the return of the housephone

last friday on my day off i went to a check-up with my doctor and in the process somehow managed to get my cellphone disconnected. let's just say, VERIZON SUCKS. yes, they do. the lady called me up while i was IN the exam room and tried to corner me into paying my bill right then and there. well, i told her i couldn't pay her at that moment so she disconnected my line and johnny's. the funny thing is, she tone of her voice indicated that she really thought she was hurting me by shutting off my service. like she had a gun to my head, and i should be frightened and beg her not to cut it off. i honestly didn't care. in fact, i was fine with it. the only person that needs me to have a cellphone that bad is my mom and i feel no obligation to pay that much money to be at her beck and call. this woman obviously had no clue how much i didn't care about my damn cell phone. so it got turned off.

it was actually quite refreshing to not hear the annoying ringtone and then feel obligated to answer it whenever it rings. i rather dislike talking on the phone in general(excluding my bff's and my sis, of course). so we had to rely on the house phone for communication. we only have one house phone, and it is on the 2nd floor, in the office. it's mainly a fax machine, actually, and the only purpose it serves is to establish a DSL connection for my internet. I hate COMCAST, too. unfortunately, we have learned to tune out the sound of the house phone ringing so we never answer it. and if you do manage to hear it, you have to dash upstairs to answer before the fax kicks on. if this was to be our only means of using a telephone, it obviously wouldn't do.

so johnny installed a new jack and set up the cordless phone in the living room. this is the first time since i have lived in the house that i had a phone in any other room besides the office. and it was nice. i liked it. in fact, i LIKE having a house phone better than having a cell phone now. it's non-committal. i don't have to answer it. why? cause i could be out. or i could be not near the phone. or i could be outside. i have excuses not to answer!! this will work great on my mom.

well, she wasn't so happy about the blackout and made it clear that this will not do for her. she told me that i have to have a cell phone.

so i called up verizon on monday and paid the stupid bill and got my phone back on. ugh.

lazy lazy weekend

i hardly did anything over my 3 day weekend. it was great. johnny and i basically lounged around the house. well, i mainly napped while johnny did random things like re-inforce the chicken barrier and screw handles on the coop. we are having a bit of trouble keeping the chickens from roaming onto the street. a few of my neighbors have come by to check out our birds so i think they'll be cool with having a mini chicken farm next door. unfortunately, jerky has begun to practise his crowing. right now he sounds like he has a sore throat.

i think i need to take a little break from blogging while i get certain things in my life straightened out. i have to re-examine my career/job issue and plan for my future a little bit. i am also trying to lose 15 by the next time i see my doctor which is in 3 months. i've been walking around the neighborhood and eating less so i a optimistic about losing weight but don't wanna jinx myself.

in the meantime, i will be posting less frequently. cause ya know, i blog way too much.

5 foods that are cheaper to grow

i found this article on msn today and thought it was very interesting. i don't think i will be growing carrots again next year - they really are harder to grow (imo). i will also be planting lettuce now - time to get over my leafy vegetable phobia!

my ceyenne peppers aren't doing so good. i need to replace them with the leeks but i've been lazy. i also need to plant those damn sweet potatoes....

pictures of paradise

well, the fence didn't last long as an effective barrier. the chickens have decided that the grass is far better on the other side. B and i must have chased the chickens from going into the street 3 times. once they were actually all hanging out right in the front lawn! the chickens can literally walk right through the fence. so a new project for this weekend will be reinforcing the chicken barrier.

we also realized that 9 chickens should not go through 40 lbs. of feed in one week. they are getting really big fast and eating a LOT. i'm afraid jerky is going to be sunday roast pretty soon. i liked the little guy - he follows me around the most. maybe we'll eat one of the smaller ones instead...

From SPRING 2008

it's been a long time since johnny and i were up at dry pond. it's a little piece of paradise with all the plants and ponds. the dogs just love running at top speed in the fields and lounging in the lush grass under the pecan tree. even the weeds at dry pond are awesome and beautiful. my mom's koi fish are friendly - they will eat pellets out of your hand. you can actually pet them. my friend was just fascinated with the koi so she wanted to bring her new baby and i wanted to show off my mom's crazy landscaping obsession to B. we also planned to fish in my mom's lake not far from dry pond. as soon as we got there, the dogs were out running and me, johnny, and B walked to the far edge of the property picking wildflowers and watching the dogs play.

