In which we receive a check in the mail, witness the effect of a snowstorm on our community, and discuss college

Yeah the title sums it up :P


Since I last posted, we have had no END of developments.


Our financially-struggling robotics team received a check in the mail last Tuesday: this allows our team to participate in FIRST this year. Team thrilled, Bethany awed and ecstatic. The donor, someone I have never met, who somehow got enough of an idea about robotics from my many and passionate posts about the joys of FIRST. Thank you.






And the weather.
Let me explain first that our corner of the PNW [Pacific North-west] gets snow on average twice a year.  The fall of more than an inch is a signal for 'MASSIVE PARTAAYY TIME!!!'
More than half an inch, and all the local school districts can be counted on to panic and cancel school. Last night there was a Facebook event started [by someone in the PNW, I think] and it now has over 3000 guests: titled 'No school Tuesday'.


A few years ago we actually had a snowfall around Thanksgiving [we still talk about that]. This is rare however, usually we only get a snow in December or sometimes as late as March.


Anyway, this summer the fearless weathermen forecasted that we would have a 'cold wet winter' [ie, snow]. The entire town has been talking about that since August, I think.


Starting early last week, the weathermen talked eagerly and portentously of snow coming [last] weekend. Despite the ongoing warm wet weather, our town was simply a-buzz. Remembering the big ice storm last year [roads were out for a whole 18 hours], the all-team bonfire organized by the local robotics teams was cancelled.  No snow materialized, and it was only chilly over the weekend. The weathermen, undaunted, commenced pushing back the snow forecast to Monday night.


Monday at school, amidst pouring cold rain, teachers and students alike gazed longingly out the window at non-snow. I was amused to see reports beginning to come in, of snow in the northern part of the state, Washington state, and the mountains to the east [which don't count, because you can snowboard year-round there].
Yesterday evening, in between preparing for a calculus test scheduled for today, I glanced out the door. It was dark by 5 PM, but no snow....the weathermen, now beside themselves, were detailing to-the-minute movements of 'this big Arctic air-mass' which was supposed to produce snow after 11 PM.


Right around 10:30 last night I was killin' time on Facebook, and noticed that every. single. person's. status for the last half hour was some variation on 'snow!', 'SNOW!' or 'SNOWWW!!!!!!!!!'  Mom looked out the door, and behold, it was in fact snowing. It was starting to pile up by the time I went to bed.
Was woken in the small hours of the morning by my mom, who had listened to the bus-route reports and announced that school was cancelled. I went back to sleep and slept until nearly noon :P


Okay, so the grand total of snow was less than an inch. But it is supposed to get well below freezing tonight, so the meltage will likely refreeze into really scary patches of black ice. We are counting on a delay, at the least, tomorrow.


And now for the witty and introspective detailed social analysis of snow upon our town. After a late and luxurious breakfast, dad and I headed into town to buy meal fixings for Thanksgiving, in case the roads should be bad and the crowds worse, tomorrow.
Brushed snow off the car with much jollity and wearing of gloves and knee-socks.


Quick digression here! We have been on a years-long search for Really Good Knee-socks. There are several criteria which must be met: mostly wool, soft, cannot fall down in a puddle around one's ankles. We made a foray to 'the Scottish store' in a city to the north of here, specially to buy socks. They were PERFECT...dad and I each got several pairs. Soft, woolly, don't fall down. SO WARM.


Town was BUSTLING. The stores probably did a FAR better business today because of the snow, hehehe. Got food at every fancy-food market in town....Co-op, Trader Joe's, Market of Choice. Oranges, potatoes, ginger ale, cranberries, milk, etc etc. It's kept snowing a bit all day too. Great fun. Got home and made hot chocolate, cranberry-orange sauce, sampled the ginger ale, and so on.
Oh yeah, social analysis! I don't know if this is true in other parts of the country, but it seems bad weather [or even the threat thereof] causes people here to be a little more chipper and so on. Also they are thrilled to have the excuse to wear their real cold-weather clothes: jackets, woolly hats, gloves, scarves. They would never admit that they are probably a little overheated in these clothes, because it never gets very cold here....


