Garden for Gpa and Gma! :)

The pics are out of order! herbs now :)
Strawberries now :)
lettuces, eggplant, tomato, broccoli rabe
as a whole now.
The first day's work:
Putting it together :)
Olivia drilling! (I did the measuring, she did the muscle work haha)
Right After we planted
Packing the dirt!
I built the planter box without the help of any boys! me and my roommate! :) I've got 3 green tomatoes and a budding little eggplant too :) The plants are mostly loving the rain! My cilantro got too tall though and just fell over today :( looks like I'll be making some asian salad!! (mmm LOVE cilantro!)

Love you
xxx

Today

I got to realize, once more, just how lucky I am. I shot in Topanga Canyon, which is above Santa Monica in the hills. It reminded me so much of Bonny Doon near Santa Cruz! So here's the really great part, my photographer took us out to dinner afterward at an AMAZING restaurant called "The Old Place." (http://www.oldplacecornell.com/)
It's super rustic and old-style cooking (cast iron skillets, cream, butter, the works) but using fresh, local, organic and foraged ingredients too! We had wild chantrelle mushrooms which are harvested right in Topanga, grilled artichoke in an AMAZING creamy sauce, and I had wild salmon and grilled veggies in a lemon white wine cream sauce that was absolutely incredible. I've never been HUGE on salmon but it was honestly soooo good! A little undone in the middle :) (apparently thats how I like my fish! mmm oh my)
Then the table shared a berry cobbler topped with homemade CINNAMON WHIPPED CREAM! Probably the greatest thing, ever. (Especially since I only had a bite so I won't feel sick :) took some extreme self-control though! :))

SOO it was a great end to a mostly relaxing day :) I've been REALLLLy missing my family lately... almost pathetically so. I hope I make good friends down here soon so I don't feel so alone! (even when I'm with other people.. ugh) I just know my family understands and loves me and I feel the same about them.... too many sheisty people down here to really trust all the strangers. Unfortunately, I feel too much, so if I decide to trust people until they prove me wrong I put myself in a very vulnerable position (which I remember well... haha.. makes friend-making complicated, but def not impossible :))
lovee and hugs and wishes of norcal happiness :)
xxx

Learning

It feels like everything is beginning this week!
I put myself on a schedule for school preparedness :) It's hard, but I know if I stick to it the transition in school will be that much easier :)
I cooked my first whole chicken today!! I got a pastured chicken from the farmer's market (2 lbs total :)) and boiled it!! It was quite fun, and I really like the little guy :)
We get our own internet connection wednesday! I'm super duper excited for that one!!
I also get to start yoga in the morning!! I don't think I'll get to go when school starts, but we'll see!! (the class ends at nine and my first class is 930 haha... cutting it too close i think)
I ALSO need to go to campus a couple times this week and practice my walk to class! eeek!

sidenote: SCRAGS COME HOME!

Scrags the Shithead (aka- mouse adventures, part 2)

I just got through taking a leisurely shower and couldn't help but laugh aloud. You guessed it, lil guy was in there and I'd just showered with the mouse.

He was huddles in the corner behind a basket filled with bottles, etc, and I only noticed him when I was cleaning a spot off the door on my way out! So, after closing the door and getting myself dressed, I decided to go catch the little guy and let him outside. He wasn't soo disgusting in the daylight after all.

So I prepared myself with a trash can, the lid of a plastic container, a few kernels of Scrags' food, and, for kicks, my camera. I thought this wouldn't be too hard.. I'd sweetly coax him onto the lid, quickly cover him, but he'd forgive me as soon as I brought him outside and set him free! Foolproof.

Turns out, I had a few things wrong. Firstly, mousey doesn't care about Scrags' food and thus is zero percent lured onto the lid. Secondly, he's got a longgg tail and it'll be a tight sqeeze in the trash can. Finally, while he may be kinda cute huddled in the corner, when he starts running, clicking, and JUMPING he's definitely not so cute (and my sweet demeanor quickly evaporates).

So, after about 10 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to catch the guy, I've given it a rest. My poor parents are going to be put to work when they get here, but hopefully together we can pull it off. For now, he's chillin in my shower (thankfully I managed to keep him cornered in there! I did manage to snap a pic:



Gross? I'd say so. Cute? Maybe if he was in your shower.

The Hunter with a Heart?

