Head update

Gross. Sick. Ew.

The head was hanging from my ceiling with a string tied around its neck. Ew. Ew. Ew. I've retaliated. I'll post after Corbin has found it. I don't want to clue him in.

The Head

A few days ago I came downstairs and found this staring at me. I knew it was Corbin's and that he had put it there to startle, probably not just me, but nevertheless. So I picked it up and put it in his bed. The next morning I found it on the banister right outside my bedroom, staring at me. I put it in the fridge. Later it was back downstairs where I first found it. I put it in the washing machine. James was the unlucky victim this time. I told him to rehide the head and he did as told, placing it in Corbin's shower. It found its way into my closet. Corbin's food cupboard. The microwave.

Approximately five minutes ago Corbin came home. "Where'd you put The Head, Bjorge?!"

Postal Service

I think I discovered a secret to the United States Postal Service. If you get mail for a former tenant and you write "No longer lives here" on the outside of the envelope and stick it back in the mailbox, it disappears with the rest of the outgoing mail and you stop receiving mail for that person. It's like MAGIC. I call it a secret because no one seems to know you can do this and that it works. I discovered it after reading the envelope from a mail-in ballot that was addressed to a person who used to live in the house. The envelope said to write "no longer lives here" and put it back in the mailbox if the person is no longer a resident of the house. So I tried it for other mail and it works for everything! Cell phone bills, personal mail, even advertisements as long as they don't say "or current resident" on them. So I've decided to pass my secret along, in the hopes of decreasing your unwanted mail and maybe saving some paper in the future. 

Saltwater Sandals

When I was little I would see my Granny every Saturday. We'd go down to Portland and do something fun, often going to the waterfront or playing in a fountain or going to Saturday Market. I remember this one day she took me to I think it was Nordstrom's. She said "we need to get you some saltwater sandals," and we proceeded to get matching navy blue ones. I just bought some tan ones from here: http://www.saltwater-sandals.com/index.html

I am happy Starzy!

My weekend

Planted a couple more peas(5 or 6 sprouts have come up!), a bunch of scattered carrots, and 4 artichoke starts I bought at the farmer's market today. Also, Hannah and I went to Bark and Garden and got air plants :-). i now have my own baby air plant and don't know where to put it. I'm thinking of using Hannah's idea of hanging it in a window from a wire or string. 

I'm incredibly tired because yesterday was a long day of way more activity than I'm accustomed to. I went to the Great Wolf Lodge water park for Peter's birthday party and went on slides and played in the wave pool and other such nonsense. It's fun to play with my friends :-). 

Benji's working on some homework and then I think I'll make him go to bed with me, as I am very sleepy. It's almost impossible for me to fall asleep when he is still awake, I keep thinking he'll come to bed any minute and then I can't sleep. So that is my story. Also, I have knock-off Chuck Taylor's that are white with pink cupcakes all over them and a typed recipe for cupcakes in black Times New Roman scattered about. They're basically the best shoes ever, thank you Payless. Also, allergies are the suck and I have taken 12 freeze-dried nettle capsules today to keep them in check. My throat hurts and I am itchy and it is hard to breathe. STUPID. If anyone with health insurance and a prescription wants to sell me some Allegra that'd be awesome. Turns out even the generic is $90 for a month's supply without insurance. Fuck me, right? I used to get it for $10 or $20 a bottle. Ah the good old days. 

Also, I've recently read Bonk by Mary Roach and recommend it highly, along with her previous two books, Stiff and Spook. Now I'm reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, which I borrowed from Hannah. 

Also, don't go on the yellow/red slide at Great Wolf Lodge unless you want to pee your swim bottoms.

I now know that chicken needs to be cooked hotter than beef

The food handler's card class is one of the most boring classes ever. It was only about an hour but it felt like forever. I was the first one finished with my test. I even got a question wrong because I was filling it out so fast, the better to escape. Also, having to be at the courthouse at 8:20 am sucked too. Now I have an hour to kill before I can go meet Ben for lunch. Also, it is possible I'll start work tomorrow. I am very excited, way too excited for a food court job, but my boss is really optimistic about me and that makes me feel optimistic about me. He wants someone to be friendly to customers and go out into the food court with samples and coupons and chat people up. I am super good at chatting up customers. Customers love a tiny blonde 20-something with free food. I am a dream come true. Life is good.

