We got back from the farmer’s market earlier today where we got a week’s worth of food for under $15 and I purchased a beautiful orchid, a cross of Lc. Trick or Treat ‘S&W’ and Lc. Gold Digger ‘Orglade’s Mandarin’ and I like it a lot. Brian just calls it “that orange flower” and ignores it. He says he likes plastic plants better. Too bad! I did acquire some new plants this week (nothing special) - hibiscus, anthurium, and some other random things. It helps to clean the air (this is the excuse I am using) but we do live in the city with some of the cleanest air in the world as Brian reminds me. But, I simply enjoy horticulture…

After the farmer’s market Brian fed me my second meal, 5 giant pancakes and a huge protein shake. We eat a lot around here. Brian has decided that being a powerlifting vegetarian food snob is very expensive. He is always teasing me and tells me I should get a hamburger because it has a lot of protein. Of course, he would not eat a hamburger anyway but he does think he is amusing and I do like to humor him.
I also ordered some new multi-vitamins for Brian and some antioxidants for me (because of the powerlifting) so I think we are good for a while… Powerlifting is going well… My quads are killing me from last night’s workout and especially because we walked down to the farmer’s market and back (it is all uphill on the way back). Nothing terribly exciting going on, just beautiful Hawai’i weather and another perfect day in paradise…

Oh yeah, last night, we went to this natural food store (which I don’t like) and we bought Yves fake turkey. Brian said he would eat some - I think it looks nasty.

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Oh my goodness. Apparently, if I take a cruise to Puerto Rico there is a flea market near the port where they sell 50 orchids of your choice for $80… That is certainly something to think about for next year…

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That experience was annoying to say the least. I had to go this morning to help with flower arranging for the awards banquet that is tonight. I arrive only to find that people who said they could not make it had actually decided to come. This normally is a fine thing to end up with more volunteers; however, none of them had experience in flower arranging. Certainly, I think having an interest in flower arranging is a very good thing but you do not wait to try your hand in it when you are only eight hours away from an awards banquet. Many different classes have been taught in flower arranging but they do not go to them. Then they used too much plant material and a ton of it goes to waste, which leaves nothing for a majority of the arrangements. Then the people that were supposed to be setting up for the party decided to take a long break so we ended up having to set up the tables, put down the centerpieces, and put out all of the arrangements. This is what you get when you have to depend on government workers to set up a banquet…

The best part was being harassed for being so quiet. Yes, I am quiet. No, I do not feel like making small talk with you. I came to arrange flowers, not chitchat. They all kept talking to me to get me to become a chatterbox. What would we talk about, string theory? Or maybe philosophy? Or perhaps we could talk about Jung or Sartre? Sure, sure. I will certainly be posting on the extroverted atrocities I spot this evening at the banquet, as it should be quite horrific to partake in.

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I just finished repotting some orchids. Fun times. Anyway, I came across this website written by an INTJ who did a “day in the life of an INTJ” type of thing and I thought it was hilarious but certainly could be true. Click here to read the page.

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I will try to work on the website this evening. It appears to be number 26 on my To-Do list for the day. I will get around to it… On a more exciting note (for me), my other humidity trays have arrived. I have already set them up and all the orchids are doing well. Now, I am off to accomplish number 7 and beyond on the To-Do list.

Addendum: After accomplishing number 7 on my To-Do list, which was to go through the flower books my grandmother sent me, I have come across two interesting titles “Beef” and “Flowers and Symbols for the Christian Year: New Trends in Decorations for Church, Home, and Flower Show.” I guess I should cook a beef dinner before I go off to church. She tells everyone that I am a Methodist anyway. They are going to hell because they are not Baptists and do not believe in her God. Apparently, I am exempt from hell because I know her. Go figure. All you have to do to stay out of the Christian hell is to know my grandmother. I guess it is important to have the latter book in case a flower show decides to open up a division for casket arrangements and pulpit arrangements. I will then make it easy on myself and provide an atheistic interpretation. This book also tells me how to make “secular arrangements.” I was not aware that plants had religious affiliation… I need to stay away from the fundamental plants.

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After speaking with a woman in my garden club today, I was informed of why I did not win a ribbon for my Doritaenopsis orchid. She spoke with her friend who is a judge and she told her the reasons. The first reason is that it had too many mature flowers on it with no buds. The second reason is that it is not a recognized hybrid with the AOS. At least next year I will know to trim off some of the flowers, not force complete budding, and to pick something recognized by the AOS… Bad me.

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After speaking with a woman in my garden club today, I was informed of why I did not win a ribbon for my Doritaenopsis orchid. She spoke with her friend who is a judge and she told her the reasons. The first reason is that it had too many mature flowers on it with no buds. The second reason is that it is not a recognized hybrid with the AOS. At least next year I will know to trim off some of the flowers, not force complete budding, and to pick something recognized by the AOS… Bad me.

