I finally got "unstuck" and started losing weight again. I'm down to 167.0 and feeling pretty happy about it. I just need to keep my appetite in check and start/keep exercising on a regular routine, and I'll be able to do this. Right? RIGHT?

School is chugging along, and Calculus is still kicking my bum. I've got it figured out that if I take at least 6 credits this summer and around 16-18 this fall, I'll be able to graduate with my Psych B.S. degree in December. That makes me feel good. If I can't figure out my Calculus, I get to take 6 credits this summer and 13-15 credits this fall, and I graduate with my Psych B.A. Let's see how Calculus goes...

Yesterday it smelled like spring. I became excited. Then more snow dumped on our heads. Today it smells like spring, but I'm not fooled.

And that's all I've got on my mind worth blogging about today. (Unless you want to hear me go back and forth on a BA vs a BS, or about how I'm so far behind in school work I think I have assignments piled up to my butt waiting for me to get around to them...) And now that I think about it, that wasn't even really worth it.

But hey, now you know. I am, indeed, still alive. :)

Labels: random

I have been reading EcoSherpa | Sustainable Living, Compost Guy | Turning Wastes Into Resources, and Red Worm Composting for several months now. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am interested in starting a compost bin near my garden. This bin would be my first foray into outdoor composting (my parents certainly never composted), and Bentley lives in Canada, and thus he experiments with winter composting. As my recent snow pictures show, I also have to be concerned about temperatures dropping in the winter.

For the past six months or so, I've been looking at worm systems for interior composting. I also have absolutely zilch experience with this, but I never let that stop me from doing something. As can be seen by my Lettuce Project, I am interested in finding ways to feed my red-eared slider turtle locally and for cheaper. Red wrigglers, a source of food for my slider, are the worms used in worm composting.

I have no idea if it is a good idea to use red wrigglers from the interior bin to feed my turtle or not, but I figure if I'm "feeding" the wrigglers organic food left-overs from my garden and newspaper or cardboard not sprayed with paint or some other harmful substance, they shouldn't be able to harm my turtle, right? And apparently, if you get a bin set up really well, they will reproduce. Of course, I need to keep enough worms in the bin to compost the bin, but I think they could provide a nice snack for Timothy. Follow my reasoning?

Last night, I set out to make a deluxe bin as instructed by Bentley. Aaron found a set of tubs at Wal-Mart that are made of 75% pre- and post-consumer plastic, I placed quite a bit of cardboard and newspaper (mixed about equally and shredded into small inch x inch pieces) into my bin and now I'm starting to cover it with food waste. In a few weeks, after my bin has quite a bit more food waste and bedding layered into it, I will order some worms. I'll keep you updated on how it works!


I didn't make this picture pretty at all, just snapped and uploaded. Sorry - didn't have the time! :)

Bentley's Deluxe Worm Bin Video

Timothy and Kai having a little chat:

Labels: environment, gardening

I try to post about once a day, as I know that I check blogs I read frequently. Really, its too frequently to admit. Recently, I discovered the feeds option, and that keeps me from clicking on a blog 100-200 times in a day (what, wait, did I admit something?) to see if its updated. That's freed up a lot of my time which I use to... to... read more blogs. Ugh! I admitted it! I'm up to about sixty blogs which I check daily, and I read even more every day.

After noticing how my list had grown exponentially, I realized that some of those people I read I really just can't stand. So I eliminated about four. That still leaves me with around fifty-five blogs to check daily! Holy smokes.

I spend an increasing amount of time on the computer as my snow-filled days continue to loom, and I realized that I'm really just trying to make it through each day until spring comes. Low-level depression anyone?

I have already decided that Sundays are no blog-days. No checking of blogs, no reading of blogs, no writing of blogs. I think I'm going to stick with that, too. Maybe. If I can get over my obsession of hitting "refresh."

Now, if I can just not add any more blogs to my list. None, nope, zilch. I'm going to spend my new "free" time staring at my fingernails, instead.

Labels: random

No one likes admitting their mistakes. Well, hardly anyone likes admitting their mistakes. I'm sure there is some misshapen crayon out there.

I... Yes, I must do this. I... I made a mistake.

I was really trying to help. Trying to make it easier on all of our (read: my family and traumatized friends) lives. I just wanted to give him something in which to relate. Something that he could identify with. You know, to help him figure out the right way to do this. I went about it all the wrong way, and now he is so confused. So very confused.

