Wrapping Up 2011

Around the end-ish of each year I like to go back over the goals that I set for myself the previous year, before setting new goals for the year ahead. 2011 did not quite go as planned, but by no means would I consider it a failure. It was an interesting one.


1. Do things that terrify, embarrass, startle, and otherwise freak me out. 
I'd consider this the biggest success of all time. I ended a relationship that had been my absolute rock and place of consistency and security for three years. I moved into a place on my own for the first time in my life. I asked for a bigger raise at work (and got it!), I swam with a whale shark (briefly, in six foot seas and open water, and mildly panicked the entire time). Ultimately- I completely restructured my life, stopped shying away from the unfamiliar, and learned to start trusting my own gut more than ever before. It is not the journey that I had intended for myself by any means, but it has been the most significant.

2. Learn more about the joys of yeast and fermentation.
I'd call this questionable. While I started working with sourdough fairly early on in the year- in coming to terms with my gluten intolerance as well as moving into an apartment with the most inconsistent temperature range (ever!) I really let this one slip aside. Bread baking may not be a consistent thing for me, but my love for kombucha, kimchee, and all other things vinegary and mildly terrifying has not faded. 2012 might just be the perfect year for strange fermented things.


3. Go places, take classes, and make things.
2011 was: a gyotaku class in Portland, a four-week mushroom identification class through The Puget Sound Mycological Society, a very successful mushroom hunting trip, the best cupcakes I've ever made, two types of homemade cereal (granola, and amaranth). I also took swim lessons, made recipe after recipe of mediocre gluten free cookies, and spent a whole lot of time tromping around in the woods and mud.

4. Run a full marathon and start training for a triathlon.
Hah! Oops. While I did run my second half marathon (and cut 15 minutes off my previous time!) life really got in the way of any other training. An injury in October led to me having to wear this lovely thing for three weeks, and my foot still isn't fully healed. I'm signed up for my third half marathon this coming March, and will again aim to run my first full marathon in the next year.

5. Go somewhere I've never been before.
Success! Chimacum & Point No Point, Canon Beach, Whidby Island, Guemes Island (favorite!), Port Townsend, Crystal Mountain, and most wonderfully of all- La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico!


Did 2011 throw any surprises your way?

Weekend in Photos

A ridiculous and gorgeous birthday party for my bff and love of my life, Amy; a perfect day outside planting trees at Reecer Creek in Ellensburg with some of my favorite people; and thawing my stash of summer tomatoes for a big beautiful pot of tomato basil simmer sauce. Yes, I thawed them on the floor next to my radiator. Classy!

How was your weekend?

Seattle Pride Weekend!

This past weekend was Seattle Pride. In the nearly six years I've lived here- it's the first year I've really spent all weekend celebrating!

Weekend in Photos

I spent this past weekend in Portland with Brittany- mostly drinking good things, taking silly pictures of ourselves, and geeking out over Michael Pollan, who we got to see speak on Saturday night! Once home yesterday I made a quick batch of amaranth cereal and spent most of my evening on the couch with chubby Luna. Pretty darn perfect. Also- what do you think of the new layout!? My good friend Ellie designed the header for me, and I am over the moon in love with it.

Hanging In, Hanging On

I am so exhausted.

I hadn't realized until last night that I haven't updated in actual WEEKS.  That wasn't supposed to happen!  Life is a little sneaky that way sometimes.  I have just been going going going non-stop for weeks on end and I really hadn't even thought about how long it had been since I'd written anything.

I'm doing what I can to get back on track, but you'll have to forgive me if posting is a little slow for a bit longer.  I have been: training for a half marathon (it's in two weeks!), trying to make it through the last month of school this quarter, still getting into the swing of my new job, fighting one crazy mess of  a head cold, celebrating lots of birthdays and baking lots of cakes and pies, hanging out with my mom for the past week eating lots of good food and drinking plenty of wine to go with it.  I haven't had time to do laundry, cook, or really even sit down and breathe.  I am completely tuckered out. 

