springtime for Hitler and Germany

Every time spring comes I think of that song because I love how ridiculous The Producers is. But it is FINALLY spring in Wisconsin! The farmer's market opened this morning and I got some plum-barb (plum & rhubarb) jam because I was curious. I have yet to try it, but it will doubtless have a unique flavor. It was also ridiculously nice out, close to 70 degrees, so I went outside and continued work on the gardens in the backyard. They probably have not been kept in a very long time...everything is really crowded and overgrown from being allowed to divide and spread year after year in the same exact spot. The most exciting thing about watching things pop up is that I get to see all the springtime plants! I moved to my current address last June, and by then everything was already overgrown like crazy, so I never noticed the plants that had already come and gone or were buried under the monstrosity of hostas, wild mint, and orange daylilies.

Some spring plants that I have found growing include snowdrops (they were blooming at the end of March ^^), some plants growing from bulbs that I THINK are tulips (we'll see! assuming they grow in the big pot I put them in, that is...), and as of yesterday, daffodils! I had always wanted some daffodils because I like them. They were growing, of all places, out of the mysterious pile of dirt and debris that appeared in the middle of one of the gardens after a wind storm knocked a giant branch down onto the garage next door and did quite a bit of damage. I think they'd been there before because they were rather choked in mint roots (mint spreads like CRAZY and is REALLY hard to dig through...), but I was very pleasantly surprised when I noticed something bright yellow growing out of the dead plants and garage debris and realized it was the very thing I had wished for. They are now planted right beside the front steps so I can look at them every time I come and go :) The lily-of-the-valley and sundrops that I thought were dead due to my poor transplanting skills are both coming back, too! Maybe I'm not so bad at this. I also planted poppy seeds today. Normally I'm not that great at raising plants from seed, but we'll see how it goes. The last time I planted flower seeds, they did fine until the maintenance guys at T's old apartment took a lawn mower to them :( My next project is to get some bricks and use them to edge the bed next to the driveway because there is no edging and there's really coarse grass growing all over, and it just looks awful. Free bricks, of course. The landlord isn't trying to fix our leaky basement or even partially reimburse us for all the money we spend trying to divert the water every time it floods, so I'm sure there's no way he'd help pay for something as frivolous as landscaping. I bet they'd have no problem charging more rent for the place because of it, though. Jerks.

Oh, yes - I have a new job that starts April 27th! I'm working back where I used to work as a student, but in a much different capacity. I am fairly sure that already knowing me played no small part in their decision to hire me, but I knew straight away they weren't going to just hand it to me, and I'd have to prove like anybody that I was the right person for the job. I KNOW I wouldn't have gotten my new job if I hadn't picked up the skills I did at this government agency. My current supervisor was happy for me, and had some really nice things to say when I told him I got a new job. I thanked him for giving me such a wide variety of projects and giving me some really good work and leadership experience. No way in HELL am I letting the crazy manager lady know all those nice things, though - she would take all the credit for it, I'm sure, just because she's a big jerk and because she interviewed me and jointly decided to hire me. I'm not even going to tell her I'm leaving unless she asks. After all, she's the main reason I wanted to leave, what with the way she treats her employees and how she makes her hiring decisions and deals with complaints. My last day at the government agency is next Wednesday, and I decided I'm only telling the people that I want to tell, and quietly making my exit for the rest of them. I have Thursday and Friday off, then I start the new job the following Monday. It'll be my first "real job"...I will actually get things like sick pay and vacation time and health insurance that I don't have to pay for out of pocket. Hooray!!! Also, my mom will not be bugging me about jobs anytime soon. :) She was SO happy when I told her yesterday, and that was on top of the good news that my dad was offered his job back two months or so after his company decided to let a bunch of people go and he took a severance offer. No more shaking in our boots - our family is now completely gainfully employed again :)

To celebrate...sushi dinner, now that I can afford it! And a KitchenAid mixer, because I love to cook and it is the most kickass kitchen appliance you could ever want. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what features I want, but no matter what color (I would rather have red, black or blue instead of white) or features I get I will probably spend around $250-$300 unless I find a super good deal on one. I'm willing to wait until I find a good deal, too...but maybe I shouldn't worry so much. After all, I was planning to spend that much on a denshi jisho until I found a REALLY nice one for $100.

What with the new job, being able to afford the slightly more expensive things that I want, and T buying an HD flat screen TV last weekend, I feel like I'm moving up in the world. ^^

Speaking of cooking, I have been trying new recipes, as always. This ginger-carrot soup is REALLY good - even T liked it! I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go spicy or sweet, and ended up adding the cinnamon and nutmeg after I threw in some curry powder (because curried ginger carrot soup sounded appealing at the time). I would recommend EITHER curry powder OR cinnamon + nutmeg. :) I also had some white fish I put too much cayenne pepper on and T wouldn't eat, so I wanted to try making fish soup with the leftovers. As weird as it sounded to me, I was curious. I decided on this recipe for whitefish soup mostly because the lady that created the recipe is from Wisconsin (I figured this recipe would taste most like something I was used to), and as a fisherman's wife I figured she is probably good at cooking fish and making it taste good. I made a LOT of adjustments because I had no celery or bay leaves, only 1/3 lb of fish that was already cooked (I made ~1/6 of the recipe), and I diced frozen French fries because it was all I had for potatoes (hey, I was desperate to include some other vegetable besides onion and carrot...) and it STILL tasted good to me. I also took the suggestion and added cream (half-and-half actually) to make chowder. I can't wait to try it when it's made properly. Next on my list: jam thumbprint cookies. They always look and taste so nice with the fruity center, and apricot jam (one of my very favorite flavors of jam) tastes particularly good in them.

More updates when things finally start growing and I start working my new job :)