You see...

...When I was teaching him how to put on his own underwear, I told him to put the tag in back, and the pocket in front..

Nate: Mommy, look, I put my hands in my pants.
Jen: Nate, you really shouldn't stick your hands in your pants like that.
Nate: But, Mommy, it's a pocket!
Jen: Oooooh. Oooooh crap.



What a charmer.

Labels: random

I was hit bad by the crud, and just haven't felt like writing lately. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be back in full force and ready to titillate you with my scintillating personality.

Ahem.

:)

Labels: random

...for most posts in a single day.



I took this picture standing outside waiting for the eclipse. I just turned the flash off, set the camera on a tripod, and clicked. I like it. :)



Please feel free to click on the pictures, then click on "see different sizes", and make it larger to see it better.



Pretty cool, huh? Pictures of the total lunar eclipse tonight. :) I am not a photographer, I didn't have a telephoto zoom lens, and I have a $20 tripod (if that). I didn't alter these in any way, and I know they aren't "great."

Shoot me.

I like 'em anyway. ;)

Labels: outdoors

Each day at work while I eat my lunch, I hop on Slashdot and see what the latest buzz is in the IT world. I think I read the tech news because it's more interesting to me and less depressing than the real news. Today I ran across the results of a competition that I hadn't yet heard of and the contenders that made it to the top two positions really caught my interest. In classic Miss America form, I'll proceed with the runner-up first, then the grand prize winner:

Second Place

http://www.core77.com/competitions/greenergadgets/projects/4306/ (Hit Ctrl+A to read the description)

Behold the stunning Gravia!

The Gravia is a concept floor lamp (around 4 feet tall) that uses a falling weight to turn a generator that produces the electricity to give off light equivalent to about a 40 watt bulb. Once the weight reaches the floor (after 4 hours), you place the weight back at the top and you have another 4 hours of light.

This is one of those concepts that I wish was a reality and I wish only cost $20 so I could buy one. Because it has a beautiful design, I think this product would do very well if reasonably priced since appearance is so key in a decision to purchase. Stepping past its attractive looks, I'm impressed by the mechanism that converts the potential energy of the weight to the kinetic energy of the weight dropping, then to the electrical energy that powers the LEDs. While I would have imagined the weight falling much faster than 4 feet in 4 hours, the machine is designed to use gearing and resistance to slow the fall as much as possible.

Make me one. Now.

And speaking of making me one, a DIY project made:

First Place

http://www.core77.com/competitions/greenergadgets/projects/4621/ (Hit Ctrl+A to read the description)

This is a homemade product that plugs into your wall outlet that you then plug your electrical devices into. The display shows the amount of energy your device is consuming at any given time, i.e. if you plug in a lamp that uses a 40 watt light bulb you should, theoretically see "40" on the display. Making sure that your light bulb is consuming its proper amount of energy is not very useful but the value of the EnerJar becomes much more apparent when monitoring more complex devices such as your computer, a DVD player, a TV, etc.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to sell this thing...I'm just so excited to get started on building my own! I've been wanting a power monitor for quite some time but haven't been able to justify the cost. Now that these plans are available, I have a low-cost project that won't require as much time as if I'd sat down and engineered the circuits from scratch. Plus, not having to design the circuits gives me a bit of additional time to see if I can shrink everything to fit inside one of the hundred-or-so baby-food jars we have sitting around.

I plan to post pics of my progress once I get started on my EnerJar so check back in a couple of weeks or so!

Labels: environment, product reviews

I haven't really written an introductory post about the gardening challenge I'm taking this year. Melinda over at Elements in Time: Creating Edible Landscape is hosting a challenge to grow one additional type of vegetable or fruit from seed this year.

I had already started some seeds (of which most are being stubborn and doing nothing) from some packets I had laying around from last year. I figured I'd go ahead and try it to see what happened, while I'm waiting for new seeds to get here. I'm pretty much a garden moron, as I used to have what I called a terminal black thumb, but in recent years I've actually managed to let my house plants stay alive, and last year I grew some tomatoes and peppers from seed.

It was a major accomplishment, let me tell you.

