celebratory tag

to celebrate being done with school (at least until next semester), i thought i'd do this tag thing from seriously so blessed.
by the way, if you haven't checked out this blog, you should. it's pretty much the most hilarious spoof of a mormon-mommy-blog i've ever read.

anyways, on with the tag:
all the answers have to be one word

Were is your cell phone? notsure
Were is your significant other? righthere
Your hair color? brown
Your favorite thing? life
Your dream last night? ponies!
Your life dream/goal? awesomephotogsimplelife
The room you're in? theonlyroomwehave
Your hobby? climbing
Your fear? ankleslashershindingundermycar
Where do you want to be in 6 years? anywhere
Where were you last night? homewrappingpresents
What you're not? brazilian
One of your wish list items? apron
Where you grew up? florida
The last thing you did? leg-itch
What you are wearing: cardigan
Your TV? none
Your pet? myplants
Your computer? whichone-wehavelikefive
Your mood? content
Missing someone? mom
Something you're NOT wearing? nailpolish
Favorite store? whatev
Your summer? sevenpeaksandsunnybikerides!
Love someone? duh
Your fave color? purple
When is the last time you laughed? 20minsago
When is the last time you cried? notsure
Your significant other's hair: buzzy
Your life in one word: wooohooo


i tag anyone who wants to celebrate

we're alive

has anyone out there been wondering if we've fallen off the face of the earth? does anyone even read this thing? well if you do, and if you were, know that we are still here, just a little preoccupied; three midterms, two papers, work assignments, personal projects, and designing your friends wedding invitations and trying to start planning your website (thank you sarah for being my web builder) all over a couple of weeks will do that.

i'll hopefully be updating some more soon, but until then, here are some highlights:

-my yoshi plant is blooming (see above image). in the fall. curious, don't you think? i consulted it's little tag thing, which only told me that it's native to south africa. maybe it's blooming now because it's spring in south africa.

-democracy. here's what mosiah has to say about it: "Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord. Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people. And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you." i really do feel like in most instances, the majority will make the best decision according to the knowledge they have. in politics of course it's more difficult because it's hard to see past all the banter and facade, but only time will tell. i'm certainly happy with the results, but andy and i have been saying all along that the election of either candidate would not be cause for rejoicing. there's a long road ahead, and as obama said in his election night speech, there will be setbacks and false starts. we can only hope for the best and be grateful that we have a hand in it all.

-re-designing my c.m. photo logo in preparation for a real live website.

-getting back to climbing with stacie.

-being a tethered shooting genius at work

-getting to fall asleep to andy playing me lullabies on his ukelele thursday night.

-sunday: the one day a week when i get to sleep in.

-quite a few delicious meals created (recipes to post soon)

-starting to see an end to my subconscious stress induced jaw clenching and subsequent headaches: only two weeks and two days 'till thanksgiving, followed by two weeks 'till finals.

-a new month, which means a clean slate on the budget...that always feels good.

-new speakers=more music in our lives.

-my bike, and the fact that the snow-free weather has held out (more or less) allowing me to ride it to school and work. what a joy

-the fact that this house only costs $8,300 (learned about it in my finance class). all we would need to do to be homeowners is move to peru, indiana!

-managing to get my daily dose of scrubs with andy

-despite stresses, life is just good.

pear and pomegranate salad

i love salads because they're so versatile. and they're the perfect fix for a veggie slump.
am i the only one who has veggie slumps? you know...when you run out of veggies and fruits and at first its fun to just eat pizza and pasta but after a few days you're dying for a chance to go to the grocery store and buy nothing but produce. maybe it's just me. it's a ruthless cycle.
the things i crave first during a veggie slump are leafy greens, read: salad.

i also love the fruits that are in season during fall. for some reason, there's just something so sensuous about them. maybe its because they're all so juicy and red. my favorites are plums, pears, blood oranges, and pomegranates.

so what do you get when you combine my love of leafy greens, fall fruits, and a kitchen freshly stocked after a recent produce buying spree?

pear and pomegranate salad of course!

-about half a head of lettuce (preferably romaine, red leaf, or the curly kind)
-some variety of raspberry dressing
-candied walnuts
-the seeds from about half of a pomegranate
-one ripe pear, chopped
-these quantities make enough for two people to have a dinner sized salad, but quantities can be adjusted as seems appropriate. also, if you don't have pears or pomegranates on hand, you can use any combination of grapes, apples, plums, or whatever sounds good.

