I'm a winner!

I entered a contest on Abi's food blog and won a gift certificate to spend at Bake It Pretty. The last thing I won was a lint remover at a girl scout event back in the early nineties, so I was beyond excited about this! I ended up getting these insanely cute cookie cutters to add to my mama's collection:

I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a snail, mushroom, or mustache yet.
I got a few supplies for some upcoming projects too.
Thank you, Mrs. Porter!

Last night was the first bicycle ride of the season with the more standard Bike Gang from last summer...plus and minus a few. After four consecutive days of riding, I am feeling the burn. And Marvin is already complaining about my rapidly shrinking gut. Poor chubby chaser. I hope he survives the summer!

And finally a moderate portion of nerding out: this week's LOST was amazing once again. I'm glad Richard Alpert finally got his own episode. And that things are beginning to be explained. (I'll keep my mouth shut, for any Losties that might have fallen behind.)

You wear those suspenders, Richardus!

Times two.

We biked the trail again...same as yesterday...minus Marvin, plus twenty degrees and no incidents of clumsiness on my part. The turtles were out full force and there was nary a cloud in the sky. Is it really spring now?

                                    ^ That was the best spring...but I am hereby declaring that this one will be equally, if not MORE amazing. You got that?

Gator weather.

Today Jumpin' Josh, Brittany Paul, Marvin, and I chose to ride bicycles on Bona Dea trail. Why we chose the coldest, rainiest day possible for this adventure...I am not entirely sure. Probably because we had our hearts set on seeing an alligator. There are allegedly at least eleven 'gators in the swampier parts of the park and even more allegedly a couple of small dogs have been eaten recently. I was skeptical about the dog-eatings until we got to the part of the trail with the highest swamp-water level and found that it was closed. Naturally we ignored the orange fence and went about our merry way. I always get really nervous at the part of the trail where you can see the spots where the gators come up out of the water to cross and then slide back down the other slope, but I was especially expecting to get devoured today, due to the orange fence. None of us got eaten, but three of us thought we might have seen a baby alligator, but agreed that it was probably just a stick. We did discover a wildlife viewing hut at the water's edge that none of us had ever noticed before. Apparently some boyscouts built it in '99. We also saw a heron and some ducks and squirrels...and I am officially on a mission to find some rainboots. Not just a casual mission, but a hardcore one. This is due to one of my feet slipping into a pool of muddy water and then being soggy and numb for the rest of the day. Being clumsy and having short legs is only a downer when you're a pseudo-outdoorsperson trying to have  adventures with rugged outdoorspeople.

I found this after googling "alligator" -

Dolphin slaughter, psoriasis, and a couple of recipes.

Love animals? Looking for a tear-jerker? Watch The Cove!

It's currently in first place as my biggest cry of the year and probably won't be beaten unless someone I know and love dies...or something tragic happens on LOST. You can help with the dolphin-savings here.

I'd always wanted to do one of those touristy "swim with the dolphin" things, but not after finding out how crummy the dolphin industry is. Summary: Dudes capture a bunch of potential Flippers in a beautiful cove. Trainers come from around the world once a year to pick out the prettiest little dolphins to take back home to Sea World-ish places, paying the fishermen $150,000 per trainee...and shortly thereafter the un-chosen dolphins get harpooned to death.  Although I would personally never choose to eat a dolphin for dinner, I'm not opposed to the thought of someone else eating a dolphin for dinner...but I am greatly opposed to any method of killing one's dinner that isn't quick and to the point. It's not at all nice to torture your dinner before you eat it. Keep it humane. (Or...you  know...as humane as slaughter can be.)

Now, on to more encouraging things!

A customer with psoriasis came in yesterday with a success story: for years his hands had been so psoriasis-y that he'd had to wear gloves at all times to keep his oozy scabs from getting all over everything. He'd tried every medication available, but nothing helped. A nutritionist suggested he take 50 mg of zinc each day, in addition to a good multivitamin and also cut out all breads and processed starches and sweets from his diet. After a week of doing this he is glove and pain free and the psoriasis is almost entirely gone. Yay for that guy! I love hearing natural remedy success stories and plan to start posting more of them on here. It's amazing what the simplest of changes can do for a person's health.

