My May flowers

My plants are growing!! For the longest time I thought that I had a brown thumb, brown as in the color my plants turned after a few weeks. I think my issue wasn't the lack of attention but rather the over abundant suffocating care, aka "love", that I literally poured into my plants day in and day out. About a year after I moved to DC I decided to try again. I got my peace lily and Christmas cactus at Home Depot when my friends and I went to pick out a Christmas tree. I did a little research and they seemed to be pretty fool proof plants; great for my low gardening self-esteem. Time went on, and the next Christmas my cactus was in bloom! I took this as an official sign of success, and a sign that I should buy another plant. This time I wanted to get a plant that had some color year-round. I opted for an African violet. Luckily I asked the clerk about its care before I left because African violets HATE to get water on them. What makes them happy is to slurp the water up from underneath. I would say my African violet is my favorite little sprout, and I am very proud at its current bloom! Once we got away from the nasty chlorine saturated DC water it seemed to do a lot better.

My Aunt Donna is well known for her landscaping back home. Each Spring her immaculate lawn and large, southern porch transform into a place out of the book The Secret Garden. Although I don't have a yard to plant things in, she has inspired me to get some pretty blossoms to keep my other plants company. I can only hope that I become half the master gardener that she is.

I also wanted to start an herb garden. Right now I have mint, basil, and oregano. We'll see if I can keep these alive and have unlimited mint juleps and Italian food for the summer. I also planted poppies! Poppies were EVERYWHERE when Kavan and I went to Cali last year. I can't wait to see them here in Boston! :)

Let the games begin!

This past weekend was action packed! The 137th Kentucky Derby was on Saturday at Churchill Downs.  First thing after Zumba I headed off to Trader Joes to get mint for mint juleps, my favorite drink :-9  A few hours out, and I already had my pink seersucker skirt on and mint julep in hand.  Ahhhhh, home....

Ever since Meredith won $100 on a $2 bet, I've tried to make it a point to bet on the race.  I ended up missing the online post time by 2 minutes!! Who has a post time over 2 hours before the race?! Luckily, this twist of fate was in my favor, neither Dialed In nor Stay Thirsty showed at the race. I thought the story behind the winner, Animal Kingdom, was really cool though.  The jockey was originally on the initial favorite, but that horse ended up scratching.  He then picked up Animal Kingdom a few days before the race after the horse trompled the nose of its first jockey. Only a few days of riding on a new horse and he managed to win the Derby! Now that's talent!

On Sunday, I managed to snag tickets to see the Twins game at Fenway.  It was an early birthday present for Kav and a nice breather from the intense studying he's been doing.  The Twins ended up losing 9 to 4, but we had a great time nonetheless.  Plus I got some pretty cool pictures to boot.

Youk-got what I neeeeeed

It's always nice seeing Span do well.

Maybe Kav's autograph will be worth something someday ;)