Halloween and a GIVEAWAY!!

Halloween has to be my favorite holiday, possibly day, or group of days since it's really more than just that one day. So here enjoy my Halloween with me and yes the title says giveaway, details at the end, don't be a dick and just hit end, take a look at everything. Hehe.

Costumes:
I'm a Peacock (you gotta let me fly) and The Beerded Knight, who has his own twitter by the way, click it!!

 At home on Halloween night waiting for kids to come trick or treating (we got none)

 Yeah Batman let himself go a bit, you should have seen his raggedy cape, dude not looking like his old self. 

 Everyone wants to be a peacock!

BAKING!!!! WITH PUMPKIN!!!!!!!

 I've heard smaller pumpkins have better flavor but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

 Decapitate your pumpkins. 

 Cut in half and take the guts out. (SAVE THE SEEDS TO BE ROASTED. I haven't done that yet but they will be roasted)

 Quarter or whatever size you want your pumpkin and put on baking sheet(s) and bake until fork tender. I had them in at 350F for a bit over an hour but my temp is off and I forgot so it was actually less than 350F.

 Bake until fork tender and starts to turn golden. Let cool, peel, the peel comes off REALLY easily after baking. Then throw in a food processor and process to make a puree. I didn't add any liquid but can add some if you want a more watery puree. 

Then use your fresh pumpkin puree in your favorite pumpkin recipes. 

I made Pumpkin Cookies with Pumpkin Spice Icing.

The biggest hit was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. 

On todays to do list is make a few more loafs of this. YUM! 

(The crazy Beered Knight wants some with out chocolate chips!!)

More pumpkin fun (and the giveaway part)

 Fabric pumpkins!!! How cool are they! I love them!

 My favorite patterned one.

 Oh but you have no idea what their size is. Here for size comparison, on my hand.

 Psh! That doesn't help, how lame is that. 

Oh wait I know the perfect place to put it. 

ON MY HEAD!!! DUH!!

 I made mini-pumpkins too. Haven't finished all the mini ones yet, ran out of stuffing.

So this GIVEAWAY business. I am giving away a pumpkin. One of the three below, sorry not the more patterned ones.

To enter just leave a comment. Just say hi, or whatever you want. (Comment here, on the blog, not twitter/facebook/tumblr/wherever else you may see this post linked to.) Make sure you leave your email address in the comment form (I think it works that way, has a place to enter an address, hopefully).  I will also post a follow up notifying the winner on my blog so if you don't put your address for whatever reason make sure you check back to see if you won. I will pick a winner using a random number generator on November 8th. That's one week. Good luck my pretties. (Said creepy like evil witches do. It's just the mood I am in. Oh and I have 2 cats so if you are allergic to cats know that. The pumpkins aren't covered in fur or anything but I wouldn't want them to make someone all itchy and sneezy by chance.)

Accent Video

Dorkyness alert.

Saw Ashley at Our Little Apartment do this (and seen the list elsewhere as well) and then my (twitter) friend Chel has been curious about how I say things and I am bored on a Friday night while my (drunk) husband snores it up in the bedroom, so here you go, a video of me saying random things and being a gigantical dork throughout.

Note: My paternal grandfather was grandpa not granddad. Don't you just love my leopard print PJ's!! :) The largest amount of pink I ever wear (the collar and cuffs, lol).

I fell back to no 'pooing

I don't really know how this started but I realized I am no 'pooing again (no 'poo as in shampoo, conventional shampoo). I liked it the first time I tried it but the buildup I was getting related to my hard water and I think the baking soda too was just NOT good. Click on the no 'poo tag below to read my previous posts regarding no 'poo.

I had been using Alaffia's shampoo and conditioner and while it was working for me it just wasn't right I guess. I don't have anything bad to say about the products and I still recommend them, shampoo just isn't for me.

I read about beer as a conditioner, hair rinse, to add shine to hair and I tried it. It works amazing and left my hair nice and soft and shiny too. Apparently the proteins and sugars in beer is good for hair. So I stopped using my bottle of conditioner. I don't even know how it happened but I have stopped using shampoo as well and just do an apple cider vinegar rinse/scrub to 'wash' my hair. I take 1/2 a cup to a cup of acv and pour it on my scalp rub my scalp with my fingertips. I sometimes water down the acv but not always. Whatever happens to run down my hair happens, I don't specifically rub or make sure it runs down the length of my hair, which is past my butt at this point. I let it sit for a minute at most and then rinse well. Then I move on to the beer.

