we had fun.  They have a really neat park and we found an excellent new restaurant there that serves Pho. YESSSS!! Also, they have a Starbucks. SCORE.  We stayed in a dive motel with crappy uncomfy beds.  We came home Friday morning.

• Saturday (um… yesterday) we did our garden. Finally.  We planted peas (yes, I still hate peas. Thought they’d be fun for the kids though), broccoli, bell peppers, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, potatoes, onions, and garlic.  It also snowed yesterday a little bit.  IT SNOWED.  ON MAY 22ND.  Let’s just say that I am not setting my hopes too high on the garden this year.

• Also, yesterday, I went to the doctor.  I’ve been having an ongoing sore throat ever since I was sick (which was more than a month ago, if you don’t recall.). And it’s a really weird sore throat, it is really far down, centralized in one small area, and like it feels tight and almost like there is something caught in there that is rubbing.  He thinks that maybe it’s drainage from allergies, inflaming the bottom part of my tonsils or something else in my throat, far enough down that it’s not visible in an exam.  He prescribed me Allegra with a decongestant and I am to take it for a couple of weeks and see if it gets better.  If not, he will refer me to an ENT and I get a scope put up my nose and down my throat. SO, let us all hope it is allergy related because, EW.

• I’ve decided that I am going to run 5k.  Not, like, for an event or a race or anything.  Just because I want to.  So I’ve been working on that.  My goal is to get the whole thing done in 30 minutes. Right now, I am walking 2 minutes and running 2 minutes for the first two miles, and then power walking the last mile and it is fricking hard. 3 miles in 30 minutes seems almost impossible but I know that I can work up to it. So I’m running every other day.  I’m also still doing 30 Day Shred every other day.

• TODAY, we decided, spur-of-the-moment, to go to Reno and buy a new computer. (Because, remember? Mine was crap?) Anyway, after talking it over and asking some friends about it, I gave in and we decided to go with the imac.  We actually just set it up about an hour ago, so I’m totally not used to it yet. I can’t wait to play around on it a little more and see what I can do.

So anyway, that’s it for now.  Please pardon the mundane post.  I’m boring tonight.

I am so excited to get my garden going this year!  It’s almost time, too.  They say, around here, that it’s safe to get started after Mother’s Day.  I was just sitting down today, going over seed/plant catalogs.  We have some work to do, the area needs to be tilled up and we need to add a good amount of quality soil, because the dirt is super fine sand out here.  We need to get it fenced in, also, since it’s just off what will become the kids play yard.  But I can almost taste the still sun-warm ripe cherry tomatoes fresh off the vine… oh man.  And we’re planting some berry bushes this year for the first time ever!

Ok, if you haven’t ever had a lemon cucumber, you need to.  I’ve never seen one in the store here, but maybe you live in a more produce-friendly area.  But last year, our friends grew them and gave some to us… WOW!  Now, I’m not the cucumber’s biggest fan, ya’ll.  I really do not care for them all that much- but a lemon cucumber?  I can pretty much eat those suckers like apples.  Except, I try not to, because they’re even better when you slice them really thin and put them with sliced tomato, sliced fresh mozz, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic, and some salt and pepper. It’s like a caprese salad, only better (yeah, I didn’t know caprese salads got any better either!)

So, really, between tomatoes and lemon cucs, I don’t really need anything else in my garden.  But of course, I’m going to try to grow some other things.  Hailey’s requested that I try growing broccoli- yeah, a four year old that loves broccoli… strange…  and she asked if I can do asparagus- we will see about that one.  Keegan has asked for carrots.  Pumpkins will be fun, and those sweet peas that the kids can eat fresh out of the garden (you know how I feel about peas…).  Peppers are a must, and onions.  And I think I’m going to give some Yukon golds a go, they’re my favorite potato.  I was thinking of doing beets but I recently discovered that my family does not like fresh beets.  I, personally, think they’re all nuts because roasted beets are delicious!  Also, they made my pee purple for a whole day, which was really cool.  (Was that TMI?  Sorry… it was cool though!)

What are your favorite things to grow in your garden, and why?