Things I’ve Bought That I Love: Summer 2010 Edition!

Published on June 7, 2010 in Uncategorized. 8 Comments

[insert lame excuses for not blogging here]

At this current time, I am still in love with summer.  In a few more weeks, it’ll be too sticky and hot to even look outside during the day, but for now, I am enjoying biking and gardening and even (gasp) going to work and running errands.  So what have I bought that is making summer totally fucking awesome?

My regular bike (which is just Brian’s sisters old bike) is in storage, so I put out the word that I was looking for a bike to use until I got mine back, and that I was willing to do a little tuning up on it.  I braced myself to get offered crap (because really, what can you expect when you ask for something for nothing?), so imagine my surprise when a family friend offered up this sweet thing.  It had been hanging in his garage for ten years, unused!  At first he said it was just a loaner and wouldn’t even sell it, but I guess he changed his mind, possibly because he found out it cost me $130 to get it back on the road (totally worth it).  Green isn’t my favorite color, and it has someone’s name carved all over it, but whatever!  We put a basket on the back and now I can ride it to the grocery store and the health food store and use my vinyl bags and feel extra smug!

I went to St. Louis on a day trip and discovered that the Whole Foods sells Chicago Diner cake!  I’ve eaten at the Chicago Diner twice, but never got dessert (I was full and both times was going somewhere un-cake-carrying-friendly immediately afterwards), so I was super excited!   So excited, I got two pieces of cake and a piece of cheesecake.  All of them were amazingly delicious (but I learned i’m not big on cheesecake), and i’m really glad that St. Louis is so far away so I can’t freebase cake all the time.

These shoes!  My Sketchers slides were literally falling apart, and I needed a new pair of slip on shoes.  Something comfortable and simple that I can get dirty and wear until they also fall apart.  Well, I saw these and squeaked and bought them!  And I normally don’t give a crap about shoes!  They’re by Draven, and these particular shoes don’t seem to be available anymore, but they still have a good selection of vegan shoes!  I wouldn’t garden in them, but they’re fairly comfortable and I can wear them to work, so that’s all that matters.

I also bought these, so now i’m set on shoes for the next two years.

Okay, I bought this bag months ago, but I would be an awful person if I didn’t post the bag that kittee made for me!  I’ve been rocking the same $20 denim purse for five years, and I decided it was finally time to retire it.  I also decided that I wanted a bag big enough to shove my laptop in, so I asked kittee to do a commission for me and she did!  She asked lots of questions, and even told me I could return the bag if I didn’t like it, but I love it!  Kittee has a few pre-made bags in her etsy store, if you want your own.

And finally, some summer jams.  I like to listen to sad bastard music in the winter, really energetic stuff in the spring, but when it gets hot I like things that are still upbeat but a little more mellow.  These both came out in March, but they are excellent for a laid back summer!  The concept of an album where one band covers one other band seems kind of lame, but The Bird and The Bee do it really well.  And really, you can’t do bad with Hall and Oates!  Or maybe you hate the eighties and awesomeness so you’re not really familiar with Hall and Oates, in which case, get acquainted!

Carbondale, I want to be inside of you.

Published on March 1, 2010 in family, food, life and pictures. 9 Comments

A few weeks ago, I took a bus down to Carbondale to spend the weekend with my husband.  Carbondale is a small town in southern Illinois, but it’s a college town so there are actually a few things for vegans to get excited about!  My hometown (which I am grudgingly living in for now) is five times as big and has not even half the options.  The health food store here is small, and has the driest, saddest vegan baked good ever.  The eating out options are fine, but there isn’t any place specifically for vegetarians.

I was only in Carbondale for 38 hours, but I managed to stuff myself pretty hardcore.

The first place we went to was Longbranch Coffee House, a vegetarian cafe.  Unfortunately they don’t have a website or menu online (and our table was too small for me to get pictures with my portrait lens), but I do remember that the number of options that were already vegan or could be made vegan were a little slim.  But i’m a creature of habit anyway, so even if they have one thing that I like that I can eat, i’m happy.  I had a veggie calzone (no vegan cheese, just cheeseless), and the dough was to die for.  So, so good.  I checked out the bakery case at the front and if any of the items were vegan, they weren’t marked as such.

