Oh, what a way to finish my days off from work. Yesterday, in a fit of productivity, I went outside and planted 13 tomato plants, a row of squash, a row of cucumbers, and several hills of basil (with the reluctant help of the Mrs.). This finished our gardening for the year, since we’d already planted peas, jalapeños and beans over the past couple of weeks. As we went to bed last night, I felt good. I felt efficient. I felt like Joe Farmer.

If you’re not familiar with the beefsteak tomato, you have my sympathy. Look at this picture and try not to drool on your keyboard:

The beefsteak tomato is proof that God loves us. Eat all of ‘em you can get, thank the Lord for ‘em, and grieve for the angels because they ain’t got ‘em.

This morning, Wendy shakes me awake at 6:30 yelling “FROST! FROST!” This is not what you want to hear after you’ve just put all that produce in the ground. It turned out that we’d had an unpredicted, late spring frost last night. It was unpredicted, I can say for certain, because the wizards at weather.com hadn’t predicted it. Last year, I lost all my tomato plants to an industrious rabbit about two days after I planted them. I was bound and determined that this year, I’d save my vegetables. I sprang into action.

By 6:45, I was outside with a mist sprayer, misting all the tomato plants. I’d heard somewhere, or maybe read on the internet, that you can save tomatoes from a frost if you mist them before the sun hits them and bakes them. As is typical of me, though, I sprang into action before my brain was turned on. I finished misting all of my tomatoes and THEN I checked the temperature and saw that it was still 27 degrees.

Long story short, I’d gotten outside in time to spray a nice sheet of ice over top of the frost that was already on my tomatoes. By noon, the sun had come up and reduced all but three of them to a small, black pile of former vegetation. They’re not fit to compost with now. If I’d left them alone, they might have survived the frost. I couldn’t leave well enough alone, though. I had to get out there with my mist bottle and “save those poor, vulnerable little plants.” I may as well have taken a hammer to them.

So with the resignation of the soundly defeated, came back in the house, opened a bag of pretzels, and spilled most of them on the floor. Thankfully, the Bio-Hoover was near by, and was willing to help out. After that, I decided that the worst thing I could do would be to try to do anything, so Wendy and I just went to Roanoke so I could pick up the new Nine Inch Nails dual disc ($11.50 at Best Buy, what a bargain.) If nothing else, I'd at least get to hear the new album in surround sound.

It sounds really good in surround sound. A lot of work and thought went into the mix, and I commend Reznor and crew for turning out a fine album. I discovered an easter egg on the DVD side, by the way. Go to the "additional content" menu, go down to the "stereo" option, and push the left button. Then push play. You'll see the preview for the new album that NIN had up on the website months ago. It's a fairly snazzy little preview, with a digital image of the NIN logo and a few seconds of the song "Beside You In Time," the graphic fading to the album's release date.

While we were in Roanoke, I also picked up this:

I think I may have literally jumped up and down with glee in the comic shop when I saw it. We only swing by the comic stores maybe six times a year… that way, I can’t blow my whole paycheck. I’m a huge fan of the symbiotic characters from the Spider-Man title, and this new one is the best character that’s been introduced to the series in a long while. Unlike his symbiotic parents Venom and Carnage, though, Toxin is a heroic character. At least he was struggling to be heroic when he was last seen in the pages of the Marvel Universe. I don’t know yet what he’ll be up to his new mini-series, but he’s a really well-written, well realized character, and I look forward to reading this series. I’m one happy geek.

While we were in Roanoke, Wendy and I also picked up rosaries. We’d hoped to swing past the church and have Father Ken bless them on the way home, but he wasn’t there. I’ve decided that one of the best ways I can come to an understanding of the Holy Mother is to pray the rosary. If I get something spiritual out of it, good. If I don’t, maybe it will be a sign that Catholicism isn’t for me. I’ll not pray it just once and lay it down, though. I’ll pray it several times and allow it to sink in. As Jamie said once, faith is like a spring mist: a man walking through a mist for just a few seconds might not even get wet… but a man who walks in a mist for several hours will come to realize that, without even knowing it, he’s gotten soaked to the bone. Before I pray the rosary, though, I’ll pray to God that I’m doing the right thing. I’m still such an outsider to Catholicism, much of it still seems foreign, and Mary is, of course, my biggest stumbling block. I don’t want to turn this post into a “Wayfaring Strangers” item, so I’ll leave it at that.

So I get to put out some more tomato plants at some point in the future, and this year I don't have to go Elmer on the stupid rabbit. This year, I have nobody to blame but me.

I’ve just realized that I’ve not posted anything in depth of a political nature in a while. Huh.