Garden: Week 2, my 21st birthday out dancing, and hopeful news about the job hunt

It's 2pm and I just woke up - I guess I should really crack the whip and get started on all the things I need to do today. But of course, I'm sipping green tea and uploading garden pics first :-p

Yuzu has begun to flower!! Really interesting that it has only 4 flower petals - and they're almost asymmetrical when they open

 Second yuzu flower. I used a Q-tip to hand pollinate the flowers in the hopes that it may help them to set fruit better. But I don't think it's entirely necessary since apparently these guys are pretty good at setting fruit themselves, so we'll see.

Garden Kale greens have all sprouted. Germination rate for these seeds is surprising - I expected these guys to have more trouble sprouting (requiring warmer temps, more picky soil moisture conditions, etc etc) but in just a few days it seems like every seed has sprouted. The seed packet says 30 days until harvest for these plants, but I'm going to assume it's more like 60 or so days. Still, considering how fast the seeds sprouted, maybe these guys will in fact be ready in 30 days?

 In my efforts to promote biodiversity amidst all of the commercial, industrialized monoculture of our food world, I've decided to grow a unique variety of basil I haven't seen before. It's called "red lettuce leaf basil". From the drawing on the front of the packet, it looks like this basil will have leaves that are much larger and look more like shiso than a traditional basil plant. It will also be red rather than green. Stems have already begun to turn red, so I guess that's a good sign?

This past Friday was my big 21st birthday. Ian took me out to Eureka for a wonderful dinner. I had the roasted chicken and he had the pot roast. We also shared a duck and pistachio terrine (like a pâté but more firm) for an appetizer, and a nice guittard brownie dessert. Afterwards, we met up with our friend Jonny and went dancing at The Cafe (a big gay club overlooking Market and Noe St.). It was fun and a lot less pretentious than I imagined. There were lots of people just dancing and having a good time - and of course there were go-go boys. I slipped a dollar into the waistband of the tight little briefs of one muscle beefcake of a go-go boy ... it was fun :-p And Ian was fascinated by a particular midget who was so happy when he gave a different go-go boy a dollar. Unfortunately since he was tiny and walking through the dance floor, his drink got knocked out of his hand, but I guess it wasn't the smartest idea to walk through the crowd with a drink anyways. Then we headed over to Badlands, another club/bar and danced some more before heading home since Ian was working the next morning. I had a great time!

In other news, Bryan is in Japan visiting Mom & Dad right now ... seems like they're having a good time. Apparently they've been having minor aftershocks almost every other day. I wish I could be there too, but I'm on the job hunt. Yesterday, Ian surprised me with some amazing news. One of his customers at the restaurant was wearing a California Pacific Medical Center Rx (pharmacy) sweatshirt and he chatted with them only to find out that the lady is the Pharmacy Director at that hospital. Apparently she is the one that looks over all the applications - I had applied to an opening I saw online about a week and half ago, but perhaps it was at a different location than the pharmacy she directs (I'm assuming the Davies campus here in the Castro). In any case, Ian got her email and I sent over my CV to her. Not trying to get my hopes up, but she said that they are experiencing some turnover right now so hopefully that means they need some new technicians. The fact that I was able to email the pharmacy director directly rather than just being sent through some generic Human Resources person who doesn't care is great ... I'm not trying to get my hopes up, but I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity - to at least be looked at by the pharmacy director herself, rather than just any HR person.

Tomorrow I will REALLY need to find my black pants for the concert. Nobody has a size 28! :-( I'm excited for the concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music - it'll be such a cool venue. I hope all the relatives are excited about sitting on the balcony - I think it's the most fun place since you get to see the whole orchestra from a bird's-eye view ... everybody turning pages in the middle of the song, bows moving up and down together - all the mechanics of an orchestral performance in action. Afterwards, we are going to Martuni's which is a jazz bar near the conservatory - Ian knows the lady who will be playing jazz piano, so it will be a fun wind-down from the concert!