The carrot and the stick

Okay, so.

I've written previously about my goal this year of "doing good exercise for my body," because unfortunately it turns out that exercising actually makes me feel good (rude). I've been using an actual paper planner so I can cross off the things I achieved, which is satisfying--I'm using it to make sure I make these Patreon posts, too--and then I also felt that if I managed to meet 90% of my fitness goals in a month, I should get a reward! Yeah! Who doesn't love rewards?

The issue is that being the person who earns the reward while also being the person who provides the reward... sucks. And is bad. Also I couldn't come up with a good reward that I wouldn't just allow myself to buy anyway, so I was stuck for a while...

Until last Friday.

Behold! The carrot!

"But Scarlett," you say, "that's not a carrot, that's a glass cabinet from IKEA that you bought off OfferUp for $75!"

"You are correct," I respond, "and it's weird that you know those details."

Anyway, I've been wanting to create what is functionally an indoor greenhouse for a while now, so I can have a space for houseplants that want a more humid environment and keep them safe from the cats. This cabinet was my first reward for the year, and for the rest of the year if I meet my fitness goals, I get to buy one houseplant a month and stick it in here!

Currently it contains a somewhat crispy maidenhair fern I haven't quite managed to kill and a nerve plant grimly hanging on to life. The black cups are Japanese tea cups filled with water to try and make it more humid.

The silver brake fern is new because my wife convinced me to treat myself, which is why it looks good compared to the other two.

I need to get grow lights set up through the whole thing at some point, but one step (and one plant) at a time!

As long as we're here, please enjoy these pictures of Gyoza. I attempted to take some moody pictures of him because the lighting was good in the bedroom, and... well...