The health food store was just down the block, so we went in there.  A quick glance over the bulk section revealed no nooch or gluten – the two things that I can’t get from regular grocery stores that I consider absolute musts.  The only vegan cheese was Veganrella, which I didn’t even know still existed because most stores stick to Follow Your Heart or have moved onto Teese and other newer products.  Then I looked at the deli case to see if they had any vegan items.  They had tofu salad made with Vegenaise…and HONEY.  I have this habit about loudly bitching about fucking hippies and their need to put honey in fucking everything, and Brian saw the label before I did and started giggling.  I didn’t see much else in the way of vegan items.  On the way out, the woman behind the counter offered me some local cheese.

I don’t anticipate going there very much.

Then we got to go to the Co-Op.  The clouds parted and the angels sang.  It was amazing.  Not only did they have everything I expected, but they had more!  Chocolate covered ginger, vegan sandwiches and wraps, a daily vegan pizza special (that day was olive, and I hate olives so I passed), and more importantly CAKE.  Often times when i’m feeling down, or bleeding and murderous, I often complain that I can’t just get a single piece of cake.  I have to make a whole cake or batch of cupcakes (which I can halfsies, but still) myself.

Since I wasn’t staying long I only got the essentials.  You know, chocolate and sugar.  And a sandwich (called John Lennon) for the bus trip home.  Chocolate cake, a mini-carrot cake, chocolate covered ginger, carob energy bites, and my sandwich (baked tofu, peanut butter, and roasted peppers).  The chocolate cake was a smallish portion, but it was a little over $1 so that’s okay.  I went back before my bus ride to get another piece and they were all sold out (b00).  So I got two pre-packaged cake donuts instead.

After the sugar coma that ensued, I was happy when I found out Lent was coming up, and I decided to do the low-sugar, gluten free thing I did last year.  But come Easter, I am all over that place again.

The only bad experience was the indian buffet.  Brian was all excited to take me, and it turned out to be a total bust.  They only had eight or nine trays, and like an idiot I plopped rice down on my plate without looking at the other food first.  I’m naive and have had good luck with indian food so I just assumed it would be safe, if only for one or two dishes.  They had one bean dish that had meat in it, more meaty things, and then things that clearly had dairy in them.  I ended up with plain rice, spicy cabbage that was too hot for me to even eat, and plain salad.  I ate as much as I could while trying not to cry, and it was $9!  And seriously, what kind of indian place has meat in the chickpea dish?

But overall, it was a pleasant experience and I would really like to sell our house so I can move there already!  Mostly so I can see this handsome dude all the time:

Food to make enemies with.

Published on January 21, 2010 in family, food, life and pictures. 18 Comments

Hey dudes!  I’m dipping my toes back into blogging, after a very hectic last couple of weeks with moving.  The good news is that i’m no longer in Tennessee, the bad news is that the lack of selling our house means that while my husband is starting school, the animals and myself are mooching room and board off of my father-in-law (staying in Tennessee was not an option).  Two people, five dogs, four cats, one house.  Luckily, Chester is the only boy dog and they’re all either too old or too shy to be dicks, so everyone is settling in nicely (though the cats took a little longer to adjust).  Including my farts.

The very first dinner I made for myself here was based on the fact that I wanted buttery, noochy pasta, chickpeas, and broccoli all at once.  After the past few days of living off of take out and gas station snacks, it was a welcome change of pace.  But unless you’re trying to offend everyone around you, I don’t recommend this combination.  Eating this almost got me thrown out of a moving vehicle, and the fart in question happened before I even got in the car. It was like I had found the magical combination to quickly generate the rankest farts ever.  It certainly wasn’t just the beans, I ate chana masala for three meals in a row and i’ve barely made a toot.

So there you have it, the secret to becoming a walking chemical weapon.

P.S.  Didn’t you miss my insightful posts?