Sunflowers

So I had this great idea to plant sunflower seeds every two weeks from March until July, so I would have staggered growth and sunflowers blooming for a long cycle, but nature beat me to the punch and these remnants from last year's seeds came up first. We'll see if the rest make it.
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Half Dark

Well, one of my light fixtures blew a bulb, and then when I turned it over, I found that the plastic end to the plug had totally come undone, meaning I couldn't even put a new bulb in.  So, time for new lights.  As you can see, the aquarium is currently sporting a pretty fancy half-and-half look.

Did you know that aquarium lights are EXPENSIVE?  No?  Well, they are.  Some even range up into the HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS FOR A SINGLE LIGHT.  Luckily, I found some that were not as expensive (difficult considering I'm buying two sets at 36" apiece), and was able to leverage an Amazon Gift Card to make that happen with zero out of pocket cash.  I'll end up with dual bulb fixtures, too, with a 6700K light and a plant grow light (something my plants have wanted anyway, but I was hesitant to give them, ha).

Hopefully they show up soon, and I'll snap another pic.  Also did some maintenance Thursday night, including refilling my CO2 canister (yeast-based) and swapping out some filter media.  Yay for aquarium maintenance.

Tomatoes

First this year - a couple of Cherokee Purples and a couple Rutger's Select (ripening). I always try to pick before they "vine ripen" so the pests don't get them. They'll ripen on my counter just fine.
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May Cocktail of the Month - Mint Julep

OK so this post is a little late for you to get your pour ready for the Kentucky Derby, but you might as well enjoy this cocktail once this month.  I bought a little too much mint (don't do that), so I have a few more probably to make later in the month.

What you need:
Bourbon
Crushed Ice
Mint
Sugar
Water
spoon
muddler or wooden spoon

How to make it:

1. Take about 15 mint leaves and put them in a glass (if you have a julep glass or collins glass, awesome, but if not, use a rocks glass like I have inappropriately used above).  Sprinkle in about a teaspoon of sugar (you can use more, it won't hurt) and a little bit of water (no more than a tablespoon).  
2. Take your wooden spoon or muddler and smash the mint leaves around and around until the sugar is no longer visible in there (this point is debated by julep fanatics, but is not debated by me).
3. Fill glass to the brim with crushed (as finely as possible) ice.
4. Add 2 1/2 ounces (I use a shot glass as a measuring device, but don't use one that's too big) of bourbon to the ice.  
5. Stir it up with your spoon, you should see some mint come up into suspension in the ice.
6. Top it off with more crushed ice.
7. Stick a sprig of mint in there as a garnish (you bought too much.  What else are you going to do with it?)
8. Drink it, but hold it from top or bottom so you get a nice frosty frost on the outside of the glass.
9. Enjoy!

Congratulations to Animal Kingdom for winning the Kentucky Derby and also for having what I considered to be the worst name of any Derby horse in the running this year.

Decluttering: 4 Steps to Less Junk

Every now and again, there comes a time to stop and look around, and realize that you have lots of crap that you don't use.  Hopefully you catch yourself before your basement or closet looks like the picture there (no that is not my house), but when I start to feel a bit "cluttered" I get stuck thinking about how to go about fixing the problem, and often get stuck in "analysis paralysis" where I start overestimating the amount of effort required to fix the problem and use that as justification for procrastination.

That said, we have recently begun looking at how to reduce the amount of junk we have that we don't use, and get a bit more organized around the house while we do it.  Here's the method that we're looking to employ.

Create a Plan
First step is to know what we're going to do.  First and foremost is determining "rules" for what to get rid of.  For us, it is primarily to get rid of things we have not used in the past two years or so and don't intend to use in the next year.  There's some exceptions to this, where we have some larger, more expensive items that we intend to use again in three or four years and would not want to have to repurchase, given the decreased amount we could get if we sold them, baby items that we or friends might be able to use, and some others, but for the most part, we have our rule.  Because, for most things, if it has not been used in two years, it is not truly something we need.  Once we have our rules, the next part of the plan is to figure out "which room is first."  So, by making a list of every room and closet in the house, we can prioritize and figure out which rooms to start on, and get started.

Divide and Conquer
When going through the items, there are two important decisions to make.  The first: keep or get rid of.  Luckily with pretty good rules, this decision is pretty easy, and the "exceptions" can be relatively few and far between or would require tweaking of the rules.  The second decision: what to do with the things that you are getting rid of.  My strategy?  Divide it into "disposal piles" based on which of the ways you plan to get rid of them.  Do it now and you won't have to do it later.


Dispose, Dispose, Dispose, and Dispose
Doesn't matter how you do it, once you have tons of crap to get rid of, you need to get rid of it.  I generally have two goals when getting rid of stuff, though:  1) try to keep it out of landfills and 2) get some money back on it if I can.  So here's my five-pronged disposal approach:

• Sell - Selling is obviously the best.  Using sites like eBay are a good first step for anything that might actually bring some money.  But since money is not the "big" objective, we are likely to list some stuff for $1 or $5 and see if it sells.  Books and CDs and stuff we might take to Half Price Books or something like that and try to unload them, though I know they will pay like $2 for 100 books.  Still, gets them out of our house and into their warehouse.
• Donate - If it doesn't sell, I am not going to kid myself trying hard to keep selling it (anymore.  I have stuff that I have tried to sell and didn't that is still sitting around because I think it is "worth" something).  Donating (and getting a receipt) equals a tax deduction and voila - a wee bit of money (next year).
• Give Away - Things we can't donate but people might want we could give away, or post somewhere like Freecycle.org.
• Recycle - if we can (torn up books, plastics, etc.), we'll recycle it.
• Trash - If all else fails, to the landfill it will go.  Hopefully this is just small items.

If we fail to sell something, try to donate it, and on down the list.

Go Digital
Doesn't really help me with the current clutter, though I might be scanning in some documents, etc., but going digital with some things (old useless photos, etc.) might save some space.  Going forward, I'm relying on mp3 download purchases and Kindle books to eventually replace 90% of my physical media versions of those "items of content."  So if you're looking to buy me a CD or book for my birthday, hop on Amazon and gift me the digital version instead.

So - onward.  Let's see how it goes.  And if you have tips for decluttering, leave me a comment - I may need more advice than this.