Something about waiting

Over the last few years, I have been really struggling (learning?) in my faith. Back in NC I had a large circle of Christian acquaintances (I called them friends at the time but looking back, we weren't really that close). I had trouble with some aspects of their faith but I just went along and tried my best to believe because I felt like I should. When we came to CA I felt very lost. Without the support of that circle to convince me I should support certain aspects of the Christian church (or what I thought were aspects- I don't want to get into details though, lest I offend people- I'll save that for another post!) I started to give up. However, despite all of the messed up stuff I associated with the church, I always came back to Jesus. Underneath it all I still love Jesus- He still makes sense to me. Even without all the church-y stuff, He was still there, waiting for me.

I have a tendency to be busy and keep my brain full of new things and push God to the back. Then there are days like today when I am empty of other stuff and it feels REALLY empty. I come back to Jesus and again, he is there waiting to fill me up. Always waiting for me to get my focus off myself and back to Him. I imagine him sitting on a bench in my brain, waving occasionally trying to catch my eye, but I am focused elsewhere. He waits patiently until I am ready. Thats another thing I love about Jesus- He does not force himself on people. He will wait for you to get to a place where you can see him. Anyway, I'm not really sure where I was going with this- something about waiting.

Garden Clean up

This afternoon I spent a couple hours in the garden doing some clean up and weeding.  The mexican sunflowers were falling all over my peppers and looked really ragged so I just ripped them up.  The chamomile has been dead for a while and the yellow pear tomatoes were scraggly so they both got yanked.  My neighbors' cactus broke and there was a big chunk laying on top of several plants.  I'd hoped they would clean it up, but its been over a week so I hacked it up and tossed it in their plot.  I also pulled up a bunch of bermuda grass that has been gradually sneaking in from my other neighbor unattended plot.  I have decided that after this year I am leaving this plot.  We are either moving from Davis and I will leave the garden :(  or I will just change plots.  My current plot has a lot of perimeter compared to area due to it elongated shape and it is just too much path maintenance for me- especially when I also have unattended neighboring plots.  There is no hope for keeping the weeds at bay.   I also don't like being near the cactus.  Its very pretty, but people are always tramping through my beds to get to it.  hmm.. Maybe I should rename this post "Garden Whine."

Emily and Kelly's Excellent Adventure!

Emily and I are starting a spur of the moment road trip up the northern CA coast this weekend! Emily has been awesome and basically planned everything- here is our proposed route.  I am going to take the Amtrak from Davis to Oakland where she will pick me up and we will begin our journey.  We will sleep in Mendocino, Humboldt Redwood SP, Eureka and Redding with stops along the way wherever we see fit.  Maybe Emily has a more thought out plan than that but as far as I know we are playing it by ear. I don't really care, I am just excited to be going somewhere!

I am really excited about taking some pictures! I finally figured out how to load the 120 film into the Argus 75 (had to trim off the edges of the spool) so I am ready to shoot!  There are only 12 pics per roll and I only have one roll so I have to really plan out each shot.  This will be such a different feel than shooting with the digital camera.  With digital I just take as many pictures as I want, get all the different angles, lighting etc., and then pick the best one once I download on to the computer.  I have found that the ones that look the best to me through the viewfinder are not always my favorites once they appear on my screen.  So I will really have to dig deep and find my inner photographer to get some good shots.  Then I will have to figure out how/where the heck I am going to get the film developed.  But that's a whole other post.

Goodnight!

New Argus 75

Yay! My new camera finally came! On the left is a picture of the front- the button with the white dot is the shutter; the knob on the left side is the film winder. That's pretty much all there is to it! The top glass is for the view finder and the bottom is the actual lense.  The red flips away when you take the picture and then you wind the film knob until it reappears.  On the right is a shot of the view finder in its flipped up position.  The image is so clear and nice- the pictures don't do it justice.

I played around with the through the view finder shots.  As you can see my first shot had lots of glare from reflection off the glass.  I remedied this by hiding me and the digital camera under a blanket while I took the shot.

yay! problem solved! Now I just need to find something more interesting than my living room to take a picture of..

