Guess what.

I assure you I do have more than three fingers on that hand.

Just a brief comment...

...to note that the weather has finally cooled down! I could actually utilize a blanket last night, and did not wake up completely dehydrated in a pool of sweat. Hallelujah.



Bruce is also pleased with the weather, though he tries his best not to show it.

A mighty triumph.

Ambivalent.



Smug.



Delighted.

Despite my apparent emotional turbulence, I'm actually moderately pleased with how it turned out. I only screwed up a couple of things. The bit where the top part and the skirt are joined together is kind of rugged on the edges, and the buttonhole is terrible, but hey, it's actually finished, and it is recognizably an apron.

Also, the button on the back of the behind-the-head straps is shaped like a fishy.



On the up side, the terrible photo quality partially masks the horror of the buttonhole itself.

Also, what in tarnation does one do with beets?

So I went to the farmers' market this morning and got a ton of stuff, including some pretty and brightly-colored beets, and now I realize that I have no idea how to cook beets. Good thing I like experimenting.

How to complete a sewing project with a cat in the room.

Step 1: Hope the cat's interest does not increase.



Step 2: Curse your naivety.



Step 3: Remove cat to couch, where he will look forlorn.



Step 4: Insert one pin.



Repeat steps 1-4 until cat tires of pincushions and crinkly pattern paper and decides to helpfully cover fabric stash with cat hair.

Step 5: Eat ice cream and/or take nap.

I actually did manage to finish this. I'll take some pictures eventually and post them up to demonstrate my improbable success.

Supper.

I live almost entirely on vegetables and ice cream.

Green things.

Now that it's spring (and I'm no longer living in terror of frostbite), the Minneapolis Farmers' Market is up and running. I went last weekend for the first time, and it was fairly interesting, but just a tad intimidating. Here in Minnesota, the locals are so starved for amusement apparently that the farmers' market is the next best thing to a carnival, so it's pretty much thronged with people and baby carriages and street musicians and food stands (roasted sweet corn is apparently the big thing here) in addition to the actual produce and so forth. So it's crazy and scary.

But I went! Alas, last weekend was a little early for things to really be growing, so all the vegetables I came back with were some chives and scallions, which went on top of pretty much everything I ate this week. I've been making up excuses to bake potatoes so that I could load them up with sour cream and chives. Amazing, I must say.

So, the vegetables were lacking, but there were plenty of people there selling plants, and I got talked into buying some little herb plants. I mean, really, four for five dollars? How could I go wrong? Turns out it was more like thirty dollars, after buying pots and potting soil and various other plant-growing accessories - it turns out plants don't really care to stay in those tiny little plastic cubes. Apparently they also enjoy feeding off of dried blood, which makes me feel a little nervous about having them at the foot of my bed. But still, now I have some pretty little herbs on my windowsill, and Bruce hasn't touched them, and they are still alive one week later. Now hopefully they'll actually grow, since I'd like to actually eat them.


Just to prove that I do, in fact, have plants. The oregano, spearmint, and basil all seem to be doing well, but apparently half of the rosemary is dying. I do not understand. The other half is just dandy.

Be sure to note also my ghetto pot in the middle. I bought the long planter thing and realized when I got home that it had no drainage holes in the bottom, so I punched some holes in, only to then realize that I had nothing to put under it to keep it from leaking everywhere. So I found a shoe box of approximately the correct size and lined it with a plastic bag so the water wouldn't seep through. Attractive? Perhaps not. Resourceful? Uh, maybe it would've been easier to just buy a better pot, but, um, sure!

So today I went back to the market and there were actual vegetables! I walked away with a great big bag of spinach and some parsnips. I have no idea how to cook parsnips or what they taste like, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. There was also a guy selling cheese - I bought some of his smoked gouda out of obligation after eating a bunch of his samples. I got some free-range (hopefully nuclear orange) eggs, too, and maple syrup from Wisconsin. It was a pretty good haul today.


No journey is complete without photographic proof.

I think tomorrow I'm going to wake up to a nice omelette filled with smoked cheese and spinach. Or hell, maybe I'll just have that for supper.