Dosas!

I decided to try making dosas today. Dosas are a kind of Indian pancake or crepe. My mom had tried them a couple of times, but always expressed frustration with trying to spread the batter before it clumped up. My first attempt showed me how frustrating that can be, so on my second one, instead of pouring the batter in the middle of the pan, then spreading it with the back of a wooden spoon (as the recipe said to do) I poured the batter over the whole pan. It worked! I got a nearly perfect 9 inch dosa! It was thicker than the ones in Indian restaurants, but it did cook very evenly, and it didn't have any big holes.

It was also quite delicious. I filled mine with curried red lentils, and DH had one with maple syrup. He also thought it was good, in fact he liked it better than the paper-thin restaurant ones! Sweet success!

Strawberry Swing

Okay, I'm probably one of the last people to find this. Actually, my mom found it. But I liked it so much, I thought I'd put it up here. It's the Strawberry Swing video. I planned to embed it, but that's disabled. :-(

And yes, I'm still alive and kicking. Sorry for the radio silence. Been busy elsewhere. Will probably continue for the foreseeable future. I'll try to post every month or so, though.

Worms!

I bought a pound of worms over the weekend, made a bed for them, and fed them. Now to just hope and pray they like their new home, multiply, and provide me with lots of castings for my strawberries (which are shooting out lots of runners and seem very happy)! Next project, lettuce. But that's probably a month or two in the future . . .

Update

Okay, I have become a sporadic blogger. Sorry. That's the way it's going to be for a while. Life you know . . .

Basically, things are much the same. I still volunteer at the farm. I'm biking a lot this summer, now that I can run errands easily with my panniers. What's new for this fall is that I will be teaching Religious Education for grades 3-5 at our church and training to be a volunteer K-3 music docent with Music for Minors. I'll probably start with the Kinders.

I'm more nervous about the Religious Education job than the Music Docent job--I get 2 months of bi-weekly classes before I get turned loose, and I only have to prepare 30 minute lessons with MFM. With RE I got a 4 hour orientation that was all listening to other people talk with no opportunities to practice. And I have to prepare an hour lesson for 2 weeks from now. Eek. At least in both cases I get canned lesson plans to start from . . .

And that's really all there is to say.

Re-Decorating

Or is it just Decorating.

Anyway, we finally got some pictures put up (some had to be framed first). The apartment looks more home-like now, although we are still in the long process of settling in, due to trying to consolodate two households. Maybe someday everything won't be quite so obviously "his" and "hers" . . . Well, I can hope . . .

Big Basin

Just got back from a camp out at Big Basin with some friends from church. It was a nice, short get-away. Campfire, sina-along, flashlight walk, mosquitos, redwoods and all. Very relaxing. Hopefully solidifying some friendships, & of course nice to be away with DH.

Tent now drying in the sun. Should bring it in soon . . .

Knitting

I've picked up my needels again. This time on a project that has both inspired and daunted me for several years. A friend was working on it when I lived with her 6 years ago (has it really been nearly 6 years? Wow.) and I got inspired. I finally got the book as a gift from my mom, somtime in the past 2 years. But still it was extremely daunting. It's aran knitting--lots of cables--very intimidating.

Then, last spring, I joined a knitters guild for a few months. At my first meeting, I felt compelled to apologize for my lack of skill, saying, "I only know how to knit and purl." One of the other members, bless her heart, said, "Then you know everything, that's all you need to know. The rest is just details." That gave me a lot of confidence.

So this summer, when I found myself waisting way to much time on-line, I decided to start knitting again, as a way to keep my hands busy while my mind wanders. It's working. It's much more relaxing and much less depressing that surfing the 'net, probably because there is a semi-productive result at the end of the day. So that's me right now. Knitting.

5 Things That You Can Find on my Nightstand

I found this on one of the blogs I read--and thought it would be fun.

1) My Flower Essences from Green Hope Farm--they help me both to continue my spiritual journey and to stay sane while I'm on it.

