Green Thumbs Needed Immediately

Come Christmas Even, my sister and I will be heading to DFW, and since we'll be staying for a week, my plants are in dire need of a plant-sitter. I'm not much of a plant keeper, and my thumbs are no more green than alabaster, but I've become rather attached to my plants. Selfish as I am, I really need someone to watch over my plants while I head home for some good cooking and some good-ol-rotten spoiling by the dear parents. Some of you might remember that when in grad school, I killed three lychee plants when I abandoned them when I flew home in a mad rush over some holiday vacation. It might have been an un-planned last-minute Thanksgiving rush, or maybe it was Christmas. But it was cold and dry. So they died. Poor things.

This time, I've got to find a caretaker because I don't just have three lychee plants. In fact, I have:

• 1 cyclamen
• 2 potted mums
• 1 azalea plant
• 2 phalaenopsis orchids
• 1 black jewel orchid
• 1 amaryllis
• 8 red tomato plants (separately potted -- for the time being)
• 1 pot of wintergreen mints
• 1 pot of basil

That's a whole lot of dying if they all go. I don't know if I can handle finding all of them wilted and dead -- not that they'll all die within one week. But it's cold and getting colder. And there isn't that much humidity or moisture in the air. Additionally, we just had some friends over for dinner and they came bearing gifts -- three evergreens. I dunno what they are yet, but they're so cute, and now can be added to the list of other plants in danger of dying. Sigh.

Any takers on plant-sitting? You can raid the fridge for anything and everything, which is plenty since I foolishly went shopping Monday and stocked up for three weeks worth of fruits and vegetables. Don't ask why. You can also use the free wi-fi that we get from the surrounding seminaries. We pick up PSR's free wi-fi service, I think. There's no cable, but you can pick up quite a few channels with our magnificent aluminum foil wrapped around cheap store-bought antennae (CBS, ABC, NBC half-time, PBS, and some of the Chinese channels).

With such an alluring invitation, how can you resist?