Next up, a fat-busting smoothie recipe from Dr. Oz!
In a blender combine the following:
     1 c. juice (I used Naked Gold Machine)
     1/2 a banana or 3/4 c. berries (I substituted more Naked juice)
     2 Tbs. whey powder (I substituted rice protein powder)
     2 Tbs. ground flaxseed
     1 Tbs. ground psyllium husk
     1 Tbs. chia seeds
     1 Tbs. wheat germ
     600 mg. fish oil (I used 1 Tbs. flax oil instead)

This might just be my new breakfast of choice. I had one for breakfast and I still have plenty of energy. Crazy. Even on good days I tend to feel like a sloth.

And finally, an almost healthy desert recipe, courtesy of Abi:
Melt 1/3 cup brown rice syrup and 1/3 cup peanut butter on the stove. Remove from heat.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in 3 cups brown rice crisp cereal and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Chill. Devour. Mmmm. It's the healthiest dessert I've found that Marvin actually likes. Pretty pitiful...but it's a start.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I plan on sitting here being freaked out that last night I was running around outside in shorts and a t-shirt, and now I need mittens and a thermal underwear to be comfortable outdoors. This is too much climate change for a twenty-four hour time period!

Love,
Sarah

Good news.

It was a great comfort for me to learn that Netflix does indeed recycle their return envelopes.

One less pleasure to feel guilty about.

I'm anxiously waiting for bike rides, hammock weather, and an anniversary road trip to Nawlins (and wherever else the road takes us.) I've been reading up on Marie Laveau and have already decided what I'll be ordering at the Gumbo Shop. Roadside America gave some good suggestions on Louisiana oddities. So far the Leprosy Museum seems to have the most potential.

Today we found a perfect camping spot and I tried my first veggie burger from Burger King. It was...well, what one would expect from a fast food veggie burger: edible, slathered in ketchup, and probably a year old.

Cat, dog, and hermit crab sitting for Heath and Josh this week. Wishing someone would craft me a cute wrist-cuff so I can fashionably cover my tattoo while at work. If I have to explain, "...it's from a song my friend wrote," while a stranger holds my hand one more time I might lose my ability to fake-smile!

My favorite customer purchases at the natural foods store thus far:

1. Bee pollen. "It increases my chickens' libido."
   
2. Cucumber flavored tonic water. "I have a confession to make: I buy these to use in my signature gin & tonics..."
3. Peppermint essential oil. "I read that you can put this stuff on a cotton ball and stuff it in a mole tunnel to run the little devils outta your yard!"

I won't even mention the elderly woman who used the phrase, "it just stays soft!" while telling me about her husband's erectile dysfunction. Or the Hispanic man who mostly communicated with me through the use of a Spanish/English dictionary: Wife. Needs. To reaffirm. To increase. Bust. Hmmm. No hay.

Today, all cars,
all fathers, all mothers, all
children and lovers will
have to forget
about that thing in the sky,
going around
like a persistent rumor
that will get us yet.
-Anne Sexton, my favorite

I haven't felt like this since '99.

I don't remember how to sleep.
Last weekend was phenomenal.
I adore my family.
I beat my mama at Scrabble for the first time in my life.
My heartiest laugh of the year was shared with my dad.
2010 needs more coffee and conversation and quiche and attention deficit strolls with Adrianna.
I've been listening to Placebo. And Shakira.
About the video for She Wolf: Is that a glittery birth canal? I'm convinced it is and would like to put in a request for a glam birth canal and sweet contortionist skills! Or at least rhythm and belly dancing lessons.
We're thinking about changing Mr. Eko's name to Rainman. I'm sure you can guess why.
The latest episode of LOST left me with one fist in the air, mouthing the word, "WAAAAAARRRRR!"
It's detox time. Hello fruit and tea.
I know I've said it before, but life is so good. But I've really got to work on this sleep disorder.

Post V-Day Post.

