Since the Rapture didn't happen, I guess I should keep working on my final papers

Since the world didn't end at 6pm on the 21st, I have to spend the next two weeks working on everything for finals. I can't decide if that is a bummer or not.

My sleep schedule got messed up this week, where I'd be up at 5am finishing a paper, then completely out for the count by 8pm. I've been feeling really worn and tired, but I'm hoping to get a little back to normal before I leave for Arizona.

Friday night I went to Moonlight Yoga, which was excellent. I couldn't believe how alive downtown Ballard is at night. There are so many more people at 11pm than when I take my 6pm class. Moonlight yoga was wonderful, challenging, and fun. It was only my fourth yoga class, but I really do think I'm improving. I'm so glad I still have 16 more classes on my pass.

Saturday I spent most all of the day at the University Ave Street Fair. I loved wandering around the fair, looking at jewelry and crafts. I ended up shopping at Buffalo Exchange, a used clothing store on the Ave, and got a cute tank top and dress for $19.

After our shopping adventures I was too tired to do much of anything. I was really sore too. My back sometimes still really gets in the way of life.

There is a multi-state outbreak of EHV-1, an equine herpes virus that attacks horses neurologically. I'm trying to get my barn owner to put the barn on a quarantine. If she hasn't implemented a no-haul in or out policy by today I think I'll mention to her that if she ignores the warnings and any horses get sick, she's legally liable. I can't stand this woman. It is just amazing how much stupid a person can contain. I think she feels threatened by me, as she felt the need to chew me out in front of three people for choosing to vaccinate Starla for Strangles.

For those who don't know, Strangles is an equine form of strep that can kill an equine or permanently harm a horse's lungs. There is a vaccine that is controversial, as it is only 70% effective at best, and can cause mild strangles-like symptoms in the horse. The old shot version (now it is intranasal) used to cause severe muscle stiffness in the application area. Starla has successfully gotten the intranasal for 8 years with no bad reactions. I wouldn't bother giving it to her at all, if we were able to board at a barn that actually quarantined new horses, or maintained any standards. But we don't, so I do. Anyways, my barn owner somehow thinks it is only 40% effective, and you risk killing your horse every time you vaccinate (so untrue), and gave me a long rant in front of several people. I wish I had the ability to crush people with my mind. I just said, "my vet and I both agree that it is a good course of action for her, based upon barn traffic and her lack of previous reactions." What I wanted to say isn't really fit for publishing on this blog. Grrr. So much stupid, it hurts.

Anyways, I'm trying to be persistent to get the barn closed down. Hopefully it will work. I can't wait until the day I have a real job and can afford to put Starla in the best care possible. [Edit: barn is now closed. Yay! The barn own made signs that say it is closed for the wrong disease, but who cares? I win.].

This week is going to be so nice. I have three days of classes, then I'm in Tucson for almost a whole week! I'd like to get 10 pages typed up before I leave on the 25-30 I need to finish up in the last couple weeks. Then if I can get 5 typed in Arizona I will be on a good schedule. I'm definitely starting to feel worn down. I start work before I'm technically finished with school, so I'm just trying to stay healthy. I only have three more days of my internship, and maybe 10 more hours to finish up on my own time outside of going in to BioMed. I'm applying for a very part time position, they are advertising for a 3-4 hour a week microscopy position for six months. If it pays well enough to justify the hour each way to get there (or they offer me parking), I'll definitely do it. I really enjoy the people there.

Food-wise, I've been carbing it up like there's no tomorrow. Oh finals, your stress makes me crave bread so much.

I made pretty awesome garlic soft pretzels. I took 1.5 cups wheat flour, 1 cup warm water, 1 packet yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 clove of garlic (diced), a teaspoon of dried parsley, and mixed them up after letting the yeast sit in the sugar water and wake up. I baked at 425 F for 10 minutes, after shaping into pretzels and putting sea salt on top. I only made two fatty pretzels because I was in a hurry, but you could easily make 4 soft pretzels with this recipe. The fresh garlic was awesome. To keep them vegan, instead of using an egg wash like traditional soft pretzels, I just put a little water on them before sprinkling salt. Yum!


