Seismic Twitch

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being a vegetarian, and more specifically, vegan. I’ve decided to commit to be mostly vegan. There will be times when I shall have no choice but to have a bit of dairy or egg in a dish at a restaurant, or that I really must have that tzatziki, but I want to work at making my footprint on the earth much smaller. Besides there are a lot of very yummy vegan things out there.

I’m trying a sort of miso ramen mix. The noodles have egg in them, but it’s more to see how I feel about miso. Granted it’s probably not the best way to try, but I don’t want to buy a whole thing of miso only to find out that I hate the stuff.

We also picked up some soy ground “meat” to make chili from this week. We didn’t pick up any of the other fixings though. So now we have to cook up some yummy black beans (I don’t like kidney beans much), get canned tomato, mushrooms, tomato paste, corn and some other veg and then I’ll be ready to make it. It probably won’t get made until Friday though. However, Tuesday is a possibility. Afterall, I have a paper due on Wednesday.

For tonight, we got me something easy. Prepared, ready to serve hummus, baba ganouj (or however that is spelled, and guacamole. That will also be lunch for tomorrow along with STM’s vegan soup choice. Speaking of which, I should hit their site and arrange their menu for posting in the Pride Centre.

So that’s the news from here. I’m not going to be all “you should be vegan too” cuz that’s just plain rude. But I’ll let you know how things meld for me and the rest of my meat eating family. That reminds me…Mama o’Matrices? The thing you do with flax seed in the microwave…is that a substitute for egg binding? If so, could you leave a comment about how much to use? I’d like to make my own veggie burgers (thanks to VUBOQ who found the recipe I sent him. They involve egg as a binding agent and I’d rather not use egg if I don’t have to.

Dad decided, that because I’m so recently recovered from a cold to delay his trip up here until next weekend. He’s flying to Ontario week after this and he doesn’t want to have a cold that might make flying a problem for him. Being as he’s 84 now, he’s not prone to want to take chances. That meant that we didn’t have to try and get the house “parent presentable” for his visit.

It’s time for me to go and nosh on my goodies. Ta-Ra

What I’ve done today:

• woke up
• went to the bathroom
• watched tv while eating nuts and fruit
• watched more tv
• went back to bed
• slept
• woke up
• made a chicken sandwich.
• ate sandwich and watched tv
• talked to Dad on the phone
• Told Bran that Dad’s coming up tomorrow
• watched tv.

That’s been my day.

Today was supposed to entail a trip to the doctor at the Health Clinic at school. However, Bran and I overslept. He missed his class, I missed the appointment, however we got more delicious sleep.

We got up to go and get my Prereq. override signed, but my prof has to fill in the justification and I didn’t bring my student guide. So that was a wasted trip. However, we did drop off old paint that Boy used to use to the Pride Centre. We were going to stop and visit, but they were playing Short Bus and it involves a whole lot of sex, real sex. It’s not on my list of “Movies I Want To Watch”. I don’t like watching sex. So we came home instead. Luckily for Bran, he’d seen it before.

Instead we came home and I went to bed. Bran woke me up when he and Boy came from doing some shopping for supper. They picked up roasted chickens, pitas and the makings for Caesar salad. It was a simple, filling and quite delicious supper. Bran also picked up his prescriptions from the drug store.

After supper, Bran and I headed over to Michael’s. OMG!! They had a centre aisle display of different beads. Some of them were semi-precious, some were glass, they were all lovely. I want more of them. What I did get was lapis lazuli, leopard skin jasper, fancy jasper, turquoise, some fancy green glass beads that are lovely, light aventurine, amethyst, and I think something else, but I can’t remember it off hand. I also picked out a couple of bead organizers. If I had more money, I would’ve gotten a whole lot more beads. The type I chose are chips and will make some lovely jewelry along with the shaped beads I already have.

The butterfly there was sunning itself when we got home from the university. It was beautiful and the lens of my phone camera does it little justice. The outer colour was a beautiful creamy yellow, then there was a row of blue with small creamy dots and the inside was a soft dark brown, as was the body of the insect. It’s times like this that I wish I could justify spending $1000 on a DSLR right now. However, I have a feeling it’ll have to wait until after either Bran and I are working.

