Pearfect!

Don't ever get them wet, and don't ever feed them after midnight.

I have a busy weekend planned--my sister, her husband, and their four kids are driving down for a visit this weekend. Wow, six people visiting my house. It should be fun though, hoping the rainy weather will improve.

Wish me luck!

A little calm before the storm

Mobile

For some reason I really like things that hang from the ceiling. This was bought in a store that sells handcrafts made by South American artisans.

Bloom 1

Finally!

You Heard it Here

Looking for some good ol' laughing at your fellow human being? Check out this blog--one of my favourites now that "Things I Hate About my Flatmate" is gone:

Overheard in New York

The Current Read

Reading this with mom and sis.

Victuals

Though not actually vegan, I do have a vegan cookbook that I often use. These were some fun dairy-less spinach manicotti that I made. Also on this week's menu: a lentil and eggplant goulash. Very tasty, and it made me reminisce about the one Mom used to make when I was young.

Running Update

It's getting harder to make myself get up in the morning and go for the long runs. I think the novelty is wearing off, plus the time committment is getting pretty crazy. But once I'm out there it feels great (for the most part). Today I ran 15 miles (a little ahead of my training schedule) in 2 hours 16 minutes. It's a new record for me.

It was also one of the hardest runs yet. My legs were tired and a bit sore from the beginning, perhaps because I wasn't feeling my best this weekend. Or maybe I started out a little dehydrated. I really had to push myself and felt I might have to stop at one point, but ended up finding a deep reserve of energy.

Related to the running: I broke down and bought a scale. It measures body fat percentage (body mass index, actually), which is pretty cool. Basically I want to monitor my body weight/fat % and lose as little as possible! Luckily I found a great restaurant in Charlottesville that serves some bad ass jerk and bbq tofu!

You Suck!

To the 51 senators who were shortsighted enough to pass drilling in ANWR, the same ones who can't dislodge themselves from the teat of the auto industry. We won't see that oil for at least seven years and it will never make a dent in oil prices or towards reducing our foreign dependence. The smartest, cleanest, easiest, and quickest solution, which they fail to grasp, is to encourage energy conservation; the technology is available now, produces better results, and will last forever.

The latest read. A whimsical and mystical story reminiscent of _Like Water for Chocolate_. Always interesting to read things with a cultural slant.

Sheets...again. This guy is serious.

More on ANWR

Here's another link to the NRDC site. You can easily send an e-mail letter from here to your senators opposing drilling in ANWR. You can also find out more information about the issue on their site.

http://www.nrdcaction.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=52526

Thanks!

Fighting The Man

If you've got time to do one super important thing this weekend, please take time to write your senators regarding the budget bill they will be debating this week. As usual, the Republicans are selling our souls to Big Oil, Big Corporations, and Big Greed. Into the budget bill they're sneaking a rider to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because it can't stand on its own merit in an energy bill.

I really fear that drilling into that pristine place, one of the last few on the planet, might go through this time. Please contact your Senator early this week! They say it's only 2,000 acres, that it won't be that intrusive, but once that land is defiled by human pollution and contact, it will NEVER be the same again.

Oil development there will take about ten years before they actually get usable petroleum and only a tiny percentage of what we use is available, so contrary to what they say it will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil or help assuage our War for Oil mentality. Instead, urge your Senators to protect our pristine places because it belongs to all of us and our future generations. Recommend that they instead support energy conservation--these technologies are effective, clean, and available right now (not ten years in the future). Energy conservation will also last forever, unlike the oil that will run out.

You can find information on reaching your senator here: http://sierraclub.org/
More information and a petition are here: http://sierraclub.org/

Feel free to use any of the information I've listed above. Also, if you would like a copy of the letter I wrote, to forward to your senator (word for word, meaning minimal work) please email me! Thank you!

The new bling.

Violets at work. And I don't even have the 'special' pot like my parents do.

Violet 2

Violet 3

light & shadow

Coming Soon: I took a pic of this one month ago (it had started to grow a few months before that). I think it will finally bloom in about two more weeks.

--light--

the other flannel sheets

Getting friendly with cardamom

Life was in near-peril this week. I was eating out of tupperware bowls and their lids (as plates), down to my last few clean utensils, all because of my extreme laziness to tackle the mounting dishes in the kitchen. And, I was also losing interest in my blog.

Originally I thought I would have more to say, but it's been mostly pictures so far. So while I was sandblasting my dishes, I was ruminating on cardamom. I feel like we have a new friendship now that I've used it to make granola and kheer. I know it's a spice used in curry, but I could never pick out its own flavor until now. I would explain it to you, except it would be like trying to explain the taste of cinnamon.

And those ruminations led me to think about all the weird things I've been introduced to since going vegetarian. I have to give kudos to my mother and brother who ate some pretty awful stuff while I was learning how to cook! Having been raised very 'meat and potatoes', I'm glad that I can now recognize the fun in trying absolutely anything that's meat-free.

I've found that by the third time around, most things turn out to be pretty good. I was never a fan of hot beverages, but in the last two years I've come to have a part-time love affair with coffee and have become quite whorish with teas, as my cupboards would show. I am fearful that the last fruit or vegetable that I know of that does not appeal to me--the horrid tasting olive--might even be growing on me.

Sorry...it's late...originally this was going to come together as something deep. Instead I must go snack.

Remember when these games used to be fun? I really enjoyed the 'what's wrong with this picture' ones from Cricket (I think it was). Well, this game took me about 0.78 seconds to find all 15 hidden crackers. I think that's proof that children these days really are getting dumber.

From a lunch-time ride out to the mountains.

A Manly Meal: This week's course was vegetarian shepherd's pie and cabbage! Yum!

Give me just the nut, please: Why does a jar of simple dry-roasted peanuts contain a long ingredient list? Is it not possible to find a jar only containing nuts? Why do I need extra flavoring? Beware: one brand even uses monosodium glutamate on their peanuts!

Brewing up a cup of coffee.

Coffee at mid-plunge

A Range with a View: I don't know how well you can tell, but thems are snow-covered mountains back there. I wish I could take a morning drive...perhaps during lunch.

Sustenance: This morning I took a pre-work walk to the best bakery around and to the coffee shop. Doughnuts are one of my vices.