2) My journal--yes, I write every night. It helps me unwinde.

3) Pen--for said journal

4) Clock--for meditation and for checking in the middle of the night

5) Flashlight--for checking time in the dark.

Biking

I'm finally living in a place where I can use my bike as my main mode of transportation. And what's nice is that the more I bike, the more I want to bike. Now, when I need to run an errand, I think of my bike first, my car second. I'm getting a lot more excersice and fresh air, and that helps my overall mood. Plus I feel good about using less gas and contributing less to global warming.

Serendipity

I went on-line today to find out who to make the check out to for my passport renewal--a chore I've been avoiding--and discovered that the fees are going up tomorrow. So I called and found out that if I can get it postmarked today (which I was able to do) I can still pay the "current" fees. That is a significant savings. And it was just the impetus I needed to finally send in my application. Now all I have to do is wait 2 months . . . I'm sure I'll manage to keep busy avoiding something else . . . ;-)

Sour

So they told me, and I didn't believe them. It is true. Sour dough bread is sour. Really sour. So sour I don't want to eat much of it. I've been trying to finish a loaf for over a week. It  doesn't usually take me this long!

So much for wild yeast. I'm going back to the dried, store-bought kind.

Fighting Mildew

The fight against shower mildew is continuous and always a loosing battle. The pesky stuff refuses to be completely eliminated, and if you leave even a speck, it grows back faster! But I've never been quite so annoyed by it as now.

Some smart individual decided that tile looks nice in showers. And somebody else thought that idea was great. Eventually the trend made it to the apartment I'm living in. For some reason, the implications didn't occur to me until after we had rented the unit. Tile is surrounded by grout. Grout in showers grows mildew. Tile surrounds in showers have a lot more grout than plastic surrounds. So what you get? A nice, beautiful, white-tiled surround, with pretty pink and black mildew stained grout.

And it takes hours and hours of old-toothbrush-scrubbing to get it looking even semi-clean. Everywhere else, tile is nice. It's great for floors, for example. It's even okay for kitchen counters. But when it comes to showers, I'll vote for non-renewable, petroleum-based, easy-to-clean plastic surrounds every time.

My New Bike

Well, it's not really new, but it feels new. I got a tune up and added a kick-stand, a rear rack, and a pannier. We also got a nice stand-up pump for both bike and car tires. I am super excited. We now live close enough to down-town to make biking really feasible, and almost all the places I frequent are within 2 miles of my home. With the oil spill in the Gulf continuing, I really want to do my part to reduce my use of fossil fuels.

Onward!

Going Wild

I've been contemplating learning to bake sourdough bread for some time now, and last night, I put together a diy starter from scratch. Just four, water, stirr, outside air to catch the wild yeasties, and cap it. We shall see how it evolves. It smells good so far! Apparently, the area I live in has some really great wild yeast in the air, so wish me luck!

Clearing Out

As part of my clutter busting process, I've been letting go of a lot of unnecessary stuff in my life. Some items are easier than others, and one has had me stumped. It's a beautiful, old-fashioned, oak desk chair--solidly built and mostly in good condition. However, one arm has come free of the back and I don't have the inclination to fix it. Because I actually like sitting on my exercise ball more. I like being able to move as I sit, not being so stationary. So I want to let the chair go. But it's turning out to be a complicated process, because it's not just any old chair--it has a history.

I got it about 3 years ago from an aunt. She told me that it had been her first office chair, and that it was special to her because of that. She pointed out to me how solid it was, and said, if I was ever getting rid of it, to let her know, because she might want it back. So, I've been e-mailing with her about it, and she said to find it a new home. I'm having a hard time doing that, because of knowing the chair's history. In fact, I even went to the trouble of clarifying that we are talking about the same chair. We were.