My arm is still sore, though my cold is mostly settled down to the odd nose full of snot. I’m greatly relieved at that. I hate having colds. I have little enough energy as it is, a cold only exacerbates the issue.

Pat: I really like Law and Order: SVU as well, however the subject matter is difficult for me to watch and, at certain times of the year, I can’t watch it. I think that Mariska is gorgeous. I especially love her smile, though it’s rarely shown. Sadly, even Mariska cannot compete with some of the triggers I deal with along with life and school. So when things go awry inside, some shows get dropped to allow me to cope with the rest of it.

I also like Kathryn Erbe in CI. I love that she’s able to keep right up with her co-star with no problem and is a smartie pants in her own right. Her character just lets him play while she puts things together. Totally awesome. I love characters that are not just smart, but not afraid to show that smartness.

I’m hot. No, I’m not feeling greatly egotistical, I’m having a hot flash and have been for a little while. The fan in the air conditioner is running and should be cooling me down, but it’s not. My little desk fan is on my table here and the ceiling fan is spinning around. None of them seem to be doing much good at the moment. I’m thinking that maybe I’ll go and sit on the front step and cool down there. Then again, maybe not.

Ta-Ra

Yes, that’s right, it’s murder and mayhem night! Three, count ‘em, three (3) broadcasts of First 48. How cool is that? I’ll tell you how cool it is! It’s totally awesomely coolioso!

Rhonda: no.

Christine: I put them up later this afternoon after I shifted a few more over.

Pat: thus far Boy has put on nearly a foot in a year. He doesn’t show any sign of slowing down either. Shoot, even his body wash is more expensive because of the increased surface area of his body.

Today was a relatively quiet and reasonable day. Bran and I took the car to school today, so I was early. Being early and wanting some caffiene I went to Tim’s and got an Ice Cap (yummylicious!) and then walked to class. I was nearly 3/4 of an hour early so I went online, poked through a couple of things I didn’t do before I headed for the shower and then class started.

After class I headed to the Pride Centre to fulfill my volunteering obligations. I’d promised to take Bran’s place because he was supposed to sit in the tunnel at the Food Services table. No one turned up with any stuff so he headed back. I went to STM and picked up lunch (ginger beef and rice) and Bran laid down on one of the couches and had a nap. At 2:30 I woke him up so that he could start his volunteering shift. Then I settled in for a pile of knitting on the scarf that I’ll be donating.

Boy joined us and then, when Bran’s shift was over, we headed out to the parkade and go home. Boy picked up a pair of ear shell ear phones for his MP3 player. So now he’s much happier. We ordered in Chinese food and then went out to do a little shopping. However, we didn’t get to the mall until nearly 9 and the stores close. Instead we headed off to London Drugs. There I picked up some hair conditioner, shower gel stuff for Boy, a puff thingie for me, two plastic containers for lunches (we get money off if we use our own containers at STM), and some orange Tic Tacs. Bran looked at DSLR cameras. He’s got his eye on one for $1000. It looks like it could be a really nice one. I wonder how long it’ll be for the two of us to be fighting over who gets to use it? Maybe we can win the lottery and each get one. That’d be nice. Right?

Now we’re home and settling in for the night. I’ll be watching the reruns of the murder and mayhem on A&E tonight. Because we went out I missed out on two of the episodes. That’s my excitement for today. Now it’s time to go and read other people’s lives and watch Law and Order CI.

Ta-Ra

Then again, we are talking about me, right? Yeah. I have a voice recording that is “saving” at Odeo. It’s been saving for the past 1/2 hour or so. Sad, yes? I sent an email to them, hoping that they could come up with some answer as to why this is happening all the time. It doesn’t seem to matter when I do a recording there either. I wonder if it has something to do with using FireFox. I’ll try to do an entry using Explorer to see if there’s a difference. Who knows? Sometimes things work weirdly on FireFox

Today I skipped school. I was tired last night and decided then to stay home. So I sent an email to the prof (since the class is so small, sending a regret when not able is just polite) telling him that.

My student loan came in last night. In order to make sure that Boy would have a nice lunch today, Bran and I ordered in pizza. I had a chicken teryaki and he had chicken and garlic sauce. Bran’s didn’t taste good to me, so I concentrated on mine. There was a fair bit of mine left, so that meant that Boy had a nice breakfast of two kinds of pizza and a lunch of chicken teryaki pizza.

