Did you know . . .

. . . that someone trademarked the phrase "Urban Homestead" and they are making people change the names of their previously published blogs and books that contain that phrase? They even sent out a couple would-be "cease and desist" letters. That's absurd. Read more here, here, and here. People are pissed, as well they should be. That's like saying that you've trademarked the words "Community Garden" or "Urban Farm." Ridiculous. Follow the links to other people's well thought out blog posts on the topic.

I'm back!

After several weeks of searching for the right set-up at the right cost (as low as possible), I now have a laptop with a broken screen, hooked up to an old apple desktop display, connected by the rarest and most expensive computer adapter cord in the history of mankind. I managed to source all of these things on craigslist, so the whole thing cost me about $100.



We also moved M's music studio equipment out of our bedroom and into his new studio (aka the basement) so now I have a workspace that is all MINE, MINE I TELL YOU, MWAHAHAHAHAH! Ahem. It may not look like much, but I get a little excited about it.



So now, back your the regularly scheduled posts.

Out with the old . . .

. . . and in with the new!



200th post!

Someone Stole My Bike

I know, can you believe it? Someone stole the bike that I was fixing up at the bike church. It's partially my fault for being a trusting person. I should have made sure it wouldn't happen by bringing my own lock, but I trusted that the spirit of the bike church would make it immune to selfishness. I was wrong. I had my name and the date on it, so there's no mistake. It was stolen. At least I still have good old Bonanza Jellybean, though she's taken to falling over on me and giving me black-and-blues recently. Sigh. I'm gonna go cry now.

Old Sac

Old Sacramento, that is. After returning from wine country, my family and I spent a thrilling half-day wandering around the tourist pit that is Old Sacramento. It's made to look like an Old West type downtown, with horse drawn carriages everywhere. The only thing to do there is to spend money on souvenirs, pretty much. There are about a hundred candy shops that sell salt water taffy, of all things.



To give it some credit, there is a train museum and a military museum. And if you're a kid it's probably heaven. But I wasn't too thrilled with it. I did get some pretty cool pictures though.

Veggies (and some complaining, sorry)

Things are getting quite busy over here. I have a midterm, two reflection papers, a grant proposal, two quizzes, and another field trip all coming up in the next week and a half. In addition, Mother's Day is coming quick and my big project is definitely not going to be ready by then (it's okay, Mom already knows she's getting her gift a few weeks late). On top of all that, I volunteered to create an educational display for the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society show this weekend. Luckily, I was able to use posters from an ongoing project at the Conservatory on campus, and my only job is to gather the plants from the Conservatory, clean them up, label them, arrange them, take them to the show on Friday, set them up, and return to take them home again on Sunday. Whew! Like I have time to do that, but I'm doing it anyway. Pictures to come, of course.

Here is the last CSA box I got. There was supposed to be one today as well, but due to a communication error it wasn't picked up. Oh well, another two weeks without fresh veggies, and $15 down the drain, no biggie.



I put almost all of this into a huge soup. The purple kale bled all of its color into the soup, so the broth is all purple, which I like. I ate the artichoke the first night, of course. Who can let artichokes just sit in their fridge? Not me, that's for sure.



For my next field trip I will be going to several places in the inner coast ranges this Saturday with my CA Plant Communities class. We will see riparian forest, foothill woodland, and chaparral. I know it's only Wed/Thurs, but have a great weekend!

Ribbon rant

Last weekend my friend Sarah and I went to a "Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival" at the Cal Expo building in Sacramento. Unfortunately that great title was actually code for "a huge room where there are hundreds of people waiting to sell you things." Whoops. Actually, not only that, but when we got there we found out that the other name they were using to advertise the event was "The Sacramento Women's Show."


Please, that makes me want to hit someone. I almost asked a few men in there how they felt about that title, but I wasn't in the mood to be made to feel like a crazy person. Needless to say, we didn't stay for long. As we were walking in we noticed that every single woman walking out had huge bags full of purchases. We prided ourselves in having exactly zero bags as we exited, and Sarah even took a picture to document it.


To be completely honest what really happened is that I did buy some great ribbon, but we figured that it evened itself out because we also walked out with an armful of free towels that we got after listening to a guy pitch them to us for about 20 minutes. Fun. Here are my fabulous ribbons that I have no idea what to do with. The coiled one is from the "Women's Show" and the other two are from the Bower Bird store in town.