4.16.2011

my belly is full of $40 pasta



I'm plowing through the Rebar pasta section of the cookbook. We've had two this week and are having one next week. I'm pretty sure I'm at the half way mark and there's a few that I have to make in the summer (for best ingredients). There's two problems with this 28before29 goal, the first that there's "ASIAN"-style pastas that I wouldn't put under pasta, but either salad or entrees. I understand that there's noodles so it's like a pasta, but it doesn't say "pasta" to me. And, I don't really like their "ASIAN"-COMBO pastas, or the idea of them. Blah. The other is that the ingredients, like much of the Rebar cookbok's recipes, are on the expensive side. Today I made the santa fe salad and it cost me almost $40. Sure, it was incredibly delicious, but not an every day (or every month!) thing, that's for sure.

Seth was still a little sick this week so most of the day I've spent wiping green boogers from his face. I also got my lettuce planted and my little growing pots full of soil (just need to plant the seeds) and will soak my beans tonight and put them in the box tomorrow. And then I'm done for a few weeks. Just watering. Then the fence and weeding and getting bean poles up; then it'll be time to transplant and more weeding and hopefully harvesting my baby arugula, basil, and cilantro for pesto for the freezer.

Tonight is our inaugural Women's Liberation Book Club meeting. We read the birth house and I just finished it. Literally, like 20 minutes ago. It was OK and not hard to get through, which is relieving. What are you doing this weekend?

4.10.2011

i broke down and bought grapes...

Sure, it's not a knitted sweater, but I finally finished up my baby legwarmers, which is a pattern I'm including in my helvetica knits e.book v. 1. I'll probably post the pattern as "for free" on ravelry... and it's just being tested right now.

The derby meeting went great! We still need one more board member and at least two other major volunteers to assist the board, but it's going to be great! At this exact second I'm just passing the time between getting ready to go out for sustain-a-table and right now. Seth is still sleeping and I've just put together tomorrow's dinner and am just waiting for the side to finish. I really like menu planning and all of next week our meals are TEX MEX style. Tomorrow we're having vegan enchiladas with green rice and coleslaw; Tuesday we're having vegetarian tostada salad; Wednesday we're having quesadillas and tortilla soup; Thursday we're having a tex mex style rebar pasta; Friday we're having pizza verde (rebar); and saturday we're having santa fe pasta salad from the rebar cookbook. YES! We tend to eat a lot of mexican style food, but I've been relying on americana and other vegan stuff lately and the tex mex has been lacking. Which has been disappointing because we all really love it.

This weekend I got my sunflowers and nasturtiums planted, and also planted three tires of fingerling potatoes! I didn't get my little starts started (must do that!) but got some sewing done as well. Next week is the launch for Feminism for Real at Rhizome in Vancouver! Try to make it by if you can! Deets below. XO

Feminism FOR REAL Book Launch
Thursday, April 14, 7:00pm
Against a backdrop exposing a 500+ year legacy of colonization and oppression, Feminism FOR REAL is an anthology that explores what has led us to the existence of “feminism”, who gets to decide what it is, and why. With stories that make the walls of academia come tumbling down, it deals head-on with the conflicts of what feminism means in theory as opposed to real life, the frustrations of trying to relate to definitions of feminism that never fit no matter how much you try to change yourself to fit them, and the anger of changing a system while being in the system yourself. Join us for a discussion with editor Jessica Yee, a self-described “Two Spirit multi-racial Indigenous hip hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter”.
Free

4.08.2011

working for the weekend

i'm at work, it's lunch time and i'm going to try and work through my lunch. i'm mowing down on carrot sticks and port alberni radishes *yum!*. i didn't get my plants in the ground this week and anticipate putting seth in his bouncy chair, heading outside, and planting my tomatoes and peppers tomorrow. on saturday night i will soak the beans i have to plant and then plant them in the raised bed on sunday AM. i'm still so new to growing (year 2) that i'm giving myself lots of room to learn about what's happening and make mistakes, rather than get stressed out about soil ph, type of dirt, etc. it's like when i was learning to knit and didn't jump right into understanding how cables work (i still don't). i should also get my potatoes growing in their little tires and get the chicken wire up and running soon. oh, and the deer fence! jeez, having a garden is a lot of work (but so worth it).

this week has been a complete write off. seth was SO SICK and such a handful. one night at 3am he was bawling because he had a fever and we were going nuts, i was trying to get him into the bath to relax, cool down, and feel like he was having fun and i said to stewart, "can you imagine some people have babies who do this every night for months?" and we both shuddered. i couldn't imagine having to experience that. i definitely want more kid(s) around but there ain't no way in hell that they're going to be babies because i'm just not going to take the chance to deal with that. no thank you. (and a big woop to the parents who have had to deal with that: you amaze me).

the only other thing i've focused on this week has been roller derby. any extra seconds i've had have gone to developing our code of conduct or our policy manual. we have our first board meeting tonight at my house to give people work to do. i'm excited because we'll hopefully have full buy in from a total of 7 of us, which will make the work load that much easier and lighter on everyone. there is no way i could've taken on a league with a smaller board or even doing a bunch of the start up work and then pulling people in. someone else is going to organize the first meet up. someone else is going to take over the facebook group. someone else is going to make registration forms and membership databases and sort out the insurance. and the seven of us will have founded a derby league together. this is going to be amazing!

last but not least,  i've been looking longingly at my list on the left and wanting to accomplish some things faster, you know? so many of those things are long process activities or i need something else to get them finished. a number of them, too, i know won't happen which is a little discouraging, but just a fact of life, i guess. next year i'll probably do a list with more little goals and i already have some in mind (like no eating out at a restaurant for 3 months and sew myself a piece of clothing every month or something like that)... but must focus on the list i have now! i'm going to order rennet this weekend to make the cheese, go this afternoon and get my birth certificate so i can submit my change of name forms when i get paid next, next week i'm cooking another pasta, and will probably get two or three more in by the end of the month.. you know. get on it?

have a great weekend! XO

4.01.2011

oh where oh where

book from a book sale with a sticker in it
hat knit for theresa at multimax
Port Alberni Hops Festival
did this week go? last weekend we went to the HOPS festival and it was so much fun! so much beer. so little time! the week went by super fast and i'm feeling a little zoned (well, a lot zoned) from my week at work...blaaaaaah. tomorrow is a busy day: seedy saturday, TREATY DAY PARTY!, and tutoring. i have to get a bunch of groceries shopped and food made to get us through next week, too!  let alone get my garden all planted and stuff. hahahaha. EEPS!

despite working full time all week and being pooped I really really LOVE my job and the place i work and the work i get to do for our community! it's like i won the lottery.

oh, and roller derby is GO!!!!  if you live in port alberni and you read this and you want to play roller derby just comment and i'll get a hold of you!

XO