vanessa jean & co

it's finally time for a new address...

2011-03-02T17:13:00.003-05:00

good news to report:

vanessa jean is all grown up and now blogging like an adult at

www.justwritefood.com

we'll see you there see you there for our latest food writing! food policy, food politics, local food concepts, cupcakes, and the farms that produce our food. also the home of the new pens to pasture feature, highlighting the writing of small direct-to-market farmers across the country.

see you there.

loveseat free to a good home!

2010-08-12T11:30:00.002-04:00

hi there! if you are looking at this, you probably saw the post on free cycle. free to a good home...this loveseat started as a re-upholstery project that never got completed, and now i don't have room for it in my new apartment. it makes a great porch sofa or dog bed OR it can be the beginning of a new project for you (if you have better re-upholstery skills than i do!). you can have it if you can move it! jamaica plain by the forest hills station. and, there is no foam on it right now, but it does have rolly casters on the bottom.

2009-11-11T15:04:00.001-05:00

i don't need to eat...i just need to look at the pictures.
yum. look here at TasteSpotting.

yoga to be!

2009-11-09T21:30:00.002-05:00

soon i will be teaching yoga in boston...yay! i am thinking of making a little website to help get the word out about class...and that lead to lots of daydreaming (not studying) about what to put on the website...and the aesthetics of it. and it might need a name...and maybe some pictures...anyhow, i'm not that far along yet, but i did find this lovely poster by thewheatfields on etsy that i may just have to pick up for myself.

adios (and back to the history of agricultural policy in the us from 1930-1990.)

omg...longest ever...

2009-11-02T00:24:00.002-05:00

i am still working on the world's longest and most time consuming take-home midterm exam. Even if I knew all of the answers to all of these questions off the top of my head, it would take at least three hours to scribble them out on paper. And that doesn't include everything I have to look up and want to learn in the process...and things like proper grammar and good writing skills.

almost done. at least i can edit it down tomorrow.

sigh.

too bad this mid-term does not include any references to, 'a laddle".

cheese what?

2009-11-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

thank you woman's day magazine for these photos of cheese sculptures.

happy halloween.

2009-10-31T18:06:00.002-04:00

happy halloween. i don't know who these crazy people are...but i LOVE them!

2009-10-31T12:57:00.002-04:00

it is warm and snowing yellow-orange leaves. it is whiny the pooh and the blustery day. it is the quiet after the song is through. it is smiling at strangers crossing the street and their smiling back at me. families putting their beds to rest at the community garden. and enormous, furry poodles. and flocks that look like swifts, but no chapman chimney in sight. it is strangers who, from behind, look like all the people you love and miss and the warmth that thought brings. it is the thought of a bowl of french onion soup on halloween night and the hope of frost. and simultaneous laughing and crying...and that everything is exactly as it should be.

2009-10-26T23:21:00.000-04:00

i pass through the hospital as a short cut from school to the new england medical center t station. it's a blur of scrubs and revolving doors and an intersection of cars and pedestrians that rarely follow the rules. as i revolved out the last door to the street, i spotted something very familiar. a purse of robin egg blue, orange, yellow and avocado...tucked under the arm of a woman who was about the age of my mom. i don't see a lot of duct tape purses on the streets. i never really have. occasionally i see a duct tape wallet pulled from a pocket, but to see a real, live duct tape purse...never before. i knew right away that it wasn't one of mine and that it looked fairly well constructed. i followed the woman through the hospital and out through the curb. she was in a hurry and i was hot on her tails! i risked life and limb to cross the street against the light to stay afloat with her. she descended into the t station and we both barely made the train. she was practically sprinting to the front end of the station and i was so curious to ask her about her bag that i kept up with her. i wonder if people know that they are being followed? she sure didn't seem to! the train pulled up right as we stopped on the platform and we both piled inside, taking up space standing next to each other on the crowded train. i smiled, and asked her where she got her bag. a conversation ensued. she was so lovely and happy to talk about her bag. she bought it at the pike place market in seattle, along with a wallet for her husband. it was one of the better crafted duct tape bags i have seen (cough, second to mine, of course) but it lacked any kind of closure on the front flap...which she listed as her major complaint. anyhow, it was a fun and energizing interaction to have at dusk after a long and draining (but still good) day. duct tape, hoorah!

2009-10-26T11:21:00.001-04:00

argh. I am so good at missing the train by about 15 seconds. planning, not planning, hurrying or not...I seem to not make the train about to leave the station. oh well.

exciting things in the works...

2009-10-26T00:26:00.000-04:00

yes, it's late. i'm still not in bed, nor am i studying. i wouldn't call it procrastinating either...maybe just somewhere different now?

anyhow, there are a few exciting projects in the works right now. and if i don't write them down somewhere that will make me accountable for them...they might just poof into the ether and be gone.

one) i mentioned the yoga teaching. that is exciting.
two) kirk and i are taking on a fun writing project. it's nice to have a writing partner who is my brother. very excited for this inspiration and honored for the collaboration. lovely.
three) i am realizing that if i want to do more writing (the kind the gets read because it's good or interesting...not because your friends read it for giggles) that i should probably start doing just that. so, in the near future i plan to start fresh with a new & slightly more professional blog. it will be writing and photos about food, the food system, agriculture, food preservation, cooking, sense of place through food and maybe some pieces from my personal collection and the 'writing our bellies full' series last year...and much more along those lines. i hope to polish up a few of the pieces here and gives them a shiny, more finished life at a different address. oh, fun. writing and developing the aesthetic of a new site. in my spare time, right.

that's all. i will keep myself and everyone else up to date.

long time...

