day seven hundred and sixty-three

if you ever need a laugh, start writing down your dreams first thing in the morning, including as many details as you can before you forget them. then a month later, go back and read through those dreams. most of them end up being like brand new stories! it's amazing how fast we forget them, when, at least for me, they seem so vibrant for the first few hours after waking. here are some my favorite things i learned about (and from) my own dreams in the last month (#84):

1. i almost always dream about people i know, usually people i know real well. this didn't seem uncommon to me until a few friends told me they usually dream about strangers...

2. on the nights i facebooked before bedtime, i dreamed about the people i facebooked.

3. three times in the last month i dreamed about driving cars where they don't belong - in a hotel lobby, through the halls of my high school, and on the deck of a large cruise ship. each time i had people yelling at me to stop, and my response was always something like, "no, no, it's cool. don't worry."

4. relatedly, i also had two dreams in which i was driving a car down a wilderness highway at night, and my headlights slowly start to dim, until they go completely out and i'm in pitch black darkness. even though i knew it was dangerous, and i'd feel panicked, i wouldn't make any real effort to pull over or even slow down. and then BAM! i'd hit something and wake up suddenly. those are not fun dreams.

5. i don't have many nightmares, but the ones i do have are always about either ghosts or dolls that come to life, and always take place in either my dad's house (the one i grew up in), or my grandparents' house. now those are the worst.

6. most of my notes were pretty elaborate, except for november thirteenth's entry, which just read, "sex dream about beyonce." sadly, i do not remember this one.

7. the following celebrities also made cameos in the last month: christopher meloni, kim kardashian, calvin & hobbes, and these guys.

8. twice i dreamed about being in an elevator that was going up so fast it shot through the roof of the skyscraper i was in.

9. it appears that i was still half asleep while recording some of the dreams, because i can't make any sense out of some of my notes, like the following from a few nights ago: "i alex's keys but hid them from him until everyone followed me home and they were trying to keep me awake and it made me cry." I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO ALEX IS! it's also worth noting that my handwriting on that one looks like a toddler's and might as well have been in crayon.

so all in all this is an awesome exercise and i plan on keeping up with it. it can only prove more interesting over time, right?

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another new recipe (#59): damn good broccoli-quinoa pilaf. here's how:

ingredients:

one teaspoon olive oil

one half small onion, chopped

salt and pepper

one cup quinoa, rinsed well

two cups chopped broccoli

one-fourth cup raisins

one-half cup roasted almonds

two scallions, sliced

heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. add the onion and season with salt and pepper. cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and starting to brown (three minutes or so). add the quinoa and one and a half cups water to the saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until almost all the water has evaporated (ten minutes). fold the broccoli and raisins into the mix, cover, and cook until the quinoa and broccoli are tender (another ten minutes). remove from heat and fold in the almonds and scallions. eat at your three subsequent meals.

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day seven hundred and thirty-five

just a quick check-in to say that i am in the process of attacking three goals: running a nine-minute mile, going a month without beer, and recording my dreams for a month. i attempted the mile this morning for the first time in two years, and i was able to clock in at 9:40 despite my (perhaps unfounded?) fear that i'm somehow in worse shape than i was when i started this list. so, i'm close! but there's something that i've realized is very important here: proper music. to step up my pace i'm thinking i have to make sure the perfect three songs come in on a row, otherwise i lose motivation embarrassingly easily. i think the fact that the first song to come on my ipod this morning was linkin park's "faint" had something to do with why i ran faster than i thought i'd want to. i'm not a fan of their music in general, but damn if that song doesn't make me want to book it.

i'm three days in to the no-beer challenge. blech.

and i had four distinct dreams last night alone, so writing these all down will be time-consuming. but fun to look back on later (i hope).

onward!

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day seven hundred and thirteen

i'll be quick.

christian and i went apple-picking in sedro woolley (#63)! we headed up to jones creek farm, about an hour and a half northwest of seattle. unfortunately, because it was a cold year, their trees only came in at about fifty percent of their usual yield, and it was slim pickin's. but i left with seven pounds of apples, plenty to try a couple new recipes. christian left with twenty pounds.

it wasn't quite as nostalgic an experience as i anticipated given that my family went every year when i was a kid. actually one year we were told we were going apple picking but instead we went to get a puppy (pretty badass move, parents). but for whatever reason, this place didn't feel like it did back then. the trees were way smaller than i expected, maybe because of the poor season or maybe because i'm adult-sized now. but it was still great to get out of the city and do something new, so all in all we had a pleasant sunday afternoon.

we found this little oddity when we overshot the orchard by about thirty minutes into the mountains. christian demonstrates how to kick yourself.

this "haunted house" at the orchard was definitely scary, but probably not for the reasons the establishment was hoping for. i still didn't go in.