Bran came home at about noon and bothered me out of bed. He wouldn’t let me go back to sleep despite my very good whining and noes. So we headed off. The car, we discovered, had been rifled through. It’s a very good thing that Bran didn’t forget his wallet last night. He’s done it a couple of times. I think now, there’ll not be much trouble in him forgetting in the future. Nothing was taken because there wasn’t anything to take. We don’t bother to lock our car. The deductable to replace a window is more than the car is worth, so we don’t bother. In fact, if it’s stolen and wrecked, we won’t be replacing it since the deductable is more than the car is worth. If anyone steals the car and leaves it intact, then we’re ahead of the game.

Bran and I headed off to dump off the paper recycling and pick up some fruit. We got to the store and remembered that there were a few other things we wanted and went in shopping. We got a set of 3 plastic drawers for under the sink in the bathroom. Now we have a place to put the stuff that is under the tub and the room will be less cluttered. We also got a couple of containers for my hobby stuff. Now my acrylic paints and supplies and the embroidery are neatly packed away in the containers and won’t get all dusty. The basket that had my embroidery in it will be used for fruit or some other such thing.

Then we picked up the fruit.From left to right (and back to front) are: bananas, zipper skin oranges (Mandarins), peaches, nectarines, dinosaur plums, gala apples, star fruit and dragon fruit. I don’t know what the star fruit and dragon fruit taste like, so it’s going to be an adventure. Dinosaur Plums are absolutely delicious and don’t have the same sourness that both the red and purple plums have. They’re absotively delicious.

Bran and Boy went out shopping after Boy got home. They went and picked up underwear and wallets for each of them. Boy is pleased as punch with his new wallet. It’s got an insert that can hold his bus pass and student ID for taking the bus. Bran’s has a neat flap that will hold his student ID/bus pass. They seem quite happy with that concept.

That’s pretty much it from today. When Bran’s loan comes in next week sometime, we’re going to send VUBOQ’s nearly 2 year old housewarming gift off right away. Poor guy, he’s been awaiting this gift for a long time. Then I’m going to go shopping for yarns for a certain someone’s request (what colour do you want Rhonda?) and for a certain someone’s baby gift (I have to find a pattern that I’m able to do.). Thank goodness that the baby isn’t due for a while so I can make something that will fit next winter. I also want to get a few more containers for my hobby stuff. I want to have all my beading tools and stuff together so that none of them get lost.

We also need to get me and Boy some sneakers and some more pants for Boy. The brat had the audacity to grow!

That’s about it.

Ta-Ra

First, hello to a couple of people who’ve never commented before. Hello to Pat at “Against the Grain” and Casdok at “Mother of Shrek”. Thanks for reading.

Pat: I don’t do much in the way of household repairs. I’m not known for my hand-eye coordination. I do what I can though. The hard experience of a bathroom that smells of mildew and a landlord who was clueless combined for knowing that Sassy Femme was talking about. I also love to watch home improvement shows because they manage to give me an idea of how to do things were I ever let loose with power tools, sheet rock, plaster, and paint. I’ll let you know if it ever happens.

I do knit though. I enjoy it and would spend my winters doing not a whole lot other than knitting if I were to have my druthers. I also want to learn how to throw clay, make jewelry (I’ve got books and stuff for that and will be trying that during the Christmas break since it’s a nice long one.) and some other things.

The pain in my elbow has been attributed to “tennis elbow”. I don’t even play! There is a possibility that it might be bursitis, but it is less likely because of the specific symptomology. The doctor (I swear, this Doogie was only, like 12 years old!) got me some Advil. Yeah, 34 packages of 2. Both of he could hardly hold the wad in two hands. I just opened up my purse and he shoved them in. Who am I to turn down nearly a full bottle of 100 pills of a name brand? Not I, that’s certain. He had a nurse wrap my arm up and I’ll see him again on Friday for him to check on progress.