2009-10-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

hi lovely readers. (ahem, i mean the two or three of you who may read this to procrastinate...). here are some things that have happened in the last week. i had a nutrition exam on friday, it went well. i had my first evening of work with the new entry sustainable farming project on tuesday. it was fun, i am supporting the people teaching the 'how to write a business plan and start your farm enterprise' class to a bunch of super eager farmers-of-tomorrow. and, yes, it's in lowell...so i get an hour to drive north and look at the beautiful leaves changing colors. roger dorion of gardeners international and a force behind the white house garden was our seminar speaker last week and that was pretty inspiring. i taught my last garden education class at the elementary school across the street from school. it was nice to be in the classroom again...but it also makes me remember why i want to take my garden ed experience and keep moving it forward (and not be in the classroom all the time). i went to a school in somerville to help take height and weight measurements for bmi calculations for their fruit and veggie project. that was exciting. the kids in pe were playing a game on these tiny scooters that totally took me back to elementary school. did anyone else have these? they were plastic 1'x1' squares with a wheel (more like a caster) in each corner. the kids did relay races, with their bellies to the scooters and pushing with their hands and feet to move around. a total throwback. especially when the pe teacher said, "make sure your hair is up, so you don't roll over it and get it stuck in the wheels." i totally remembered that. thursday was a long day (with a fairly dry, hard-to-keep-the-eyelids open lecture all afternoon) and i didn't make it to cranioyoga...which has been the best shoulder therapy to date. friday i ventured to somerville to make cheese with friends. attempt #2 did not work (we sort of ended up with paneer, not mozzarella) but we did make butternut squash ravioli...yum! and there were cookies and pie and quince and delicious salad. i also got a hint that a fun yoga studio (near school!) was having a open house (aka free class) on saturday. i got a recommendation for a good class (power! who knew) and i went and the teacher was lovely and i think i might have found a real home for saturday morning yoga. they also had homemade vegan cupcakes...that was another good sign. ain't no bhaktishop though... on the yoga front here, i have two teaching opportunities that have popped up...teaching at the community center by my house and in an empty classroom at school...i am so excited to start teaching again. today was a lovely day of bopping around and procrastinating studying for my stats test. a two hour dog walk and lots of yoga and a really, super fun birthday party for a classmate who lives in jp. we decorated lanterns for this annual event where thousands of people walk around the pond (the jp pond in the center of town) with lit lanters. the kiddies wear costumes and it was lovely. and the weather is great and it's hard to believe it was snowing a week ago. i also re-met a woman i met when i was looking for apartments. i met her in july and it looked like i would move into her place...but turned out the dog was a last-minute no-go. small world. she's great, so it was fun to make a new friend. (plus, i think i have pretty good luck re-meeting people i met over craigslist for housing...aka liz & cleo!). this week holds a stats exam, a take home policy mid-term and part one of a nutrition project (which i already did, yay). work on tuesday, bmi collection on thursday and hopefully firming up some yoga teaching plans. yay. and dinner with darcy! and the next week will be social with two parties and sara coming to town. i get to help with wedding dress shopping. life is pretty good. the bike riding in the crisp air is great. i like having a cold nose and tingling fingertips when i get to my destination. i have started wearing tights. i am also digging on the song "all night" by sam phillips that keeps popping up on pandora. wow. life is pretty good. however...i really miss my portland pals and all their lovely comfort...but i think i'm headed home in dec/jan since i have a month off from school.

over and out and off to start the week...
happy everything!

fiercely cute.

2009-10-24T00:27:00.000-04:00

2009-10-23T15:25:00.001-04:00

first time in a while I can say I'm glad it's Friday. nice to have a breather before another round begins! happy weekend.

2009-10-19T10:33:00.001-04:00

I heart osmosis.

2009-10-18T23:59:00.001-04:00

36 degrees and smiling!

i heart snow at the arboretum.

2009-10-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

what is this white stuff falling from the sky?

2009-10-18T16:40:00.001-04:00

musings from the preservation kitchen...

2009-10-17T16:17:00.000-04:00

ok, there's nothing special about the preservation kitchen. it's the same kitchen as usual, it just happens to have a canning pot on the stove and a few pots with mish-mashes of apples and quince. and the table is covered in jars, fresh lids and bands. and the floor is messy...but i guess that's normal.

the upside of being in a new place and not having a posse of people to hang out with all the time, nor a calendar chock full of events, is that there is plenty of time to actually do all the things i have on my to do list. especially the in-the-kitchen food preservation to do list. the fall only comes around once a year, and that means an annual shot at preserving gleaned quince and saucing u-picked apples and maybe candying a few other goodies. i can't think of a better match. the weather starts to chill, the storm windows come closed just in time to fill the kitchen with the steamy warmth and cozy smells of cooking fruits, their juices and the best spices. it's nice to have this time to waltz around the tiny kitchen, playing all my favorite slightly moody, batten-down-the-hatches for winter music and enjoy. (sidenote, i had big plans to study today, but after a nice yoga class, decaf coffee, apple pastry and a stop at the coop for greens...a lovely crispness to the air...i came home inspired to set aside some time to finally sauce the apples. and then i found the quince juice in the fridge...and i just went for it).

including the satisfaction of slicing apples and watching them cook down...and milling them to sauce and watching their volume decrease by over half and tasting the first bits of warm sauce (cold apple sauce tastes so much better)...the best part of the whole entire process is surely the the tiny popping sound as the lids seal on the cooling jars. sometimes it's instant when the jars get pulled out of the boiling water bath...sometimes the tiny pop with an emotional echo comes 30 minutes to an hour after the jars have been cooling on a towel or wooden board. little reminders, little firecrackers reminding you of all the goodness and all the work that were just put into those little jars.

i will be the first to admit, as i balance the importance of local food with the weight of resource conservation, that preserving your own food at home is not energy efficient. i had two burners on (sometimes on high) for at least three hours today. that's probably a lot of natural gas that just went in to the quinces and apple sauce. there is something valid about the industrialization of our food system and it's ability to do things like make apple sauce with possibly (i'd like to do the math one day) a smaller footprint that what i made at home. but that's where i'd like to advocate for the moderate scale producer. yes, someone who has the capabilities of producing a product in large enough quantities to be somewhat energy efficient, but also uses locally sourced raw ingredients (ie. produce/meat from local farms) and environmentally friendly packaging and modes of transit and distribution. and what did happen to those community food preservation centers that used to exist in most communities...and what about extension in urban areas...

anyhow, the joy if food preservation is not lost. i am excited to have a bit of my first new england fall in six years careful saved in adorable and tasty mason jars. i'm excited for more cheese making adventures...aided by the gallons of raw milk we are getting through a local raw milk share. oh, sweet, sweet ricotta...you are just the beginning.

back to doing some of the things i 'should' do today (we all know how i feel about 'shoulds') like homework and reading. (but would you choose stats homework or apples? that's what i thought).

the dog is talkative because she hasn't had a decent walk today. little does she know she gets a long run around the pond in an hour!

let's just pretend...

2009-10-17T15:24:00.002-04:00

that this is beautiful and tasty quince jelly. sure looks like it, right? well, this was my first jelly making attempt, and i have four lovely little jars of quince syrup! i'm sure it will be tasty on ice cream (and there is no shortage of ice cream consumption here...although not too much lately) and mixed into baked goods, but i can't hold any pride on the jelly front...yet. but they still are pretty to look at. and there is a bunch of quince paste and quince puree left for enjoying. yay! yay! yay!

2009-10-16T16:36:00.001-04:00

who bikes to the DMV at 4:30? I do! the line was forever long and people were overflowing the building. as soon as I took my number, a nice gentleman came out to say that the statewide licence system is down...and 3/4 of the place cleared out. good thing I just need to register my ca-h (I'm practicing my Boston accent!).

