White carrots

Parsnips look like white carrots.

Calling something a white carrot is HILARIOUS!

This obviously is a story that needs to be told.

Let's rewind about 12 years, Rich and are on a date at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. While enjoying our food he says how much he likes the food especially all the white carrots in the beef with broccoli (he might have said how there weren't a lot of white carrots in his beef with broccoli, it was a long time ago and small details have escaped me, he commented somehow about the amount of white carrots).
Of course I respond with, "Excuse me what?!"
"The white carrots." I continue to stare at him blankly as he picks up one of the said white carrots to show me.
This begins my almost unstoppable laughter and I attempt to explain that those aren't white carrots they are bamboo shoots. We do not agree on this point, they ARE white carrots, his mom told him so.
After dinner we go back to his place and he asks him mom about white carrots, she says, "Oh yeah, I just told you they were white carrots when you were a kid so you would eat them. I guess I never told you the truth."
Again I start laughing A LOT.

That is the story of how I told my adorable 19 year old boyfriend that he has not been eating white carrots but bamboo shoots.

Now let's go back to this past Saturday (it might have been Sunday, I am bad with details even when they are less than a week old). We are at the grocery store and I need a parsnip for a recipe I'll be making later in the week. We are at the veggies and ask him to get broccoli and a large parsnip for me while I go get mushrooms and garlic. He says he doesn't know what a parsnip is, I respond with it looks like a white carrot and naturally start laughing a lot. He gives me a bit of a death glare and walks away as the people around us are looking at me because I am laughing in a very amused and slightly evil way. I guess most people don't find things to laugh about when shopping for veggies.

And that is the story of white carrots and why it is funny to us. So funny in fact when I told this story to my mom she took a sip of her water right when I got to the part that Rich didn't know what a parsnip was and she knew exactly where this was going and the water almost came out her nose. She had to rush over to the sink and spit her water out.

You do not offend me by being different than me

Listening to CM Punk on WTF with Marc Maron today and he said something along the lines that being straight edge people often take the offensive and assume that because they choose to do the opposite of him he must be offended by them and that they think he thinks he is better than them. Neither of these are true of course because he is not offended by someone being different than he chooses to be. Sure that happens, a lot of people are actually offended by someone being different than them but to assume that is the default way someone will react well I think that may reflect on the true nature of that person making the assumption.

I am tattooed and pierced. I am not offended if you are neither.

I have long hair I grew all by myself. I am not offended if you choose to cut your hair short.

I am not a fan of football. I am not offended if you are.

I am not religious. I am not offended if you are.

I am vegan. You do not offend me if you are not. Eat the food you want to eat, wear the clothing materials you want to wear.

I do not know why being vegan people assume I will be offended by opposite choices. I live my life, you live your life. Why would your personal choices affect me directly? I am not in your face with my veganism because I know it is my choice and not everyone can or wants to make that choice and they shouldn't have to.

I am not offended by someone being different than me, are you?

Our Story....

Here's what I quickly came up with, I think it covers it pretty well without getting bogged down in too much detail. I don't tend to remember specific details very well and I am horrible with dates and things.

He is one of my younger brothers best friends. They met at school when they were in 6th grade and 11 years old. I probably met him for the first time when he was 12 and I was 16. I went to a lot of my brothers school functions, not like dances but family things. I would also pick my brother up from school almost everyday, I had a car and it was one less thing mom had to do. My brothers school was very small, his graduating high school class was 32 people, it was a charter school, my mainstream high school had 400 in the graduating class, well more but a lot didn't actually graduate. Basically I knew my brothers friends because it was a small school and I was around a lot.

In 2002, after my brother graduated high school, his girlfriend and her friend, facilitated our first date. He had just turned 19 and I was 23, we had known each other as friends kind of, we talked on the internet for a year or more, I spent a lot of time instant messaging with my best friend who had moved to Oklahoma and spent time talking with my brother and his friends on a message board on the website for my brothers band, you know how we did it before social networks. He was one of those friends and we had seen each other here and there as well over the years.

Our first date was a movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf, on January 20th 2002. We went to a little Mexican restaurant afterwards, he made fun of me for the way I ate my taco, I ate the insides out first then ate the tortilla. I got my revenge a week or so later when we went on our second date, another movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, and dinner at Islands. This time I laughed my ass off at him when he burnt the crap out of his mouth on his chicken tenders. Seems from day one we set the tone of our relationship, humor and silliness. I was quite busy with college and 3 jobs at the time. It was a few weeks later we went on our third date, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

We were living together by late spring 2002. In early 2003 we decided we wanted to go to Vegas for his 21st birthday in December so naturally we decided to get married too. It wasn't a spur of the moment thing, we made the plans a good six months or more before hand. December 20th 2003 we got married at The Little Church of the West in Las Vegas. The day after our wedding we went and saw the final Lord of the Rings movie. February 15th 2004 we had a reception/party at The San Diego Zoo. It was pure fun and totally our style, much like the wedding where I wore a black dress, just a normal dress, not a black 'wedding' dress.

Here we are now, 9 years later. We don't really celebrate Valentines Day or even our anniversary for the most part. We sometimes buy gifts on birthdays and Christmas but I decided to write this since it is Valentines and that's kinda what it's about, right. Oh and also 7 years ago we had our reception/party too. So there you go, our story.

I'm still here

For anyone who doesn't keep up with me elsewhere I'm still here and all is good enough that I can't complain much.

What have I been up to? That's a very good question.

• I got another tattoo, the week after the last one. October 1st to be specific.
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• That same day Rich got a tattoo as well. Something he kinda surprised me with, the idea that is. He said that's what he wanted to get about a week or so beforehand.
  