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I received an Honorable Mention ribbon at the flower show for my mass arrangement. This is the first mass arrangement I have done in a large-scale flower show so I am rather pleased with my results. I did not think I would get any ribbons for it. I received positive comments from all the judges and I am happy about my honorable mention ribbon. The orchid judging surprised everyone. The best orchids were surprisingly not the ones that were picked for ribbons. The judges seemed to favor very small plants with only one bloom on the stem. They also did not seem to mind dead leaves, diseased orchids, and orchids that were seriously under watered and malnourished. I am still baffled. Therefore, I did not get a ribbon for my orchid. At least I am in good company, all of the people that should have won ribbons did not get them either. I have decided that next year I will be doing another mass arrangement, a mailbox garden, and a larger number of horticulture specimens.

Tomorrow I will begin sowing the seeds for my vegetable garden. I cannot wait to plant them and start growing something…anything, for that matter. More news to follow later…

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I received an Honorable Mention ribbon at the flower show for my mass arrangement. This is the first mass arrangement I have done in a large-scale flower show so I am rather pleased with my results. I did not think I would get any ribbons for it. I received positive comments from all the judges and I am happy about my honorable mention ribbon. The orchid judging surprised everyone. The best orchids were surprisingly not the ones that were picked for ribbons. The judges seemed to favor very small plants with only one bloom on the stem. They also did not seem to mind dead leaves, diseased orchids, and orchids that were seriously under watered and malnourished. I am still baffled. Therefore, I did not get a ribbon for my orchid. At least I am in good company, all of the people that should have won ribbons did not get them either. I have decided that next year I will be doing another mass arrangement, a mailbox garden, and a larger number of horticulture specimens.

Tomorrow I will begin sowing the seeds for my vegetable garden. I cannot wait to plant them and start growing something…anything, for that matter. More news to follow later…

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I just returned home from the flower show. I am thoroughly annoyed by the lack of organization. These people have a whole year to get ready for the show and all they can do is recite the answer, “I have no idea.” Some of the people working at the flower show would just point you in a general direction and then run the other way before you could question where exactly they were pointing you. My orchid was a big hit with the volunteers. I am not sure that I will be taking home first place but I definitely think I will place in the top three. I *would* have been first place if they had not incorrectly placed my orchid in a category that it should not have been in. Now, it will be unfairly judged against orchids that are not even similar. I digress. The floral arrangement went ok. I was not exactly feeling too great by the time I actually was able to put together the arrangement. I was running a fever and was tired so I wanted to get it over with quickly. Of course having been sick this past week I did not really come up with a very good design so I just kind of threw it together as I went along. Granted, it is not the best in the show but I think I did a good job. I also was the only person that did not have fifty of their best friends helping either. I still have to go back and spritz the arrangement and other fun stuff but that is nothing that requires me to fill out 60 note cards with botanical names and my personal information. No one at the flower show knows anything and everyone just says random stuff and expects that you know what they are talking about even though they never mentioned it before and it is not printed in any of the 100 pages of rules and regulations. You would think an organization that goes to such great lengths to print up a manual with all the rules would actually be orderly and would be run with some semblance of organization. I digress.

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I just returned home from the flower show. I am thoroughly annoyed by the lack of organization. These people have a whole year to get ready for the show and all they can do is recite the answer, “I have no idea.” Some of the people working at the flower show would just point you in a general direction and then run the other way before you could question where exactly they were pointing you. My orchid was a big hit with the volunteers. I am not sure that I will be taking home first place but I definitely think I will place in the top three. I *would* have been first place if they had not incorrectly placed my orchid in a category that it should not have been in. Now, it will be unfairly judged against orchids that are not even similar. I digress. The floral arrangement went ok. I was not exactly feeling too great by the time I actually was able to put together the arrangement. I was running a fever and was tired so I wanted to get it over with quickly. Of course having been sick this past week I did not really come up with a very good design so I just kind of threw it together as I went along. Granted, it is not the best in the show but I think I did a good job. I also was the only person that did not have fifty of their best friends helping either. I still have to go back and spritz the arrangement and other fun stuff but that is nothing that requires me to fill out 60 note cards with botanical names and my personal information. No one at the flower show knows anything and everyone just says random stuff and expects that you know what they are talking about even though they never mentioned it before and it is not printed in any of the 100 pages of rules and regulations. You would think an organization that goes to such great lengths to print up a manual with all the rules would actually be orderly and would be run with some semblance of organization. I digress.

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I am feeling much better at the moment. I am going to engineer and construct a small terrarium made specifically to simulate a swamp. If anyone has an ideas I would certainly welcome them. This is for a certain type of orchid. It grows on trees so I will be mounting it rather than growing it in a pot.

Here is what it looks like:

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I am feeling much better at the moment. I am going to engineer and construct a small terrarium made specifically to simulate a swamp. If anyone has an ideas I would certainly welcome them. This is for a certain type of orchid. It grows on trees so I will be mounting it rather than growing it in a pot.

Here is what it looks like:

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I just acquired nine more orchids from Hawaii. I am giddy. Hopefully, these will be here on Friday.

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I just acquired nine more orchids from Hawaii. I am giddy. Hopefully, these will be here on Friday.

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