Then I realized that, it's not the chair that I'm attached to, so much as the story. So I thought maybe, if I told it's story, I could let it go. I don't really want it myself. Besides the arm being disconnected from the back, when I lean back in the chair, sometimes it feels like I am going to pitch over backwards. I never have, but it is scarry. So maybe there is someone else who can fix it and will like it and use it. Better, I suppose, for it to be used by someone who doesn't know it's story, than for it to be kept unused by someone who does . . . Anyway, I still know the story, and now I've told it to you.

Hundreds of Lions

Erin McKeown has done it again. She's come out with an album that is unique, and uniquely hers. As a musician, she is very hard to categorize. If I had to pick one, I'd call her music Folk, but that really doesn't cover it. This current album Hundreds of Lions is very hard to classify. It is acoustic. But it almost sounds like really mellow techno. But also orchestral. Orchestral Techno? I've never heard of it, but hey! This is Erin Mckeown. Rebel and rule breaker and fabulous musician.

What is amazing to me is that I never would have gotten "in to" her music if she hadn't been opening for a concert I attended years and years ago. I've since stopped listening to the main act from that concert, but Erin McKeown continues to be on my favorites list. I have all her albums thus far. But even if someone had handed me one of her albums I probably wouldn't have "got" it with out the live performance. Because she is 100% better live. No, make that 1000% better. She has this huge amount of energy. Her concerts positively rock. Even if she is a one woman show. So go see her, if you ever get the chance. It's the only way to really get "hooked."

Babies

I got to see the movie Babies yesterday. I have been eagerly awaiting it's release since I first heard about it, several months ago. It was playing at a local theater, and DH and I went to an afternoon showing. It was everything I hoped for, but then I love baby watching. ;-) It has no narration or subtitles, just music and whatever background conversations happen to be going on. The focus is entirly on the babies, not their siblings or parents, and it is mostly from the babies perspectives--the camera is close to the ground/floor, and mostly stationary, while people walk in and out of the frame.

The visuals are stunning, but the best part is the amusing antics of the babies themselves. The filmmaker folowed the lives of 4 babies from birth to first steps, then interwove theirs stories into a single story. The babies are from Nambia, Mongolia, Japan, and the USA. You can watch a trailer here.

Oh, and by the way, I (finally) have a new post up at my other blog--come check it out: Beyond the Myth-Box.

Snow Treasure

I just finished this book today. It is technically for children, as are most of the books I read, but it was so well written I could hardly put it down. It is a beautiful and possibly true story of how the children of a Norwegian villiage helped to save some of the country's gold from the Nazi invaders in WWII. Add in the fact that I have always had a facination with Scandinavia, especially "Lap Land" and I had a Norwegian friend in collage, and you have a recipe for a very entertaining story--at least for me. It's by Marie McSwigan if you want to read it yourself, or share it with a child in your life.

Two Songs

These two songs have me quite excited lately.

This one I first heard at Jazzercise-the radio hasn't picked it up yet. The video isn't really a video, but oh well.

This one is all over the radio, but what is up with the grocery store MV?

Both make me feel all happy inside, and make me think of a friend who is out of the country, and wonder if she has had a chance to hear them where she is . . .

Earth Day

I volunteered today at Full Circle Farm's Earth Day celebration. It was actually quite fun. I was working at a kids' art booth, helping the kids make flower petal art. DH came with me, and we had a good time. The art involved pounding with rocks, so the 2-5 y/o croud loved it--our noise was even loud enough to compete with the music at another booth!

Even though we had a good time, I'm really glad I only signed us up for one shift (2 hours) we were sunned-out by the end of it and people-out too--ready to be home! But they fed us lunch, so we ate there before we left. That was nice, too.

Michi

I was on my way home from the Farmer's Market today, when I found myslef stopped behind two white vehicles, each with the word Michi on the back, in the same color red and the same font. One was simply red lettering that said Michi Sushi, the other was a bumper sticker that said something like Michi makes everything more beautiful, with a picture of a fish. I'm guessing they were advertizing a local sushi resturant (that I've never been to). It was kind of cool and kind of bazzar.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

I just listened to this wonderful new book by Rachel Wells (think Ya-Ya Sisterhood). Well written, well read, deeply emotional and complex. I love Rachel Wells' work. She makes me laugh, cry, and think hard about life and my values.