I could’ve seen my own doctor about this, but the Student Health Centre is right near the MUB. However, seeing her means that I have to make an appointment that can be anywhere from 1 week to 2 weeks away. This would mean that either I’d be healed or else be very much worse. I’d rather know what’s going on sooner than later. Since it was so close I figured it made more sense to go there. I’m at school anyway, why not use it? The out of pocket cost is the same…nothing. I adore socialized medicine.

Bran stayed home from school today. He woke up with a violent headache and nausea. I was silly and got up when his clock was set for. I was up and had to be out of the house in 5 minutes. That was a bit of a rush, even for me. This meant that I wasn’t able to eat any breakfast and since the student loan hadn’t been deposited yet, I also didn’t have any money to buy lunch. I was very, very hungry when I got home from school.

Oh! I also went to the IT office to figure out why my web browser wouldn’t allow me to access the site I need to access to upload the notes I take for Disabled Students Services. I figure that since I’m typing my notes on my computer anyway, I might as well earn an honourarium for doing it. Anyway, for some reason I couldn’t access it and was having trouble galore with it and ended up having to email my notes to DSS so that they could up load them. What ever was wrong with the whole thing was working fine when I got to their office and started things up. I figure that it’s the invisible gremlins that fix things when you show them to the ‘expert’. Hopefully, unlike those mysterious squeaks and clatters in a car, this won’t issue won’t reappear.

When I got home I made myself a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and a couple of cheese sandwiches for Bran. After he headed off to school for his evening class, I laid down and fell asleep. Now I’m awake, reading the archives of the two new people who commented. I should be reading the Durkhiem book for tomorrow, but I’m having real problems with motivation. Nertz.

There’s a show on television about fraud and now they’re doing a story about the Nigerian scams and a doctor who fell for the scam. It’s amazing to me how people manage to fall for the those scams. Greed is something that makes people stupid. Easy money doesn’t really exist. Of course, people get away with that stuff because so few people want to admit that they’ve been fools and been taken in.

Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’ve borrowed Invasion of Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel from one of the women at the Centre. I’ll take it back for her tomorrow when I drop in before class. It’s time for me to cook myself some supper (Boy didn’t want to do any work for prepping veg for his supper, so he opted for soup) and get to reading Bechdel’s book and then move on to Durkheim.

Edited to add: I met another Naomi!!! That’s so exciting! I’m nearly 47 years old and that’s the first Naomi that I’ve ever met. I’m totally blown away and pleased as punch.

Ta-Ra

Rather than going ot see my own doctor, I’m going to see a doctor at the Student Health Centre. I saw a nurse today about my elbow. It’s not gotten any better, and in fact, has gotten somewhat worse. I can’t hold anything of any significance in my right hand, stretching to touch anything hurts and I certainly can’t use it as the weight lifting tool (like to unpack my backpack) tool. I’ll probably get told that it’s nothing more than tennis elbow caused by mousing without adequate support, or some such thing.

Today’s class was ok. The prof is encouraging me to go for a graduate degree. So the net few months will be cultivating my relationship with a few professors to get letters of recommendation and get my application in. I’m even hoping to get funding from the government for a study that I want to do that’s related to what I want to study.

TMI ALERT!

My nose is full of snot. Not just any snot, no, not my snot. My snot has to be very thick and difficult to get rid of. I think I vlew out at least 1/2 of my brains and a good 1/2 year’s supply of snot. Yuck. But what’s a girl to do?

TMI ALERT over.

I volunteered for 3 hours today. It was supposed to be only an hour, but the poor guy who was volunteering before and after me is sick with the same cold and had to get home to rest. I truly empathize with him.

We had a guest for supper today. One of the guys at the Centre seemed to need some extra support and Bran wanted to make something worthwhile to eat. He made sausage, pasta and sauce. It’s not the best thing in the world to make, but it’s better than nothing and we were happy to share. Hopefully, sometime this week, my loan will come in, and after paying for all the stuff we have to pay out, we’ll have enough to get a supply of groceries. Then Bran’s will come in and we’ll be ok again.

That’s it. My elbow is really sore and I have to stop typing now. It’s somewhat awkward to type in this position. Once we have the livingroom the way we want it then I’ll be using my ergonomic keyboard more.

Ta-Ra

Marcel Marceau is dead.

I only saw him in one role, the only speaking role in Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie. If you’ve never seen it, you must. It’s a truly marvelous film.