2009-10-15T23:05:00.001-04:00

42 degrees and raining. the heat was turned on and we did some instant weatherizing. brrr and exciting. I took my bike home on the t after yoga...and it seemed as if no one had ever seen a bike on the t before...that or I had three heads based on the incredulous stares.

we have work to do

2009-10-15T18:28:00.002-04:00

In the United States, where the vast majority of
people were farmers at the time of the American
Revolution, fewer people are now full-time farmers
(less than 1 percent of the population) than
are full-time prisoners.

tomato hands!

2009-10-15T18:12:00.001-04:00

we have a tiny school garden here at tufts. it's adorable and we just put it asleep for the winter. which means we pulled down the huge tomato vines and pulled off all the green tomatoes (hmmm, fried green tomatoes anyone!). the best part is that my hands and sleeves have that delicious tomato plant smell mixed with a wee bit of marigold. yum. and a nice spirit lifter on this very gloomy day.

local pizza dinner with friends...

2009-10-14T19:47:00.001-04:00

inklings...

2009-10-14T14:49:00.000-04:00

i am hoping that this will turn into a longer post. the idea at least. this is the first time i have blogged at school...and i am mildly embarrassed by it and hope none of the cool kids catch me...i am also tired and hungry and putting off my bike ride home...by blogging. although i am going to stop at a not-yet-explored natural food store on the way home and that should be fun.

anyhow, i spend a lot of time thinking about the current ethic of 'disposability' that's pretty pervasive in the u.s. maybe you don't know what i am talking about, so let me explain...

i see it on the streets of boston when people put perfectly good furniture (or maps or electric organs or tables or computers) out on the curb for trash collection. yes, i was warned about this. (portlanders, really...you have never seen anything like this...). maybe the idea is, i'm moving and i don't want to take this with me and it's too hard to take it to good will (maybe you don't have a car) or to post it on craigslist. i know there are a million reasons, but the best is that throwing is out and buying a new one later is the easiest. electronics: upgrading to a new phone...not because your old phone is bad, but because the new one comes with your plan and is just a few dollars more. then we can get into the nitty gritty like throwing away perfectly clean ziplock bags after just one use, or even using a plastic water bottle and recycling it. (hello! it doesn't become another water bottle, it gets turned into a railroad tie or plastic lumber and virgin plastic is still used to make a new bottle.) anyhow, why is this so pervasive? i had a talk with my grandma about it a few christmases ago. she's 80 now, and she grew up on a farm on long island. so, yes, she had it hard and had about zero luxuries as she helped her family raise lots of kids and run a farm. so, for her, these modern conveniences are such a relief and they exist for her use...so she's going to use them because she can and because they are easy. i see that train of thought, it makes sense. but what about those of us who didn't grow up in resource hardship, but rather with all of these modern conveniences. did not enough people watch that episode of sesame street where they show all that footage of waste haulers and the dump to know that all of our trash gets buried in the earth (or burned...)? what makes us so willing to buy and use and dispose (especially before something is even past it's prime) [sidenote, now i remember what brought this to the front of my mind: i went to an economics talk last night and one of the speakers talked about the american ability to always pay that extra $30 to get the upgraded phone with the features you'll never use. he was talking about consumer spending and confidence and how it's coming back, but in small ways. i then came home to find the french-press style travel tea mug (that had been sitting dirty in the sink all week) in the recycling bin. not only was it still full of coffee-grinds...but it wasn't broken. the screened plunger had just come unscrewed from the pusher pole (technical terms, i know) so it may have looked broken...but clearly it wasn't). so i fished it out and fixed it in about 3 seconds and almost considered taking it since it was going to be thrown out anyway...but breathed and put it back in the sink so it could be washed and enter back into the swing of things. anything that is threaded means that it screws into something else...which means it's probably not broken...] which takes me back to my point...what factors make it so easy for us to view everything as disposable? is it because replacement is cheap? because discarding in cheap and easy? or maybe because we don't understand how things are made, what goes into them or how they work...and this lack-of-connectedness makes us less attached? maybe there is no craft and therefore no appreciation? maybe we have devalued everything because it can be made cheaply? or maybe it's something else, maybe it has to do with a certain ethic in our country, something that goes back to our roots as americans...

i passed by this quote in a reading for my history of us agriculture class and it made me pause...maybe our birth as a frontier nation, one that allowed for easy growth is tied into how we operate today. "food production in much of the continental US began, therefore, in a context of labor scarcity that gave rise to wasteful and destructive land-use practices. Thomas Jefferson himself recognized the relative value of land and labor on his farm by refusing to fertilize his land since, "we can buy an acre of new land cheaper than we can manure an old acre." (Gate, 1960: 101) what this is referring to (at the basic level) is that it was cheaper to buy, plow and plant on new (nutrient rich, never been farmed) land instead of paying for labor to fertilize land that had already been used for agriculture and had a depleted nutrient content because of it. fertilizing would mean pasturing animals on the land or collecting and hauling in manure to the 'used' land. and i think that's pretty interesting. sure! it's cheaper to go to payless to buy new shoes instead of fix them...if one is even in touch enough to realize that things like shoes can be fixed (and not just thrown away). a bit of that 'new land is cheaper' idea is in contrast to the european landscape in which every inch of land was already in production, therefore there was no such thing as new land and different steps had to be taken to care for the soil (not that they always were maximized), but you had to do the labor because there was no other land to use.

i wonder how one investigates this further to draw out other historical connections between then and now.

ok, energy regained. headed home by bike.
it's a beautiful day. sunny, but quite brisk.
as i was sure would happen...i would come to terms with the fact that my favorite hat is not going to be sufficient through the winter...since it won't keep my ears cold past october. first frost this morning, tucked into the still-shady clover patches in the arboretum on the morning dog walk (along with an amazing cache of tiny pears i want to put in syrup and can. yummers).

really good birthday weekend!

2009-10-11T23:26:00.001-04:00

yay for birthdays. sort of. sometimes birthdays can be complicated or bring about complications...or if life is not-so-great...a birthday can just make the bad stuff overly-obvious. well, who knew that having a birthday when new to a city would be such a great idea! because it was. not only did i feel so much love from portland and north carolina and rochester and other places...but i also had a lot of people to hang out with here who helped me celebrate. what a fun little shindig on saturday with college, farming and new-school friends! it was like a retrospective of the last 10 years of my life. even better, everyone seemed to have a good time, the treats were tasty, the wine and beer delicious and the night just flowed and i didn't have to worry about anything! we even got to see stella the pup wear the new sweater that her mom knit for her. talk about awesome. anyhow, thanks everyone for a splendid birthday.

life is pretty darn good. which is magnified by the fact that tomorrow is a holiday.
wahoo.
lots of hugs from boston.

quince jelly

2009-10-10T01:08:00.002-04:00

unfortunately i lost a fair amount of the quince water that got poured off my boiled gems...but i have at least three cups...a good amount for a wee bit off...quince jelly! i've never made jelly before (just some unsuccessful currant jam a few years back) but i am excited about this...especially since there is a fair amount of vanilla and lemon in the quince juice. oh joy!