In The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder Wells' takes us once again to fictional Louisiana, and shows us life through the eyes of another young girl growing up in a small town. Some of it reminded me of my own childhood, and a lot of it reminded me of what I only dreamed that my childhood was. There is a lot of pain and loss in the book, but there is also joy and hope. Calla Lily Ponder learns how to move beyond her own suffering by focusing on helping others, and discovers that she has a gift of healing with her hands, through, of all things, hair dressing.

Honestly, when I read the back of the book, and reailized it was about hair dressing, I thought it would be way too superficially for me. But, true to form, Wells' put in pleanty of depth and tension. The ending is surprising, and some people might find it corny, but it doens't detract from the book, and the strength of the story makes it a rewarding read (or listen).

But be warned. If you like happy, fluffy stories with lots of "pretty pink and blue thoughts" this one is probably not for you. It contains several tragedies, and gets into the nitty gritty of life. On the otherhand, if you enjoy believable stories with just a touch of fantacy and lots of human intreague, you might enjoy this one, too.

Low Sodium Again

I forgot the salt in my bread again yesterday. Why is it that everytime I forget the salt, the loaves rise perfectly? Does salt inhibit rising? I wonder.

I think I'll be trying to find a recipe that requires breadcrumbs or making herb crutons or something. I don't want to go through two more loaves of salt-free bread. You'd think I'd have learned last time!

Julie & Julia

Rarely have I seen a movie that leaves me feeling satisfied at the end. Usually I feel unfinished, and want more. Or worse, I feel frustrated, as if I just wasted 2 perfectly good hours on nonsense.

Julie & Julia was different. I can't say why. Maybe it was the "real life" aspect of the story, or maybe it was the intertwining of two stories, but what I was left with at the end was a feeling of great satisfaction. The conflicts and tension were all appropriately resolved and the joy and fun of the story was what stayed with me. Maybe it's just because I like to cook myself, but I think it had more to do with the glimps into peoples lives, and seeing them overcome challenges and prevail.

So although I don't recommend movies often, if you haven't seen this one, I would urge you to see it. It is simply lovely.

Learning Curve

Our current apartment has a dishwasher. This is a first for me (or as good as); I've never rented a place with a dishwasher before. Since we're only two people we don't create a lot of dishes, so we can usually get them all done by hand. This means the dishwasher doesn't get much use. Then, last Friday, it quit.

Today, the repairman came and said the problem was that I wasn't running it enough! He told me to at least run it mid-cycle for 10 minutes to get the motor going a couple times a week. WHo knew. I guess if you don't use a dishwasher, it's generally smarter not to have one, even if it could be convenient occasionally. Oh, well. Maybe someday we'll be generating more dirty dishes per day.

Um

Lets see. Life is very, um, life-like. Repetative. Basic. Simple. No excitment. For example, the biggest thing I did this weekend was walk downtown with DH and buy a used (but new to me) book. I try to get my reading material from the library before purchasing it, but the library doesn't have this one. So a used copy with no shipping costs is fine with me. :-)

What else? I filled in the first part of the census, and gave it to DH to fill in his info. We cooked together. Unpacked/sorted through a few more items. See what I mean? Normal life, just not really worth reporting. This poor blog is stagnanting. What, oh what will I do?

I suppose I shall have to start maufacturing entertainment. :-)

Busy Busy

I have projects coming out my ears. Some can be done at home, others require going out to appointments, stores, etc. Lots of comupter time. Trying to prioritize all this and daily life is hard. I am actually productive most of the time. Even when I procrastinate, I do it by doing something lower priority on my list. Oh well--onward!

Huge Progress

We have a living room! We have even had guests over. Finally! Of course, there are still a lot of boxes in other rooms, but I am more motivated than ever to get through unpacking the ones that are "mine" so I can get on to other projects. Bit by bit, progress is made.

