IngenuiTEA

I am totally in love with this tea brewer. I first found out about it in a little local San Francisco boutique but it's cheaper online. I used to have a glass tea infuser BUT I managed to break it while washing it and get glass in my sink and dish tub. My boyfriend's secretary managed to break his glass infuser as well, so maybe for tea this BPA plastic is the way to go.

Bike shops and mustard seeds

I finally got my bike back from the shop today. It had a broken spoke that put the wheel way out of true so I had to pay $1 for a new spoke and $25 to have it put on. Yeesh. It really has me thinking I need more than just an allen wrench when it comes to bike tools...I could use a bike stand, a wheel truing stand and a spoke wrenchy thing for a start. And maybe a spiral bound book on how to fix your bike. Oh, and a refresher course in bicycle maintenance. You might think that a former bike messenger and commuter would know more about fixing their own bike, but the thing is when you're surrounded by other bike messengers it seems you're always surrounded by people eager to FIX YOUR BIKE FOR YOU and I was always eager to let them. Same with bike shops...I once had a bike shop employee finish building and truing the wheel I wanted to put on my fixed gear bike - I had left it in their DIY repair shop to finish later and it was winter and I guess he was bored - and then actually deliver it to the offices of the bike messenger place I worked for just totally randomly and unexpectedly. "Tell that girl I finished her wheel for her and here it is." So yeah, I barely know how to change my own tires much less fix or build a whole wheel.

I don't think today's bike shop employee appreciated me paying in mostly dimes, not to mention a couple dollars worth of nickels, several dollars of quarters and a bunch of pennies. It was kind of awkward and he was kind of looking at the money like it was dirty and he hated the thought of touching it. It was like that visa debit commercial where everything is running smoothly as people just swipe their card move on and then someone pulls out a checkbook or some cash and totally messes up EVERYBODY else. I don't care, though. I needed my bike back and that's what I had to pay for it with...if they didn't like it they could have given me a discount or something. Actually, if it'd been about four dollars cheaper I would have just waited for them to fix it on Saturday and taken it home on the spot. See? It's their fault for charging $25 in labor for about 15 mins at most of work. And how do they think I feel? I no longer have any laundry money OR bus fare!

I've been obsessed with mustard lately. I wanted to buy some mustard seeds and I found lots of really cheap seeds and many variaties on eBay but I didn't buy any because I needed to get my bike back. Then I found a brand new package of brown mustard seeds in my pantry. I wanted to grow mustard that has very tasty and beautiful leaves as well as great seeds, but I decided for now to just try planting this stuff and see if it sprouts and if it's any good. Mustard is more of a winter crop anyway, so I'm not losing much. Oh, but once I grow lots and lots of mustard seeds I am going to make lots and lots of homemade mustard! Yum!

I also finally had a cilantro seed sprout from the BEST CILANTRO EVAR plants that we got from Baia Nicchia last year. I tried to sprout six of them but so far only got one. I think I'm going to plant some more and then put the pot I plant them in into the fridge wrapped in something that blocks out light and leave it there about a week and THEN put it on my balcony and see how it does.

Anyway, I need to read about 7 books in 10 days and I'm getting close to finishing book 3 which is a very depressing book about our bond with animals AND all the cruel things we do to them, so I better get back to it.

Garden, Pottery and Biking

I'm reading a book right now about how we're all way too connected digitally to each other ALL THE FREAKING TIME and I need to finish it, review it, read another book and review that one ASAP, so I thought I'd procrastinate and write a blog post.

Since a year and a half has gone by, I have both very little and a frigging lot to say. I'll just summarize a few things for now...

1. We started expanding our garden and then let it fall into almost complete disrepair, although it's funny how it just sort of keeps growing on its own somewhat. The hops have really taken off, the swiss chard went to seed and is popping up all over the place now so it's very easy for SBM to go out and cut some at any time to make a green smoothie. We got an apple tree and we never even properly potted it, we just threw it in a half wine barrel and barely covered the roots with some dirt but it looks totally healthy and thriving. The two grape vines are thriving as well, and the avocado tree although it has never flowered, and the aloe plant which IS flowering. We got 3 exotic hibiscus plants and they all died, and a nopales which is doing well.

Finally we are starting our summer garden. We are about to plant 7 kinds of cucumbers because we are obsessed with making fermented pickles and I have sprouted a lot more things on my apartment balcony, so it will be rather late in the season but we will still be putting things like tomatoes, tomatillos and golden watermelons in the ground. Oh, and peas but they will grow all winter long so it hardly matters how late we plant them. OH...and today I think I finally got a cilantro seed to sprout which is very exciting because it's from THE BEST, TASTIEST CILANTRO EVER.