Starzy Update

After much distribution of my resume, I got hired at Charley's Grilled Subs in Capital Mall. So that's good news. The owner is named Charlie, but it is a coincidence. He says I have experience, enthusiasm, and spunk. Yay me? I do have those things though :-P

Also, I am probably going to get health insurance, but it's up to a six-month wait. It's through Washington Basic Health and if all goes as planned, I will have good Group Health insurance for $22 a month!! If you've ever done research on getting health insurance, the cheapest you can get to actually be able to see a doctor regularly or get prescriptions is about 80 bucks. 50 bucks will get you the barest minimum of insurance so you won't get completely wiped out if you have to go to the hospital or something, but is otherwise useless. I'm psyched that I qualify. Everyone besides the college considers me a resident of Washington, which is a relief. I also qualified for Take Charge which is an awesome program that I found out about through Planned Parenthood which gets you free birth control for a year. I'm going to be in Washington for at least another year for school, so I might as well be a resident. 

Let's see...Ben is doing good, he is in a class called "Marx and Marxisms" and is reading through Capital. That shit is dense, but he is doing an admirable job of making sense of it. I proof-read all his papers and outlines, so I'm learning a lot too :-). 

I'm enrolled in just 4 little credits, American Sign Language 2. I love it and continue to learn a ton every week. 

I haven't been baking or cooking much lately, just kinda lazy I guess. Not in the mood. Yesterday I wore shorts and a tank top all day. It felt great. Currently my iPod is serenading me with "Crazy for You" by Madonna. That's about all I can think of for now. I am getting shit done this week, stuff that's really hard for me to do, like making phone calls and taking initiative on things that I don't entirely understand. I made the phone call to Basic Health knowing nothing more than the flyer I got at the Health Center told me. Then I made an appointment to meet with some stranger at St. Peter's hospital and rode a bus line I've only been on once before... I am amazing. Hehe. Also, I have a sparkly butterfly temporary tattoo on my lower back. It is my ephemeral tramp-stamp.

Gardening Update

Planted tomato, eggplant, and pepper(jalapeno and cayenne) in egg cartons under a propagation dome. 

Planted blue potatoes and a few yellow onion sets directly into the garden. Gave up on the languishing broccoli and lettuce starts, gonna direct seed in the next few days as attempts at transplanting resulted in floppy leaves laying in the dirt. Sad times. Also need to direct seed some kale, more peas(digging around i found 3 of the original seeds, i think a squirrel ate the rest), kohlrabi, turnips, swiss chard, and maybe some carrots. i want to make a trip back to bark and garden, maybe i'll make hannah drive me out there when she comes up for a visit! 

350 PPM

Sunday

It's cold and windy outside so I couldn't stand to be out very long, but I managed to plant two short rows of peas and a little patch of miners lettuce. I was not expecting the lettuce seeds to be so itsy bitsy and accidently dumped the whole packet out on the ground. I couldn't even feel them when I tried pouring them in my hand. So I guess we'll see what happens. I can always buy more, I suppose. Now the sun is coming out again but I am loathe to leave my cozy warm living room. I don't want to be stuck at home again though. I get pouty if I don't do something with my day. Shoulda woulda coulda. 

More gardening updates

Feeling confident after my visit to Bark and Garden I planted 12 sections of an egg carton with seeds, six of broccoli and six of lettuce. I watered them ever so gently and put them in a propagation dome. I figure that since they don't need much watering in the dome and probably won't do anything for at least a week they'll be fine while I'm gone. And the worst that happens is they all die and I start anew. I plan to direct seed peas and miners lettuce in the garden tomorrow! I dug up quite a few more chunks of grass. It's exhilarating, except when you find a little white thing that feels like a root through your gloves but you're pretty sure it's a bug, but if it is a bug, it's a munching bug that should probably be dead if it's gonna be in my garden, but maybe it's a root and since you're not sure you can squish it and not feel like a murderer. So then you go to squish it but it won't, it's hard. This is another point for the root hypothesis, so you go to snap it in half when it explodes with white bug guts! Ew! I actually yelped. I'm glad none of it got on me or I probably would have gone and showered or something equally ridiculous. I have changed a lot since childhood. I still woulda been freaked out, but I was dirty all the time when I was little, I didn't give a shit. 

Then I spent several hours poking around on my computer like a sullen loser, missing Ben. When I determined it'd been over 7 hours since he left the house, I gave him a call and he updated me on his day(sitting in a car) and I updated him on mine and then I got off my butt and cleaned the house a bit(started the dishwasher, took out garbage and compost, swept and vacuumed living room, wiped down counter and sink in kitchen, wo0t!). Now I'm gonna chill out until Ben calls to say goodnight. Then Monday I catch a train at 11:15 or so(which means catching a bus at 10:00 from my house!) and ride it to Portland. I don't know when I'm going back to Oly, I haven't bought a return ticket yet. 

Springtime!

