only getting better

for a few weeks i was waiting for saturday to happen and then it did and i forgot. saturday was the longest dark hours for the year. we are now 3 days into getting longer daylight hours (even if its only a little bit at a time, we are getting closer to summer). of course its still gonna be cold for at least another 3 months but at least we're gonna get a bit more light (when the clouds aren't making it dark early)

meme

Riayn at dancing about architecture invited people to do this meme. since i don't want to do any of the things i should be doing, this is a good excuse.

What were you doing ten years ago?

just finished my 2nd year of university and spent the first 2-4 weeks of summer being homeless (it did result in a trip down the oregon coast with some friends though) before i found out my camp that i'd worked at for ages had found a job for me (after i'd applied really late) and they wanted me to come work on advance crew in the weeks before summer started so i had a home and a job (although almost no pay) for the rest of the summer

What are 5 things on your to-do list today?
start organizing things to take to queensland (otherwise i'll forget stuff)
pay the visa bill
email a couple people
book some queensland accommodation
finish my bee for the wall hanging for work's auction dinner

What snacks do you enjoy?
rice crackers and dips
quesadillas

Things that you would do if you were a billionaire?
buy a house with a big yard
get fnb a new van for food servings and pick-ups (and probably some other much needed stuff)
give a fair bit to various charities and our families
quit work and travel more

Three of your bad habits?
procrastination
worrying
creating large messes (and then procrastinating the cleaning of the large mess)

Five places you have lived?
banff, alberta
victoria, bc
langley, bc
julian, california
melbourne, australia

Five jobs you’ve had?
chocolatier
landscaping/groundskeeper
camp counsellor
outdoor education instructor
kindergarten assistant

How did you name your blog?
my husband came up with it-- i said i wanted something with the word 'random' in it

exhaustion

it was a REALLY LONG week at work. people were away for various reasons and we were short staffed most days and had a couple casuals working. friday morning both me and my morning co-worker were feeling it. i'm not sure how i made it thru the day. i was pretty short with some of the kids, i was really struggling not to fall asleep during rest time (dark room, soft music....). i think the main thing that kept me awake was that i wanted to get several of the overtired kids asleep so i could make it thru the rest of the afternoon without them driving us all crazy. after work i wanted to go up to sydney road to get some things from a couple shops. i got there and i was feeling exhausted. i decided to skip a few things i wanted to do and just go to the one shop. i was sooo tired that after i walked out and realized the cashier hadn't given me 20% off a sale item i couldn't be bothered to go back in and get my $4 back. on the way home the light changed just as i was about to enter an intersection. i could have made it but i decided to stop. i'd stopped just on the edge of a left turn lane since i was riding down the middle of the left turn lane so cars would know i was going straight and not try to pass me and cut me off. before i had time to even move completely out of the lane and in front of the straight lane a horn started aggressively beeping. the left turn lane had a green arrow (which had been green for less than a second when the aggressive beeping started) and i was slightly blocking the guy from turning. i moved my bike over to the right a foot and he sped around the corner. i knew i was in the wrong (but only for a second and it wasn't planned that i would stop there, i was planning on going thru the light and then it changed and thought i'd play it extra safe and wait even though a car or 2 behind me went thru) but that fact he was sooo aggressively beeping before i even had a chance to move (i saw the green arrow come on for him but my body hadn't had a chance to move) threw me off. i was soooo over tired and fought back tears the rest of the ride home. i came in the door and burst into tears (over a car beeping at me--- i was soooo tired!). i sat on the couch and wombat came right up to me and crawled across my lap and started licking my hands and face. she was shaking and nervous cuz she had no idea what was happening but she knew her person needed her and she made me feel better (and then i had to spend the next few minutes re-assuring her that everything is ok and she's safe). i layed on the couch half asleep the rest of the nite though and then had a good nite's sleep last nite and i'm much better now. only 3 days of work to go before queensland!!

not so low overnite low

that's the kind of overnite low i can handle (i think that's what it was overnite when we slept out on my mom's deck in canada a few summers ago-- there was no room in the house for us). i was expecting FREEZING like the nite before (i spent most of the nite curled in a ball with long sleeves and pants on) so i had my nice heavy mexican blanket next to the bed so when i woke up cold i could just pull it on. i didn't need it. i woke up around 5 for a while and even stuck my feet out from under the blankets cuz i was a bit warm!

it's REALLY grey outside right now but the weather forecast says it'll be fine and 18C today and there's no rain anywhere on the rainfall radar so i think i'm gonna move the rest of my laundry outside to dry (since i don't need to put the heat on, its not really drying in the house). and hopefully today won't involve any liquid falling from the sky cuz i really need those clothes to dry.

broken banana

the other day at lunch a kid came up to me and said "my banana isn't working."
i looked and he was holding a banana with a mushed black top to it and he was bending it back and forth unsuccessfully trying to open it. i laughed at him. then i took the banana to the kitchen and cut the top few centimetres off with a knife. he looked confused when i handed him back his topless banana with a little peel i'd started for him on the side. now it worked though.

