On Diet

This summer I hit number three in vegetarian adventures. By now, it fits into my life style pretty easily. It definitely took a few months of learning how to survive in a culture that emphasizes meat as the main dish in every meal, knowing how to field questions from well-intentioned, yet ignorant people, and figuring out how to handle social situations - ordering at restaurants, going to friend's houses for dinner, having people over here for dinner, etc. While those things are generally no longer an issue for me, I do find myself feeling unexpected delight when I come into the company of other vegetarians or vegans and knowing they just know. Always, always when people find out I'm vegetarian, the question is "Why?" and usually, they have an opinion on it. So, there is something refreshing in being in like-minded company, especially when it's something that manifests as much as food issues do. As such, I have recently been super excited as Jesse has been making a noticeable number of casual remarks about taking the plunge into vegetarianism himself. Albeit, his reasons are different than mine. He is primarily interested in it for the health benefits, while I was more driven by the idea of compassionate consumption. (Though I can't deny I have really enjoyed the health benefits that come along with it.) Anyway, Jesse recently reserved a copy of The China Study, which a pilot recommended to him a year or two back. I guess it's a comprehensive study on nutrition, taking into account plant-based vs. meat based diets. I may steal it from him for a bit and have a little read myself. In the end, he may not ever choose to become a vegetarian and it is a decision that is fully his either way, but I am quite excited about the possibility of it!


As for me, I still mull over veganism quite a bit. Outside of food, I try to live a vegan lifestyle anyway, but diet-wise, dairy is the main thing that keeps me from making the leap. Cheese and milk in particular. Thankfully, we've been able to find sources for both that let me happily purchase without feeling like I am compromising. I'm to a point where I will probably try to eat vegan while out and about, but not at home, since I can control the source of our food at home. I know that will prove to be difficult, especially in social settings, and the odds that I will be able to do it 100% are slim. For instance, at work the other day, they saved cheese pizza especially for me, which was super considerate and thoughtful of my vegetarianism. Obviously, I'm not going to turn it down and say "Actually....I won't eat that cheese.", nor will I make my poor friends suffer more as they try desperately to figure out what I can eat when we come over. So, as with most things in life, do the best you can with what you have when you have it. At this point, I'm just going to be more mindful of it when I do have control over my food. As such, I've been wanting to expand my vegan recipes. I've been browsing cookbooks. Top of my list so far is The Joy of Vegan Baking, The Vegan Scoop, and The Vegan Table. Ironic that two of my top three are dessert-based! Actually, I often enjoy the process of baking more than the end result. (Though cookies aren't a bad destination.)

Still Playing with the New Camera

I really like the new little camera Jesse got me. We discovered the video mode....which just happened to be while we were at Sonic - could there be more perfect timing??! Jesse decided we should do our own Sonic commercial. (Not sure if the real ones are airing in Canada or not.) Anyway, I love how I am holding my cup with the logo so perfectly placed, though I'm pretty sure the real thing is a lot funnier than we are. Nonetheless, here you go - the first video taken on my new little camera.

It's The Little Things

I was driving home from the shelter this evening, and as I exited off the highway, I saw a turtle in the middle of the road. Thankfully I didn't hit it, but I knew his chances of making it across the road alive were slim to none. There was no safe place to pull off on the side of the road because there is no shoulder at this spot, so I drove a bit further and pulled into a business drive a little way down the road. I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I felt like since I had seen it, I should do something. So, I turned off the car, got out, and started running back down the side of the road, through the middle of weeds, thinking how stupid I must look to cars passing by, and watching the turtle, looking away each time a car drove by, because I knew I couldn't handle seeing him get squished right as I was on my way to move him. So, I made it to the point in the road where he was and ran out when the cars were clear to move him. I was a bit nervous picking him up, because I didn't know if he was a snapper or not, and I had Jesse's voice ringing in my ears, Turtles are notorious for disease. (We recently had a turtle discussion when we saw one walking the dogs the other day.) Anyway, I went a little deeper into the weeds, to try to make sure he didn't turn back around and get right back on the road. As I was doing all of this, I was also thinking about how I often see creepy people walking this stretch of road and I was a little nervous just walking out by myself. Of course, on que, as I turn around, there is an old rusty pick up truck stopped behind me with two guys in it who look....hmmm...I'll say "weathered". They both look serious and yell "Are you okay?" and I look right back at them, smiling like a big dork, and say "Yea, there was just a big turtle in the middle of the road that I wanted to move.", thinking about how they will either a) think I'm a stupid fool or b) perhaps jump out, kidnap me, and then brutally murder me. Instead, they both smiled and said "That's awesome!". So, I started jogging back to my car, and they drove away in their truck. I was relieved that I hadn't been kidnapped, so I was all happy jogging back to the car. Then I realized that they had turned around and were coming back. They slowed down again and yelled out "Hey, just want you to know, that's really great. Wish there were more people like that." and then sped away.

