Who Says Homework Has To Be Lame?

First off I am not going to bother to make excuses for my absence. Laziness is, of course, part of it, but I've also been writing (135 pages!), reading, cooking, and as you will see, creating invaluable works of art.

Those of you out there who are astute might be wondering why I am talking about homework - I graduated two years ago and have a full-time job, I have moved "beyond" homework. BUT...(of course there is a but or there would be no point in this post), Brett is still in school, having followed along in my footsteps (copy-cat!) in pursuing a degree in psychology even though he doesn't want to actually do anything related to psychology. In both of our defense, the courses are so fascinating and it gives you quite and interesting perspective. I tended to prefer sociology to psychology in all honesty, but at least a degree in psychology is fairly useful in the job market (well, when there was one).

Anyway, he is currently taking Research Design, a core psychology course. I may be giving away the extent of my nerdom here but Research Design was one of my very favorite classes. I recall a fascinating paper I wrote about sampling procedures...you all will have to trust me, it was really an interesting thing to explore in depth but I won't bore you with the details.

MOVING ON.

(I get off on tangents easily.)

One of B's assignments was to watch an hour of television and write down all the commercials aired within a one hour program (there is obviously more that went into it, lest you think upper level psychology courses involve you doing random observations, I just don't want to bore you with the details). B and I, being super nerds, already make comments about the commercials and their content, so I decided I would help him out because, well, I like learning and with B taking it, it is like getting to take the class a second time without having had to fail to do so. Yes, I am that lame.

However, we rarely watch TV besides NFL football and only have one of those digital coverter box things because B's mom got one for us. Our pair of rabbit ears is old and antiquated and because of that, the digital "transition" has been a wee bit on the irritating side. It is incredibly hard to pick up the stations and it requires a lot of jostling around to get reception between the channels. B says there is some boosting thing we can get that would fix that, I've told him he could get one, but we both hate going out places and have just dealt with it.

So, it was 9:00 - what we both thought was a good time to watch TV. Oh - and by the way NBC, I am quite bitter that there was a stupid NICK CAGE movie on last night instead of football. NICK CAGE OR FOOTBALL? C'mon! Anyway, what we ended up finding to watch was something on CBS called Cold Case which has to be one of the worst television shows I have ever seen. I was bored, irritated, confused, and I actually looked forward to the commercials because they were more entertaining. But I am a devoted wife and I said I would write down all the commercials as we watched the show, so I stuck it out (it was tough and tentative at times). I survived by doing some doodling - bad bubble letters, the return of Stickman, bad spelling errors and missing words, it really was what made the time bearable.

I present you - alongside the commercials aired during our 60 minutes of torture they call "entertainment" - my doodles, we thought you might enjoy...















































You may need to look at the full screen image to see what they say.

Well, have a good one. I hope to be back soon with some tasty recipes!

'Til next time.

What J Does While Scouting for the Mock Draft on Head Coach

Say hello to Stick Man (I hope nobody else already has a trademark on that or something).


Pretty impressive, eh?

Local Booty and Garden Update - 2/19-2/28/09

It is hard to believe that it is already the last day of February, but here it is, time sure seems to fly as you get older. Anyways, after doing something I rarely forget to do - go to the Root Cellar when we need something - I remembered to stop by yesterday after work and was able to score some good finds. A lot of the produce isn't local, but it is winter in Missouri, what are you going to do?

Since not a whole lot is happening on the garden front, until things pick up, I will be doing joint local booty/garden updates.

Let's start with the local booty. This is our week's haul from the Root Cellar, I don't remember what this ran, this has been a bad memory week for me - meaning, I forget things a lot in general, but this week was particularly bad I suppose. Thank goodness for lists and notes! But anywho...


Starting from the bottom right: eggroll wrappers (not local), red and yellow onions (not local), ginger root (I'm pretty sure this isn't local), avocados (not local), oyster mushrooms (local), red cabbage (not sure), Uprise Bakery's Columbia Sourdough (local), red potatoes (not sure), organic white flour (not local), active dry yeast (not local - these last two items are for a "sponge" for a ciabatta I plan on making), peach butter (local), and Country Goodies hot pepper relish (local).