Our town simply shuts down, as previously stated, if there's even the hint of an ice-storm. The newspaper will be busily talking about the snowstorm for days. Kids can grow up, practically, between really good snowstorms. Bethany is quite inexperienced in brushing snow off the car satisfactorily, as we learned today when we started driving and were blinded by a little flurry of snow blowing up in front of the windshield. 


---------
This weekend we also had a lot of college discussion, and the upshot is that I am seriously considering relocating to Texas for college at Le Tourneau U. It's a Christian college with a large engineering focus, something that is very hard to find. We've kinda gone back and forth [every day a different decision], because of some issues to do with vaccinations, the Gulf oil spill, vacation plans, and so on. 


I really do hope it works out. I've wanted to have 'the full college experience', cliché as that sounds, complete with dorms and roommates and so on and so forth. Apparently the food is pretty good too, which I hear is quite unusual, lol. So! Looking at Computer Sci.  and starting to make packing lists. I am like kinda REALLY excited at the thought of setting up camp on my own, I must say.  As I emoted the other day, 'one big long camping trip!'.  I'd plan to come home for Christmas and summers, I am NOT thrilled about summers in East Texas, hehe. 


Needless to say I have a few reservations. One, Oregon State [where I'd been planning to attend] has a reputation as a good computer school. On the other hand, I will probably wind up living at home if I stay here, and I have a feeling that will lead to having a very hard time finding 'my own little niche' so to speak. I hear it's hard enough the first year at college, without living four miles away from campus. 
Two, parents will miss me a lot. 
Three, I will miss parents and friends and Oregon. 
Four....um...that's it actually. I am ready to go, should it work out. But I really really hate indecision, so let's hope we can make up our minds -.-


Should I go, look forward with glee to posts of all sorts from the college freshman living away from home for the first time. Wouldn't the patriocentrists have a conniption. 


And now, off to take a walk, then a shower, then prepare some form of dinner. I love snow. 

Raw

Well this post is the result of a few comments, and then also the fact that I ate a--nevermind.

So yeah, raw food. I haven't really done much with a raw-food diet, but I adore eating raw stuff. Milk for instance. I don't feel like going into a detailed discussion of the raw-milk question. Suffice it to say that I drank raw milk at every opportunity when I was in California. LEGAL there....the government has no right to regulate whether or not people can sell raw milk. Nor does it have any right to regulate what milk producers can say: if it's true, they should be allowed to say it.

This issue is to do with artificial bovine growth hormone. rBGH has been shown to be harmful to cows [causing mastitis and other problems] and humans. Linked with cancer, in fact, because of its mimicking of human growth hormone.  As a result of people wanting milk from cows not treated with rBGH, many producers label their milk as 'rBGH-free'. The government, lobbied by the big-milk industry, wants to outlaw this.

Why?

It would 'cast doubt in consumers' minds on the safety of milk NOT labeled'.  Cast doubt.
Would be unfair to producers using rBGH.

The same thing happened with a beef producer who wanted to test all their cows for BSE [mad cow disease]. ALL their cows...and label the meat as tested...and the industry wouldn't let them, because it would cast doubt on the safety of meat NOT labeled. Only a tiny percentage of cattle are tested for BSE.



And then this evening I randomly decided to eat a raw egg yolk. In my defense the egg was JUST in from the henhouse and still a bit warm. It was sitting on the counter waiting to be made into esoteric pasta sauce....it looked yummy....well I took and cracked it, and picked the yolk out in my hand....and SCHLOOP.  :D  I was kinda nervous bout the taste, I am not keen on underdone eggs....and I sorta cheated, I mostly just gulped it down.   :D  Then proceeded to gross out my friends with the tale...hehe.

I can expound on why the danger of salmonella from my hens' eggs is negligible. Way I hear it, [and I practically have my doctorate in this sort of stuff...] hens that are raised in confinement, as in commercial egg production, are too much protected from bacteria. The salmonella bacterium, according to my Culinary Arts teacher, is very weak: it dies out when it competes with the Mostly Harmless bacteria found in farmyards. This is why it's more dangerous to eat store-bought eggs than home-grown, for the most part.