ambitious: quince paste & baking

2009-10-10T01:01:00.002-04:00

i thought i could do it all. i was wrong.
i thought i could multitask through some real quince paste (membrillo) not just the cooked down quince and sugar i usually cook up and freeze. no, i was going for the real thing so i could serve it tomorrow with manchego at the party. and, i also thought i could make spiced chocolate chip squash bread (since i am going to be busy most of the day tomorrow). this is what i actually did:
-ambled to city center to buy myself a scale, and honey, and other ingredients.
-chatter away while slicing and dicing the quince.
-eat a delicious dinner with my housemates who cooked.
-cook down the quince, mill it and mix with sugar. i stirred for an hour...but it hardly got darker and i got tired. so i put it in the crock pot and we'll see what happens over night.
-put squash in oven and milled it.
not bad...but not everything either. tomorrow with be a busy day...but i like busy days. especially when they end with me on the sofa hanging out with friends (ooooh, new and old friends) and eating fun food while playing board games and watch dogs do silly things.
(um, portland...wanna come visit on saturday? i miss you at times like these).
time for bed! it's raining out. the windows are open the the sound of rain is wafting in gently.
adios!

what to do? (reader opinions welcomed)

2009-10-10T00:57:00.000-04:00

i had a funny thing happen today. one of my bestest, bestest, oldest long-time friends called today. she's been very busy on the farm, therefore is exempt from having to understand or remember anything not involving the farm. she sent me a text message yesterday saying she finally had some time and she would call. she didn't...and i almost could predict what would happen. she would call on my birthday, but she wouldn't remember it was my birthday (remember: farming, no sense of date or anything) and then it would be awkward and funny and what do you do? (i will note that last year i called brian on his birthday without realizing it was his birthday. i always think his birthday is in may, but actually it's in april. it was funny, after i got over being totally embarrassed). anyhow, she called and we finally caught up. she did not recall the birthday, and we had so much to catch up on that there was no reason to interject that it was my birthday! anyhow, i hung up and giggled to myself that something funny was going to happen. she called back a few hours later and i picked up the phone to, "how could you let me talk for that long and not tell me it was your birthday." she remembered and called and it was funny. anyhow, is there a standard for what to do in this situation?

things boston is goot at...part 2...

2009-10-10T00:33:00.001-04:00

a. boston is good at not using turn signals. this is ok if you are in a car. it's less ok if you are on a bike, and say, trying not to get hit by a car. especially if you and the car are moving toward each other in opposing lanes, and the car decides to make a left hand turn and nearly hit you. oh wait...that's for another post.
b. boston is good and being confused. let me give you an example. i was biking home. on a medium traffic (but overall slow and quiet) one-lane-in-each-direction-road very close to home. there was a car coming toward me that, without using a blinker, made a very slow left hand turn right in front of me and cut me off. at the speed they were going you could hardly call it cutting me off...it was like a slow motion left hand turn. but the driver made eye contact with me (right before he almost hit me) and kept turning. this was the third such (but surely the most ridiculous) of these encounters today, so i basically stopped my bike and was laughing. i made the whole hold-out-the-arms-and-shrug-the-shoulder gesture at the car...and the also totally confused passenger in the car gave me the same gesture. i think he was saying, "um, i don't know what's going on. obviously you had the right of way and the crazy person driving this car decided to turn anyway." it was funny. mostly because it was so slow and bizarre.
c. boston is good at not stopping at stop signs. boston is even better at stopping so far in front of the stop sign that you think they are going to run it...and then as a bike rider you ride a little defensively and slow down and then they look at you like you are crazy. [i don't think drivers understand how vulnerable bikers can feel. think about it: huge metal machine v. tiny bike, kinda vulnerable].
d. boston is really good at having a farmers' market every day. not always big, and not always diverse. but really, every day. i like the copley square market on fridays. today i bought two buttercup squash and a brownie. the ingredients on the brownie included 'vegetable shortening' which then made me wonder (what's natural about vegetable shortening. why not butter. does it have trans fats? should i make a fuss? but really i just ate a few bites and put it in my pocket for the bike ride home. (which was rainy, by the way, but still fun.)
e. boston is good at bumpy bike paths.
f. hopefully tomorrow boston will be good at manchego cheese to go with the quince paste that is on the stove that is the reason i am still awake. although i think i am going to give up and put said quince paste in crock pot and go to bed.
g. boston is good at haircuts! i no longer look like i have a nuclear mushroom cloud on my head.
h. boston is good at 'flour' but i have no good new stories that would merit jeannie making a comment on this blog. but that also means i didn't eat a cookie today, which is probably good.
i. boston is good at apple picking! this is actually a presumption. the apple picking won't happen until tomorrow, but i am pretty sure it will be good. although it would probably be better if it stopped raining.
j. boston is good at pumpkin spice ale (in my kitchen or in a straw-bale stacked beer garden).
(i start off all negative...but i just end up with a good perspective.)

please stop bothering me...

2009-10-10T00:10:00.001-04:00

i'm pretty sure that's what fierce is saying in this picture. i was just milling a whole bunch of cooked buttercup squash (for spiced chocolate chip squash bread tomorrow) and set the bowl down for the dogs to lick. rhubard didn't want to share...so i let fierce lick the spatula. she was cute, but i thought it would be more cute if i smeared squished squash all over her head. she did not like this, but it was cute to watch her attempts to remove said squash.

that's what happens when it's your birthday and you decide to do a lot of things that involve waiting for things to cook (like quince paste and squash). but more on that somewhere above and below.

2009-10-09T17:18:00.001-04:00

birthday preset to self... small kitche scale! easier to put FOUR cups of sugar to four pounds quince.

2009-10-09T14:11:00.003-04:00

two! count 'em two...renditions of 'happy birthday' on my voice mail, from Portland, before noon. happy indeed.

edit as of very, very early 10.10.09
there were 5 renditions of happy birthday over the phone. 2 voicemail, two from sarah and amelia (one in the grocery store that made me blush) and one from mom and dad. i feel pretty smug in by suit of birthday happiness!

wait! wait! (don't tell me) there were actually six. i would like to amend the previous statement to include three voicemail serenades. the third being from the lovely green pants, which totally made me smile.

things boston is good at...