And now onto the garden update. A few of our seeds have germinated! I was planning on making newspaper pots this weekend and starting more seed since I ran out of pots last weekend, but - big surprise here - I forgot to bring home the newspaper I had been collecting from work. Sigh.

First, I will show you our revolutionary and high-tech seed starting operation.


I know, I know, very complicated and sophisticated right? We use these plastic bins to store our seed starts in. We've had most of these containers for awhile; we were using them as "storage solutions" for things we were never going to use. So, as we have slowly "pawned off" the stored items on people who wanted/needed them, we have gained "hot houses". We like starting our seeds in bins like this for a number of reasons: it saves space - these are stackable, it keeps the cats out of them, it helps the soil maintain moisture longer, and it provides heat and humidity. I use the spray bottle you see to water the plants. I use the "mist setting" and saturate the soil, I don't uproot plants that way and there isn't a whole lot of soil disturbance either. And of course, you see my handy-dandy gardening journal. If it wasn't right there with the starts, I would forget to document their progress. I've learned over the years many ways to compensate for my horrible memory.


Here is a Sheepnose Pimento pepper sprout - it germinated on Wednesday (2/25).


These are Winterbor Kale seedlings, we noticed they had sprouted yesterday (Friday, 2/27).


These are Renegade Spinach seedlings; they also sprouted yesterday (2/27).


These are Bright Lights Chard seedlings; we also noticed they had sprouted yesterday (2/27). I don't know if you can see it or not, but there are a couple more seedlings in one of the slots in the back.

Not much else to report on the garden front - we have been making sure that we keep the soil for the starts moist, and we are still battling the aphids, we want to get rid of them before we take the plants outside, and before we start anymore indoor things in the AeroGarden or otherwise. We do seem to be making good progress with the aphids, but I think this is also going to involve some sort of "starving out period" as well. Our "plant room" may have to be plant free for a little while. We have our seed starts in a different room, we don't want to deal with aphids on them unless they are an issue once they are outside - not that we want to deal with that either, but it would be better than them starting out with them from the beginning.

So, in other errant parts of J&B's strange world, I have "re-discovered" my camera, so to speak. Seeing that it is winter, and thus there isn't much in the way of good nature photo opportunities (not even snow dammit, you can't take pictures of the wind and that is what our winter seems to have been comprised of for the most part), and I don't like taking pictures of random people, or even really people I know for that matter, so what follows are some of the highlights from my novice photography stint this week in my free time.


Meet the other love of Brett's life: Ms. PS3. Isn't she lovely, what with all her cords coming out the back and her spaceship like functionalities?. I hate to admit it, but I am actually a bit scared of the thing, it can connect and communicate information with his PSP. What the hell? Am I the only one who is uncomfortable with that? Where will it end?

Anyway...


This is yet more of the competition I face: Head Coach 2009. You know I willingly purchased this for him as a surprise? No, I joke, he is really nerdy about the football like I am about books so we understand each other, even though our particular focus is different. And what's more, we are both comfortable enough to get lost for hours in our respective forms of entertainment, it is very nice.

And yes, those are "rabbit ears" atop the telly. We don't have cable and honestly don't watch TV unless it is football season (we did watch Obama's speech the other night). I know there is that whole "digital switch" thing on the horizon, but Brett's mom got us the converter box you need for Christmas, though we didn't get to go up there, so it is still in Illinois, but we aren't concerned about it, we won't need it until football season starts again.

Whew, am I long-winded or what?

Here are a few cat pictures because, well, when you don't take pictures of people, and also don't like going places you have to use whatever inspiration you have at your disposal. So I torment the cats by taking their pictures.


Both the cats really like having their heads rubbed. Nermal also likes you to rub behind her ears (she has some ear problems), she is like a dog, she'll even get a leg going from time to time.


Doesn't it look like she is smiling? Maybe I am just anthropomorphizing the cat.


Gabby looking like she would like me to stop taking her picture (which I obliged - I loathe having my picture taken, so I understand).

Well anyways, I am off to make a sponge for a ciabatta, enjoy some reading, some music, you know, all those things that boring (young) curmudgeons like me enjoy.