Oh, and stuff like what I just said may be illegal in a few years, enjoy it while you can.

thanksgiving

Preparations begin for Thanksgiving! I've had the menu planned out for days, today I got up early and made pie-crust. When I came back from school I tackled the pumpkin pies. ONE little squash, that was all: it made five pies!! Good grief. Midway through the festivities we ran to town to get more cream and go to the last farmers' market of the season. At the Co-op there were a grand total of 4 cartons of Lochmead cream left, where there are ordinarily several brands. I snatched all but one :)
Cleaned up the kitchen whilst listening to 30s French swing (thanks to Top Hats!).

I am very busy working through my C++ book; finished the first chapter yesterday. Wrote a program to solve for the length of the hypotenuse. The really great thing there was that the original program used a set value for each of the opposing sides, but I made it a user-interactive program by applying what I'd learned in an earlier to chapter to allow the user to set the lengths of the opposing sides!
hehe, for those of you who aren't programmers that sounds ridiculously abstruse, and for those who are it is a definite no-brainer, but excuse me if I'm more than a little excited ;)

Am making a pot of black rice to go with the lovely chanterelle mushrooms I got at the market. Tomorrow I'll do the potatoes, vegetables, salad, etc. My grandmother is doing the bird (chicken), cranberry sauce (two types) and some other things. Can't wait.

And because I'll be too buy to do the traditional "thankful" post tomorrow, here's some things I'm grateful for.

-Food. I don't have to worry too much about where the next meal is coming from. Heard Michael Savage on the radio today, he said something very true: go back a few generations in your past and you will find someone who lived near starvation. Unthinkably true.

-family: I have reasonable parents and it is awesome. I know that doesn't sound very complimentary but you know it is if you've ever had to deal with unreasonable family members.

-mah budders....I have some pretty awesome friends. This time last year I didn't feel like I had many friends; now I've got lots :) Due mostly to filming the movie, and a few other things. Love you peeps! And starting blogging last June: thank you guys, you really are awesome!! :) -hugs all round-

-the weather this fall! We've had a lot of sunny cold weather which I dearly love.

-music. I never really went in for listening to music until this summer when I got an mp3 player. Started off in the summer with country; progressed to Celtic, Celtic-punk, and etc, moved on to Pink Martini, various esoteric foreign groups, and am now in French jazz from the early 20th century. And of course Beatles, Paul McCartney, and more Beatles.

-the NASA grant that our robotics team got: we can afford to go to regionals!

-the situations that have developed in the past year.

-TIm McGraw. LOVE Tim McGraw.

-the fact that I have to (oh dear) find room in the refrigerator for FIVE pumpkin pies

-Eddie. My Mac. What a niiice computer.

-the fact that I'm thankful......

good night folks!

hard-hitting ginger cookies and jiggling egg yolks

I had a really interesting day. At culinary class we had a guest speaker talk about making pasta from scratch.
"The traditional way is to take a mountain of flour and put the eggs in--a little mountain, a hill--"[chuckles]

Then for the carbonara sauce one of the guys was helping, with separating an egg. You take the yolk in your hand and dribble the white through your fingers.
-Levi, jiggle it!
-I'm jiggling as hard as I can!
-Faster!
-Whoo, that was awesome!

Off to biology class. We had a little expedition to the local stagnant pond, to collect samples. We were armed with ladles tied on to broomsticks, for added reach.
-That ladle is a masterpiece! Eh...okay, you can hold the masterpiece.

At the pond we were supposed to record in our lab notebooks what we saw and heard. Other than a small [but noisy] contingent of frogs fleeing into the water at our approach, there was not a noticeable amount of things to notice--quite possibly because we were making a certain amount of noise ourselves. There were some younger siblings along.
-Okay, I hear little kid screaming, big splash.....[I must hasten to explain that the splash was caused by the dog leaping in to retrieve a stick.]

Inside we played a review game. Cards with definitions on one side of a pair, and term on the other. Something like Go Fish, except it became evident that some of us were not as familiar as could have been hoped with the rules of the latter game!
Someone has, say, "eukaryotic cell" and asks for the definition, "do you have a cell that does not have any organelles".

Mrs. T: Bethany, do you have a parasite?
[mass hilarity]

Jonathan: Ooh, learning. I don't like that.

Mrs. T: [giving us a hint, for "endospore"] Now, if a bacterium is going through a difficult time....