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with all those apples i had to try a couple fall recipes. apple sauce (duh) and my mom's apple crisp. the apple sauce woulda been great if i hadn't accidentally put a half tablespoon of cinnamon in instead of a half teaspoon like it called for - yowza! and the crisp was delicious, but i think i sliced the apples too thinly because they turned to a bit of a mush underneath the sweet crispy topping. lessons learned!

how to make the apple sauce:

you'll need four apples (peeled, cored and sliced), half cup water, fourth cup sugar, and a half teaspoon cinnamon.

step one: put apples and water in saucepan.

step two: cover and bring to a boil.

step three: uncover and boil on low for twenty minutes, occasionally stirring.

step four: stir in sugar and cook until it dissolves.

step five: add cinnamon.

how to make my mom's apple crisp:

you'll need six apples (peeled, sliced), one tablespoon lemon juice, one tablespoon water, three-fourths cup firmly packed brown sugar, half cup flour, half cup rolled oats, one teaspoon cinnamon, and a half cup of butter.

step one: preheat oven to three hundred and seventy-five degrees.

step two: place apples in a nine-inch square pan, and sprinkle with lemon juice and water.

step three: combine brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon.

step four: "cut in" the butter until crumbly, and sprinkle over the apples.

step five: bake forty minutes or until apples are tender.

christian and i had a crisp-off with the apples we each picked. mine's on the right (the MORE EATEN one).

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finally, i volunteered for four hours at the PAWS facility up in lynnwood, trimming back overgrowth along their wildlife trails (#91). no pictures from that one, but i've got several witnesses. we got to meet the dogs and cats up for adoption afterwards, and it was more heartbreaking than i thought it would be. man, i want a dog. that's about all i have to say about that.

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day six hundred and ninety-one

during a recent search for ways to complete my volunteer hours, i discovered a great organization called seattle works. its purpose is to foster community involvement by creating volunteer opportunities for people looking for a way to help. i signed up for one of their "hot projects" last weekend working for the seattle women's trek triathlon. i helped registrants prepare for the race taking place the next day, which was easy enough, and i was in and out in three hours. but i didn't feel like i was really helping the community -- i was helping women who paid money to test their athletic prowess. i have nothing against that -- meeting women of every age and size who had signed up inspired me to consider doing a triathlon in the future -- but these weren't people in need.

so i've also signed up for a teamworks group, which means i've committed to volunteer one saturday per month, with the same group of fifteen people, for four months. our introduction party is tomorrow, and from what i can tell so far there seems to be a heavy focus on building team morale and relationships through drinking. i am supportive and excited!

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on a related note, a couple years ago my mom gave me a beer-themed puzzle for christmas, knowing it was on my list to complete one. it's not that i've never done a puzzle -- quite the opposite. when i was a kid i remember the dining room table was almost always home to an in-progress puzzle, and whenever anyone had a free moment they'd sit and work on it.

i really miss that, so that's what this goal was about. i have no room in my studio to work on something like this, so a few friends sat down with some mimosas over brunch last weekend and put it all together at maddox's house. it now rests gloriously on her kitchen table, and i have not yet figured out a way to transport it...

easy peasy

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and finally, for said brunch i made salsa with tomatoes i grew myself! (see previous gardening posts to learn more). this recipe is AMAZING, and i've already made a second batch because it was so loved. i highly recommend it.

basically, all's you gotta do is combine these ingredients in a bowl and let it sit for a few hours before eating it.

• two plum tomatoes, chopped
• one ripe avocado - peeled, pitted and chopped
• one-fourth cup finely chopped red onion
• one clove garlic, minced
• one tablespoon snipped fresh parsley
• one tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
• one tablespoon olive oil
• one tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
• four ounces crumbled feta cheese

boom!

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day six hundred and sixty-seven

just purchased this and this from amazon. lida and i are going to kick #68’s ass.

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in foodland, i used my slowcooker for the first time ever! it’s been sitting in the box since my uncle gave it to me for christmas last year, and now i feel so foolish for neglecting it. it really can be that easy to make great tasting food (and lots of it). and OHMAN the bbq chicken i made? so freakin’ good (#59). i’ll be making more of this.

awwwww yeah

• - 6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• - 1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
• - 1/2 cup italian salad dressing
• - 1/4 cup brown sugar
• - 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce

put the chicken in the cooker. combine everything else in a bowl, then pour it over the chicken. set it for 4.5 hours on high. AND THAT'S IT.

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finally, i’ve decided on a new #82. originally i had planned to go a month without logging into facebook. and i actually gave it up for a week recently with no problem , but i realize that it’s in the best interest of my new business to maintain an active facebook presence. so i had to think of another vice to take a break from. at first i thought, drinking! i do that ALL THE TIME! but realistically, going a full thirty days might make me really grouchy, especially when there’s a holiday, birthday, or just plain great excuse to party every month at the least. and for what? i’d be miserable and frankly don’t know that i’d feel that great about it in the end.

so instead, i’m giving up beer. it’ll serve the intended purpose of the original goal, which was to cut back on something that’s not good for me. i’m used to having one or two beers a day (during the week – weekends are another story), so it will be tough. but since i’m not a huge fan of wine or liquor, my overall alcohol (and caloric) intake should still go way down. i’m thinking the month of october or november for this one, since i totally had beers last night.

