New sheets

I am kind of into bedding. I like high thread counts, nice flannel sheet sets, interesting quilts and blankets, and old army blankets. I also love down comforters.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="He's helping."][/caption]

James likes bedding too. He reeeally likes bedding. I can't make a bed in the house without his help (which translates to him attacking the sheets, burrowing under every set of sheets and blankets as they go on the bed, and generally being a terrible nuisance).

Anyway, I've got two nice sets of regular sheets and one set of flannel sheets for both my master bedroom and guest room, and a couple of "Bed in a Bag" (do other people know what I mean by this? The cheap, 200-threadcount sets that include comforters and shams and ruffles and stuff. Generally in soothing, neutral hotel colors.) sets for the futon in the office. I had a Kohl's gift certificate to spend, and nothing I really needed from Kohl's, so I thought I'd check out their flannel sets. Now is, weirdly, the time when those start to go on sale. It is freezing outside. It is bitterly, bitterly cold. Now is the time to hike the price up on flannel sheets, department stores! Stop trying to sell bikinis! What is wrong with you? Anyway, I went to Kohl's and found an amazing sheet set for the futon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="He's trying to catch the owls."][/caption]

My only complaint is that these owls aren't dressed in winter clothes. A lot of flannel sheets feature characters wearing hats or mittens or scarves. Maybe because flannel sheets primarily get used in the wintertime! Anyway, owls wearing scarves would have been better, but these are pretty fantastic. As I was telling my boyfriend earlier this evening, if I were to have friends visit, and they had small children, and those children go to stay in the office, and were also really into owls, they would think I was really cool.

He said that was a lot of hypothetical stuff going on to justify these sheets, but I feel good about it. That imaginary kid and I are going to be great friends.

One of the many nice things about having your own house is that you can do things like purchase pink owl flannel sheets for the office futon and no one can try to stop you. HAHA!

 

Still doing this juice thing

I have made a batch of juice every day since January 22nd. I have spent $30 on supplies. I have started a spreadsheet that tracks what I'm buying, how much I'm spending, and average cost per batch of juice. Each batch is about a liter. I average 6 minutes for prep, 10 minutes for juicing and 7 minutes for cleanup, though today, I managed to do everything in 20 minutes.

The takeaway from this is that juicing is kind of fun, and I really, really enjoy spreadsheets. I enjoy spreadsheets as much as the cats hate the sound of the juicer (it is a lot).

So far, I have managed to not buy any more containers, and I've started taking a big bottle of juice to work in the mornings. I typed "it's better than coffee" and then deleted it. It is not at all like coffee, and it's not better (nor is it worse), but it does have an energizing effect without the caffeine crash.

I have also been tweaking the juice recipe. If I see dark leafy greens on sale, I try them. Tonight, I got a bunch of turnip greens for $0.69 for a big bunch. I am pretty sick of turnips, but the greens worked well in juice and weren't as bitter as kale. I've also switched to collard greens over kale. Another thing I have learned? I'm not a huge kale fan! Why is it so popular? I've been adding spinach to the juice, because I have a huge bag of spinach from Costco and I'm worried that if I don't use it, it'll go bad. I've learned that cucumbers are oddly expensive at a lot of stores, and that a little ginger goes a long way. I've also determined that 2 apples makes for juice that's a little sweeter than I'd like, so I've subbed in a couple of carrots.

Current recipe:
6 stalks turnip greens/collard greens/kale
several handfuls of spinach
4 stalks celery
2 large carrots
1 granny smith apple
1 cucumber
1/4 lemon
thumb-sized piece of ginger

Unsolicited house-buying advice and juice update

I am helping certain people with their house hunt, and I often think about my house hunt, how much I love my house, how terrible my house-buying timing was (I bought RIGHT before the bubble burst, and RIGHT in the tiny window between one set of new homeowner tax breaks and the next set of new homeowner tax breaks) and how my house-buying experience was not really stressful in the ways that I assumed it would be.

Houses are a huge investment. This is probably the largest purchase I will ever make. The short list of things I did was 1. Found great people to help me do stuff. 2. Had a very clear picture of what I wanted. 3. Didn't settle for anything less than amazing.

Here is a long list of the things I did during my house-hunting process:

1. Researched mortgage rates and talked to multiple banks before deciding where to go. Things taken into account included rates, fees, closing costs and customer service.