Here's a basic outline of what I've got planned (in my head) for this year:
1) I would like to scrape up enough money to build several cedar-board raised beds behind our garage where we had tilled last year. Eventually, I'd like the entire area behind the garage to either be raised bed, compost bin, coldframe, what I'm calling a "gardener bin", shed, or some kind of ground cover (perhaps a type of stone with mint or something else grown in between it). No grass at all.
2) Build the compost bin, coldframe, and gardener bin.
3) Plant tomatoes (cherry and large), corn (new), green beans (new), peas (new), peppers, eggplant (new), squash (new), Camellia sinensis (new), and hops (new). I'd like to plant more, but this is my "starting list."
4) Maintain raspberry and blackberry bushes, strawberries, and giggle at the grape vine.
5) Finish the fence.
6) Plant/transplant herb garden.

Here's what I've got going so far. I can't remember what all I threw in there, but some of it is laughing at me. I can tell. I did label each cup to see what happened with each type of seed, but I'm too lazy to go look right now.


Only the tomatoes and jalapenos have sprouted here.


Only the cilantro has sprouted here.

Just for fun, Nate and I planted some apple seeds. Those sure took off.


He sure enjoys going in to the living room and checking to see if his "apples" have grown yet! :)

Labels: gardening

This video might interest some of you.

"The Tensas River Reforestation Project will sequester over 450,000 tons of
carbon dioxide, expand wildlife habitat in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, and
help bridge the gap while we transition to a clean energy future." - Carbonfund.org

What do you think of the reforestation projects and offset projects? I haven't invested any money in it yet, but when I exit school, I may very well put a small portion of my income towards a project like this. I'm still looking at all the data about the programs.

Labels: environment

We've been working on potty training Nate for a few weeks now, and I'm happy to say he only has around one accident a day. I have no idea why he has that accident, but since it used to be accidents ten times a day, I'm not complaining.

He's gotten to be a bit bigger than he was a year ago when we tried (and failed), and his 2T-3T underwear were a little... tight. Aaron picked him up some 4T underwear (which are a little big) last night and we opened them up to show him his TRUCKS (said in the voice of that one guy with the girl's name on the tv show Trucks before he was replaced by two guys I don't like) and sports underwear.

Sammi thought it was time to have a fashion show.



Sammi says, "I see you!"

If you are friends of ours on Flickr, there are more photos posted. :)

Labels: random

A friend of mine from Fazed (Warning, Warning: Adult Content Web Site Hither.) posted his world-champion award-winning Lasagna Soup. Well, okay, I don't think it has actually won any awards, and probably isn't a world-champion. But it should be. Unfortunately for me, his soup had meat in it. Rather than give up completely, I decided to vegetarianize it.

I often take meat recipes and make them vegetarian recipes. I'd love to figure out how to make them vegan recipes, but I haven't gotten quite that far yet (which is why I've included a lot of vegan cookbooks on my wedding registry, because I don't have the skill yet to make them up on my own). This lasagna soup has quite a lot of cheese in it, so I just halved the amount I put in the recipe, reducing animal product consumption (and that's my goal, remember?).

Now, this recipe had "bulk Italian sausage" in it. Obviously, that had to go. I replaced it with a pound and a half equivalent of veggie crumbles. A pound (equivalent) of veggie crumbles would be good, too, but I happened to have a pound and a half on hand. Veggie crumbles are a ground beef substitute for vegetarians. You can normally find them near the frozen breakfast food section of the freezers in your local Wal-Mart, Hyvee, or Target. I don't know where they'd be located in other stores, but always feel free to ask an employee where the "vegetarian meat" is at. Boca is one company that makes them and Morningstar is another.

There is a big difference between veggie crumbles and Italian sausage. That difference is spices. I looked up a few recipes that comprise homemade Italian seasoning, and decided to give that a whirl.

Jen's Italian Seasoning (Mix and Mash of other people's recipes)

2 T dried oregano
1.5 T dried basil
1.5 T dried parsley
.5 T garlic powder
1 t dried thyme
1 t dried rosemary
.5 t onion powder
Black Pepper (about 1/8 - 1/2 of a teaspoon is good, depending on your taste)
Red Pepper (same as above)

Next, I took one tablespoon of Jen's Italian Seasoning (feel free to put the rest in an airtight container and hold on to it for later) and one tablespoon of dried fennel, and put it in a coffee grinder. I ground it all together until most of the fennel was chopped into smaller bits, and then dropped it and a tablespoon of olive oil into a large stockpot on low heat. After the herbs had spent a little bit of time simmering in the olive oil, I dropped in the pound and a half (equivalent) of veggie crumbles. I mixed those all together with my handy dandy spoon.