Of course, I smiled like an even bigger dork and kept running. Every once in a while, you have some exchange with a stranger that reminds you that the world isn't so bad after all. I also thought about how stupid and judgemental I had been toward them when I first saw them. You never know what package kindness will arrive in. Many cars passed me, but they were the only ones who stopped to see if I was okay. And then they were kind enough to stop again just to tell me that they liked what I had done.

Ahhhh...warm fuzzies.

Sweet Memories

I was bummed about the fact that we seemed to have lost all photos of our first ever house together in the move a few years ago. Yesterday when I got home, Jesse told me he had something that would make me very happy, and sat me down in the front of the computer to pull up the photos of our old house! I was very excited! The photos he found even included the ones he took the day we had the inspection done (before we closed and actually owned it). I had forgotten how nasty ugly it was when we bought it...and oh the horror of cat urine! We both joked that we don't know what we were thinking buying it. We had to remind ourselves that we were trying to buy for less than 140k, it was the middle of the housing boom, and most houses we looked at in our price range were literally crumbling off their foundation. This house was terribly ugly and wretched stinky, but since most of the stuff was cosmetic in nature, we snatched it up.

I had forgotten what all we did to it and the many long days working on it. One time I even fell asleep against the living room wall, holding a reciprocating saw in my hand. That was the night we were putting in the wood stove...if I remember right, it started snowing shortly after Jesse got all of the holes in the ceiling and roof cut, so the snow was just falling right into the living room. In fact, I believe at the point I fell asleep, Jesse was on the roof and I was waiting for him to come back down so we could start putting in the pipe. As I dozed off, I remember telling myself to stay awake, and thinking a) not smart for Jesse to be on the roof while it's snowing and b) not smart for me to be holding a reciprocating saw while feeling so sleepy. Somehow, we managed to get the wood stove put in that night and didn't have any trips to the ER. We also painted every square inch of wall and ceiling in that house. After that was done, I remember one Friday night, turning to Jesse and saying "I think we should paint the house this weekend!" (meaning the outside) and off to Home Depot we went to pick out paint. The next day I painted all day while Jesse was at work, and somehow managed to lock myself out of the house in the process. I remember thinking about how I could pee in the shed if I really had to go before Jesse got home. To this day, we still joke about the grand idea I had to paint the house in one weekend. Or the image of the Daytona loaded up with hardwood planks. There was 500sq feet shoved in there because we didn't have a truck, and we couldn't afford the delivery fee. Man, we did so many projects, and we did them all with such ghetto flair. That little hatchback served us well though. It was a very sad little car if I do recall. I remember driving behind Jesse one day, whom I could barely see through the thick black smoke, and praying that the Daytona didn't spontaneously burst into flames and kill Jesse. It lived through that day, and finally died on a mountain. Rest in peace, little buddy. Perhaps it is in used car heaven, right next to the beloved Dodge Aries. Anyway, we (and our cars!) worked hard on that house, and by the end of our time there, it had definitely become "home".

Ahhhh, little house...

how I miss you and all your sweet, ghetto, sweaty, stinky, cozy, loving memories...

Still fixing it up...

It is the perfect morning. It rained last night, so everything is nice and cool, the birds are singing, and all nature is quiet and content. I just came in from picking a pound and a half of sugar snap peas, Jesse's favorite garden veggie. Hopefully we will find time to relax today. Yesterday was a busy work day. Our replacement windows arrived, so we started in on that project. We also bought beadboard for the ceilings in the bedroom and office when we ordered the windows, so we started putting that up as well.

