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12 years ago
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Unemployed Life
9AM: Wake up. Start making bread while the bf makes French toast out of yesterday’s bread.
Mid morning: Try to find pet-sittter so I can go a one month mini-trip…
11:30am: Indulge in last piece of leftover birthday ice cream cake.
12pm: Feel very guilty about cake and go for 1 hour run. Listen to 2 Planet Money podcasts and develop small crush on Barney Frank.
1:30pm: Have left-over lunch: cream of broccoli soup and dal
2pm: Spend 30 minutes rounding up recycling, wallet, phone, and keys. Have high hopes of running errands + squeezing in a bike ride in town.
3pm: Begin adventure of driving very hard to drive vehicle 10 miles into town. Doing much better getting going in 1st. Missed 3rd at least 3 times. Oops. Soothing voice of Terry Gross helps me relax as I stumble into gear.
3:45pm: Drop off recycling. Wait until no other cars around before literally diving into magazine/newspaper recycling bin for this weeks new magazines. Practice Re-use as well as recycle.
4:30pm: Pick up backcountry.com order from UPS. Yoga pants have become my new sweatpants. Hope that vehicle does not roll away b/c of slightly sloping parking.
4:45pm: Small detour to get a mocha. Give up hopes of biking due to weather/time constraints. Decide to walk up to mini drive through instead of trying to wrangle aforementioned very hard to drive vehicle through drive through.
4:50pm: Small crisis averted. Coffee woman did not have change for large bill. But fortunately I found a bag of quarters hiding under bike shorts in my very large purse/bag.
5pm: Grocery shopping. Can not bring myself to buy chicken (Thank you Michael Pollan). Go for Wild Salmon and Portobello mushrooms instead.
7pm: Start dinner prep: Salmon with rosemary and capers. Red peppers and Eggplant.
7:03pm: Start to feel like an invalid because I don’t know how to pre-heat grill. Realize that I don’t really enjoy playing with very hot appliances that run on gas/propane. Don’t care how silly that makes me.
7:10pm: Get in trouble for not using enough olive oil. Arguing is futile. Begin to feel the fat cells in my thighs jumping up and down. Ick!
8:30pm: Another kitchen crisis. Somehow misread ingredients for Quinoa Pudding and end up with 1 extra cup of milk + almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Another 10 minutes in the oven seem to soak up the bulk of the extra liquid. Good thing no one knows what consistency quinoa pudding should be.
9pm: Serious internet research regarding alternate streams of income.
10pm: Read my new magazine finds and drink Mind Relaxing Tea (found at your local Asian market). Fall asleep to smell of one gassy dog.
Mid morning: Try to find pet-sittter so I can go a one month mini-trip…
11:30am: Indulge in last piece of leftover birthday ice cream cake.
12pm: Feel very guilty about cake and go for 1 hour run. Listen to 2 Planet Money podcasts and develop small crush on Barney Frank.
1:30pm: Have left-over lunch: cream of broccoli soup and dal
2pm: Spend 30 minutes rounding up recycling, wallet, phone, and keys. Have high hopes of running errands + squeezing in a bike ride in town.
3pm: Begin adventure of driving very hard to drive vehicle 10 miles into town. Doing much better getting going in 1st. Missed 3rd at least 3 times. Oops. Soothing voice of Terry Gross helps me relax as I stumble into gear.
3:45pm: Drop off recycling. Wait until no other cars around before literally diving into magazine/newspaper recycling bin for this weeks new magazines. Practice Re-use as well as recycle.
4:30pm: Pick up backcountry.com order from UPS. Yoga pants have become my new sweatpants. Hope that vehicle does not roll away b/c of slightly sloping parking.
4:45pm: Small detour to get a mocha. Give up hopes of biking due to weather/time constraints. Decide to walk up to mini drive through instead of trying to wrangle aforementioned very hard to drive vehicle through drive through.
4:50pm: Small crisis averted. Coffee woman did not have change for large bill. But fortunately I found a bag of quarters hiding under bike shorts in my very large purse/bag.