Dark thick beers are what I use, usually a dark stout of some kind. Flat beer works best too so I open up the beer way before my shower. If I take a night shower I will open the beer and leave it in the bathroom all day or if I am planning a morning shower I will open it up and leave it over night. Sometimes it stays open for a day or two because I don't shower everyday. The flatter the better. I pour about half the beer on my head and leave the other half in a measuring cup and dunk the length of my hair in there leaving it in there for a few minutes, bent over looking like an idiot in the shower. Ha! I make sure I rinse my hair really well again and then I am done. I don't have much issues with smells left over. It may smell a bit vinegary or beery while it is still wet but once it dries there is no smell as long as I have rinsed it well.

The only other thing I use on my hair now is Weledas Rosemary Hair oil. LOVE that stuff. Couldn't live without it. Actually I could now that I use the beer rinse but I wouldn't want to.

Here have some pictures. Freshly out of the shower, brushed and oiled, and after a night of sleep and day of errands.

EDIT:

ADDITIONAL INFO

I should note I only wash my hair once a week at most. Sometimes I go longer between washings and I don't even get it wet at all between washes. I have really coarse, thick, and dry hair, this is obviously what works best for my specific hair and I doubt this method exactly would work for someone with thin fine hair. Acv is a great clarifying rinse for those that can't/don't do no 'poo, sometimes you just need a good clarifying rinse to get rid of everything on your scalp and hair. I also skip the beer and just use the acv sometimes, don't want to waste too much beer now do I? ;)

Baby gifts

I made a few things for my friend and her new baby. It took me just under 5 months to mail them....have I ever said how bad I am at mailing things. I was actually just finishing up the blocks when she had the kid, literally I was finishing them while she was in labor. Better late than never right. Photos of what I made and the process, I can share now since I did finally mail them!

 Plush personalized baby blocks. I have made the blocks in the past for my cousins kids, this was my first time adding letters.

Cute little knot topped hats. Super simple, made from old t-shirts.

A few hot/cold eye pillow type things with lavender too. 

 

And finally some cat toys with cat nip of course. Sewing up the little bottom part after I had already put some catnip in the toys made the cats very interested in what I was doing. Of course they were just being impatient because I made some for them too and they did enjoy them very much.

I have 1 more thing but me and the sewing machine are on a break again. We go through spurts and it gets its feeling hurt that I use it so much so I stop and give it a break for a few months. It's been a while I will probably finish a few projects I have and then start some more as well.

I'm a tv watcher

My thoughts on the new season of fall tv:

New shows

2 Broke Girls
I liked it better than I thought I would have. Does that mean I think it is good....not really. It's not as horrible as I thought it would be and it made me laugh a few times. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't last but also wouldn't be surprised if it does, I don't understand most of the tv viewing public.

The New Girl
I was really surprised by the fact that I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. I really like Zooey but it seemed way too cutesy and it could get better, it was only the pilot but I don't have high hopes, especially with Damon Wayans Jr leaving, or at least I would think he is leaving since he is already on Happy Endings. A show I actually enjoy since we are talking about tv.

Ringer
This looked horrible and while it is not the greatest I am intrigued as to what will happen with the characters so I keep watching.

Unforgettable
I like Poppy Montgomery so I watched this. It's another crime drama with the 'twist' of her able to remember everything she sees/experiences. This 'twist' isn't necessary to the show at all, just another crime drama but it's not bad. Not sure I would recommend it but I will continue to watch, like I said I like Poppy Montgomery even if her accent comes out in quite a few words her American character says.

Whitney
I think Whitney Cummings is hilarious BUT she is NOT network, or even cable, tv safe. She is NEVER safe but she is hilarious, crude crude humor I enjoy it and she does it pretty well. I think she has a lot of 'haters' for lack of a better un-over used word. So her show, as a show it's just another sitcom. It doesn't have anything special because tv takes the Whitney out of Whitney, I laughed, but I realize I am easy to entertain. What does it have for other people, um nothing special. It seems her and her boyfriend in it have good chemistry other than that again it's just another sitcom.

Prime Suspect
I didn't hear much about this show, Whitney was on before it so I didn't change the channel. Oh look another new crime drama. I'll continue to watch it. I like crime dramas. Maria Bello is the main character and her character is a badass and already has shown her vulnerable side and needed comfort from her boyfriend, oh and he's played by Kenneth Johnson, yeah that alone will get me to keep watching, easily entertained here! Hehe.

Not new shows:

Two and A Half Men
A 'reinvented' show perhaps. I didn't think this show had been funny for about 2 seasons. I thought the premiere was funny and the second episode....didn't have much really but it hasn't gotten worse in my opinion.

