This, That, Miscellany, Etc.

1. I had a checkup at the doctor the other day (and by "at the doctor" I mean "at the place where doctors are, but really I saw a nurse practitioner, which is just as good, because I just like nurse practitioners for some reason") and one of the questions I asked her was about vitamins. Specifically, my friends have told me that I ought to be taking grown-up vitamins, so are they correct? The answer is no, I can take Flintstone vitamins if I darn well please. And I do! (Make fun if you will, but here's the thing: I've given them a couple different shots, but I have gotten an upset stomach on 100% of the days I've taken vitamins aimed at adult women. That's just a fact.) So now I'm getting all of the folic acid I need as a Woman of Childbearing Age, but I'm getting it in tasty chewable form! Score one for Rachel.

1.5. Another vitamin note: my NP also told me that there are new recommendations for Vitamin D (because it turns out that people who live closer to the equator and therefore get more sunlight have lots less of most common terrible diseases). All multivitamins still have the old recommended amount, which is 400 International Units of D, but the new thinking is that you should get between 1000 and 2000 IU a day. (That's so much more! Also, I asked her how much you get from, say, a glass of milk, and it's only 50. So much for my "I drink so much milk, I've probably got everything covered" plan.) So! Even if you're taking a multivitamin, maybe you should also be taking a Vitamin D supplement. I know I am. (By the way, if this is all super-old news to you, I apologize. I'm just trying to help. You know I'm just looking out for you.)

2. All the cool kids at my work bring environmentally-, budgetarily-friendly metal canteens for their water. (You know what they say: library circulation desk work is thirsty work.) So I bought one, too. Unfortunately, I couldn't get over the metal taste; fortunately, Neal really likes the canteen for both work and home use, so it was still a few bucks well spent. However! I still needed some alternative to buying Gatorade every day (if I'm going to buy a bottle of something, it is not going to be water! Water is free!) besides taking a travel mug of tea, rinsing it out once the tea is gone, and filling it with drinking fountain water. It's getting too warm for tea every day. I therefore decided to give canteens another shot, this time purchasing a super-girly pink-with-flowered-pattern one to differentiate it from Neal's. What I did not realize was that Girl Canteen came with a lid with a little spout in it--now I can drink from plastic instead of straight from metal! That makes all the difference. Now I can be cool too!

3. I really sympathized with this post MacKenzie wrote because I know all too well the woes of being Bad at Plants. I can't even tell you how many plants I've killed. (I still mourn you, little cilantro plant from last summer. Poor little guy.) Yet I want to be Good at Plants (one day, when I've got a house with a yard, I want to have a garden in which I grow all the ingredients for salsa. That's going to be the most delicious garden ever). I keep hoping, and I keep trying. My latest effort is a little azalea that I bought at the grocery store. And here's the good news: it's been in my care for almost two weeks, and it's still alive! It's not even droopy! I think these are the keys: 1) I only let myself buy the azalea because the little plastic information spike said it shouldn't get too much sunlight. My apartment has barely any sunlight, which I still think is the reason my poor little cilantro plant died. But the azalea must be a good fit. 2) I solicited advice from one of my plant-growing coworkers, and she suggested watering it from the bottom up. So I've been setting the azalea in a bowl of water every other day, and that keeps the soil fairly moist (which the spike also advocated). I'll let you know if I continue to keep the azalea alive, and I'll try to overcome laziness enough to take and upload a picture of it, because it's purdy.