In for the long haul

School started up. Though I only have had two classes so far, I know this quarter is going to be insanely busy. At least I know it will be over in two months, and I'll have accomplished a huge amount of my degree, just with this quarter. In theory I'll have 16 credits, my practicum, and part of my thesis done by June. We'll have to see how that goes.

Spring break wrapped up lovely. I went to a cabin outside of Gold Bar with Gabby, Charlie, and some of their friends. It was beautiful. Gabby and I had the whole first day to ourselves in the hot tub, where we chatted and drank a fair amount of alcohol. We had a good time, to say the least. Sunday I went home to Mville and saw my folks and my doggies. Pretty chill vacation. I think I actually enjoyed staying in Seattle, riding my horse, hiking, and relaxing with friends more than I would have if I had traveled. Of course, if Leo hadn't visited me last week I would have wanted to see him. Now I need to start planning a trip to Arizona for May.

On the road headed to the cabin.

View from the deck of our cabin.

Hot tub where Gabby and I spent most of the trip.

The front of the cabin.

Sleepy old bear.

Monday I just had one class, Toxic Chemicals and Human Health, which is a basic toxicology course. Not too bad. After I shuttled to Seattle BioMed to work on my research, and I helped perform laboratory safety inspections. In Sunset magazine they featured South Lake Union as a daytrip place, I'll have to look up what they suggested and try some new things, as I'll be spending a lot of time in that area for my internship.

I tried to finish up some of the more time consuming things I won't have time to work on once school is in full swing (as I anticipate it being starting Wed). I planted purple (All Blue variety) potatoes and rose fingerling potatoes. I made more veggie kraut in several different spices (my last batch turned out completely delicious!), and I started a new Kombucha in the bigger container. I made three large bottles of the currrent brew, mixed with sparking water. The taste is pretty lovely. It's like sparkling lemon tea. I didn't end up adding any lemon to the drink, as the acid from the fermentation tasted a lot like lemon juice anyway.

Seed potatoes the day I cut them to let them callus up.

Dinner- wheat pasta with tomatoes, onion, and swiss chard leaves. Spiced with basil and oregano.


New kombucha- mix of blood orange red tea and green tea.


One of the new krauts- beets, carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, turnip. I spiced one bottle with dill and mustard seed, one with red pepper flakes, and one with the mustard/peppercorn blend of the first batch.

My first kombuchas. They are pretty yummy (as you can see, I've sampled one already).

Other than that, I'm just trying to start my readings for my Environmental Law class (the first session is tomorrow). I'll have to read roughly one 300 page book a week for this class. Luckily, I read fast, and the books are interesting, but it's the situation where I wish I could read on the bus without getting motion sickness. For the rest of the week, I'm just going to concentrate on working on getting hours on my internship and homework done, as well as seeing my horse. I'd hoped to ride tonight, but my back hurts from the classroom chairs. I'll have to switch them out again with office chairs. That is something to look forward to when I graduate next year- never having to sit in plastic school chairs again. They should make the people who order them sit on them for a couple hours, see how they like it.

On the school and graduation front, apparently you can TA now, but put the money towards a quarter's credit next year. I wish someone had told me that when all the applications were out, as I thought it would just be unnecessary extra work, as I'm funded through June. My advisor must know, as she gave a TA position to the other grad student in my lab. Either she thought I knew and just didn't care about funding, or she didn't want to tell me so I wouldn't get jealous that she wants the other girl to have funding more than me. I wouldn't care about that. I just wish I had known as there were classes I could have TA'ed for open, that are now closed. Oh well, just have to hope I can find TA positions this fall. The thought of doubling my debt for one year of school is in no way pleasing or relaxing.

