Today I demonstrated once again that I was not born with a green thumb. I joined my host Sandy, herself a master gardener, at the local botanical gardens where she volunteers. We were charged with planting seedlings...or potting cuttings...sheesh, I can't even remember the correct lingo! :p I do know I was very nervous cutting off leaves willy nilly and jamming green stalks into the soil, but I managed to get a few done. Thankfully we soon moved on to "upgrading" and I was able to let Sandy handle the plants while I kept her supplied with wheelbarrows of dirt and trundled pots back and forth with a little yellow wagon. I got quite the system going and told her some were born with green thumbs and some were born efficiency experts. ;)

It felt pretty productive actually. As most of my work is computer related, there was something really satisfying about a spot of manual labor <especially when I no longer had to actually touch the plants and therefore risk killing them>. Of course I know myself well enough that if I had to work outside in the heat and humidity everyday the satisfaction would waver pretty quickly. 

We took a quick tour around the gardens and I got a lesson in Floridian alligators, ie., they're EVERYWHERE. Some dude was standing a couple inches from the pond as he was cleaning undergrowth and just casually mentioned he was keeping his eye out for the 8-foot alligator that lives there. Apparently you can't dip your toes into any water around here without risking the big whammy-slammy. I kept picturing in my mind's eye that stupid alligator movie I watched last week. ;)

I ended the day going to the movies with Sandy and her grandchildren. They wanted to see Pirates of the Caribbean so that's what we saw and I just have to say...wow. Seriously, wow! How could they spend that many millions of dollars on special effects and not toss a few bucks toward hiring a screenwriter capable of putting a coherent plot down on paper? :p