i am unfinished

cherries

 

garage sale, part one

stay tuned for part two, sometime in march. stop by, scavenge a bit.

after the sale we busted out the goose egg. it was a present, but we're thinking maybe there's room for a goose on the urban farm, the way these ladies produce. also, my trader joe's flower find.

goose egg, meet chorizo. get acquainted. sorry you're out of focus, but the chorizo needs some love.

potatoes from last night, you're about to get a makeover.

meet the goose egg and friends.

  that's all for now...

: four

someday soon, more focus?

: three

: two, and a half

february: one

ten days in

raw food = ick.  i miss cooking.  i miss tasting ungrassy (and ungassy) food.  still we press on, with a couple of modifications:  eggs for breakfast and hummus whenever we crave it.  (oh, and that whole liberty market pre-opening party.  yeah, i cheated with a capital HELL YEAH! last night, and, i'm not gonna lie, it was the best white pizza i've ever eaten.  very much worth it.  especially the bacon crumbles.)  only one of us is holding out 100% for the whole month.  it definitely is not me, and i'm probably a little too ok with that.

but, juicing in the morning, afternoon or evening is awesome, and i have found that some sun-brewed chai tea with almond milk and agave syrup satisfies my "i don't even drink coffee but i want a pumpkin latte, dammit" cravings.  at least until i overdo it, like the watermelon/kale juice.  and for dinner, there's always the old standby of guacamole...on flax "chips".  yeah, those are getting old, too.  october has been pleasantly breezy and cool, which makes my attitude even worse as i realize i cannot turn on the oven and bake something "tangy and delicious."  twenty-one more days.  or not.

some shots of the soon-to-be-tilled summer side garden.  peace be with you.

october

to support a roommate and her mom through their decision to go raw, most of us in the house have committed ourselves to eating raw for the month of october.*  i wish we were earlier in the year, since cold soups, salads and juices would be more appealing, say, in august at the height of monsoon season, but october around here is pretty warm - we still hit 100 or higher most days, unfortunately.  over the next few weeks we will gradually slide into the 90s, then maybe the 80s if we're lucky, then by halloween we might feel like reaching for a jacket to go trick-or-treating.  so, this diet will ease us through the last few oven-hot days, and hopefully by november we'll have a laundry list of healthful recipes to combat the holiday season. to be honest, i am going to miss the stove and oven...a lot. 

but so far, eleven hours into day one, it's pretty fair going.  i've been promoted from "house cook" to "house raw chef," and have been sprouting, soaking and making nut butter and milk for a few days in preparation.  it's been very consuming, but that's ok, since i'm still not working.  we have a vita-mix blender on loan (grateful for that, though i've already overheated it and had it go into auto-lockdown on me within hours of getting it), and a champion juicer should be on a brown truck making its way to our house this very moment.  or, at least, by the end of the week.  i borrowed a dehydrator from my mom and already have made potato "chips" and have little individual crusts of almond, date and coconut...pate?...in the dehydrator for our first dessert.  we found four raw salads at whole foods for those days when we have to rely on fast food, but i've stocked the top two shelves of our fridge with things we can grab quickly, otherwise i likely would go insane.

i don't want this to turn into a raw food blog, but a couple of things i'm learning are advance preparation and creativity.  i'm already tweaking recipes to suit our tastes, and am trying to stay on top of soaking and sprouting so we always will have protein and fresh almond milk (mylk?).  anyway, it's going to be an interesting october, for sure. 

*full disclosure:  a couple of exceptions to our all raw diet include oktoberfest and tour de fat.  'cuz in the girl house, we really like beer.

planting day

 

saturday morning

at the botanical garden after dropping off cori at the airport.

why being unemployed for the moment isn't all terrible

i mean, it'd be nice to have money, a routine and the bit of security that comes with a job, but it's not all bad.  sometimes i get to have cheap lunch at pete's with reese and gage.  and sometimes he doesn't eat, but instead we watch him chase the pigeons chickens around in his now-filthy socks, throwing french fries at them and screaming "eat, chickens, eat!"  sometimes a crunchy piece of fish and a two-year-old are all you need.

all these things

that i've done

copy, paste, highlight all you've done.

What have you done?

