Friday, August 15, 2014

Death To The Pattern

Hopefully all this icky weather calms down so Alex and I can go out on our actual bicycles.

Patterns are very frustrating. Just when I think I understand what is supposed to be done and I'm ready to sew, I realize I've messed up and need to figure out a correct or cut an additional piece out. Can you say learning curb?
In addition, I've realized I need double sided bias tape (because it says so on the package and didn't notice until I stared at it for a million years). I can do this. I want to be able to do this. Luckily I have Colie to help-- she suggested this nifty named youtube channel called Professor Pin Cushion.
On a different note, Fall classes start soon and shortly after we move into our new apartment. I'm super excited for the new apartment and hoping I can get my textbooks and whatnot in time. I don't like playing catch up because in grad school I never quite can. I want this semester to be a good one considering it will be one of my last and I need to keep my grades up.
Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with what I need and want to do that, even after focusing on the needs first I still feel flustered. Somehow I'll make it all happen!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Rosy Turmeric Soup


Ingredients:
4-5 small to medium potatoes cut into about 2 inch pieces
2 large carrots
1 package of extra firm tofu
1 medium yellow onion
5-6 cloves of garlic minced
3 large leaves green cabbage
4-5 large leaves red (or yellow/white) chard
3 Vegetarian bouillon cubes or 3 cups vegetable broth
turmeric
cayenne pepper
rosemary
salt & pepper

Directions:
1) Cut the onion into fairly thin pieces;

Just put this here to ward off any arguments over what I mean (ahem Colie and her German).
Put into a large soup pot with coconut oil and turn heat on low and cook until soft and starting to caramelize.

2)While onions are cooking, cut the carrots in half then half again. Cut as thin as possible unless you want thicker carrot pieces.

3) Clean and mince the garlic cloves.


4) Clean the cabbage and chard. Remove the thick centers of the leaves and cut into small pieces. Chop the leaves into small pieces as well.

5) Put the carrots, garlic, chard stems (only), and all the cabbage in. Stir, raise the heat to medium. Stir occasionally.

6) While those are cooking, drain and dab dry the tofu. Cut into inch pieces then spice with a generous amount of turmeric, salt, and cayenne pepper. Try to get both sides but if not it's okay-- more spice will be added to the soup later.

7) Add in the tofu and let cook with what's in the pot for about 5 minutes.

8) Add water so that it covers everything with about an inch of water above. Bring the heat to high. Add a few dashes of turmeric and some cayenne pepper. You can also add more salt but if you're worried about it being too salty, wait until the end when you're ready to serve to taste and decide.

9) Roll three large pinches of rosemary between your fingers to break up the leaves (if fresh, do a quick chop, just to help release the oils more into the broth).

10) While waiting for the water to boil, peel and cut the potatoes (you can use any kind though I used just regular 'ol Idaho potatoes). The smaller the piece, the faster your soup will be done. I recommend 2 inch chunks.

11) When the water is boiling, add in the potatoes. Stir and lower the heat to medium/medium low and put the lid on. If you don't have a lid, no biggie, just keep the heat on a higher setting. It should take about 20-30 minutes to finish the potatoes. Do the fork test at 20 minutes and decide.

12) When your potatoes are done, remove the lid and lower the heat. Add in the chard leaves (you want to do this last because if you leave them in the whole time, they'll get bitter from being over cooked). Stir and allow to wilt.


13) Enjoy!


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Susy All The away



I've actually been doing a decent job at being a busy bee-- not always busy with what I had planned but busy nontheless. Last night I worked with a pattern all by myself for the first time. I didn't need a pattern to make an apron-- I've made a few before as gifts (with the help of Colie) and they came out awesome. I just needed to start working with patterns and getting my skill level marked. So far it's already safe to say I have a lot to learn but somehow I'll manage with Alex's support and some FaceTime help from Colie. 
Last night I also played pokemon with drunk Alex and it was rather hilarious. The moment he foresaw I was going to win with my hardcharmed Yvaltl and supply of energy he tossed his cards and quit but then assured me he still wanted to play-- just not with the hand the two of us were dealt. 
As for today? An awesome Susy Tuesday (last weeks was awesome too-- days with Kaitlin are generally good ones) spent chatting, cupcaking, carbs, and planning for our birthday month. Unfortunately we may not be able to do a Disney Tea Party as we thought we may be able to so we looked at tea places in Tampa and found one we liked as an alternative. Doing a nonDisney tea place makes it slightly easier to invite friends-- especially since I'll have the bigger apartment with the space downstairs. So Kaitlin and I may just do that and then do Disney Parks with Kaitlin's comp tickets another day. We are going to talk with friends about the tea party and such and see. 