For Valentine's Day we intended to make a heart-shaped wheat crust pizza together from scratch, but we ended up having adventures instead. There was a visit to Goodwill and then a road trip to the skate shop in Conway and then a little hangout with Courtney and an intense search for rain boots, which failed. There was also coffee and a bunch of parakeets and music and Moe's. I forgot to wear my red and white ribbon in my hair.
Marvin gave me a mini-wedding cake.


Since we didn't have a "real" wedding, we missed out on the tasty cake and he decided it was about time to make up for lost dessert! Mmmm. He also got me a dozen cranberry macadamia nut cookies from Catherine's Cakes, which are the most delicious cookies in the world, but he accidentally ate eleven of them before I made it home from work. He told me about the accident sheepishly and I laughed. A lot.

I gave him a Frankenstein Danzig Kewpie doll that I found on Etsy.

Here are some of the treats I made in honor of a formerly hated holiday that I'm just beginning to enjoy:



Peanut butter fudge cupcakes...and celebrity valentines inspired by Elsie.

Here's a link to Class Class. I've already learned a thing or two.

Something of the stars.

We come from farther away than space and longer ago than time. Evolution and genetics and environment explain a lot about us but they don’t explain all about us or even the most important thing about us. Though we live in the world, we can never be entirely at home in the world. We have something of God within us the way we have something of the stars. .

I wonder if there's a Bible study out there somewhere tailored specifically for a nerdy-dreamy-universalist-liberal?

Everyone had rotting carpet and a door to pay for.

A few nights ago I had the happiest dream. In the dream I befriended a garden gnome and his fawn friend. We always communicated non-verbally. Last night I was cleaning up my desk and came across this photo of the gnome and fawn from my dream:


I had printed it off the computer in 2008, tucked it into an album and forgotten about it. Now it's framed and every time I see it I can't help but smile.

Yesterday morning I woke up and decided to drive one hundred miles in a blizzard. I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.


And this morning I woke up with a song in my head that just won't go away. I'm not complaining; it's a good song.



I've been reading Miranda July's No one belongs here more than you. Loving it so much. Very hard to ration. I could stay up all night quoting my favorite parts, but I'll just leave you with this one:

...Theresa was sitting on the floor next to a chair. This is always a bad sign. It's a slippery slope, and it's best to just sit in chairs, to eat when hungry, to sleep and rise and work. But we have all been there. Chairs are for people, and you're not sure if you are one...

I've had the biggest non-sexual crush on Ms. July since I was eighteen and stumbled upon Learning to Love You More. Best diy collaboration ever. Then it was Me and You and Everyone We Know, with my favorite intro of all time.



And then I discovered the website for her book, which (even if you have no appreciation for artsy fartsy performances and are not mesmerized by the magic of ordinary life) you might think is pretty neat. I do. Obviously.

If I ever get around to hosting a celebrity dinner party the following people will certainly get invitations: Jorge Garcia & Sidekick 22, Miranda July, all the members of Le Tigre (don't remind me that they are no longer a band), Devendra Banhart, Beth Ditto, Aaron Weiss, and Natasha Khan. Lovely weird lovelies.

Enough rambling about famous people that I admire.
Do you know what I miss?
MySpace.
MySpace in the days when you were only allowed eight photos and one profile song.
Now a confession:
I created a MySpace account in hopes of getting Marvin to fall in love with me. We hadn't exchanged phone numbers after our first encounter because he was in the process of getting out of a crappy relationship and I was in a perpetual state of trying to convince myself that I hated men. The MySpace account was Rachel's brilliant idea. Possibly her only brilliant idea of the past decade! (AHAHAHA. Juuuust kidding Rachel. I know you're reading this and both grumbling and laughing about it and you should know that a) I love you and b) right now I'm glad that you're in Egypt and unable to punch me in the boob. I know you wish you could.)
But yeah. Primitive MySpace days...you ruled.

I think I've over-blogged.

Crap.

Coyote.

I got up in the middle of the night for a trip to the ladies' room and happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I was washing my hands. What a sight. I laughed so hard at my reflection that I couldn't not take a picture.

Puffy, grouchy, crazy haired, lazy eyed, sleep masked wonder in a gas station t-shirt. Marvin is one lucky man.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN MATLOCK!