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day six hundred and sixty

omgyouguyz i totally just did a somersault! two, actually (#25). i have a weird fear of inverting myself such that my feet are over my head, hence the handstand goal that's also on this list. the first version of this list also had "learn to dive into a pool" on it, but it was ultimately too scary and i had to nix it. i recognize the incongruity of being more willing to jump out of a plane than into a pool headfirst, but so it is...

back to the somersault! maddox helped, and though there are no pictures of it (it really hurt my head and i didn't want to do it more than i had to), she can confirm that i totally nailed it. the only problem was that right beforehand we had mimosas and peanut m&m's, so the flipping gave me tummy troubles... which prompted the completion of task #21! we're visiting our friend andrew in carnation for the weekend, and he has this amazing hammock he bought when he was in panama. i had to lie down to rest my stomach from all the candy and tumbling, much like a toddler would, and hot damn that thing is comfortable. i will be napping on it often this weekend.

seriously.

day six hundred and fifty-seven

major goal accomplished! i was in need of some mom time last week, so we checked out priceline hoping for any last-minute flights to the UP and it turns out they totally exist, and they're totally affordable, as long as you're not picky about four-hour layovers. so just like that, a goal i was worried i wouldn't accomplish in time seemed to come together overnight (#72).

my mom is a wonderful, wonderful woman. she and my stepdad retired two months ago and moved to the upper peninsula of michigan to a) be closer to my grandparents, and b) be further from everything else. the town of manistique is teeny tiny -- about three thousand residents, and right on lake michigan. there are several other tiny lakes in the area, and my grandparents have lived on one of them for as long as i can remember. island lake. quiet, secluded, and easily lap-able in a kayak.

it's been four years since i've visited grandma and grandpa in the UP. it really warmed my heart to see them again. the best thing about going there is that nothing ever changes -- except the water level in the lake, which is unfortunately now low enough that perhaps changing its name to "peninsula lake" should be considered. but all my other childhood spots are still around, and i always feel very centered and calm when i'm there.

this is a moving raft on lake kitchitikipi. i visit it every time i'm up north. it's kind of an eerie place, always with the fog on the surface. the water is so clear you can see the springs bubbling up on the lake's floor as if they're a foot in front of you.

this is me and my mom pretending we see something AWESOME down there. it was just some fish. but i guess the fact that we could see them so clearly was PRETTY AWESOME.

instead of crashing in my grandparents' guest room as usual, this time i got to stay in my mom and stepdad's new home, which is about twelve miles outside of that teeny tiny town i mentioned. it is sooooo cozy and comfortable. i loved it! and it's literally one mile (maybe less?) down the road from the island lake house, so i got lots of family time in. it's a modest two-bedroom that faces nothing but acres and acres of untouched woodsiness. it's so incredibly quiet. except the last night when i swear to god i heard a large mammal dying a slow, painful death in the road nearby... no sign of it in the morning though. CREEPY!

an artsy view of their backyard.

admiring the yet-to-be-cleaned fountain out front. it's got some serious potential.

the weather there was mostly cooperative. i wish it had been warmer so i could get more than a couple hours of lake-time in, but really i can't complain because i was just happy to be there. it's been so long since i've had a midwest summer, and i forgot how humid it can get. and buggy! as i took my first steps onto the front porch i was smacked across the face by what i can only assume was a giant moth. greetings, UP! plus when it rains there, it rains like it MEANS it. not like in seattle where even the drizzle is passive-aggressive.

as soon as it was nice out, mom and i hit the water. that's the island in the background!

bruce went snorkeling and was so proud of this picture he took, i just had to post it :)

we did a couple new things too. mom and i checked out the local casino, where i first lost forty-five dollars on a poker table, then won fifty-five playing quarter video poker for two hours. there are no pictures of this because it was depressing. we also did a wine tasting with live music on lake michigan, mostly johnny cash covers.

all in all i had an incredibly relaxing and life-affirming getaway. and, friends are always welcome in the UP. i plan on going back next summer -- the 'rents should have a speedboat by then!

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i forgot to post about two new recipes a couple weeks ago. i wore myself out with all that UP talk, so i'll just post links to them here with the following notes: i tried to go bun-less with the turkey burgers to save calories, but i ended up making up for it with extra sauce, because, ehhhh. but in better-tasting news the quinoa salad really grew on me the more i ate it. i recommend doubling the corn.

here's one link: quinoa and black beans (FOR DAYS)

... and ok turns out i can't locate the turkey burger recipe. but really, it's for the best.

onward!