2009-10-08T23:26:00.000-04:00

it's been just over a month here. boston sure had big shoes to fill...compared to portland. i came in open minded, but not with very high expectations. so, in honor of being optimistic...let me share with you a list of things that boston is good at.
1. boston is really good at double parking. you betcha. is it a lane? nope, it's actually just a place to park temporarily...emergency flashers or not!
2. boston is really good at making baked goods. by boston i mean flour i treated myself to a chocolate meringue, the flour version of an oreo and a chocolate chocolate cookie. [it's my birthday treat, ok?]
3. boston is really good at bumpy bike paths that require bikers to cross with pedestrians at intersections which is incredibly confusing for bikes and cars alike.
4. boston bike commuters are really good at racing to work (or where ever they are going). hello...?! slow girl on the bike, please stop scooting around to the front of the line at the stop lights, and then taking off first, even though you are the slowest, and then holding everyone up and making them pass you. everyone else, please stop crossing the street when you don't have the walk signal. you don't have the walk signal because the other cars have a left turn arrow and they will hit you. so wait for the white hand that lets you know you can go. ok? ok.
5. boston is actually kind of good at yoga. i think i found a studio i like. sadhana. yay!
6. the dog is just as cute when she snores in boston.
7. it's easy to get around by public transportation. i heart public transportation.
8. i heart glee. (that really isn't about boston).
9. the weather is incredible. i forgot how much i like the fall when it's not raining. it's sunny and the nights are clear! oh joy! and it does rain sometimes, but for a couple hours. and then the rain stops...and it gets sunny again. (we'll check back in about the weather thing once i'm buried under piles of snow).
10. boston is really good at free flu shot clinics (five minutes, in and out).
11. boston is good at green spaces and community gardens. at least 8 between home and school (gardens that is).
that was much better than i thought.

from beautiful this...

2009-10-06T23:56:00.001-04:00

...to this.

2009-10-06T23:55:00.000-04:00

cabbage butt symmetry.

2009-10-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

reader participation (please!)

2009-10-05T22:47:00.000-04:00

hi friends.
so, if you haven't guessed, the main purposes of the blog are:
1) staying in touch
2) procrastination
3) recording things so i will remember them (or remember to pen and paper write about them) later.
4) to keep all the stuff i like in one place
5) posting pictures
6) procrastination.

so, since i like to procrastinate (and my two favorite methods are computer-ing and cookie eating) please save me lots of calories and fat by interacting with this blog and giving me things to read so i can procrastinate longer. and i really really like to hear from you. yes! yes you can make this blog interactive. there are two ways...
a: leave a comment. it's easy. just click the 'comments' link and say something witty, clever, boring or just a hello. you are welcome to!
b: (new) at the bottom of each post are 'reaction' buttons. right now they are silly labels i made up...but vote if you want...or suggest new reactions.

i realize i sound like a raving lunatic desperate for communication with friends from across the country...and, well, it's basically true. so just do it.

(can you tell i am procrastinating going back to my ag test studying?)

libra hugs under the waning moon!

2009-10-04T15:17:00.000-04:00

there is no fast-forward button.
that makes life both incredibly exciting and full of impatience.

might as well be here, now.

(practice!)

good times

2009-10-04T14:07:00.000-04:00

there seems to be no shortage of fun things that happen when i set foot outside the front door. yesterday, a rainy run through the arboretum with the dog. it's such a quiet and splendid place, and fierce gets to run off leash on peter's hill! at the end of the run i finally stole some fallen quinces from the two quince trees i have been eyeing. i'm pretty sure quince is my favorite fall fruit (ok, unless we are putting winter squash in the botanical 'fruit' category). i am sure i looked like the biggest goofball sneaking around under the umbrella-like trees, looking for fruit that were un-bruised, un-slugged and un-whole-y enough to stuff in the pockets of my raincoat and sneak home with. the dog rolled in the wet grass, happy as a clam. i came home with a fair amount of quince and muddy pockets. a good deal all around.

this morning i (attempted) to bike to the house where a few classmates live for a study session...but i couldn't find their place. hmmm. maybe i wasn't supposed to study there afterall! but, i did discover the sunday farmers' market, tiny & delicious. the sponsoring non-profit had a bunch of 4 oz tubs of fromage blanc...that a farmer donated...for them to give to people...i know...unbelievable. so i gave them a donation and have creamy delicious cheese. and, cabbage was only $2 a head for fairly large heads. so now i'll be making a big batch of sauerkraut, not just a small batch. (except that the coop doesn't have kosher or pickling salt...which seems weird). then i biked home, earlier than planned, and got to study.

study break number two: 12:30 blessing of the animals at the unitarian universalist church. it's a short trip and the dog hadn't had a walk...so we went on an adventure. a small group of adults and kids, and 2 dog, 2 guinea pigs, 1 caterpillar and many stuffed animals (yes it was a blessing of animals and stuffed animals) gathered on the church steps. it was adorable. each type of animal got a blessing, including all the cats (in absentia) and stuffed animals (present and at home - for those stuffed animals that almost all of the adults present fessed up to having at home). it was super sweet, but my favorite part was watching a young/new minister have to make up a blessing for a guinea pig on the spot...it went something like this..."thank you god, for the guinea pig. their ability to (pause) hold still for long periods of time, their furriness, and their (pause) rodent-ness." if only i could remember it all, it was glorious. the caterpillar blessing was equally good ("power for transformation, furry-ness..."). it was so sweet to see all these adults just willing to just show their fond-ness for animals, and a lot of sweet tenderness too. especially some of the parents there with little ones, they were equally moved (i know, it sounds silly) by the whole thing.

then we walked to the new pet store. who knew that teeny-tiny dog snacks added up so fast? hmmm. the best part was that they have bite-meez which i haven't seen for years and made me so happy!

now home and back to the books. next time i will tell the story involving lowering a cat out of a tall tree in a purse.
adios!

no, really, follow the link...

2009-10-03T23:50:00.000-04:00

i actually visited this sock monkey art page after i blogged it...and i feel like throwing it in at the bottom of the post following post is giving it short shrift. really, you should look at all the photos in the 'monkey series'.
that's all, back to regularly scheduled programming.

chord geek out

2009-10-03T23:38:00.000-04:00

yay for teachers who send chord progressions to try playing on the harmonium through snail mail . i was just learning a few basic chords when i left portland, and i am out of practice. after actually remembering what a chord is...i set out to figure out what notes i was actually supposed to be playing. i found this incredible do-hickey at piano world dot com. wow, i'm a visual person and it was so fun to see what keys equal which chord and get the notes for it. yes, i figure most people did this in kindergarten when they learned to play the piano/recorder/violin. i was not one of those people...so i get to learn as an adult. yay for learning. tomorrow...during daylight hours in a hopefully empty house...i will play!

and, in honor of said teacher...click here.

mission accomplished

2009-10-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

2009-10-02T16:14:00.001-04:00

well friends...
it's time to pull out the index cards, make flashcards and disappear for a few days. adios!

2009-10-01T20:58:00.001-04:00

...and...
I'm pretty sure I am studying how nutritious a
dinner of m&m's and beer is.

2009-10-01T20:57:00.001-04:00

I've found my people...now how do I become friends with them?