New Blog

I've started a second blog. I will be posting there less frequently, and the posts will tend to be longer and focus on my opinoins about "Issues."

I'm kicking it off today with the written version of a speech I gave at church yesterday in honor of International Women's Day. You can view it here.

Good Will

I just took two car-loads worth of stuff to the GoodWill. DH helped (a little bit of it was his). It felt so good to be finally rid of these things that have been cluttering up my life--some for months, some for years. I tend to really procrastinate on getting stuff out of the house. I have very little trouble putting it in the "out-box," but getting the "out-box" out is an entirely different matter. It always feels good when I do, but then there is the occasional time when I miss something I passed on later, and that can stop me from being confident in my clutter busting.

This time, the key was realizing that I was making room for something new, and hopefully good, to come into my life. It is much easier to feel like there is room in my life for new things when the old things aren't accumulating unecessarily. So out with the old, in with the new. Onward, upward, forward. Whee!

Lost and Remembered

Last night I discovered that I have lost (or possibly just misplaced) a very important (to me) series of questions for potential new health-care providers. I spent hours searching for it and came up with nothing. nada. zip. zero. And then I struck, not exactly gold, but maybe fools gold. I found a spin-off of those questions that I had created several months ago, and it jogged my memory enough that I was able to at least partially re-create the list.

I have one more place to look for the piece of paper, but the really frustrating thing is that I know I have the electronic copy in an e-mail in-box somewhere, but it's buried deep enough that it wouldn't be feasible to look one e-mail at a time, and the search function on that in-box only turns up e-mails from the past 3 months or so! This e-mail is at least 2-3 years old! Ugh. Free e-mail is nice, but the customer support stinks.

P.S. I finally looked in that last place, and guess what? I found it. Whew! Huge relief. But I think I'll put it where I originally expected to find it now.

Cozy Day

It's raining again. Which is good. We need the rain. And I like rainy days. They are perfect for curling up on the couch with mending and movie. Which is just what I planned on doing today, anyway. Lucky me.

Two Lips

My DH bought me red tulips at the Farmer's market yesterday. They started out looking a bit limp, but have perked up wonderfully since I trimmed the stems and put them in water. Now I am waiting to see if they will grow. About 10 years ago, I had a mixed flower boquet with tulips in it, and by the end of a week they were a couple inches taller than the rest of the flowers. It's the only time I've seen cut flowers actaully grow.

No I Didn't Fall off the Face of the Earth

I just had some stuff come up that took my full attention and was too personal to post on a blog.

I am finally back to normal, after nearly 4 weeks of wackiness. I'm getting back into bellydancing, with the help of my DH and some DVD's from the library.

I've gotten in touch with someone who I went to collage with--she was doing her masters while I was an undergrad, and now we both live in the same town, within a mile of eachother. Go figure.

An old friend of DH's is in town and we may be going to dinner with him later this week, or I may let DH go while I stay home. Trying to decide. Hmm.

Oh, and btw, I'm selling my kayak and all the gear: if you know anyone who might be interested, let me know. I'm quite flexible on price--just want the stuff off my hands and out of my home!

Goose

I missed a turn today, and chose to park a block away from my destination and walk back. On the walk, I had to cross a bridge, and on the rail of that bridge was a goose. Just standing there. Serenely watching the cars go by. I gave it as wide a berth as I could on the narrow sidewalk, and it tolerated me, too. Wow. It was really cool. Maybe you had to be there. But it was really cool.

No Sodium

Never thought how hard a no sodium diet would be until I forgot the salt in my bread recipe. Ugh. I can tell it *would* have been delicious if only I had remembered that tiny amount of salt. But as it is . . . Adding salt on top just doesn't do it. Maybe I'll try making it sweet--execpt I usually don't want it sweet. If I wanted sweets, I'd make cookies or cake--and even those have some salt! I feel for anyone on a restricted salt diet.