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day six hundred and forty-nine

gardening update: IT'S AWESOME. i mean, not everything i planted worked out -- turns out zucchini squash needs way more room than i provided -- but i'm still just so fascinated that i'm able to grow anything at all. and EAT IT! i've had countless fresh salads because lettuce is the easiest thing in the world to be successful at. the fresh cilantro was great, i've got peas comin' in like woah, tomatoes are on their way, and we might even get a strawberry or two... if we can get to it before the local wildlife figures it out. the last time i posted about my gardening ventures i only had access to pots. well, big things have happened since then. kyle and i put some major work into his side lot, taking it from this:

...to this!

we dug up the grass, laid the brick, and i put in a big ol' planter box. i was able to put the peas and beans next to it straight into the ground (his landlord had a ton of compost, without which this would not have been possible). it's really comin' along -- just needs some different furniture and tiki torches!

peas and beans!

baby tomatoes! they're about the size of plums right now. exciting stuff.

that is all for now. i feel like i'm falling behind a little on the rest of the list... hmm what to cross off next?

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day six hundred and twenty-one

thanks to a martial arts strangermart coupon purchased nearly a year ago, i completed my self-defense class goal last week(#78)! and i get to go back eleven more times fo' free. well, "free" as in it's already been paid for, so i might as well...

i've taken cardio kickboxing classes in the past, but after my first session at mkg in northgate, those seem like a joke. here you get to practice fighting real people using sticks, gloves and pads. and it feels GREAT to actually hit something, whether it's a punching bag or the receiver's padded hands. much better than punching the air and just guessing that i could do some damage if i really needed to.

the hardest part, besides the embarrassment of occasionally looking foolish and uncoordinated, was probably taking all those hits. some of the guys took it slow for me, since i was new (or, yeah, maybe because i'm a lady), but others did not hold back... oof! all in all it was a terrific workout, and the hour just flew by. i definitely felt it in my back muscles the next day. but the parts of me that were really sore afterwards were my wrists from all the hits my hands had to take.

impi was the only female student in a class of about twenty. intimidating? a little, but i picked up the sequences pretty quickly and am confident enough to go back a couple more times to see if it really sticks.

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i also finally went a month without buying a single item of clothing or accessory (#86). on the one hand, part of me is a little ashamed that this was even one of my goals. but on the other hand, i found myself all too often just buying one thing here or there (or online) as the moment struck, and i wanted to try to be more intentional about my purchases. less impulsive. it's not like i'm a repeat offender of massive shopping sprees; i just wanted to work on eliminating those little justifications i always make for whatever it is i think i want at the time.

it was easier than i thought, once i recognized that i have everything i need (and more, yes). however i did long for some things, just to have a little new-ness... and because my favorite cardigan now officially has too many holes in it to actually wear out of the house. but i did not replace it! i held back! and did a lot of online browsing at my favorite store! things i DID NOT purchase in the last month include the following: this awesome skirt, this snazzy sweater, and this any-occasion-appropriate dress.

easy enough. i bet i could accomplish this goal twice -- or even thrice-- over.

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day five hundred and eighty-nine

d'oh! i was halfway into my "don't buy any clothes/accessories for a month" goal and i totally BLEW IT. i went to bartell's to pick up a prescription and on my way out i accidentally bought a pair of cheap-o sunglasses. it didn't even occur to me until two days later that that's TOTALLY AGAINST THE RULES. argh. i'm gonna go on a target binge tonight to get it all out of my system and start anew tomorrow...

in positive news, #90 = done. when i wrote the list i intended to take a cpr/first aid course for humans... but since i anticipate spending a lot more time with dogs and cats in the next few months, i opted for the pet version, offered by cpr seattle. i learned the basics: how to restrain an injured animal, check vitals, treat serious bleeding and shock, administer cpr, and safely transport the pet to an emergency vet. i wish there had been more hands-on training -- we only got about twenty-thirty minutes working on the stuffed animals -- but i feel much more confident in my pet caretaker abilities! plus i get to practice my new methods on stu. he lets me check his pulse no problem so i'm sure he'd be totally cool with the heimlich...

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day five hundred and seventy-nine

i totally forgot that i accomplished the print screen t-shirt goal a few months ago (#57) -- whoops! back in the days of unemployment and with too much time on my hands i followed through on a vague threat to make a somewhat insulting t-shirt for jake. in fact, i'm not totally comfortable posting the picture of it here because it's mildly nsfw. but rest assured it was awesome (i created the image using a google celebrity pic search, a series of carefully orchestrated copy+paste commands, and the crop tool in microsoft paint -- told you it was awesome). and he even wears it, but i'm pretty sure only as an undershirt. still, success!

now for some amendments, starting with #86. i don't have a problem planning meals to take with me to work and making sure i eat most dinners at home. what i do have a problem with is shopping -- more specifically, online shopping. when i'm gainfully employed i can justify almost any purchase. but, my closet is too small, and my wallet is about to get real thin, and it's just stupid to pay shipping fees just to try something on, so... new goal is to go a full month without buying any clothing or accessories (scarves, hats, belts, etc). as i write this i'm seven days in!