After that I looked back to Toonz recipe and added in two cups of chopped onions. Again, I deviated a tiny little bit, adding two cups of sliced carrots next (instead of one cup of minced carrots). Then, following his recipe, I added in two tablespoons of bottled minced garlic. I sauted that together on high heat for around four minutes altogether.

Next I added in two cans of vegetable broth (equivalent of four cups), 1 can of Italian-stewed tomatoes (whole, with juice), and 1 can tomato sauce. I brought that to a boil and added in two cups of uncooked gemelli pasta. After about 3 minutes, I brought the heat down to medium-low and let it simmer for an additional ten - twelve minutes. Last, I dropped in a bag of fresh spinach (around two cups, whole leaf) and stirred it until it wilted (but not so much that it resembled spinach from a can, because I'm not a fan of that stuff).



To serve, I put in half of a handful of shredded mozarella cheese, ladled the soup on top, garnished with a small amount of shredded parmesan, a few sprinkles of dried basil, and more red pepper (to taste).



Aaron's rating? "I wouldn't be able to tell this was vegetarian." Score!

Jen's Take On Toonz's Lasagna Soup
1 T Jen's Italian Seasoning
1 T Fennel
1 T olive oil
1 - 1.5 pounds of veggie crumbles
2 cups onion, chopped
2 cups carrots, sliced
2 Tb minced garlic
4 cups vegetable broth
1 can (14.5 oz) Italian-stewed tomatoes, whole
1 can (15) tomato sauce
2 cups uncooked curly pasta (I used gemelli)
2 cups fresh spinach
shredded mozzarella
shredded Parmesan
dried basil & red pepper for garnish

If you try it - let me know what you think! I'm love with the scent and colors of this meal, not to mention the amazing taste. (Thanks Toonz!)

Labels: cooking

143 million pounds of beef were recalled on Sunday, according to CNN. One hundred forty-three million. 143,000,000.00 pounds of beef. Why? The slaughter house is not supposed to allow cows which cannot stand on their own to be slaughtered for our meat. But they were. Not only were they allowing these health-risky cows to enter into our food supply, but they were abusing them as they did it. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I don't care about the "animals are people too" claim of most vegetarians. Animals are a part of our food supply, they just happen to be part of the food supply that I avoid as much as possible. On the flip side, I firmly believe in respect for all people and things. Circle of life - but with respect. These animals were not being treated with respect.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/18/beef.recall/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4305151&page=1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7249911.stm

I'm grateful that Aaron doesn't complain about my desire to keep meat not tended with respect and sustainability out of our diet. I just finished the meal plan for this week and we have one pound of meat in all of our meals (excluding Aaron's fastfood, which he does on his time and dime). One pound for one week. How many Americans eat far more than one pound a day, per household? And, I won't even be eating that one pound of meat. It's Aaron's "free day" meat (I'm in class on Thursday nights, so he cooks whatever he wants that night).

News like this reminds me of why I started a new lifestyle last November. News like this makes me glad that I have stuck with it*.

I realize that the cows probably aren't affected with anything as no health claims have been made yet- but does that really matter? This slaughterhouse, which could be one thousand or more miles away from you, wasn't abiding by the rules. You never would have known if it wasn't for an undercover video by the Humane Society. How many other places are practicing unsanitary and cruel practices? Considering I don't even like the practices that are allowed under law, I'd rather not think about how many unlawful acts are being committed too.

Are you thinking about growing more of your own food? Are you thinking about reducing your meat consumption? If you are, I can help with good recipes that taste great. I can't help with the mindset that meat is a cornerstone of a meal. You have to change that yourself. Not thinking about any of these things? I wish you'd at least think about growing some vegetables in your back yard, window box, or interior of your house. (Remember my lettuce project? That is growing completely indoors, by a window, with a grow lamp for supplemental light.)

* I have eaten some meat since November. For my birthday I had 1/4 of a new york strip. When I visited Jory I had a piece of steak. I've had probably a total of two pounds of hamburger. I've eaten probably a pound of deer (which I don't have anything against as deer are not "farmed" and are overpopulated). I've had chicken from a local sustainably farmed chicken. I think I had two pieces of bacon, too. It smelled good. :\

Labels: environment, news

Aaah. We got even more snow this weekend. Here's the last post I made on the subject.

Here are the new photos!


