Sprout!!!

Woohoo!! We have a sprout. I know it's not much, but it's a start. That is all really, more updates to come. Enjoy.

-Steven

Our First Netflick...

Is that considered the singular form of NetFlix? Oh well, we recently signed up and our first movie came in yesterday. It is....(drumroll sound here)...The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson. It has been quite enjoyable so far, then again, we have only watched about the first 30 minutes. What I can tell you is that it is the usual Wes Anderson humor.

Other Movies of Interest:
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Sorry, back to NetFlix. This, so far, seems to be a great idea. We were never really big movie watchers, but then again, this service seems to take all the hastle out of renting a movie. Just que up a few movies online that you would like to watch, wait a few days, pick up your mail, watch, return and start the process over again. Pretty simple and convenient if you ask me.

-Steven

Tomato Plants...the beginning

As many of you may (or may not) know, we recently decided to start growing our own herbs to use here at the house. Nothing major, just the usual. Basil, oregano, parsley (which didn't quite make it), mint and thyme. To our surprise, those took off fairly well (with the exception of the previously mentioned parsley). Fast forward a few weeks. Heather and I are at Whole Foods getting stuff to make guacamole for a party and we picked up a few heirloom tomatoes (wikipedia has a much better explanation of what they are exactly here) to chop up and put in the dish. As we got to the register, our prized little red globes rang up to around $8. Wow! Two tomatoes at about $4 each, even with my discount this is pretty pricey. That launched me into the quest to grow our own tomatoes from these heirloom seeds.

Step 1: Collect and Prepare the seeds
Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this for you guys. It was quite the interesting process. First you salvage the seeds from whatever pulp you don't use, place them in a container, add a little water, stir, set in a warm place and wait. For three days. Seriously. Then, after a nice layer of mold/scum builds up on top you scrape that off, add a little more water and stir (again). At this point the "good" seeds settle to the bottom and all that is left to do is remove what's left. Now you are left with seeds and a little mush that is hanging on, which is washed off with the help of a fine mesh sieve. At this point you should have just seeds (which we did) which are to be spread out on a paper towel and dry for about 3 days. Total time invested: about one week

Step 2: Gather the seeds
This step is a little less involved, just collect the dried seeds and place in an envelope for easy transport. "Make sure to label the envelope", they all said, I'm sure I'll get around to it soon.

Step 3: Plant the seeds
This part is what I'm sure most of you think of when you think of planting tomatoes. I went to a local garden center, picked up some seed starter soil. Which, on a side note, apparently dirt is no longer just dirt, they actually have soil that has been blended for all types of specific purposes. Weird, I know. Also, when I decided to start this project, I had the foresight (which is unusual for me) to save a couple of egg crates to start the seeds in. I added a bit of this patented organic seed starting soil to the bottom of each little egg holder, and carefully placed 3-4 seeds in there. On top of this, you guessed it, more patented organic seed starter soil, with a little water just for good measure. Then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap, to create your own little green house and there you go, done. Tomato plants in no time. Well, not quite. There is the continued watering and maintenance, just to make sure local critters don't completely disturb our new little plants.

Step 4: Wait...
Yeah, pretty much self explanatory, I'll keep you updated on any happenings.

-Steven