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• Funny story about him choosing the font. He was looking through fonts and found a Star Wars font, which would be especially funny because I was getting a Star Trek tattoo. There was Bladerunner font and other movie and things themed fonts. The next thing he said had us both almost peeing our pants we laughed so hard. "Hey I could get the Crown Royal font that way at least I am incorporating something I love." Yeah he said that about getting my name tattooed on his arm, it was perhaps the funniest thing he has ever said!!!!
• I took a long weekend trip to Disneyland. Spent 2 days at the park, had a dayhopper pass that allowed me to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. Spent most of the time at Disneyland. Rich loves Mr. Toads Wild Ride if you wondering. Went to California Adventure for a bit, didn't do a thing there. Not that it wasn't appealing but we didn't make it there until the middle of the second day and were a bit exhausted. I wasn't in the best of mindsets by then because the first thing we did on day 2 was Splash Mountain and I have never seen someone get more wet than me!!! I had a dry patch on one of my thighs and one on my calf, the rest of me SOAKED. I guess that's what happens when tiny me sits in the front of a full log!! California Adventure has a lot of stuff for younger kids from what I saw but we didn't explore it all that much really.
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• I made some yummy Halloween desserts and things. Made them for our Disney trip which was 2 weeks before Halloween and had intentions of sharing pictures and recipes for those who might wanna try them for their own Halloween fun. Obviously I never got to that. I made some pumpkin cookies, a cake, and some blood slide candies. The blood slide candies didn't make it up to Anaheim unfortunately. I also made some peanut butter frosting for the cake and it went well with the cookies as well. Peanut Butter frosting, by the way, was AMAZING!!!!! I used fresh pumpkin for everything. It is beyond simple to make your own cooked pumpkin. Get a pumpkin, cut it in half, cut the stem off, scoop out the insides, save the seeds to roast as well they make a GREAT snack. Put pumpkin halves on a baking sheet, or pan because it gets liquidy sometimes and bake until soft at 350 time will depend on size of pumpkin. Let cool a bit, peel the skin off, and mash/blend it into a consistency that works best for what you are doing. Recipe for pumpkin cookies.
• One of the most fun things I made was blood slide candies. Directions/recipe here. Here are some pictures of the fun I had with them. Boiling up water and sugary stuff.

This is what I ended up with.

It's a good thing I was just making candy blood slides because I had "evidence" left on my hand.

• Recipe for the vanilla cake I made. I haven't perfected vegan cakes yet. They always seem to be a bit gooey still, almost like they aren't quite cooked but the outsides start to burn. It could very easily be my oven or something other than the vegan issue but it really annoys me. I've never been a great baker so it's probably just me. To make the cake more festive I got my inspiration here. Here's what I ended up with.

What made the cake was the peanut butter frosting. Best idea I ever had, and thanks to Condo Blues for agreeing that it was the best idea ever on twitter, otherwise I would have went with the store bought white frosting. Frosting is beyond simple to make, here's the recipe I used. I made the frosting vegan by using vegan butter and rice milk. You would NEVER know it was vegan, probably because of all the sugar, I mean look at all the sugar!

• I still had some left over pumpkin so I made this soup.

• I made the roasted pumpkin seeds (directions for them here) from the pumpkin too. It is beyond simple and you should never throw away pumpkin seeds, they are one of my favorite snacks and they are good for you too! I still have a bit of pumpkin left and am thinking of making some pumpkin bread for Rich, probably this recipe.
• So that's pretty much what I have been up to. The past 2 weeks or so have been pretty uneventful in a just life moving on kinda way. Hopefully I won't be ignoring this blog as much in the future. I will try and make some sort of updates no matter how random. Hope to talk to you all again soon.

My Saturday afternoon

I got to lie down, but the whole arm over my head wasn't so fun and my arm under my head fell asleep a few times too.

All done in about an hour and a half.

Nikkei Yonsei

Fourth generation Japanese American (technically a broad term for immigrants not specifically Americans)

Wiki article on meaning if you are really interested.

Didn't hurt much, tattoos hurt, they do, anyone who says they don't must be immune to pain, they don't hurt that much, at least to me, I would suspect that everyone feels pain differently. I am a big whiny brat when it comes to pain. I say OW and whine about everything and anything but I don't find tattoos that bad or maybe I just know it's going to happen and it's totally worth it for me so my tolerance goes up.

This particular location wasn't bad at all. My leg was much much more uncomfortable for the record.

Remember

World Trade Centers

~1994

from my point of view

My 8 months as a vegan and how I got here

I don't talk about it much because it is just what it is and those interested pick up on my little mentions of it and ask me. I don't specifically care what you decide to eat so I don't see the point in making a point of trying to sway someone to eat like I do. With that being said if you are interested here is my story.

How I got here, the longish story. I've never been a fan of meat, I just never liked the way it tasted, I didn't hate it but it wasn't my favorite food. In high school or perhaps before I wanted to eat vegetarian but it would have been really hard seeing as I still lived at home and ate at home almost every night. I wasn't going to make my own food when my mom cooked every night so it never happened. In college I thought about it and I would have a hard time eating my chicken, especially when I had just come home from a zoology class and I was thinking more about what I was eating and how it worked in the animal, but my lifestyle got in the way. I just didn't have a strong enough desire to cook for myself, mom was still cooking for the most part. After college I again couldn't be bothered to think about changing my lifestyle and it really never crossed my mind. I didn't eat all that much meat but I didn't not eat it for any reason besides not liking it. When I started living with and then marrying Rich I was the cook and I had to pretty much learn to cook meals and again eating vegetarian never crossed my mind, especially since I married a devout carnivore.