I made a pretty kickass pasta salad. I normally hate pasta salad, but this wasn't all heavy and mushy. I mixed cut grape tomatoes, green and yellow bell peppers, olives, and cooked pasta with italian dressing. It was pretty nice. I think I'd want even more veggies in the future.



I'm getting excited for my garden. Swiss chard is still soooo slow, I really don't know what I did wrong, but I should be able to start eating off it in June, and I should have a fairly nice selection of lettuce. I don't know about my tomatoes. They are six inches tall, but I see all the giant plants from the stores, and I wonder if I should just buy some. Potatoes are taking off like crazy, so pretty soon I'll just be watering them and otherwise letting them be. I still need to get a nice big basil plant, but I'll wait until after I get back from Arizona. Shelling peas are growing well, hot peppers are tiny like the tomatoes. Both the carrots and beets will need thinning soon, I think I'll do that when I get back from AZ too.

I was able to make pasta tonight with a tiny bit of microgreens from my garden (chard, beet, and lettuce). Not much, but it's exciting to use things I've grown!

Painting and Potatoes

This weekend I got to take a painting class in South Seattle. It was fun, but not quite what I expected. Basically it was open studio time, with the ability to play with a lot of paint and tools. Here are my paintings from the afternoon.

Abstract tulip?

Reminds me of spin art from the fairs when I was little.

Looks less like a giant 9 in person :) Maybe I'll flip it around if I hang it.

In other news, my potatoes are growing like crazy. It was time to start hilling them, which is where you cover the bottom third of the plant with dirt as the leaves reach at least six inches tall. The reasoning behind this is that the plants will produce potatoes all along the covered stalks, and you get a greater yield. I hope this is the case, otherwise I'll lose a lot of dirt for this experiment. Those potatoes are growing close to an inch a day, so I'll have to keep up with them on covering them with dirt. When you reach the top of the pot you can just let them be, making sure they stay evenly watered all summer, and once the flowers appear and die off, you have yourself a pot full of potatoes :)

The dark leaves are the All Blues, the big green leaves are the rose fingerlings.

The last few weeks of school are going to be pretty intense. I have 25 days left until finals are over. In that time I still have 30 more hours of internship, two books to read for environmental law, a term paper in epidemiology, a term paper for my internship, a term paper for environmental law, and my thesis proposal. About 50-60 pages of writing all told. Plus I need to make a poster presentation on my experience interning at BioMed. And a final exam in toxicology. Anyone feel like trading?

I should get back to work...at least I have a lot to look forward to after all the work is done. I have Moonlight Yoga this week (I confused the date), Starla, and a week and a half until I go to Arizona! Should be great. I love finishing things out, and it feels good to know I'm 20 credits away from another degree. Incidentally, today is the graduation date for Willamette- I graduated a year ago. A lot has changed, but most of it for the good. Still, I can't wait until I finish this degree and get to relax a little in life.

Til next time friends!

Yummy sandwiches I made with dijon mustard, tomatoes, onion, kale, and yellow bell pepper on ciabiatta. I baked them for 10 minutes at 350 F, then closed them and enjoyed.

Youtube on current agricultural practices

This is a new favorite. It is is called, "Whatcha gonna do with all that poo?" It is a song, complete with puppets. Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J4HENsnMgE&feature=relmfu

I need a happy post

After a pretty rough week, I need some happy. I'm still in the never ending maze of papers, midterms, and presentations that seem to define education at UW, but I have a lot to look forward to when they are done.

Let's see:
-There should be sun at least twice this week, so I'll get to ride my bike to school! I rode it in on Wed this week and it went really well. I put 20 miles on my bike in the first week of ownership, it is great.
-Yoga basics and Starla on Tuesday :) I should be a very happy and relaxed girl for studying that night.
-Painting class on Saturday! My birthday present from my folks- a three hour acrylic painting class.
-Moonlight yoga on Friday at 9pm. It is a two hour yoga session done only by moon and candle-light at the studio. I may be a hippie, but I'm really looking forward to this!

Though this week was pretty awful in terms of loss, I did get to experience some good things too. My mom and I got haircuts together- this is the shortest my hair has been in years. We also got to watch Tangled together. Sometimes a kid's movie is what you need.