i also need to eliminate what was one of my favorite goals when i first designed the list -- going a month without facebook (#82). beyond checking up on old friends and making snarky comments on recently posted photos, i've used facebook as an admin for several pages as part of my political work. it's becoming a more and more important tool for campaigns and nonprofits to grow and succeed, not to mention small businesses. and since i'm embarking on a new professional adventure in a couple of months, now is not the time to abandon facebook. i anticipate that it will play a major role in my future success, so i'd be doing myself a disservice to give it up. i'm working on an equivalent goal to replace this one and thinking i should try to abstain from engaging in some other undesirable behavior. probably drinking. i just need to commit to a timeframe that's challenging but not absurd. but then again summer's coming up... maybe i could give it up for the month of october when the weather turns sour again. but my birthday's in october. so november then...

day five hundred and fifty-five

there are times when i miss grad school. i don't really miss the paper-writing and the late-night stress, but i do miss getting to know a great group of people with shared interests and life goals. and i miss the learning. i've been out for four years, and while the professional learning certainly hasn't stopped, that curiosity about how the world works isn't being satisfied as regularly as it used to be. also, i miss math. so i put it on my list to make sure i went to an academic lecture of some sort (#9), and it turns out that my most recent job gave me that opportunity.

i'm working on a campaign to pass a city ordinance that would require all employers in seattle to provide their workers with paid sick days. a couple weeks after i was hired, it just so happened that a visiting professor was giving a talk at the university of washington on whether providing paid sick days increases worker retention. so i volunteered to go along with a coworker in the hopes of a) gettin' my learn on and b) pitching our campaign to the people in the audience.

turns out not a ton of either happened. the talk was focused solely on the researcher's methods, and she was essentially crowd-sourcing her paper (a draft) for things she may have missed and suggestions on how to strengthen her analysis. it was stuffy as hell. and while the topic seemed relevant enough, everyone was content just to nitpick the methods and nobody was interested in whether paid sick leave is a good policy decision. i left the lecture reminded of why i decided not to pursue a phd -- i really believe that for all the interesting and potentially good work being done in academia, the people doing that research live on their own islands of isolation where not much is transmitted to the real world in any meaningful way. after the professor was done, we tried to hand out flyers and talk to people about how to bring paid sick days to seattle (c'mon!) but no one was interested.

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i completed another goal this week with the help of kyle's mom, who knows a thing or two about gardening (#62). she was in town for a week, and we got to chatting about my list and the things i still have to get done, and she was really excited about teaching me how to plant. and so was kyle, since the project would take place at his home. i live on the third floor with no patio or outdoor space to speak of. kyle has a big west-facing lot with another small patch of sideyard that was in desperate need of landscaping. so we borrowed some tools from a friend, kyle's mom made a run to get the seeds, soil and pots, and we got down to it.


i was trying to illustrate that the bag of soil was near human-sized, but it was so bright out we couldn't see what we were taking pictures of. missed opportunity.

i can't tell what i'm doing. soil-sprinkling?

in a couple hours we had planted tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers, zucchini, basil and cilantro. there are future plans for peas and beans in the sidelot, which we started to landscape and will revisit at a later time.

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finally, i've come up with a replacement for #4, which was previously "go to church four sundays in a row." i just can't get back to the place i must've been in when i wrote that, because this is no longer important enough to me to sacrifice consecutive sunday mornings. so here's the new plan.

i've bounced the idea of a tattoo around in my head since i was in high school, but no single image ever stuck with me for more than a few months at a time. lately, though, i've been thinking about it again, and thinking about dr seuss. his books played a major role in my upbringing - i vaguely remembered my parents reading them to me when i was super duper little. those are actually my earliest memories, though foggy they are.

about a year and a half ago when i started this list, i ordered all the dr seuss books i could find in an attempt to reconnect with the young me. when they arrived i sat down and read through them for an evening, which turned out to be one of the most moving experiences i've ever had. a whole host of emotions came pouring out of me -- bad ones, good ones, red ones, blue ones. it was like i had accessed my oldest memories, memories i never knew i've always had. since then i've been exploring more of theodor geisel's (dr seuss's) work, and it's inspired me to strive for a better understanding of what life for little liz was like.

as my good friend emy said, "if you're able to link an achievement in your adult life to something meaningful from your childhood, that's the primer for a proper tattoo." i agree with her. so, i'm changing goal #4 to one that i think will have much more meaning for me. when i reach day 1001, i'll get a tattoo to commemorate it, and it'll likely be seuss-related.