I took this picture inside, looking out the window. I didn't want to traipse across the back yard in that deep snow to get the right angle to take this picture, plus it wasn't done snowing yet! See how it has two "layers" of snow? The wind formed the "top" layer first, and then with the most recent snowfall it created the bottom layer.


Another looking-out-the-window picture. The snow is so heavy, it bowed down all the branches of our bush.


It's getting hard to tell that our fountain is even there!


Want to pull out a chair? I'll grab you some hot cocoa.


I love the trees in our back yard. This is the one I normally think of as the "ugly tree," but for some reason, it looks nice with a dusting of snow.


That bush looks positively awful. Can you believe it is normally taller than the roof?


My garden flag is nearly completely buried!


That's me! Aaron is standing up on the deck and looking down at me. That snow drift that appears to be near my waist is actually as tall as I am. :) He was too cold to come down and take a real comparison shot. Look at allll that snow.

Brr.

Labels: random

A week or so ago, I decided I wanted to make some greek-inspired food: caponata, baklava, and what Giada calls "Crispy Smoked Mozarella with Honey and Figs."

The caponata is composed mostly of things that I can grow in my garden, therefore, it makes a very good meal. The ingredients are one can diced tomatoes, two zucchini, two summer squash, two tomatoes, one large eggplant, one red onion, one potato, three garlic cloves, olive oil, salt, black pepper, and oregano. (Click the link above for specifics.) If I actually can my tomatoes this year, I could get the first four ingredients out of my garden, and the first seven if I plant red onion and garlic. Perfect!

First you put in a layer of diced tomatoes in a 9"x13" casserole dish.



Next you slice up all the vegetables and combine them in a bowl as you slice them.





I used some tongs to mix all of the vegetables so the spices and olive oil equally coated them. After that, I just poured the vegetables on top of the tomatoes in the 9"x13" pan.





Last, you put it in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables start to darken. While this was happening, I was working on the baklava and mozzarella.



We put our caponata on slices of fresh sourdough bread. It was heavenly. This dish is very easy to make and it tastes amazing. I recommend it heavily. (Again, the full recipe courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis is provided through the link above.)

The baklava was a little harder to make and it was my first foray into the world of phyllo. First I had problems getting it to defrost and then I had problems getting it to stay pliable without tearing apart. This was definitely a little more difficult than most recipes I try. However, now that I've done it once, I could do it again with no problems at all.



You take these extremely thin sheets of phyllo and plaster six of them together, layering each with melted butter. You cut your sheets into 12 pieces. Then you take the ingredients which you minced via a food processor and place a tablespoon in each 1/12th of a phyllo sheet. You fold them up into a mini-muffin pan, and then you start over again with another set of phyllo sheets, to make 24 total. You are actually supposed to "twist" the tops of the baklava packages, but that surely wasn't happening. I just kind of smushed mine in.



These are so delicious that I will certainly make them again. ...or I'll at least make the filling. (By the way, the phyllo was hardening too fast, so I had Aarons help in smushing and filling. Thanks honey!)

Last, I made the "smoked" mozarella. Unfortunately we couldn't find any smoked mozarella, so we just used plain mozarella. It worked out perfect. I absolutely despise frying, so I got the packages ready for Aaron, and he fried them for me.



They look rather like tiny burritos and mushrooms, instead of mozarella wrapped in phyllo and figs. Neat!



Num, num!

Labels: cooking

This winter has been a particularly snowy and cold one for us Iowans. I thought I'd put up some photos to illustrate what I'm talking about. Keep in mind that currently the drifts in our yard, where Aaron shoveled the snow from the driveway, and wind blew snow, are as tall as I am. In the rest of the yard the snow is between one foot and 3 feet deep. The "water" part of our fountain is covered with snow, and our yard table's chairs have snow up and covering the part you sit in. It's deep. It's cold. There's snow everywhere.

I can't wait for spring.

The pictures below are not the latest. These were taken right before another foot fell on us about a day or two later.


Yes, that's right. An icicle is reaching from the roof almost all the way down to the ground.


Our snow-mounded driveway. Later pictures will show you how big that mound on the left really is.


Here I've crouched down in front of that mound and aimed my camera straight at it for my crouched eye level. What I mean, is I'm not pointing up to try to make it look bigger. That thing is over 5' tall. ;)


Same mound with my glove thrown on it for added perspective.


This is our fountain a year and 2 months ago.


This is our fountain nearly 8 days ago.


