Tag Sales

The kids and I went to an estate and a few yard sales today. Above is our booty. If you click on the photo and go to flickr there are notes on everything showing what we paid.

We also got a push mower. It needs oiling and sharpening but otherwise, it's in great shape. H is looking forward to doing his own mowing. I'm hoping to convert to just the push mower. Troy is not into that, he would rather just mow once a week.

Towel Day!!

I almost missed this. It's today.

We're big Douglas Adams fans here.

Check out the info here.

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in and-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

May 25 is Towel Day, a tribute to Douglas Adams

A Snail's Pace

The other day, one of my favorite blogs did a post about snails and taking things slower. It was a great couple of posts. It got me to thinking about how hurried I am all the time. Most of it is due to school, the other is outside commitments. Before I started back to school, I would complain that I didn't have enough time. Now, I really know what that looks like. Believe me when I say, the grass is much greener on the no school side.

With summer coming on, I want to make an effort to live our days at a snails pace. Everything doesn't have to be done right away. Appts. can be cancelled and we can choose only a few activities.

While oogling over Knitting Iris' snail photos, I wished that we had snails like that around here. This morning, my wish came true! While at school, walking with my friend a HUGE snail(golf ball size shell) was trying to make it accross the sidewalk into the shade, attempting to flee from the rising sun. Luckily, I had my camera from the day before in my bag and was able to snap a few shots of him. I was so content to just watch this fella stretch and progress along the side walk. I easily spent 5 minutes watching. I love the shadow he made on the sidewalk. Later, while going to class I noticed a bunch of them in the grass and near what is to now be called a "snail cove by" some bushes. When you actually stopped to look, you could see there were so many of these little creatures.

A snails pace...that's the life for me!

OMC- Westside Story 1961

We've gotten back into our Oscar Movie Challenge again. With school ending soon, I can see the horizon and it's called more free time.

We watched Westside Story yesterday with the kids.

It's a musical.

I have decided I'm just not a musical fan. Songs just take way to long to convey a message that could be done in a sentence or two. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know, how very immature of me.

For those who aren't familiar with this movie, it won best picture in 1961 (and unbelievably 9 other oscars). It's a musical, it's got a pseudo Romeo and Juliet theme with a bit of race issues thrown in.

Near the end, we just couldn't stand it anymore and started fast forwarding through the music numbers.

I did really like the "technicolor" filming. It's pretty to watch.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

New Park Feature

New Park Feature, originally uploaded by That Bohemian Chick.

We went to the park today, in the rain, to check out the new rock feature. It was supposed to be finished last tuesday but still doesn't have it's holds in. It's pretty tall, maybe 10 feet or so. I climbed up one of the easy sides (in a dress...thank-you very much) to check out the top. It's pretty cool. The only major draw back is that it's directly in the sun. So, in the summer, come early in the day. Or, come when it's raining. We had the park entirely to ourselves.

Table Loom

Table Loom, originally uploaded by That Bohemian Chick.

I've just acquired a table loom (for free so I'm still compacting...WOOT!). I've been interesed in weaving for quite a while but haven't had the energy to put into the actualy learning process. I've also not owned the equipment needed and borrowed/rented it for a while until I realized that I didn't want to start something on a loom that I'd have to return eventually.

This table loom is actually one of two looms I'm getting. The other will be coming within a month or two. A friend of a friend's-husband's-grandmother passed away and she was a weaver. She had this table loom and a floor loom. The family wanted to pass it on to someone who would use it so....voila!

There is a bit of maintenance, the reeds have some rust, and the heddles are string and when it was stored, it was too tight so the heddle beams are a bit warped. It did come already warped though so I can play with it a bit before I put it away until school is out.

By the end of this year, I want to learn how to weave and maybe make most of my gifts for the holidays.

At The Park

We went to the park the other day. It was so hot....in the mid to upper 90s.

It's a taste of summer and boy am I ready.

I'm burnt out on school. I've come to the realization that right now, in my life, isn't the right time to go back. My kids still need more of me than I can give when I'm in school and I don't want to waste this time with them studying and being gone a lot. So, I've made the decision no more school for a while. Who knows, maybe we'll go to college together when they're older.(-:

Looking forward to many fun days like this...

International Knit in Public Day

June 10th is International Knit in Public Day. I'm thinking of doing a park day. Anyone interested?

Happy Mother's Day!

Vermicomposting...or....How my son gets to have pet worms.

While doing "The Compact" thing I came across the idea of composting to leave a smaller footprint. I've always been intrigued by the notion and a friend, who was going through the master gardener program last year, told me about vermicomposting.

Vermicomposting is using worms to eat your kitchen food wastes. The nice thing about vermicomposting is that it can be done indoors, there is no smell(I'll get to how I found this fact out in a bit), and you put less biodegradable garbage in the landfill. I started telling H about it and being a 6yo who is in love with worms anyway, he really wanted to do it.

Mind you, I was intrigued, this doesn't really mean I'm up for worms in my house. I did some more online research and we did a library run. We've read up on it and have taken a free composting class to learn more hands on knowledge.

We decided to do it and determined that we needed 2 pounds of worms to compost our families needs. We had some rubbermaid bins in the basement with lids that would work perfectly and all we needed were the worms. Now they can't be just any worms, they had to be red worms also known as "red wigglers".