2. I am taking a ceramics class. Actually, I am taking one all-day class by myself and then I am taking a 2 1/2 hour weekly class with SBM but he doesn't enjoy the class so I don't know if we'll finish it, but I LOVE my other class and am hoping to sign up for the fall version which is TWO FULL days of class every week as soon as they open up registration.

That leads me to...

3. It's been 4 1/2 years since I had clip-in or clipless pedals put on my bike and I was scared to ride it, but with the ceramics class being a very nice ride from my apartment (about 8 relatively scenic and flat miles each way in a nice breezy shoreline climate) I just HAD TO try riding my bike. Finally. So I did and I didn't even fall off but I AM horribly out of shape. Strangely I've riden twice now, 16 miles or so one day and about 30 the other and I wasn't sore after either time. Very hungry, yes. Sore, no. Then I broke a spoke and missed my last ceramics class and I was rather heartbroken about that, but I get my bike with its re-trued wheel back tomorrow and I'll be back in bidness. If I'm organized enough, although I can't make up the all-day ceramics class it is possible for me to make up the 2 1/2 hour one, even though I'll probably have to do it all by myself.

I'm very excited about biking again and also about the ceramics. Since I do 3d computer art, I find it very inspiring and fun to be doing actually physical-world 3d stuff and I have a bunch of ideas about what I want to make and I am trying to find a time when I can go to SBM's offices and use the rubber stamp making machine he basically gave me but which is still at his offices for now at least until we test it out and then maybe after as well - so I can make rubber stamps not for the originally businessy purposes I'm supposed to but to make stamps I can use in my ceramics!

Also, my mom paid my library fines (that's a bit embarrassing maybe...) so I can now use the library again and I checked out a half dozen books on pottery/ceramics and everything about it has me soooooo excited!

Okay...going back to reading that book now...

Planning the spring garden

Well, along with still planning/planting our winter garden (and having a miserable time finding any decent garlic to plant) I find myself already picking out tomato seeds. Seems like they should be ready to go from the 2009 crop of tomatoes and so I should get the best selection now instead of waiting a month or so, and we want to try starting from seed which we can do fairly early here in the Bay Area.

If you're looking for There/Therebucks updates...I moved 'em!

I know I haven't posted here for a while. Basically I started making YouTube videos and so I stopped writing stuff. However, I now have a new blog that is just for There and Therebucks related content and I put it here, so if you were reading this forum to get just the There related content, now you know where to go...and I've added some new features to my site and stuff soooo...you should check it out!

x-biking, comedy and cooking

Yesterday and weekend plans...blah blah...

Well, we're back from hiking...

...and ready to go again!

Getting ready for hiking...

I gots my stuffs and I'm ready...if it stops raining...

Thank you to my vlog viewers!

I just wanted to say I appreciate the emails I've been getting...

Making Banana-Split Tea Bread from Vegan Planet

I decided to do a little baking at home...

I broke my Amazon Kindle!

Okay, really I think it was Rodney...

Netflix shipping on Saturdays...but not for me!

I had a problem with my Netflix account today and had to call them. The woman I talked to on the phone said they put a temporary hold on my account because I'd reported a few dvds missing. Hey, is it MY fault they're missing????

So then she tells me "well, I'm going to remove the hold, and I see your distribution center is San Jose, which is now shipping movies on Saturdays so you should have movies going out tomorr....oh....well, I don't think we ship on Saturdays to you."

Oh, so that's how it's going to be, huh? I think I'm throttled right now anyway, due to my tv series binge of the last few months, but now I am denied Saturday service?

I'm quite irritated right now. First the hold on my account so my bf and I won't be able to watch Little Britain Season 3 this weekend, now I am not even approved for Saturday service.

Just now I dropped my service down from 7 at a time to 4 at a time. Maybe I'll even make that 3 at a time. That'll show 'em...right? Right? I mean the thing is...SOME months a rent a lot of dvds, but some months I am very bad at returning them in a timely manner, so I am pretty darn sure Netflix ultimately makes a profit off of me, and I shouldn't be denied Saturday service. That sucks.

Now if I could only find my Roku remote...I'd see if I can get my digital streaming service throttled, too!

