vegan chai

random tears

i'm not entirely sure how it started, but eventually i ended up on flickr looking at pictures from people i don't even know. i think i clicked on someone i don't know who had "favorited" one of my pictures, and spiraled down the rabbit hole from there. in any event, i stumbled across a picture of a breathtakingly beautiful balinese kitty, and after clicking around some more, i decided to work my way back to find more of him. as it turns out, both of his parents have flickr accounts, and one of them has a huge set of pictures. he's gorgeous and silly, and even though he doesn't have lynx-point markings, he reminds me a bit of my own sweet finley.

i was barely into my lovefest for erasmus when i noticed a caption under the main picture for his flickr set. erasmus died last night. i couldn't believe my eyes, and it made my heart hurt. those of you who know me well won't be at all surprised to hear that i cried.

i heart foxes

right now, on teevy, there is a red fox on jay leno's desk. i love foxes like crazy. the semester i lived in england, there was a little fox that i used to see on campus in the wee hours of the morning. i would go to the psychology building late at night and email people back home so that we could sort-of-talk in "real time." invariably that would mean that i'd head back over to my dorm when it was nearing morning. the university of nottingham campus is gorgeous, with a little stream and rolling green lawns and the whole bit. there was one huge lawn that i always walked across to get from one end of campus to the other, and almost every time i made that trek in the pre-dawn hours, i would see "my" fox. he never came close, just trotted across the lawn toward the stream, but i loved seeing him.

a year or so ago, we watched the timothy treadwell story, grizzly man, and i was just head-over-heels in love with the foxes. i mean, seriously, they make the movie! they're so adorable and hilarious. if you haven't seen the documentary, you should. it's interesting and entertaining for a whole host of reasons, but the foxes will definitely make you smile.

awhile back, i watched some movie or another with bruce willis (edited to add... i just googled forever and realized it was ocean's twelve. duh.), and one of the characters liked to leave a tiny sculpture of a fox behind after he robbed someone. i'm such a dork that i tried to figure out if i could buy one. a couple of days ago i stumbled across this seller on etsy, and i have to say, if her stuff wasn't all made out of wool (and suede), i'm pretty sure i'd be dorky enough to buy one of the teeny tiny foxes, just because.

foreclosure pets

i read this article on msnbc.com this afternoon, and it totally bummed me out. if you read the article, you'll see that it already says (twice) that bloggers everywhere are furious, so i guess i don't have to tell you that i'm furious, but wow, what an awful situation.

after having volunteered at my local humane society for the past five years, i've heard a lot of stories and read a lot of reasons for surrender in animals' files, and the ones that just say "moving" always break my heart. i mean, yes, it's obviously much better to surrender your animal to a reputable shelter than leave them tied to a tree in your yard(!), but still, the idea that people regularly relocate without planning around one of their important family members is just so sad to me. i can honestly say that if wherever i'm going won't accept my kitties? i'm not going there.

kittens are dangerous

today when i went to socialize the cats at the humane society, there was only ONE who was ready to go to the playroom. one! so, i took her to the room and snuggled with her for about 30 minutes, and then decided to just wander around and pester various kittens. heh. we have a whole bunch of solo kittens right now, for whatever reason, and i always feel bad for them. it just seems wrong to have a baby kitten all alone. they need a buddy, or a pile of other kittens to sleep with--it's only fair! so i looked for the ones who either seemed like they were dying for attention, or the ones who seemed a little nervous about people. i played with three very friendly kittens, and then won over a nervous orange & white baby boy. hooray! the one i snuggled with the longest, a flame-point siamese (he's so young that right now he's basically solid white), had me completely wrapped around his paw. he rolled around and rooted in my lap for at least 35 minutes, purring and just making it his job to be adorable. sigh. on days like these, i always daydream about adopting a third.

my 101/1001 list and other miscellany

how lame is it that i've crossed 5 things off my list before i have even gotten it together enough to finish writing my list? pretty lame. i'm going to have to add "finish writing this list" as one of my items. heh.