I'm really sorry that lunch was disgusting and that the pottery place was closed and that you didn't find anything at the flea market and that your dog likes to eat kitty litter and poop on the floor. What do you want to bet that there will be either a crying baby or an old man with a hacking cough at the movie tonight...just to make your Crappy Birthday complete. Here's to hoping that the other days of your twenty-third year will be phenomenal in comparison to this hilariously crummy one. I luh you!

An Arkansan blizzard and RuPaul.

Marvin got really excited about the snow. Partially because it got him out of half a day of work and partially because he hasn't seen a whole lot of it in his lifetime. Normally I have to pester him to smile in photos, but this time he supplied ample grins on his own:

Being the fatso that I am, I ate some flakes:

And we tried in vain to take a kissing pic:


Apparently we just aren't emo enough for that garbage.

This quote from RuPaul made my day: "Culturally, many women feel they have to play along with how things are set up. Women are supposed to 'be this' and 'do this,' but drag queens mock that setup. The whole identity of being a woman, and the rules about what a woman can or can't do, it's all such a crock of shit, and drag queens embody the hoax of it all."

Love it.

I also love being back on the Funeral. Daily doses of no-longer-local friends in a non-stalker setting can't hurt. Who needs Facebook when you've got a nineties style forum?

Other loves of the day: Quinoa & sauteed veggies, endless cups of hot cocoa, seeing the castle church in a winter wonderland, and BUST magazine. I usually read it straight through, but I'm having a hard time doing that with this issue because I'm dying to get to the article about Lurlene McDaniel. (No pun intended*, I promise.) She was my favorite author as a pre-teen.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Lurlene McDaniel, she writes books about girls who are faced with terminal illnesses.

It's almost February already?!?

I just read that the Center for Science in the Public Interest has suggest taxing soft drinks by the ounce and using the profits to improve meals in public schools. Excellent idea, I think.

In honor of the sleet and snow and bitter cold, I am wearing the snowman pajamas my mama made for me years ago. I plan to wear them until the accumulation melts. All of it. I might even wear them until spring. Constantly. Or at least for the entirety of my four day weekend. The only plans I have for this four day weekend are to read, watch movies, write letters, and finish projects that are scattered about. And eat a lot, of course.

I've actually written four letters already this week. I just don't know when I'll get around to mailing them. Lazy.

Two disappointing things I've recently learned after doing a bit of research:
1) John Wayne did not have forty pounds of impacted fecal matter in his colon.
2) Ear candles do not suck wax buildup out of your ears.

The next two health-related things I want to look into are bee pollen and those foot patches that allegedly detox your body. These two just sound too good to be true.

Two. Too. To.

Watch Umberto D. if you have the chance. It's a good 'n.

If you're easily grossed out, don't read this Birthday week post!

I'm twenty-six!
Marvin took me record shopping for my bee-day and we sat by the river a bunch and admired the lights on the water and it was a happy day and night. It was also the day that I started my raw foods diet. For the first forty-eight hours of raw fooding, I felt unbelievably energetic and very alert. Then, out of nowhere, I started puking and pooping like I'd never puked and pooped before. At first I blamed the raw foods, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I've developed a terrible allergy.........to GARBANZO BEANS! The last time I ate hummus and the last time I ate chickpea curry I felt horrible and on the day of violent stomach malfunction, I had eaten tons of raw chickpeas on my salad. Mystery solved. My new plan of dining is this: no meats, no chickpeas, very little dairy/white flour/sugar. I threw up too many fresh fruits and vegetables Tuesday night to want to go completely raw again any time soon. Yuck.
This week I've been a little obsessed with pioneers, Revelation, Henry Darger, Picnic at Hanging Rock, photographs of transparent balloons, and soup of all kinds.
I just learned that on St. Valentine's Day, Picnic at Hanging Rock is shown at Hanging Rock. That's one more thing to add to my bucket list.

The brightside.