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day five hundred and twenty-six

a week or two ago i flew down to palm desert to visit my good friend liz and get some sun. alas, my first day there it rained. so we hopped over to neighboring palm springs to hit up the casino (#41)! i took out a modest eighty dollars and we went to work. it can be hard to spend a lot of time in a casino for cheap, i discovered. sure there were some nickel and dime slots, but those were boring as hell. i put five bucks in and, without even really knowing what i was doing because of all the flashing buttons and noises, i lost it all in as many minutes.

so we moved on to the tables, where i was both excited but intimidated. i know there are strict rules at casinos about where to put your chips and how to hold your cards and can you talk to the dealer and how about the people next to you and ohmygod what do i do with my drink? put it right on the felt?! luckily we found an empty texas hold 'em table (my favorite game!) with a dealer who was happy to explain the betting scheme and who was patient with us as we made mistakes early on.

it was so. much. fun. like, good-thing-i-don't-live-within-thirty-minutes-of-a-casino fun. at one time, i had doubled my money. at another time - the time i left the table - i was only five dollars up. so i decided to take that last five dollar chip and bet it all on my favorite number at the roulette wheel on the way out. for some reason, that move really impressed the locals. i guess they typically spread more thinly, a dollar here, a dollar there, and usually on the fifty/fifty bets (black or red, odds or evens). i didn't win there, but i consider breaking even a victory for my first visit! the other liz was up quite a bit - eighty or ninety dollars i think? all that and she'd never even played texas hold 'em! now she's hooked. plays online and e'erything. YOU'RE WELCOME LIZ.

we didn't know it yet, but apparently it's illegal to take pictures in casinos...

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i also made two new dishes, both of which turned out deliciously (#59). i'm just going to link to them both here because i'm feeling lazy.

apple-pecan veggie burgers, link courtesy of the formerly vegetarian jake (i doubled the recipe and ate these for a long time): http://www.michiganapples.com/apple-pecan-burger.html

and a pasta bake (i used italian sausage instead of ground beef, and only half the gravy called for because it freaked me out that gravy was even in there): http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Pasta/Detail.aspx

both of these were big hits with the lucky guests who got to eat them.

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day five hundred and seven

more healthy recipes are in the mix (#59). also, and this is a big one, i finally used my food processor for the first time (#45)! my mom gave this lovely machine to me for christmas in '07, and while i made sure to unpack it at every apartment i moved into, i was a little intimidated by all the parts and the user manual's sheer size. but recently i tried some brownies that my mom brought with her to seattle (again, courtesy of my stepdad), and i had to make some of my own. so good, and so (relatively) good for me. i didn't realize until after i'd purchased all the necessities that the recipe required a food processor. so, i buckled down, did some reading, and got the thing together really embarrassingly easily. now i'm inspired to make a ton of new things with it!

in all its spinning glory!

ok, now for the new recipe. what you need:

• fifteen ounces black beans, cooked -- canned, drained
• one-fourth cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• one teaspoon espresso powder
• three-fourth cup egg substitute (i used three eggs instead)
• three tablespoons whole wheat flour (i used white)
• three-fourth cup agave nectar
• one tablespoon unsalted butter -- melted
• one teaspoon vanilla extract
• one cup pecans -- coursely chopped (i used almonds)

preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. spray an eight-by-eight inch baking dish with cooking spray. rinse and drain the canned black beans. combine the beans, cocoa powder, espresso powder, egg substitute and flour in the bowl of a food processor. process until the mixture is smooth, about two minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.

add the agave, butter and vanilla. process until all the ingredients are combined, about one minute. pour the batter into the baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula. bake for twenty minutes, turning the dish halfway through the baking time. remove the baking dish from the oven and turn down the temperature to three hundred degrees. spread the pecans evenly across the top of the brownies and bake for another eight minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a little bit of soft batter clinging to it. it should not come out clean; if it does, it's overcooked.

let the bars cool completely at room temperature in the baking dish on a wire rack. then put them in the refrigerator for at least three hours. when they're cold, cut them into squares and serve. refrigerate any leftovers.

voila! seriously, these taste just like not-so-healthy brownies. i love them.

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day five hundred and three

i just passed the halfway mark! and to celebrate, goal #22 = achieved. a very generous friend invited a bunch of us up to his parents' home in silver star ski resort for a few days of snow-themed adventure. most people did some downhill skiing and snowboarding, some tubed (WHOO!), i attempted cross-country skiing again (though not as successfully as in the overwhelmingly flat forests of suburban chicago), and kyle and i took the opportunity to build a snowman. yes, i've done this before, but it's been a reeeeeally long time. this may have been the easiest goal yet!

trying to make the left spatula arm fit.

completed! meet harold bucket. i can't remember why i gave him that name.

arty shot up close, to capture all his features.


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day four hundred and ninety-six

recipe number eleven: almond honey power bars! (#59)

about a month ago my mom visited me for a weekend in seattle, and she brought with her a sample one of these that my stepdad made. i thought it was pretty tasty, especially considering how healthy it is compared to other granola type snacks. so, i got the recipe and gave it a shot. some of the ingredients were pretty expensive, so i made some modifications based on some alternatives i already had and how much money i felt like spending overall.

ingredients:

• one cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• one-fourth cup slivered almonds
• one-fourth cup sunflower seeds
• one tablespoon flaxseeds, preferably golden (i could only find the dark brown kind)
• one tablespoon sesame seeds
• one cup unsweetened whole-grain puffed cereal (kashi makes one)
• one-third cup golden raisins (i used regular since i already had 'em)
• one-third cup dried apricots (i substituted dried cranberries)
• one-third cup currants (yeah, didn't include bother looking for those)
• one-fourth cup creamy almond butter
• one-fourth cup turbinado sugar (i used brown sugar)
• one-fourth cup honey*
• one-half teaspoon vanilla extract
• one-eighth teaspoon salt (i didn't do this, because the sunflower seeds i bought were salted)

directions:

