Hi,
So my car gave me a wake up call.  Had issues with the front wheel.  This is actually nice though because I’m able to look to the future and force the $1800 that I could put into the car in the next year… So I’m going to sell it.  *tear* 

That’s not the point.

The point is, I have  been more active, joggin around with the soccer ball, biking to and from close places.  And I endevored to bike again to work today!  It took me only 30 minutes this time to bike over.  I have more of a handle on down shifting etc. and my legs are more in shape.  It was pretty neat!   Being the summer and all though, it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like biking home at say… 2pm.  Not looking forward to it. 

So, because my car has issues and has the doughnut on the road, I’m hesitant to drive a lot on it.  Thursday and Friday… it’s supposed to be say, 90 degrees.  And like around 2pm is the hottest part of the day.  Yipee??   So that will be interesting.  But I’m armed with sunscreen and I probably will Not be wearing my sunshall.  Domas. 

So.  That is it.  I’ve noticed this summer that my apartment is way far away from my parents (who I do spend and would like to spend time with) and other things on the west side are not near me.  Like 12 miles expressway driving not near me.  So in an endevor to leave less of a carbon footprint, I’m looking for a place that will bring me closer to the little trips (the stores, the friends, the parents, etc) and sadly it’s at the expense of being close to work.  1.2 mile difference up to 7.9 miles total to work.  But it makes sense.

seriously it does.  I have makes and radial circles from the spheres that I enjoy being in in this city and greater metropolitan area and where all my circles meet is in this place that puts me a little further from work and closer to people.  I did my internal homework of why I would be moving, what’s wrong with this apartment (it’s a great 1 bedroom seriously, month to month, I like it a lot - space, storage and distance are the issues) and did my external homework of what I want to move to, where would be ideal and I scored the area looking for possible apartment complexes.  My sister has chuckled at my geekyness because of this.  It’s great.  So there.

I will write again about a really amazing building.  I like the concept and the execution of it.   but I’m out.

I have a bunch of other stuff I want to write about but i’m here and now and have this little poem next to me.  I’m working on a photo book for a friend and when I was taking apart a picture frame thing my mom has for each of my sisters and I for all our school pictures, I found that there were poems or quotes behind each spot.

I believe the true purpose of these quotes was to fill the holes with something remotely interesting until the school picture from that year took place.

But All to say, I find the one behind the senior picture interesting if only for my life and curiousity.  So here we go.

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
He learns to be guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives wtih fairness,
He learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself.

If a child lives with acceptance and
friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

Author Unknown.

While typing that onto here… It came to me that you sorta have to be given something before you can know how to do it and to give it back.  Sounds like a duh statement, but you have to be truly loved and appreciated in order to truly love.  There’s a Dar Williams song called What do you hear in these sounds (but she sings about therapy)  And there’s a line in it that says

” And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink
But Oh how I loved everybody else
When I finally got to talk so much about myself”

And it’s that give and take sort of thing (although that cliche doesn’t sound appropriate)  You need to be held accountable in order to learn responsibility… and I think this is lost in some high schools and in our society today.  It’s all about mutual love and acceptance that it isn’t mutual at all and all it is is acceptance and not many people are teaching or creating an environment with fairness (and structure) in order to teach justice.  And by fairness it’s not the societal accepting fairness, it’s the “here are the rules, you’re accountable” fairness.

I guess the poem really does speak it best.  if a child lives with encouragement he’ll learn confidence.  you have to give to the child in order to foster this sense of worth, confidence, and value.

Just like I said it would be.  Life goes easy on me, most of the time.

Ooooo, if you can get that quote, you’ll be in great standing.  But!  What is happening like I said it would is this!!  I just biked 6.7 miles (yes, I google mapped it) to work this morning.  I left super early to make sure I had enough time to cool down and prep and be all set up for work etc.  But I did it!!  I got on my bike at 5:38am this morning and got off it and locked it up and took the front wheel off by 6:14am.  Wow!!  

Its surprising the hills you Don’t notice when driving.  And I definitely felt the weight of my backpack about halfway through.  The real kicker is going to be biking home today when everyone is awake and out of school.  yippee?  Hopefully my legs won’t die and fall off of me.  We’ll also see how I do on wednesday biking to work.  Tomorrow i’ll have a much needed break and have appointments to go to so I’ll need to drive.  But!  my quest has begun.  I didn’t die.

Also, because it has been almost a year’s hiatus from this blog thingy…
read :Animal Vegetable Miracle by Kingsolver and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen.  Two really well done books.  Makes you think twice on what you’re eating, where it’s coming from and what changes you can make.

My CSA share that I’m splitting should be starting soon.  With the increase in gas prices, I think this will help me out a bunch. 

I’m exhausted, must go on working.  Enjoy!

