Raja's Tandoor

Our friend made some Sacred Peace Walk shirts, purple on white, and gave Ming one--you can see him wearing it in the beach pic.  But the largest size was not large enough for me, so our friend cut the design off a medium shirt.  And we went to Walmart today to get me a white teeshirt I can sew the design onto.

But I got the idea that we should tiedye them because white shirts show dirt so much and I had seen tiedye kits at a Ross store inexpensive.

So I'm trying to figure out when and where to do it.  There used to be a table in the backyard, but there is not anymore since D moved away.  I guess we could move our table into the backyard?  Or maybe we could do it in the kitchen?  But today it's supposed to be very rainy.  I keep waiting for it.

This morning we were in Davis to see Ming's kid who is going to school there now.  And it was raining there.  We had Indian food for an early lunch.  The eggplant pakoras were great.  The samosas were too.  They are generous with their samosas.

yesterday at the beach

we got the beet

Today I was supposed to have a voice lesson but my teacher is sick, so she canceled.  We had plans with Ming's mom, so we decided to go to the Bay Area anyway. 

We went to Alameda Beach and walked.  We found a small vessel made of terra cotta.  It's painted in an interesting way.  We wondered if it was ancient.  But there's some glitter inside, so probably not.  Ming wondered if it contained some kind of water spirit which I liberated and my reward is that now I'm immortal.

Then we went to Berkeley for lunch with Ming's mom.  We shared some Pakistani food.

Then I got world-class boba at Purple Cow.

Then we went to Indian Rock park, where I sat on a rock for a while.  There were eucalyptus leaves and seed pods along with acorns.  I like oak and eucalyptus trees together.  It got cold.  I was wearing my new favorite shirt which is black and has some lace on it.

Then we went to Safeway to use the bathroom.  In the deli we noticed they had kombucha on tap that I didn't like very much, none of the three flavors, but Ming liked it.  He got rose flavor.

Then we went to the North Berkeley farmer's market and got some beets and two fall pluots. 

We tried to get some pizza at Cheeseboard Collective, but it was not time.  That's happened to me before.

Then we drove home in some mild traffic.  Next up is prisoner writing night.  Can we do all this in one day?  We'll try at least.

my welfare

Gmorning.  Today I survived the welfare office and the Regional Transit office.  And it's only 9:35 am.  Go me. 

I was in a bad place, literally and figuratively.  But now I'm home.  It was fall.  Today and tomorrow will be summer again.  Then Friday it's winter.  We're supposed to get more than half an inch of rain.

My aunt has announced tamale making day.  December seems like a long ways away.  But I guess it will be here soon.

hello

When we got home from our trip, my computer monitor wouldn't work.  I actually didn't know if it was the monitor or the computer again.  But I asked for a monitor on freecycle and got a flatscreen!  It's amazing!  And it works great.

"Complete with sticker," I told Ming as we walked away.  It has a sticker in the corner.

This morning I had breakfast with a friend.  I had potatoes.  Then we walked to Southside Park.  Ming picked me up at Insight Coffee when he was done gardening.  He got interviewed by a radio station but they took pictures too.  Maybe for the website.

I am ready to say hello to 2015.  I printed out my 2015 calendar. 

time is flowing like a river to the sea

Yesterday afternoon we got home from our long strange trip.  In addition to serving the hungry four mornings, we went to that vegan farm sanctuary, visited an anarchist artspace called Reclaimed, and went to that wetlands.  And we made lots of food, cooking three meals a day for us and others. 

And we had a board meeting.  I took 22 pages of notes.  I guess I type fast and am not good at differentiating in the moment what's important and what's not.  So I need to go over those and edit.

This morning I have an 8:30 doctor's appt.  It's dark.  Sacramento is cold, but it will get up to 81 two days this week.  Fall is changeable. 

farm day

This is our Catholic Worker friend with morning glories at the vegan animal sanctuary we went to a few days ago in Las Vegas.

I was photographing this beautiful flower when another friend told me this was okra that had not been harvested.  If you look closely, you can see the okra pods.

ground the drones

Friends prepare blue scarves.

Ming with Nevada Desert Experience's new event coordinator Brian Terrell. 

three locked lock

thursday morning vigil

parallelogram Ming

Today we went to the wetlands park in Las Vegas after serving the hungry and helping wash dishes.  There are these pieces of metal with shapes.  Lots of parallelograms and some S shapes.  They are a mystery, or maybe they're just trail markers, but I like them.

camper Ming

Mono Lake

tonight we're going to camp like it's 1999

We are in Mammoth Lakes at the library.  I want to blog some pics of Mono Lake but can't download them onto this library computer.  BOB is holding up okay.  We went over the pass just fine.  Sandwiches, chips, green grapes.  Prince, Los Campesinos, the 10,000 Maniacs.

vague

This morning we embark on an excellent adventure.

