Trying to Find Time

This summer is a blur. At least three days a week I leave the house at 9am, and come back the next day at 1am. I work the lab shift for free then go straight to work in Bellevue, so my "break" between the two jobs is the 45 minute commute I make around 2:45pm. Tuckered does not begin to describe it. I'm learning new appreciation for caffeinated tea, redefining the number of showers I have time to take in a week (thank goodness I have naturally dry hair, and my lack of showers does not show in stringy, limp locks), and I've discovered that sometimes at the end of a 15hr work day I will spontaneously throw up. Frankly, I want to go back to school so I can have more free time again. Words can not describe how happy I'm going to be when I finish this degree- really hoping it will be the end of 70hr work weeks for me.

So in light of my lack of time, I hope you will accept some rather weak excuses for posts. Today's post is delicious though, so I feel like that should buy me some slack. I was gifted with rhubarb from the community garden at work, and I tried to put it to good use (I still have more if anyone wants to suggest some yummy things for me to try). I decided to make strawberry-rhubarb muffins. My search for my muffin tin resulted in the tragic discovery that my muffin pan is missing. Why God?! I feel so betrayed. I made muffin loaf instead--put the muffin batter into a cake pan, making the equivalent of 16 good sized muffins.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins (Cake?)
1 cup wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tbsp and 1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 cup diced strawberries
1 cup diced rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix dried ingredients, then add wet one ingredient at a time. Bake approximately 30 minutes- top will turn golden brown. Enjoy :)


I cut mine in half and froze one part so I could have muffins next week. In my photo you can see that I could not wait to take a photo before trying the result- yum!

In other news...

My garden is mostly thriving (cukes are struggling, might just buy some starts :( ). Almost time to start replanting some things like swiss chard for fall harvest- insane to think about right now. I thought you might appreciate a photo of it now that summer might actually start. This is a shot of the sunniest part of my garden (taken at night, I promise it does get some sun), as you can see I've crowded it in pretty tightly. My beets, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, peas, potatoes (not in the photo), and beans seem to be thriving. I'm hoping I can get a decent harvest. Right now I'm still just eating herbs and greens from the garden- not that I'm complaining!

Other than that, I'm just trying to make certain I go ride three days a week, and get to yoga at least once. I'd like to go more. I'm so jealous of all my friends who are out of school- seems like everyone is taking up running, joining the gym, and losing all those college pounds. Twelve more months, then I'm joining their ranks. I'm not going to neglect Starla in the meantime- riding needs to be top priority (not that I'm complaining, it is the best!), so I can't choose to do more athletic ventures in my limited free time. Heck, if you just took away my lab "volunteer" work and transportation to the lab, I'd have 18 more hours to work out!

I'm experimenting with making my own essential oils. Not super fancy ones (I'm not dropping a few hundred on a distiller), but I want to use my garden herbs to see if I can't make homemade liniment for sore muscles. I'd like to use it on Starla after we ride, but I'd rather not pay $30 to have it made and shipped to my place when I own or can make all the ingredients myself. Since I will probably be trying this on my own sore muscles I will post a recipe later on. Right now I'm drying out the mint and other herbs I will be using. I'm also going to dry some lemon balm to make tea for myself while I'm at everything. Yum.

Well, I better wrap this up- need to be at work by 7:30am tomorrow! Looking forward to this week so much, because I have mostly AM shifts at Bellevue means I will only work 5hrs in the lab, meaning only one day that goes from leaving the house at 9am to returning at 1am. Woot! VERY pleased. I am hoping to clean, get to yoga, and see pony. Plus getting together with my mom and other family on Tues for fondue at the Melting Pot :)

Until we meet again, happy travels!

More photos, recipes, and plans

I just finished my schoolwork for the quarter, sans a quick look-over in the morning. I'm pretty tired. Today ran from 7am to 11pm with schoolwork and finals. It is a preview for my summer though, since at least three days a week I'll be working 9am to midnight. I'm curious about when I'm going to find time to eat and shower, etc. My excitement for this summer has definitely tapered off since finding out I'll have to work unpaid half-time in the laboratory. If you count jobs and transportation times, I'll be working 75hrs a week, which I guess is not much different then my normal schedule. It just sucks. I'm exhausted. I deserve a break. I was so looking forward to spending time with my horse and working on being healthy this summer after a hellish school year.