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox and today it is sunny and almost warm! I rode the 49 bus to Cooper Point and then got off and walked to Bark and Garden Center. I only needed a few things, a little greenhouse plastic thing for starting seeds, some potting soil, and plant tags(I need to keep track of these buggers!). While waiting in line I checked my bus schedule to see if it would be possible to catch the 47 over to the mall, and found that it does not run on weekends. I resigned myself to having to walk all the way back to Cooper Point with a bag of potting soil when a woman standing behind me asked if I was in a hurry. I replied that I was not, as the bus I was hoping to catch isn't running so I have to walk back to Cooper Point anyway. She casually said she'd give me a ride, to which I asked, really? She was serious and I was stoked. She was wearing a pink sweater and pink glasses and her name was Christine. Things I found out about her on our short drive to my house: She went to Evergreen a long time ago but then she got divorced and needed to work to support her three kids, so she took night classes at St. Martin's to graduate(Evergreen didn't have their Evening/Weekend program back then). All three of her kids graduated from WSU and are very successful in their careers. Evergreen graduates seem to be preferred when applying for jobs with the state of Washington. She thinks Evergreen encourages independent thinking and graduates can take care of themselves. 

What an awesome lady. I just wanted to tell the world that there's a nice woman out there who gives bus-riding girls with potting soil a ride home. 

Geek Pr0n

Googling "pr0n" for the lulz results in this:




http://photos.jibble.org

Caboodle Ranch

this is so cute

Hanzipan

Have you been reading my cooking blog? Hannah and I share a blog on which we post recipes we make and bake.
http://www.hanzipan.com

Also, this:

Bunnies!

Star is sorry she's tacky :-(

Day's accomplishments

Things accomplished today:

Dropped my 12-credit class. I was not gonna pull off a miracle and get my work done and this way I get rid of the stress and get a 50% refund and no credit rather than lose all my money for no credit and possibly get kicked out of Evergreen. 

Picked up a book I got from the Interlibrary Loan system at the library.

Printed off some copies of my resume.

Looked for the shovel. Couldn't find it.

Walked to the hardware store. Bought a new shovel. 

Dug in the garden a bit. Chop chop chop goes the grass. 

Then I sat down here and have not done much since. I think I've only eaten a baggie of salt and vinegar chips today. I should eat more.

First day of February

I am currently failing at doing an Hourly Comic. FAIL. 

I'll just type it up, huh? 

Woke up at about 1pm when the doorbell rang. Ben always jumps up, gets dressed, scampers out to answer it, and either misses the person or has to run out to the street to catch them walking away, and it's never anything important, so this morning, I put my arm out as soon as I heard the bell and said "Leave it!" 

Yes, "leave it." Like to a dog. However, Sleepy Ben responded well and stayed down but tense. When it rang again he got up but missed the person anyway. So I was left all by my lonesome because once he's up he likes to stay up and I don't get my morning snuggles. Rude. 

Eventually I got up too. Dawdled around and ended up going to Target(say it "tar-jay"), did their computer application thing in the "employment kiosk" as it is labeled. 

Went to Jamba and dropped off the application I'd picked up the day before. Got a fro-yo from the fro-yo-sto (hehe).

And now I am home. Ben just said "Hey, Star" and took a camera phone picture when I looked. 

"Thanks. That's a picture of you tolerating me."

garden planning

ordered more seeds...

This time from Sand Hill Preservation Center

Carrots:
-Dragon Purple
-Snow White
Thomas Laxton Peas
Royalty Purple Pod Beans
Country Gentleman Corn.

Update

I totally was sick with something, I thought food poisoning, but then everyone has been getting similar symptoms that last a day or two. It's weird, you feel totally 100% fine and then you wake up having to puke. So yeah, avoid that if you can.

Haven't been updating Hanzipan because I haven't been baking or cooking. Most forms of protein have been grossing me out. Regardless of the fact that it probably wasn't food poisoning, the last thing I ate before I puked it all up was Chicken Tikka Masala, so anything meat or rich sauces sounded really gross. The whole thing where you've watched it in reverse, ya know? 

So yeah. I'll try to bake soon. I have all the ingredients I need for a cheesecake, I just need to find the springform pan. Also, if your name is Alex Southworth or Casey Mars, we need to go use those gift certificates at the Iron Rabbit before Sunday or they expire! Oh nooooooooes! 

cute youtube video, deal with it

Cheese and Blogging

Hannah and I have started a baking/cooking blog. I will reveal the address when we are satisfied with its progress. The name stems from a combination of our names/nickname. 

Also, I have eaten a lot of mac and cheese in the last two days. Yesterday I didn't eat properly until I'd gone to school, got off the bus at Groc Out, gone grocery shopping, and came home, so I quickly microwaved a Lean Cuisine mac and cheese and ate it. Then I was still hungry and I'd also bought a Linda McCartney mac and cheese so I made that. Then today, I had a box of Annie's. Oh, and on the subject of cheese, I made a quesadilla last night.