I'll leave you with my Song of the Day:

"Blues in A Minor" - Modern Jazz Quartet

Have a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Just Some of the Reasons We Love Nermal

Brett and I are very lucky to have two very sweet kitties - different in their own right, but they are both wonderful pets (though admittedly, Gabby seems more like a dog sometimes). Gabby, due to her permanently kitten-like face, ever-presence, and rude determination, tends to have the spotlight most of the time. And really, she tends to take better pictures than Nermal. Nermal generally looks so angry and displeased to have her picture taken, so tonight provided a rare opportunity to show her at her best.

It is moments like these that make all her frustrating quirks cease to be important. She is a very special cat who, in addition to occasionally providing free grooming, also lets you rub her belly, nuzzles your face, and gives you some very sweet (though a little gross due to kitty breath) kisses. This helps make up for her constant meowing, endless rituals, and the particularities and subtle "preferences" (read: non-negotiable demands) one must heed most of the time to pet her just right, if you don't get everything right, well, she determines you aren't worth it and either teases you by going just out of reach (stupid human tricks), or leaves the room, generally with her displeasure being made known on her way out.

The grooming is something Nermal used to do with frequency and great intensity before we got Gabby. This attention was directed towards Brett for the most part - she would try to groom me, but my hair is long and she would end up choking on it. Anyways, many o' days in the early morning she would decide she wanted to groom Brett and would go to town. He would wake up, literally, with a wet head. It was/is both gross and sweet. He was generally awoken once she had tired of his hair and moved on to his skin where she likes to focus on one area with her sandpaper tongue. This is one word - painful. She used to do this to me, and she'd often center on my closed eye, not pleasant at all.

Anyways, tonights experience was a painless grooming and after getting Gabby, she completely discontinued grooming or licking either of us very often. She has gotten back into it over the past month or so and I got the opportunity to get some good pictures tonight.




It's hard to get mad at her sandpaper tongue or smelly kitty breath (or to think about how gross her kitty slobber is for that matter), with how sweet it is.

And I had to share this gem. I haven't been taking pictures much lately and I guess I was excited because I just started snapping pictures as soon as the flash was ready and I caught this moment.


I love it! You can bet this became our computer desktop picture right away.

In other news, we got our first round of seeds started this weekend and signed up for our community garden plots. All I can say is we are going to have a lot of plants. We filled four "hot houses" with small containers of greens, herb, pepper, and tomatillo seeds. I was able to start two pots of each of the tomato and tomatillo varieties, but was getting short on containers by the time I got to the peppers (I am growing far too many varieties, but I love them all), so there are only one pot of each going right now - two of a select variety. We used egg cartons made from natural fibers (not the styrofoam ones) to start the spinach, kale, chard, cumin, cilantro, and two types of basil seeds. We have another in our fridge right now, and once we are done with the eggs, I will use those to start more pepper seeds. I've heard of folks making newspaper pots for their plants, I may be really dumb to ask this, but how is this done, how do you make the pots?

Our wormies are experiencing a bit of trouble - we are having our first worm health crisis. We've noticed that each day, more and more of the worms were making their way to the top of the bin and on top of the newspaper sheets. Each day the worms that appeared looked more and more bloated and just all around not good. We did a little investigating and research and determined that our bin had too much moisture. We added a big batch of shredded paper (courtesy of the office), and left the lid part way off for most of the day today. No more worms are trying to get to the top anymore and it seems to be helping. It is a good lesson to make sure to have plenty of fiber bedding, the ratio to food should be 50/50, which it wasn't. Phew. When lives hang in the balance, even just "lowly" worms, I get concerned, I was a bit worried that we were going to have the "blood of 1,000 worm deaths on our hands", you know, like we a worm genocide or something, but luckily it doesn't look as though that is the case. I don't know how people with kids do it, I can't even keep worms happy and I give myself anxiety over their well being perhaps beyond what is necessary, having children would not be good for my anxiety issues. I can't even imagine, I would have no hair, and I would never eat - hair and appetite loss seem to be very common stress-related side effects for me.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to a good week!