2. Went with a local bank that told me that while they contractually *could* sell my mortgage, they probably wouldn't, since they hadn't ever sold mortgages to other companies. This came in really handy when interest rates plummeted. Modifying a loan is much, much easier than refinancing. I think it took me 5 minutes. On the phone.

3. Found a realtor. I lucked into this one, actually. I decided I wanted to find a realtor, I went to a condo open house, and talked to the listing agent there. I liked her a lot, and she agreed to work with me. She is amazing. If anyone in the KC area is looking for a realtor, I have a recommendation for you. The thing about a good realtor is that, ideally, they will know more about houses than you do. In my case, I thought I wanted a condo. When I described what I was looking for (size, dedicated parking, $120K limit), I was told that what I probably wanted was a house. Yes. Turns out, that was totally accurate. I was able to make a list of things I really, really wanted (true ranch, 3 bedrooms - one for me, one dedicated guest room and an office - garage, basement, hardwoods would be nice) and that helped narrow down houses. She was also very good at seeing what was wrong with houses. As someone who had previously lived in apartments, I did not know things about, say, foundations. She did. That's really helpful. If you can swing it, I highly recommend working with someone who has rehabbed houses, or who has an extensive background in something like that.

4. Looked a ton of houses. I looked for about three months, I looked several days a week, and I looked at two or more properties each time. This was grueling, but it helped me figure out what I liked and disliked about real-world houses. Since my intention was to buy a house that I would stay in forever, I needed to find something that I loved.

5. Initially thought I'd get a fixer-upper for cheap, but then changed my mind and decided it would be worth it to just get a house I already liked and could occupy immediately. I think a lot of people do this. There is something very appealing about getting a good deal and learning how to do useful things with houses. However, I've found that getting a house, any house, comes with a lot of on-the-job learning opportunities, so to speak. Only now can I fully appreciate how unprepared I would have been to fix up a house!

6. Made an offer on a house that I felt okay about, but didn't love. That offer was not accepted. THANK GOODNESS. I would not have been happy in that house. That was an "this is close enough and I'm so tired of looking at houses" house.

7. Found a house I loved, looked at it twice, and paid for a home inspection. Always get a home inspection. It helped me get a handle on the things I'd need to do if I bought the house (in my case, I had to get the furnace flue relined, install a new garage door, get some siding replaced and get the chimney cap sealed. None of these things were awful, and knowing what I was getting into was incredibly helpful).

8. Checked on the utilities. In Missouri, at least, if you're looking at a house, you can usually just call the utility companies, explain what you're doing, and get a monthly bill average for the last year. This is somewhat helpful, but by no means a perfect system. It can give you an idea of how much your bills might be, if people have been living in the house. Though your energy/water/gas usage will probably be different, it's a start. The more information you have, the better.

9. Listened to my realtor when it came to making an offer and things to ask for. A home inspection is going to turn up a LOT of stuff. Some of it is really important. Some of it isn't. I had certain things that I wanted the sellers to fix, and I had certain things that I was okay with taking care of on my own.

10. Closed quickly, and had about a month where I still had my old apartment and the new house. This made moving a lot less stressful. I didn't feel rushed. I also had a very motivated friend with a truck who decided that we were going to move my bed to the new house very early on in the process. It turns out that when your bed moves, you have effectively moved as well. This gave me plenty of time to sort through items in the apartment and clean it up in preparation for my departure.

The end result of all of this is that I've been in my house for almost six years. It's a solid house, it's had a totally reasonable number of house issues, which I have either fixed myself or had fixed by others. I've gotten to be pretty handy, and I feel comfortable tackling a range of house projects. I also never look at other houses and think "I really wish I could live in that house." At most, I think "that house is really cool." And then I think "I really love my house." I do occasionally have fancy apartment envy, because fancy apartments are soooo nice, but it is fleeting. It is more than overpowered by my hatred of moving and my love of this house.

To sum up: It took a long time! It was a lot of work! Totally worth it! Find a good realtor!

Juice update:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="323" caption="Super green."][/caption]

I keep buying containers for juice. In addition to the glass carafe, I now have a 2-liter jug (for big batches!) and a to-go cup thing (not pictured). I made a double batch today with kale, collard greens, spinach, cucumbers, apples, a lot of ginger, lemon and celery. I have made juice every day since the first day I made juice (which I believe was Monday). I have also started a juice spreadsheet to track how much I have spent on things for juice (it does not have a containers column, but if I get any more, I will have to add one). The batches of juice (each batch is just under a liter) have averaged a little under $4, when I take into account the fact that I have a lot of vegetables and fruits that I have purchased but not yet used.