It’s called slow down my schedule and plan for some exercise

Hi, it’s now spring 2008.  I fell off the planet for a long time.  I don’t work in the city anymore, I’m up in a northern suburb.  But I live in the city now!  which is cool.  it’s a nice house, nice apartment.

And gas prices are rising.  Rising like crazy.  I “overheard” someone on facebook last month writing on their brother’s wall about wanting an SUV and everything but sadly reconsidering due to gas prices.  I wanted to yell.  I think SUV’s are dumb for about 90% of the owners.  You live in suburbia, you go to blan job about 10 miles away… seriously, you don’t need an SUV.  I have a friend that yells at people in their SUVs when he’s driving.  I agree!!!!

So now that I have seen my first gas price sign that says 4.099 for super duper gas, and because my boyfriend has braved the biking to and from our apartments (probably 7ish miles) and figured out it takes about 40-50 minutes, I’m making this statement (and hope that I have the spine to stick to it)

$4.00 a gallon for unleaded and I swear on my life (and death because I’m really out of shape and anything I do is like 5-7 miles away from me) that I will bike to most places: i.e. work and church and stuff.  because I don’t want to “afford” $4 for 87 gas.  and I don’t want to budget for it because it’s out of control and I’m going to stop supporting Gasoline.

I won’t necessarily agree that the prices are out of control and need to be lowered. there could be a strong argument for that because its the fuel we use for everything in our Global market.  But I say it’s out of control because it’s a substance, a fuel that we’re dependent on.  and in this global supply and demand chain that’s what we get when things go crazy, higher prices.  So in leu of the commanlity of alternative energies (yes plural on purpose) I’m going to make my own alternative energy when my spending on gas is toooo much.

So, $4 for the low grade stuff and I’m off to saddle sore land!!!

Getting fired for something - no hard feelings, it’s understandable (not me, the article) but having the cops show up is completely over the top… welcome to america??

http://www.fleen.com/archives/2007/05/03/breaking-news-3/

http://www.dieselsweeties.com/blog/?p=44

Thank God for sisters, no?

My sister put me onto this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/dining/25loca.html?ex=1335153600&en=a7fce62f62a607bd&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

Barbra Kingsolver has a new book coming out.  it’s all about eating locally and things of that nature.  In my humble opinion if you can combine eating locally with eating organic a) you have lots of money and b) you’re really helping out a lot.  you’re helping your diet, you’re helping the earth, you’re helping the local economy and much more.

Check out the book.  Joan Dye Gussow’s -This Organic Life is also really similar to this topic.  a great read indeed.

So this great (canadian? or australian) cartoonist has a fun sense of humor.  he did a great series of the alpha bet - and all i could think of when i saw W was

hmm… that’s where america is right now - in the other direction.

http://www.dirtflake.com/?p=342   - check it out.

So I don’t write here much.  Life’s pretty sumin’ at this point.  I just finished gobbling up Barbra Kingsolver’s book Prodigal Summer.  Best book every.

I want to be those two women.  It’s a great book.  One thing it totally made me think about was the fact that as humans we don’t think about personal responsibility.  This goes WAY beyond nature.  there’s the whole cause and effect thing and life cycles are DEPENDENT on each other.

It’s crazy how as humans we’ve separated ourselves from this.  I argue that technology is really something that has a big hand in this.  I was thinking about technology really gives us as humans the opportunity to be individual and do tasks individually.  We have to rely less and less on other people, other people’s skills and subsequently (however indirectly) less on the earth.  I mean if you go to a grocery store - you’re not really connected to the food as in where it came from, what was used on it as far as pesticides, how long it had; as a crop; grown in that field, what the condition of the soil was let alone the condition of the farmer, the farmer’s life, the farmer’s house, his finances and his opportunities.   We’re completely separated from that.  And we also don’t know what that single farm is doing to the ecosystem around it.  I’m a vegetarian.  I’ve heard people say (and i think it’s really cool) that if you’re going to eat the meat, you should at least be comfortable with where it came from and that whole process.

But this part of the book really sums it up for me.  “Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits.  But solitude is only a human presumption.  Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end.  Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.  All secrets are witnessed.”  (adapted from the first and last page of the book.)  Every life has an effect on an entire chain of life cycles and ecosystems.  I thought of this when I killed a fruit fly on my parents counter.   I wondered what predator was absent that made fruit flies so prevalent.   Now, that’s a ridiculous case.  But it’s true - if you kill off the predators with the prey, the prey will out number the predators.