i have two things right now that i just don't feel like doing, even though i really need to: (a) finish reading and commenting on a thesis draft, and (b) read and write a review for a journal manuscript. these are the kinds of things that don't have to take forever, but i can usually find a way to make them take forever. i hate that about myself, and i'm trying to figure out ways to make myself stop doing it, but today i'm losing that fight. the thesis draft needs so much work that i've literally edited or commented on every single sentence so far, which makes me not even want to pick it up again... and the journal submission just seems like Not That Much Fun and there's so much other stuff i could be doing instead. wah, i have such a rough life, i know.

keeping the streak alive

i don't have much to say, but so far i've posted every day in january so i figured i should keep it up. i'm sure you're really glad you read this.

hummus serendipity

today i was at whole foods picking up a couple of things, when i remembered my friend dave saying that their hummus is quite tasty. i thought to myself, "i should go get a tub of the roasted red pepper and give it a try!" as i rounded the corner, i nearly ran smack into the display at the end of the aisle: a tub of roasted red pepper hummus with a huge pile of pita chips. awesome! i stood there and sampled for a bit, and then walked over and bought a container. i'm a dork, i know, but i was totally excited about that whole turn of events.

office door vandalism

today when i got to school, i noticed that someone had written on one of the signs i have on my office door. i've had AR-related stuff on my office door (and inside my office) for a couple of years now at least, but no one has ever done anything sassy until today.

one of the more "popular" (as in, generates some of the most commentary) signs on my door is the familiar "i am not a nugget" chick from PeTA. i enlarged the design to a full 8.5x11, colored him in with markers, and put him smack in the middle of my door. people comment on him a lot. anyhoodle, today i walked up to unlock my door and i noticed that some hilarious and wildly intelligent person wrote "yes you are" along the bottom. sigh.

so, i pulled it down and now i get to decide what to put up in its place. i'm trying to decide if i should go with something cute (in the same vein of what i removed), somber, shocking, or cranky. heh. for the record, the other things on my door right now are: (a) an ignorance is not bliss bumper sticker, (b) a got veal? sign, (c) a boy on a stick and slither comic, (d) a poster about domestic violence against pets, and (e) a cool "see her as more than a meal" poster from CoK. i have a few stickers kicking around i could put up, or i could find some other 8.5x11 signage on the intarweb somewhere, or... not sure. i'll keep you posted.

celebrating an accomplishment

i'm supposed to come up with an idea for celebrating my successful tenure vote, because we were unable to celebrate on The Day. i'm not very creative, so i'm not sure what to suggest. part of me wants to do the easy thing--dinner and a movie, because it's such a normal couple activity. we haven't been able to do that very much in the past several years (due to tenure-fueled-worry-stress), so maybe that would be an appropriate celebration. also it would be a good excuse to get out and see juno, which i've been itching to do for awhile now.

honestly, i've been daydreaming for soooo long about When I Get Tenure that i'm not even sure what to do with myself at this point. get a massage and a pedicure? go on a shopping spree? adopt a dog?

i'm going to keep brainstorming. if you have cool ideas for how to celebrate a life turning point kind of deal, please share! all i know is that it will definitely involve really yummy vegan food.

shock and disbelief

this is quite possibly some of the worst news i've gotten in awhile. my friend molly just let me know that alba's hawaiian line of lip balm is NO LONGER VEGAN, and i kind of want to smack someone. or cry. or maybe both.

i just checked the website, and the tubes now have white plastic where it used to be translucent, and the ingredients now list beeswax. why, why, WHY is this happening to me?! i'm completely distraught. i am so into my lip balm it's almost ridiculous. i have one in my purse, two in my office, one on my nightstand, one on my desk at home, one in the kitchen, and several in the linen closet waiting their turn. the alba hawaiian line is my FAVORITE and basically my only lip balm. (i also use the avalon C, but it's just alba hawaiian in an orange disguise--and now i'm terrified it will change to beeswax, too.)

