August 20
Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016 - 10:56

In some regards I've been TCOBing and feeling like a competent adult because of it, but then - after switching back to my original beloved insurance agent, the first thing I did was not pay my bill on time. So I'm still me! I haven't turned into a competent adult!

I made another batch of raspberry jam, this time not using pectin, and... next time I'm using pectin. This batch is good but it doesn't seem as fresh and just is not as awesome all around. Our raspberries are a nice blush color, but this jam came out almost brown. The first batch I made, with pectin, seemed like a jar of fresh raspberries. This new stuff is like a processed spread. It's still good - if I'd made this first I'd have been impressed, but my first batch was so goddamn incredible I could have won international awards with it. It was fucking beautiful.

My garden is awesome right now - a wall of squash and pumpkin on the back fence, pepper plants looking so neat and healthy and different from each other, a million tomatoes *this close* to being ripe, beans and carrots and everything else - but I had to go to the farmers market this morning to buy tomatoes. I promised some friends a caprese salad tonight and I just don't have the tomatoes for it yet. I bought a tomato on Thursday from the produce stand at my work, a huge heirloom tomato, and I made a caprese salad for myself for dinner that night and almost died from the glory.

I also bought basil today. I have basil, lots of little plants, but they are not thriving like last year's basil. It seems sacrilegious to buy these things that you're growing yourself, but if you get them from the farmers market God will look the other way and will not smite you.

Are you bored reading about my stupid garden? I know it's not exciting for anyone but me but for me it's the only exciting thing going on. I'm sitting here with cold feet listening to a classic country station on the radio because the public radio station just started playing opera. And I'm sorry but I fucking hate opera. I know if I went to a good opera I'd probably love it but I haven't seen a good opera (I haven't seen any opera) and so I fucking hate opera and they shouldn't play it on the radio. I like the music from The Marriage of Figaro but that's the only one. I probably like more than I know but I don't know it so I'll continue to ignorantly hate opera like I do. I also hate modern jazz with the same ignorance. Oh, also reggae, I fucking hate reggae, although not as ignorantly. Sorry.