This weekend, we decided to have a theme based on the movie Go Further, which we watched a few weeks ago. It's a documentary with Woody Harrelson, who rides a bike behind a bio-fuel bus down the California coast. In the documentary, he explains the benefits of eating raw, organiz, vegan food and talks about industrial hemp. Saturday's lunch was raw wraps with Vegenaise (mayonnaise made without eggs and without dairy) and kombucha to drink. All of the veggies were wrapped in lettuce leaves. It was the first time either of us had tried Vegenaise, and we were impressed.
Dinner was raw zucchini pasta caprese. I used a peeler to shred the zucchini into thin strips.
After marinating the tomatoes and feta in oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and basil, we tossed everything with the zucchini pasta and garnished with flat parsley.
The caprese was delicious! Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the raw cashew chocolate mousse we tried.
Overall, it was a great raw weekend, and the weather was beautiful. -吴碧芙
So instead of going someplace exotic and warm with booze and table-dancing, we have decided to have a different kind of adventure in Eastern Iowa. We went to the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque on Tuesday, since both of my parents had the day off. The museum explained the history of the river and had exhibits of the animals found in the river. We were amazed at the Giant Catfish, which totally looked like it would swim over and start talking to us. There was also an interactive lizard exhibit. We crawled under and popped up among the lizards. The small lizards started running toward us.
Yesterday we went to Iowa City. It was a satisfying day, since we finished all of the IC essentials: lunch at Masala, buying Iowa apparel, coffee at the Java House, picking up dozens of Bruegger's Bagels, dinner at Givanni's, Chinese takeout from Taste of China for the next day's lunch... 文大猊 got the street tour of my old apartment buildings, and important sites.
One of the many highlights was getting my hair cut. When I lived in IC, I used to go to this really edgy alternative place for my haircuts, which was pretty expensive. My mom and aunt ended up going to my hair designer Joann a few times after I left. I called the salon to get an appointment on Tuesday. I said, "I used to go to Joann, but I understand she has since moved away." They said, "Oh, actually, she moved back." So I went to get my hair cut, and caught up with Joann, who seems to have added a few piercings and tattoos since I last saw her. She knows how to cut my wavy hair so that it hangs right, and she knows how to take out the heavy parts without ruining the cut.
I forgot my digital camera cord in Verm. These are all camera phone pics. More to follow... -吴碧芙
We have started clinic, on top of classes and work duties. I have two clients, but one keeps canceling, so I haven't had a first session with that one. Luckily, the client I have started with is really wonderful, and I couldn't ask for a better first clinical experience.
One of my friends is a new grad student in the department this semester. She drives from Yankton, but is gracious enough to pick me up, so I don't have to walk, or, worse, waste gas driving, the one mile to campus. Her favorite color is purple, and in my gratitude for a ride, I made her a lanyard for clinic. (Actually, she doesn't want anything for picking me up, but she also needed a lanyard, and she didn't want me to make one for free.)
This weekend we had a workshop for gamelan (check out the "audio postcard" on the linked page to hear our director and members talk about the music) at the National Music Museum on campus. I joined the group this semester, having been invited by my supervisor, who is a long-time member of the gamelan ensemble. I usually play the saron, and for this weekend, we worked on interlocking melodies, where two sarons play on different beats, creating a melody between them. Our Javanese gamelan instructor came from Minneapolis for a whole weekend to teach about the music and culture of Indonesia. It was relaxing and informative, and I didn't even miss doing my homework.
Tonight we were visited by a very friendly kitty. As I went out to get some groceries, when I opened the door, the cat was right there. When I came back, with my hands full of groceries, I opened the door, and the cat ran in and explored the place. He was purring and rubbing happy scent all over the place.
The birds were safely almost ready for bed, but they were a little alarmed initially at the little dart of black when I opened the door. The cat was so friendly. I'm assuming/hoping he belongs to one of my neighbors, and his owner is waiting for him to come back. Sorry, we can't keep him. It was one of my childhood fantasies that we would find a dog or cat, after weeks of advertising, the owner would not be found, and my parents would let me keep it.
It's the first week of classes, I needed a visit from Angel Kitty, just for a moment. -吴碧芙
Over the break we got in our travel cage, and we got in our giant bird's auto-travel cage. We rode for a long time, and then we finally arrived at Grampa's house.
Many giant bird cousins and relatives came to see us. We sat on the backs of their chairs while they played games and played with string:
We went in the auto-travel cage again, and I was excited to go home, but instead we stopped at Auntie's house. It was very cold outside, so we needed to sleep there. We saw more giant birds, and we met Auntie's cat. The cat was very large, energetic, and loud: [stock photo]
Now we are home, and happy to be back in the big cage and looking out the window from inside.
Over the break my aunt, uncle, and cousin were here from the East Coast. I had a knitting race with my cousin, in order to find out whether Continental was faster than English knitting. Continental won; I finished 30 stitches in the same amount of time it took her to do 20 stitches. They also brought snowshoes. Since my knowledge of snowshoes extends only to an episode of Winnie the Pooh in which Roo finds two tennis rackets and thinks they're snowshoes, I tried them out. It was fun, but cold.
My new Winter Break project was to try my hand a making a felted/fulled bag. I found a pattern for a small bag (Black Sheep: Sophie Bag), which took just one skein of Cascade 220. It was a minor financial commitment that I didn't mind taking a chance with.
The pattern started with knitting a rectangle bottom, with stitches picked up on all edges to be knitted in the round.
After being washed inside a zipper pillow protector, on the hot wash/cold rinse cycle, I stretched them around grocery bag-wrapped cardboard cutouts and various boxes of dried goods I found in the pantry. When they dried, they looked pretty cool. I added a loop (crocheted chain, felted, and sewn on) and buttons to keep them closed.
Before Finals Week, I pondered whether there was a felted bag pattern that could be made for a quick gift. I think this is definitely the one. It was pretty quick and cute. It didn't turn out as small as I expected it would.