in a blind panic, i emailed the company the following crazy paragraph:

i have just been alerted to the fact that you appear to have changed the formula on your hawaiian line of lip balms, and they are no longer vegan. i am disappointed, shocked, and quite frankly terribly upset. the alba hawaiian lip balms were the BEST vegan lip balms on the market, i recommended them to every vegan i know (and i successfully "converted" BUNCHES of people), and i was set for life on lip balm. it is the only one i use; the ONLY one that is moisturizing enough and creamy enough. is there any chance on earth that you might reconsider this ingredient change? words cannot express how disappointed i am. maybe you don't realize how many of your customers are vegan--there are lots and lots of us who swear by your lip balm, and now will be forced to stop buying it. please get back to me when you can; i'd love to hear some good news. thank you!

i don't know what else to do. i want to make them reconsider! please help me! email them a crazy paragraph yourself, if you are so inclined. in the meantime i guess i'll be buying up every last vegan tube i can find in the whole world. *sob* 

back to school

i'm wondering if now that i have tenure, is it cool for me to spout off regularly about animal rights and veganism? hee. i'm just kidding, of course, but in all honesty that nagging "don't do this, don't say that, it might come back to bite you in the butt" thought process will probably dwindle now that i feel more like an established grownup and less like a freaked out grad student.

i'm not the type to be militant or in-your-face about that stuff anyway, so it's probably a moot point, but with school starting tomorrow, the thought just popped into my head.

in related news, i've started telling my family and friends about my tenure, and it's still very bizarre to say it out loud. so far, four family members have cried upon hearing the news, which in turn made me cry, which was kind of cathartic. my cousin had the cutest reaction so far--her eyes widened like crazy, she flapped her arms a little, and she said, "oh my god you WHAT?!?" and then she started crying. she's so animated; it was adorable.

vegan chili cheese dip

my husband was hoping to make a little snack buffet for tonight's playoff game, and unbeknownst to me he did a little research ahead of time. back in my pregan days, we used to loooove chili cheese dip, which was basically vegetarian chili mixed with velveeta cheese. very gourmet, i know, but we really liked it. we usually only made it once or twice per year, but after i went vegan we stopped doing that. well, today he googled and found this recipe, which is arguably one of the easiest recipes in the world, and he surprised me with it. he took one can of amy's chili, one tub of tofutti cream cheese, combined and microwaved it, and stirred. voila!

we were both surprised at how similar it tasted to the chili cheese dip of yore. it's creamy and cheesy and yum. i suppose you could experiment with adding things to it if you wanted to... maybe some nutritional yeast to up the cheesy flavor? anyhow, it was really good and i ate a whooole bunch. i thought it was really sweet of him to surprise me.

pet stores

i seriously don't understand why anyone would even CONSIDER buying a kitten or a puppy from a pet store. i am evidently that many millions of steps removed from this train of thought; i am completely incapable of comprehending. whenever i hear someone say they got their dog or cat from a pet store, i'm dumbfounded. tonight i actually gasped. i don't know if this is just a case of "living in my vegan bubble" syndrome, or what, but i just don't get it.

today = unbelievably weird

first off, THANK YOU for all of your sweet words of encouragement! they were extremely helpful, let me tell you. i can't even believe how incredibly wound up i've been (and still am, really), and reading your comments and/or emails helped me settle down a bit. whew.

so, today was the big vote (and the big gyno appointment, har dee har har), and i'm here to report that it went in my favor. i probably sound blase, but that is because it has absolutely not sunk in, not at all. i just feel weird and the whole thing is too bizarre. i haven't even told anyone in my family yet, because it seems strange to say it out loud. i got tenure. holy crap.

tomorrow = scary

i am really stressed right now, so i'm going to try to write a bit and see if it helps. i did a bit of yoga this morning in an attempt to center myself, but 2 minutes after i finished i was explaining to my husband how stressed i was, and i think all yoga benefits went poof!

this post will have nothing to do with veganism, so feel free to tune out now if you are so inclined, but i hope you stay because i could use all the good vibes i can get.