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited

Paris

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning

Tower

of

Pisa

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in

Europe

.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited

Ireland

52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited

Japan

55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the

Great Wall of China

67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in

Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the

Snake River

82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to

Las Vegas

86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to

Thailand

90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the

Golden Gate

Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the

Grand Canyon

122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than

U.S.

states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

humbled

rufus and "rooster," the big chicken.  so ashamed.
(and no cracks about rooster's tail being bigger, jamie.  hims can't help it.)

called out

so, jamie...well, let's say i accept being the pot to her kettle.  slow and steady vs. high and whiney.  wait - unfortunately i'm usually the kettle to her pot.  sigh.

i thought that not a lot had been going on, but i was wrong.  after i "graduated" in may (yes, sr. lloyd, i now acknowledge the fake-ness of it all), i continued my work study position at asu through july 3.  i was released at the end of my allotment, only later to find that "they" had added an extra K to my funding, a little too late.  so i've been home for four weeks (four...weeks...), and have reached the end of myself many times over. 

the first few days were easy-peasy, with a little bit of sleeping in followed by garden watering, chicken feeding and egg wrangling; a few hours job searching and sending resumes to postings on craigslist, monster, jobbing, careerbuilder, etc; then a few hours of cleaning the kitchen, grocery shopping and cooking dinner most nights.  i had an interview the first day of my work-cation, but managed somehow to tell the interviewer that, actually, i went back to school to get out of the mortgage/corporate world.  it was hard to mask my relief at not being offered an auditor position, but i was able to feel sufficiently snubbed just the same.  (come on, people, i know auditor and editor kind of sound the same, but i'm pretty sure what i applied for was editor.)

the second week came and went like the first, and though i had an infinite amount of free time, i ended up on the couch a lot that week, not doing homework to finish my last class strong, but just sitting there.  i think i got through another season of alias that week, lost in the exciting life of sydney bristow and her burgeoning romance with agent vance.  my dreams took up a sense of urgency that week, so i have taken a little break from sydney and will try to keep it to two or three episodes per week, rather than per afternoon.

then it all went to hell. 

my housemate wendi had already been to new hampshire and back on the first leg of her sabbatical vacation, and was home not quite 24 hours before starting off on The Road Trip.  i decided (rather wisely, i thought) that i should not spend time and money on a road trip when i could stay home for free, and hopefully have a job lined up when she got home ten days later.  so off she went and it was just joyLynn and me in the house, since we had managed to get cori on a plane to ecuador for her seven-week stint with engineers without borders.  i made a free initial training appointment with my gym, got my butt kicked by the nice trainer man then declined his very pricey services since i am broke with no prospects, and came home to a ringing cell phone.  "this is air1 calling, and we're just catching up with our listeners to make sure we have current contact information."  (well, i haven't "listened" to air1 in about 5 years, more like a stop there from time to time when going through all the stations.)  "are you still at [current address]?"  yes...though how would they possibly know that?  "ok, good.  well, is there anything we can pray about for you?"  i told her that yes, i am looking for a job and having a terrible time finding anything to apply for, then i started crying and quickly got off the phone.  and, at least on the inside, i haven't stopped crying since.

so i made an appointment to see a counselor at school since that week i was stuck in the mire of depression, and also made a stop at jamie's for some wine, couch and jamie at home (funny, huh? jamie dvr's my tv-boyfriend for me) therapy.  and after both sessions i feel better, more hopeful.  still tired and frustrated, but not so close to the end of the rope.  wendi came home just over a week ago and rushed jacy and me off to the biltmore for some swim-up bar time.  sushi and martinis at blue wasabi, then chocolate cake from room service lifted our spirits enough to enjoy the super luxurious down-covered beds, where we all stayed until just before check-out time.  we had some drama by the pool, with a stolen hat and a bee that marked my head for his target, but it was a nice "other side of town" get-away just the same.  and with wendi around, there's little time for tv.  we have almost finished a new chicken fence so that we can take back control of the patio and compost pile.  and i've come back around to cooking and baking a bit...just need friends to eat the end results since i usually cook enough to feed a small village.

yesterday morning i had my second interview of those four weeks.  i think it went well, though that makes me nervous because usually i am offered positions after interviews that suck.  but i shall wait and keep applying, and if i am not chosen, well, let's just hope the interviews start stacking up a little more frequently.  trader joe's told me to try back in august, so try back i will.  in the meantime i am babysitting for home church kids and family, and maintaining my role as housewife by keeping up with the dishes and vacuuming.  my last class of undergrad work ends this friday, praises be.  below, a little picture gallery of projects and day-to-day happenings.  i'll try to blog more and hopefully will have good news of the "i was offered a job" sort soon.  very, very soon.

pretending

...to be the pioneer woman, though i'd like to live on a farm.

making green chili pork, from random recipes and head.  these onions came from our front garden, the last of the six or seven that actually took root and grew.

and so it went, into the crockpot.  because what better to do on your day off then procrastinate even more by making dinner?  i stopped taking pictures because the only camera i have is on my phone, and it got annoying taking, saving, sending at each step. 

and now, "carpenters" on pandora...thumbs down to you, barry manilow.