grackle alert

When I'm in Las Vegas, the grackle is my favorite bird.  I love its beauty, its long tail.  I love its tropical-sounding cry.  The lustrous plumes, the beautiful eyes.  Grackles are all over this neighborhood, and when I hear them or see them, I feel happy.

 

Pic from Wikipedia!

breakfast time

This morning it rained a little bit at the serving site.  It was cold and windy too. 

I helped Ming with bread, which was bagels today, some of them moldy.  I did some quality control. 

Then they wanted me to help get out bowls for the salad guy.  The salad guy was hawking his salad loudly, and I didn't like being next to him.

Then we came back to where we're staying and I made oatmeal.  Ming had his with maple syrup.  I drank earl gray tea and wrote a letter.

This afternoon we're driving out to the goddess temple to see our friend.

sand sandwich

So windy here today.  But cold in the house.  I took my sandwich and apple outside to eat because even with the wind it's warmer.  But I got desert grit in my sandwich.  Crunchy!

This morning we served the hungry and washed dishes then peace vigiled.  We ran into some Anonymous people wearing their masks and everything.  They were on the way to the courthouse to support someone.

I can hear the sand hitting the window as the wind blows.

who I am

We traveled a lot.  We arrived safely.  I'm safe.

I'm writing on Ming's laptop and it sounds like it's getting ready for takeoff.

Today's very strange, and BOB behaved.  We stopped at a grocery store near Victorville.  It was a Stater Bros.

This blog post doesn't make all that much sense, and I'm sorry.  It reminds me of some people's strategies when they're writing an answer to an essay question.  We called it scattershot.  Just say a bunch of stuff and hope something hits the mark.

But I'm not an anxious test taker--I'm Laura-Marie.

super nova

Yesterday we went to the park and walked around.  But there were loud helicopters flying above, and we didn't really walk all that far.  We sat at a picnic table and talked. 

Then we went to a café and split a decaf white chocolate raspberry mocha.  It was great.  We talked there too.

Then we went to the postie and mailed a large envelope of zines to an old friend.  We used the machine. 

BOB behaved well, starting easily.

Today we're seeing my aunt and I want to roast some veggies.  Tomorrow we depart on another leg of our trip.  Lord, I was born a rambling man.

Oh, ps, Mom painted SUPER NOVA on my nails with a star.

street art

I found this old picture on my phone.  It's of some graffiti in Berkeley on the marina about a year ago.

yesterday

enjoy it

This morning we brainstormed things to do.  Dad said my brainstorm would be a light shower. 

I said we should go whale watching, something different, to be on a boat together.  Parents said no. 

Then Mom and I cut pictures and words out of magazines.  We're going to collage.

Next we'll go to the pier, where Dad will buy fresh cod.

I had a theory that a joker years ago grafted a blood orange branch to the orange tree so people would be confused by a blood orange in with their regular oranges. 

Dad found some cardstock for us to collage on.  It's white with little pink fibers. 

And that's today so far.  There will never again be another Jan 25 2014, so enjoy it.

okayness

At the women's health clinic they had no record of me.  Weird.

I survived that.  Then we bought some chocolate.

Now Ming's talking about the automatic sprinkler system with our neighbor.  Not our main neighbor who's moving--a different one.

I packaged up some zines for an old friend.

Packing, crossing things off lists, emails and facebook messages--tiredness.  Okayness.

prep

Today I went to a support group meeting and we visited two friends.  I'm tying up some loose ends before we leave on a trip. 

I made some delicious peanut sauce which we ate with broccoli and potato. 

I'm really tired and ready to go to bed.  But it's only 5.  More day than energy to live, but we've gotten some wonderful stuff done. 

the ants go marching

The ants go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah.
The ants go marching two by two hurrah, harrah.
The ants go marching two by two,
the little one stops to tie his shoe,
and they all go marching
down in the big parade.  

I was looking up lyrics--this is how I sang it when I was little--but online I am not finding "down in the big parade."  Did I make that up?  Did my dad make that up?

guerrilla garden pics

There's a guerrilla garden down the street from our apartment.  Here are pics of the beautiful plants.

quote for the day

Punk was about succeeding without any skills except honesty. Honesty isn’t easy though. That’s where the art, unironically, comes in. --Richard Hell

backyard plant news

Were you ready to see a mess?  There's bed one, basically abandoned since summer.

There's bed two, with the dead mega-marigold in the foreground.