+place the lettuce (rinsed and spun) in a medium sized bowl
+toss with dressing
+top with pomegranate, pear, and walnuts

to make candied walnuts:

-about two cups of walnuts (chopped or crushed into smaller pieces)
-one cup sugar
-two tbs corn syrup (or i just used vegetable oil)
-a sprinkle of salt
-half a tbs vanilla if you like
-lots of cinnamon
-some ground pepper

+in a saucepan mix all ingredients except the walnuts
+heat on low until the sugar kind of dissolves
+then boil for 5 or 10 minutes
+remove from heat, stir in walnuts to coat, turn out on a cookie sheet and allow to cool (i stuck mine in the fridge).
+serve on salad, save the leftovers in a ziploc bag for next time

on being late

as i was walking to school this morning at my customary time of 9:15, i had some thoughts (i seem to do a lot of thinking while walking to school).

what you need to know is that my first class begins at 9:00 and lasts only 50 minutes
what's more, i really enjoy that class.
it just has the misfortune of being my first class, and no matter how hard i try, i cannot seem to be on time.
i've struggled with this for as long as i've been responsible for my own arrival times.
my punctuality-loving photo teacher john has told us on many occasions "if you can't be on time, be early"
i've tried to implement this. i've tried waking up earlier, showering at night to save time in the morning, combining scripture-reading time with breakfast-eating time, setting a second alarm that rings twenty minutes before i need to be where i'm going (which is approximately a ten minute walk away) all to no avail.
this consistent lateness has caused some of my kinder teachers to applaud me when i manage to arrive less than five minutes late for class.

it seems i'm cursed.

now, if you're wondering what all this has to do with the beautiful lady in that picture up there, i'll tell you:
that is my grandmother's aunt (which i think makes her my great great aunt? not sure...juli, a little help?) in any case, her name was madeleine, and she was really close with my grandma. her first husband was killed at verdun during world war i, she re-married a veteran officer and left her dear lorraine (the region in easern france that was involved in a perpetual tug-o-war between germany and france from about 1870-1945, and where my paternal grandmother's lineage goes back centuries) to live in dakar, senegal, where he was the governor of french west africa. he was tried and imprisoned after opposing general de gaulle's invasion of dakar, and later died.
the point of all this is that madeleine faced alot of trials and losses, but from what i've gathered she was an incredible woman. i never knew her, but my grandma talks about her all the time (my grandma is the little girl in the photo), and i've always felt really close to her for some reason. i've been told we have alot in common, and a couple years ago i learned that one of those qualities is tardiness (there are some great stories about nearly missed trains and the like).


so it seems that being late is my heritage, and i suppose in that case, i'm proud of it.

seasons

this year marks my fourth fall in utah.

i have to admit, i really enjoy living somewhere with four seasons (you know...fall winter spring summer), although i do miss some of the seasons i grew up with in florida (hurricane season, jellyfish season, stingray season, rains every day from 4-6pm season, cold front season).

as i was walking to school this morning listening to my ipod (even though i gulp wish i had a zune-i know, i know, i'm a mac traitor...but seriously, who can beat unlimited music downloads for $15 a month and wireless access to download new stuff from the actual device?), i started thinking about how certain songs/musicians really embody the mood of each season for me.

here's the run down:

fall=the decemberists, regina spektor, band of horses, iron & wine, the shins
winter= modest mouse (especially the moon and antarctica), the killers, sufjan stevens, feist, bloc party
spring=neutral milk hotel, matt costa, beck, dan potthast
summer= ben kweller, bob marley, tribe called quest, sublime

rilo kiley=good for any season

yeah, so that's what i was thinking about while walking to school.
oh, i was also thinking that sometimes i whish provo were more like dickens' london, and that we could hop onto the backs of street carriages and trolleys to get places faster.
then maybe i wouldn't be late to class every day.

speaking of matha stewart...

i really want to make this:


caramel pear terrine from this month's issue. isn't it beautiful?

magazine envy

i've had magazine envy lately. i always thought that magazine subscriptions were kind of a silly wast of money. you just end up either throwing them away (ie generating unnecessary amounts of trash--especially if you live in a place like provo that doesn't seem to think recycling is a good idea) or having to make space for stacks and stacks of them.

but lately i've been looking at alot of magazines because we had an assignment in my still life class to find still life and product ads that we like and then analyze the lighting.

if had some extra money/space/recycling opportunities, i would get subscriptions to:

and i'm only a little ashamed to admit...

and if we didn't already have a subscription at work as well as every issue ever printed, i would also get pdn.