Thanks! I hope my kids continue this trend.

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I spent the rapture gardening, which is always cathartic. I planted a bunch of organics to replace the plants that went to shit after our weird cold snap: peppermint, chocolate mint (which I had never seen before and smells amazing), italian parsley, sweet basil, and I repotted the surviving sage.

For flowers I did red and purple petunias and orange impatiens. I also put in a big aloe plant. I trimmed back the rose bush I planted last summer and counted 11 new buds. I also trimmed the icelandic poppies and weeded the front yard. I hate weeding.

Then I made supper: barbecue chicken, and BLT pasta salad with tomatoes, cucumber, chives, and bacon crumbles.

I'm starting garlic chives and green onions from seed, tomorrow morning. I never thought of myself as much of a gardener, but there it is.

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I love herb gardens.

I talked to Owen's teacher yesterday. They're finishing year end reading assessments. To be at grade level, Owen needed to be at 18. He scored at 44. And the only reason she didn't keep going is that the subject matter of the next set of reading was about 8th graders writing essays.

I think our summer project is going to be learning computer programming.

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Ooooh, chocolate mint! I should plant some of that.

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Jilli, it's making the whole balcony smell sweet and minty and sort of creamy. It's amazing. I have no idea what to do with it. I was thinking it might be nice to add a few leaves to iced coffee.

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For the record, I'm agreeing entirely with Allyson and have never been brave enough to say it.

Anyone who wants some frakking mint can come and harvest mine. Take it all; in two days it'll all be back again. The delightfully fragrant stuff just WILL NOT DIE. It is a zombie plant.

I am cackling in glee over Owen's reading prowess.

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Chocolate mint in mojitos! Also in fruit salads!

Speaking of mojitos, Jilli, what do you think about the violet balsamic?

Oh, tornado sirens going off! It's south of us, though; looks like Baldwin City got hit. Damn. But I don't go into the basement till I can see a funnel.

All the pets are indoors, and we have candles and lighters to hand. Freaky upstairs cat would go into a pillowcase and then to the basement, where the carriers are. The rest are easy to get downstairs.

But it's really south. We'll be fine; I'm a little worried about my girlfriend who lives in Olathe, though.

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Jilli, it's making the whole balcony smell sweet and minty and sort of creamy. It's amazing. I have no idea what to do with it. I was thinking it might be nice to add a few leaves to iced coffee.

I would add it to fizzy water or iced tea. Or just eat the leaves.

Erin, the violet balsamic is FANTASTIC. I haven't tried the violet mojitos recipe yet, 'cos the antibiotic I'm on for the Lyme disease means I shouldn't drink. But it is fabulous in fizzy water, and over strawberries.

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Holy shit, Jilli. I was unaware you had Lyme. I just wrote an essay about my old neighbor's experience with Lyme and what happened when she tried to treat it with raw bison liver and meditation.

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and somewhat on the left, but the political effects of that are nowhere near as bad

Anti-science attitudes don't have to be political to be harmful - antivax activism kills more people than creationism.

OMG, was reading a Washington post parenting chat, and the "expert" was antivax!! I just about plotzed.

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