This weekend I'm going to a lecture on how to use herbs from everything from cooking to medicine. Should be fun, and it's free at Molbaks. I had hoped to go hiking too, but it looks like constant rain, so I think I'd rather ride my horse. My friend Sarah (one of the Seattle Sarah's, not the Oregon or New Mexico ones. I have a lot of Sarah's in my life) is having a birthday potluck on Saturday, so that should be fun too. I figure this is my last not too crazy week so I should enjoy myself!

I wish every week could be like the last

It was so wonderful to have Leo here last week. Best birthday gift a girl could ever get. I picked him up at the airport Sunday morning, and we got to spend the day together relaxing and catching up. I miss him so much when we are apart.

Highlights of the week:

-Monday was my 23rd birthday, and after a harrowing final in the morning, I got to go out to dinner with Leo, Gabby, Charlie, Stephanie, Angela, and Alisha. It was so much fun. I'm lucky to have so many great people in my life.

-Wednesday we had dinner with my folks and grandma, so I got to extend my birthday a couple days longer :)

-Thursday we woke up before dawn and headed to Salem for St. Patrick's day. It was perfect. We saw our old professors, and got to go to our favorite bar with old friends for St. Paddy's. I may have had a few jello shots too many, but it was a great night. I was so happy to see so many of my college friends, and I think Leo was pretty thrilled to be there too. Loved our cheap hotel too- nice hot tub.

-Saturday morning we cuddled, went out to breakfast, and prepared to say goodbye for another couple months.

This is where the plot thickened. Somehow, for some reason, Leo's flight was delayed long enough to cause the missing of his connecting flights, and through some ridiculous airline runaround, they couldn't get him out until Monday, and then only to Phoenix. For me, this was wonderful- I love any time I can get. For him, this meant missing an observation day in his classroom, as well as a day of classes. Not good at all. I really wished he could get on an earlier connection, and honestly, I don't understand how the airline made him wait two days to get to the wrong city in perfect weather conditions. It is spring break, so I imagine that increased the number of people flying out dramatically, but that is no excuse.

Despite that pretty huge disappointment (missing class is a big deal in a PhD program, as well as missing a teaching observation), Leo rallied, and we enjoyed our two extra days together. We played pool, and finally managed to beat an arcade game we first played in January (at a ridiculous cost in quarters). We relaxed Sunday night and watched Crazy Heart, a good movie about a washed up country singer finding some meaning in life.

Today I took him back to the airport, and he's on the trip back to Tucson. I feel so bad for all the nonsense he's going to have to go through, getting back from Phoenix by rental car. My day should be much more relaxed, as I just started spring break. I'm going to ride Starla, pick up a kombucha mother, and work on my garden, then head up to Mville to give my folks back their car.

I've transplanted most of the tomatoes to bigger pots. I was wildly successful growing them, and will have close to thirty tomato plants. I moved the swiss chard outside, and this week I will be planting beets outside, as well as carrots and starting more swiss chard outside. I started a herb medley inside (this could go horribly awry, as it is the Ed Hume gourmet mix, which includes chives, parsley, thyme, basil, and any number of other things. I won't really know what I have til the plants get big enough to differentiate). I'm going to start the cucumbers indoors this week as well. Hopefully, I'll get a great harvest this summer. I should have chard, beets, and carrots in May, if not sooner. At that point my tomatoes can go outside, as can my cucumbers. I'll plant more bean seeds next month too. Looking forward to posting pictures once I have my deck set up all complete.



I got great birthday presents in relation to my deck garden too! A book on what plants to grow together, a sun hat, gloves, giant pots, and gift cards. Looking forward to getting everything going this week. There should also be hiking and yoga on the map. Plus, I get to start kombucha this week. I'm picking up the mother tonight, and will start brewing Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll post pictures of that as well, once I have everything set up. Should take a little over a week to get the results I want, so by the first week of school I'll have my first trial batch. Ugh, school. I don't want to think about that, though I need to get at least 20, preferably more, hours of internship done this week. I'll let you know in my next post what I actually accomplished this week coming. Now I think I'm going to head out to the barn, and then prep my cucumber starts!