I'm not wading over to THAT table any time soon...


Think the kids would like to swing?

So, I'm looking at seed catalogs, drawing out blueprint style what my raised beds and compost bin are going to look like, and doing it all while being surrounded by this much SNOW.

When is it going to be spring again? :)

Labels: gardening, random

It wasn't a stretch to figure out who I am thankful for today. When I met Aaron two and a half years ago, he told me about his large family and I knew I was in trouble. They are nearly all devout Catholics (which impresses me) with a strong sense of right and wrong, who came from small town Iowa. I had a kid. Out of wedlock.

Wanda was probably not happy with her son's choice, but she never once treated me inferior. She welcomed me, talked to me, hugged me, and more important than anything else, she accepted Nate. Ironically, I can't seem to find any pictures of her and Nate in my very cursory search, although I know I have them. She's never treated him any different, as far as love, than she has Sammi. That has meant so much to me, and so much to my son.

Wanda is slow to temper, patient, and very nice. She has inspired me to be a better woman, mother, and (soon-to-be) wife. She has come to be like a second mother to me (but one I tell inappropriate things to, and then blush because I really shouldn't have said that).

I'm thankful for her presence, but I'm also thankful for the things she has done for Aaron and I. She watches the children for about twelve hours a week so I can go in to school and take classes and work in the lab. She does this for free, and doesn't complain. She is helping us to pay for our wedding, and completely paying for the reception, because she knows we don't have the money and my parents don't either. She wants what is best for her son, and she acts on it.

I find that admirable. I find her admirable.

Plus, she's just too dang beautiful. She's always dressed nice with great accessories, and I'm normally in ratty old jeans and a threadbare t-shirt. I'm like the ugly step-daughter to her put together beautiful lady.


Wanda and Sammi the day Sammi was born.


Wanda and Sammi at Sammi's first birthday. (Check it out - she had no hair! Sammi, that is.)

Thank you, Wanda.

----------------------
See list of other participants here.

Labels: thankful thursday

Wow. It's been ages since the last time I did a lettuce project update. Over a month, in fact!

Here are two pictures after horrible Operation Pinenut and Operation Granola. The lettuce made a resurgence.


If you click on it, you can see how the real lettuce is starting to grow.


Here's some more "real" lettuce growth.

Then, six days later:


It got larger!

Fourteen days later (today) it looks like a jungle in there!



This has been fun and I can't wait to see how it changes over the next few months. :)

Labels: lettuce project

Today I seem to be out of thoughts. I could tell you about how I burned my hands last night with jalapeno juice. It hurt. Bad. For hours. Then I had to scratch my eye, and I used my non-burning hand, but apparently it had some juice on it, and I spent 5 minutes in the shower flushing out my eye. And then both hands were burning. Aaron and I finally tried putting my hands in milk to stop the burning (thank the Internet for that one). It worked, but only because the milk was so cold that my hands went numb.

I'm not kidding. It hurt. I've been through childbirth - twice. I had Nate with absolutely no medications (and no IV). I know what pain is. My hands HURT. Ow. OW. Today they just feel like they've been sunburned a little.

But other than that story, I'm apparently very boring today. Wait. Who am I kidding. That's every day. :D

Labels: random

This morning, as I awoke, a thought popped into my head. It wasn't a welcome thought. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I was remembering a humiliating moment that occurred in the summer of 2001. (Why did I have this thought? Was I dreaming about it?)

One of my internet-friends had flown into my state, rented a car, and we were driving down to St. Louis for SimuCon, an annual party for the game we both played. It was about a 5-7 hour drive, so we were talking about a variety of subjects. At some point, I used the word "facade" in a sentence. You and I (probably) know that you pronounce it with a soft "c": "Fa-sahd." Well, at the time, I didn't know that.

Robert was one of those annoyingly accurate individuals about all manners of grammar, pronounciation, and, well, really anything to do with English. I wanted to be like him. (Unfortunately, as you can tell, that never worked out for me.) I didn't pronounce it "fa-sahd." Oh no.

I pronounced it "fa-kade."

Oh, how I didn't want to admit that. In any case, he almost had to pull over because he was laughing at me that hard. I think he might have had a tear in his eye.

I blushed. A lot. And then he told me how you really pronounce it. Ever since then, I have avoided the use of the word "facade" in a sentence. I don't know if I'll ever say it aloud again.

