My Stuff

Ctrl-V (PCs) or Command-V (Macs) Time! Paste whatever text you copied last.

Hmmm...nothing happened. I guess nobody's copied/cut anything since the last restart. :p Odd.

Show us a mannequin.

Whose house (besides your own) were you in last and why?

The last person's house I was in was Bri's apartment for a furmeet on Saturday. Her new place is nice. A bunch of us went out to dinner at Oriental Buffet and then went back to her place to hang out, draw, talk, play SSB Brawl, and watch movies (well, only one movie, AvP2...the boys were hogging the TV playing brawl for most of the night). I spent the night drawing in exchange for my dinner (I love these guys). There was about a dozen of us at dinner and about 10 of us went to hang out afterwards. The guys were pretty well behaved at dinner too. :P They tend to get rowdy and playful there, especially since the put the bigger groups (like us) in the back (party) room, but there was another big group there that had kids, so I told them to watch their mouths and behave :P

Just a little something out of my dark and mysterious past...
I thought a few of you (attention A. Dawn Wolf and maura_ea!) might get a kick out of this. :D

Book: 7

Title: Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Author: Richard Bach
Pages: 127 (haha, I'm cheating with a skinny book)

This is a fantastic little story about a young seagull who dared to break away from the norm and find a higher purpose to life. Where other seagulls live to eat and flight is merely a way to get to the food, Jonathan lives to fly, pushing the boundaries of what is possible. It's a story about living a dream, finding a higher purpose, living for the joy of flight, freedom, and transcendence.

I had first picked up this book when I was probably around 12 and it stuck with me. I decided to pick it up the other day after running across the Neil Diamond soundtrack to the movie (Mom and I going through her record collection). I wasn't going to count this one originally since I read it in a morning and its few pages are interspersed with quite a few seagull photos but I'm falling behind and it really is a great book, so I'm counting it as my number 7.

Book count: 6
Title: Understanding Comics : The Invisible Art 
Author: Scott McCloud

As the April 15th tax filing deadline looms, many gay couples are facing higher tax bills because they do not get the federal tax benefits that accompany marriage. The same is true for heterosexual couples who chose not to get married. Do you think this is fair?

I think it's fair for those couples that choose to not get married. I don't believe it's fair for those couples that would love to get married but aren't allowed to. Even if the government decides to call it something else, I believe that gay couples should be allowed to get married (civil union, domestic partnership, whatever) and receive all the benefits a heterosexual couple gets under the law. This goes way beyond tax benefits people....I'm talking about hospital visitation, insurance coverage, adoption rights, etc. ALL those things a husband and wife benefit from but not husband and husband or wife and wife. It's not fair and it's not right.

What are your travel plans for this spring/summer?

  Well, if I'm really lucky my travel plans will include going to do an internship somewhere (they are all over the place so I don't know where I'd end up at this point) for a few months. Other than that, Mike and I are going down to Central California for a family reunion (his side) in July.

I've still been doing my bento lunches. Since I started making them I've only bought lunch once...of course I do have days where I'm able to come home for lunch and thus don't need to pack one(although sometimes I'll pack one anyway since they are really yummy!)  I've been having alot of fun figuring out what to put in them and stocked up on some things from the local Japanese food shop which unfortunately closed their doors for good about a week ago. <insert sad face here>  I have to say I really LOVE Japanese/oriental food. I love the variety of flavors. I love how it can range from salty to sweet, strong flavored to very light. I can make a quick easy meal with the stuff I have in my freezer/fridge/pantry. Even when I can come home for lunch I end up basically making a bento lunch!

A few tasty bento lunches!:

The first one has teriyaki stir fried veggies, left over curry (surprisingly good cold!) and jicama (flower cutouts). The second one has some more jicama and onigiri! The two onigiri with furikake on the outside had leftover corned beef hash inside (also surprisingly good! I got the idea because corned beef is similar to spam and if spam musubi is good then corned beef ought to be good in onigiri) and the two naked onigiri have pear inside of them (I cut some pieces out of the pear I was having with breakfast...experimentation is fun and tasty). I also tried onigiri with canned peach pieces but wasn't that good. The pear was much better. The third bento (yesterday's lunch!) has edamame, two small tomatoes, sesame lotus root and brussel sprout stir fry, and a cutie tangerine. I also stashed some rice cracker/roasted pea mix in the lid compartment. The lotus root I got frozen at the Japanese store. It has a taste and texture similar to a waterchestnut crossed with a potato. I really like and have already gone through one of the two bags I got. I'll have to scout around and see if I can find any more in town. I just tossed some frozen lotus root and frozen brussel sprouts in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce, and some sesame seeds and let them cook until done. Definitely a repeat recipe for me. Yum yum yum, nice and light. I've also done some (non-raw)sushi bentos with krab/avocado rolls and tamago (sweet omelet, one of my favs). I got a little square pan to make tamago-making easier too. Fun fun fun!

What do you love about where you live?
Submitted by Emu with a Clue.

I love the rainy, cool weather.
I love the way a radiantly sun-shiny day really stands out and makes people happy.
I love the redwoods so close by.
I love the ocean just across town.
I love the constant sea breeze.
I love zoo being five blocks away.
I love the forest trail I can take to get there.
I love all the local mom & pop shops.
I love the wonderful local restaurants.
I love the farmer's markets you can find every day of the week during the summer.
I love the local theatre productions.
I love the art scene.
I love all the faires and festivals.
I love all the old Victorian and craftsmen houses.
I love being surrounded with organic, locally grown food (even if I can't always afford it!).
I love all the rhododendrons and magnolias blooming all over town.
I love wild blackberries.
I love the little apple tree in my backyard (perfect for making apple and wild blackberry pies. Yum!).
I love living in the biggest city within a four hour drive and it still has that small town feel.
I love the beautiful countryside.
I love the goose migrations I see and hear every year as they stop over in the bay.
I love the local wildlife (banana slugs make me happy).
I love the pride people have for this area.
I love the sense of community.
I love the sense of history.
I love how I feel at home here.