Juice Part 2

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="I love glassware!"][/caption]

Made another batch of juice, this time adding a couple of carrots. Definitely added some body and sweetness. This recipe yields a little less than a liter. I know this because I bought an adorable liter carafe today. I decided to time the entire process, and it took about half an hour including everything - produce preparation, actual juicing and cleanup. Not bad. I think this time will improve as I continue to do this.

First Foray into Juicing

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="an array of things, but not a cucumber. there should be a cucumber in there somewhere...whoops."][/caption]

I have been sick for the last two days, which for me, means that I have been basically asleep for the last two days. Since I live in a house with very affectionate cats, this has meant very happy cats, and the occasional nightmare where I think I'm dying, but it's just Donald trying to sleep on my chest. he weighs 17 pounds. I am never without company, is what I'm trying to say.

During the three hours that I was awake yesterday, I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It was interesting. I hated the animations, and the Australian dude was kind of annoying. However, Phil Staples was awesome, and there were some interesting things mentioned in the movie. Mostly, if you tell me that something might help eliminate migraines, and it's not dangerous or prohibitively expensive, I'm going to try it. I guess my official stance on this movie is "I didn't like most of it but when Phil Staples showed up it all became worthwhile. That dude is awesome."

So I watched this movie, and it was all "juice juice juice, juice is awesome, I will now go into awesome diners and try to make people feel bad about their diets because I am a wealthy mildly obnoxious Australian" and all I wanted when it was over was juice, but all I had in the house was a lot of chili. So I had some chili (I also got some potatoes, so technically, I had an awesome baked potato with chili on it) and I ate a carrot because that was the best I could do under the circumstances.

Now, my mother gave me her old juicer a couple of months ago, and it's just been sitting around. I was glad to get it, and I remember using it when I was little to make carrot juice, which I did not enjoy (no small children enjoy carrot juice, pretty sure) so this seemed like a good opportunity to use an appliance that I hadn't used in ages. I love appliances! But I didn't feel well enough yesterday to go get stuff to make weird hippie juice.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="20-year-old Waring juicer, last used to make carrot juice that I did not like, about 20 years ago."][/caption]

Today, I slept forever, then I went to the store and picked up things to make one of the juices featured in this movie. It's called "Mean Green" (adorable!)

Ingredients:
4 stalks celery
1 cucumber
1 ginger root (size of thumb)
1/2 lemon
2 green apples
6 kale leaves

I went to ALDI and Trader Joe's and spent about $10 (but I'll have enough to make a few batches...ok, did the math and this batch, which yielded about 30 oz., cost $2.62). Peeled the cucumber and the apples (ha - I didn't peel the apples! But I should have! I will next time) and cut off the lemon rind. Then I made some juice!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="juice! more juice than expected!"][/caption]

It's definitely healthy juice. It's not super sweet juice like I'm used to, but it tastes nice and it's not so healthy-tasting as to be off-putting (do you know what I mean? I drank kambucha once and the only reason I finished it was because it was $5 and it was so awful I *knew* it had to be good for me. Just me? OK.). I got two big glasses of juice out of it, and I was impressed by how well this juicer did. They have all sorts of fancy juicers now (there's a very long article on The Wirecutter about them, which is a fun read if you're into that sort of thing), and I do love gadgets, so I was kind of expecting this to not do a great job. I did try to feed things into the juicer slowly so that it would have a chance to extract the most juice. Juice juice juice juice juice...it doesn't even look like a real word anymore...Clean-up was pretty easy, and overall, it was a neat experience. I will do this again.

Juice!

Sunday night routine: cook, clean, wash. Read a book.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Thebes, Diet Mountain Dew and Baked Doritos. I did this earlier in the day."][/caption]

I like routines. I think they're helpful for people who are not naturally organized or motivated to do things that aren't fun. This is why Wednesday night is vacuuming/light housecleaning night.

Sunday night is my arbitrarily designated "check the laundry levels, do some laundry if necessary," "do whatever dishes need to be done" and "get groceries and cook something that will last the whole week." For the laundry, this means doing the actual wash and then folding and putting things away. No dryer storage! For dishes, this is running the dishwasher if it's full then putting dishes away when they're done. Any dishes that need to be done by hand are done immediately after using them, so there's no sink of dishes to deal with EVER. This is all part of the "make everything a routine because otherwise it's all going to get messy and terrible." This is how it works for me. I realize that there are lots and lots of people who can totally handle their stuff without having to do everything completely. People who can do half a thing now, and the other half later! I'm not that person. This is all about how I've figured out how to manage my tendencies toward clutter. As for the cooking, in the winter, this is usually something in the crock pot. Tonight, it's chili, in anticipation of the very cold front that is moving in!