I took this picture of myself + cat a few weeks ago to include in a silly e-mail to Brittany.  I feel like it perfectly sums up the way I feel right now.  Notice the dying plant in the background.  It's dead now.  I killed it by not blogging.

 

I need a mini-vacation.  But even that sounds like too much work right now.  Maybe I just need a nap and a bath.  Please send reinforcements in the form of tea and fleece socks.

Creatures, Identified!

Last week I made a post with three pictures of "unidentified creatures".  Two of them were easy enough to figure out- but not one person guessed the first one!  So, in reverse order we have:

Creature #3:

Kombucha!

Creature #2:

Luna!  (One of my rescue kitties.)

And finally: Creature #1:

Hazelnuts!

Weird, huh?  I have this really odd habit of collecting plants and creatures (mostly plants, sometimes a snail) when I've had a glass of wine or two and am walking somewhere.  Most often I find sprigs of rosemary or lavender in my purse the next day, but sometimes it will be a weird seed pod or something like the hazelnuts that I'm not even sure of at first.  And now we know!

Oh, and Killary/Ghilly/Hilary was the winner!  I'll send you an email and get your mailing address, loverface.

Identify That Creature! Win Stuff!

If I were a game show host my show would be called "Identify That Creature!"  Here's an example:

Creature #1:

Creature #2:

Creature #3:

And just for fun- leave me a comment with your guesses as to what each of these are, and I'll do a drawing next week and send the winner a handmade (by me) surprise!  Please make sure that your blog or other contact info is included, and I'll post my favorite answers as well as the winner here next Thursday night!  Bonus points for creative answers, and extra bonus points if you get them all right!

Sea Monsters!

Where have I been!?  Baking cakes, and going on adventures, and being a silly little ball of stress and anxiety!  That's where.

Last week I had the opportunity to spend half of my work day helping out on a fishing trip that my company had donated as an auction item.  One of my co-workers wasn't able to go, so I got to take his place!

 

Our plan was to spend four or five hours salmon fishing on Elliot Bay, but due to the lack of salmon and the fact that two of our ship-mates were 9 and 11 year old boys- we made a slight adjustment to the plan.

Flounder fishing!  They're small, easy to catch, and a lot more entertaining than sitting around staring at each other for hours on end.  I taught the boys how to cast and we had them running all over the boat reeling in fish after fish.  One of the boys caught a shark (seriously!) but the most exciting and dramatic catch of the day was this crazy beast:

It's actually two sea anemones attached to a rock, although it looks like some sort of insane monstrous sea cucumber.  It weighed a good five pounds!  All in all we had a fantastic time.  I hadn't driven a boat in a while, and I can't even remember the last time I went fishing just for fun.

Also- I promise right now that I'm going to try to get back on a regular posting schedule.  I've been going non-stop lately and haven't had much time to sit down and process things, let alone write about them!

Flying Cats

I know!  All I've been posting lately are pictures- but I can't stop laughing at this!  I stood on a chair to get this angle- and the little rascal totally hammed it up for me. 

Photo collage created via Picnik.  Thanks Becca!

Container Gardening Fail

So, it's July.  At this time last year I had two jalapeno plants full of tiny little green jalapenos, a tomato plant full of lovely little green tomatoes, pots full of herbs, and even a few sweet little carrots that were trying to grow.

This year... not so much.  I thought I knew what I was doing.  I started a flat full of seeds back in March- and when those didn't make it I picked up another flat of healthy, local, organic starts.  I lost about a quarter of those right off the bat, and since then most of them have slowly gone down the same path.  Right now my two blueberry bushes and two pepper plants are doing okay.  Tomatoes, herbs, potatoes, strawberries, and fennel are all goners.  Our slow starting summer was a huge factor, especially paired with the fact that we only get morning sun on our balcony.  This past weekend got the rest of them- it was actually sunny and warm, but I wasn't here to water them, and our cat sitter was asked to water the cats, not the plants.