But on a completely other note - there’s women in this book.  and this women blow my mind.  They exude the strong solid quite grounded woman that I COMPLETELY fail to see very much in Christianity.   There are the soft plush women that make great mothers and great christians.  But i don’t see the solid grounded women that can stand in any wind and make great christians.  I can think of 1.  (i thought of 2 but then was reminded of the odd patriarchy that enforced a severe courting ritual with their daughters for the second one.)  This is the cool woman that just exudes confidence, joy, peace and approachability.  Someone that’s not a control freak but is utterly in control of everything around them.  Someone with drive, with ideas, with passions but has the peace about her that her existence doesn’t depend on these ideas.  Someone that is competent and strong, who can do any task that a man can do - and she does it silently, unconsciously, and beautifully.   No one draws attention to it, its as if you don’t even notice it as odd, it just happens.   This is the old woman with the long beautiful grey hair.  it’s not but that’s what I think.

I want to be her.

where are the christian women role models who are like Barbra Kingsolver, Joan Gussow, and the characters in Prodigal Summer?  Are we meant to become the soft squishy women that will open their arms to all the orphans and love them?  or can we be the solid confident women that stand in the face of injustice and fight for better, even if it’s silently.

quite the bologne brain over here. Haven’t updated like forever. But I would like to state for the record, since spring wanted to show a preview of what it would be like in a few weeks (months) I have been biking to work all week. all 3 days of it. it’s supposed to be 44 tomorrow and 34 friday, rainy and cloudy respectively. So we’ll see if i bike friday. But i’m SUPER pumped for this to become a regular thing. seriously, biking is fun. Once you get over yourself and any stupid or slow mistakes you make, it’s great!!

Also, i considered buying a specific house, i haven’t decided - i will let time decide - but it was beautiful. 2,500 sq. ft. selling for a STEAL. The interior had leaded glass parlor doors, a fireplace, some tin ceiling, ornate heat grates, most of the original doors and trim, two stairways (albeit one was missing) no walls - just studs, a few broken windows and some hardwood floor. This house was gutted, completely. It had been a HUD house previous to the current owner, resale value seems iffy, and it’s quite a gem. HUGE garage in the back, used to be an old barn, beautiful windows on the sides, two floors.

I really enjoy the historical elements of this 1890’s house. It got me thinking outside of convention and reading books on alternative building materials, who says a kitchen is cupboards and counters? what about interior walls, seriously? I started moving beyond the norm and going into the weird. It was fun. So i’m still researching all this stuff, and learning about cool things, reading some fun books (Gutted is a GREAT book, hilarious) annnnnnnnnnd i’ve been spending time at the central library, the one in the city o’ Rochester. sooooo much better than dumb suburban libraries. *cheers* i now know why they’re fun!!

that’s all for a few more months.

So,

I’m not sure if i wrote about it the second time.  I made a different recipe of granola for my second go.  It worked well.  We didn’t have powered milk, and so it didn’t get as chunky as the recipe led me to believe.  It was called Chunky Granola after all.  :-D  So tonight, I made another batch.  We ate through the burned batch and the first go at chunky this morning, so I needed to fill our buckets.

Chunky Granola works.  Some how the time for cooking doesn’t work so hot though.  here’s what i found.  I was nervous and experimenting to make it get chunky.  So we actually remembered to purchase powdered milk.  I made 2 batches simultaneously.  Other’s like to call this doubling the recipe.  :-D  Either way, i added a little more honey, cooked them at the same time, and actually cooked them for 15 minutes, and then had to put dinner in the oven.  So i took them out, let them cool in my room (so people wouldn’t snack on it) and then threw it back into the oven like 2 hours later for 15 more minutes.  It’s still in the process of cooling, but it looks a lot more chunky and able to hold together.  *snaps to powdered milk*  it’s pretty darn sweet though, which isn’t bad.  I realized after i started pulling the ingredients together, that I should have measured out the liquids separately in two bowls.  because when you’re doubling a recipe, bare with me it’ll make sense.  When you’re doubling a recipe you’re mixing everything together.  but when you’re making two batches, and you’re working with oil and honey, it’s difficult to separate that evening into the two different batches.  So next time i learn.  I also tried roasting the cashews and walnuts more than last time, but i forgot cause i was cooking dinner, and burned the hell out of them.  they sizzled in the compost.  I’m also going to try using real oats instead of quick oat, if we ever get any.
On another note - the city repossessed some houses from the tax foreclosure auction.  And there’s one near by with a vacant (and unbuildable) lot next door.  After reading (i’m almost done) This Organic Life by Joan Dye Gussow, i want to make a farm in the vacant lot and live in the house.  There’s some book that Far (ant hill) mentioned and it’s about this urban house that is pretty much as far off the grid as you can get.  I’d like to try that.
I realized there’s a line between being conscious and frugal - and depriving yourself of  the basic necessities of comfortable living.  like heat.  :-D  our house is not well insulated and we keep the heat low - but it works.  I’m not too cold, i believe every single one of my family would die here.  :-D  it’s all relative when I say i’m cold.