There's bed three, which Ming and I have tended with love, though there's celery in there the neighbor planted.  Onion, yarrow, more onion...it's waiting for some action.  Any ideas?

And here's bed four, our darling.  We've had those broccoli plants in there for a long time, and they aren't really growing, but I have spring hopes.  There's a kale and a chard left over from long ago that, like the broccoli, are not really growing.  And in the far corners are chamomile and sage.

 

Citrus tree that was here when we got here.

Our Mary, the blood orange tree we planted with friends a year ago.

The hole the broccoli thief left in bed five.

 

Some chard in bed six.

Our super-loved tree collard.

Finally the lemon tree out front that had been in a big barrel out back but our main neighbor planted it out front half year ago.

Today we weeded a little in bed two and will claim it, is the plan, as our main neighbor is moving away.  I want to plant it with sunflowers in the spring.  Who knows what to do with bed one.  Please tell me any thoughts.

feeling it

Things feel chaotic around here.  They were so calm for a long time.  Then all these weird things started happening.  Not things happening to me, exactly, but around me. 

I am doing okay but feeling it: stress and anxiety. 

Home remedies: back rubs, chocolate peanut butter cups, journaling, and letters.  Going for a walk, ice cream, complaining, water, sleep.

today's march

Today we marched from Crocker Park to the capitol.  It was fun.  Here are some pics.

Mom's garden

Here's a pic of how Mom's garden is doing, the garden Ming and I planted around Thanksgiving. 

our tongue twister

Seals swimming
seals sunning.

Try saying that five times fast, and I predict you'll be talking about slumming and ceilings in no time.

two trees

This tree behind our favorite falafel place grew into this other tree.  Pretty strange, isn't it?

smile

When we go to food giveaway at the church down the street, they have prayer.  My favorite part is when the praying person says, "You didn't have to do it, God, but you did!"  I like to imitate it for Ming and make him smile. 

Tinkley, our cart

calling him on it

"That's not yoga--that's a PE warm-up from seventh grade."

motto two

I have been interested in coloring madalas.  It started when I was looking for online black & white birthday cards to print.  I found lots of coloring pages.  So we bought some dollar store markers yesterday, and I printed out some pretty round pictures. 

Yesterday I was at my mental health place, and someone asked someone else, "How are you doing?" and he responded with, "Any day above ground is a good day," which made me laugh, and maybe that will be my 2014 motto number two.

my motto for 2014

Never in a hurry.

bad behaviors

Today we demonstrated but not for long.  Someone yelled at us to get a job, and someone seemed very angry with us for blocking the sidewalk.  Only we weren't really blocking the sidewalk.  Cops yell at us for standing too close to the street, so we stand back, but I guess it's because we stand together and hold hands.  But how can we not hold hands.  I dunno.

Hard days, too many troubles, but we endure.

dudleyas

Some beautiful dudleyas we saw today at the botanic garden in Tilden Park.

orange

Our hero with the mega-orange picked today at the community garden.  Photo taken at Jiffy Lube!

funny

Today I've tried to be a good puppy and mostly won.  Good puppy at cafe?  Check.  Good puppy at choir practice?  Check.  Good puppy at stores?  Check.

We wanted to walk around the track at the high school across the way but couldn't easily figure out how to get there, and I got scared and we left.

Art show and Food Not Bombs bread pickup ahead.  Saturdays are funny.

today's adventures

This morning we needed some color copies made for NDE, so I called around for rates and found a place that would sell them to me at a good price.  So we went there, near the university.  Someone was barfing in the parking lot on some grass near a tree.  I wonder why she was so sick. 

Someone was working at the copy place who seemed new and didn't know what he was doing.  But the other worker told him the right price to charge me, which I was happy for.

Then we went to Jack's Urban Eats for huge salads.  It was Ming's first time there and my second.

Then we went to Barnes & Noble.  I have a years old credit there and again didn't find anything I wanted to spend it on.  I liked a few things but not enough.  I liked this embossing machine and a journal with pictures of monarch butterflies all over it.

Then we came home and painters are working on the stairs and landing.  They seem nice.

egg day

This morning I went to the women's center hoping for a bus pass but didn't get there in time.  Two Black men were volunteering--I had never seen them before--I had never seen anyone Black volunteering at all.  And some women were flirting with them.