Can't recall who it was: Does anyone have Fibrous Bristles?

Mrs. T: [More hints] Prokaryotic cells.....
Me:[happy to oblige, in a sing-song voice].....Don't have organelles!

More fun stuff:
-A flagellum..eh...locomotes.

-That's not the right kind of scribble!


I made another batch of ginger cookies tonight. They are hard-core. I used approximately 1/2 cup of powdered ginger, a substantial quantity of fresh grated ginger, and chopped candied ginger. Epic.

flippin' crepes

In culinary today we made crepes. Not the flaming Crepes Suzettes, just the ordinary, non-incendiary sort. They didn't really work that well. There was this dome-shaped pan which you dip into the batter and then invert over a hot stove. It was sort of....an epic fail. Our batter [as well as everyone else's] was dripping down into the burner, and getting the crepe off the pan involved a lot of scraping. We scrapped [or dare I say....scraped?? lol!] that idea and went for the skillet.

One of the other groups was exhibiting the proper flipping technique. One guy was demonstrating how "you want to catch it on the return loop", and another described a pleasing parabola with his hand, dramatizing the Escape of the Crepe ["There it goes! Incoming!"]
Meanwhile Nate [in our group, the math guy, you recall] made coffee as per the teacher's direction. However he didn't really measure it properly and the result was a remarkably weak brew [one might almost call it flaccid].

Then I raced off across town to bio. That was also fun. First lab--intro to microscope--viewing thread and cheek-cells. And definitions review. There are 27 definitions to know for this module. Mod. 6 [The Cell! Rejoice!] has over 40. Inhumane.
Micro-organisms: "Organisms that are micro" and Consumers: "Organisms that consume" were two of the jewels offered up at one point or another for our thirsty, knowledge-seeking ears. [It is, perhaps, superfluous to note that there are two guys in the class.]
One other girl and I have already done bio [or half a year thereof, in my case] and are sort of dominating the definition scene.

Then during lab we were using a Q-tip to take samples of our cheek-cells and Emily thought her mom [the teacher] said "smear the west side of the qtip on the slide" when of course she meant "wet". Yes, don't use the east side, use the west side! lol We also managed to break a couple of slide covers "Oh I'm going to see how long I can go without breaking one this year!" CRUNCH!

There were some adventures with the methylene-blue stain, too. Fortunately nothing too dramatic.

At the end of class our teacher was quizzing us on definitions. We were supposed to say "ding!" to replicate the sound of a buzzer when we knew the answer. At one point one of the girls received a comment: "That was a weak 'ding'" which made us all laugh.

I was slightly buzzing from the coffee, I think; despite the weakness of said stimulant.

Oh yes: I forgot to mention at the relevant time that in culinary we learned that the glass shields above buffet cases are called "sneezeguards". Is that not hilarious?


Let's talk sherpa. [Have we had this conversation before?] So yeah, I am pretty much a certified sherpa. Carrying oodles of stuff, balancing things, opening doors with my feet are all parts of daily life. My dad says I inherited it from him.....these awesome pliable toes.


During one shoot last spring I was carrying about 40 bags of camera equipment out to the car [prior to transfer to ANOTHER set] and had no hands free, and the other actors and such were lagging behind. Here's me, a heavy bag crossed over each shoulder [choking me--but Certified Sherpas care not for such trivialities], and a bag or costume in each hand. The trunk of the car demanded to be opened. I slipped off my shoe, stuck my foot in the handle, and [using my balletically strengthened muscles] hefted upwards. 'Twas quite a feat--the others were quite impressed.

We've got this tour book on England and we're poring over it....."Clovelly--perfect Devon village oozes charm as thick as clotted cream".....I kid you not. The book was, needless to say, written in Britain. I seize this opertunity to interject a bit of lucidity penned by myself a few months ago.