The Middle
I love The Middle, I absolutely LOVE The Middle. I love Modern Family and I think it is a great comedy but I think it is taking some of the thunder from The Middle, not that Modern Family doesn't deserve all it's own thunder but someone talk about The Middle please, because that show is just as consistently funny.

I watch a lot more tv, network and cable shows, and I mean  A LOT more. I don't watch any reality shows and I think Ringer might be the only CW show I watch. SyFy and USA have some of my favorite current shows. Oh you know what new show I like, Ridiculousness. Yes that MTV Rob Dyrdek show of video clips. Now before you go, Tosh.O rip off, watch it, it is a lot more like Americas Funniest Home Videos. He doesn't comment on the clips like Tosh does and they don't do skits or most other things Tosh does. They watch funny silly videos, mostly of people hurting themselves and laugh their asses off at them. Sounds stupid and not everyone likes that kinda of thing but I consistently laugh my ass off along with them.

EDIT: I watched the second episode of New Girl after I wrote this and I found it pretty funny and wasn't too cutesy this time. I enjoyed the second episode a lot more than the first. I also read today that Fox picked it up for a whole season.

Unsolicited random advice

Because it is back to school time and I see/hear people talking about college all around me.

• If you don't know what you want to do with your life, go to college, I know that's NOT what a lot of people want to hear. 
• If you know what you want to do, go to college or trade school and work towards that professional goal, either through your schooling, and/or outside school depending on what it is. 
• Unless you are absolutely certain you want to and can do (ie have contacts/experience already) something nontraditional go to college. Even so most fields have some sort of trade/higher education that is helpful, it's very hard to get away from. 
• If you know what you want to do AND already have your hands all up in those pies (technical speak, I'm all about it) stick with the school. 
• If your schooling gets in the way of your hands in pieing (yes that's a term, or it is now at least) find out how much experience vs education mean in that field, and not just in your area, you never know things might have a better/worse outlook away from home, then make your decision of whether to cut back/stop one or the other. 

I did the last bit and came to a point where school was holding me back so I quit school. I have a 2 year degree in Zoology and was another 2 1/2 years into my bachelors. At that point I had almost 4 years of experience with exotic animals, I was extremely, I cannot stress that enough, lucky to have the opportunities I had. This is NOT typical in the exotic animal field. School AND working from the bottom is the normal. For me though if I wanted to continue school I would have had to quit my jobs and lose the experience. With the references and experience I had I was pretty confident in my ability to get a job elsewhere, not locally though. The local zoos are world famous and I had no illusions that I would be able to get a job at one of the local zoos. I was actually pretty confident quitting the jobs and sticking with school would hinder my abilities to get a similar hands on job like I was currently doing. Basically, if I finished school, I would have been starting at the low level of no animal contact jobs and need to work my way up. Not that I would be guaranteed a hands on job with just my experience I had at the time BUT I would not be giving up the experience and I would be adding years of experience to my resume. It's almost 7 years later and I still think I made the right choice for me. I don't work a lot, mostly by choice at this point (whole other story), and I make next to nothing, which I knew was going to be a reality. I work in a nontraditional way in an already nontraditional (as in 9-5 type) job.That being said I am 'stuck' where I am right now because I do not have a degree or experience in any other field. Good news, I do not want to work in any other field (and more of an issue are the tattoos and piercings than the schooling at this point and you know my complete lack of desire to ever have a job like that).


This has been a rambling post of unsolicited advice from me based on my experience. Thank you and goodnight (it's only 6pm I am not going to bed).

Solar charging my blackberry

I have a solio rocsta hybrid solar charger that I use to charge my blackberry. Between it and my car charger (before it broke) I didn't need any other source to charge my phone. I did a tiny bit of research before I bought this specific charger, mainly just read a few review of people saying it charged their blackberrys just fine and thought I'd give it a try.

About my phone use, I rarely ever use my phone to talk, I mainly use it for texting, emailing, tweeting, facebooking, picture taking, etc. you know all the fun stuff. I need to charge my phone every other day or so depending if I end up chatting a lot or taking a lot of pictures.

With the solar charger I can get about 4 bars of a charge when the solar charger is full, I have a total of 5 bars. It takes longer to charge than the wall charger or usb hookup to a computer but it is portable and it can be used as a power source directly, if it is in the sun and charging, you don't have to wait for the charger to charge-up to get power to your phone.