Fast forward to probably the beginning of 2009 when I was full swing into embracing an eco-conscious lifestyle as I could and making all sorts of new and interesting changes to make my life more "green" (I kinda hate that term). Vegetarianism weighed more and more on my mind, especially since I was trying to eat as much organic as I could. In the summer I started reading a lot about meat eating/production/farming and how it drains so much resources. Those things started nagging on my when I would force myself to eat chicken and other meats at almost every meal. Mid November and I just couldn't do it anymore. I gave up meat. It was a pretty simple and easy decision for me.

I went to the library a few weeks later to look for vegetarian cookbooks, needed some inspiration to be able to really commit and do it right. One of the books I picked up was Skinny Bitch. What I read in it about health reasons to be vegan and about farming practices cemented the idea that I needed to eat a vegan diet. It's a good informative read in an everyday type language, I mean bitch is in the title it's not an overly scientific book but it cites sources and has great information.

January 2010 is when I "officially" became vegan. I got a lot of support and my recipes from the PCRM's 21 day vegan kickstart that started at the beginning of the year. That was really helpful and I don't think I would have been able to commit they way I have. I participated in another of their vegan kickstarts in November as well but I was committed to the vegan thing and still ate eggs and cheese products at that point. (FYI PCRM is holding another 21 day vegan kickstart starting next week, if you are interested in that way of eating at all, just out of curiosity I strongly suggest you sign up. They send emails with the weeks meal plan, worst case you unsubscribe from the emails and that's that. Best case you find some great recipes and perhaps eat a bit healthier. Sign up here: http://support.pcrm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=21day_vegan_kickstart&JServSessionIda003=upegog3qg1.app234c )

I did have cravings and things to deal with but I was able to deal with them and have none now. Can't say I miss anything at this point, food wise. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of running down to a fast food joint and picking up a burger or a chicken sandwich but I don't miss the way I felt after eating that crap. I had actually stopped eating that stuff a bit before I changed my diet so it wasn't that hard. One thing I did crave was cheese, pretty much the only dairy product I use to eat regularly. A thick oily quesadilla or a lovely slice of NY style pizza, yum. I spent many dinners eating food like that in my vegetarian pre-vegan days. The first 3 or 4 months of eating vegan I did eat a lot of vegan cheese, I even posted about it: http://mudnessa.blogspot.com/2010/04/even-vegans-can-enjoy-cheesy-pizza.html

I haven't eaten that in a long time, basically I got over my "addiction" to dairy and even though a slice sounds simple I don't drool over one. As for other cravings I thought I would crave a big juicy bloody steak, I always have had occasional cravings for steak and about twice a year I would make my husband take me to a steakhouse so I could get a delicious prime rib. Surprisingly, no cravings for meat of any sort.

What do I crave, tofu, I have always loved tofu but I love it even more now. I also crave a great vegan "mac and cheese" recipe I found, such a great comfort food:

http://agreenspell.com/2010/04/16/15-minute-vegan-mac-n-cheese/

and a delicious tofu noodle soup: http://www.thecasualvegan.com/tofu-soup/

Quite quickly, within a month, of eating vegan, I noticed quite a few great "side effects" of my diet, I didn't notice any changes after changing just to vegetarian. First was my skin. It is not dry, like AT ALL. I often had problems with very very very very dry legs and would scratch myself raw in my sleep. My face is also a million times clearer. It wasn't bad before but I almost always had one or two pimples coming or going. It was annoying, oh don't worry you'll grow out of it in high school NEVER happened. Well it has now and it has NOTHING to do with growing but all to do with the food I was eating. The odd rash I have had on my back for years is also a lot less noticeable, it's not back acne, it's under the skin and no one knows what it is but it definitely isn't as "inflamed" as it use to be. Another great change was digestion and all that TMI stuff I could get into. I'll spare you the details but let's say me and my stomach/digestive parts are happy with each other and I don't have to worry about where I am if they have a restroom close that I won't catch something using or be interrupted when I'm trying to do something.

Last month I ordered a soup I thought was vegan, it wasn't, it had A LOT of mozzarella in it, I took one spoonful and I found it incredible rich and not tasty at all. I ate a few more spoonfuls cause I am an idiot and let's just say for the next 24 hours my stomach was not happy and my toilet became my unwanted best friend again. It was horrible. Lactose intolerance does run in my family (the Asian part) and I guess I have a mild case I never realized before or cared too.

As far as weight loss, I'm already a skinny girl but I have had people tell me that I look like I've lost weight since changing my diet. I think it's more of a people paying more attention looking for me to get all super skinny and sickly since I'm not eating like "most" people. Don't worry, according to the scale I have put on over 5 pounds, I don't care how skinny you are, that's never something you want your scale to tell you. I don't see or feel the 5 pounds and I did also start running so it could be mostly muscle (I'm hoping) and honestly some of my clothes do seem to be fitting a bit better.

I have to say that is the hardest thing, dealing with all the questions. I don't mind explaining to people why I do it and what type of stuff I eat now but having people go on and on about me not getting enough protein or the right vitamin and minerals just because of my vegan diet really pisses me off. If someone is seriously concerned I do get that, a lot of people don't know all that much about the types of food I eat now, but having someone who eats a mostly processed, fast food, meat based, junk food diet get all high and mighty on me about my diet and how it can't be healthy and how they heard that so and so told so and so blah blah blah or that so and so knows someone who knows someone who got sick and blah blah blah, that really pisses me off. If you are interested that is one thing, do some research and then come to me, and not just random sites on the internet that have no sources (yes kinda like this post, but this is just more about me and not why you should or shouldn't eat a certain way).

