I wish every week could be like the last

It was so wonderful to have Leo here last week. Best birthday gift a girl could ever get. I picked him up at the airport Sunday morning, and we got to spend the day together relaxing and catching up. I miss him so much when we are apart.

Highlights of the week:

-Monday was my 23rd birthday, and after a harrowing final in the morning, I got to go out to dinner with Leo, Gabby, Charlie, Stephanie, Angela, and Alisha. It was so much fun. I'm lucky to have so many great people in my life.

-Wednesday we had dinner with my folks and grandma, so I got to extend my birthday a couple days longer :)

-Thursday we woke up before dawn and headed to Salem for St. Patrick's day. It was perfect. We saw our old professors, and got to go to our favorite bar with old friends for St. Paddy's. I may have had a few jello shots too many, but it was a great night. I was so happy to see so many of my college friends, and I think Leo was pretty thrilled to be there too. Loved our cheap hotel too- nice hot tub.

-Saturday morning we cuddled, went out to breakfast, and prepared to say goodbye for another couple months.

This is where the plot thickened. Somehow, for some reason, Leo's flight was delayed long enough to cause the missing of his connecting flights, and through some ridiculous airline runaround, they couldn't get him out until Monday, and then only to Phoenix. For me, this was wonderful- I love any time I can get. For him, this meant missing an observation day in his classroom, as well as a day of classes. Not good at all. I really wished he could get on an earlier connection, and honestly, I don't understand how the airline made him wait two days to get to the wrong city in perfect weather conditions. It is spring break, so I imagine that increased the number of people flying out dramatically, but that is no excuse.

Despite that pretty huge disappointment (missing class is a big deal in a PhD program, as well as missing a teaching observation), Leo rallied, and we enjoyed our two extra days together. We played pool, and finally managed to beat an arcade game we first played in January (at a ridiculous cost in quarters). We relaxed Sunday night and watched Crazy Heart, a good movie about a washed up country singer finding some meaning in life.

Today I took him back to the airport, and he's on the trip back to Tucson. I feel so bad for all the nonsense he's going to have to go through, getting back from Phoenix by rental car. My day should be much more relaxed, as I just started spring break. I'm going to ride Starla, pick up a kombucha mother, and work on my garden, then head up to Mville to give my folks back their car.

I've transplanted most of the tomatoes to bigger pots. I was wildly successful growing them, and will have close to thirty tomato plants. I moved the swiss chard outside, and this week I will be planting beets outside, as well as carrots and starting more swiss chard outside. I started a herb medley inside (this could go horribly awry, as it is the Ed Hume gourmet mix, which includes chives, parsley, thyme, basil, and any number of other things. I won't really know what I have til the plants get big enough to differentiate). I'm going to start the cucumbers indoors this week as well. Hopefully, I'll get a great harvest this summer. I should have chard, beets, and carrots in May, if not sooner. At that point my tomatoes can go outside, as can my cucumbers. I'll plant more bean seeds next month too. Looking forward to posting pictures once I have my deck set up all complete.



I got great birthday presents in relation to my deck garden too! A book on what plants to grow together, a sun hat, gloves, giant pots, and gift cards. Looking forward to getting everything going this week. There should also be hiking and yoga on the map. Plus, I get to start kombucha this week. I'm picking up the mother tonight, and will start brewing Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll post pictures of that as well, once I have everything set up. Should take a little over a week to get the results I want, so by the first week of school I'll have my first trial batch. Ugh, school. I don't want to think about that, though I need to get at least 20, preferably more, hours of internship done this week. I'll let you know in my next post what I actually accomplished this week coming. Now I think I'm going to head out to the barn, and then prep my cucumber starts!