I kind of like it when I loan Marvin the car and he forgets to pick me up from work, but only because his "apology" is typically in the form of Chinese food. Usually he doesn't forget me...just loses track of time while playing video games and doesn't hear the phone ring when I call him because of the noise canceling headphones I've already griped about in another post. It's convenient that he forgot me today - I need to load up on all the nutrient poor foods that I can before Tuesday rolls around. Tuesday will be day one of a week (or more) of raw vegan food. My raw foodist customers always have the most amazing conversion stories...so I'm gonna give it a try. After that week I'm hoping to stay 100% vegan...and 70+% raw. This will be a big deal for a sugar and carboholic. A very big deal. Even a week of it will be a big deal. HUGE, even! Wish me luck. And wish Marvin even more luck. He's shooting for a week of raw eating too, and the only vegetable that boy likes is the potato. And even the potato has to be either deep fried or smothered with butter and cheese. Oy.

I was curious about what the Freaks and Geeks kids looked like as adults so I did some research and found this (d'awwww):

And this (yowza!):


And this photo of the girl that played Cindy Sanders...the wholesome cheerleader:

These findings made my day.

Snowventures.

Last weekend was a winner. Friday night was spent playing cards with the ladies. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were devoted to a solo road trip into the mountains to visit my mama and daddy. I love a good drive alone periodically for planning, reminiscing, singing poorly, and admiring the scenery. I got to the snowy parts of the drive just at dusk and just as "Dreams" by The Cranberries started to play. I had an incredibly strong urge to veer off the road into a Narnia-esque field, get out of the car, and spin in circles. I reminded myself that the little events in my life are in fact NOT cheesy scenes from a movie and kept driving. But I smiled the rest of the way.

At home I ate some of my mama's homemade vegetable soup (canned with vegetables from last summers garden...including OKRA! mmm!) and sweet potato pie. We watched a bunch of Freaks and Geeks and went through mounds of old paperwork from the locksmith shop. Closing a business is a lot more tedious than I'd realized.

I miss living in such close proximity to trees and wildlife and falling asleep without the glow of a street light complicating things. I also miss snow.



[The last two photos are of a frozen waterfall and the rock I chose as my defense against potential forest predators after seeing some prints in the snow that either belonged to a big dog, a coyote, or a really big cat.]

(In)significant.

"Rationalist objections to the "absurdity" of religion, especially Christianity, have for a long time sounded to me like the sorts of objections that frustrated schoolchildren make when they cannot immediately comprehend a difficult concept. They will say, "This subject is useless, it's stupid, it has no value for me." What really frustrates them (or anyone who runs up against such difficulties) is that their inability to understand reveals their own deficiencies and failures, which are never pleasant to have revealed. Little wonder that in the era when confessing the Christian Faith became essentially optional many people in what was Christendom opted out all together, chose another religion, or chose the least challenging splinters or corruptions of the Faith."

Today I burned a lot of sage and thought a lot of good and was probably very irrational. I like that I'm (in)significant.

LOST

The beginning of the end of LOST is almost here. I'm pretty excited, nervous, and nerded out about it.

Apparently everything about this ^ poster is significant in the overall scheme of things...which leaves me wondering: Where is Walt? Where is Turnip Head? Is that Libby in the background? Why is Michael so dressed up? Why is Kate so annoying? Are crossed arms significant? Does Richard Alpert wear eyeliner...or not?

"The producers also plan to wrap up long-standing mysteries, such as the nature of the smoke monster, the four-toed statue of Taweret, the identity of the Adam & Eve skeletons from season one, and the reason the Dharma periodic resupply drops continue after the purge. Lindelof has also indicated that Walt's unusual abilities may be explained, although this may not necessarily require the character's direct involvement.Matthew Fox stated in an interview that in the final season, the characters of Jack Shephard and John Locke "will come head to head." A third of the way through the final season, the two time lines will be "solidified into one" and "will be very linear – no more flashbacks, nothing." He has also claimed to be the only cast member who knows the ending of the series,though Lindelof has clarified that Fox only knows things that are relevant to his character."

I think as long as somebody explains the four-toed statue, the smoke monster, the voices in the jungle, what was up with Libby, Walt's powers, and the disappearance of Claire I will be pleased. I would also like for Kate to be mauled by a polar bear while Juliet and Sawyer get married in the background. These aren't unreasonable requests, are they?