So what do I eat: Most of my hearty recipes that really satisfy me are from the 21 day vegan kickstart. I eat lots of stew/soups with lentils or beans. I love beans, always have, black beans, white beans, chickpeas, all sorts. Homemade hummus is a favorite of mine. LOTS of fruit and veggies of course, I've always loved most veggies and oranges and pineapple are my go to fruits for my morning breakfast. Rice, mom ALWAYS made rice with each meal and I couldn't live without it. Lot's of greens, I love spinach, bok choy, and kale. Mushrooms, is there anything more tasty than mushrooms? Couscous so delicious, tasty, and easy to make and make/use in different recipes. I don't eat it very often because I'm not that good of a cook and for some reason it eludes me but I love quinoa as well.

As for as specific substitutes, I use soy/rice/almond milk, depending on what I am making. Vanilla almond milk is my favorite for cereals and sweets, rice milk is great for soups and making creamy things. I don't use much soy milk anymore actually. Earth Balance has a great vegan butter substitute, even my mom used it to butter her rolls and liked it, she's one of those persons who would just eat a slice of butter! She comes over every now and then and has dinner with me trying my vegan dishes, she's liked all of them so far, even the one I forgot to put mushrooms in.

I make my own veggie broth, keep all the scraps/extras from all the veggies and things I use, freeze them and every month or so throw them in the crockpot with a water for the day, strain and then freeze in an ice cube tray for use later. Homemade veggie broth is amazing, it is cheap, beyond cheap because I use almost all scraps, which I then throw in my compost bin, and I can flavor it any way I want, more onion or garlic flavor, or use a lot of something/anything specific to get a great flavor. I can control the salt levels to my liking, usually don't add any, add in all sorts of herbs from my patio garden. Use it to cook anything that requires water and it adds flavor and veggie goodness, yum!

This is just a list of things I eat that I can recall off the top of my head so if it seems like I am blatantly missing something important that's why. I do take a multi-vitamin (when I can remember) but I don't take it because I'm vegan, I've almost always taken one (when I can remember).

So that's my story and I am sticking with this vegan thing cause I like it and it likes me.

Tortoise adventure

Remember how just the other day I was saying I needed an adventure, well be careful what you wish for. I got myself quite a little adventure today.

My dads tortoise escaped apparently. He realized this morning that his tortoise, Wimby, hadn't eaten yesterdays food so he went looking around for him. Seems he found a way into the neighbors large yard.

I go over in the morning and first thing I do is, of course check on the little box turtles, they were all happy, healthy, and contained.

Next we, me and my brother, take a walk around the perimeter of dads yard to look for places Wimby could have escaped from and around the yard in general to make sure Wimby isn't just being cool and hiding out somewhere causing drama for no reason.

I find a pretty cool spider web.

Then there is the cat tail that has been in the yard for quite a while (months), not sure why no one has done anything with it. This is the first time I've seen it in person and I have no idea how they didn't notice the whole leg near or that it has a pelvis bones still attached too. (It's probably because no one is willing to look at it for too long or closely like I am.)

Next we take a walk to the corner of the yard and on the way I notice cat ribs and backbone. So clean!

One more step and I see a leg with paw still intact.

I have no explanation or know what to say about this stuff, I find it cool but it's kinda creepy that there are cat parts in the yard, and that they have been there for a while.

We find where we think is the only spot the tortoise could have gotten out and it leads to the neighbors yard, who have a MUCH larger yard with a lot more trees and brush and leaf litter. So I'm standing at the fence calling Wimby, yes he's a tortoise but he does come to people calling him especially since he is a pig and loves food and knows people feed him.

The fence reaches to my neck and it's on a bit of a slope so I'm hanging on to the fence to stabilize myself. I lose grip and my footing at the same time and slip down a bit and the bottom of my jaw is right above this beauty.
Luckily didn't hit it very hard but it didn't feel very good either. Leave it to me to have the soft part under my jaw right above a perfect place to get impaled!

My brother goes over to the neighbors, the proper way instead of hopping the fence and we eventually end up walking around their whole yard twice looking for Wimby. I knew I was going to be doing this but still when I left the house in the morning THESE are the shoes I put on! Seriously what is wrong with me, how stupid am I (don't answer that).
I am walking around in a yard with pretty much every surface you can think of, lots of twigs and thick leaf litter in an area that there are TONS of snakes and spiders and my feet are just SCREAMING taste me don't I look tasty!

We walk the whole yard twice, calling Wimby the whole time. Then we head out their front drive and take a walk down the street. On the way back my brother says, wow I just got REALLY dizzy, I tell him he better not pass out on me because I am so not carrying him anywhere, he may be my younger brother but he definitely isn't my little brother.

When we get back we decide it is lunch time. Have I ever said how much my brother loves bread, he does, A LOT!
After lunch and a stop back at my place for proper shoes we decide to hop the back fence and see if Wimby is hanging out there somewhere.

I sure hope he's not hiding out in the cactus cause I am NOT venturing into them to find him.

I also hoped he didn't decide to go for a long walk in this field. (or in my worst case scenario somehow manage to cross the field, the rather large road, and get through another fence and decide to take a "nap" on the train tracks. I am pretty sure he is big enough to cause a train derailment, especially if we were to put signs up with MY phone number on them, yeah that would not be good, not good at ALL!)
Now it was time to make signs. We found some spray paint but that wasn't going to work (I may or may not have been holding the can towards me when first trying to spray). So we went to the store down the street first to get us some LARGE markers. They didn't have LARGE markers so we got some larger sharpies and went to work.

We took one sign and put it at the top of the street and went to pick my husband up from work and get slurpees, it's hot being in the sun walking around all day looking for a tortoise. They had Barq's Rootbeer slurpees! BARQ'S ROOTBEER SLURPEES!!!! SO F'ING DELICIOUS and REFRESHING.

With the signs all made, nailed to stakes (which we later had to use wire and tape because hammering them in the rock hard ground shook the cardboard right off the stake) we set out to put up more. As we were hammering in the first sign we got a call from someone who's neighbor found a tortoise. They didn't know what to do with it so they called the humane society. We called the humane society, who were already closed so we have to wait until to tomorrow to get our tortoise back.

