Note: I would have posted this way back on the 19th, but iPhone 3G won’t mount on Ubuntu any more. Then there were permissions problems with my WordPress installation on WebFaction.
“”"Instructions: Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair – just take a picture. Post that picture with NO editing. Post these instructions with the picture.”"”
Philip got some good shots of Cake Party action. Here’s a sample:
That’s spelt flour, my favorite kind of flour. Click to see full size.
It’s late and I’m tired and need to take a bath. I’ll post more later.
I just got home from yet another Blazers game. Philip M got free tickets through work again. I met some of his coworkers, and there might even be a job opportunity that comes out of this. Cool.
This time we watched from a “sky box.” You can’t see the individual players and moves as well, but it’s a great vantage point to keep an eye on the whole game. It was a fairly uninteresting game, but it was a fun experience.
A dark & blurry view of the proceedings.
Philip and I spent most of the time chatting about relationships and love and meeting new people and what not. That was good. Very therapeutic, although we didn’t arrive at any definite answers to the harder questions/issues.
A semi-interesting photo of the view above our heads. It took me a while to notice this.
I rode the MAX across the river and then walked about two miles home in the rain. My outer garments were wet, but I stayed warm (layers, yo!). I love walking home in the rain at night. There’s no better time to think and feel.
The best thing about having a cake party at your house is that you get to eat all the leftover cake. Or maybe that’s the worst thing. I don’t know. Either way, the cake party was on Sunday and I had cake for breakfast, lunch, and before-bed snack on Monday. The only other thing I had Monday was Olives and Nuts at Holocene. That was pretty tasty but awfully salty.
Anyway. It was a relatively small party, but it was fun. We played a game of team Scrabble. Isaac and I whooped ass with a bunch of multi-word plays. (Not that I’m bragging, because that would be unseemly.)
And then there was the cake. Mmm mm mm. (Did I spell that right?) Originally, I thought there were going to be several cakes and that at least one of them would be “normal” (that is, non-vegan). As it turned out, there ended up being only two cakes and both were vegan. I hadn’t been planning to make one, but I did.
Jason W. made a chocolate cake. I made a vanilla cake using the recipe on this page[1]. Of course, I modified that a bit by using spelt flour and Sucanat instead of normal sugar. Philip M. made some really excellent raw frosting that we put on both cakes. Both cakes came out well (we used the convection bake option) and were very tasty, though I liked Jason’s better, especially with Philip’s frosting; it reminded me of the German chocolate cake I loved so much growing up.
Most of my pictures didn’t come out well. This is maybe the best one:
Philip and Isaac watching me make cake. Actually, I don’t know what they’re doing or why they’re making those faces, but I was making cake right there at the edge of the counter. Jason was working on his cake to my left.
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[1] Here’s the recipe, in case that page disappears:
“This sure to be a party pleaser!
Spray two round 8″ x 1-2/3″ pans with Pam, or lightly oil and flour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Mix Egg Replacer and 1/4 cup water and set aside. Mix soy milk and 1/2 cup water, and set aside.
In large bowl of electric mixer, beat soy margarine until it is creamy, about a minute. Gradually add sugar until well creamed. Beat in vanilla. Add mixed dry ingredients and mixed soy milk/water alternately to creamed margarine, sugar, and vanilla, beating after each addition. Begin and end with flour mixture. (Add flour in 4 steps, liquids in three.) Add mixed Ener-G along with the third addition of liquid. Turn evenly into pans.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, or until done (wooden pick inserted into cake comes out clean). Remove from oven and let cool on cake rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool on rack until cold. Frost as desired.
Here is the Shorts cuteness for today. The images are a little grainy due to (I guess) bad lighting.
Shorts on a dirty towel by my dirty clothes hamper:
Click for full size version.
Shorts on a pair of old school, nylon, rip-stop, hand-me-down, camo pants:
Click for full size version. That pink thing in the background is a candle. What did you think it was?!
In spite of pain from having my wisdom teeth removed and a secondary sinus infection, I decided to tough out a two hour, fast ramble this evening. I went to the oral surgeon for a checkup today and everything looked “pritty gud.” Sitting around the house was getting old, so I decided to go for it. I wasn’t sure I would make it, but since I’m such a badass*, you know I did. I pushed myself maybe just a tad harder than I “should” have, so I might be sitting out Thursday’s ramble (gotta “date” anyway, so… yeah, skippin’ it).
It was a stair ramble, my first. We climbed about two thousand stairs. We also climbed some pretty major hills. Blah blah blah. Here are some photos (as usual, taken with iPhone & edited with GIMP).
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*Yeah, I’m such a badass. You love it.
Last Thursday, my second to last day at EDI, I walked home. Instead of walking on the sidewalk along the road the whole way–which is a busy, noisy state highway in an industrial area with a lot of big trucks–I walked* along the tracks behind some industrial buildings. I came across this graffiti:
It’s not super artistic or anything, but it was unexpected. There was some other, more “professional” graffiti along the way. Here’s the view after turning left and heading home again:
It’s interesting to consider that most of the people that drive by here every day will never know this exists.
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*Tangent: I have a lot (most?) of my best ideas/thoughts/feelings when I’m walking or biking alone to/from work. Or when I’m walking alone in Forest Park. Or when I’m on a ramble with other people but am caught up in my own thoughts. Or, in other words, when I’m active and alone (or effectively alone).
Getting out into the yard today was good. I need to get out there more often. I keep thinking about gardening but get overwhelmed with the thought of it, partly because I’m also doing like 50 million other things (at least), but gardening and composting is really important to me. The compost pile is in full effect (yo), but the most I’ve done with gardening is daydream about luscious, home grown kale.
What I need to do is just start small and build up. There is a small bed next to the garage and also a small frame that our landlord dropped off for a raised bed. I’m going to start with one of these and just one or two “crops” then work my way up to other stuff. Also, on a related note, inspired by a recent blog post elsewhere, I plan to start sprouting.
What are they looking at? Photo taken with iPhone and scaled with GIMP.
After I mowed the lawn, Shorts and Totes came outside to investigate. They sniffed around and chased each other a bit. They’re not quite to the point of snuggling together, but I think that’s coming soon. I’ll post here as soon as they do.
Photo taken with iPhone and scaled with GIMP.
This is Shorts, quite possibly the cutest, sweetest kitten ever (other than her sister, Flubby). OK, I’m sure I’m just saying that because she’s my cat, but whatever… Click the image to see the full size version. I took this photo with my iPhone.
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