tomorrow is a very big day. it's the day when i will learn whether: (a) i am awarded tenure, or (b) i am fired. i have been worrying, dreaming, stressing, and/or freaking out about this day for YEARS now, and i can't believe it's tomorrow. i kind of want to dig a little hole and sit there for the next 24 hours.  in the past few months i have found ways to decrease my stress levels, and i have learned how to "detach" somewhat from all of the freakouts, and that has been Very Good, but the past day or so i seem to keep forgetting how to do those things, and i'm walking around with a perpetual tummy ache.

at our university you have to go through several levels of voting before your tenure case is decided. depending on how the first two go, the rest are more or less gravy. the first two votes are considered the scariest ones, but if they both go in your favor, then you can generally relax a bit because the other votes are more "rubber-stampy." my first vote (the department) happened in november, and it went in my favor. i was happy, but not TOO happy, because i knew there was still a Very Scary second level that needed to go my way. that vote (the division of social sciences) happens tomorrow. that committee is made up of seven people. my chair and another person from my department will attend the meeting in order to present my case, answer questions from the committee, and so forth. then they have to leave so the committee can vote. because my life is ridiculous, i will be at the gyno during this time. *rolls eyes* at some point, my cell phone will ring, and i'll learn what happened. i'm terrified already.

i am feeling a strange pressure and worry, because all of my years of graduate school and the past seven years of professor-ing have all been in preparation for this event. that scares the crap out of me. i feel like my case is reasonably solid(?) and i am happy with the 5-page letter my department submitted on my behalf... and yet, i don't feel like i have a slam-dunk case. i am nervous. the two people who will represent me at the meeting tomorrow are very nice and they support me an incredible amount, so i will try to take comfort in that idea and chill out a bit, but it's hard. right now it's all down to this group of seven people and their individual subjective interpretations of my tenure packet. bleah.

if you believe in any or all of the following, i could really use some good vibes, focused positive thinking, prayers, special wishes, sparkly karma, virtual hugs, or whatever your specialty may be. i'm terrified to even post this, in fear that it will jinx me. stress stress stress stress STRESSSSSS. i'm going to go eat chocolate now.

wee vegan snocaps

my husband found a fancy grocery near our house that makes vegan non-pareils (but they also make non-vegan ones, so we have to read labels carefully) and bought me two different sizes--the more standard "quarter-sized" versions, and then little bitty ones, like sno-caps. the little ones have rainbow non-pareils instead of white, so they're extra festive. anyhoodle, today i finally started in on them, and i couldn't stop. i ate an obscene amount of them. isn't it awful how we rationalize "they're tiny, so i can eat a bunch!" when we want to? mmm, chonklit.

cute sneaks

awhile back (whoa, i just checked and it was precisely a year ago tomorrow), i bought a pair of blackspots. i totally love them, i wear them lots and lots, and i've gotten several compliments on them. they're still in fantastic shape, so i don't really need replacements, but i just found these adorable shoes from simple and i'm finding it difficult to resist buying them. heh.

in other news, i can't believe dennis kucinich got shut out of another debate. grrrr.

peanut butter three ways

i swear to god this is true.

today i had an english muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and i was just handed a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for dinner. awesome.

vegan pizza in the wild

i just have to squee a little bit about what i had for lunch (and dinner) today. we went to one of our favorite lunch spots, a new-ish pizza place about 20 minutes from our house. we love them because they're hip and the space is cool-looking and the pizza is gigantic (one slice is bigger than your face, for serious) and they are extremely friendly and loving to the vegans. they have three different (cheeseless) pizzas on the menu that are straight-up vegan, and they have tofu and vegan sausage as topping choices, and their breadsticks are vegan, and basically i just love them. they don't have vegan cheese, but everything is tasty so i forgave them for that. my husband is addicted to pizza, so we visit somewhat regularly.