Know Your Mushrooms

Last night we watched the documentary Know Your Mushrooms.  I found it to be a movie for men.  The only women in the whole movie were incidental.  Also, it was too basic.  It seemed to be made for people who knew nothing about mushrooms, and that should not have been their intended audience.  It should have been made for mushrooms freaks and aspiring mushrooms freaks.

My favorite part was about the magic mushrooms.  I liked an expert's articulate description of a psychedelic trip he took.  That was my favorite part of the whole movie.

So I got through the whole thing, the music was nice, I liked the purple sparkles, but it just wasn't that good. 

olive harvesting

They were full of larvae.  So much for that idea.

old days

Do you remember when Botan Rice Candy had a plastic toy?  I only remember the stickers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botan_Rice_Candy

not entirely true

Backyard tomatoes are good in sandwiches.

Do you know this idea that you chose your family before your birth?  It's some kind of...reincarnation idea, or some idea of souls sitting up in heaven deciding "what they need to work on" in this life.  I think it's bogus, but it's so popular!  Why are so many people into this?  I think people want to feel like they have some control over the situation?  Or a way to justify radical forgiveness?

I decided on a song to work on, I think.  I'm taking voice lessons.  It's called "Present" by Thorn Coyle and it's pretty intense.

http://thorncoyle.bandcamp.com/track/present

It's about resisting, loving our opponents, line crossing, the sticky situation of getting arrested by someone who doesn't want to arrest you...  The song came out the year I graduated from grad school.  Feels like a long time ago.  I told someone that I was addicted to poetry and not political at the time.  But that's not entirely true.

backyard tomatoes

Today I ceased to be a banker and have become and credit unioner, about which I am truly happy. 

"I feel like celebrating," I told Ming.

We couldn't figure out how to celebrate in a way that didn't involve spending money.  We did buy some raspberries.

At home Ming picked tomatoes.

Here's me yesterday at Inspiration Point.

Yisrael Family Urban Farm

Ming is in this article for volunteering on his friend's farm.

http://littlegreenwheelbarrow.com/yisrael-family-urban-farm

cute art

I thought this street art on University Ave in Berkeley today was cute.

toxic

We saw this on the side of a container on the freeway.  "Take a picture," Ming said.  Whatever is in the container kills fish and trees.

pretend hotdogs

This morning I was supposed to literacy tutor but got canceled on, which happens a lot.  Ming and I went for a walk to the co-op.  Then I walked to group, which was fine.  I was the only one there other than the two "peers."  But we had group just the same. 

Then we had vegan lunch at Anna's for $4.99 each and ran errands.

Then we went out to Carmichael and did the church bulletin.  Swami had us to lunch, so we had lunch #2.  It was fine.  The bulletin has two inserts this month, so it was more work.  But it was okay.

I played "Jaya Jaya Janani" and a Gayatri Mantra song on my phone and hope I'm not using up my parents' data plan.

Then we ran more errands and ate pretend hotdogs for dinner.  I was like a little kid who refuses the bun.

nothing much

I noticed my blog is turning into a picture blog thanks to my parents' gift of a smartphone with a great camera.  You must have noticed too.  But I didn't take any pics today. 

Could have photographed the pretend hotdogs. 

I'm reading a book I like, cleaning up a little--threw a bunch of bedside clutter away.  Still lots more to chuck.

jumping over camels

This sticker was by the co-op this morning.  Does it say something about...politics?  Or is it just a businessman jumping over camels?  I think it's a bit vague. 

marshmallows

Ming loves vegan marshmallows. 

Berkeley

Yesterday I spent in Berkeley mostly by myself.  The first floor of the library is fine, but the second floor has a huge airy skylit room that wowed me.  I just sat in there, transfixed, in a huge wooden chair, and enjoyed it.  Another highlight was Purple Cow boba.  A lowlight was the drunk guy at the park who was yelling the whole hour I was there.  He was mostly good-natured, but the person I was talking to on the phone could hear him the whole time too.