5pm: Grocery shopping. Can not bring myself to buy chicken (Thank you Michael Pollan). Go for Wild Salmon and Portobello mushrooms instead.
7pm: Start dinner prep: Salmon with rosemary and capers. Red peppers and Eggplant.
7:03pm: Start to feel like an invalid because I don’t know how to pre-heat grill. Realize that I don’t really enjoy playing with very hot appliances that run on gas/propane. Don’t care how silly that makes me.
7:10pm: Get in trouble for not using enough olive oil. Arguing is futile. Begin to feel the fat cells in my thighs jumping up and down. Ick!
8:30pm: Another kitchen crisis. Somehow misread ingredients for Quinoa Pudding and end up with 1 extra cup of milk + almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Another 10 minutes in the oven seem to soak up the bulk of the extra liquid. Good thing no one knows what consistency quinoa pudding should be.
9pm: Serious internet research regarding alternate streams of income.
10pm: Read my new magazine finds and drink Mind Relaxing Tea (found at your local Asian market). Fall asleep to smell of one gassy dog.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Bread and buttter
In the past 3 or 4 months, I've totally changed the way I think about food and approach cooking/recipes. Until this point in my life, I was fundamentally opposed to bread. Carbs = bad, right? Then I discovered this invention called the bread machine. As I listened to the instructions patiently pretending to be interested I never thought I would get this into making bread. But, it never ceases to amaze me, dump a whole bunch of powdery stuff in, press start, and fresh bread in 3.5 hours.
This summer I've made tons of types of bread: garden herb (with fresh herbs from the garden), banana/strawberry, banana oatmeal, mutligrain, honey whole wheat, sesame seed, lemon poppy seed, coffee-cinnamon, cinnamon-raisin, garlic Parmesan, carrot etc. Mostly we use it for sandwiches. This morning I had french toast with cinnamon-raisin bread.
I guess the whole point of this post is in response to food blogs and how to live cheaply blogs that I've been checking out recently. There was a post the other day about making sandwiches to save money. It was followed up by 80+ comments none of which included making your own bread. What kind of "frugal" life-stylers don't make their own stuff? I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure that my home baked bread would cost around $4 or $5 at stores, yet I'm sure it doesn't cost that much to make. Especially the plain/basic ingredient kinds.
Also, before, I would have never had flour, sugar, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, yeast, or cranberries hanging out in the closet. But now I realize that if you buy in bulk it's not so expensive and the ingredients last for a while. I admit that in the past I dismissed natural food stores as "overly expensive hippy-villes" but now I realize the benefit of buying simple natural ingredients. Also I found out that our local natural food store does a 15% off (the entire store) sale once a month. If the natural food stores in the middle of nowhere can do it, I can only imagine the sweet deals in real cities!
So there all you wannabe cheapskates. I make my own delicious bread and it doesn't really cost that much.
This summer I've made tons of types of bread: garden herb (with fresh herbs from the garden), banana/strawberry, banana oatmeal, mutligrain, honey whole wheat, sesame seed, lemon poppy seed, coffee-cinnamon, cinnamon-raisin, garlic Parmesan, carrot etc. Mostly we use it for sandwiches. This morning I had french toast with cinnamon-raisin bread.
I guess the whole point of this post is in response to food blogs and how to live cheaply blogs that I've been checking out recently. There was a post the other day about making sandwiches to save money. It was followed up by 80+ comments none of which included making your own bread. What kind of "frugal" life-stylers don't make their own stuff? I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure that my home baked bread would cost around $4 or $5 at stores, yet I'm sure it doesn't cost that much to make. Especially the plain/basic ingredient kinds.
Also, before, I would have never had flour, sugar, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, yeast, or cranberries hanging out in the closet. But now I realize that if you buy in bulk it's not so expensive and the ingredients last for a while. I admit that in the past I dismissed natural food stores as "overly expensive hippy-villes" but now I realize the benefit of buying simple natural ingredients. Also I found out that our local natural food store does a 15% off (the entire store) sale once a month. If the natural food stores in the middle of nowhere can do it, I can only imagine the sweet deals in real cities!