the last time we were there, right after we ordered, my husband noticed that there was a sign taped to the counter (for the cashiers to read) detailing all of the fun facts about follow your heart vegan cheese (hooray!) and how to charge for it, etc. and he gave me a little nudge. i read the sign and immediately grilled the cashier, all excited and nerdy-like. i decided not to change my order then, but planned to come back soon in order to bask in my new cheesy options. well, today was that day!

i decided to keep things simple. i almost went with my ol' pregan standby of cheese + onions, but decided to dress it up a bit and added garlic and basil as well. it was soooooo gooood!! i ate two gigantic pieces and brought the rest home (we ate it for dinner). i'm so excited about this development, i had to share it with people who would understand. yay for vegan cheese in restaurants!

i has a mac

this morning at 7.58am, my new compy was put on a truck and "out for delivery." nearly 9 hours later, it finally arrived. sheesh!

i've been dorking around with it for the past few hours, just bumbling around like an idiot. i'm a leetle intimidated, learning the organization scheme and all of that, but i'm also excited to try all of the new stuff. i think i need a tutor.

reusable produce bags

okay, i'm still working on my 101 things in 1001 days list, but #18 has on my mind lately: reusable produce bags. i use canvas tote bags for my groceries almost 100% of the time now (it took awhile to develop the habit, but i'm pretty good at it these days), but the little plastic produce bags are starting to make me feel inCREDibly wasteful. it's like, "put two carrots in a bag, drive home, throw the bag away." ugh. i'm going to make a point of taking them to the humane society to use for poop bags from now on, but what i'd really like to do is buy some reusable ones. does anyone have experience with this? tried and true bags? nifty ideas? food for thought? these are the ones i'm looking at right now, but i'm totally open to suggestions. muchas gracias in advance!

she's here!

well, it's a good thing i dropped everything and got on my way to the hospital last night, or i would have missed everything! my sister's water broke at 9.40pm or so, and she had the baby at 12.15am! i was there for the whole shebang (a first for me), and it was pretty incredible. my new little niece is just an adorable peanut, and she has a ton of hair. she doesn't have a name yet (they were deliberating when her water broke) but that will be finalized very soon. she was 8lbs 1oz, and 20inches, born at the very beginning of the birthday they were aiming for. today was my late great-aunt's birthday, and she was much beloved in my family, and the baby will be getting her name as a middle name. so hooray for that!

in other news, my other "she" is NOT here. apparently she is still in utah. why do i have a feeling she will not be delivered tomorrow as anticipated? oh well, at least i have a super-cute baby to distract myself!

i sense a pattern

remember last month, when i was e-stalking my north face coat's progress across the country? well, i'm back to my old tricks. i've been staring at my new mac's fedex tracking page for the past four days, and it's being infuriatingly vague with me. apparently my sweet precious has been in reno for over 48 hours now. mmm hmmm.

*breaking news*

my sister's water just broke! yay!

chocolate lentils

okay, so i've heard tales of these wondrous candies that are supposed to be the vegan equivalent (basically) of m&ms, but until today, they had evaded me. i have never seen them in a store, so the only way i knew to get ahold of them was to order from economy candy, which, let's just say it didn't turn out to be very heavy on "economy." last summer i finally broke down and decided to place an order with them, because i REALLY wanted to try these little candies, and after coming to terms with the fact that i'd be paying just as much for shipping as for the actual candy, i clicked submit. later i received an email telling me that they wouldn't mail them to me (because it was summer) unless i paid even outrageously MORE for overnight shipping. *rolls eyes* i said 'no thank you' and canceled my order.

well, i remembered the other day that now it's winter (heh), so i decided to go for it once again. i ordered 2lbs of the plain variety and 1lb of the chocolate mint variety, and once again braced myself for the shipping charges. in the end, i paid $18 for 3lbs of candy and then $11 for shipping plus a $3 handling charge. ouch. i mean, seriously, give me a break. but whatever.