From SPRING 2008

it wasn't long before we heard the splash. bibi found the spring and soon all three of them were splashing around in the stinky mud. i was busy snapping pictures of weeds. we came back to the lawn and played in the pecan tree. syrus had to prune it, first. B had to climb up and syrus even climbed up the tree! bibi wanted too, but she can't. ahhh... fresh air. sun. birds chirping. trees.





i have no clue what's in this bouquet, but it's pretty and i gave it to my mom :)



look at the size of this weed! it's huge! it had big, fat, furry leaves.



the berries on this bush look delicious. i wonder if they are edible?



according to johnny, they are not.



let's go bananas!



water lillies are so photogenic, aren't they?



B is practising cartwheels. you just can't resist doing a cartwheel on a lawn like this.



syrus went right to work. look at him in the tree!





B monkeyin' around...

now we come to the lake adventure. my mom had a bunch of her korean friends and their families over for a picnic and some fishing. the funny thing is, the only one who caught fish (besides my mom of course) was V's vegetarian husband, who promptly threw his fish back into the lake. Kiera (pictured below with my momma) almost jumped into the lake after the fish. she just couldn't believe why he would do something like that. so, to make up for it, he caught her a bigger fish.





did you notice that my mom is wearing two sun visors? she is ALWAYS wearing a visor, making her look like a perpetual tourist. the worst thing is, they are never plain visors. no, hers are always sparkly.

when we first arrived at the lake, i almost got the mazda stuck on a hill and almost tipped it into the lake. that was a little scary cause i don't think mazda mpv's were meant for bush hogging through thistle. the guys went through shoulder-high grass to try and find a suitable path to drive my mpv through but the weeds and grass were too thick. the dogs followed the guys and i guess louie didn't see the barbed wire fence and ran right into it....



we all got some minor boo-boos from being out in the wilderness (i found a tick on my thigh later that night!!) but poor louie got the biggest boo-boo of all - on his face, too. he heals fast, thankfully.



syrus and my mom look back at our camp from the boat on the lake.

so that was memorial day monday. it was a nice holiday and we remembered to thank the men and women who sacrificed their lives protecting our freedoms.



oh, i almost forgot - i joined blogcatalog and NaBloPoMo with the username seagrass. i still don't know how the hell to use twitter.

attn: bubble-wrap poppers!

my friend at work just gave me a link to this site. if you have an addiction to bubble-wrap like i do, you have to check this out:

http://www.funmansion.com/games/bubble_wrap_pop.html

bloody monday

**warning, this content may not be suitable for the squeamish** (no chickens were involved)

oh, it was an eventful weekend. well, eventful for me - other "normal" people might consider it boring.... anyways, things were going great once friday was over. it was a long weekend ahead of us and everyone was happy. we decided to go visit dry pond for some fresh air and beautiful scenery and fishing. we wanted to spend the night but that didn't work out so we spent all of monday at dry pond and my mom's lake (unnamed so far...). we made it a priority this weekend to clean the house. in an effort to run a more effecient household, we have all agreed on setting some goals for the house, and ourselves. i obviously need help in this department cause it's hard for only one person to organize and keep up what's going on. so i started a fridge inventory to keep a running tab on its contents and monitor spending and waste. i will be coming up with a cleaning schedule to help keep my very messy house somewhat under control. and B and V and i are resolving to lose some weight with exercise and diet - all of us together. i really really hope it works. unfortunately, it may mean i have to wear a bathing suit. ugh.

anyways, back to bloody monday. i guess you could also call it... yesterday. i woke up around 6:45 and let the chickens out and fed and watered them. i let the dogs out and sat outside a little bit. nobody else was awake. so i went back to bed and must have fell asleep because i missed the commotion. when i woke back up about 9:30, B was in the kitchen cleaning. i was impressed that she woke up and cleaned and she informed me that the dogs caught a possum and ate it in the kitchen (or dining room, depending on what side of the fridge you are standing). she spared me the anguish of cleaning up blood and guts and threw what remained of the poor creature on the bramble pile to be picked up by refuse. i felt so bad for the thing - it was just eating my chicken feed! somehow it must have wandered into the backyard right into the waiting jaws of three large dogs. B was right, there's no way i could have cleaned up that mess without losing my cookies.



then i remembered that earlier that morning i saw choco in the side yard carrying a rather large (dead) frog in his little mouth and eating it by the curb. i watched him chew off a leg and bite the frog several times. it didn't bother me, but when i went back to that spot i noticed the frog was still alive! and minus two back legs! it was a sad, sad, situation. i felt horrible for this pretty frog but i can hardly scold my cat for being a cat.



