Spray paint: not just for wannabes tagging the library book drop

Check out what's going on my new front porch:

RIGHT??? Those are just the cheapo army-green plastic window boxes from Wal-Mart that I bought three years ago. Only now, one can of spray paint later, they are art. That right there is $3.87 worth of awesome.

We won't get into how much the awesomeness of the plants cost, though. I think it's safe to say I got a tiny bit carried away at The Greenhouse, which lured me into its embrace by being just across the street from Crumb Brothers Cafe after my sister Jenny and I toasted her 30th birthday with breakfast on their patio. In honor of our advancing ages and genetic predisposition to high cholesterol, we went for quiche and strata. Both were wonderful.

But anyway. The Greehouse. Really cool place, with huge tanks of koi that the Dark Lord enjoyed staring at. They also were so thoughtful as to leave an empty bucket in the pebble beds lining the koi tanks, and he would have quite happily filled that entire bucket with pebbles, one by one, but I needed to get out of there before I succumbed and bought more things.

Anybody working on any beautification projects? And by "beautification" I absolutely can mean something as simple as "kill that spider that is living by the front door."