Labels: random

Some background: in recent years I have been a Diet Coke addict. We're talking 4-6 cans of Diet Coke a day. For a variety of reasons, I didn't want to sustain this habit. It's bad for me, it's expensive, and it's bad for the environment. I decided back in November to quit Diet Coke cold turkey and start drinking tea. As long as I drink caffeinated tea, for the most part I'm able to do this. Every once in awhile since then I've had to indulge long and hard in my Diet Coke habits and then I'm able to drink tea for days.

My friend Jory has been a supporter of loose tea for a couple years now, and on my most recent trip he turned me. Then, for my birthday, he gifted me some tea from Adagio. Oh my. I'm in tea heaven.

I had purchased genmai cha a week back, and then his shipment arrived. I now have my tin of genmai cha, two tins of cha cha (oops, the shipping document states one), a jasmine sample, an apricot green sample, a tin of vanilla, and a valentines sample.

I drink. A lot. Of anything. Diet coke, beer, liquor, water. I can drink gallons. I'm not going to tell you how much tea I actually drink in a day, at this point, because I'd find it extremely humiliating.

But I will tell you that I feel like I'm floating away. On tea.

Edit: Here's an easier way to get your $5 gift certificate.

Labels: cooking, random

What are some of your favorite coffee table books? (And if you are reading this, please respond. Please. I get very lonely and I just want to have a conversation. Can you understand?)

This semester I'm studying classical Rome and Greek mythology and I'm incredibly interested in finding a good coffee table book detailing maps with the countries named in their own language from a wide range of history. For example, a map from 1900 with the borders of Germany detailed as they were in that time, but labeled with "Deutschland." Or a map from 1500 which shows the original name for Greece with its borders. I think that would be fascinating to have on hand when I'm reading plays and stories from ancient times (as I'm wont to do).

Anyone hear of a good one? Any ideas of where to look? (Please talk to me. Even about something else. Anything.)

Labels: random

When I was in second or third grade, I worked hard with my Talented and Gifted teacher to create a "computer program." From what I remember, I illustrated slides and then put in commands to change slides. The slides, and thus my program, told a story. As this was years ago, I don't remember the specifics at all, and perhaps my memory is faulty. In any case, I was entered into a state-wide competition and I ended up winning third place.

I can remember going to the award ceremony at a city's large auditorium (I can't remember if it was in Ames or in Des Moines) with my mom and my teacher. I have no idea if my dad was there or not. More importantly, right before they called out my name, I told my mom that I was terrified to go up there on stage in front of hundreds of people. "What if they laugh at me? Am I supposed to stay on stage or am I supposed to walk off after I get my award?" She told me that they wouldn't laugh at me, and when I got up there, the man would tell me what to do. She said she wasn't sure, as I was the first person of the evening to get an award.

My name was called, my heart pounded, my palms started to acquire sweat. I walked up the long aisle to the stage and walked across to the man. He handed me my plaque.

I froze. What was I supposed to do now? His mic was on and he whispered, "It's okay honey, you can get off the stage now." I blushed, I shook. Everyone laughed. I walked, very quickly, off the stage clutching my plaque.

Is this really a humiliating moment? No, not really. But it is one that I always remember, embarrassed, and wishing that I had known what I was supposed to do so I wouldn't have been laughed at.

Labels: random

Today, I am thankful that I live in a country where access to water is as simple as turning on a faucet. I'm thankful that I live in a country that has so much food production, that many people have the ability to become obese, although I'm not thankful that many of us are. I'm thankful that I have shelter and warmth when storms rage across the country.

I'm thankful that I have all of these things, and I'm thankful that I don't take it for granted.

Labels: thankful thursday

I have a fascination with learning languages. I took two and a half years of Spanish in high school and one class in college, I'm in my fourth semester of German in college, and I think I'm going to start learning Russian next. After that? I'd love to learn Arabic. Meanwhile, I have to keep up my competence with the languages I already know. I've been listening to podcasts in German recently, and I severely need to brush up my Spanish so perhaps I'll take some beginner lessons via podcast.

What languages do you know? What languages do you wish you knew?

All my classes in psychology have taught me that teaching children new languages as early as possible helps them to learn and retain language-related information. Do you teach your children to be multi-lingual? In what? How?

Labels: random

My birthday was last Sunday (yes, Superbowl Sunday). On Sunday I was a whole day older than I was on Saturday! Exciting!

