I'm convinced of this. We lost power during Irene because of me. Theseus is a little bit responsible, too.

It started about a month ago, when I misplaced my wedding ring. (!)
     

All of these things happened this week! (the tomato was happening for some time, actually)
     

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give this year's garden a 4: a 6 for effort and a 2 for results. So, a 4.

That's not good (let's face it, it's pretty terrible), but I've made peace with it. We really didn't know what we were doing, and we went about a lot of things the wrong way. I wasted $74 in heirloom seeds and only have some starchy corn and a few sad bell peppers to show for it. All the zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes that produced decently were all purchased at Home Depot after the heirloom seedlings failed.

Some of the major failures, and their reasons (as far as I can tell):
- pumpkins: squash vine borer
- acorn squash: squash vine borer
- hubbard: squash vine borer
- crooknecks: squash vine borer
- butternut: squash vine borer
- zucchini: eventually, yes, squash vine borer
- cucumbers: fertilizer burn/possibly squash vine borer
- watermelon: (unknown)
- potatoes: blight (wish I were kidding)
- eggplant: unknown tiny black beetles
- cabbage: unknown beetles
- strawberries: overcome by weeds/apathy
- sweet peas: swift death, reasons unknown
- peppermint: (unknown)
- soy beans: (unknown)
- heirloom tomatoes: possibly bad gardening soil/unknown
- celery: overcome by weeds/apathy

Really, it's a good thing we weren't trying to live off the garden. It became, unfortunately, a novelty - try this salsa we made with the (Home Depot) cherry tomatoes! - rather than a reliable source of food.

But the more I read (I've been reading a lot about gardening lately), the less sad about it I feel. It would be like trying to make a shirt or a pair of pants without ever bothering to learn how to sew properly. Sure, I could cut some fabric and crudely stitch the pieces together into something vaguely resembling an article of clothing, but it wouldn't be very good, and it wouldn't be very reliable. This was my (our) garden this year. So how can I feel bad when, really, things grew in spite of us, not because of us? It was all wrong from the very beginning. I should eat our (severely over-salted) pickles and be happy to have them.

Next year will be different. Although this year was a near-total fail (rating it a 4 is being generous, in truth), I will always think of it with a mix of fondness and frustration. Why didn't I pick up a damn book sooner?!

So, I'm 26 now.

Yuck.

:(

We had an exciting weekend! And it all involved food. Hmm, I'm sensing a trend...

Friday night Theseus returned from the grocery store with supplies to make our own ice cream. He bought me an ice cream maker for my birthday two years ago that we had never used, which we placed in the kitchen sink and put to work. Thirty minutes later: homemade vanilla ice cream! It was incredibly good. I say was, because it didn't last long enough to be photographed. He added it to peach flambé and whipped cream (also homemade). It was divine. Next time he wants to try a mocha chocolate chip, but I think the citrus orange recipe from our ice cream maker's website looks really yummy. And now you know we made 2 quarts of ice cream and ate it all in less than 3 days. Don't judge us!
    

Some things I did today:

- Played Rock Band with my office-mates at lunch
- picked two acorn squash
- found a recipe for salsa made from cherry tomatoes
- read 5 poems by Robert Frost
- listed my Bio texbook and Theseus' Anthropology textbook on Amazon
- immediately sold my Bio textbook (woo hoo!!)
- tried to soothe a very angry baby for two hours

Some things Theseus did today:

- washed a billion cherry tomatoes in preparation for yummy salsa
- took his PreCalculus final
- made some delicious moo shu vegetables with soba noodles
- found a watermelon growing in the garden!
- signed the baby up for daycare in the fall (two days a week) :(
- was awesome. all day.