Meet our newest pet, "Popcorn"

...what, you thought it was an animal?

No, Popcorn has a pretty unique story. Mom got me a hot-air popcorn popper for Christmas, which I love and use often. It fills a mixing bowl perfectly with half a cup of popcorn kernels, with only one or two unpopped kernels left. These kernels either rattle around in the machine or get blown out onto the countertop, where I make my usual swipes with the wet dishcloth.

So the load with the wet dishcloth goes into the washer, followed by several other loads of laundry, and as I'm taking wet clothes out I hear something rattling around. Afraid it's another button off Justin's pants, I go searching and come up with this little popcorn kernel, which has suddenly sprouted.

When I brought it to Justin and showed him, he said, "I thought those things were sterile." I didn't have a good answer for that, other than shrugging and saying, "Well, so was I."

I was very respectful of Popcorn's....what? Tenacity? To go through a hot-air cycle where 99% of your fellow kernels are blown to smithereens (I picture something like Carousel in Logan's Run), then get smuggled aboard a wet dishcloth into a washing machine and put through several cycles, and still come out fighting. I admire that.

So Popcorn went into a silicone cupcake cup with shreds of wet paper towel, elementary-school style, and has been growing nicely. The first leaves are beginning to show their green behind that coleoptile (sheath) there. Ideally, I'd like to get Popcorn into a little planter of his or her own with some potting soil.