So there all you wannabe cheapskates. I make my own delicious bread and it doesn't really cost that much.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Colorado
I found this in my documents folder. Written Mid June (?):
Today I am forcing myself to take a day off from working out. My stomach is just not quite right and I haven’t been getting enough sleep to properly recover. It is a beautiful day outside (80 degrees and sunny) and so I’m hoping I don’t screw myself by not taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Instead of working out, I thought I’d channel some energy into blogging. I have a few half written posts that I will get up soon but in the meantime, I thought I would write about Colorado….
I never realize just how much stress I sign myself up for. Really, who moves to a new state a million miles away where they don’t know anyone to start studying for possibly the biggest test of her life? All of this 2 weeks after returning to the US after 10 months away. It hasn’t been easy. The cold and rainy period was really icky after I had been promised beautiful summer weather (where it would be warm by 9 or 10am). Right.
On the bright side, I’ve scored some great deals on puffy jackets and other warm weather gear to keep me warm. Driving from Denver to Gunnison, I saw more snow than I’ve ever seen before. And this was in May. Not prime-time snow time for Colorado.
Other things that are different:
-Hills and mountains everywhere. I’m trying to get over my mental block about biking up hills, but it is coming slowly.
-Altitude. From sea level to 8000 feet. Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Coupled with the hills, some days I feel like my lungs are going to explode (or collapse). Other days, I look around and really enjoy the view
-Flowers: The wildflowers are starting to come out. Man, I miss tropical flowers. Poppys are popular here Mostly everyone has the same 2 or 3 kinds of flowers in their yard. They pop out amidst the green grass and bright blue skies. Not quite hibiscus style, but they will do for now
-The River: it flows right behind our backyard. I’ve sat on the back deck thinking that if I tried hard enough I could make it sound like waves, but I never can. The river is fun though. The dog enjoys cooling off in it and I’ve enjoyed rafting down it.
In case you didn’t get the theme, my list involves everything relating to the outdoors- that’s because the outdoors is what people do here. Sometimes it is intimidating when it seems like everyone here is in better (physical) shape than I will ever be able to achieve. However, it is really spectacular to go mountain biking with rockstars (including semi-retired pros) all the time. I love it so much that last week I spent 15 hours playing outside. That 15 hours of work/play (not including driving time, etc.).
I miss the beach. A lot. And I feel sort of guilty for this, but I’m sort of glad I’m not sweating it out in FL right now where it is 110 degrees.
Today I am forcing myself to take a day off from working out. My stomach is just not quite right and I haven’t been getting enough sleep to properly recover. It is a beautiful day outside (80 degrees and sunny) and so I’m hoping I don’t screw myself by not taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Instead of working out, I thought I’d channel some energy into blogging. I have a few half written posts that I will get up soon but in the meantime, I thought I would write about Colorado….
I never realize just how much stress I sign myself up for. Really, who moves to a new state a million miles away where they don’t know anyone to start studying for possibly the biggest test of her life? All of this 2 weeks after returning to the US after 10 months away. It hasn’t been easy. The cold and rainy period was really icky after I had been promised beautiful summer weather (where it would be warm by 9 or 10am). Right.
On the bright side, I’ve scored some great deals on puffy jackets and other warm weather gear to keep me warm. Driving from Denver to Gunnison, I saw more snow than I’ve ever seen before. And this was in May. Not prime-time snow time for Colorado.
Other things that are different:
-Hills and mountains everywhere. I’m trying to get over my mental block about biking up hills, but it is coming slowly.
-Altitude. From sea level to 8000 feet. Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Coupled with the hills, some days I feel like my lungs are going to explode (or collapse). Other days, I look around and really enjoy the view
-Flowers: The wildflowers are starting to come out. Man, I miss tropical flowers. Poppys are popular here Mostly everyone has the same 2 or 3 kinds of flowers in their yard. They pop out amidst the green grass and bright blue skies. Not quite hibiscus style, but they will do for now
-The River: it flows right behind our backyard. I’ve sat on the back deck thinking that if I tried hard enough I could make it sound like waves, but I never can. The river is fun though. The dog enjoys cooling off in it and I’ve enjoyed rafting down it.