More cheese! Always more cheese!

Oh! And Ben and I plan on making a cheesecake tomorrow to take to Katherine and Peter's house on Friday night(we are classy and have hella couple friends we hang with). 

Territorial Seed Company

I ordered seeds from Territorial Seed Company in Cottage Grove, Oregon and today they came in the mail!
I received:
Umpqua Broccoli
Yaya Carrots
Lemon Cucumber
Twinkle Eggplant
Kolibri Kohlrabi
Wild Garden Kales
Tom Thumb Lettuce
Early Jalapeño Pepper
Small Sugar Pumpkin
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Purple Top White Globe Turnips
Ananas Noire Tomato
Miners Lettuce
Spicy Mix Sprouting Seed

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

From the book Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

Hotel for Dogs synopsis

Have you actually read the synopsis for "Hotel for Dogs"? My favorite part is the younger brother's "mechanical smarts". 

 "Disheartened by their new guardians' announcement that pets are strictly forbidden, sixteen year old Andi (Emma Roberts) and her younger brother Bruce (Jake T. Austin) race to find a home for their loyal dog Friday. Fortunately for Friday, there's an abandoned hotel just around the corner, and Bruce possesses just the kind of mechanical smarts needed to transform the rundown inn into a four star retreat for canines. For a while Friday and his friends have it made, but when the neighbors start to get suspicious, Andi and Bruce resort to every trick in the book in order to prevent their secret from being discovered."

This weekend

This weekend, Hannah Maier came up for a visit from Sandy, OR. We had a very nice time!!!

On Friday we hung around the house for a long time and made cupcakes.

Specifically, we made Lemon Poppyseed Butterfly Cupcakes, AKA Fairy Cakes, from the book Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. They were recieved with rave reviews and I'm sure Ms. Maier will be posting pictures soon on her blag.

That night we went to the reopening of the Olympia Library which had been closed for a couple of months for some minor remodeling(including new paint, carpets, and desks). Kimya Dawson played songs and the children ran around barefoot in the aisles. 

Then we came home and watched "Burn After Reading". 

Saturday Ben, Katherine, and Peter had "band" practice and then Katherine and Peter announced that they were going to McDonald's and I decided we should all go to McDonald's and it became a McDonald's party(Katherine, Peter, Hannah, Ben, and I). While we sat there eating our tortured animal meals Ben spotted Alex and his brother, Ryan walking by! I ran outside and gathered them up and we all sat and chatted for a while. 

Then Ben, Hannah, and I drove to the Co-op because Hannah had never been in the two years she lived here. We got some nom noms including carrots, organic sugar, and milk. Then we went home and Hannah and I made mozzarella that was mostly successful, then put that mozzarella into a quiche with cheddar, spinach, and multi-colored carrots. People arrived for a little party get-together and we played a bunch of Mario Kart 64 and ate quiche and pizza. We watched a movie called "Shoot 'Em Up" which is one of the stupidest movies I've seen but also pretty entertaining. 

Then Hannah and I made Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies that we cut out in the shape of dinosaurs with the cookie cutters I got her for Christmas. Such fun.

Later after several people had gone home we watched "Tekkon Kinkreet" which I didn't love, but several others liked very much.

Today Ben and I woke up quite late as we'd managed to stay up until 5 the night before. Of course Hannah had been up for hours as that is her way. We decided to go out for some lunch and ended up at Nonna Rosa's Tea Room on 5th, just down from the Capitol Theatre, Darby's, etc. We had afternoon tea and it was really nice, I really recommend that place. There were tiny cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and crackers with egg salad and really yummy tea with honey and cream. We sat there for a good hour I'd say, chatting and munching happily. I kept thinking it wouldn't be enough food because I'm used to being served huge portions that I gobble up, but I found that eating slowly and in little bites I got really pleasantly full. Then we drove to Cost Plus because Ben needed to replace a chipped cup that belonged to Jenny and we spent a long time there wandering around and found some things on sale and had a nice time. Then home so Hannah could pack and leave us. Alas. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Butterfly Cupcakes can be found in Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Carrot and Spinach Quiche was adapted from "Juno's Summer Quiche" with whole wheat crust in Witch in the Kitchen by Cait Johnson. 

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies are from AllRecipes.com and can be found here.

Food

I don't take pictures of things but I'd like to point out that I made a failed Broccoli Cheddar Soup(the broth and cheese never became one. It was broth with cheese blobs in it. Gross).

I made very successful Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

I am posting this from class. I have class all day Saturday, and even though I signed up for it, I am rebelling.