I bring you...

A pumpkin garden? Beans in a garbage disposal? Good guesses, all, really.

I may have mentioned in the past that I have a truly rad family. It's true! For example, at our yearly Christmas party on my dad's side we hold a white elephant gift exchange that always has us roaring with laughter. This year's highlights included a man meat bag, a shake weight, and several bottles of a well-known multi-level marketing drink. I stole the blog surprise package fair and square from my Uncle Mark.

And thus I bring you...

 The Chia Shrek!

Oh yeah, baby. Who hasn't been tempted to buy one of these off the late night infomericals? (Did you know I adore infomercials?) When Uncle Mark sees how rad this experiment is, he's going to be super bummed that he missed out. I know that both my glasses and I are thrilled about the prospects!

So anyway, the reason this surprise took so long and therefore was so anti-climatic was that the Chia took a bit longer to sprout and become interesting than I thought. I mixed up the seeds from my mystery pictures with water, and they sort of turn to a sticky paste. I dutifully spread the mixture all over my Chia planter, thusly:



Note the baby in the background. I suppose this is as good a time as any to detail one of her more annoying traits. You'll note the rather large wet spot all the way down her torso in the picture above. Bug loves her sippy cup of milk, but occasionally, when she decides she's had her fill, she opts to ignore the baby sign for 'all done' (which she knows) or even the simple act of just setting the sippy aside, and instead chooses to slurp up an entire mouthful of milk and then open her mouth and allow the whole thing to dribble right down the front of her. Sigh.

Anyway, back to the Chia. Obediently, I covered the planter to keep it moist for a few days, and spritzed it regularly with water. (P.S. My child has also learned to suck water out of a spray bottle nozzle. I know.)

And then it basically looked exactly the same for several days. I did not bother boring you with that. Over the last night or two, however, things have really taken off.

It seems somehow appropriate that my Chia Shrek has decided on the mullet as the ultimate hair style.

I told you this would be rad!



I promise to have regular plant updates from now until the planter grows its promised thick, lush coat. Bonus: there are enough seeds for three more plantings!

One more old lady shot, only slightly different from the first? Ok, sure. Why not?

It's not so much that I need my glasses to see, per se. My eyes do that fine on my own. (Am I defending my optical abilities?) The glasses just help out if I'm going to be doing a lot of reading or computer work and don't feel like suffering through a raging headache afterwards. Plus, I'm old.

Stay tuned!