My Birthday Comes Early at Target and Lowe's

          Target: I have been pining over OXO’s pop-top boxes. After lots of Ebay and Amazon research, I have found that the handy bins for kitchen organization cannot be found at a discount. This is tragic news given that they run $16-$18 each and I want a bin each for white flour (for baking), wheat flour (for banana pancakes), semolina flour (for pasta), white sugar and brown sugar. I would also like bins for rice and dry pasta, but let’s not get too carried away here. Good news: Target carries OXO! Mom treated me to two big, two medium, and one small box. Hooray birthday! (It’s almost September, right?) Also at Target I found cup hooks and bistro lights (bigger bulbs than Christmas lights).

            Lowes: After a week spent between Duxbury, Marblehead, Nantucket, and Duxbury again, I think all of my plants at home in Matunuck are going to be dead. Mom is very convinced, especially since we had some blazing hot days this week and my deck gets full sun. Thus, after Target, we headed to the Lowe’s Garden Center to get some replacements. Man, did we hit the jackpot! I found some new very hearty basil (I’m sure mine is toast), potting soil to be supplemented by some of Dad’s compost, and flowers. Oh, the flowers. The hibiscus plants were only $10 so naturally Mom and I each had to get one (yellow for Mom, peach for me). Then mom picked out pink petunias for us to split under our hibiscus plants (hibiscii?), and a hanging basket of purple scaevola? also to split. I grabbed some yellow coreopis because the color looks so cheerful (and also because nothing else is blooming yet out there on the deck). Mom advised me sternly to stay away from the lilys because they are already blooming and will go by quickly. It has been a good birthday – as much as the Mini can hold!