Negative 2? Really?

Yes, really.  Apparently.  It's cold out there!  The "real" temperature on my way to the office this morning was 19 F, but the wind chill was -2 F.  This is not acceptable, especially considering the fact that the day before yesterday it hit 67!  I took a 40 minute walk at lunch!  Today?  Today I brought a book.

I mean, don't get me wrong.  I like to read.  But we're doing a Biggest Loser challenge at work, and the more exercise I can get in, the happier I am.  I'm competitive that way.  I'm also 43 and way too unfit for that age.  I've gotten sedentary and careless, and it's time to buckle down and turn it around, so I am.  Not doing too shabby, either.  Just the cold is a bit of a hindrance, since I prefer walking to most other exercise.

Anyway, getting fit also means eating better, and so I'm doing that too.  We tried last summer; I posted about our vegetable garden and all that.  Unfortunately, the local fauna got most of the veggies rather than us.  There's this groundhog in the area, our friend dubbed him "Spud," who's a brazen critter, and huge.  He ate all of our tomatoes just as they were getting ripe and gave our cucumber plants crew cuts before the cukes could even grow.  It was crazy.

Well, this year, we're planning better, with more garden boxes, and fencing everything in properly.  Plus we'll have the honeybees, so things should be well pollinated.

In the interim, though, we'd like fresh veggies sooner and we'd like ones that are completely protected.  Which is why Eric set up that awesome aquaponics system.

That was Sunday.

Guess what?

Two degrees or no two degrees, as of yesterday... we've got germination!  These are photos I took yesterday.

That's two days, people!