Other than the fact that I'm mad at Scrag-baby, the event unfolding in my house right now (since 2 am actually) is kinda funny. I woke up an hour ago to scrags running around my room, obviously hunting something. I had already been waking up, running out of my bed from dreams of bugs and larvae in my comforter (I accidentally ate a BUNCH of bug larvae in bad pumpkin seeds today. Now it seems they're haunting me) so I was praying whatever it was 1. didn't come on my bed 2. wasn't too disgusting. Whatever it was was underneath my bed in the far corner. I debated getting down and seeing what it was, but I was barefoot and didn't know what I was dealing with.

Then, the little gray mouse perched on my headboard. The kind of mouse I would definitely find cute if I happened upon him outside, but is perfectly unacceptable in my house. I ordered him to get off my headboard and thankfully he started running around on the floor again. After he got behind my desk, I decided to get down and help. Unfortunately, moving my desk startled scrags enough to look my direction while the little guy ran out of my room.

This posed an entirely different problem. For some reason, the space beneath our doors is quite large and would allow him to pass easily in and out of any room of the house, including my roommates who is on vacation right now. So I got up to open all the closet doors and her door, hoping scrags wouldn't lose interest in his prey.
While I was doing this, I heard a small noise in the bathroom. Hallelujiah! It is the one and ONLY door he cannot fit underneath. I went inside, and after a satisfying flash of gray, closed the door tightly. I then went back, closed the other doors I had just opened, picked up Scrags and locked him inside as well.
Scrags immediately began meowing and pawing at the door. "What the heck, mom? You know I was just locked in a small place a couple weeks ago, why are you locking me in here?" I decided to give him time, and tried to rest. After about 35 minutes, I got up, geared up in my sweatpants and cowgirl boots, grabbed my broom, and went to the battlefield.

After a few moments in our small bathroom, I had the mice running about and Scrags, finally, chasing him. Scrags had him cornered behind the toilet and I was braced in the bathtub with my broom, ready to see him die, when he started making little mouse noises. Apparently, these noises are enough to convince Scrags he is not, indeed, a disgusting little mouse, so Scrags walks over and lays down by the door. Really? You brought a mouse in my house and are leaving it up to me?

So, I stick the broom behind the toilet every time he tries to run back there, leaving him nowhere to go except by Scrags. Now Scrags is interested again, tail moving and the little guy huddled in the other corner by the door, literally 2 feet away. Just then, he starts begging again. What he's saying I can only imagine, "My family of 400 depend on me. Please, please, or they'll all come after you and humiliate you in front of the other neighborhood cats!" Who knows. But Scrags decides its best to just lay down and look at me.

This leaves me, standing in the tub in my boots, armed with a broom and Scrags and the mouse laying on either side of the doorway. Naturally, I start arguing with Scrags.
"Get the mouse!"
"Let me out, I'm not gunna kill him."
"You brought him in the house, you better get him out."
"Just look at him, I can't kill the little guy."

Okay, he's got a point. I looked over at the two on opposite little corners of the room and wished, for just a moment, I had my camera. Thus, seeing the humor in the moment I got up, chased them both to the other side of the bathroom with my broom, and left the bathroom.

Quickly, I gathered Scrags' food and water and put the inside where Scrags immediately started eating (don't worry little guy, I still love you) followed quickly by him meowing and scratching to get out. He's only just stopped.

I hope he'll get bored enough in the night to finish his business with said mouse, but if not, I suppose I'll have some work to do. Casey the mouse-catcher? Not a title I'd hoped to wear, but not the worst of things. Hopefully, being locked in the bathroom for the night is enough to teach Scrags not to make the house his playing-field.

UPDATE:
At about 6 am, Scrags was really meowing to let him out. I decided I'd go see if he'd done his kitty job and was met with an empty bathroom. There wasn't a trace of the little guy anywhere! I thought maybe I was too tired to see straight, let scrags out, and shut the door to lock him in in case he wass still there. After looking again this morning, Scrags must have eaten every last bit of him. Way to go lil Mr. Guess time hardened your kitty heart. Shoulda happened like that hours ago :)

UCLA = :D, Coconut Flour= :(

Today I realized, yet again, UCLA is the greatest :) I'm in the process of making a schedule of classes and yesterday I came upon a WONDERFUL minor! It's called Civic Engagement and involves classes in world cultures, urban planning, and sociology as an undergrad, followed by a local, state, or national internship of interest to you! It takes a bit more work than a typical minor because you have to organize it all and present it with only the guidance of a faculty member, but it allows a ton of freedom and opportunity to study what TRULY interests you!