I will leave you with today's picks for Song(s) of the Day:

With Words: The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Without Words: Alone Together - Bill Evans (the one and only)

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 12/7-12/13/08 and A Very Special Guest (Proof that Republicans CAN have a sense of humor - if they want)

Before I introduce our very special guest for this week's Local Booty Update, I want to make a note. I noticed when I was at The Root Cellar that more "non-locals" were arriving (the Cellar brings in out of state organic produce over the winter to supplement), and the "locals" - at least in terms of fresh produce - are declining. I will likely start buying a few of these non-locals from the Cellar each week and I'll try not to feel too bad about it. But hey - we've got to eat this winter, don't we? (And we have come pretty far in terms of food miles compared to, say, even last year.) I'm also not sure one can really be a true (non-dairy eating vegetarian) locavore either, at least not in the Midwest, where I call home. Anywho, you might not be able to tell from the photos below - we still managed to get a lot of good loot this week - I think it might be the last week for some of it, like the tomatoes, peppers, and onions.

Anyways, enough of that. We have a very special guest on this humble blog. None other than everyone's favorite president:















That's right ladies and gentlemen, Mr. George W. Bushy himself.

Why, you may ask, do I have a framed picture of George W. Bush, in what appears to be a handmade frame in our apartment? The answer is simple: protection. If the thought police come 'a knockin' on our door any time between now and January 20th, we've got "the big guns" - how could we be anything other than good, upstanding Americans with a picture of GW? (If we added a couple of NRA memberships and a crucifix, I think we'd really be set.)















Here he is feeling very festive, quite fitting for fall wouldn't you say?

In all seriousness, we had a White Elephant gift exchange at our office holiday party and this was the contribution by the graduate assistant in our office (studying political science), who happens to be a staunch conservative. As noted in the title to this post, proof that the dark side can, indeed, still have a sense of humor. I enjoyed this gift so much that I "stole" it from the lucky initial recipient. Too bad we couldn't have swapped gifts - my White Elephant gift, two hideously beautiful "peace garden stones" for his beloved GWB portrait - I think it would have been a fitting exchange, don't you? (The "Peace" garden stones were given to us by a very interesting person we met while doing some activism.)

I did question for a moment though how he came to have a framed picture of GWB. I figured he probably put it together for the event, but for a brief moment, I did wonder...

Onto the local booty, featuring, of course, our guest of honor.

I made two trips to The Root Cellar this week, there is only so much one person can carry (especially when I try not to take up two seats on the bus).

This is trip one (and no, we don't plan on eating this all this week, we were stocking up on a few things):















Starting from the bottom center this week: Missouri grown pecans (!!!!!), yellow potatoes, Zia's pasta sauce, a pie pumpkin, GWB, 3 small buttercup squash, another pie pumpkin, East Wind almond butter, East Wind peanut butter, and a not-so-pretty-but-still-perfectly-fine spaghetti squash.

And the second trip to the Cellar, I paid attention to this one, it ran $40:















Starting from the bottom left: a bar of locally produced Patric 67% cacao dark chocolate (a serious treat), yellow onions, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, leeks, garlic, apples, tomatoes, dried cilantro, organic vanilla extract (not local), spinach, GWB (not local, thankfully), shiitake mushrooms, and eggs.

And of course, our weekly trip to Uprise Bakery:















In addition to our special guest, we have the "usual" - ciabatta and a half pound of whole bean fair trade organic coffee. This week we got "Midnight Sun", a dark roast.

So, I'm sure anyone who reads this blog for any period of time would infer that I have a weird sense of humor - you would be right. GWB: case in point. Anyways, I noticed something interesting about the dried cilantro I got from The Root Cellar. Tell me, wise bloggers, what is wrong with this picture?















This tickles me in the same way that the local news gets me (or Democracy Now! when Juan Gonzalez is on the show), I love it when they mess up (or get confused, or something goes wrong with the feed or camera).

I don't think this will surprise anyone (especially if you've met me in person) but I could never tell an actual joke in real life - I guess I am too monotone and not very good at delivery because people can't often tell when I'm joking :-), so I have to go with a different angle (aka questionably funny) - which helps I suppose, since I have a different sort of sense of humor.