'Twas in regards to a hilarious bit forwarded to me on Britain taking charge of the affairs in The States. Amongst my suggestions were:

- remedy the peculiar American method of naming towns in words of two syllables or less. Towns deemed to be unsuitably named will be rechristened with such names as: Urswick-by-the-Tweed, the Firth of Forth (actually that's a body of water), Chipping Mutton (not to be confused with Chipping Norton), the Wallops (a pretty trio of towns, Upper, Middle and Nether), West Eastwick, Huddleston-in-the-Moor, Twiddlesbury, Wootton Plunkett, Thrushmutton-on-Rye (with caraway seeds) and Woolesley-Henworth. These names are particularly suitable for abbreviating on sign-posts--such as, M'finch, U'wk-by-Tweed, W'ly-H'wth.

- re-institution of the noble sport of mangold-hurling

- elimination of the costly habit of making beds with two sheets. Only duvets are really sensible. [Warning: duvets may prove a hazard to uninformed American-types. The management of many British hotels have had to rescue a great many hapless tourists from the duvets [known familiarly as tourist-traps] on the hotel beds. Duvets are not sleeping bags!! ]

- prompt installation of surveillance-cameras at strategic points, for example in grocery-store parking-lots. Persons wishing to abscond without paying parking-fees for a full hour when they've only been there 20 minutes will need to resort to ploys such as: finding they do not have change while at the pay-station, meandering back to their auto to get it, rooting in the auto, being "horrified'' to then discover they don't have any change, and other sundry tactics intended to assure the British government they really are trying to pay up.

- treatment of national landmarks, historical sites and such in the British fashion. To wit; not swathing them in velvet ropes strung between poles and then hiring a lot of security guards to ensure that no-one (heaven forbid!) actually gets close to anything interesting. Outdoor-type attractions, such as ancient monuments, Stone Age earthworks and stone-circles (which, we are informed, the U. S. has a painful dearth of), will be open for the general public to walk up to and touch.


- signposts are another issue. Customary American standards of navigational signs tend to be confusing. It is not necessary, for instance, to change the mileage-to-destination notation with distance traveled. A typical British road (let us say, to Scorhill stone circle) would obviate this difficulty by continuing to state the same mileage, i. e. , "Scorhill--2 1/4 km". The next sign, a good mile later, would be marked thus: "Scorhill--2 1/4 km" and so on up until the destination which, we wish to emphasize, need not be marked at all.

- small roads, such as those exemplary ones to be found in England's South-west, are just as efficient as large ones. When traveling along a small, two-lane road, one does not worry about oncoming cars until one meets them--and one does not see them until one meets them. Then there is usually a little lay-by handy to pull into and politely let the other auto pass. Very civilised and polite, you understand.
Some (we would say over-anxious) drivers might feel it expedient to travel in the wake of other, larger (if slower) vehicles such as farm implements which act in the role of "brush-cutter" to ensure there are no obstructions (oncoming autos, pedestrians, projecting hedge-material etc.) in the path. A small auto, progressing in this way, may proceed without fear and even reach alarming speeds before overtaking the farm-implement. Still other drivers may wish to attach long slender "whiskers" to the fronts of their autos (in order to sound out the terrain), some models even coming equipped with little red warning flags at their tips.


Humourous, no? [That word has WAY too many U's!]


I forgot all about Reader Wednesday but better late than never. I want your thoughts on computers: Macs vs. PCs, Vista versus XP, html-coding, are you a comp-geek, how often do you de-frag, etc.
Hey, that's a good idea for a poll!

Poll has been added [two, actually] GO VOTE!!! All patriotic followers of the Republic of Varied Topics are encouraged to vote early and often!

exhilaration for no reason

So I was listening to three Lord of the Dance soundtrack songs on my mp3 player while I was cooking dinner just now and I got completely psyched up---breathing speeding up, sweat breaking out, wild gleam to my eyes---and had to listen to them again. Awesome.
Three songs you must listen to: Warriors, Victory, and Siamsa, all by Ronan Hardiman/Lord of the Dance soundtrack.
I just downloaded Victory today, and a Gaelic Storm song [another good group]. Fun. Oh yeah, and Euchari by Garmarna, a Swedish or suchlike group.

I also took time to download and watch The Celtic Zuccinis, a nice little piece by Bracie and Ophelia......hysterical, you must see it! here

I just cooked a nice pot of rissotto, for the monthly potluck at the Grange. Yum yum.....zuccinis as the foundation.

Bio was good, it's a nice group of peeps.