Not exactly the adventure I wanted but it was an adventure and it's not over yet. Hopefully it will be rather easy to get the tortoise back and I don't have to go through a million and one things to get Wimby back home.

Oh and you know what this brilliant redhead did, she went on an all day adventure WITHOUT sunscreen, yeah I'm just slightly red now. Love the red shoulder, the tank top strap, and then the diagonal bra strap! Luckily I'm not the typical super fair skinned red head and color like this usually fades into a nice tan (yeah cause those lines are nice).
This made me realize how pale I really am, how much sun I really don't get, and why I always need to remember sunscreen if I am going to be outside. Stupid stupid stupid. I've never been one to avoid the sun but I've never been a sun worshiper, especially since I've gotten tattooed, don't wanna prematurely age and fade those babies. My poor mermaid is all sorts of tan herself now.

Need an adventure

I've been having serious issues with boredom.

I don't want to be a zombie in front of the tv or computer but I don't see the point of sitting on the couch doing nothing. I can't decide on a book to read, I started reading Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child last night but I'm finding it hard to read because I have a signed limited edition copy and feel like I shouldn't read it.

I have plenty that needs or could be done but who wants to do that. My pile of laundry is crazy big, the whole apartment is a mess, all my animals could use a good cage clean, there are 3 different piles of junk that need to be dealt with, but again why would I want to do any of that boring mindless "housework".

Boredom seems to grab a hold of me at night when I feel like I should be calm and do relaxing things and not get caught up in a new sewing project or even making noise with my sewing machine. Night definitely doesn't seem like the time I should take out my drill and other tools and finally get back to work on my beer cap light shade. It would be different if I had a garage to go into.

I've been itching to go on a trip, even just a local day trip. It's been YEARS since I've done anything in nature, since I've walked even a trail and taken in the scenery, since I've paid too much attention to some random critter foot prints or droppings, since I've just sat somewhere and watched the wild lives around me go about their business.

Almost every day I think about my trips to the Sea of Cortez and what it was like to walk where very few have before, to spend my day on a small uninhabitable island full of raw wildlife, to visit the nesting site of Elegant Terns and Hermanns Gulls, to spend a day in the water swimming with Sea Lions, having them tug on your flippers and swim away before you could turn around, to have them get right in your face and blow bubbles at you, tide pooling and finding a place with so many beautiful Nudibranchs you end up doing nothing else for the rest of the day, being on jellyfish watch as my new friends jumped off the top deck of the boat, learning that those weren't a string of some sort of eggs but a string of some sort of ctenophore (luckily their sting wasn't too bad), watching someone cursed the "stingray shuffle" and struggled with jellyfish wrapping around his ankles as he tried to walk ashore and being glad I decided to skip that snorkeling trip, making a small fire on an island in the pitch black and have scorpions come crawling out of the wood and straight for you feet in sandals (ok I don't miss that, I hated that).

I think about my 2 week trip to Belize, walking among Howler Monkeys, walking up and down ancient Mayan ruins, being forbidden from lying down on a sacrificial altar because it was creeping out the people I was with, having your new friends drag you and the guide over to a local at every new town and asking them what slang term they use for a redhead and then having the guide translate it (match head is the only unique one I remember), taunting a tarantula with a long blade of grass so we could get a picture, spending the day snorkeling, trying to follow and keep up with a large Spotted Eagle Ray (failed miserable), realizing that tropical waters are too warm for a wetsuit, having cute little tropical fish nip at my purple bathing suit, always knowing that if you looked over your shoulder you'd see at least 2 Barracuda "stalking" you, diving for conch and making fresh conch fritters on the boat, watching a small child in a tiny row boat smash fish to death as his father was spear fishing some where below and tossing his catch into the boat, seeing Manatee nostrils take a breath, learning that covering yourself with a sheet only up to your head at night results in mosquito bites ALL over your face, waiting to see if the enormous lump/bite on your leg was going to go all sci-fi movie on you and bare some sort of insect out of it (it never did), seeing for the first time and falling in love with Frigate Birds.

There are the family trips I've taken, many Yosemite trips, crossing a large stream via a fallen tree, travelling up and down the California/Oregon coast, summer in Vermont playing in the stream for hours on end making our own rock dams and creating a small pool, walking in the forest, looking for newts and toads, stepping on a garter snake barefoot and wondering why the grass feels like it is moving beneath your foot, being a co-pilot on the search for covered bridges on back dirt roads with no signs, finally finding a bridge getting out and finding ourselves in the thickest swarm of mosquitos, family trips to Baja to see the grey whales, fresh ceviche, giving chocolate chip cookies to the Federales while we change flat tires, being told not to get out of the cars because whenever I did I would hear a slow leak in a tire, petting grey whales that would come to the side of the boat, spending a day on a beach with the bluest water that was knee high for as far as you could see (or go because you knew you had to walk all the way back too), attempting snorkeling in freezing cold waters, always finding and visiting unique and cool places no matter where we were, my honeymoon in Maui snorkeling and watching a small eel among the rocks having everyone ignore me because they were just there for the turtles that I guess were further out, I just stayed at there watching the eel and little invertebrates moving around, walking to a black sand beach.

No wonder I've been so bored lately, I've never spent this long in one place without going on some sort of adventure. Doesn't help that my boss always tells me how great I would be in the field because he's impressed by my ability to spot creatures, being told how I don't seem to bother the animals with my presence, I just walk among them for the most part and they don't feel the need to flee like they do with others. (For the record Kinkajous do not fall under my spell, quite the opposite actually, I've worked with 8 or 9 different individual kinks at 2 different facilities and they ALL hate me, even the one that others could do anything to screamed at me!) Of course of late these creatures are the doves and bunnies that are in the back yard at work.