2009-10-01T20:40:00.003-04:00

despite the post following this...I'm craving a hot dog, canolli, decaf coffee with cream and honey and an 'oreo' from the delicious bakery 'flour'.

2009-10-01T20:40:00.001-04:00

food inc.
if you haven't seen this docu-film...you should. beyond the egregious footage of slaughterhouse kill floors, which ensure that I will never eat meat whose farmer I haven't met, it does a pretty good job of giving a fair image of where our food comes from, a bit of pulling back of thr veil. I believe it comes out on DVD in a few months.

2009-10-01T19:42:00.003-04:00

on my first big city adventure...except that the city isn't really big and every say is an adventure. I'm off (after a for real, actually lovely yoga class) to see a girlyman show in somerville. that involved a bus and a train, but so far neither has been an obstacle for my amazing sense of direction (ha!). I'm just excited to see girlyman...even if it means going alone.

2009-10-01T19:42:00.001-04:00

2009-09-30T23:34:00.001-04:00

autumn night moongazing from thr front porch, crisp as a fall apple, the first wood fires of the season, content.

i would like to learn to make shoes...

2009-09-29T12:56:00.000-04:00

cute little leather shoes. with cute rivets. and gum soles. and bold stitching. does anyone know any good cordwainers?

maybe i'll save that project for later...for my free time later...

dog + cat = bff

2009-09-28T21:58:00.001-04:00

chicken drama

2009-09-28T19:40:00.000-04:00

1500 miles...

2009-09-28T18:45:00.000-04:00

oh geez, i just love being in school and getting to ponder all the things i have always wanted to. we had a guest lecturer last week who freely touted the line that we have all heard so many times (or maybe you haven't...so start paying attention now!) that our food travels on average 1500 miles to get from farm to table. our lovely professor asked us to think about that number we hear so often...and ask where it comes from. as i am a person who tends to like facts, i decided to do some hunting. and while we can all gather from the state of our current food system that food sure does travel far...where does that number come from? looks like that specific number comes from an early 2000's Leopold Center study/report looking at food miles to Chicago. I don't have to tell you about it because Slate already has done a good job of it. fascinating! i love how the media can get a hold of anything...and the public picks it up and suddenly it becomes widely accepted fact...kind of like the fad diets we get to talk about in nutrition class. the original paper looks really interesting (and specific) mostly because it outlines exactly how they determine food miles for food. i think that the paper focuses solely on produce, which makes sense since it has a single point of origin and little processing (mostly dispersion through distrubution hubs). what i want to know is how we can think about things like food miles for products like coke or peeps. (from corn field to lab to processing plant and on and on). la la la! i am so happy.

on a side note, peeps are a frequently used reference 'junk food' in nutrition class. hmm.

2009-09-28T00:15:00.001-04:00

wow, time to detox from itacha 92609! I think I have a goat cheese and cupcake hangover. what an amazing ceremony of joy to be a part of, and an incredibly fun weekend to boot. Katie and I made it safely back to boston. I've been studying for my statistics test and watching fierce follow Sadie the cat around the house. I'm exhausted after so much celebrating and glad to going to bed. happy almost October. I know I'm biased, but it's surely my
favorite month. adios!

2009-09-27T02:05:00.001-04:00

thank goodness for friends...friends who get celebrated. it's like a mini portland reunion in ithaca to celebrate katie and tara...I feel blessed (and it makes me miss my old home and 'hood more than I have so far). wow.

three's company!

2009-09-27T02:01:00.000-04:00

ithaca farmers' market

2009-09-27T02:00:00.000-04:00

2009-09-24T16:55:00.001-04:00

one nice thing about life...you can never really know what's going to happen. like I never really saw myself riding home on the t in boston on a sunny autumn afternoon in my green sweater with a nutrition book in my lap and listening to chris pureka with a cute black dog waiting for a walk, or wanting farm, or loving chickens or eating beans on a regular basis. but here I am. and there you are (who ever you might be!) it's all just so lovely. a real-life choose your own adventure book, but you don't always know what the options will be. I could say 'you don't know how it's all gonna turn out', but that implies that there will be some permanant thing that happens to define the rest of it (well, that one thing is the same for all of us)...which isn't true. so, one content foot after the other...we'll just see where this path leads.

beans.

2009-09-24T00:04:00.001-04:00

there's been a lot of talk about beans lately. a classmate brought a delicious dish of beans to a potluck last week. turns out they were rancho gordo dry beans he bought in san fran before leaving to move to boston. i just read a small piece about fiber and where to get it...beans. but really, the kicker was in ag class this week: talking about agricultural industrialization and the transition in the uk from a one crop system (grain/fallow) to a two crop system (grain/legume/fallow). the addition of the legume (bean!) added nitrogen to the soil and protein to the human diet (a nice side effect). the prof's slide showed something like a lima bean...but we wondered what kind of bean it really was. he said he couldn't find that info and sent us on a search.

that all leads to me thinking back to a year ago when i was helping jason & amber harvest and thresh beans at their red truck farm (wow, so glad to see they have a blog, with a great post about the beginning of dry bean season). these are the best beans i have ever eaten. i wonder if they will ship me some on the east coast, even though it automatically makes them non-local! there is nothing like harvesting real food, by hand (ok, or with small clippers) to put much of life in perspective. clipping and pulling the dried plants and stacking them in their appropriate pile, by variety, in the metro barn. running each variety through the thresher (a modified wood chipper), clearing out stem and leaf debris as they clog the machine. pouring rubbermaid binds and 5 gallon buckets of dry beans, leaf parts and small clods of soil past the gust of a running fan to separate the seed from the rest. each tiny, beautiful seed will grow more of its kind or nourish someone's belly. i guess it's good to know when we have found the things that mean something to us.

that all leads me here now. flipping through the rancho gordo heirloom beans cookbook. wondering which beans the people of the uk used to eat and how those beans got there (most beans are new world or eastern in origin). missing the sunny september days of portland, the fun of farming with friends, harvesting quinces from the howell bybee orchard and enjoying the seasonally angled, golden yellow of the fall sun on sauvie island. but knowing that just as much stands ahead as behind.

off to research my beans!

info on basic bean varieties and their history.

hunger.