I leave the charger on my front patio to charge up and it doesn't get a full days sun but about half of the sun it could if it was in an unobstructed place. During the summer it takes just under 2 days to fully charge. The charger is suppose to be water resistant so I leave it outside overnight most of the spirng, summer, and fall, So Cal weather and all. In the winter I don't get much of charge, 4 or 5 days for a full charge but I leave it outside inside a zip lock bag so it doesn't drown in the sometimes rain we do get.

There are chargers with fuller capacity and that charge faster but I wanted something portable and durable. I bought it instead of a spare battery for a trip I was taking and I would be in the sun all day every day and using my phone a lot. The charger has a clip on it and I just clipped it to my bag when I was out for the day. When my battery got low I could easily hook it to my phone and charge it up.

The solar charger comes with 6 different adapters, a charge in cable so you can charge it up if there is no sun and you are going out somewhere, and there is even a little LED light that is only little in size, that thing is bright!

The charger has 2 charging lights on it, a red one that turns on when it is being charged and a green one that blinks when it is charging. The green one also lets you know how charged the device is, I have lost the instruction sheet but there is a button on the underside you press and the green light will blink 1 to 5 times letting you know how charged it is, 5 being fully charged.

 *any mention of specific products and my opinions on them are all my own and not influenced by anything other than my personal experiences

Butterflies

I took some pictures of butterflies at work today.

 Gulf Fritillary resting on a Passion Flower Vine 

 Caterpillar life stage of the Gulf Fritillary

Passion Flower Vine is the exclusive food plant for the caterpillars

 Chrysalis life stage of the Gulf Fritillary

Passion flower

Passion flower (we have 2 different varieties of the vine)

Some species of Underwing moth was a close as I could get to identifying this moth I happened to see flying around at the same time, not sure why since it is a nocturnal species.

Also saw what I believe is a female Marine Blue flying around.

My Birthday

My birthday, here's a rundown of what went down.

• Wednesday night my mom took me to see Real Madrid play Guadalajara Chivas at Qualcomm stadium. So nice of my favorite La Liga team to come to town and play for me on my birthday. 
• RM won 3-0 and I got to see a Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick. 
• I was bummed Sergio Ramos was injured and didn't come to town for the game and that Xabi Alonso was injured and stayed on the bench. I was sitting across the bench but couldn't make out a single player. It's a wide field, haha.
• After the 2nd goal by RM a large group of Chivas fans set off red and blue smoke bombs and then firecrackers and fireworks. Not like little fireworks, like big star burst fire works. Gotta love Mexican fans! I don't think security was too happy about it but it was pretty neat to look at from our seats quite a way away. 
•  Real Madrid Chivas pictures  