On top of THAT wonderful news, today I went to campus to ask a bunch of questions about Orientation and transfer credits and I decided to practice walking around from the parking lot where I got assigned parking. After walking back and forth across campus to do all my errands, I realized just how wonderfully central the lot is!! I can't believe how lucky I got!! (It's not guaranteed to get parking at all!) Check out how great this is:



Unfortunately some of my questions didn't get answered and I didn't solve the problem of what I'll eat at orientation, but all around I had a realllly pleasant time!

I broke my water bottle while walking around so I brought a new one!



Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing sunscreen :S hope I can exfoliate it off!



ALSOOO I ate a WONDERFUL Creamy Lemon Ginger Kale Salad today for the first time in a couple weeks!! I made it last night so it could soak up all the dressing and such and it was soooooo good :)



scrags was curious when I was takin the pic :)




Here's whats inside:

1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced superfine
3 bunches bok choy
1/3 sweet onion, sliced thin
the rest of my crimini mushrooms! mm!
sesame and flax seed

dressing:
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic
few sprigs lemon thyme and oregano
one sage leaf
salt
pepper
1 tbs tahini
juice of 1/2 a lemon!

I also rearranged a vase of flowers (half were dead) and thought I did a pretty good job :)






Off to Chicago in a couple hours for a 24 hour trip! Hope it all goes well!

Keep smiling :)

The Beginning

I've had this blog about a week now and as badly as I've wanted to post, I didn't know quite how to begin. I'm beginning without set purpose so the natural theme of posts may evolve organically. I do not intend to pigeon-hole said Blog's potential. (She'll have a name one day, Her character has yet to reveal itself :))

Due to the title of Blog, it's a bit of a paradox that the event which inspired this post was choc-full of tears. Unfortunately, I have terrible digestive problems and general ill-health associated with food. I've pinpointed a few definite troublemakers (corn being the leader of the pack), yet I'm definitely far from feeling perfect. For the past 4 months I've been systematically eliminating foods and adding them back in to see if I can tolerate them. (It's called an "elimination diet"- read more about them here) To complicate matters further, I practice a mostly vegan diet (for many reasons- moral, environmental, political, cost, AND health) Any-who, despite all the trial and error, I still experience extreme discomfort, often for days on end. The most frustrating part is that I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of experiences (I can't eat out easily and social events are both difficult and awkward when they surround food) and STILL feeling ill. However, I've done a LOT of reading about digestive issues and realize I must find what works for me. Other people on strange diets often spent years figuring out how to eat (but once they do, it's much easier!) So, I suppose I just need to keep truckin ;) Overall, I already feel much better and I've learned a LOT about myself and how to feel better! (The fact that I don't feel sick EVERYDAY is huge for me :))

So, even though I had an emotional breakdown on the phone with my mom this afternoon, I realize I have so much to be thankful for :) My cat makes me the happiest girl around town, I live in a beautiful, safe neighborhood, and I get to go to school soon! I have orientation (for UCLA) this upcoming weekend and I couldn't be more stoked :)

Okay, time for a picture break (no blog is complete unless its full of great photos.. Looks like I need to work on my photo skills as well :))



First off- My little guy/lil mr./kitty baby/Scrags (His full name is Scraggles)




Anddd- some muffins I baked this evening :) Even though they look more like zucchini or carrot muffins (some other options I was toying with) they're actually vegan lemon poppyseed with coconut flour! The reason they're brown is because I used flaxmeal and water (2Tbs and 3Tbs for each egg, respectively) to replace the eggs in the recipe from Elana's Pantry. Unfortunately, they didn't rise nicely like hers did! I'd like to figure out what I can replace eggs with to make them rise more effectively and keep them vegan, but I'm also planning on getting some eggs at the farmers market next weekend and testing them for occasional use :) (Just one more thing to look forward to! :D)


Lastly, since this is just the beginning do not assume this is what is to be expected of Miss Blog! She'll undoubtedly delve into nutrition, art, recipes, cool new studies, rites and rituals, book reviews, trips/travel, my little ones (I have a puppy too :)), and of course the many reasons we should smile everyday :)

Happiness and Hugs