New hair.

Life can be unfair

We lost our Mr. Barkley this week, exactly seven days after losing our Nellie. He was my loyal lion, and protector. It is a hard loss, and so soon after losing Nellie. I hurt. But I know I was lucky to have some pretty incredible dogs raise me. No one loves you quite like a dog, and I feel comfort in knowing how many treasured memories I have from all my sweet dogs. I will always miss them.

My Giant Head

How is it that I need a large helmet (costing me an extra $7!), but I fit a small frame bike? I wonder if people are just afraid to tell me that I must have a head that fits like an orange on a toothpick?

This is my subtle way of telling you that I got a bike! After several calls, 7 bike shops, and some frustration, I bought a hybrid from a retired man who refurbishes them to supplement his income. I didn't buy a super high-end bike (it was only $300 new, if anything can be only $300- that is two months of food for me!), but it is really nice and makes me happy. Plus it was under $100, which turned out to be handy when my giant head caused unexpected expenditures down the line. It is a hybrid, weighs about 27 lbs, and moves pretty dang nice for me. I did a six mile jaunt on Sunday, and I'm planning on making the 15 mi round trip to school on Wed when the weather clears up a little (or at least half the journey, I could always bus back if I'm tuckered out). I'm really happy with the purchase, and I'm excited to exercise more.

I've even decided to do a mini-triathlon this fall. In September they do a "super sprint" triathlon, which is just a .25 mile swim, a 9 mile bike ride, and a 1.6 mile run. Given my body and recovering from my injuries, this sounds like an attainable goal. I imagine a lot of people do it full out in a sprint, but I think it would be fun to do with friends as a mini self-challenge. I'm sure I'll be pretty dang slow. It would mark three years from my accident, when I was worried I might never walk correctly again. I wouldn't need to invest in a lot of fancy gear either, since I wouldn't be doing it as a serious competitor. We'll see if this happens, but I feel like this is something I should do for me, and my health.

I leave you with a couple pics:

My bike! I just need some fenders, and maybe a cute basket, and I'm gold.

I'm just going to say it is because I have a huge brain.

May Project

So I was thinking about what sustainable area I'm weakest in, and by far it is reusing bags. I just forget to use my cloth bags. I decided to take advantage of May and make it my personal sustainability month. I'm going to put reusable bags and grocery bags in my car, in the pouch on the bike, and make a point of using them.

Why is plastic so bad? Well, it doesn't biodegrade, it pollutes the environment, and it leeches cancer-causing toxicants into our food. The best argument for me involves charismatic megafauna (big cute animals). Plastic bags end up in the ocean, and sea turtles eat them, thinking they are delicious jellyfish. More and more they are finding dead sea turtles with stomachs full of plastic. They aren't the only animal either. The US is the leading consumer of plastic in the world, so I'm hoping my readers will join me in reusing their bags, whether choosing to use cloth grocery bags, or just using last week's bags again and again. Cloth is a better choice, but feel free to ease into it. Whatever it takes to make the change. Otherwise, you are no better than those seagulls that snatch up the cute baby turtles in every nature documentary (you know, the part where you shut your eyes). At least the seagulls do it to survive.

My project for the month is going to be making reusable produce bags. As a vegetarian, I end up shopping the produce isle twice a week, which means I either use a ton of individual bags, or I let my produce roll loose around. I tend to do the latter, but it really isn't practical or convenient for the long haul.

What I have is this one reusable produce bag made out of mesh with a draw string. I'm going to use it as a template and make myself 5 or 6 of these so I can stop killing the sea turtles. I'll post results when I make the bags (probably wait until I have access to my mother's sewing machine). I'm excited for this change, and I hope it inspires a few others to start reusing bags. It really will make a difference.

Loss

We lost our 15 year old pretty girl this week. Our Nellie had a number of internal problems that flared suddenly, and we had to let her go.

There really isn't anything I can say that is a fitting tribute to the love a dog gives you. There is no other creature on this Earth that gives such tireless, unwavering devotion. I think they have such short times on Earth because God can't bear to part with them so long in Heaven. I miss you baby girl, but I know I'll see you and all my other loves one day.