chants

Rainy here.  Rainy there? 

I made some good lentil soup for lunch.  With carrots.  I used to hate cooked carrots, and now I like them.

Had a great phone date.  Ming sent some zines off to Olympia.

Trying to get some chants together to bring to the Sacred Peace Walk.  We met with Swami today to talk about a particular one.  I emailed the person who runs the women's group, worried she would not share chants with me, the women's group I used to be in and in fact was secretary for.  She would be happy to share chants with me but is not home.  So I phoned another friend to ask for chants.

Trying to figure out the best way to visit the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.  Any tips for good places to camp?

turning toward the divine

Yep, all those things I thought would happen yesterday pretty much happened--they played laser tag, I sat at a Peet's.  Hugs.  Red Robin, too much sugar.

This morning we went to church.  A nun I like gave the lecture.  It was inspiring fun.  She talked about turning toward the divine.

But we had to leave a little early because of the support call.  Support call was great.

Now it's time to think about our trip.  All the things that need to happen before we leave.  I better get busy.

day predictions

1.  Red Robin
2.  not playing laser tag
3.  reading and writing at Peet's while other people play laser tag
4.  hugs with my step-children
5.  hahahahahahaha!  I have step-children
6.  that means I might have step-grandchildren someday
7.  rain
8.  drives
9.  photocopying
10.  birthday greetings

Happy birthday to Ming!

The Rings Around Saturn

We were at this intersection where we'd been skipped before.  We waited.  It skipped us.  It skipped us again.  The people behind us at the intersection gave up and turned right.  It skipped us again and again.  Eventually we gave up and turned right too.

Loud workers are here with an impossibly loud radio.  Oh, and the saw.

We went to the Book Den because gardening books were on sale.  I thought there might be something Ming would like.  I looked at poetry and found something fantastic by someone who went to my grad school, same program.

triumvirate

This is our new zucchini plant given to us by a friend.  Its name is triumvirate, though there are four plants.  We hope its name confuses the slugs.  They'll say, "Where's triumvirate?  Oh wait, this can't be triumvirate."  Go us for our slug-confusing ways.

new bracelet made by my friend C

are you experienced at collecting stamps?

I swoon over the new Jimi Hendrix stamp!

velvet queen

Yesterday we planted some sunflower seeds.  The sunflowers are supposed to be red.  I hope they grow.  The rain we're supposed to get tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday should help.

oh and

Slugs ate all the leaves off the zucchini baby.  Sadness!

gone hyperspace

"I think we've gone hyperspace," I told my friend AL on the phone today, and she didn't know what I was talking about.  "It's a video game thing," I told her.  But I don't think that's precisely true.

"Outside of normal space," Ming said when I asked him about hyperspace.  "Really really fast."

Then there's the famous Beastie Boys lyric "and if you play Defender I could beat you hyperspace."  I love that line.

I think of it as a place where the old rules don't matter.

weird

anarchist bookfair and bowling

At the anarchist bookfair, Ming ran into old friends.  Food Not Bombs was serving free food, but we bought some vegan Filipino food.  I'd really wanted vegan lumpia, but they ran out right before I ordered.  We had pansit instead, and it was salty and delicious.

Right across the street from the Crucible, where the anarchist bookfair was, the sidewalk was covered with scattered safety glass.  So many car break-ins.  I felt like the glass was a warning, but people were still parked there.  I actually know someone who traveled to the Crucible for a class and had his truck broken into, stuff stolen.  I wonder if the glass was there then and he missed it.

We went to a talk on the Commons and a talk on self-care.

Then today we went to Davis with friends to bowl.  It was pretty cheap, on campus.  I don't bowl, but I watched supportively.  I also played a game of Bust-a-Move, my favorite video game, in the arcade.  But then we left, and I still have four tokens--I should have given them to someone.

The bowling alley, it was like they were intentionally trying to over stimulate everyone.  Loud music, loud bowling sounds, flashing lights!  I did a great job not losing my shit.

Blog post by guest blogger

Today we went to the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair. It was crowded and busy, noisy but fun. The venue, The Crucible, was industrial and neat. After seeing two presentations and touring the many book tables we left. We then went to picturesque Tilden Park, wrote two letters and read a bit, then went to my favorite curry place, House of Curries. After dinner we went for a nice walk in the south Berkeley area.

There were a number of road accidents we passed, so traffic was slow. We are back safe in Sacramento now.

We are sleepy now. Good night !

like a pineapple

Got a beautiful photo in the mail today from someone on sendsomething.net.  The photo is square and is of a strange plant.  I think it's a bromeliad.

I am exhausted.  It's only in the 70s but feels hot.  I'm not ready for this.