they arrived today, and i honestly had forgotten that i'd ordered them (it took a week). my husband said, "you got a box," but the return address didn't say "economy candy" and i was totally clueless. imagine my delight when i opened the box! hee. i immediately opened the bag of plain lentils and ate a handful. they're delicious!! next i opened the mint chocolate and ate a handful of those. also delicious!! plus, they had been on the porch for awhile, so they were cold, which is my favorite way to eat chocolate. yummers.

the entire time i was chomping on those first few bites, i kept saying, "oh em gee i can't believe i'm eating m&ms! i can't believe i'm eating m&ms! i paid a billion dollars in shipping but it's So Worth It!!" but now that the shine is off, i have to be honest: it's a little completely frickin' ridiculous to pay $14 to ship the equivalent of a big ol' bag of m&ms to my house. so, my plan is two-fold: (a) figure out a way to make these 3lbs last as long as possible, so that i feel i get my money's worth, and (b) figure out how to get these suckers locally. there's GOT to be someplace that carries them, right? wish me luck!

dogtown rocks my socks

in case you hadn't heard, there's an awesome new series on nat.geo (that's the national geographic channel, for those of you not familiar with their new hip lingo. hee.), and it features the best friends animal sanctuary in utah. i've heard it referred to as a "short series," so i'm not exactly sure how many episodes to expect, but the first one aired on friday night and we finally got to watch it last night. it was so great! i'm in love with porto and remington.

i would highly recommend looking for possible reruns of the first episode, and setting the ol' series manager for the rest of the episodes. it's so wonderful to see an animal sanctuary featured, and i'm hoping it raises a lot of awareness for people who wouldn't otherwise be exposed to their ideas. i swear, after watching just one episode i was daydreaming about moving to utah and working there.

best friends has a site set up where you can learn how everyone's doing now that the show has wrapped, which i thought was a neat idea. you can see that here. the nat.geo site for the series is here. enjoy!

edited to add: i just learned this little tidbit... so spread the word!

National Geographic has produced three episodes, which will run each of the next three Fridays. If the series proves successful, additional episodes will be produced and broadcast.

the list

101 things in 1001 days
start date: jan 5 2008
end date: oct 2 2010

i'm just going to start listing things off willy-nilly, brainstorm-style. i reserve the right to edit or otherwise "fix" this list later, including re-organizing items into cohesive categories and stuff like that. okay, here goes!

1. buy a macbook pro (ha! i'm cheating already!) jan 5 2008
2. get tenure (holy crap, i don't believe it) jan 18 2008
3. failing #2: don't lose mind (moot)
4. decide whether we want to have children
5. go back to england
6. create a habit of making an itinerary for each day
7. create a habit of using a timer and sticking to my itinerary
8. talk to the director of the humane society about vegan outreach
9. volunteer at the big cat sanctuary
10. import all of my CDs into iTunes
11. buy a cat tree for avery & finley
12. read the manual for my camera
13. reconnect with carlo
14. enroll in an ashtanga class (and go)
15. learn how to bake and frost a layer cake
16. join a CSA
17. go back to austin
18. buy reusable produce bags
19. take mer & ken on a co-op tour
20. visit erik's family in nevada
21. see ed begley, jr. speak on campus (yay!)
22. reconnect with diana
23. visit portland
24. make the chai latte cupcakes in VCTOTW
25. make the chickpea cutlets in veganomicon (yum!) jan 2008
26. visit farm sanctuary again
27. go to the chicago diner again
28. paint the guest bedroom
29. paint the furniture in the guest bedroom
30. frame my diplomas and hang them up
31. successfully veganize eaglebrand brownies
32. start sending birthday cards again
33. do a purge of my jewelry box(es), and
34. try to give sentimental pieces to people who would appreciate them
35. either start stamping again, or decide not to and get rid of everything
36. visit jen in evanston
37. leave a copy of why vegan? in every waiting room i find myself in
38. get my kurt halsey original drawing framed and hung  jan 26 2008
39. visit erin, and jason & marianne, in las vegas
40. be a better penpal to josh harper
41. raise $1000 for the farm sanctuary walk for farm animals
42. read my entire backlog of satya magazine (may it rest in peace)
43. try 3 new vegetables
44. go out for ethiopian food with an experienced connoisseur
45. do a CD purge and re-organize them all
46. replace all of our bleached-out towels (from my proactiv days)
47. read the clicker-training book and attempt to clicker-train our kittehs, just for fun
48. watch the up series
49. finish reading introduction to animal rights: your child or the dog?
50. prep two new graduate courses
51. prep one new undergraduate course
52. watch dealing dogs (languishing on my FiVo for nearly 2 years now)
53. establish our 403b and/or start some other type of investing
54. watch peaceable kingdom with someone else
55. get a complete physical, with blood panel and the whole deal
56. completely redo my homepage
57. write an article for a vegan/AR publication
58. establish a regular date night with my husband
59. read my backlog of herbivore magazine
60. read my backlog of herbivore online issues
61. host a holiday/family dinner at our house (one we don't normally host)
62. establish a regular yoga practice
63. work back to a routine of going to the gym at least 3 times per week
64. read my stack of mini-magazines & newsletters from sanctuaries & AR organizations
65. clean desk at home 
66. organize home office
67. clean desk at school
68. organize school office
69. read zen to done e-book
70. surprise my husband with a gift, just because
71. surprise my sister with a gift, just because
72. go one month without chocolate
73. get 8 hours of sleep every night for a month
74. lose 5 pounds
75. lose another 5 pounds
76. decide whether i need to lose yet another 5 pounds
77.