At culinary today I managed to freak out a couple of people. I recalled that "whoops, I'm not supposed to be wearing ear-rings" and just totally ripped them out [clip-ons, of course]. A gratifying expression of shock was the result >:-)

Ooh darn, I just looked up "The Call" [the credits song from Prince Caspian"] and now I find it's ALBUM ONLY???!!! :(

Running off.....cheers, folks! I'll be back!

Before you go....

I thought of a few more things.

1. This is quite possibly the most random thing that has ever happened to me. Today I was pulling up the zipper on the side of my nice dark leather boot and I managed to scratch my hand with my toe-nail, drawing blood. CRAZY!!!

2. I love goat milk!! I can drink it by the glass. I think I'm slightly allergic to cows milk. Also I have a source for buying raw goat milk, which I am pretty sure is not legal in this state [the one good thing about going to Cal. is buying raw cows' milk] Must protect my source! :) Mehehee

3. Slugs are practically the state animal here. Big brown ones. A few weeks ago my dad stepped on one on the porch, in his stocking feet. He was not happy.

4. Does anyone use Firefox for their browser? I tried to switch to FF the other day and no go. Firewall issues, I believe. I've heard that peeps have trouble sometimes with Norton security and FF. Any input, folks??? I'm not happy.


My mom is on the couch eating watermelon and I can smell it all the way over here at the computer. I got some nice green grapes at the farmers' market, and had a spate of phone-calls regarding rehearsals, both theatrical and swing-dance. That's on Friday.

I just spent way too long on the computer. Drat, and now I have a headache. But it's been good, I was reading in the archives of Minas Tirith [don't you love that scene?] so to speak :) old posts on Carpe Diem.

I love edged weapons! *Rubs hands, evil gleam in me eye* Swords, knives, daggers.
Let's do the run-down of blades that I own/semi-own:
one sabre, edge not sharpened, but with a deadly point
two small pocket-knives, black plastic handle--one was found by me, in a lake. No kidding.
two hunting knives, 4--6 inch blade and sheath, oh how sweet
the awesome Kershaw flick-open pocket knife

I can open an egg with one hand!! I saw a kid doing it in Culinary and decided I could do it too. I tried my hand on it at home this morning, making eggs for brekkers.

I like wearing my hair in two long braids, pinned on top of my head. It never fails to get comments on how Swedish I look. [I actually am 1/4 Swedish, more than 1/4 German, and half everything else. I had one Scottish ancestor, a Minerva Twaddle from Tweedsdale, Scotland.]

I just heard that Grandma sent over some custard, so I guess I'd better see if there's truth in that rumor.....teehee

She sent over some pasta with tofu the other day. I love tofu, for some reason, and I never make it....idk. But I said, pretty much, "Don't worry about the tofu. I'll take care of it for you." and it pretty much disappeared....lol

EDIT EDIT EDIT: I have a new follower!!! Thank you Aquaria Longstream!!!!!!!

cheese, culinary class, and cargo pants

Life has been a bit scattered-and-random lately. On Monday night I was too discouraged to write, my parents had just decided I couldn't take the theatre class that I'd been so looking forward to :(

Yesterday I perked back up again. We made omelettes in culinary arts and that was fun. My group went the whole nine yards and made a nice ham-and-green-pepper sauce, which was awesome, but we were the last ones cleaning up. :)

Off to rehearsal at 4, at the Grange. That went. That's all I can say, it went.
We are still ironing out details. Eva and Dallan came over to my house afterwards and we had fun getting a costume for Eva for RenFaire, and discussing Faire in general. Played with the goats and went walking. Dallan stayed to dinner and we watched a recording of what I still consider the best play I ever wrote/acted in, Anne of Green Gables. 'Twas epic.

Today it's 73 F and raining a bit. I am feeling vaguely influenzal, hopefully that won't develop, I am NOT going to be sick before renfaire!! I'm still hungry though! I think it might just be allergies.

I submitted my [rather epic] film Road to Freedom to the local film festival, in the Young Filmmakers' category. Woot! First film fest! I've got a contact there, who liked my submission to the Fast Film Project last spring and encouraged me to go for the big one. fingers crossed....