Spiced Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

Spiced Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

sweet potatoes, one per person
1 T. olive oil (or more if making more than two sweet potatoes)

Seasoning Mix:
2 T ground coriander
1 T ground fennel
1 T dried oregano
1 T pepper
2 T kosher salt

Preheat oven to 425 F. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into strips about 3 inches long and 3/4 inches thick.

In
mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind together coriander, fennel,
oregano, and pepper. Mix in salt. (This makes enough for several
batches of sweet potatoes, so you'll need a small jar to store the
extra.)

In large-ish bowl, toss together cut sweet potatoes and olive
oil. Sprinkle on half of spice mixture and toss again, then other half of spice mixture and toss until spices are more or less evenly distributed. You will need about 1 T olive oil and 1 T. of
the spice mixture for every two sweet potatoes, depending on how spicy
you like it.

On a non-stick cookie sheet, spread out sweet potatoes in single layer. Roast about 35 minutes, turning about halfway through. Sweet potatoes should
be softened through and lightly browned when they're done. (They will
only be slightly crisp, sweet
potatoes never get as crisp as fried potatoes.) Serve hot.

About hiking and such

Still with the vlogging...

My satisfying weekend

I did the vlog thing again...I feel like I'm cheating not doing any typing.

What happened after Vegas (a REAL vlog entry!)

Haha, today we have video rather than the printed word!

Part 1


Part 2

Vegans back from Vegas

Well, I'm back from Las Vegas so let me sum it up...

TheRoom:
We stayed at TheHotel and it was pretty nice, or at least as nice as a 3000 room hotel can be. The lamp in the living room was bolted to the desk and the pretty glassed-in shower made a high pitched screeching noise the entire time it was turned on and leaked all over the bathroom, and despite all the hype about the beds, I think my bed at home is more comfortable, but the good news is they charge $8 for a tiny can of pringles so you are in no danger of eating too many of them. The bathtub looked big enough to be a sheep dip, but despite going to Lush and buying a big bag of bath products almost as soon as we'd finished checking into the hotel, we never actually used the bathtub, and that is shameful. At least I think my bf is a little bit addicted to Lush products now, especially the facial scrub and the shampoo bars.

TheFood:
The food started out great and went downhill. Saturday we ate at Fleur De Lys at Mandalay Bay. That place has a vegetarian menu available on request and they can easily and enthusiastically make that menu vegan upon request. They also had a super nice GM who was also a certified sommellier. The problem that started here is, if you remove all the meat, cheese, cream and butter from your food, you end up with a tasty and healthful meal but (especially if you are exerting yourself) you will end up hungry maybe four hours later. Totally normal but not always convenient. So, we ended up ordering a pizza with no cheese and some fries (and an awful bottle of wine that remained mostly un-drunk) late in the evening.

Since Sunday started out with *surprise* daylight savings time, we not only wandered around longer than we should have before finding a place to have brunch (we were going to have champagne brunch at Bally's but it seems they have closed their Sunday brunch or maybe just closed their buffet altogether) but it was also way past time to have a first meal of the day. I ended up having angel hair pasta with tomato sauce (the dish that reminds me of being totally broke, since it's so cheap to make you could have it for every meal for a whole week for about $10, except it's about 20X as much per serving at a "nice" restaurant) my bf decided to be vegetarian instead of vegan for the rest of the trip and had a calzone stuffed with about 5 pounds of cheese.

We ate lunch so late that we didn't feel like going to our 6:30 dinner reservation at Spago. We ended up at the bar at the Eiffel Tower instead. The champagne drinks there are, I must say, amazing, and the service is great, too. I can't imagine eating a whole (vegan) meal at the Eiffel Tower restaurant, but the bartender managed to get the GM to bully the chef into preparing their jeruselem couscous dish vegan for us. It's such a shame to think they can make such a great vegan dish and yet they are so loathe to do it.

After the show that night we were once again left starving so we went on this great quest for something to eat that involved some crazy taxi driver taking us basically to the back door of Denny's while trying to pretend he wasn't taking us to Denny's because I think the guy just had no clue. We ended up going to this restaurant that is supposed to be the upscale sister of The Cheesecake Factory but ummmm...give me Cheesecake Factory any day (avocado spring rolls with tamarind dipping sauce! Portobello burgers!) because this place sucked great big donkey balls. The server started out pretty cool, asking the kitchen some questions about the pizza which basically there is no chance in hell of getting vegan because it turns out there is cheese already in the pre-made crust, so Mr. I'm-vegetarian-Now-Not-Vegan had pizza while I had...oh boy...angel hair pasta with tomato sauce. Wait...didn't I have that a few hours earlier???!? Our server forgot the fries we ordered and forgot to bring my second drink, too. Someone else brought the drink just as we were about to leave and oh boy...he put it in a to-go cup for me...because I really needed to drink some more after three champagne cocktails at the Eiffel Tower, a drink the size of a small child at The Beatles: Love, and the drink I already had at this dreadful place. We took a cab back to the hotel and I wasn't quite drunk enough to end up on Taxicab Confessions, but I probably wasn't that far off, either.

