waste

that's our stack of phone books for last year and this year (not sure why last year's are still around-- this year's have been sitting by the front door since they were delivered several months ago). most of the ones that came wrapped in plastic are still wrapped (i think i unwrapped last year's white pages to look up one number probably before we got our new computer and the old computer took up to 30 min or more to get it started). i finally took 2 seconds to see how i could stop getting the phone books delivered and it's sooooooo easy. wish i had done it a long time ago. just go to this link. you just need to fill in your details and mark the phone books you want to stop delivery of (i stopped them all). hopefully i've done it in time to stop the delivery of the 2011 books. i feel bad about just chucking them all in the recycle bin but so far i haven't come up with any other use for them.

scamming

i got a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be from microsoft trying to tell me there was something wrong with my computer and he needed to fix it and would walk me through the steps over the phone. sounded completely ridiculous to me cuz i'm pretty sure no where have we listed our home phone number with any sort of registration of our computer. i was pretty sure it was a scam when he said something like "...and it will shut down your whole computer. you don't want that, do you?" he started to tell me to press some buttons to help fix the problem but i just hung up on him. after doing a bit of a google search, turns out it was a scam. here's an article from the age a couple months ago. if i did think there was something wrong on our computer i would be either getting a friend in IT to help or taking it to a computer repair place, not taking advice from someone who called me. i guess there are people who would just assume it's legitimate though.

chick cheez

i decided to make a cheeze spread yesterday. i opened up my uncheese cookbook to the front section where the spreads are and this was the first recipe i saw. on the side panel it's described as a "tangy" cheez with a "sharp, cheddary flavour." sounded good so i made it. it is amazing. most homemade cheezes i've tried are fairly mild. this one has a really nice sharp flavour (like aged cheddar) from the miso in it. vegan guinea pig posts the recipe here. the recipe also suggests making it into a sauce by thinning it with some nondairy milk-- it'd probably be really nice over broccoli or other veggies. i think this cheeze may end up being something i make often.

only in oz

so the AFL grand final went pretty much the same way as the election: nobody won. i think that's gotta be the only major sporting league in the world that a final game can end in a tie and "see you again next week for a rematch"
the up side is that next week we'll be able to watch the game at a pub with some friends. this week zac had a gig so i watched it at home and then ran up to the gig as soon as the game was over.

thai pumpkin

we got our veggie box today. it contained a large amount of coriander so i figured i should try to use as much as i can in the next couple days. i made some fresh salsa this afternoon and decided on thai pumpkin soup for dinner (there was also some pumpkin and ginger in the box and i had some chilies in the garden). i used this recipe for the soup. i love the flavours of ginger, chili and coriander together and it was quick and easy to make.

grumpy's

we ended up at grumpy's green for lunch today. they've changed their menu since last time we were there for a meal (it's been a while). the menu was much more vegan friendly than it used to be and everything that is vegan/can be made vegan is clearly marked (and gluten free items are marked as well). we sat up in the dimly lit closet upstairs so i couldn't get a decent picture of our food (i don't like using the flash). i had the chickpea and lentil dahl with naan bread which was really nice. the dahl was fairly spicy--i like it hot--and the bread was good too. zac had the tower burger-- it was a tower. zac was a little worried how he was gonna manage to get it in his mouth but he did it (after a bit of squashing). it looked really good-- tons of vegies sticking out. i loved the chips (i think crinkle cut just makes them taste better--or maybe it was just the salt-- but i couldn't stop picking at zac's chips). i love all the little things grumpy's does to be sustainable (local beer and wine, vegetarian menu with locally sourced ingredients and more). there were several things on the menu i wanna try so hopefully we'll get back there soon.

uncheese

i bought myself The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook as a birthday gift to me from the book depository. sooo many fun, "cheesy" recipes to try! i finally got around to making a couple things from the book this past week (i kept forgetting to buy more onion powder and almost everything i wanted to try required it). i made chickpea flour pizza (which is more of a herbed, gluten free flat bread) for a snack the other day (forgot to take a picture) and i really liked it. that was the first thing i've ever made with chickpea flour and i've been meaning to buy and make things with it for a LONG time. yesterday afternoon i decided to make french onion soup. i couldn't get a good photo though (i think it's almost impossible to get a good looking photo of a brown soup with cream coloured "cheese" goo on top). it was really good though. i added a vegan beef stock cube (cuz they've just been sitting there for a while not being used). we didn't have french bread or croutons so i lightly toasted some multigrain bread and cut it into cubes. i think next i'll try one of the "cheese" dips. so far i'm really enjoying the book.

spring!!

i was sorting through my pictures on my phone and came across this one i took a week or 2 ago at work. my phone takes great pictures outdoors (not quite as good indoors with low light but still ok). it's a very "spring-y"shot. we have lots of these flowers at work. i'm gonna try to take some cuttings and propagate them for our garden at home (not sure yet where to put them in our garden because they grow to be a fairly large bush with lots of daisies but i'll find a spot).

lazy

this is what my lazy beast gets up to on my RDOs:

she gets up around 8am with zac to go for a walk and have breakfast then she crawls back into bed with me. i'm usually pretty awake by this point (zac's alarm goes off at least 5 or 6 times before he gets up) so i get up and the beast stays in bed. often she'll stay there until i get ready to leave the house (which in winter sometimes it's after noon cuz i can't be bothered to go out into the cold morning unless i have a good reason). i'm sure she would do this every morning if we let her but she's banned from settling in the bedroom without supervision (she likes to "fluff" the sheets and doona with her claws before settling. we have only 1 fitted sheet left that doesn't have a tear in it). once she's settled and going to sleep she's fine.