Chilli Cookoff

My company has had some personnel changes and we have a new President. Another co-worker of mine thought it would be a good idea to welcome him to CA with a Chili Cook-off... I am so excited (I hope my chili wins)

Here's my starter recipe "Ultimate Vegetarian Chili" (that I have of course tweaked a bit - tastes so good AND when I tested it for my honey's family - they finished the pot off - perfect)

I hope everyone enjoys this event and I hope the potluck sides portion goes well too.

So excited that I'm up way to early.

Well

I've nearly killed them all a couple of times.

Left them on the porch ledge on a nice calm morning, only to have 3 of them pick up wind later in the day and crash to the ground 2 stories down.

Varying degrees of wilting, the worst on our surprise hot day earlier this week.

Basil bounces back the best, Cilantro the worst.
Chives are even hanging in fairly well.
Mint has been doing nicely and may even need a transplant here shortly.
Sage I'm having trouble keeping at the right soil moisture, the dirt its potted in lets water flow through too fast, overnight water soak helps, but I'm not sure how much is too much.

But so far so good.

How does my garden grow

I have no idea.

I got the brown mug of baby roses for Valentines day - roses died (forgot to water) but the plant still has life in it and I'm trying to be more dilligent.

The rest we bought this past weekend at Costco - 3 Basil, 2 Cilantro, 1 Chive, 1 Mint & 1 Sage... we'll see if I can keep them alive.

Not so sure though - last night when I got home one of the basils was really wilted - watered it lots and it looks ok this morning, so maybe it'll be ok. (picture taken this morning)

Apartment Approvements

Scott says we're old now, because of the things which excite us.

I'm so happy that I finally have a china hutch - you see the china and crystal has been in storage for 7 years now - it finally gets freedom.

We bought it earlier this week and I had it put together, and loaded up before going off to bed that night. The fallout was a big storage corner of boxes, plus the packaging materials all over the place. Lots of trash to be cleaned out, and many other boxes relocated

We also bought (just today) a freezer, the one we have in our fridge was just way to small to be worth much more than an ice machine.

His parents helped us today with truck and muscle to get the freezer in. They also brought us a barbecue - just a little one, but perfect for us here.


We also recently got frames for some posters - his favorite movie:


And just because it's my blog and I can - here's some of my favorite art...
this one needs a home yet: (in case you can't tell - it's Yoda, knitting, fore a sign that reads "Home Sweet It Is")


And these hang in our hallway - pictures of my parents and I when I was still an only child...