I just must say that I am blessed with my family. I was gone Saturday night in Des Moines, partyin' it up at my (old) favorite clubs and bars with some close friends. I am not a talented dancer, but I do enjoy myself. On tables, bars, stages... any surface on which I can climb on top. Yes. Really. No, I don't know why I feel the need to do these things. Just another aspect of my rebel personality. I had a blast reconnecting with friends and my favorite bartender.

When I arrived back home, I had a plethora of surprises waiting for me. Aaron, Nate, and Sammi all got together to create a beautiful cake for me. On Nate's side of the cake, the letters are placed haphazardly in a beautiful arrangement. On Sammi's side of the cake, the letters are pushed nearly completely under the frosting in some sort of beautiful display of love and affection.


Do you see the "four"? Aaron jury-rigged that up for me from some candles we had laying around from Nate's second birthday. As I'm such a proponent of reuse, reduce, recycle, I felt extremely touched. And laughed my butt off.

Aaron also had arranged for some touching notes and favorite items for me. When I walked in he was quick to note his artistry on our basement door.


Isn't that just amazing? Even more amazing is when Nate (3.5 years) walks up to it and goes, "H, A, P, P, Y, B, I, R, T, H, D, A, Y. Happy birthday!" Of course he then looks at the pictures and repeats, "Happy Birthday cake!" Aaww, at least it's close.


Aaron cooked one of my favorite (non-vegetarian, oops) meals involving strip steak, penne, arrugula (we normally substitute this as its hard to find), and a killer dressing.


Earlier in the day he bought my (originally his) favorite champagne, and had the kids stamp their hands with fingerpaint on a piece of paper and framed it. I love it. :)

I loved the cake too:


Yes, I was in my pajamas. It was my birthday, dangit.


Sammi knew it was my birthday. She blew me a kiss. (Okay, in this picture, she's actually kissing at Aaron. But a few seconds after that...)

Before the meal, I got to deal with some of the same stuff I deal with all the time. Aaahh, kids.


"Mommy! Mommy! I want this-that-or-the-other!" Okay. That isn't what he really said. And she just grabs on to my legs and won't let go.

However, after dinner, I got two more awesome surprises.


On Friday night, Aaron had begun work on my computer. On Sunday, it was finally working.


So pretty.


Thank you honey!

Some more pictures on Flickr.

Labels: random

I promised you pictures of my new teapot and the flowering teas. I do not disappoint. I don't know if you are aware of this, but making a good pot of tea takes an immense amount of work. I feel I should be given an award for all of the effort I put into this beautiful experience. (Please click on the images to be taken to my Flickr site where they are larger, if you want to see more detail. It's really neat.)


Step One: Have a clean teapot and a flowering tea bundle.


Step Two: Open bundle and remove flowering tea. Place tea in empty tea pot.


Step Three: Pour hot water into teapot right on top of flowering tea.


Step Four: Watch it start to unfold.


Step Five: Marvel at the flower that has taken up residence in your tea pot.

Labels: cooking

The other day I picked up a book at the library that Michael Pollan wrote called Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. I haven't actually completely read this book yet, but I am very interested in how my thinking changes throughout the chapters. As some of you know, I choose not to eat meat very often. I'm not a complete vegetarian or vegan, but I come very close (I try to explain it by saying I'm an environmental vegetarian-inspired eater). I substitute nearly everything: soy milk for cow's milk, TVP or other veggie meat for regular meat, soft tofu for eggs, extra firm tofu for meat in stir fry, etc. I've even reduced the meat that my children and fiance eat, although they still eat far more than I do, as I eat less than a pound of any meat substance every six weeks. As far as milk, cheese, and eggs go - well, I eat a lot more of that. I try to eat half of my meals in a week completely vegan and half of them vegetarian. My goal is to grow most of my produce in my own backyard, and accordingly I've been amping up the amount of vegetables I plant each year.

Back to the book - in the introduction, Michael Pollan writes, "The Omnivore's Dilemma is about the three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer." Apparently, he follows each track from the beginning to a meal in the book. I'm interested to see what all he finds. Later, he goes on, "The book's second part follows what I call [...] the pastoral food chain. This section explores some of the alternatives to industrial food and farming that have sprung up in recent years (variously called "organic," "local," "biological," and "beyond organic"), food chains that might appear to be preindustrial but in surprising ways turn out in fact to be postindustrial." Whoa. I'm intrigued.

Anyone else read this book or have any insight?

Labels: random