I would never use the word adventurous to describe myself but I think I might need to change that thinking. It was just normal for me, not adventurous in my eyes.

ABC's of me

I've really been lacking in posting lately, if you couldn't tell. I have ideas but I never get around to them. So I am going to post this which I found over at The Goat.

Now I have a post that has a bit of form and you can learn something about me, or not, without having to read a stream of babbling thoughts by me since I can't get most thoughts straight in my head right now, the real reason I haven't been posting.

ABC's of me

A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: it's actually unplugged (it's a window/wall unit thing) and a piece of duct tape is over the outlet because it doesn't work well and the cat started to play with the plug and outlet

B- My BEDROOM theme is: um girls I guess you could say, I don't think I ever really have a theme with anything. I have a few framed posters in my bedroom, this Erte, three of Bettie Page, a maid one and devil one and a classic pinup one, and another pinup girl poster. I don't spend much time but sleep time in my bedroom. My sewing machine is in there but haven't been doing much sewing lately. Otherwise there is just the bed and my clothes.

C- The CAR in the driveway is: the same car I've had for more than half my life. Thank you Honda. It is also beyond filthy at the moment, like really really filthy.

D- My DESK looks: Has my sewing machine and tons of excess fabric and stuff all over it.

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: Usually before ten, recently around nine, sometimes eight sometimes a lot later.

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: my hair

G- My GARAGE is filled with: don't have a garage.

H- My HOUSE is: a second/top floor corner 2 bed 2 bath apartment.

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see: clothes EVERYWHERE, mine and my husbands, and an ALWAYS unmade bed.

J- My favorite JUICE is: I enjoy cranberry and cranberry blends don't drink much of it, mostly drink tea.

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: the large amount of cabinetry

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: I think Rich's cousin came over the other night for a bit.

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: That wasn't a bill or junk mail....I have no idea!

N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: no idea, probably weird, I don't talk to my neighbors, call me anti social I guess, they come and go a lot too.

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: lots of veggies, mmmmm veggies.

P- My last house PARTY was: a few months ago, Rich had a stout tasting night. It was a lot of fun.

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: either tofu noodle soup or vegan "mac and cheese" neither are super quick but also aren't too time consuming and they are easy, very tasty, and my fav comfort foods.

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: hmmmm, i really enjoy my animal room but it is always a mess and there is nothing to just relax on in there, I spend most of my time on my couch with my laptop next to me.

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use is: Alaffia Neem and Shea Butter Scalp Recovery Shampoo. Thinking of trying their shampoo with Shea and Henna when I need a new bottle.

T- My largest TELEVISION is: 36 inches. The only one we have.

U- UNDER my bed you will find: 2 long boxes one with various magazines and paper and things the other with my sleeping bag. My cute little kitten is under there a lot, especially if it's not the weekend or we have company or something random frightened her.

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: *whispers* 2 weeks ago

W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: palm trees, pine trees, other various trees, apartment building, medical building, and blue skies

X- I wish I had X-TRA: motivation

Y- My YARD is: non existent.

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: between 1130 and 1. I usually get to bed in the midnight hour.

Where it all went awry

I'm not what society calls "normal", I don't even know what that means or why one would want to be "normal". While at work the other day my mind started to wander as I got to the "routine" part of my day. I thought, "I think I know when things went awry."

I believe it could have been my childhood over identification with Pippi Longstocking. It must have been my 11th birthday if I am doing my math correctly, which I am probably not because me and math are like oil and water. That summer The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking came out and for my birthday I went to the movies with friends and then had a party.

I share her love of animals and like her I don't necessarily conform to preconceived notions. I don't have super strength like of course but also like her I would not, and still do not, hesitate to jump into a body of water fully clothed even in my best clothes, although now I wouldn't jump in with any of my fave shoes on, you don't mess with a girl and her shoes. ;)

As I've gone into here before I am not obsessed with cleanliness and I always thought of Pippi being the same way, we aren't walking around looking like Pigpen from Peanuts but that's because we're girls and it's cute when girls have a bit of mud smeared on their clothes and/or face. I would have given anything to live in a house with a monkey and a horse. Being older and having actually worked with a few different monkeys I've changed my mind on that one, they are just too damn smart and test you, although I do know a monkey (Gepetto) that loves his human mommy (Jess) and would love to have a relationship like that with one.

To this day I still love horses though. My uncle had a horse that wasn't ridden very often but I didn't hesitate to get on it bareback even on a few occasions. On a family trip to Yosemite me and my dad went on a horse back tour. When we got within sight of the stables my horse took off and I just went for a long bumpy ride all the way back to the stables. A guide was quick to follow me to try and get the horse to stop and make sure I didn't panic, I did quite the opposite. He apologized to my dad for the incident and was amazed I took it so well, I didn't just take it well I quite enjoyed it. It was the highlight of the tour for me, only thing I remember about it actually.

After contemplating all this I texted my mom and said I know where you went wrong (poor choice of words) and told her it was because of her allowing me (again poor choice of words) to over identify with Pippi Longstocking. She got back to me and said, "oh nice blame it on me." I really should have worded my text better. I got back to her and said well I guess I could have identified with Stawberry Shortcake, gotten obese and had friends all named after desserts. We had a laugh.

What other characters was a little red headed girl suppose to identify with? I never liked Annie much , think it was the way she was treated and while the story had a happy ending I didn't identify with her at all. I'm glad I chose Pippi. Even to this day I wouldn't mind being Pippi.

101...why mudnessa

Hey would you look at that, this is apparently my 101st post. So let's have a bit of a blabbering post letting you get a little more insight into mudnessa, you know a mudnessa 101.