I thought there might not be eggs or panackes (though it's Friday) because I thought the schoolkids who make them might still be on vacation, but apparently they're back to school.

pancakes
scrambled eggs
cherrios and milk
banana portion
orange slices
yogurt
tea

Big breakfast!  Nothing much on the agenda today but lots tomorrow.

Echobelly

Last night we went to a meeting of the Sac sustainability meetup.  It was fun.  We talked about ideas, which I enjoy.  The people were nice--I felt like the odd ones out socioeconomically, though.  We're rich in love but not so rich in money.  It's all relative, though.

Listening to an Echobelly cd a friend sent me from England.  It's not speaking to me much yet, but this is my first listen.

I've been wearing a button on my warmness lately--it's colorful and says LOVE with little cartoon bunnies clinging onto the letters.  My friend AL made it for me.

This morning I wrote some thank you notes for Nevada Desert Experience, thank you notes to donors.  It was fun because I enjoy writing to strangers.

Then I sent the complete set of functionally ill to someone in Wales.  It cost $15, which I was expecting because of when I sent the complete set to someone in Australia a few weeks ago.  Expected expense.

lunch

food news

We didn't go out this morning.  We've been listening to music.  I tutor at 2.  I have delicata squash roasting in the oven and jasmine rice cooking on the stove.  Thanks for the rice, Mom!

I never reported that the dal makhani we made turned out perfect.  We'll have the last of our leftovers with lunch.  It's buttery and creamy and delicious.  Made with earth balance and soy creamer, it's also vegan.

Wrote some letters, made stressful phonecalls.  "I'm using up all my spoons and it's only 8:30," I told Ming this morning.

But I feel okay now.  Demonstrating yesterday was too exposed.  It's exposing, all those honks and looks.  I held my favorite sign, NO TORTURE, NO DRONES.

easy awesome vegan sweet potato curry

I was reading this cookbook called Vegan Family Favorites, I think.  And I found this recipe for sweet potato curry.  It looked good, so I wrote it down.  But then I made it different from how the book instructed.  Let me tell you how.

oil
ginger
garlic
red Thai curry paste
two sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed small
can of coconut milk
half a lemon
salt

spinach
more garlic

rice

Saute a few cloves of minced garlic and an inch of minced fresh ginger in oil for a couple minutes.  Add about a tablespoon of red Thai curry paste.  Cook.  Add the sweet potatoes and cook until the spices are about to burn.  Add the coconut milk.  Add some salt, maybe a quarter teaspoon.  Cook for at least half an hour, until the sweet potatoes are very soft.  Add the juice of half a lemon.

Meanwhile, make rice in a different pot.

Also, saute some garlic in oil for a couple minutes.  Then add a lot of spinach.  Cook until wilted.

Serve with the rice on the bottom, the sweet potato curry in the middle, and the spinach on top.

Well, this dish is so good and easy I want to make it again tomorrow.  You should totally make it!

William Pond Park

This is at William Pond Park.

Ming's pretty picture of the river.  Shoulda photographed the fishhooks. 

hooks

There were some unused fishhooks scattered on a mound of hard sand by the river.  They were so beautiful and silver.  I picked them up and put them into the small plastic bag they came from.  There was writing on the bag in Chinese. 

"They're so beautiful," I said.

"Should we keep them?" Ming asked.

"What would we use them for?" I asked.

Swami food

This morning we went to William Pond Park.  It was fun to be by the river.  It was beautiful out, and I liked the nature.  I'd missed it.

Then we visited Swami.  He had us sit with him in his office, which is a nice place.  We talked for about ten minutes.  He offered us food and drink.  I said, "No, I don't need anything." 

He said, "Why not?" 

We laughed.  He asked if we had eaten breakfast.  He wanted to know what our breakfast had been.  He thinks leftover mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy is a silly breakfast, apparently!  He gave us pie and some delicious garbanzo beans. 

Something with my health insurance was resolved--I called. 

At 1 in the afternoon, I went to women's center and we made some touchstones, they were called.  They're pieces of round, flat glass with a word underneath.  They were fun to make--I made four.  The words I chose were family, thank you, open, and joy.  Maybe I'll post pics tomorrow.

I had to leave early because there was a conference call at 2.  The box person wouldn't give me a little box to take my stones home with me.  They were still drying.  So I walked all the way home with the stones on my left hand which I held out flat.  I guess I looked weird, but nobody said anything.