...okay, i'm going to have to call it a night and finish this tomorrow.

1001 things in 101 days

i just became aware of this project, and i think it's kind of nifty. i'm tempted to give it a whirl, but i'm wondering if any of you have done it, because i'm unsure of the smartest way to blog it. do i just stick it here in a random post and then refer back to it sometimes? or am i supposed to start a new blog dedicated to the list (a less appealing idea, to me)? i was thinking i could create a category here for it, and that way all the posts referring to it would be "tagged" in some way (i don't currently use categories, so i'm not sure if this is feasible or even a good idea)... but i don't know.

i also have no idea if i could come up with 101 things deemed "good enough" to go on the list! heh.

indulging my iCrush

some time ago, i developed a bit of an infatuation with all things apple. maybe it started when my husband unexpectedly bought me a nano a couple of years ago...? i'm not really sure what triggered it. as a kid our first at-home computer was an apple IIc, and then later the IIe, so i guess i was "trained" on apple, but i soon "graduated" to PCs and have used nothing but since high school or undergrad.

anyhow, awhile back, i started watching the apple commercials on purpose. like, we'd be parked in front of the FiVo, and as i was fast-forwarding through the commercials, i'd stop if i saw an apple commercial. i was totally suckered in by those two guys and their droll little conversations. heh. somewhere in there i got the aforementioned nano, and i really liked it. that was my first exposure to iTunes, and the whole thing was generally very easy to figure out, even with no experience.

within the past year or so, my interest in mac stuff really amped up. i was particularly enamored with the idea of the iPhone (like most of america, ha ha), and even though i didn't plan to get one (i am totally unthrilled with the idea that you have to use at&t as your carrier), i was dying to find someone who would let me monkey with theirs. when i finally got my hands on one, i was so publicly exuberant that two different people took pictures of me(!), and ever since, i've pestered people to let me test-drive theirs. i'm basically hoping and waiting for the day when they open it up and you can use it with whatever the heck carrier you want. *keeps fingers crossed tightly* i love the idea of being able to replace my phone and my palm pilot with one device, plus get so much more in the bargain. also: it's so pretty!!

interestingly, i had a friend at school who was experiencing this same bizarre iCrush right along with me (unbeknownst to me, at first), and when we realized that we both were fantasizing about going the mac route, we proceeded to totally rile each other up, constantly. we both had (coincidentally) gotten new hp laptops the summer before, and we both liked them, and felt like it would be silly to replace them so soon, for no good reason other than, "i wanna." but we still riled each other up anyway, and eventually he decided that he was going to go for it. i told him that i would live vicariously through him, and he was cool with that.

