Sunday marked the two year anniversary of Registration Day for Mike and me. It’s only fitting it took 731 days to finally get around to being branded, er, banded. I actually had no idea it was coming and was pleasantly surprised.

We further celebrated with some homemade crab soup, being the first time we’ve made it in approximately seven years (it’s crazy expensive and labor intensive). We also made some french bread, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

Despite his insistence he didn’t buy me flowers, on Saturday, we did plant some dianthus, torenia, and curcuma in our Normandy planters that we recently painted. Curcuma is new to me and I’m loving it. Exotic, tropical, and allegedly a fast spreading rhizome. Zone 8b is the life for me. Ok! The instant I begin typing like a garden pirate, it’s time to go. I will leave you with some pics of said flowers…yarrr.

Planters
Closer Look at the Planter

Wandering various corners of teh interwebz today, I checked into one of the only twitter feeds I follow, Shawz15er, and now have a new object of desire (not Andrew Shaw) THIS: –

WANT. WANT. WANT. Anyone got a spare $65k for me?

We have a volunteer plant growing in our side yard that we are unable to identify. Not knowing what it is has annoyed me enough to bring it up here in hopes that one of you keen-eyed or green-thumbed readers can help me out.

The side yard is about a 3 foot alleyway between my neighbor’s house and ours, but it is about 90% our actual property. It’s mostly overgrowth, and unfortunately, more greenbriar than I care to admit. (I hate you greenbriar!). Mystery Plant showed up about a year or two ago and we cut it down at least twice. When it started to come back again this spring we let it go to see what happens. It’s current height is about six feet tall and not very wide, maybe about two feet at most. It is growing up one main stalk and doesn’t seem to be branching off much (yet?). The colors in the pics are close to real life. The leaves are very waxy and smooth. It gets some shade, but lots of summer sun. It never droops even on the hottest days. Hope some of this info helps. We really want to know what it is, and if it is worth keeping, or if we need to hack it down before it eats our shed or something invasive like that.

In good garden news, the pampas grass we planted a few years ago has finally pamped. It was getting annoying because the two plants we had grew very big (even after a major cut back this spring) but wouldn’t go to seed, the coolest part of pampas grass. I now see this plant is one of those that needs to mature a bit before reproducing, like fruit trees. (Novel concept, eh, humans?).

In my inbox yesterday, I received an invitation to the Class of 1994, 20-Year High School Reunion. F*&^ me. Really? 20 years? The TimeGods are messing with me.

Of course, somethings haven’t changed since 1994. I’m still a sarcastic, jaded representative of Gen X, and therefore, obviously, I will not be attending any reunions. Most of the people from high school that I wanted to stay in touch with I have, thanks to connecters like FB. A reunion of the whole school isn’t all that necessary, although one of just my friends would be a blast, but I don’t see any of us organizing such an event.

In looking at the guest list for my school, I don’t recognize most of the people on there, even with pictures. The idea of going back to my home town sort of wigs me out, anyway. I have a healthy disconnect from Illinois that I’d prefer to maintain.

Regardless, I get a bit nostalgic for the good memories of those years. They were times of so many firsts, so many lasts, so many absolutes. Paths were laid on my brain that will forever effect me. I am especially and forever grateful to the bestest BFF anyone could have had (Kisov!). I could have never survived those years without you, my dear ginned-up Cheese. The Fun…Starts Here.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a Canadaphile, so this being their day and all, I have used it as a good excuse to celebrate all things Canadian. If it wasn’t for the shit weather, I’d of moved there years ago (please don’t try to convince me that SW BC is ok because it doesn’t get much snow or below zero temps. If it’s not tropical, I can’t live there).

I started the day by listening to one of my two Less Than Kind mixes. Lunchtime was Neil Young’s Unplugged (remember the MTV Unplugged series, kids?), with a Good Ol Hockey Game thrown in there for fun. I foresee watching a few episodes of Corner Gas this evening after work. For those of you keeping count – 100 days until the opening of the 2014 NHL season (101 days for the Blackhawks).

Cheers to all of my ancestors who hailed from Canada (which is actually quite a few), and of course, to my friends up in the Great White North. Now, I just have to figure out where I can get poutine around here.