2009-09-23T17:47:00.000-04:00

no, this is not a serious post about hunger in the world. it's about the fact that most of my classes (excluding statistics) involve talking about food. food nutrition. food policy. how we grow food. it's great, i love it. it makes me hungry. hungry all the time with all of this thinking about and talking about food. in the guest seminar today, the guest speaker made the recommendation that we stop selling so much liquid milk in the market, that instead we should convert it to cheese. cheese was basically the old fashion method of preserving fresh milk (think: no refrigerators, cows not lactating all the time, more than you can drink). of course, with modern technology we can drink and preserve fresh milk to our hearts' content. that's a side note. anyhow, the guest speaker john carroll (from unh) suggested that producers should just make more cheese. and this was in the context of smaller scale farming and farmers' markets. so, of course, i start thinking about all the different kids of delicious artisan cheeses out there...and at 12:15pm found myself rather hungry. this also happens in nutrition class when we are even talking about food digestion. in ag class when talking about meat processors. in food policy class i even got hungry when they showed us a packet of emergency peanut-based nutrition supplement for the severely undernourished (among other things, i have a peanut butter weakness). so between all this food talk and larger quantities of biking than usual...i'm ok eating lots of delicious food. off for some smoked mozzarella (saturated fat and all).

the thing about e-mail...

2009-09-22T16:34:00.000-04:00

is that it is always there for you...and it's so easy to look back at all the stupid things you've written. no need to generalize here, things i have written! it tends to happen when i do a search for something/someone that i know is somewhere in my e-mail. a generic search brings up other hilarious, historical e-mails and topics that i forgot were part of my life. i love that we get to keep floating down the river of life and everything keeps changing. it's fun to look back and see from where we have come! there's a great indigo girls song to the same theme: watershed.

enough old e-mail oogling...i found what i was looking for (other than a good laugh) back to work. the work being duct tape, homework and trying not to take myself too seriously.

food labels...

2009-09-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

i thought i had figured out food labels, and actually...i have a pretty good handle on them. what i never thought about though was exactly how much work, wording and regulation goes into the labels. thank you fda for setting such specific standards as:

N7. When the caloric value for a serving of a food is less than 5 calories, can the actual caloric value be declared?

Answer: The caloric value of a product containing less than 5 calories may be expressed as zero or to the nearest 5 calorie increment (i.e., zero or 5 depending on the level). Foods with less than 5 calories meet the definition of "calorie free" and any differences are dietarily insignificant.
#
N8. Should a value of 47 calories be rounded up to 50 calories or rounded down to 45 calories?

Answer: Calories must be shown as follows:

* 50 calories or less--Round to nearest 5-calorie increment:
Example: Round 47 calories to "45 calories"
* Above 50 calories--Round to nearest 10-calorie increment:
Example: Round 96 calories to "100 calories"

just can't get enough: go here.

girlyman

2009-09-19T19:26:00.001-04:00

these are things that are exciting...
1. girlyman has a new website
2. girlyman is touring my part of the country very soon
3. how many shows do i want to watch in one week? what if they count as birthday presents to myself?
4. maybe katie hughes & co will come with me?

hmmm.....yay!!!!

farmers' market!

2009-09-19T16:02:00.000-04:00

2009-09-18T14:50:00.001-04:00

mmmm! first full week of classes, yay! tonight I will celebrate by making ground pork/corn and leek stuffed buttercup squash and watching episode 3 of glee. after yoga, after studying.

the paper clip idea...

2009-09-13T19:55:00.000-04:00

i have this thing with paper clips, and this idea. i collect paper clips that i find on the streets and sidewalks and places where paper clips don't really belong. my long time plan was to collect them and label them with 1)where i found them and 2) display them somehow. basically, an art installation project. but with blogs and phones that can post pictures to the internet, i thought about making a paper clip blog. on my dog walk this morning i came up with the name...the paper clip project : documenting paper clips in the wild. appropriate as i am now back in school...sounds like a research project. la la la.

well, i just took a study break and thought i would google the paper clip project just to see what's out there. and i found this which seems kind of important and a big deal and i don't want my project to seem like it is putting down something so, well, serious and respectful.

so, either i need to not care so much, or think of another name. i was basically going to make a blog and invite people to post pictures of wild paper clips in their (native?) habitats. hmmmm...

any ideas? (this is where you leave comments on the blog! i know who you are!)

[back to studying]

the best part of the pet rock festival

2009-09-13T18:30:00.000-04:00

fierce and stella!

2009-09-13T18:29:00.001-04:00

normal nap posture

2009-09-12T23:35:00.001-04:00

don't be jealous...

2009-09-12T23:24:00.000-04:00

of my totally rockin' saturday night.
i know, i know, you are all (all three of you) wondering how i spent my first saturday night in boston. well, let me tell you...it involved the following lovely events...
-walking the dog in the rain
-buying a calculator for statistics
-reading statistics
-listening to an online edition of statistics class
-taking an online statistics quiz
-helping my housemate assemble her bed
-baking chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
-hanging pictures on the wall
-responding to an e-mail from my elementary school best friend/neighbor
& discovering that there are eight million duct tape orders piling up and trying not to have a mini 'i-don't-know-what-to-do-about-this-yet' attack.

overall, it's been a pretty great night.

tomorrow i meet up with some old friends (and their dog stella) at the pet rock festival. it sounds like it's a festival dedicated to the charming pet rock fad of the 80's (or was it 70's), but actually it's a big rock concert festival fundraiser for rescue animals. with a dog water park. in worchester.

good night!

and this is a reason why I am a plant & food geek...

2009-09-12T19:44:00.000-04:00

puppies? kittens?

2009-09-11T20:12:00.000-04:00

oh friends, just when you think that things are feeling pretty mucky...you find something like this...

internet at home...sort of

2009-09-10T21:37:00.000-04:00

yay! internet at home! it's amazing how much easier, more productive and smoother life is when there is internet at home. we were supposed to have internet yesterday, but the company goofed...but our downstairs neighbors were kind enough to let us borrow their internet password for a day or two until ours starts working. yay!

and since no one uses books anymore, and most of my readings (ok, about 50%) are either websites, pdfs, or scanned books...the computer is becoming more important. it's interesting that these readings are all done online to safe time and paper, but most students end of printing them out anyway...which seems way less efficient for the 'saving time' argument...especially since the school printer and copy machine jam all the time...and the printer is packed with students all the time. oh well. nothing's perfect. i just ordered the rest of my books & software. yes, software! it's some sort of nutrition software for investigating what we eat...i think we have to food diary for a few days and then enter everything into this program...this i am very, very geekily excited about.

hmmm, la la la, what else...?! for a school of nutrition that has a program focusing on agriculture (mostly of the local/sustainable/progressive variety) i was surprised that we had the regular old spread of bagels and cream cheese (on styrofoam plates!!!!) for breakfast, and that there were fat free lays potato chips and diet sodas served with lunch...and that none of the food seemed to be local. hmm, maybe that's a good project to work on. but really, the soda thing really threw me for a loop. and everyone's lunch was pre-packaged in a paper bag...and it all just went into the overflowing trashcan when we were done. interesting.

