The Slip is a new Nine Inch Nails album, offered for download completely free.

I have my herb garden done, though I'd still like to add some lavender, mint, and chives.

I have two kinds of basil, rosemary (my rosemary lived all winter!), two kinds of parsley, cilantro, catnip, sage, thyme and oregano. This is the first year I've actually had parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme!

Past the herbs is one of the grape plants we are trying out this year. I didn't think grapes could grow here, but when mom was looking at houses, one of them had a deck overrun with green grapes, and these claim to be okay for our area. We will see.

Around the Mary statue there were my magnificent black (really deepest purple) tulips. They have passed on, so I will get a picture next year.

I still have to plant the veggie beds, but at least I got things started!


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So, I've said I was going to try doing bento-style lunches before, but I never did because I started looking at the boxes and they were really cute but pricey. Then I saw the bento community on the LJ star page, and saw that they can still be awesome even in plain tupperware. Maybe I will buy boxes later, if this continues to be a trend. Behold, my first bento box, made for the hubby's lunch:






Heart-shaped onigiri (rice ball) stuffed with albacore marinated in store bought ginger dressing, nori (seaweed) eyes and mouth. These are so yummy, I don't think I will ever eat a tuna sandwich again! Underneath is a bed of leftover corn mixed with green beans dressed in sushi seasoned vinegar. In the red cup is a halved pickled egg, with pickled ginger between.

In the other box is a half apple of both Granny Smith and delicious apples, which I did not drizzle with lemon juice, so they will probably be brown by lunchtime, but oh well. Also a half an orange (used the rest of the fruit for my own bento for tomorrow). Under the orange is a mini box of raisins, and a dipping container of caramel for the apples.