OK, now this is cool

That's broccoli. Grown in our own garden! I'm thrilled with how well it did. Turns out, broccoli is a very pretty plant- it's got these huge green-blue leaves that let water bead up on them any time it rains. I realize broccoli doesn't get most sane people all worked up, but we've really enjoyed an afternoon ritual of walking out to the garden, cutting off a big crown and munching on it as an appetizer while we're prepping dinner. (the health benefits are only slightly diminished by the full-fat ranch dressing it gets dunked into) The fancy lettuces I planted also grew like crazy, but they're trickier than head lettuce. Their leaves are fairly flimsy and wilty just about the same time they get large enough to eat. Hard to make presentable salads with wilty lettuce leaves. I'll just keep buying that at the store.

Here's one more random thing. My mother, the keeper-of-all-stuff, recently handed me this
Those are the gum-paste flowers that were on our wedding cake (not the bright pink ones- not quite sure why she added those silk beauties to her little arrangement). I had about four days worth of faux sentimental need to keep them after she gave them to me. Then I, the thrower-away-of-all-stuff, returned my china cabinet back to the 21st century.