• preheat oven to three hundred and fifty degrees.
• coat an eight-inch square pan with cooking spray.
• spread the oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, and sesame seeds on a large, rimmed baking sheet. bake until the oats are lightly toasted and the nuts are fragrant, shaking the pan halfway through (about ten minutes**). transfer to a large bowl and add the cereal, currants, apricots (or cranberries) and raisins. toss to combine.
• combine the almond butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan. heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until the mixture bubbles lightly (two to five minutes).
• immediately pour the almond butter mixture over the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until no dry spots remain. transfer to the prepared pan. lightly coat your hands with cooking spray and press the mixture down firmly to make an even layer (this is easier if you wait for it to cool first). refrigerate until firm, about thirty minutes. then cut and serve!

*the first batch came out pretty dry and crumbly, so i doubled the honey to one-half cup the second time around and the consistency turned out perfectly.

**the first batch also came out with a weird burny aftertaste. for take two i cut the baking time in half. still, weirdly, a little off? but much tastier.

day four hundred and eighty-one

it has been a brave week! first, there was motorcycle safety school, an intense, two-day course that teaches the basics of how to operate a bike and ride as safely as possible (#67). day one was class time from 8am-12pm, then bike time from 12:30pm-5:30pm. day two was bike time from 8am-3pm (including the final skills test), then class time from 3:30pm-6:30pm (including the written test). the class was surprisingly diverse: forty percent female, thirty percent non-white, and lots of age groups represented, from eighteen years old up to mid-fifties. and the instructor was just great, an older guy who's been riding for forty years and who still beams when he talks about it.

this is what i learned to ride, a suzuki gz250. it felt pretty challenging at first, and looking back on it it's hard to believe that i went from learning how to turn the thing on and walking it in a straight line to swerving around obstacles and cornering sharp turns in just two days. and they do make the final skills test challenging enough that not everyone passes it, so if you drive too slowly or too quickly, you're out. so yes, i am so excited and proud that i passed! now all i can do is look at bikes and dream about the summer. that said, i'm not ready to hit the road just yet. well, not the roads surrounding my apartment. when i'm ready to buy a bike, i plan on getting out of the city and practicing on some quiet, suburban cul de sacs. the evergreen safety school also offers a course designed to teach you how to drive out on the streets in the real world, and i think i'll try to save up for that as well.

so, full admission, i dropped the bike on day one. we were doing weaves and instead of focusing on the next cone ahead of me i spent too much time looking down at the one i was trying to get around. and, as i quickly learned, where you look is where the bike goes. it fell to my side and i was trapped by my ankle until the instructors came and lifted it off of me. my leg didn't hurt nearly as much as my ego. i had to fill out an accident report and everything. turns out it is way harder to steer when you're moving at super slow speeds, since you have to figure out how to use counter-weight when you're leaning to one side or the other. but i'm glad i learned that lesson when i did. on day two during the skills test we had to do these slow-speed figure eight's, a challenge that costs most students a passing grade. i was incredibly nervous for that part, and i had to put a foot down a couple times (deduction!) but ultimately i passed the whole thing with a pretty great grade!

since the class is all business, i didn't have the chance to take any pictures. but i did snap this beauty upon arriving back home - all that's left is to take this bad boy to the DMV in the next six months and get my new driver's license, which will include my motorcycle endorsement. awwwww yeah.

proof!

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also, i played paintball (#20). a while back, groupon offered a pretty good deal for the paintball sports park in puyallup, so kyle and i each bought one and finally redeemed them yesterday. he'd been before, but it was my first time. i was pretty amped up the whole car ride down, but when we made that final turn into the parking lot, all that excitement turned to nausea-accompanied fear. these dudes... they were in full camo gear. they had belts full of paint for quick-and-easy reload. they were loud. they were running full-speed. they were scary. and i almost didn't get out of the car. the website for this place showed fun birthday parties, some of them for teenaged girls and other fun-loving first-timer adults. where the hell were these people? all i saw were about twenty young men who i suspected had serious anger issues, and if it weren't for paintball... i'm just sayin. they were scary.

but, with kyle's help, i sucked it up and got out of the car. at the check-in table where we got our gear and instructions, they assured us that we'd be on a different field with other beginners, plus i'd get a little target practice beforehand, so i was pretty easily put at ease. when it came to game time we were divided into two teams and were given a task - to assign a "president" (who didn't get a gun!) and to get him to the other side of the field without getting shot... ok, this was way more militant than i expected. still, i was more daring than some of the guys on my team. i got out there. i shot some people. i also got shot, just once, by... kyle. it hurt more than i expected initially, but the pain also faded more quickly than i thought it would. maybe it was all the adrenaline. but after getting hit in the leg all i could think about was "oh my god what if i get hit in the neck," and then i lost some of my steam. we didn't stay very long, mostly because we ran out of ammo pretty quickly and didn't feel like paying for more. and even though i didn't really love the experience, i did like it, and i think if we went with a big group of friends it would be an absolute blast. i mean, it was a tough thing, being on a team of total strangers and being the only woman for miles. but i did my best.

i promise there's a lot more paint on my leg, particularly where i got shot. but it is great evidence of how much braver (or slower?) kyle was.