However, in the midst of all of this- I dug around in my potato grow bag this morning and pulled out these darlings.  This may just be our entire haul this year- but they're so sweet that I feel kind of alright about it.  Especially the lone purple potato.  I love him.

What have your gardening failures been like?  Any tips on planting in containers in July for a fall harvest?

Our Shelter Cats

I just realized that I've never posted any pictures of Ollie, aside from the day we adopted her.  She has settled in so well.  She was really unhealthy and scared when we got her, and she has done a complete 180 in the past few months.

I honestly can't say enough good things about adopting adult cats.  Luna was a year and a half when we got her (now two), and Ollie is just over four.  We don't know much of Luna's history other than she was picked up as a stray- but she seems to have been well socialized.  She had only been at the shelter for two weeks when we adopted her in October.  Ollie's story isn't quite as lovely, but it makes me feel so good that we took her home.  She was found in the woods near a local hiking area (meaning she was dumped) and had been at the shelter for nearly seven months when we adopted her.  She didn't know how to play, had signs of bad previous mite and flea infestations, hated to be touched on her backside, and was very nervous and mean.  We've only had her since February, but her personality is so wonderful already.  She is playful, affectionate, goofy, vocal, and bossy, just like a healthy happy cat should be.

I know that it's tempting to adopt kittens or get free animals on Craigslist- but if you are thinking about adopting- please, please, please check out a local shelter first.  Shelter animals come with all of their vaccinations and are spayed or neutered before going home.  "Free" animals don't come with any of these guarantees and often end up costing much more in the long run.  We did have to be patient and understanding with both of our cats- but with lots of love they are both absolute joys.  We haven't had any issues with them- behavioral or otherwise.  I can't imagine that someone ever didn't want them.

And Luna being super helpful, as always. 

Me, on Pie Crusts

I am geeking out so hard right now.  AKA I've been in the kitchen baking for hours and decided that instead of talking to the cats about it- I'd make a video and talk to you!

So, here I am making an ass out of myself, while talking about pie crusts. Try not to laugh too hard.  :)  Oh, and please note that it didn't take me hours to only make two pie crusts.  Really!

Wild Food Adventures: Pacific Coast Clam Dig & Seashore Edibles of the Pacific Northwest

I am still processing just how wonderful this past weekend was.  You know things are good when you're soaking wet, covered in mud and sunburned and feeling like life couldn't be one single ounce better.

Friday night was a long drive, and we were feeling like we might not be entirely prepared for what we had planned.  Turns out that our (my) obsessive planning worked out just fine, and we had exactly what we needed with us.  I was struggling with what to bring, clothing-wise based on the warning that we could be trudging through water up to our chests, combined with the fact that we were going to be outside in the elements for a huge chunk of the day.  The weather more or less cooperated though, and layers were definitely key.

I did go completely over my boots the first day (water up to our thighs, but not for long), and due to my fear of getting really soaked- I unfortunately left my camera in the car for our clam dig.  So, most of my pictures are from our second day, which was spent picking seaweed and enjoying being right on the ocean.  I learned a lot and had an absolutely fantastic time.  John Kallas, who teaches all of the Wild Food Adventures workshops is an excellent teacher and quite the character.  I'm already trying to figure out when I'll have the chance to attend some more of his classes this summer or fall.  He's also doing this exact same weekend schedule again in July if anyone is interested in these classes specifically.

Pictures are more or less in order of how things went. The clam pictures are obviously just us cooking them- but I think they're pretty neat to look at.  We dug cockle clams, which I had never done before, and Shana and I are still plotting exactly what we're going to do with them.  I've mostly had suggestions of chopping them small to go into either chowder or fritters.  They are ugly little buggers.  In my dad's words "they look like little peckers!"  Hah! 

 

Sunday:

 

 

And the one and only picture of me!

There are lots more up on my Flickr!