Courtney, don't be mad about this post. LOST is my Indiana Jones. Get hooked already.
Chase, watch this:

Weeshes.

Birthday wishlist. Go ahead - make my day.



Really all I want for my birthday is to eat catfish at that place on the river in Dardanelle and then look for fish bones and bottled messages. And maybe visit Goodwill and Vintage Books. And maybe drink too much coffee. And maybe, maybe, MAYBE get to see snowfall. It seems to always snow while I'm asleep and just be icy and treacherous by the time I'm up and around. Either treacherous or already melting. I braved the ice early yesterday morning to have my drivers license renewed. I thought (correctly) that there wouldn't be any lines at the revenue office during such horrible weather. I was pretty pleased with myself for being so line-avoidingly sneaky...and for only almost sliding off the road into someone's yard.

Work was hectic today. I got to do inventory on about a million new-agey fairy&angel greeting cards that all look pretty much the same. It made me really glad that I don't work at Hallmark. I don't know how much greeting card inventory I could handle. I could count probiotics and rainforest chocolates all day long, but not greeting cards. Nope. Not doing it.

And now for a brief list of weird things I've witnessed Mr. Eko eat this week:
1. a yogurt covered raisin
2. a tuft of another cat's fur
3. seaweed
4. paper

He and Shat are now best friends. Shat never befriends other cats, but she's been very motherly to Eko lately. It's cute. And surprising.

Happy Birfday, Marvin!

Today my sweet, sweet boy turned twenty-six. I am so happy that he was born!!!!! I left work early to make him a carrot cake.


There were so many candles on the cake that after he blew them out, smoke lingered for a solid fifteen minutes. Talk about being ANCIENT!


Marv requested his usual birthday hibachi dinner at Fuji. Lauren, David, Heath, and Josh partook in the festivities. The chef chose a particularly large piece of broccoli for me to try and catch in my mouth and asked, "You like the big ones, eh?" and then when I opened my mouth to have broccoli thrown at me, "AAAAAAH!!!! SHE LIKE THE BIG ONES!" I chose to just get a little embarrassed instead of making a crude joke about my husband vs. Asians. Hooray for my filter! Not so hooray for me being capable of coming up with a racial stereotyping penis joke as a defense mechanism.

I got a bunch of bargains with the $25 Hobby Lobby gift card from my boss: two 16" x 20" canvases, 100 tea light candles, a bamboo wind chime, a cute-ish mushroom decorative plant stake thing, modeling clay, and some freeze-dried space ice cream! I had intended to spend it on maybe some fancy baking supplies or an ant farm, but the 50% of sale flyer sucked me in. (And I thank it.)

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARVIN EDWARD REILLY, JR!
[Here is the mention of you being awesome at Modern Warfare that you requested. I love you!]

2.0.1.0.

Hey, New Year!
You're going to be an amazing one.
I spent the eve of 2010 playing Battleship with Marvin. We'd intended to go to Vino's to see Andy Warr play (and drink too much of the best root beer in the world) and then go to a more glamorous after-party at Hannah's, but we ended up hanging out at the apartment. Ignoring phone calls. Eating junk food. Being old, boring, married slobs. And it was delightful. As usual. Marvin pointed out that my Battleship game is the oldest he's ever seen:


It's the only Battleship I've ever known. He wants to get the computerized version, but I say, "NEVER!" 1971 isn't going anywhere.

So far this year I've accomplished two of my many mini-goals: making quiche (which turned out quite nicely) and making sushi (which ended up being sloppy, but delicious.)

[On the left - sushi roll attempt #1. On the right - sushi roll attempt #2...]

Mr. Eko really wanted a bite. I later learned that all of our kitties have big appetites for nori.

Here's Eko with my New Year's drawing contest submission:

Okay, who am I kidding. The cat drew that masterpiece, not me...

Walked to the grocery store today. Played tennis and did some yoga yesterday. Two for two on my fresh air and exercise resolution!

And finally, here is evidence that the lovely Mary Hollowell and I hung out over the Christmas holiday. It was the first time we'd seen each other in about six years. I love this girl so much!