If you come across a mudnessa it is most likely me, I did see a mudnessa registered on a racing/car/motorbike site something or other that wasn't me so it isn't ALWAYS me. Before I was mudnessa, way back when usernames were only used for email and IM, I wasWeeMadNessa. I used WeeMadNessa for years, many many years. It was fitting but the mad part only come out if you really really really piss me off or I love you with all of my heart, yeah major character flaw. I'm pretty sure mudnessa all started with a MUD (multi-user dungeon) game my brother was playing and he wanted me to play. It was the Discworld MUD to be exact, I didn't wanna be weemad and he suggested MudNessa because it was a MUD and that's just cool, right? We decided that all lowercase was good since the game is in caps. Didn't hurt that mud is actually a pretty fitting description of me sometimes, ok most of the time. From then on I was and will probably always be mudnessa. It is just so fitting.

Let's "discuss" why it's so fitting. Well my name is Vanessa so the Nessa part is self-explanatory right....I actually had a friend ask why people call me Nessa, not the brightest guy in the world. Nessa started when my younger, not little, I'm the little one, first started talking and he couldn't say Vanessa and Nessa was easy. I rarely hear my family call me Vanessa and even Rich almost always calls me Nessa or sometimes red. I don't actually get called mudnessa it's just used in print.

A few years back my mom asked me why exactly mudnessa, a friend asked and she said it was because I get and don't mind being dirty and muddy and she wanted to make sure that was why. I told her about the Discworld game and then confirmed that it stuck because I am usually dirty. I told a few stories of me being dirty over the years, one of which she hadn't heard/known about that she loved.

Here are a few childhood dirty Nessa stories. When I was a kid we had a LARGE veggie garden and I really enjoyed planting things and digging in the dirt. We had a BIG pile of manure brought over by my uncle. For weeks on end after school I would go and play IN the manure pile digging around for worms. I literally remember digging myself a big hole in the middle of the pile and having manure surrounding me almost past my head. My parents would just smile and shake their heads at me.

I went to work with my dad, who works in construction, one day and ended up playing with wet cement with my bare hands. If you are familiar with cement you know how miserable I was later that night and the next day. If not, basically it pulled ALL the moisture out of my skin and basically "burnt" my hands. Not a happy day, not a happy day at all, but I sure did have fun playing in the wheelbarrow full of gooey cement.

Here is the story my mom loved. We had a sandbox that me and my brother played in a lot. One day I decided it would be fun to see how much sand we could get in my pants. I put on sweatpants and quickly realized the elastic on the bottom wasn't strong enough to hold in much sand. I ran inside, got some super thick rubber bands, something we had A LOT of, dad got a lot of large plans that were secured with large rubber bands. With a roomy pair of sweatpants on secured at the ankles with rubber bands my brother grabbed a bucket and started dumping sand down my pants. We succeeded and got my pants FULL of sand. They weren't really around my waist anymore but they were brimming with sand, it was like a heavy fat suit and if I remember correctly we were hysterical. Guess my pants didn't end up too sandy because mom was non the wiser while doing my laundry. My brother is currently and has always been the clean freak type, but not OCD like, he obviously had no problem helping me get dirty.

Probably somewhere around my 13th birthday I got a worm growing kit. I LOVED growing worms. Obviously I was the kid who had to be forced to take a shower. Which didn't work, as in as an adult I still don't shower that often. I've mentioned it here before but luckily I am not an overly smelly person and showering daily really isn't necessary. My hair would revolt if it was subjected to water much less washing everyday. As it is now as long as I don't get too visibly dirty or play with a stinky animal at work I only shower twice a week. I know gross right, eh, another character flaw.

However the other day when me and Rich were....um......."talking" my over active mind got working before our "conversation" got too "intense" and I noticed he smelled different, he had bought and used a new shower soap. You know how people have their own smell, whether it be their perfume, soap, or whatever. I don't use a scented soap, I don't use perfume or scented anything really so I just smell like me. I asked him what do I smell like, he sniffed my hair and said, nothing really. I had showered the day before so I probably did have little to no smell. Then I asked well if you had to from memory describe what I smell like what would it be, he just looks at me not wanting to piss me off. I say, "poo?" He smiles and snickers while saying yes. We had a good laugh and I realized why again I love him so, because he loves me despite the fact that he can't say his wife smells like roses, vanilla, or something sweet, he know and still loves that his wife smells like poo. Ah true love isn't it glorious, haha.

Now don't get the wrong idea I don't smell like a nasty sewage bathroom gag inducing walking poo stick or anything. It's more of a dirty, nature, gritty smell, perhaps with a little bit of pet shop/zoo on bad days. In recent years it hasn't been so bad because I no longer clean up and sometimes literally roll around with smelly mammals like monkeys, coatimundis, binturongs, pot bellied pigs, kinkajous, opossums, foxes, porcupines, prairie dogs, among a lot of other smelly things. Some days I use to have to drive home with the windows down or I would gas myself out of my car. Those were times when I would shower daily, if not more since I worked 2 short shifts at one job.

I now exclusively work with reptiles and don't do a lot of hands on with them beyond just my hands, as long as I don't spill/drop things on myself I don't get too smelly at work. I am working in rooms full of reptiles, it can smell like the reptile house at a zoo, it's not too bad. One problem though is that I get pretty immune to my work smells so I don't even notice it anymore. Unless something is dead, death stinks even when it's just a tiny little creature and there is no getting use to that or not noticing it.

Every once in a while I will pick Rich up from work right after I get off work and the first thing he'll say will be something about me smelling, I've heard, "YOU STINK!" "Did you play with the dogs a lot at work today?" Lovely things like that are often his first greetings to me. It is usually more my clothes that smell than actually me so once I change I no longer have dog or stink on me.