My first instinct was to call the master gardener program to see if they had a source. They really didn't. My mom donated $20 to H's worm fund and we had determined that we'd have to order them through the mail. On a lark, I thought I'd try "free-cycle". We had a ton of emails offering us red worms at no charge. We went with a woman who lives right up the hill from us. She showed us the area where she keeps her bins and there was no smell at all. She confirmed that fact that there wasn't a smell and handed us the big bucket-o-muck you see above. She explained that she had let them go to long without cleaning and that it was basically just "worm casings"(nice way to say worm poop).

I couldn't imagine that there were very many worms in that bucket, however, when we got home, I started to sort through the muck and it was like putting my hand in spaghetti. They were all just under the surface. All ages and sizes...there were some babies that were so small, they were mostly clear. I completely traumatized them by washing them off and put them in the prepared bin. Some were in such shock, they just laid on the surface in a pose I can only compare to panting.

So, we have pet worms. They are really not that bad. They have no teeth (thank-god..I'm pretty sure I'd be a mess if they did after the washing they got) and H is in love with them.

I'll keep you posted as to how we fare.

What I Want for Mother's Day or....The Dilema

Back in April, MSL invited me to be one of the first to preview their new magazine:


I sent in my card for a free first issue. If I wanted to continue getting it, I just needed to send in the invoice with payment. I don't know what I was expecting but this magazine is AWESOME.

So, the dilema is that I want to continue getting it but it isn't kosher with The Compact. So, I'm finding myself trying to weedle a gift from my kids for mother's day by having them pay for my subscription. It's began, finding ways to cheat...

I'm a bad compact participant..

But check out the blueprint website and tell me it isn't worth it: Blueprint

MLC-Update Birthday Solution

Frugal Birthday Card, originally uploaded by That Bohemian Chick.

Since starting the compact on May 1st, I've had to come up with some very creative alternatives to just going out and buying stuff.

H had a birthday party to go to and, though I like to stock pile gifts for such occasions, I didn't have anything appropriate for his friend. After a fruitless trip to the thrift store. We decided to give $.

I know he loves Tintin so I captured this image off the web and fashioned a card in mspublisher.

H said he loved the card which is saying a lot since the kid is 1) a boy and 2)11 years old.

Sweet!

Breakfast 5.5.2006

Breakfast 5.5.2006, originally uploaded by That Bohemian Chick.

H just learned how to make coffee and every morning he loves to make it for me. Even though the mug says *bucks, it's actually some blend from Costco. Recently, I got some of *bucks Papua New Guinea for my birthday. It's a new favorite. I actually got my mom hooked on it. Troy has sugar in his coffee and felt that he didn't need to add it to his cup of Papua.

Since H made the coffee, I made blueberry muffins. I've been experimenting using whole wheat pastry flour in the place of white all purpose. So far this week, banana bread, blueberry muffins, a pizza dough all were modified with great success. For some reason, no one in my family has noticed. I think it's given the baked goods a "nutty" flavor but w/o the nuts.YUM!

Here is the Recipe:

WW Blueberry Muffins
1 3/4C WW Pastry Flour
1/3 C Sugar
2 teas. Baking Powder
3/4 C Milk
1/4 C Olive Oil (I use this in place of all vegetable oils)
1 Egg
1 C Blueberries
1/2 of a Lemon's Zest

Mix together all dry ingredients (first 3). Add the rest of the ingredients but don't stir until they are all added. Stir until just combined.

Scoop into muffin pan (this makes 12). And put into a 400degree oven for 20 minutes or until tops are nice and brown.

Enjoy!

My Procrastination is Your Pleasure...

Guess what, I have a take home mid-term for my Inter-Cultural Studies(ICS) class that is due on Tuesday.

You know what that means....

Avoidance!

Here are some loverly pictures of my niece E. She's just over a year old and the only view I seem to have of her lately is the back of her adorable little head...

Month Long Challeng(MLC)- Update

So far, so good. My first instinct is to go to the store still though. Then I realize what's going on and start to think of alternatives.

With gas being/getting so expensive, I've started to walk or bike to places. I kind of like the idea of getting places by my own energy. I'm really lucky that I live in town and not in a suburb. It makes it easy to get to the store, or the park, or goodwill. We plan on riding to my son's baseball game on Wednesday and to the park tomorrow.

One challenge this week was that a planner/calender that I've been waiting for finally came in. I went so far as submitting and order then realized that it's a purchase (DOH!) and cancelled it. Whew! That was close.

Another challenge is that my son has a birthday party to go to tomorrow. What to do for a gift when you can't go out and buy one. On a lark, we cruised the goodwill store. I found an awesome gift. It's was a wooden spanking paddle with a scripture on it. I figured C took things very literally and might not get the joke so I passed on it....sigh....

So 4 days into it and it's going fine.

Month Long Challenge

I've stumbled across a great website called The Compact.

The idea was, starting Jan. 1st not to buy anything new. For example, you could buy groceries, toothpaste, cleaning products, lightbulbs....however, you wouldn't go out and buy say a sonicare toothbrush or a new lamp to replace a broken lamp. You can buy used via yardsales, thrift stores, ebay, bartering, finding a friend to lend with.

There are some people who are really going to town on this and finding alternatives to every day consumable. Look people, I'm buying toilet paper! There was a whole thing about that on their yahoo list. I'm happy that others might work towards that but, it's not happening here. Another thing is that we won't be making the kids follow the compact with their own money. We will be following the rules when it comes to things they need like clothing and such.

We're a little late on this but decided to try it for the month of May. It's a sort of Earth Day challenge for us. I'll keep you posted.