I made a new zine--it's called Fun Is Free.  It's an anthology of quotes from all 52 issues of Erik and Laura-Marie Magazine.  Just my favorites.  I'll copy it tomorrow.

theories

Ming was driving us to church the other day when we saw a guy walking down the street.  He was wearing a black teeshirt with a big white & on it.  I wondered what that was about.  Ming theorized that he was supposed to be in a line with some other people whose shirts spelled some words.  So he was some punctuation.  I think he just really likes ampersands.

At church there are shoe racks outside the temple so you can put you shoes somewhere other than the floor.  There's a pair of beige men's shoes with velcro closures on them, always on the shoe rack, and we have some theories about why they're there.

1.  example shoes
2.  emergency shoes
3.  shoes of someone who went in and never came out!

Sideshow Bob and Mary

Our collard tree Sideshow Bob yesterday morning.

Our blood orange tree Mary--lots of new growth.

white iris, yellow tulip

new

Tomato baby.

Eggplant baby.

A poppy plant in the foreground, some onions to the right, and the grapevine Fig Tree in the back.

loquat babies

We saw this on our afternoon walk.  Love the loquats!

growing

Today we bought some plants--tomatoes (Celebrity and a purple heirloom), a yellow bell pepper, a Japanese eggplant, and some zucchini.  It was fun to put them in the ground. We put them in beds three and four.

Ming also got a new spray nozzle and some expensive bird netting for our grapevine Fig Tree.  Last year, birds got all the grapes.

We went for a walk earlier to Coffee Garden, one of my favorite cafes in Sacramento.  Two mile walk total, not bad.

The new Sisyphus album came out today.  I had already heard the whole thing online.  I think "Calm It Down" and "Rhythm of Devotion" are the strongest.  But some of the other songs are growing on me.

greens

This morning we walked to Fort Sutter postie to drop off some good mail.  Today I have a phone date at 2 and we're going to help our friend M garden at 3:30.

Last night was Sri Chaitanya puja.  It was wild.  There were some miscommunications. 

I'm thinking about greens.  The foods, not the colors.

All these things I was going to tell you, but they slipped my mind.  Insert wonderful thing here.

survival

This day has been pretty much survived.  I generated some mail to friend and strangers.  Did bread pick up.  Choir practice.  Picked greens and oregano and lavender.  Went to the co-op for garlic lover's pasta.  I think that's enough.

mad tea party

me:  Are you really hungry?

Ming:  I feel like I've just eaten half a sandwich.

me:  What do you mean?

Ming:  I feel like I've just eaten half a sandwich.

me:  But you just ate a whole sandwich.  But you have two sandwiches.  You must be starving.

Ming:  No, I feel like I've just eaten half a sandwich.

me:  God, I feel like I'm at a tea party again.

Ming:  What tea party?

me:  That's what you said last time!

Ming:  What tea party?

me:  Talking about treacle?  A treacle well?

Ming:  I feel like a door mouse all of a sudden.

swirl

We got this huge printer off freecycle.  It was a yard wide.  It was too big but most importantly didn't work.  Ming tried and tired.  It was hardware.  There was a bunch of ink at the bottom of it too, ink dripped.  It was a good printer about twelve years ago.  You couldn't even get ink for it in a store anymore.  You had to buy it online.

A part broke off, and it's e-waste now, so we need to drop it off somewhere. 

Also we went to Roseville twice yesterday, the second time unplanned.  We got gas money for the first time but not the second, which sucks.

Today we have lunch with a friend then Ming has dentistry.

I want to tell you something interesting.  Yesterday on the sidewalk we saw a beautiful yellow swallowtail butterfly, but it was injured.  One of its wings was folded strangely and the other had part missing.  Maybe it was an escapee from a cat attack.

Also, this is the time of spring where flower petals from trees swirl around in the wind.

should

Up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, but I'm taking it to an extreme.  Read an intellectual essay from a facebook friend and goofed off hard.  The essay was about Do the Right Thing, gentrification, and social work.  I liked it.  That was my favorite movie when I was a kid, and I'm so glad it and its big ideas got into my head back then.

We gotta get up kind of early to take my literacy learner to Roseville for a day-long medical evaluation.  I should go back to bed.

garden friend

We gardened with our new friend M, two teenage boys, and the grandpa of the teenage boys.  It was great.  My favorite part was eating the kale flowers.  I also liked hugs, unloading the compost from the pickup truck, and helping turn green waste cans upright.  We're going to do it again next Monday afternoon, so I'll let you know if it continues to be fun.

new shirt

This is my new shirt which I got at the thrift store the other day.  It's an orangey yellow and has these weird gathers.  I think I like it.  What do you think? 

strangely

Today we went to two thrift stores.  I need some shirts that are colorful.  If I have to wear gray or brown one more time, I'm going to puke!

We looked at the mugs.  I have been wanting a Spudnuts mug, which is a long story. *

Strangely, there was a mug with trilobites on it.  Weird, huh?  It had three trilobites on it.  That being Ming's favorite animal, I thought he would want the mug.  But even more strangely, he did not.

