WEEKLY BLOOM: MY FAILULRE AS A GROWER

My nice landlady bought me this pepper plant kit as a thank you for taking care of her giant, deaf, white cat. It's real cool--you put the soil pellets in water, then you push the pepper seeds into the soil and viola: cute little sprouts that grow real fast for 4 days. I was overjoyed. Rapturous. But, the pepper plants seem sad now, and not growing for over a week no matter what I do. Can I be a plant lover who can't grow plants?

Jalapeños (Capsicum annuum) are supposed to be relatively easy to grow. I guess if you have actual land to put them in...not sure they're suited for apartment life, but who is?

I should get some regular old houseplants now that my plant-eating cat is gone. It'll be the first time in my adult life that I can have plants who aren't someone's personal salad and/or napping ground.

Working hard on my Tree. Have to get this thing all done before I go to AZ for the rest of the installation build. I'm really looking forward to that, though I'm not looking forward to Phoenix's oven-like temperatures. If anyone says "but it's a dry heat" again I'm going to punch them. It doesn't matter how dry 120 degrees is. I must admit that NYC ain't no party in the weather department right now either...it's hot and soupy. Go outside for a few minutes and you feel like you've been dipped in honey. A few minutes later you feel deep-fried.

I'm not really complaining though. I'm over the hump of NYC humidity really bothering me. I was spoiled by a childhood in rural Central California...most of the year it's 50-70 degrees. It's so beautiful all the time there that no work gets done, ever. I guess bad weather is good for production. Yeah, NYC has only two weeks of good weather in the Fall. That's why we have so many type A personalities tap-tap-tapping away all year. Thank God for bad weather.