food and more dog

when i was in university one of my favourite places to eat out at was red robin. mostly cuz i LOVED the dessert raspberry berry cake(and it was cheaper to go out for just dessert than dinner and i was pretty poor then). it was SOOOOOO good! it was pretty much raspberry ice cream cake with a oreo cookie crumb crust and raspberry sauce over the top. a couple years ago i made some homemade strawberry soy ice cream. it tasted a lot like the raspberry ice cream in raspberry berry (except with strawberries and soy instead of raspberries and cow ice cream). a while later i came across a company that sold boxes of oreo cookie crumbs here (it was a canadian food company that has since closed down). i bought a box but never got around to making raspberry berry cake until last nite.
i made some vegan raspberry ice cream then made an oreo cookie crumb crust (oreo cookie crumbs are also vegan). unfortunately i don't have a cake pan and my pie plate was way to small so i used a casserole dish.


then i made a raspberry sauce (just frozen raspberries, sugar and hot water in the food processor) and made vegan raspberry berry!

i actually can't remember what the real raspberry berry tastes like (it's been probably 7 or 8 years and i think the last time i was there they had taken it off the menu?) but this one was soooooo good (and zac could eat it too so even better than the real one)

i've also been taking way too many photos of the dog lately cuz she's sooo cute and she's finally over her camera fear (probably been desensitized from the hundreds of photos). the ones below are her staring at zac and then at me thinking we have food. she's very hopeful any time there's a possibility of food around that some might come her way (in this case i think zac was just trying to get something out from his teeth but because his hand was near his mouth she was convinced there was food involved-- and hopefully for her)

the little bear chewing up her stuffed dog (and wrapped in her coat to keep her warm):

how cute is that face?:

my big accomplishment for the past couple weeks:

1000 piece puzzle of mostly white and brown shades made even harder because some pieces were VERY similar shapes to others and because they were the same colours i had to match tiny detail and try the similar pieces in the spot to see which fell into the spot slightly better (the right piece would usually slip in nicely on its own while the wrong one(s) would take a slight amount of pressure to make them fit in).

more dog pics and a tree

protecting the kong:

mmmm......nylon bone:

being cuddly (she was sandwiched in between us until i got up to take the photo-- she thinks she's chihuahua sized)

i wanted to get a picture of that white gum tree in the background. it looked like it was glowing against the dark sky. unfortunately there is no way to get a good picture of it from our yard (unless i climbed on top of the hills hoist but i think the neighbours would be worried if i was up there photographing things):

"chicken" parma

we finally got to the east brunswick club last week to try the vegan "chicken" parma. it was sooooo good! zac decided on the vegan "cheeseburger". i had a bite and it was really good too (better than i thought that would be). the meat eaters we went with weren't very impressed with their meals though. zac and i ordered right before them. we got our meals, ate our meals, sat around and talked for a while before their meals finally arrived (and i think there were only 2 other tables of people eating in the whole place). they all said their food was pretty mediocre. the vegan menu (well the 2 things we've tried so far) is really good. maybe they should try that next time.

random photos

i got this as part of my birthday pressent from someone at work last year. it sits on our computer desk. up until friday when i suddenly got the urge to make the effort to change it had be showing may 14 for over 3 weeks. 3 days in a row now i've changed the date.

sad wombat. the flies wouldn't leave her alone. all she wanted to do was have a nap in the sun.


more sad dog.

best hummus ever

we got the new vegan as an engagement gift almost 2 years ago. i've flipped thru it a few times and have a couple pages bookmarked with scraps of paper but i don't think we've ever actually cooked anything from it. i decided i wanted some kind of dip last nite and couldn't find anything that sounded like what i wanted with ingredients we had at home in my favourite cookbooks (vegan planet and how it all vegan) so i started flipping thru the new vegan. i came across "smokey black bean hummus"-- exactly what i wanted (and we had all the ingredients). i halved the recipe but it still made a pretty big amount (but its already almost gone 24 hrs later). i've been eating it with some thin crackers but they aren't vegan so zac's been eating it with corn cakes (i debated for a few hours whether i would even tell him about the dip since he was out when i made it and it was almost too-good-for-share). i also made an amazing quesadilla with it. i think i'll have to get some more black beans and make it again (so glad more places are selling canned black beans around us-- one little green grocer even sells organic ones for less than $2 instead of the usual $3-3.50 that most supermarkets and health food stores are selling them for). i don't have any photos of it though cuz it would take effort to make the grey dip look pretty in a photo and its been a long week so i didn't have energy to do that.

spider

this little guy was hiding in the backyard yesterday. i ended up picking up his home (an old tarp laying on the pavement) and he went running. i'm pretty sure he's a huntsman spider. he was pretty little for a huntsman though (his body was only about 2 cm) but he could be still growing. unfortunately i couldn't get him to stand on an off white cloth we had outside (he'd run across it but wouldn't stay on it-- i think he knows where he camouflages better). huntsman spiders are one of the few spiders around here that aren't really poisonous (just minor swelling and a bit of pain). there are some HUGE ones (especially out in the country) but the city ones are relatively small and harmless