Monday we had a nice brunchy type meal at TheCafe at TheHotel. Well, I say nice although I decided to order a salad because I wanted to be the kind of person who goes out to a restaurant and orders the salad, but I was less than thrilled to get a big plate of all sorts of mixed greens with a bunch of little strips of beet mixed in and some vinagarette on top. Don't get me wrong, I can eat a humongo salad at home full of ingredients of MY choosing, but I'm not head of the beet cheerleading squat and I'm rather suspicious of mixed greens that look like they could have been growing in the sidewalk cracks (if it weren't the desert.) So, when I say nice I mean that my mimosa with fresh mango juice was nice, and having a relaxing meal with my bf was nice.

TheShows:
I think my expectations for Cirque Du Soleil shows are quite high. Especially in Las Vegas with the high prices and all the hype. And when it comes to Mystere and "O", I think the shows really deliver. My expectations of "Ka" were perhaps especially high after seeing some behind the scenes stuff featured on the tv show "CSI". Ka just didn't really deliver for me, though. Not only do I expect a wow factor, but I want to see amazing physical feats and only the guys running, leaping and jump-roping around two attached spinning drums really gave that. The Beatles: Love was even worse, although my expectations weren't as high. Ahead of time I would have said Ka would be the better show, but once I saw Ka I was sure The Beatles: Love would be better. It wasn't. The music was good although maybe people have heard all those songs SOOOO many times, they just don't have the impact they should have, plus I really, really had to pee the whole time I was there. There were two dancers that were really excellent, but still no "wow" factor. Maybe we should have gone to see "Le Reve" and the russian ice skating show instead.

TheGambling:
My bf and I don't really gamble, but he did throw some money into a video poker game the second day (and lost it instantly). Waiting for the plane to go home we played a slot machine, which passed the time for quite a while as we lost for a while, then were up $70 then lost most of that and then finally my bf won back all the money we lost plus the money from the video poker game the day before and was ahead $8 in total. I can't say I felt that invested in it, since I know if we win that it wasn't MY money we were playing with, but still...I did spend about $6 of my bf's money on a magazine at the airport, so maybe I'm the one who came out furthest ahead.

TheWalking:
Saturday night we hadn't really planned on walking for miles and miles, but then it seems like we did. So although I tried to wear some of my more comfortable heels, I still ended up with a few blisters on one heel which isn't exactly how I wanted to start out the trip. My bf patched my heel up pretty well with a couple of band-aids though, so I survived the rest of our marathon treks without any limping. It's amazing how much walking we did, as well as how tired and cranky one can get when walking so much, especially in that dry air and with all those smokers. Las Vegas is like, smoker's heaven or something. I think the general population nation-wide consists of maybe 18-20% smokers, but in Las Vegas it seems to be more like about 80% and we ended up feeling scratchy throated and watery-eyed and like we were coming down with something the whole time. These symptoms disappeared back in California.

TheNightlife:
We spent way too much time wandering around looking for something to do after seeing a show. In the future, I am pretty sure we will decide to EITHER see a show OR find some nightlife kind of thing to do. Saturday night in Las Vegas standing around trying to get in to some club that is pulsing with loud house music is not my idea of a good time...I'd rather be enjoying TheBathtub and TheLushProducts. There are some fun events, but once you get out of a show that starts at 9:30 pm, everything is very clubby and/or smokey.

TheShopping:
Shopping = walking. Ugh. I lost my lipstick, so I ended up getting some more at Christian Dior. Then since I was there I got some Miss Dior skin creme as well. Actually, my bf bought these things since somehow I forgot my credit card in my bf's other jacket. Oops! He almost bought me a purse, too, but we ran out of time to go back and get it. I'm happy to know that shiny patent croc bags are in vogue right now...since I have one in a purpley berry color. I would have loved to get one in eggplant, intense red or grey and black, though! I also noticed that dress lengths right now are either very very mini (bleh) or very very maxi (yay!) Made me wish I'd brought MY maxi dress with me. Made me wish I had more than one maxi dress. I might have to see if they have one at H&M in San Francisco sometime this month. My bf also got himself a few things but I won't tell you what or he's going to ask me why I'm on the Internet telling people what he bought because it's NOYB.