That's the story, evolution, and why behind mudnessa and why it has stuck with me. Hope you enjoyed. Let's end it with a picture from a few years ago of true mudnessa just home from work one day.

Picture Collage 3rd-9th

• Maya, dog at work, playing fetch. I think she's getting a bit round.
• Otsego, the fatty, got on the plastic tube and cloth cat "tree" that is Harley Quinn's fave spot and I was afraid she was too heavy for it.
• Harley Quinn, the little one, going through my purse, she's stolen things our of there before, her favorite is cash, cash must be secured at all times.
• Rich got a new pair of shoes and was switching out the laces and Otsego wanted to eat them, you remember the shoe lace eating incident of last week, did NOT want a repeat of that.
• It rained and I wanted some veggie burgers so Rich went and bbq'd me some burgers in the rain. Super steamy bbq was quite cool looking.
• Harley Quinn kept my lap warm over the weekend.
• Harley Quinn kept an eye on my computer while I was cooking, she is one of the most adorable things ever.
• Went to a friends place to watch SB44. Their dog Radley would watch the commercials and attack but only when there were small animals on. It was the most entertaining thing. The commercials with the fake chickens she wouldn't go after until the end when there were some real chickens, but she did go after the fake beaver. Let's just say they are not going to be upgrading to a new plasma or lcd tv.
• Started raining again on Tuesday and Rich went to car ahead of me at the grocery store and I had the keys. Turned out to be a pretty neat picture I snapped with my phone real quick as I was walking towards him.

Jan 21st to Jan 26th in pictures

I have a hard time remembering what happens day to day, you know all the normal stuff that isn't all that important but still I don't remember what happened last week. I also like to take snapshots of things I see and then I do nothing with them and forget when I took them and for what reason so I am going to try and do weekly updates of what I do in pictures. Let's see how long this lasts. It would be cool to follow my whole 2010 this way. I shall try.

Thursday 21st was still stormy. This is out my deck patio. Palm trees really show the wind and there are plenty of palm trees in San Diego.

Thursday night we got hail. I know it's minor and not that much but I live in San Diego we NEVER get hail, this is a monumental amount of hail so I don't wanna hear, aw that's nothing, IT IS FOR HERE, SO SUCK IT, hehe. I don't really have that attitude. But really this is monumental for here.

Friday was rain (drizzle to almost all other areas) on and off. The sky kept changing, look to the left it would be dark, look to the right there was blue sky. There were probably some nice rainbows but I didn't see them.

The above picture is to my left and below is to the right. That's not a rainbow at the top of the picture it's the change in color/tint of my car window.

A "mushroom" cloud of rain in the distance.

Friday: Part of palm tree that was blown down and collected some water.

Then Friday got all sorts of "bad", this is the bucket of nasty water I dropped my cell phone in. Luckily I got it out real fast dried it off and it fully recovered but it was acting up for 2 days after this and the battery is still acting up a bit. Need to remember to not tweet while working especially when over buckets of water.

Sunday my cats displayed their displeasure for each other in an interesting way. By sleeping "together" but with a bag between them. Harley Quinn loves sleeping under paper bags, she was there first then Otsego came and joined her. I guess they can be close to each other they just don't want to see each other. They are hilarious sometimes.

Monday I was greeted at work by Atticus Rex, I spent a few minutes giving him some attention, I love this dog.

Here is the view from the other side. He is a huge dog, look at the size of his paw, it's as big as my shoulder.

I really love this picture, mostly the trees and sky in the background.

Friday was a lovely day, sunny and warm and because of that Tank the resident Sulcata tortoise was up and roaming the yard. As evening came I noticed my boss and his wife wandering the front yard. Turns out they couldn't find Tank, he sleeps in the warm garage and usually chooses a corner to jam himself into. Well he wasn't in any corner or anywhere else in the garage and they feared he had some how found a way out or made his way out the gate when someone came or went. They were out there for a good hour I think, I got to the point in my day where I had to do some work in the garage. I go out there and my bosses wife starts asking me when I got there so they could try and figure out a time line for Tank escaping. As she is talking to me I look down and there he is, he shoved himself not in a corner of the room but on the bottom shelf of a rack. It was corner enough for him I guess since he was up against some boxes.

He wasn't as visible as the above picture looks. Below is the picture from where I was standing when I looked down and saw him. Pretty good camouflage up against boxes and the particle board shelf on the left side of the picture.

And this is right on a corner so even from the other direction he isn't very visible. You can barely see his shell sticking out on the lower right side of the picture. I'm sure he feels pretty secure here though.

Tuesday: Here is a picture of a pretty typical morning for me, on the couch watching what I DVR'd the night before, taking a look around the net, enjoying some coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Recently, because of the cold weather my fat cat has been shoving herself onto my lap. So I sit with my legs falling asleep with the fatty on one leg and the lap top on the other. The mornings are cold so I let her stay for a bit and warm me up. She doesn't fit very well on my leg but she insists.

More about my cat. By fat I mean she's down to 22 pounds from close to 30. She is also the one who is on Prozac for what is diagnosed as psychogenic alopecia. She's a very anxious cat for some unknown reason and to cope she would chew the fur off her underside, started at the belly and she got as close to her neck as she could. We had it under control for a few years with flower essences but then I went on a long weekend vacation in March and she could not deal. My husband was home the whole time but guess she just needs me. Anyways the Prozac has been working great and I don't have to worry about her getting hairball blockages. She's had issues with them twice in the past, both passed on their own but one required a few nights stay at the vet. She is also a picky eater who won't eat anything but her food so getting her to eat hairball gel is IMPOSSIBLE and she really doesn't need the extra stress of another overnight vet visit due to a huge hairball.