*  When I was an undergrad, one of my professors bribed us that if we finished the heavy tome she'd assigned, she would buy us these plastic Spudnuts mugs.  They were yellow, brown, and white.  I earned one, to my great joy.

But a move later, it was lost.  Since then I have yearned for one, and this morning I woke up wanting one bad.  So we went to the Spudnuts in Sacramento with the wild hope of finding a Spudnuts mug to no avail.  I think I'll look on ebay.

our community garden plot

Here's our community garden plot as of yesterday.  The tulips are blooming.

brown iris

Here's a brown iris outside the community garden.

three years

Last night we went to a dinner party, and I had a good time.  "Were the people really good or am I changing?" I asked Ming afterward.  I really liked them.  But not the dog.

We had salads with hummus.  And some crackers.  The dog loves honey.  Her name was Sugar Pie.

We brought tree kale from our community garden.  And some oregano.

I feel inspired to make huge salads now.

We need a birthday card and / or present for our friend whose party is today.  She's vegan and very nice.  Ming and I met at her birthday party three years ago, so it's special.

new zines

Here are my two new zines, hat genius 5 and My Other Bumper Sticker Is a Poem.  The latter features poems by three different people, while the former is just me.

ding ding ding

Today Ming had a dentist appointment.  We went to the neighborhood where his dentist's office is.  We went for a little walk.  Some young people were doing some kind of dance routine at Zapata Park on the basketball court. 

I went to Shine Coffee and wrote a letter and ate a vegan sugary thing.  Then I went to the SPCA thrift store and shopped for notecards.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing.  We bound some zines.  I addressed envelopes for mailing out zines.  Posted some things on facebook. 

And that's our exciting life.

forgot

Oh, I forgot to tell AL that I love bee boxes.

article on today's Ash Wednesday direct action

http://www.nukeresister.org/2014/03/05/five-arrested-at-beale-drone-base-on-ash-wednesday

asparagus surprise, art in Alkali Flat, Zapata Park

It's hard to see what this is.  But it's asparagus growing in our backyard!  Apparently it got there via some oregano we dug up from our other garden.

Some art near Zapata park in Alkali Flat.

Zapata statue in Zapata Park.

happy Ash Wednesday

Today we're going to a religious ceremony at Beale Air Force Base.  We'll demonstrate and people will get arrested for peace.  Two of our friends are already there, camped out.  Supposed to rain so wish us luck!

putting the fun back in funeral

Survived the funeral.  Afterward we drove to the grocery store.  We were behind a car that had a sign on the back BUNNIES FOR SALE.  I took it as a good omen and told Ming so.  He asked why, and I said bunnies are a symbol of new life, for me. 

main thing

The funeral is today.  Also I have a psychiatrist appointment in the morning. 

Last night was a puja and we were up late. 

I have these pens made from recycled bottles and they're beautiful.  They have Pilot G2 ink in them, which is great ink but not waterproof, unfortunately.  I use them for writing letters but not addressing envelopes.

Yesterday we copied the new zines.  I feel weird about them--that can happen.  Zinester's regret.  It's like buyer's remorse but the opposite.

Food Not Bombs

Keep wanting to tell you we saw a truck in Sacramento with a Food Not Bombs bumper sticker on the back.  I was so excited.  We wondered who it was.  It was a medium-big truck.  Our sticker is just the symbol without the words, but this truck's sticker was the whole thing.

I looked in google images for a pic of the right sticker, and there were none!  Wtf!  But here's a pic I blogged some time ago of ours.  That's it with the carrot in the hand.

new backyard garden pics

There are beds six and five.  Lotsa weeding happened, and someone weedwacked a lot, so everything looks so bare and different!

Here's a view of beds one through four with four being closest to the viewer.

Bed four.

Bed three!

Beds two and one.

by guest blogger

The tapenade

kalamta olive tapenade

This morning after some research done yesterday I made some kalamata olive tapenade.  It's a simplified version with olives, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.  It's really good.  I had only eaten tapenade from a jar, before. 

Those were all ingredients I had--I didn't want to go out and buy capers.  And I didn't want to use anchovies, obviously.

I didn't want to use the blender we're permanently borrowing from a friend, so I used a potato masher.  It worked to crush the olives.  I used a garlic press on the garlic.  Anyway, great.

1 cup of kalamata olives, pitted
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice

Make things into a paste or chunky paste however you see fit.

good times yesterday at the marina

still good

Hello and welcome to Saturday. 

Yesterday Ming and I went to the Bay Area to see his kids and mom.  It was fun.  But the weather driving there and then the weather driving home was treacherous.  But we made it safely thanks to Ming's mad skills.

I was going to try to list some fun moments for you, but they were mostly indescribable.  It's the middle of the night.  I liked the ease.  Everyone was in a good mood, probably me the least.  Least-good but still good.