It's Springtime for Hitler and Germany....

Man, what crazy weather we have been having lately. 75 degrees during the day but frost advisories at night. I have been very concerned about putting my seedlings out in the garden. So I've held off.

But then I visited my sister's house and took a look at her seedlings. Dead. Executed. Gave up the ghost. I basked in the glory of my superior seedlings and smugly scolded her on the proper care of baby plants.

The smugness promptly went away today when I realized my seedlings were on their way to doing the same thing. I am guessing that, while I have been holding off on planting because of the weather, they (duh) continue to grow and have been outgrowing their peat pots. And turning yellow. Not getting enough water. In general, giving up the ghost.

So today I did a plant-as-many-seedlings-as-possible-marathon. I found gardening gloves too cumbersome, so I spent two hours gardening without them. Needless to say, my hands feel like sandpaper and I feel like a nitwit.

But the seedlings are in the ground, for the most part, and hopefully will survive. I read that you should expect 25% of your crops to fail in any given year. I think I will exceed that, given the sad looks the tomatoes were giving me today.

It is the four varieties of tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, eggplant and onions that I am most concerned about. My previously planted veggies-mesclun, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, romaine lettuce, spring peas, garlic, broccoli, and that pesky devilish chive gang are coming along nicely.

But I still have corn, squash (summer, zucchini, and spaghetti), pumpkins (white Lumina pumpkins this time-exciting!), and basil to plant. And I am out of room. I need a bigger yard.

My ultimate goal in this life is to have an old farmhouse on several acres, spending my spring and summer gardening and wearing a big, goofy straw hat while I sell my veggies on the side of the road. Fall would be spent canning and preserving and winter making candles, knitting, baking, and planning next year's garden. Whatever "free" time I would have would be spent sitting on a wraparound porch with a glass of lemonade or a mint julep and waiting to swat "trespassers" (which may or may not include relatives) with a cane.

In short, I want to be a tempermental old lady with lotsa vegetables.

But first, the rat race.

I am out of my internship (yay!) and back working at my "real" job. My students were great-some of them designed their own thank you cards (in English!) and others chipped in to throw me a pizza party. While I am grateful for the experience, I look foward to the "relaxation" of only working 40 hours a week.

I will finish my last class in August and will finally "graduate" then. I use quotation marks because I decided I would rather spend the $80 on a nice dinner out with the family than on a cap and gown and I will NOT be walking during graduation. Plus, I wouldn't want Mike to sit through a 3 hour graduation ceremony with a squirmy 2 year old on his lap.

The Frederick Brewer's SpringFest is this weekend-very excited. And it looks like I will be going to Denver next month-home of Flying Dog Brewery and at least two others from what I can tell.

That's 'nuff ramblin' for tonight I think.