So as you can tell the craftiness is going pretty okay but the fitness stuff isnt quite the way I'd like it to be. I wanted to do group workouts but there are not at USF Rec until the beginning of fall. So far I've just occupied workout time with the elliptical and whatever yoga I can fit in with Rinpoche and Penny getting all over me and the mat (honestly I just do it without the mat most times though the last couple times it didn't matter-- the babies still wanted love while I did yoga). I was to do burpees and such because I remember quite a bit of my group fitness workout routines but that requires space and a ceiling that doesn't have a fan at the neither my fingers tough when in Mountain Pose. Only a couple more weeks and we ll be in the new place. I bought some seeds today for the pallet garden I'm going to do: bush beans, spinach, and then bell peppers for their own potted spot. 

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Zo-o You Mind?!

Thursday, my last day using the Tampa City Pass, was spent visiting Lowry Park Zoo. Alex and I made our first visit there last fall for $6 day. $6 day was like a line for free cupcakes from. Cupcake Cache while Thursday was rather empty. It took us maybe two hours to walk around and give each animal our affections and good energy. I love the zoo but the aquarium and Busch Gardens were better-- new is almost always more exciting. Though Lowry does have baby elephants! Love to see them- so cute!
Austin was definitely disappointed at the zoo, though, when he learned that the pbj sandwiches I packed for the three of us were our lunch. We weren't going to buy any food at the zoo; Alex and I really don't have much money. When we go out to places we try to bring sandwiches snacks and drinks with us so we re not spending more than is necessary. Austin did not seem to grasp this concept and it's understandable because the only time the poor kid gets to go out at home is for Friday night dinner. Normal to associate buying food out when that's the only thing that's done when he does go out. If he communicated better and spent a little less time playing games he could get his parents to take him to the bookstore or library at least. 
Looking back I feel a tad sour about how I handled some situations with him throughout the week but teaching a teenager what is socially acceptable and how to communicate is very frustrating when you're not their parent. 
Add this type of frustration with myself on my period and you have a monster ready to snap at an inconsiderate kid asking for a french fry from your lunch
So the lesson for the week? Don't give me a teenage kid to take care of when I'm on my period unless they have properly learned the basics of communication and not to expect to be given things. 

My Favorite

According to Alex, you're just dying to know what my favorite event of this week was. Well, I'm finally sharing it and, hands down, it was the Florida Aquarium. While this place boasts a focus of having a kid water park and aquatic animal petting stations, it really hones in on education with the ecosystem and the animals. Upon entering you are drowned in the scent of small children: baby wipes, vomit, and mothers with not enough perfume to cover it up but just enough to spice up the rather putrid scent. You are then hounded to take a photo so they can charge you $30 for it before you leave.
After pushing through this and the numerous initial strollers in the lobby, you make your way up the escalator and, after reviewing the map, turn to the right into an amazingly simulated Florida ecosystem.

Cute duckies everywhere!

Free-flying birds

Swimming Otter

The atrium ceiling for this lovely aquarium

It was such a beautiful experience. I tried my best to get pictures of everything but, of course, I didn't get a picture of my absolute favorite: the sea horses/dragons. They were so sweet and majestic. Did you know that the majority of them are monogamous and every morning the female will come visit the male and they will do a special dance (sounds like Happy Feet but better!)? I was so enthralled with them we probably spent a good fifteen minutes just in that section. 
Painting by Patrice 
Words cannot fully describe how lovely this visit to the aquarium was. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely go back. Next time I'll get pictures of the beautiful little sea horses and dragons (no flash though, it'll frightening them).