• Thursday I went to Comic-Con. After getting our passes and our giant swag bags Rich and I went to Ballroom 20. We saw Bruce Campbell and Matt Nix talk for an hour about this and that mostly Sam Axe and Burn Notice. Saw a clip of the documentary that was shot during the making of The Fall of Sam Axe called "The Fall of Jeffrey Donovan". Bruce Campbell is amazingly hilarious and really loves his fans and Matt Nix really seems to enjoy working with The BC, hehe. 
• Next up in the same room was the Covert Affairs panel. The whole cast and creator/writers were there. The cast really seems to get a long well for a show that is only in it's second season. Piper seems to really enjoy the challenge of the part from the stunts to the languages her character has to speak, a different one almost every episode. Chris Gorham They showed a blooper reel from the first season. 
• And after that in the same room was the Psych panel, which as much of a Bruce Campbell fan I am was the best panel. Bruce was definitely funny and I could have listened to him and Matt talk for a few more hours, Psych really know and love their audience. It started with the Friendly Indians performing a sing along of the Psych theme song. The cast came out and helped sing along the last verse. They showed a clip from the first episode of the next season that will be starting in October and it ended with them showing the music video they made of Don't You (Forget About Me).
• We then met up with my brother who went to a panel for the video game Darkness. He said he also ran into (quite literally) Andrew WK on the floor and also saw Mike Patton on the floor and told him he likes his music to which he responded, thank you I like you, or something like that, my memory isn't the best. The three of us wandered the floor, where are the exhibit booths are, saw some awesome, saw some horrible costumes. Tried to take it all on, the floor is HUGE and there is interesting shit EVERYWHERE. We got 2 drawings from a guy that does really cool stuff. Rich bought a drawing/mixed media 8x14 or something like that print of Walter from The Big Lebowski and I got a print of Picard and Kirk. I got an early copy of Jim Butchers novel Ghost Story and we stopped by the Suicide Girls booth and got a copy of their book Beauty Redefined and had it signed by the girls that were there. FYI Radeo and Milloux are absolutely stunning in person. 
• Earlier in the day my brother had told me how he saw a guy in a big orange tank costume who had to be directed by his friend cause he couldn't see/maneuver well. When we were at the BBC America booth checking out the TARDIS and things they had for sale he points at a key chain and says, "that was it that was it, the big tank thing." "Oh my god you saw a Dalek!! I want to see a Dalek!" 
• Next we headed over to the hotel next to the convention center, because Comic-Con is that big that they have panels and events at the hotels on each side of the convention center, for the Archer panel, as we were walking there apparently Justin Timberlake was on a golf cart right next to me, I didn't see him, hell I probably wouldn't have recognized him even if I was looking in the right place. We got to that room in the middle of the Effin Tonight panel, an animated web series with Patrick Warburton playing the main character. Patrick Warburton is hilarious and the show looks like it could be pretty good. 
• The Archer panel started with a showing of the first episode of the next season of the show. I've only seen bits and pieces of the show before. The episode they showed was hilarious and the cast and creator/writer there were also very very funny. I will definitely catch up on the show and watch the next season. Aisha Tyler is hilarious and she looked like she just rolled out of bed and came to the panel and was still stunningly beautiful.
• We all headed back to the convention center, once we got in there we were walking to another room and I saw Zak and Nick from Ghost Adventures walking right in front of me. I noticed Zak first, saw his tattoo peaking out the top of his shirt and then realized under the back collar of his shirt it said Zak Bagans. They stopped and as we walked past them Rich said, love your show, and Zak said thank yous, back. Then Nick and Aaron (who I didn't even see, but short me only sees what is right in front of me) and the other people with them start making fun of Zak for saying yous, hehe. Zak wasn't as big as I thought he would be but I was a person or two away from him and being such a small person everyone is tall to me, I expected him to have much wider shoulders and larger arms, but he was probably relaxed and slouching a bit more than he does when he is on camera or dealing with scary ghosts, lol.
• I was going to try and catch a panel about the LGBT characters in the Buffyverse, it was full and had already started by the time we got there but I decided to hang out in line just in case. I gave my swag tickets from the Covert Affairs and Psych panel that could be redeemed for t-shirts to my brother and he and Rich, who had tickets of his own, were going to try and find where they could be redeemed. None of us were successful, so we decided to meet back up and I was texting with my brother and he said to come downstairs and meet them at the flying sharks. I responded with, um ok. I made my way downstairs and along the outside of the floor and was thinking the whole time, flying sharks, WTF?! Then I saw some shark shaped helium balloons with motors under them so they were flying. I was informed that Dominic Monaghan walked right by them a bit earlier, all dressed up in a nice suit and with what they assumed were publicists, etc with him. Oh and he is short apparently...DUH! He's a hobbit! Haha. 
• We decided we probably needed to make our way to the fulfillment room which was in the hotel on the other side of the convention center, ie not the one we had came from about an hour ago. We headed over there and got our t-shirts. The Covert Affairs shirt is white and says Espionage Is A Beautiful Thing. There were 2 Psych shirts you could choose between so Rich and I got one of each. I got the Rolling Stone cover mock and Rich got the Private Eyes t-shirt. Sadly neither of us can really wear them, the only sizes were large and extra large. I wear youth or women's small and Rich wear XXL. They are still pretty cool and I will probably use them as sleep shirts. That ended up being a lot of walking and there wasn't anything else we absolutely needed to see. I think we had been at Comic-Con for just under 12 hours at this point.
• We left and on the walk to the car we went into South Park, Comedy Central had taken over a parking lot and made it into bits of South Park. There were tricycle races, South Park karaoke, you could sing Cartmans Poker Face, it was pretty amazing. We also saw the Conan gallery, we didn't go in but we saw a bit of the art from the street and could see the life size Flaming C made from Lego's in the window. I also saw a Ghostbusters car just go around a corner as I looked up, I could hear it's distinctive siren as well. Most if not all of downtown San Diego had been taken over by Comic-Con and were transformed into different bars and nerd friendly places for the weekend. 
• Comic-Con pictures

I didn't take many pictures at Comic-Con and the pictures from the match didn't turn out great, they were both more about the experience and couldn't be captured in pictures really but I did take some.

These are the things my husband carries with him everyday. Keys, gate remote, change, wallet.

See that heart among the change. That’s my heart, or so I told him when I saw a basket of metal hearts beside a cash register at a store and bought one.

That was ten years ago when we were dating. It is almost completely smooth now. It use to have an irregular pitted like surface. He carries it with him every single day.