so, i made johnny move the frog from the curb over to my mother's backyard where hopefully some frog deity will have mercy on it and let him re-grow his legs. more than likely it will die, but i chose to believe there are frog deities. fairies, even. so that was bloody monday (morning). a lot more happened that day which i will probably have to continue in another post later. it was a beautiful weekend, hanging out with awesome people and animals. we put up a small wire fence to help keep the chickens from wandering onto the street. it's working so far. i am amazed that they seem to know where their home is. they stay close, so i let them roam all day. they mostly peck and scratch around or sit in the monkey grass or the straw pile. last night they even tucked themselves in bed! i was being lazy and didn't herd them into their coop and when i finally went out, they were already inside, sleeping! awesome!

i told you guys i was going to be the next georgia o'keefe! the magnolia tree in front of my porch is blooming! you can sit there and smell the scent of magnolia perfume the air - and enjoy the beautiful view as well!



our weekend was fun and productive! like i said, we resolved to gain control over the household so we busted ass and did a lot of cleaning. johnny did a lion's share of the landscaping, but look at the beautiousness of the porch now!!!

From SPRING 2008

we mulched the hibiscus with this really dark bark-y mulch, and put down a weed cloth under the pea gravel. we edged along both sides and johnny re-wired the landscape lights. B and i planted the marigolds and the lilies are growing happily. i moved all my herbs over to the greenhouse roof so we can still enjoy them from the porch but they are out of the way.

i also tackled the gargantuan task of cleaning out my closet. i thinned out my wardrobe and gave away a whole bunch of clothes i don't wear (or fit into) anymore. i made enough room for johnny's clothes by packing away our winter clothes under the bed. now we can share a closet! now all we have to do is organize and sort the sheets and blankets. since louie decided to take a shit in the bathtub the other night, B also scrubbed the bathroom down with some brand-new environmentally conscious cleaning products from target called "le scrub" by method. i like it.

my mom's garden

my mother is the original green thumb in the family. she's a hardcore landscaper. her expertise is ponds, and she has many of them. her koi fish breed like rabbits. some of her most notable achievements are: building a lake (yes, a LAKE), building a driving range, installing several, several koi and non-fish ponds complete with waterfalls and fountains, building an outdoor wedding venue and outdoor kitchen (Dry Pond Garden), installing a fruit and nut orchard, and remodeling several homes. it may sound like she's a rich developer, but she actually did all of this with her own two hands. her garden at archwood (next door to my house) has been in gradual deterioration since she moved downtown a couple years ago, but it still looks lush and pretty. my dad is nowhere near as good a gardener as my mom, who can grown ANYTHING. she can pick a branch off of any plant and re-root it anywhere. she has quite a diverse collection of plants in all her gardens, some of them older than me! i made a huge slideshow of her archwood garden (and some of my chickens, of course), see if you can identify some of these plants! many of them are edible. i call archwood the secret garden, like the book... anyways see for yourself....

ugableghflppbb

that pretty much sums it up. i die of boredom a little bit each day. i try not to gripe about my life too much cause i know nobody wants to hear it and pessimism is unhealthy. but seriously. i have it good compared to a great many people and i am fortunate. i am actually more happy overall now than i think i have ever been in my life. my only hang-up is i mourn the past too much. i dwell on how things should have been, and instead of focusing on how to change things, i get stuck. it's really quite frustrating and seeing as i don't have a god i can trust to just fix everything for me, i get pretty bummed about things i don't think the average person gets bummed about. this is something i've done for a very long time, as far back as i can remember! i have some ways of coping, but generally i do not handle stress very well. well, it may seem like i do but actually i don't. i perform relatively well under pressure but it takes a toll on me physically and mentally. then i get to marinate in resentment for a little while and that takes a further toll on me. see? it's a vicious cycle. so how do people deal with their stress, i wonder? how is it that they have a lot of the same issues i have (nobody is unique anymore, in terms of "problems") but they seem to deal with it and move on with life, as healthy and happy as before. is there something i am missing? a chemical? a technique learned in childhood?

boredom is my ultimate enemy. it causes me to ruminate too much. it causes me to mindlessly snack, or wander around the internet. it makes me want to sleep. it makes me want to do anything but what i am supposed to be doing. i am constantly bored at work. is that normal? it's tortuous for me cause i have to sit here and think about all the other stuff i could be doing at home, or in my life in general. i've realized that i am not the ambitious person my mother wants me to be - i am more of a homemaker, a teacher, a gardener, a caretaker, a nurse, a woman. i imagine all the feminists of the 60's would be highly disappointed in me, seeing as i spent 8 years to get a master's degree in architecture only to dream of being a housewife. i'm almost ashamed of it, but should i be? is it somehow demeaning cause it seems to be looked down on. i don't understand why women are expected to have a career and a family now, it just seems like there can't be both. one or the other. it's hard for me to make those kind of difficult decisions - take my licensing exam, or have children before my ovaries dry up? get LEED certified or save money for a baby? try to move up my position or spend more time preparing myself for having a family? how does one make a decision this tough? i can't even imagine what it would be like to be a single working mom, i just can't. it's a shame our country doesn't take care of it's women and children a little better. at least take good care fo the children so the women can worry less.