biking in boston is an interesting challenge. i think i have figured out how to get to and from school most efficiently and have it down to about a 25 minute ride, at least home. i've decided that streets are so much more efficient than 'bikeways', especially when the bikeways involve waiting with pedestrians to cross ped x-ing (xing!) at intersections and when most of the bikepaths are pot-holed or bumpy from tree roots growing under the path. plus, riding with cars is just must faster. there are about a million community gardens between my home and school (by bike) and one day i will just stop to look at all of them on my way home! i also cross over darcyface's street each day by bike...and i get excited that we live in the same city! one day i will figure out which way to turn and i will visit her (except that she'll be at work...hmmm).

it's borderline chilly tonight! i had to close my window, it was that chillly. but soon the leaves will start changing colors and then it doesn't matter what temperature it is, because life is automatically awesome.

we have become a four person, three dog household as jessica moved in yesterday with her adorable dog rhubard. i think fierce is excited to live with another adult dog (as opposed to a puppy). so far fierce and rhubarb have been performing funny territorial antics in the house and generally grant each other wide berth...but i think they will be bff's in no time.

i have class a whopping 12 hours a week. but i think i will spend at least 24 reading and another 12 doing homework. none of which are things to complain about, i am always so happy to have a reason to curl up at home with a book (or e-book or computer).

back to the books! (and i apologize that this post isn't letting me spell-check)

2009-09-09T15:35:00.001-04:00

off to find my way home by bike...
I made I here, I'll probably make it back.
it helped that Portland is in a grid, those of us that are directionally challenged are having a fun time making this make sense. and she's off...

2009-09-05T19:25:00.001-04:00

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

2009-09-04T20:25:00.001-04:00

here are some things we did today: washed the dog at a u-wash dig wash in Portland (we pretty much got washed too), ate an amazing AMAZING dinner that involved quince paste and cheese and crab salad and cured duck and arugula and bacon wrapped dates, walked around the Portland of the east coast, took awkward family photos (see below), practiced yoga and took it easy. back to the hotel...hopefully to sleep through the night!

I'm her mom. no she's not. (duh, of course she is)

2009-09-04T20:21:00.000-04:00

the candy store gets graphic

2009-09-04T20:19:00.000-04:00

2009-09-04T16:30:00.001-04:00

I am challenged by being a tourist. (that was some diplomacy after my original thought: I hate being a tourist).

life is good, part 2 (maine!)

2009-09-03T23:21:00.000-04:00

life is good, part 1

2009-09-03T23:16:00.001-04:00

2009-09-01T20:18:00.001-04:00

officially sick:
I made it through orientation, but rushed home instead of going to happy hour because I didn't have anything left in me (and thank goodness...happy hour mingling takes a lot of energy)! although, I have to say that the people in my program are pretty cool, yay! came home to a house full of my furniture! yay for parents and yay for movers!!! I dug my mis-matched sheets out of boxes ('don't you think you need new sheets!' my mom asked. nope!) and crawled into bed. officialy I have a fever, and a that point I know it's ok to give up and craw into bed. no orientation for me tomorrow, just rest & healing. buenos noches!

bffs...almost

2009-08-31T11:37:00.001-04:00

home!

2009-08-31T09:45:00.000-04:00

2009-08-30T23:16:00.001-04:00

day: home sweet home!
an unexpectadly early move in to the new place. I am sleeping on the floor and fierce is right next to me. yay! a very busy day and I am exhausted, for so many reasons. there is a symphony of crickets outside my window, the cars are soft in the distance and the moon casts just the right glow on everything. It feels like a mixture of summer camps and exactly where I am supposed to be right now.
things: aca, Austin and mrs. greenpants! dinner w/ dad's college friend and his family. I hate being a tourist (but am trying to look at it with fresh perspective). re-united with my 'love is love' shirt. learning my way through a city who's street signs are all obscured. breathing. fierce got a bandana with chickens on it from my folks.

2009-08-29T21:29:00.001-04:00

day: last day of driving
as expected for this part of the world, it took us all day (9:30-8:30) to get from southern pa to Boston. but we're here, yay! we are staying at a cute b&b close to where my forever home will be and trying to settle in for the night.
food: claire's cake, peaches, claire's quesadilla
music: spotty at best, NPR
things: I just took Thera-flu...a sign that things are how they are. there is more cake to eat. fierce threw up in the cvs parking lot. maybe we all have swine flu. I'm tired, but may stay up longer because I just discovered that Shannon is less than half a
mile (.4 to be exact) away from me right now. off we go!

2009-08-29T19:03:00.001-04:00

Massachusetts!

2009-08-29T14:15:00.001-04:00

manhattan. traffic all day! not too long to new haven. hopefully.

2009-08-28T20:34:00.001-04:00

finally, back to 95. hmmm, not a big fan of dc to Baltimore.

2009-08-28T18:41:00.001-04:00

dc...circles around the city!

2009-08-28T18:36:00.001-04:00

eternity. smoking or non-smoking?

2009-08-28T16:49:00.001-04:00

we are approaching Richmond, va. my mom forgot that the racecar is manual transmission...she realized the truth as she sat down to drive her first shift! it's fun. we are 6.5 hours from terrytown, ny...but I'm not sure we're planning to get there tonight. oh how I have (not) missed I-95!

packing again

2009-08-28T11:48:00.000-04:00

we've swiftly accomodated mom's luggage and my new back-to-school daypack (that I am very excited about). the black dog is in there somewhere (she still eagerly hops in as soon as I open te door), but the yellow dog stays here. we are bringing very importand things like chocolate cheesecake, a package for fierce when she arrives at her new home and my new (gasp!) computer. [I'm not sure how I am going to give up my 6 year old laptop. it's missing keys, runs slowly and doesn't always connect to the Internet. but for some reason I love it. or maybe I am just change adverse. am I already a crotchety old person at the age of 28?]

loretta says goodbye to the south

2009-08-28T10:08:00.000-04:00

here we go...(again)

2009-08-28T08:26:00.000-04:00

in about an hour the mom and i hit the road. this time we go north! hopefully after a long day of driving (and not too much of this tropical storm stuff that the media is going nuts over) we will get ourselves somewhere near new york city. tomorrow we get to see the farm where sara is working this summer and have catch up time! more to come...

i'm her mom. nooo, she's not.

2009-08-27T22:59:00.002-04:00

this video is my favorite. it's been watched 5,214,921 times on youtube as of today. i'm pretty sure that i have watched at least 5% of those views. really, there is something about this that just makes me so, so happy! so, i am sure i have tried to cram this clip down your throat before...but in case that's not the case...here you go.

i want pie, i want beef jerkey!

...and thank you liz for introducing me to this.

photo update & welcome!

2009-08-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

hi friends,
if you were reading earlier this week and the pictures came up blank...they have been re-posted and you can see not-really-that-exciting pictures of my trip. if you are not one of the three loyal readers of this post (greenpants, darcyface and jeannie bean) welcome! if you live in portland...i miss you.