In case you didn’t get the theme, my list involves everything relating to the outdoors- that’s because the outdoors is what people do here. Sometimes it is intimidating when it seems like everyone here is in better (physical) shape than I will ever be able to achieve. However, it is really spectacular to go mountain biking with rockstars (including semi-retired pros) all the time. I love it so much that last week I spent 15 hours playing outside. That 15 hours of work/play (not including driving time, etc.).
I miss the beach. A lot. And I feel sort of guilty for this, but I’m sort of glad I’m not sweating it out in FL right now where it is 110 degrees.
Back in the US
It’s been a little while. I flew back via Australia and Singapore. In Singapore, I spent one last afternoon soaking up the small region known as Little India trying to remember the colors, the sounds, and the smells.
Quickly upon arriving in the US, it was time to get down to business. One 30 hour driving marathon later, I found myself in what I like to refer to as the middle of nowhere. I go through love/hate cycles of living in the middle of nowhere. There are enough outdoor adventures around to keep me going for years. Once I adjusted to life at 8000 feet, I learned to love the mountain biking and running trails. I finally feel like I have an understating of the term “hill.” While I still do not always enjoy the grueling process of climbing them, I have learned to love the feeling of accomplishment at the top.
I spent the better part of 3 months studying for what may or may not have been the biggest exam of my life. After establishing a study for 6-8 hours per day routine, I’ve been sort of lost since I finished the exam at the end of July. I threw myself even more into working out but might have over done it.
Another project I poured myself into was a photo slideshow for the SE Asia trip. Looking at my photos was really interesting since I hadn’t looked at them for a few months. There were some that I had never seen before on a computer monitor. Re-living the trip has made roused a lot of the feelings I had while traveling: the main one being a sense of urgency to take action. The second being that I want to see the rest of the world.
After coming home and talking to a lot of my friends, I was saddened in that it seemed really difficult to relate the intricacies of my trip. A lot of them seemed disinterested and didn’t ask me anything about it. I later realized that they probably didn’t know where to begin.
Speaking of knowing where to begin, my blog for the next few months will hopefully chronicle my journey into figuring out the best way to exert all of this energy build-up I have. I expect it won’t be quite as interesting as a 5 month jaunt around SE Asia, but you never know!
Quickly upon arriving in the US, it was time to get down to business. One 30 hour driving marathon later, I found myself in what I like to refer to as the middle of nowhere. I go through love/hate cycles of living in the middle of nowhere. There are enough outdoor adventures around to keep me going for years. Once I adjusted to life at 8000 feet, I learned to love the mountain biking and running trails. I finally feel like I have an understating of the term “hill.” While I still do not always enjoy the grueling process of climbing them, I have learned to love the feeling of accomplishment at the top.
I spent the better part of 3 months studying for what may or may not have been the biggest exam of my life. After establishing a study for 6-8 hours per day routine, I’ve been sort of lost since I finished the exam at the end of July. I threw myself even more into working out but might have over done it.
Another project I poured myself into was a photo slideshow for the SE Asia trip. Looking at my photos was really interesting since I hadn’t looked at them for a few months. There were some that I had never seen before on a computer monitor. Re-living the trip has made roused a lot of the feelings I had while traveling: the main one being a sense of urgency to take action. The second being that I want to see the rest of the world.
After coming home and talking to a lot of my friends, I was saddened in that it seemed really difficult to relate the intricacies of my trip. A lot of them seemed disinterested and didn’t ask me anything about it. I later realized that they probably didn’t know where to begin.
Speaking of knowing where to begin, my blog for the next few months will hopefully chronicle my journey into figuring out the best way to exert all of this energy build-up I have. I expect it won’t be quite as interesting as a 5 month jaunt around SE Asia, but you never know!
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