Have a great weekend everyone!

'Til next time.

The Lighter Side of Life

After some joking and interesting discussion this morning, Cookiemouse and I decided to start a new blog together called Jennifer and the Cookiemouse. The idea behind this blog is that it should be an outlet for expression, funny ranting, humorous quotes, videos, music - basically, the light hearted funny stuff in life. Some of us touch on such heavy subject material on our blogs, but it is still nice (and healthy) to laugh, show your sense of humor, and really, just connect in a different way.

I pitched the idea to Cookiemouse of making this an open blog, where others can come share any material they find or come up with themselves. The only rules for this blog is that the material should be light hearted or funny - we don't have a problem with "politically incorrect" humor, but will not allow hate speech, and if you want to talk about heavy stuff, well this isn't the place for that. Got a funny or cute errant picture, a good quote, a good joke, an interesting video you saw on YouTube, something you read? Share it! If you are interested in contributing content to Jennifer and the Cookiemouse, please email me at kungpaojen@hotmail.com.

'Til next time.

This Just In...

Greetings, blogosphere. Some of the more regular visitors to this blog may have noticed that a new contributor was added last week, and I am now posting to introduce myself. I am the ‘Brett’ that is occasionally referred to in postings; I can also be referred to as ‘partner’ or ‘significant other’, but most of you will come to know me by my Indian name: Wet Blanket.

Readers from North America might understand right away what I mean by ‘Indian name’, but for those who don’t, I will explain. First off, ‘Indian’ is not of India in this context. Instead, it is a reference to Native Americans who, according to Western pop-culture, were named after some quality they possessed – like Dances with Wolves. In my case, I am the type of person who could walk into a room full of like-minded individuals and spark a heated debate, or in other words, cast a shadow of doubt on consensus. If I find people looking at only one side of an issue, I’ll try to get them to look at it another way – even if they’re already looking from my favorite angle. If everyone thinks the world is crashing around them, I’ll try to bring them out of that perception; if everyone thinks they’re having a great time, I’ll try to bring the house down around them. It is this second tendency from which I draw my name.

I wish I could remember where I got the term ‘wet blanket’, but my understanding of it is that it refers to one who frequently ruins the mood; in my case, it would be whether the mood is good or bad. I, of course, chose my own ‘Indian name’ which is not common practice; Jennifer usually handles that because ‘Indian names’ are generally reserved for those whose real name we do not know but are, nonetheless, subjects of enough frequency as to necessitate a term.

For instance:

• Guy with Trench Coat
• Lady with a Bob
• Stand-up Guy (repeatedly stands up and sits down on the bus)
• Nurse Lady (regular bus rider who is a nurse)
• Neighbor Guy
• The Smoking Ladies
• TMI (too much information) Lady
  
  Then there are some with longer names like:

• Kid who works at Starbucks that reminds us of Jordan (Jennifer’s stepbrother)
• Guy who plays guitar on lunch breaks
• Guy who loves the bus a little too much (talks to everyone, including himself, about it)
• Girl who’s always on her phone
• Guy with that cool E-book reader
  
  

You get the picture. I think most of us probably ‘know’ people who go by names like these. Jennifer and I lovingly refer to them as “Indian names” to add an element of humor to our abundant ignorance and social ineptitude, but I hope not to be misconstrued as poking fun at Native Americans. For me, referring to the indigenous peoples of the American continent as “Indians” should be interpreted as poking fun at white folks’ stupidity. I mean, how long were Europeans here committing genocide before they realized they weren’t in India?

Anyways, back to the point of this post. I will likely not be a frequent contributor to this blog, and what I do contribute will almost certainly fall under the category of ‘random musings’. Those of you who may have visited me at Parade of Rain are probably familiar with the infrequency of my postings. As for material, I can’t say what to expect. Some ideas just never reach a level of comprehension that can be articulated. So, my presence here is also likely to be sporadic, but it is also possible that the bulk of my contributions will appear in the commentary. I am not a journalist or a cook – just a thinker. Some days it’s all I do.