All of this is a nice end to the weekend, it gives me some semi-forced reading time (I have a tendency to check out library books and then put off reading them because I've got so many things I could be doing! Like napping! Or playing with Donald and James!). If I'm really organized, I can start the food in the morning and by the evening, it's ready, and my house smells amazing. This gives me plenty of time to play board games or go shopping or take naps or look at purses online or whatever I have chosen to do with my Sunday.

Crock pots are amazing and magical and every person living alone should at least seriously consider getting one. I will say that if you do this and you have cats, you might get yelled at for doing inexplicable things like "slicing vegetables" instead of "paying attention to cats."

Chili recipe from tonight (big crockpot):

1# ground turkey
1/2 # ground beef
1/8# ground sausage
2 onions, diced
(brown all of these together in a pan)

2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1/4 # dried pinto beans
1/4 # dried great northern white beans
2 12-oz. cans cheap beer
chili powder and cumin to taste
4 medium-sized carrots
the biggest turnip I've ever seen
3 cups assorted hot peppers, seeded (I used habaneros and jalapenos)

Combine all in enormous crock pot. Cook on high until done.

Add some sort of vinegar and cayenne hot sauce to finish.

(Gee, that's a lot of meat for someone who just talked a whole bunch about not wanting to eat so much meat because of ethical considerations! This is the meat that was in the freezer. I have more, and I'll have to use it up as well, but from here on out, all the meat I buy will probably end up being INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE, and I will have to come up with a good veggie chili recipe)

Tonight's book: "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin. I'm excited.

"Dominion" and how reading a book can change your life

Not always in a fun way...

I recently read "Dominion" by Matthew Scully, a Conservative Catholic vegan. He wrote Sarah Palin's VP nomination speech! We could not be more different. It's eloquently written and very, very compelling. It's about a number of things, but mostly about stewardship and how we are failing to live up to what we are called to do, from both a Biblical and an ethical standpoint. Among the topics explored are big game hunting (and hunting in general), whaling, animal experimentation and factory farming. I wonder if part of why it's so viscerally affecting is that I came to this book from a place of skepticism. What does a Conservative Catholic vegan have to say to me? Lots and lots. I spent the last two hours of reading with a knot in my stomach caused by grief and guilt. It's not a fun read, but I believe it's an important one.

For me, the sum of this is that the thin veneer of plausible deniability that I have so carefully cultivated over the years has been removed, and I've been wrestling with what this means for me and my relationship to food - particularly meat and dairy. It's easier to not read this book. It's easier to not think about what goes into what I eat, but I can't pretend that I don't know anymore, and I can't keep contributing to the amount of suffering that takes place in the meat industrial complex.

I am fortunate to live in a place where an organic, ethical food movement has taken hold. There are a number of farmer's markets and co-ops in the area where pasture-fed meat can be obtained. I can easily find Shatto milk at the store (if I really wanted to, I could take a day trip out to the dairy itself). Tomorrow, I'm probably going to check out Howard's Organic Fare/Vegetable Patch, which is a kind of local 24/7 membership grocery thing (I'm not entirely sure how best to describe it, but it's fascinating to me).

Equal in importance to this accessibility, I am in a position financially where purchasing these products is something I can do. This is certainly not something I could have even considered when I was younger, so in some ways, I'm lucky that I've come to this quandary at this point in my life.

I've considered vegetarianism, and there are many health benefits (as well as the prospect of environmental sustainability) but my biggest motivator is the guilt I feel over the living conditions of animals in factory farms. I'm not concerned about my health, and I'm a fatalist when it comes to the state of the world. We're doomed! I have come to accept this! I don't go out of my way to do awful things - I recycle, I try to minimize my driving, but we're not headed in a good direction, and I haven't seen anything in policy or other sea change that makes me think that we're going to turn this around in the time we have left to do that! I'm oddly chipper about it. But in the time we have left, I'd like to at least reduce the amount of suffering that my own personal existence encourages.

What's probably going to happen is that I'll go mostly vegetarian, and on the rare occasions that I eat meat, I'll try to buy it from ethical, local sources.