TheConclusion:
I probably sound negative, but to me the trip is all about how much you enjoy the company of the person you're with, and I enjoyed the company very, very, very much 80% of the time, so I think we came out ahead and I'll chalk this trip up as a win.

Next post I'll tell you about how I came home to two very freaked out cats and no Internet service.

You got me a what?

Sometimes I have the dumbest ideas. Like last year when my bf and I were going to the gym quite regularly and I suggested we get jump ropes and jump rope between sets. My bf actually agreed this would be a good idea, but then we both forgot about it. Until now. Today my bf brought me my very own Valeo speed jump rope. Whoopie! Instead of jumping at the gym, though, he seems to think we should each jump for ten minutes a day at home.

I'm not sure which I'd rather do, knock over furniture and stacks of magazines and such, thwack a length of rubber against my ceiling a bunch of times and terrorize my cats in the privacy of my own home -or- flail about at the gym tripping over a length of noisy rubber with my body bouncing about in the most undignified manner when I'm already dead tired from lifting weights.

I'll have to think about that one. Meanwhile, let me tell you about TODAY's great idea...

Today we worked out triceps and hamstrings, and there is some kind of rule my bf totally made up (or so I think sometimes) where we don't do cardio after we work out legs. This time I was asking him "why" as I often do. "Why did you choose this parking spot?", "Why do we have to do deadlifts?", "Why is the sky blue?" and of course the ever popular, "Why don't we do cardio after we work out legs?"

The answers are as follows...

"Because the spot I wanted was taken when you insisted we go to Jamba Juice."

"Because if you hate them they must be doing something good."

"Because I'm your mother and I say so." (Ooops, sorry, my mom already answered that question for me years ago.)

and...

"Well, we could do cardio if they had stair machines here, because that is a hamstring exercise so it would fit in with what we're doing today. But they don't so I guess we can't do any."

Aha! But actually there ARE two stairmasters hiding at my gym, which I had to point out because I love to be right so much. My reward for being right was...we did ten minutes on the stairmaster. Dang that machine is freaking hard. In ten minutes I burned almost as many calories on that thing as I do on the treadmill in 25, and I was sweating like a sweater (because that's what I do, I sweat. It's a talent I have.)

I have a feeling I am going to be hobbling around tomorrow, which is too bad because I have a lot of errands to do (on foot). On the bright side, I feel very virtuous from all the working out we've been doing this week and I'm THISCLOSE to fitting into the skirt I want to wear to Las Vegas on Saturday.

Another Day, Another Gym

What is a great Saturday night with your sweetie?

How about a couple hours working out at the gym followed by a chocolate smoothie then 70 minutes of yoga at home and a glass of wine while watching Little Britain?

Works for me!

My bf is bound and determined to get back in shape and take me with him, and once I'm on board with an idea I'll give 110% to it, so after going to 24 Hour Fitness last night (which was very cool for me, it's not my regular gym and I enjoyed checking out the different machines and equipment and got to kill myself for 25 minutes on a Precor AMT. This is the third gym we've been to together. How many gyms have YOU been to with the same person?) and then doing 70 minutes of yin yoga (not really strenuous like yang yoga) we got up this morning and tried Tai Chi. We even got his sister involved. And we're still planning to do more yoga today (and maybe a little salsa lesson?) after we get back from seeing a movie.

We would have gone hiking today but it's raining. Can't go next weekend because WE'RE GOING TO VEGAS, BABY! (At least Las Vegas involves a lot of walking.) But after that we have a big book of hikes you can do on the Peninsula and so we're going to be backpack toting (have to put the picnic lunch somewhere) goofballs.

We're trying, really trying, to change the way we spend our time, not just go on a little fitness bender and then give it up for lazy brunches yet again. I'm kind of hoping it can involve a little more dancing than weight lifting. (Ooooh...did my bf really agree to try the belly dancing dvd I have???!!?!??)

Actually, we still managed to fit a lazy brunch in today. Maybe you can have your fitness and eat brunch too.

Ways to get FREE credits on IMVU

I was just wondering if IMVU's "spin and win" game was still around as I hadn't seen it or seen it advertised lately so I looked it up...I found a few other ways IMVU was giving away credits but they seem to be defunct. Here it is for my future reference...and yours!

Spin and Win
(can be played once a day, and you could win up to 500 credits)