What I find most frustrating is people who don't have to do this sort of thing can be completely unsympathetic- I've been scolded for getting a paid job that is an hour away in traffic (the park ranger job is the only one that even interviewed me, of ten applications- not that I'm not happy to have it, but I really didn't have a lot of choice). People have suggested that this is the sort of thing that is fair if you are a student (wtf?). I hate when people express opinions on things they haven't or wouldn't go through themselves. Sort of like when people comment on my long distance relationship without having ever done more than a summer apart from their significant other.

Anyways, my posting this summer might be sporadic. I don't know that I'll have much free time or energy. Here are some things I've been up to the last few weeks.

My garden. I think it's looking pretty good.

Close up- tomatoes are planted, as are cucumbers. I now have everything planted for the summer. I'll start fall planting in July and August.

CSA order of organic produce. It's a little pricey (this is normally $34, though I got this for $18). I might keep it up though with how busy I am this summer. Besides, it's organic, and supports a local business.


Roasted fava beans- toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, bake at 450 for 25 minutes. So good.


Today's experiment- tea infused vodka for mixing with lemonade. Excited to try it this weekend.

Starla got her spring bath. Please ignore that she got really fat all of a sudden. Spring is a dangerous time for horse owners, but hopefully I can get her slimmed down with exercise (otherwise she has to come in off the grass for a while).

Well, that is some stuff in my life. We'll see what I get up to in the next couple weeks.

So many happenings

This week has been jam packed! I like it though, as it has been full of mind, body, soul nourishing events, rather than too much homework. Let's see:

Monday- School, Starla, and homework.

Tuesday- I met up with a high school swim team friend who has class in the same building, and we caught up for the first time in years. It was really nice, and I'm hoping we'll have the chance to get together again soon. After I had class, and my internship at Seattle BioMed (can I say how much I like these people? We spent a half hour talking about our gardens- my boss is going to hook me up with a pot of already established oregano from her garden. Another worker has promised me replacement basil if I can't tenderly raise my own. Scientists are the best).

Mom and Dad picked me up from work after and we went to the Melting Pot. After some confusion finding it we sat down to delicious cheese, salad, and chocolate. I was really glad we got to have a little family time in the middle of the week (Mom is on spring break). After we went to see Paul at the Cinebarre in Mount Lake Terrace. I had no idea the amount of people who attend the $5 movie Tuesdays. It was nuts! I guess it makes sense when you consider that is basically half price. It was a lot of fun though, and I really enjoyed hanging out with my folks.

Wednesday- I found out there are exercise videos on netflix, so I did a forty minute intro to belly dancing. It is awesome! I, am not. Very bad at it so far, but I will work on it. I had my first real enviro politics class, and it was fantastic. Debate got very heated- there are only four of us, two from my science department, a law student from Chile, and a politics student from Korea. Very different backgrounds and opinions. I love this class!

After class I went to the UW student run farm meeting. It seems like a really good way to learn more about urban gardening and sustainable agriculture. We went on a tour of the farm, then attended a general meeting. It was a bit intense for my first visit, as they must be revamping their organization, and the meeting was all about revamping the program and trying new things. Great time to get involved, sure, but with my schedule I was looking forward to joining something a little more concrete. I am going to go to the meeting/pizza bake next week, and see if I can get a better feel for what goes on, and whether I would like to be involved. I don't feel a need to be a grower, as I have my own growing greens, but I would not mind doing outreach or education.

When I got home I was tuckered out from eight hours on campus, so I mainly just talked to Leo for a long while when I got back. After we got off the phone, I settled into a bath with the book I am presenting on for enviro pol next week- I don't like it yet, so hopefully that will change.

Thursday- more running around. I met up with Marissa on campus in the morning to study, since I don't feel like I'm accomplishing too much with my late school schedule. I had a lot of long classes today (Thursday is going to be my drudge day, blah). After I went out to the barn, and hand-walked Starla around outside for a little while. It was good to get some different exercise, and my back has been hurting a lot lately. When I got home Leo and I caught up a little more.


Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Salem to go to the senior art show, go hiking with friends, drink at the barn, and generally enjoy myself. This will be my last hurrah until I see Leo for Memorial Day. I'll give this weekend it's own post most likely, and I'll try to take pictures while I'm down south. Well, I'm tuckered out, and need to get some sleep before my next adventure. Bye!