Tomorrow is the first of our weekly bio. classes. There's about 6 students, all homeschooled, mostly a bit younger than me and all shy/quiet [I think--I don't know them all]. It'll be interesting. Kingdom Phylum Class Order.....

H School [henceforth abb. HS or CHS] is also interesting. The fashions are [gotta say it again, sorry] so interesting!! Ninety percent of the population is clad in denim below the waist, of course. But even that ranges from my conservative boot-cut Levi's from Montana [*heart*!] to skinny grey jeans to black holey concoctions. A lot of the styles are things I'd never wear, and would cringe at in the stores, but I don't know: people look good in anything. Maybe I just like looking at people. I've always thought that artificially-colored hair is rather awful but I've seen some girls with blonde hair dyed with a couple of pastel colors just at the sides, and it actually is kind of nice. [Ahem...don't freak out please, I'm not planning on dyeing my hair.]

So that covers "culinary class" but what about "cheese" and "cargo pants"? Well I was just thinking about how much I like cheese, is all. And cargo pants is what I'm wearing right now [POCKETSES!!! Love em!].
Yeah--pockets. Starting with the filming this spring I have started to carry stuff in my pockets all the time. Big ole knife [except not at school, which kills me] clipped onto the side, pencil, iPod sometimes, rubber band, string [little random tail-end, and a lovely ball of high-quality waxed stuff], needle-nosed tweezers for splinters, lighter [two, on my birthday. SO handy for lighting candles, and it means you're never without a fire-source. Just don't try to light a bunch of birthday candles and expect that the lighter will be cool enough to put back in your pocket.] um yeah, where was I....audio cables sometimes, converter, watch [that's when it's not attached, ninja-like, to my belt loop], band-aids, paper, and for the sake of this discussion I just added two paper-clips, a second lighter as I think my main one is running out of steam, and three aaa batteries. Nice, huh?

One time I found one of my mood-rings in my pocket and had NO idea how it got there. Then of course I couldn't find it again.

Jewelry is another variable. I never used to wear anything, ever. Now I wear a cross, or an amber pendent which I got in Germany, or a string of jade beads which my dad brought back from Thailand. There are a few other assorted things, nothing very valuable, but nice. Right now it's this cool wood-bead-and-stones thing. I like it.

Oh yes, I've got the most fabulous costume for renfaire!!!! Scottish-inspired. There's this nice green plaid jumper-sort of dress, over a black skirt and white puffy-sleeved shirt. Add a knife, wide black piece-of-awesomeness belt, and I'll be good to go. Except there are no pockets....

*bounce-and-squeal!* Wednesday Market today!!!! Yay!

Welcome back to Rochelle Blue!! Fare-thee-well to J. William!!!

Oh yes, I just remembered that I mentioned I'd do a special each Wednesday, Reader Wednesdays. Ths time I want your thoughts on fashion [ordinary clothing, not Haute Coture which is too weird]. Leave a comment!!!

Also I recalled the role-play which I started and did not continue with: It will come back, I'm just not sure when. :)

Did you want the last of the Brie...? The last! How much was there?!

Drove to Eugene today. We went to Borders Books, and Trader Joe's [the two main attractions in Eugene]. At TJs I selected a nice creamy Brie, and a carton of Greek yogurt with honey. I managed to consume the greater part of the [sizeable] chunk of Brie on the way home, with chips.

When we got home there was a flurry of calls regarding various theatre affairs. My mom, picking up the phone for the third time, said "Bonjour", assuming it would be for me. It wasn't; it was somebody else entirely. I went into hilarity.
The upshot of it was that my friend and co-conspirator Eva is coming over in half an hour, to discuss matters, before I head off to FOLK DANCE!!!!!! The first folk dance in quite a while. Yayz!

I am trying to decide what to wear to folk dance, too: my [current] red plaid wool skirt [one would think it would be too hot, but it's pretty short] with grey t-shirt, or perchance one of my long plaid shirts over my hand-distressed blue-jean cut-offs. Hmm....we must consult with Vienna on this.....does anybody else on here read Pogo Possum cartoons??????!!!!!

I just had the most fabulous idea for another award, too. :)  For all Sydney Carton/Tale of Two Cities fans [particularly fan-girls :P] out there! Coming soon to a blog near you!