Introverting

I'm practicing a new way of being. Introverting. I'm reading an incredible book called Introvert Power, and I'm realizing that I tend to extrovert more than I really want to. I am learning to notice when I need time alone, time to think, quite time. I'm also noticing extroverted behaviors that are annoying to me. For example, just this morning I was having a conversation with someone at my Jazercise class, and someone else butted in with a barely related comment. Luckily, the class was just about to start, so I was able to spend the first few minutes quietly, mentally processing my upset feelings. At the end of class, I was able to finish the original conversation without further interruption, which was very satisfying.

I'm actually finding that it is much easier to deal with my feelings when I work them through internally than when I try to talk them out, but in order to work them through, I need quiet time, and space away from the difficult interaction. Typcial introversion. :-) It feels so good to be able to really be me.

Am I Bad?

For wanting to stay in on a rainy day? It's farm day, but I really don't want to go and deal with the wet and mud and possible puddles and wind and maybe getting rained on. Plus I still haven't used most of the veggies from last week, so I won't have to buy a lot if I skip a week. But I feel kinda guilty and afraid I'll get lazy and out of the habit.

The thing is, I am really enjoying being at home and giving myself some time off, some time on the computer, some quiet thinking time, some introversion.

I am being productive. It's just that my productivity is internal. Reading and thinking and a little doing. It feels good.

Thunder, Lightning, Birds

Birds circling during a thunder storm. A real thunder storm. With lightning overhead. In CA. Big Flash and CRASH just now. Wow. There goes someone's car alarm.

Had to step outside a couple minutes ago to see for myself, and that's when I saw the birds. Back to photo project . . .

Rainway

It's finally raining a little bit, here in this drought-land that I live in by the sea. But the funny thing is that you don't notice the rain much except in certain places. Or should I say at certain speeds? There is no problem with the barely noticeable moisture in the air, until you get up to about 55mph on a freeway. Then, suddenly, you need the wipers. So my question is, are the clouds more dense over the freeway? Or am I just hitting more drops more quickly at that speed?

INF?

So I've taken two different on-line MBTI-type personality tests in the past two days, and got two different results. One said INFJ--which is sometimes called a counselor--and the other said INFP--sometimes called a healer. But here is the weird thing: the one that gave me INFJ only gave me 22% for the J (judging) while the one that said INFP gave me 55% on P (percieving) and 45% on J. What's up with that? Actually I got different numbers in every category on both tests. Only the first one only told me the percentages for the INFJ letters, while the second one gave me percentages for the other four letters I wasn't assigned.

So now I'm totally confused as to what I am, except that I'm me. And that as an introvert I need my down time to recharge. And I can get worn out being with/interacting with people. But I already knew that about myself. Only difference is, now I have a name for it. So what has changed? Maybe I can explain my "weirness" to other people better. :-)

The Future

I have finally reached my future. My future is now my present. This is what the future looks like to me, from here:

1. I am happy.
2. I have achieved my first Big Lifetime Goal.
3. I feel successful and worthwhile.
4. I am looking forward to starting on the next Big Lifetime Goal.
5. I am a little scared of how taking the next step will change my life.
6. I have found a tribe, on-line and in person, of people like me.
7. I feel like I finally made it into the "in crowd."
8. I am motivated.
9. I feel good about myself.
10. I am confident.

I never thought I'd get here. But here I am. I never knew the future would look like this--I knew the vague shape, but now I can see all the details. This is the best present I have ever had. I hope the next future I reach is even better.

Return from Middle Earth

Where we spend 6 days in the City of Sails, which is a land desired by many, built on 48 volcanoes.

We socialized with local Unitarians, kayaked on a quiet bay, enjoyed the bush and the surf and the black sand beaches on the West Coast, and attended a cultural performance.

We encountered two of the three varieties of Kiwi in real life, and lots of pictures of the third, much shyer variety.

We skipped a day on the way there, and had a 48 hour day on our return.

And all we brought home were a few trinkets and postcards to send.

If you haven't figured out by now where we went, Google and Wikipedia should be able to help you out.