Brown thumb (literally. figuratively?)

All last summer, I sat at work and read the Greengirls (then just Greengirl) blog at work and thought, "I wish I could garden."

Today, I went all Dead Poets Society ("Seize the Day!") and Fame ("No day like today!") and stopped by a roadside garden stand and bought 7 pots of herbs to start my own deckside garden.

They are:
--Cilantro
--Tri-color sage
--Hot Peppers
--Orange mint
--Basil
--Chives
--Thyme

I wanted to get bay leaves, but I couldn't find them at the center. They are all full sun herbs and I have a nice sunny spot to plant them on my porch.

But one more pop culture reference: "I'm so excited! I'm so excited!...I'm so scared." (Saved by the Bell) I have not had good luck with plants. My mom said all I need is some attention, but I swear it is not just my lack of attention: I must have plant killer running in my veins. I killed an ALOE plant. Of course, that's because it fell when I was transporting it to move here, but an aloe plant? easiest thing ever.

Friday is my off day, so I am off to Home Depot (or should I go to Lowe's? We have both...) to get some planters, potting dirt and a cute little watering can to make it even more fun. And then this summer? Fresh cilantro in my guacamole and chicken curry and omlettes; mojitos and tea made from my fresh mint; fresh pesto from my basil and fresh chives for my potatoes.

Unless I kill them all first. eep!

taunting

Curse my window.

During the 2.5 years of my last job, I was upset at NOT having a window, besides these slits near the ceiling that let us know if it was raining/snowing/sun had set, etc. I complained that without natural light, I would wither and die, or at least be depressed.

But now having a window is making me depressed. It's like spring is taunting me all up in my face with this gorgeous weather, sunshine, light breeze, blue skies. It's all "doncha wish your environment was hot like me, doncha wish your environment was a breeze like me, doncha (doo doo doo doo) doncha (doo doo doo doo)."

musical interludes aside, I'm getting very distracted with outside-porn images of me frolicking in the sunshine, riding a bike, walking around, breathing outside air.

But instead I am huddled under a blanket (note: WHY do people feel the need to blast a/c the second it gets a little warm? seriously, enjoy the nicer weather, since you spent all winter kvetching about how cold it is), typing away about how great the towns down here are.

Because the towns are outside and I'm not, nanner nanner boo boo.

Day 76 without bucket.

LOLRUS link above. Trust me on this.

Today is my 7th day without TV. No, this is not some big social experiment to see how much of my life I can reclaim without TV, it's called "something happened to my cable and I haven't had it solved yet." Though, I do get ready faster in the morning without TV, but the rest of the time I waste on internets anyways.

Last night I picked up sushi at the local grocery store and ate it on my front porch steps as the sun set. I like living bayside so I can still see the sun set over water. That's pretty cool. The nice weather makes me want to spend lots of time outside, but then the sun sets and it gets cold and that's when I miss my TV.

Good thing I have lots of DVDs to keep me entertained. Though I am slowly running out of ones to watch...to the library!

I want to eat Shruti's trash

Today I had a little private showing of West Side Story in my front yard.

This morning I heard all these seagulls outside my house at around 7:30 a.m. I looked out the window and it was all these black-headed seagulls screeching at white seagulls. A turf war! I couldn't see if they had anything or were fighting over something.

But when I stepped outside, I realized what happened. Last night I had guests for a grill party on my awesome deck. That translated to a lot of trash in my garbage bin. My friend kindly took out the trash for me, but forgot to put the lid back on the trash can.

So the seagulls picked, pecked, clawed, whatever it is that seagulls do, through the garbage bag, scattering paper plates, empty bags and leftover, squishy, grilled tomatos (which are really good basted with olive oil and garlic, trust me).

Note to self: never forget to put the lid on the garbage can again.

(P.S. sorry its been a week, I had some bad news Monday and it took up the rest of my week. Plus I didn't feel like writing.)

Lies I told

I totally lied to you guys because I promised to tell you what potachos were on Friday, and here it is Monday and you STILL don't know.

Like all good liars, I have an excuse. This weekend was GOR-GE-OUS and any time spent in front of a computer was a total waste of time (aka work on Sunday.)

So what are potachos?
Like nachos, thick potato chips, covered with cheddar, bacon, tomatoes, onions, ketchip and chives with sour cream. In other words, perfection. They were just as delicious as anything with bacon can and should be. Forget how strange they sound and fly/drive to New Brunswick and eat them!

So let's get back to this past weekend thing. What a taste of life to come. Though, life to come will probably be considerably warmer than this, the idea of eating lunch in a sunspot on my back porch, grilling dinner, having a beer on my front porch and leaving all the windows open is definitely part of my future.

Of course, its only a taste as its going to rain the rest of the week, but I do plan on grilling again on Saturday (and tonight for that matter), so I hope it stops raining.

In more other news, this was one of those weekends where I loved my job. First I went to the top of Forked River "mountain" (its more like a tall hill), which is a private area. It was beautiful. Then I went in a rescue boat in a lagoon for a water drill.

Here are a few views from this weekend:

Diversity

This weekend I am heading to New Brunswick for my book club meeting and then to the city to meet with some friends. Since Friday is my day off and I'll already be in Central/North Jersey, I think I'm going to drop by Edison, N.J.

People here always recommend Edison to me as an Indian spot and seem surprised that I already know about it. Are you kidding? Growing up in Minnesota, I knew all about Edison and Jackson Heights (and Devon Ave. in Chicago, but that was closer to home) and all these other "mini-Indias." It seemed mythical and awesome to me at the same time. New Jersey! Crawling with desis! Indian publications in mainstream media! Indian advertisements in train stations!

What I never realized is how big of a state this small state is. I wrote earlier about the subsections of New Jersey and how distinct they are from one another. Part of that is that the majority of this huge Indian population is clustered around major metropolitan areas, like North/Central Jersey (aka NYC) or Cherry Hill (aka Philadelphia). In a sense, I am even more cut-off from the Indian population than I was in Minnesota.

I've always been a little behind on movies/music/styles from Indian, especially compared to my East Coast cousins, but without occasionally overhearing the Hindi satellite my grandpa watches at home or going to Desi parties where they are spinning the latest music and someone just came back from the "motherland," I am REALLY behind on things.

All of this is because I watched a movie yesterday which, up until a few weeks ago, i thought was fairly new. When I mentioned it to my (Dobbs Ferry-dwelling) aunt, she was like "oh that's not new, we saw it in the theater months ago."

oops.

I might try to do a better job of keeping up, but I also don't necessarily care that much about the music/movie/style aspect. I guess that is the only aspect that is lacking because I am keeping up on the more pertinent (and intellectual) issues via blogs that I frequently read.

But damn, I love me some Bollywood music.

Flooding, the end

The flooding is pretty much gone except for some reason when I came home tonight at midnight it was slightly flooded again.

Tonight I worked on election results. I find it so odd that voters vote on budgets, only because I am not used to it. In Minnesota school funding is mostly through a per pupil formula that is a combination of state and local monies. Voters don't vote on their local tax impact because its all combined in that per pupil formula...but this means enrollment is really important to schools!
What is voted upon by voters are operating referendums for when districts want more money for teachers, staff, programs and bond referendums for facilities like new wings or such.

I have no idea how NJ finance works.

inothernews, here is something funny. I am watching the songs for a Hindi movie and one of the songs says "Wanna dance all night," but they mixed the Hindi and the English and just put the word for dance in Hindi. Well that word is naach so it sounds like they are saying "Wanna nacho night" when they sing it. Why yes, I do want a nacho night.

But what is a potacho? Check here Saturday to find out!