Friday, August 8, 2014

Busch Gardens. Finally.


He still loves me even though I'm a scare-dy cat with heights.
We finally made it to Busch Gardens and Alex got to witness my roller coaster screams for the first time. The first ride of the day is always tough for me; I don't like heights and the feeling of falling paired with it is frightening to me as well. I sat with Kaitlin so Alex wouldn't have to experience my full set of lungs. Kaitlin, as always, is super comforting when I'm stressed. So after getting on Montu first thing, I had my adrenaline. The rest of the day was on and off with rides because of storms (they have to wait 10 minutes after each strike because all the rides generate heat).

AH! <3

Luckily there's plenty to do between rides-- watch Elephants play and eat, see Kaitlin burn for Otters lol. My favorite, of course, were the elephants. They were playing and puzzling over these toys with food inside them. It was so fascinating to watch them learn.

Baby elephant statue

I didn't know my phone zoomed... would've been handy at comic con.
My favorite ride? Cheeta Hunt. Combined with speed and height, the relaxing slow-down spots were marvelous. For me, it was worth the wait-- just wish it wasn't over an hour.
The Rhino Rally ride was fun too, though it should have been longer-- I want to see ALL the animals! Just like with the elephants, I find such simple magic amongst the animals-- they live and love just as we do, always working to figure things out and survive. I feel that there is some lost beauty when simplicity is overcome with frill and profit. I take comfort in thinking about how spending money at the park goes towards taking care of the animals. While they may not be in their natural habitat nor do they have the immense room to roam that they should, it's nice to see that they can still find ways to be happy... At least some of them. There are animals at zoos that when you look at them you see this almost inherent sadness in their eyes-- whether they were born in captivity or saved from unnatural injuries (bald eagles with shot wings).

While Busch Gardens was lots of fun (and I'm super happy Kaitlin got to come) it was not my favorite event of the week. My favorite was still yet to come.

 

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Featuring MOSI

Alex making a funny face before we see IMAX Sharks at MOSI theater.
It's time to fess up, I'm not fooling anyone-- I haven't been doing a good job at keeping up with my daily blog posts. This is the last time I'll talk about it, I just wanted to let it go. It's good that so much is going on I can't keep up-- it's a blessing to be busy and have places to go out to (and the time and money to do the activities). Tomorrow after the Zoo I want to go to Joann to use some of the coupons I got in the mail to get some fabric and start working on some small projects. Next week is the perfect time to use for sewing because Alex's little brother Austin will be back home and the gym won't have group workout classes (i'm on my own until the 25th). So I'll need to be working on my fitness at-home stuff and be working on my crafting.

So as I've said, I've been pretty busy. This week we bougth the Tampa City Pass which includes MOSI (plus an IMAX movie, and a planetarium show that day), two local aquariums, Busch Gardens, and Lowry Park Zoo.
On Monday, Alex and I took Austin to MOSI. It's the local museum and while many of the exhibits are really geared towards younger kids, we had a decent time. Alex and I had thought there were more exhibits in MOSI and perhaps that's because it seems like there should be so much more for family not just the kids. The 3D Printing visiting exhibit was nice yet small-- and you really can't expect too much from the 3D Printing because it's still a new technology. There was an anatomical heart that was printed, though, and it was awesome. Austin had not yet seen what the inside of a heart looks like.
Afterwards we went to another one that was informative but just... too much and not enough of the right stuff. It was about the human life and our growth and decay, pretty much. A bit too heavy at the end for me-- I go to the museum for fun and to learn stuff not to brood over negative thoughts.
There was a cool magnet section though and it was awesome. It was called Magnet Circus and you can guess the cute theme. Then there was Disaster City which simulates natural disasters and allows you to play around with toy structures and stuff to prepare for disasters. Pretty cool, actually. So if you're my age and you're planning on going to MOSI, you could probably just head to the Disaster City and the Magnet Circus and be content. You absolutely do not need the whole day for this venue-- you could get through all of it in a couple hours.
On Tuesday, we FINALLY made it to Busch Gardens. Post on this will be coming soon, we're heading to the zoo today and I need to get Alex up and make some sandwiches.