In keeping with our house projects theme, we measure the level of difficulty by the swear scale. Putting in wood floors = 3 sh*ts. Gutting the bathroom = 8 d*mns, 7 sh*ts, and 1 b*tch. Yesterday I was cracking up, as the scale officially tipped. We had a record number of f bombs, too many sh*ts to count, and many sons of b*tches. The project is not even done yet, and it is by far my least favorite. And judging by the colors flying out of Mr. Nikkel's mouth, I think it's safe to say he feels the same way. (In fact, for the record, of all of the "colors" that flew yesterday, I was only responsible for one. Not that I can blame him though, as Jesse really was doing most of the work.) The first window we started on had a lot of wood rot around it, so Jesse replaced most of the frame while I hung out in the other room and assembled a new desk for the office. The rot of course did not help, nor did the fact that our new neighbors had hired a professional to install replacement windows on their house on the very same day we started in on ours. That dude worked significantly faster than we did.

The first window we started on (well, actually Jesse did most of this by himself). Lots of wood rot in the frame....booooo....

On to the next, which went a lot faster, but still had some issues.
Nailing in some new flashing.

This is the reason we bought beadboard for the ceilings. You can't see it very well, but the old popcorn ceiling is alive and well in our office and bedroom. (Thankfully not the rest of the house though!) It is also starting to chunk off in random places, and may or may not contain asbestos. Putting up wainscot to cover it seemed a lot easier than doing an asbestos test and ripping it all down, then repainting the ceilings. Plus, if the test was positive, what a bugger that would be with masks, suits and the whole ordeal while doing the demo. You can also catch a small glimpse of the brass and glass light fixture straight from 1982 in this photo.
A self-photo taken while I was bracing up the paneling and Jesse was nailing it in. After the first failed attempt at holding the beadboard up while one of us nailed, Jesse created "the swooper". It is basically a t-shaped brace (which I am holding). The idea was that I would "swoop" under the paneling to raise it up and hold it in place while he was nailing to relieve some of the weight. Swooping action is much easier said than done, however, and I have the bruises to prove it.
We only got two panels of beadboard up, and the trim is still not back on the windows in the office. Plus, we have some major cleaning and organizing to do in there. Once we are finished completely, I'll post some of the after photos. Don't hold your breath though, because it may be a while before we get around to finishing it. We still have 5 more windows to install and beadboard for the bedroom. And we are debating about repainting all of the trim.

Poor little Horton was scared all day. Since we got him, he has always had a major fear of windows. I don't know what happened to him, but at some point, something very bad involving windows went down. When we first got him, you couldn't even adjust the blinds without him literally trembling in fear. I have never seen a dog literally shake in fear besides Horton with windows. I hate to think of what he went through or what those people did to him. He has come a long way since we first got him, and you can even adjust curtains in his presence now. But, there is still some sort of fear reaction in him, and yesterday was all just too much for him to handle with completely removing windows. Needless to say, he stayed as far away from the action as he possibly could.

Monkey was a different story. She wanted to be close. She decided it would be a good idea if she collected all of the toys she could find on the floor and line them up nicely on her bed. She did it so precisely in a neat little line.

Once she had her toys lined up in a row, I joked to Jesse "Isn't that a sign of autism in children?". (Monkey is a bit crazy.) No sooner had I said than, and we turned around to find her eating paint chips off the paint brush. She's not doing herself any favors in the joke department. (Don't worry, I took the paint brush away from her right away.) Actually, for as much as we make jokes about her, she's actually very smart. She just needs a job to do, or else she'll find one of her own...like lining up toys and eating paint chips. This is one reason I think she would enjoy agility, (which is still on my list of things to sign up for).

Anyway, the weekend is flying by much faster than I would like.

Later today I'm off to the shelter. I am heavily campaigning for a third (possibly fourth) dog. Jesse's question every time, is "But when will it stop?" and my answer is always "300 lbs." =)

New Camera

For graduation, Jesse got me a new camera. Now I don't have to lug around his big guns cameras anytime I want photos. I have been taking the new little camera around with us so that I can test it out. So, here are some of the first ever photos taken on it...none of which are good, but fun nonetheless.

He's Back

Jesse is back from Calgary, after running his first half marathon. You can see his results here. (Do a crtl+f to find him.) Not too shabby considering he had a very serious halt in training due to hernia surgery. Way to go Hernie!!