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day four hundred and sixty-four

just a quick little update - i finished my dog-walking goal (#96), did some more volunteer hours delivering groceries and helping out in line at the foodbank (#91), watched some more oscar winners (#33), and made another mix cd (#58)!

this mix was for my good friend and fellow woodlands girl emlyn. when i was home over the holidays we went to a sushi joint in lakeview called torajiro. it was delicious and affordable! but the background music distracted us from the meal a bit. we couldn't help but dance while we ate. it was a solid nineties house mix - the kind of stuff they played at the junior high dances. on our way out we asked if we could somehow get our hands on the disc - maybe it was part of the jock jams collection? but alas, our server told us it was a mix her friend had made. so, feeling nostalgic both for my st. mary's school days and for that sushi dinner, i put together the torajiro mix and sent it to an unsuspecting emlyn.

torajiro mix:
1. "what is love" - haddaway
2. "be my lover" - la bouche
3. "tonight is the night" - le click
4. "run away" - real mccoy
5. "show me love" - robin s.
6. "the rhythm of the night" - corona
7. "cotton eye joe" - rednex
8. "where do you go" - no mercy
9. "missing" - everything but the girl
10. "better off alone" - alice deejay
11. "this is your night" - amber
12. "total eclipse of the heart (dance mix)" - nicki french
13. "supermodel (you better work)" - rupaul
14. "another night" - real mccoy
15. "macarena (bayside boys remix)" - los del rio
16. "ooh ahh... just a little bit" - gina g.
17. "beautiful life" - ace of base

p.s. this makes a great gym mix.

p.p.s. in my search for nineties hits, i kept coming across this one song title over and over - "mouth" by merril bainbridge. i couldn't place it, so i had to look it up. turns out it wasn't appropriate for the torajiro mix, but twenty-somethings feeling nostalgic for the terrible, terrible pop songs of your youth, you are welcome!

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i saw two more oscar-winning movies in the last couple weeks. jerry maguire (best supporting actor, cuba gooding jr., 1997) and avatar (art direction, cinematography, and visual effects, 2010). well technically, kyle and i watched the rifftrax for avatar. still counts. anyway, i liked both of the movies a lot. jerry maguire reminded me of a time before we all knew tom cruise was crazy, and avatar was soooo preeeeeetty. definitely wish i'd seen that one in theaters. that pretty much sums up my thoughts on these for now.

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day four hundred and forty

it's been a crafty few days! first, with jen's help, i accomplished my jewelry-making goals (#51 and #52). we took a trip to the bead store in wallingford where i was totally overwhelmed by all of my options and realized i probably should've done a bit of prep work beforehand. however! after about an hour i had a pretty good handle on the process, and all in all i spent just over twenty bucks for two new pieces that i anticipate wearing quite a bit. i also wanna go back to that bead store, like, now.


this is one tray of beads. on one table. i'd guess there were over ten tables in this place, and about ten trays to a table...

...and then there were walls and walls of these beads that you could buy by the strand.

so yes, between the beads, the closures, the jump rings, the chains, the strands of fabric and so much more, i was overwhelmed. but with jen's sage advice and expertise (not to mention her wide array of jewelry-working tools) this is what i walked away with:


i really, really like this. i wanted something neutral that would go with everything, and as a bonus it makes little clinky noises when it moves!


here's the close-up. those are antiqued brass plates on a suede band. for those who aren't familiar, i had to buy those little hoops (jump rings) separately and manipulate them with tiny pliers to get them through the plates.

and these are the earrings!

dig! it's some sort of black and white stone with a similarly colored bead underneath it. that bead is attached by what used to be a straight wire that i had to bend and loop around itself multiple times. jen said this looked like a moldy cheerio.

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to keep this craft-train moving, i decided to finally put together my mobile (#49) from the kit i bought a couple months ago. using some of the postcards i received from the postcrossing goal (#92), this was super easy to do. just had to drill a hole in the ceiling (well, first i had to buy a three-step stool so i could actually reach my ceiling), screw in a hook, and hang!

this is just the kit. my home does not look this modern.

i didn't put as many postcards on this as i could have - i was worried about it getting too busy. instead i doubled them up front and back so you can see different cards as it moves.


this isn't the best picture, but it gives a sense of how the thing looks in my apartment. really, it's better in person.

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it's nice to finally have the time to get these sorts of projects done, but i do miss working. hopefully i'll be back at it soon, and this time with a job that gives me enough free time to keep at this list!