Today I have to pick up a package at the post office.  We want to get more kombucha at the co-op.  And we're seeing Ming's son R in Davis in the afternoon.

wakame salad

Today we went to Oto's for rice candy and picked up a ginger grater and some sushi too.  And this salad.

welcome

 

Today we went to church because there was a silent service for our church friend Del who died at the age of 93.  He wanted Beethoven and Chopin played and no talking.  So it wasn't actually silent.  But actually Swami did talk for a minute just to say why we were there.

Then we did tofu pickup.  Ming asked D for the Food Not Bombs tofu recipe, expecting her to email it to him, but there is no recipe.  Herbs, soy sauce, bake it for an hour at 350 or 375.

Then we went to lunch.  We went to Maya's Taqueria, our favorite Mexican place.  We split the breakfast burrito and eat chips and salsa.  We ran into my friend S who was visiting from Portland.  We were excited: hugs, plans.

Then we came home and talked to our neighbor.  I got mail about fracking.  And we got our ballots.

good pickled beets

I always thought pickled beets were nasty, but these ginger pickled beets from Milt's farm are good.

tree painting

This is a closeup of the tree I painted last night.

kombucha

 

This morning we walked to the co-op for kombucha.   We got 12 oz of verbena rose.  It's delicious.  Here are two ounces.

paint and sip

My good friend K, she paid for my ticket to this paint and sip event.  We painted trees.  I am feeling out how I feel about my tree.  Maybe tomorrow I'll show you a picture.  It was fun.

white poms from Swami

fun in Berkeley

just when I think I'm king I must admit

Ming is out gardening.  Do you think he's having fun?  I do.  I cleaned up my desk area listening to my favorite Kate Bush album from when I was young.  Looks way better and is way better.  Ate yogurt, enjoying the ac.

more dinner salads

"I need to photograph my salad!"

frozen yogurt

Ming has a perverse love of exploding boba.

up

This morning we walked then ate bagels at the co-op.  My back is still hurting.  I want to clean up the apartment. 

Also there's a problem with my phone's mic.  So maybe we'll go to the store today and see if they can test it or if they can just replace it.

I want to tell you something beautiful and good.  We disturbed cute little birds, on our walk.  We looked at a garden.  Someone planted plants in hay bales and they don't seem to be growing. 

This morning we were up early.  Then the sun came up.

dinner salads

We made big beautiful salads for dinner.

spinach
leftover quinoa
sprouted adzuki beans
avocado

Dressing is half a lemon's juice, equal part Bragg's, equal part olive oil, and a pressed garlic clove shaken hard.

holy crap

Holy crap--I haven't been blogging because my back is f-ed and it hurts to get up, so I haven't been sitting down much.  But I'm feeling somewhat better today. 

Last night we went to a wedding.  I colored in a Snoopy coloring book at the reception.  I stood during the ceremony.  It was fun.  We didn't take even one picture.

I am in love with a song called "Present" by T Thorn Coyle.  It's from 1998, apparently.  That's the year I graduated from UCSB. 

Also, yesterday we did tofu pickup for Food Not Bombs and planted some seeds at a That's Y Farms. 

Today is rest.

the acorn squash

bobamania

We went to Quickly for boba--oh, what delight.  Ming got a blueberry slushie with strawberry exploding boba.  I got jasmine milk tea with regular boba.

prasad

We gave Swami acorn squash from Milt's farm and he gave us some prasad.  Quite a lot.

my current fridge oatmeal recipe

Yes, I like oatmeal cold.

about a cup instant oats
a tbsp or so peanutbutter powder
a tsp chia seeds
two tsp flax seed meal
a little maple syrup
about...a cup soymilk (maybe more)

Put everything into a mason jar and shake shake shake.  Let it sit in the fridge overnight.  Enjoy with a long-handled spoon.

tricky

I get bandersnatches and whangdoodles mixed up.

blue tomatoes

This afternoon we went to our friend Milt's farm.  We needed to drop off some boxes.  We waited for him to come home.  And he gave us a tour.  I liked the chickens and the tomatoes best.  Here are some blue ones.

He gave us a box of acorn squash, a box of tomatoes (with six boxes inside the box), a lot of garlic, and four melons.  What a nice friend.

red bean paste

We made red bean paste.  We cooked up some adzuki beans this morning, and I just pureed some in the blender.  Then I added sugar and coconut oil and cooked them in the frying pan.  I think they'll thicken more as they cool. 

food adventures

I made coconut sunflower seed porridge for breakfast, and it's unlike any other food I had ever eaten.  It's pretty good.  And we sprouted adzuki beans too.