he bought his macbook pro this past summer, and i made him tell me all about it in juicy detail, and i asked him to show me all kinds of stuff. i continued to daydream about getting one, but decided to be satisfied with living vicariously through him for awhile. i looked on the apple website occasionally, but for the most part i shoved it to the back of my mind, and just watched the commercials when i saw them. hee.

well, on thursday morning, my husband mentioned out of the blue that he knew someone offering up a macbook pro for a pretty good deal. it was in pristine condition, and we had dibs on it if we wanted it. i was rather overwhelmed by the prospect, because we had never even really talked about me getting a mac. we did a bunch of research that day, went over to the apple store 10 minutes away, and hemmed and hawed a fair bit. in the end, we decided it wasn't as perfect of a deal as we thought, but proceeded with plans to get me one anyway. whee!!

and so, tonight we ordered a refurbished (supposedly this means that it's in perfect wonderful beautiful like-new condition, but $400 cheaper, yo) macbook pro. i'm still having a hard time processing that i'm getting a mac (squeeee!) but i know once it gets delivered i'll be raring to go. i'm thinking of attending a couple of the free workshops at the apple store, so that i'll feel more prepared and less confused when i actually get started. i'm not stupid, but i'm so used to the PC way of doing things that i want to make sure i get a chance to ask all of my dumb questions. (like, for instance, i had no idea how to scroll on a mac trackpad. once i asked, it was easy enough, but i was totally clueless just test-driving in the store.)

a few minutes ago i got the email telling me my order has entered the shipping process, so you can bet i'll be tracking that sucker constantly until it arrives at my front door!

salty snacks

i am usually a sweet-over-salty person. i never add salt to anything, and when i crave junk it's almost always of the desserty variety. i often joke that i have a "fat tooth" rather than a sweet tooth, because i don't want jolly ranchers; i want chocolate, ice cream, peanut butter, cookies, and so on.

but sometimes i want a little salty snack, whether it's next to my almost-daily pb&j, or just randomly in the afternoon. i have never been a big potato chip person, because they always seemed too greasy and/or too salty. to that end, pringles may as well have been invented for me. anyhow, during the last year or so, i discovered a potato chip that i absolutely love, and it's kind of amusing because there is probably an obscene amount of oil involved in its production. what is this chip? the salt & pepper flavor of kettle chips. if we have these in the house, my husband and i both tend to binge on them, and i end up over-doing it and then i don't buy them for awhile. but when i'm in the mood for them--look out.

i'm also extremely fond of tings. because i don't always crave salty, there are many occasions when you won't find these in my pantry, but today is not one of those times. i ate a pile of them as a mid-evening snack tonight. people always refer to them as "vegan cheetos," which i suppose is an okay analogy, except that they're not orange, and i never liked cheetos but i totally adore these. i am always surprised at the number of vegans who haven't tried tings.

my newest adventure in salty snacking has been the  lesser evil krinkle sticks. i bought the sea salt flavor during a junk-food-spending-spree at vegan essentials, mostly on a whim. when i tried them i was quite impressed--they remind me a little bit of those old-school potato shoestrings, a little bit of tings, and they have a very slight kick to them (i think it's the onion powder, or maybe the garlic). i bought a box of the bbq flavor for my sister, but i keep forgetting to ask her if she liked them. anyway, check 'em out if you haven't already! i've seen them at whole foods, so they're probably popping up in "normal" stores now.

i have no idea why i suddenly felt the need to yap about salty snacks, but there you have it!

seeing through the fence

my pal jeannie brought this to my attention today, and it looks like an awesome film--it's called seeing through the fence, and it's evidently conversations with people about where their food comes from. it seems kind of like the ol' man-on-the-street format, and i dig stuff like that. i'm going to look into whether we could maybe host a screening on campus; it could be a good draw...? i'm not sure, i've never done anything like that, but it doesn't hurt to try!

you can see a trailer at the link i posted above, and you can read an article about the film here. enjoy!