my nikon is back!

i got my camera back from the shop the other day. of course they returned it without a drop of juice in the battery. i also forgot that i had left my charger at work, so my first test picture with my serviced nikon is of my desk at work. not exactly thrilling, but it'll do. i'm not so sure i am impressed with the overall quality of my nikon coolpix. it supposedly has 7.1 megapixels, which is way more than the sony i have been using but the images seem grainy and out of focus to me... plus the flash is horrible - makes everything look like a crime scene photo. i prefer non-flash photos, which requires just the right amount of (natural, preferrably) light. so yeah, here's my boring desk at work - coffee and tea to the left, dried eucalyptus in the back, and autoCAD on the screen - aaaaghhh. i hate being a cad monkey. i hate being an architect. but it pays the bills.

new book idea

you know it's really a sad shame that most of the ideas i have become forgotten because i was too lazy to write it down, or i thought it was a ridiculous idea so i just mentally tossed it away (cause, you know, there's only so much room left inside my head...) but i think i need to vow never to lose an idea, no matter how ridiculous, again. and so here's my next idea; and i'm only sharing this cause i seriously doubt this idea will come to fruition. i really think there needs to be a comprehensive and totally practical book on bamboo. BAMBOO is the world's greatest plant. it is truly the most versatile vegetation that mother nature has gifted to us. i am by no means an expert, but i have seen a fair share of bamboo use in my lifetime and although my mind is feeble after work, i shall attempt to list as many uses as i possibly can. because i love bamboo.

well, first of all - it is totaly sustainable. it will grow and grow and grow some more. you almost can't stop it. i can't imagine how we could possibly run out of bamboo. (unlike oil).

it is fabulously green. i mean the color, not the pop buzzword of today. bamboo has so many beautiful shades of green - and it's all in your face, too! most other trees you see the bark then the branches, then the leaves - but bamboo is just a wall of emerald green BAM! right in your face. you don't have to look up to see the color. it's not just green, though. it's also a beautiful ochre-y shade of yellow, deep, almost black, greens, purple-y green, blue-y green, etc. i haven't seen a red bamboo, but i wouldn't doubt it if there is one.

bamboo grows redonkulously fast. like a foot a day fast! instant returns!

you can EAT bamboo! and it is delicious - you can fix it about a million different ways. cook it like you would asparagus, or zuchini. it would be fabulous on pasta, so good stir-fried, i like it plain, too. do not compare this to canned bamboo!! i'm not even sure that stuff is real. fresh bamboo shoots are so delicately crunchy and juicy, with a very fresh and mild flavor.

hello, you can eat it and BUILD with it! bamboo is also really really strong. the way the fibers grow give it superb tensile strength. BUT! the chambers created by the nodes also give it incredible compressive strength as well.

it's hollow! it's really strong AND lightweight! there's no better building material than that! you can make scaffolding a million stories high in about 3 hours with about 100 chinese men. you can build instant bridges, instant shelters, instant anything!

weapons. unfortunately bamboo is also a great weapons material. it's strong and lightweight which means you can swing it really fast and it freakin' hurts!! and you can also make all kinds of torture devices which shall remain nameless....

pandas (and dogs) love to eat it. in fact, i'm sure chickens probably love bamboo, too. it's high in nutrients and also water content. it is a very good source for immediate energy in the form of carbs yet sustains you with it's soluble fiber.

ok, so now about the book. what i'm saying is, why isn't there a practical, hands-on manual to all things bamboo for the average household? all kinds of recipes, ideas, building projects, etc. us asians have been taking advantage of this most resourceful grass for centuries and its uses remain unlimited. i LOVE having bamboo growing in my backyard. i use it for everything, from eating to having a nice privacy screen from my neighbors, to making beautiful trellises for climbing plants (like my peas!) you can make temporary cold frames, gates. fencing, whatever. i truly believe it is an essential for every homesteading family.

you can make flooring, utensils, plates & bowls, cups, hats, purses, rugs, furniture, clothing, paper, linens, freakin' robots, probably; food, shoes, teepees, and the list goes on and on...