I Love the Dentist.

So, I thought I'd divert attention from the ALL GARDEN ALL THE TIME blog that this has turned into lately by redirecting the focus toward my "I'm an adult so I can do whatever I want" attitude that I developed today.

Do you ever have one of those moments where you're faced with a choice that, as a child, your mom would have struck down at the point of conception, but as an adult, you realize you have free will to choose as you please? Like when you've been shopping all morning and realize you're hungry and instead of having to beg your mom to take you to Taco Bell and having her say, "NO! We have food at home!", you're able to steer you car right into the drive-thru, get your naughty taco AND get a soda. Yes, those moments are precious to me.

I don't know why, since my parents were probably the most liberal, free-spirited, do as you please hippies a child could hope for -- but clearly those few "No's" had an impact on me. I remember sitting in the back of my mom's station wagon, pouting, when she told us that we were NOT going to Jack in the Box because she could MAKE us a hamburger at home. I remember thinking, first - Ew. I don't want a hamburger made at home, and second - When I grow up I'm going to go out to lunch EVERYDAY.

Well, I was all grown up today, and after I went to the dentist for my routine cleaning (more on this grown up moment in a minute) I promptly got back into the car and ATE CANDY all the way back to work. Why? Cuz I'm a grown up and I'm the boss of me.

Also, it was a reward for having lovely choppers. My six month cleaning routine with the fabulous Dr. Lin is a highly anticipated event for me because, #1. Dr Lin is the most awesomest dentist to ever grace our great city. #2. He has the most beautiful dentist office a girl could want and #3. He and his staff heap accolades upon patients who pamper their teeth.

Yes, it's petty and small of me to seek approval from even the most random people in my life, but hey, when you've got seedling plants croaking at home, stacks of work multiplying endlessly on your desk and annoying people calling at all hours asking stupid questions about the car you have up for sale (Do you wear scented deodorant in the car?) -- a little positive reinforcement can go a long way. And so, I ate licorice flavored salt water taffy (do not say, "Ew gross!" because you don't know -- it's good) until I pulled into the parking lot at work. Sqweet.

To revert to the ALL GARDEN ALL THE TIME bloginess -- I am sad to report that I will be moving on to my last of four cucumber seedlings this weekend as the first 3 rounds of seedlings quickly croaked as soon as I put them out. Hubby suggested that I might consider breaking them in like I'm doing with the tomatoes (putting them out during the day and bringing them in at night) until they acclimate, but damn, I ran out of pots. He also brainily (a word) suggested that I put them in coffee mugs to transport them safely from inside to outside in lieu of actual pots. He is such a brain! I might do this. OR I might get lazy (best bet) and just put them out in the garden and be like, "Hey, you guys are already blooming! Get to work and quit whining!", because I'm a mean old garden witch sometimes and don't like wimps.

Mean time, the tomatoes have already gotten that lecture and I've begun to break Hubby into the idea that I may be going to the nursery this weekend to get some tougher local seedling tomatoes and cukes so we can get started on the fruit setting. I mean, sheesh! It's nearly mid-may and we don't have cukes and tomatoes growing freely in the garden yet. Yeeek!

Oh, and to be random AND include a picture in this post (two things that I always like to have), here's the Asparagus Parmesan that I made the other night after being inspired by Kevin at Seriously Good's recipe :



Admission: I couldn't get up the nerve to use mayo with the gorgeous delicate shavings of parmigianno reggiano, so I didn't. SORRY! However, this very quick, very yum yummy side dish gave me a good lesson in how to effectively use the broiler setting on my convection oven. So useful! So far I've only made boogery tofu with the broiler and it became clear to me during the asparagus incident that I've been misusing the machine. However! Now I know and can probably broil some things without boogerizing them. We'll see.

I'll check back in next week after I hopefully plant/transplant successfully some tomatoes and cukes, bake something for once, photograph some Backtack 3 teasers and drink some margaritas. Terrif.