The conference call went long.  I didn't say anything the whole time, so no one would have known if I had hung up.  Maybe I shoulda hung up.

childhood friend

This morning we went to the big farmers market under the freeway.  It was our first time there in maybe a year.  I don't know why we kept forgetting to go.  We got delicious foods: satsumas, local olive oil, delicata squash, brussels sprouts, small onions.

I learned the birds that do that thing where they fly in a tight formation with swoops, like a school of fast fish--they're starlings.  Last night we saw hundreds settled in a tree and heard their beautiful sounds.

Today my childhood friend is coming to see me.  I'm thinking about where we should go for lunch.

The urd and red kidney beans are cooking for our dal makhani.  I sniffed them and they didn't smell good.  They smell like those not-delicious gandules I made a couple months ago.  Maybe the spices and tomato sauce will improve them. 

dal makhani prepared for

We lost track of how many rocks
were in the urd

I sorted through.  At least seven.
We did math to calculate grams to ounces.

On an old postal scale
we weighed out urd, red kidney beans, and spices.

Excited! about
what's soaking for tomorrow.

advice quote of the day

If you talk to the animals
they will talk to you
and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them,
you will not know them.
And what you do not know
you will fear.

--Chief Dan George

panda guns

Yesterday I went to a local store which has the best greeting cards of any store in Sacramento, and I liked looking at their awesome though sometimes expensive cards.  Here's the best one I got, which was four bucks, but it will be the perfect valentine for one of my loved ones.  It's a Banksy. 

Almost the whole time we were shopping, a worker was talking to a friend, and the conversation was so annoying.  Weight loss and working out and talking shit about a former coworker were so painful to listen to.  I almost had to go. 

But I think it was worth it, because I'm an official stationery fiend.

my questions to the thief

Someone stole a broccoli plant out of the ground in our backyard.  It was growing okay.  We were upset.  We noticed yesterday morning before leaving for Berkeley.

my questions to the thief

1.  Why did you take one but not the other?
2.  Why did you steal the big pot too?
3.  Why do you need broccoli so bad?
4.  Why don't you leave us the hell alone?

bg pics

Super cute sedum.

Ming with octo-aloe--or is it an octo-agave?

Ming with dawn redwood

This is a picture of the bee shoot at the tropical house.  The tropical house was closed to humans, but not to bees.  We saw lots flying in and out.

 

Cute dudleya!

not egg day

Spent yesterday in Berkeley.  Ming and his kids saw the new hobbit movie.  I wrote letters and read vegan cookbooks at the library.  It was fun.

In the morning we went to the botanic garden.  It was Ming's first time seeing it, and I liked showing him around.  I think he liked the carnivorous plants best.  I liked the dudleyas best, of course.  Here's a wikipedia pic of one of my favorite kinds.

In the evening we ate Indonesian food with Ming's mom.  I had some tempe.  It was delish.  Ming had curry jackfruit.  Ming's mom had street style noodles with chicken.  They looked great, a huge pile of noodles. 

The purple on my TIME + SPACE nails is chipping away at the edges.  I should probably take it off.

I just got home from free breakfast where it was not egg day despite it being Friday.  It's schoolkids who make the eggs and pancakes, but they must be off school for holidays.

chocolate covered cherry jelly beans

We tried the chocolate covered cherry jelly beans.  They're good! 

"What should I say you say?" I asked Ming.

"They're delicious.  They're like chocolate covered cherries!" Ming said.

chickpea cutlets

I made chickpea cutlets, and they're good--they turned out perfect.  I hadn't made them in years.  I like mine with ketchup and vegan mayo.  I like to dip.

So, it's a holiday!  We went to our midtown garden and watered because it's been so dry and did some...cleanup.

Then we bought some ingredients at Safeway.  Oh, we bought some chocolate covered jelly beans too!  New for us, something to try.

Then we went to Temple II.  I wanted the hot equivalent of a Thai iced tea and didn't get it.  Oh well. 

We saw the co-op was open though Ming called in the morning and a recording said merry Christmas and that they were closed.  Would have rather bought the vital wheat gluten there because it could have been a smaller quantity.

It's a beautiful cold-for-here day.

peace

Yesterday we demonstrated for peace.  I thought it would be a fun thing to do New Year's Eve.  The setup person thought few people would show and only brought four signs.  So two people were without signs.  But it was good.  Ming and I shared a large sign and sang "This Little Light of Mine," "Vine & Fig Tree," "Sarva Mangala," Nanya Spriha," and "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful."  It was very fun.

I found sheet music for "This Little Light of Mine" on tin whistle.