Photo Walk

This afternoon I went on a photo walk. I think I might have just made that term up, but its where you walk around somewhere and take pictures- pretty genius if I do say so!  I just went around campus and I never realized how dead everything is on Sunday afternoon.  I like to take pictures when there are not so many people around; it makes me feel less silly.  I don't know why I feel silly.  I think people are looking at me and wondering 'why is that girl taking a picture of *insert random thing here*??'  But they are probably not paying any attention at all.   I also like to take pictures of people but I always think people will get mad- are there laws against taking pictures of people in public without their consent?  I guess not, because then all the tabloids would be breaking the law.  Anyway, I am rambling now- here is a sampling of the pics!

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Walnuts are evil

I have gotten this terrible idea in my head that I want to run a marathon.  I am scared to sign up though because they are expensive and what if I chicken out or don't have time to train or some other unforseen emergency arises that I must attend to?  Then I will have wasted money and I hate wasting money.  So to ease myself into it, I have been trying to get myself in a running schedule of 3-4 times per week to test my schedule and see if I can squeeze in anything else.  So far it has been going OK.  I feel like I am getting faster so that is good.

On Monday I decided I wanted to do a long(er) run - around 4.5 miles.  Compared to a marathon that is like nothing, but you have to start somewhere!  I got to about mile 4.0 and I started getting pretty pooped.  I'm not very good at long runs because I always go too fast.  I have a need for speed- seriously, my knees like to go fast.  So, its hot, I'm tired, just pushing through that last half a mile when all of a sudden it feels like someone is tearing my foot off my body.  I look down and see a walnut rolling away from my throbbing ankle.  Then I start to feel a little woozy and cursing ensues.  I hope there were no children or elderly people around because I probably scarred them for life if they were.  I was not conscious enough to notice- I did notice that there were people going by and surprisingly none of them asked me if I was OK.  Maybe walnut attacks are so common in this area that no one even notices anymore.  Anyway, after I regain my sense of awareness I start the half mile hobble home.  It was a long hobble.  I almost pooed in my pants but I made it.  TMI?

So this is the second time this has happened.  Except last time I was 2 miles away from home.  I think I need to find a path with shade trees that do not produce trip hazards...

New Camera!

I love old stuff and lately I have been wanting to get an old (antique-old) camera to play with.  I wanted to be able to use medium format film and to do some fun through the viewfinder (TTV) shots with my macro lens.  I also think it will be helpful in becoming a better photographer to have a simple film camera to play with. I had been monitoring etsy and ebay and finally came across one that was advertised as 'working' and not just 'as is' on ebay.  Its an Argus 75 twin lens.  It has a fun flip up view finder and takes 620 film, which according to the internet is 120 film rolled onto a different sized spool. And best of all it was only $12!  I am sure it will take me a while to find film and figure out how to get it into the camera but the TTV stuff should be fun in the meantime!

Zucchini Bread

Derrick got a zucchini from one of his coworkers and requested bread so I made some.  I used this recipe.  The only thing I changed was the cooking time- it took around 70-80 minutes, but our oven is always slow.  It is DELICIOUS!  It has a nice crust on the top and the inside is very moist and yummy.  We have already almost finished one of the loaves and I just made it yesterday.

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Watermelon

This weekend we harvested the first watermelon of the season!  The variety we grew was called Desert King.  It has yellow flesh and is drought tolerant.  Derrick picked out the seeds and took charge of caring for them.  He was nice and shared the fruits of his labor with me, though.  Here are the pics![gallery columns="2"]

Duckling

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Last night I dreamed that I was wandering around some neighborhood at night with a bunch of random people that I knew- some from high school, some from college, Derrick, and probably some others.  I do remember that I knew them all.  So we're walking around and then someone says "hey! lets go visit Heather Armstrong!" and I'm like "uhhh guys its the middle of the night and she has a newborn."  Never mind the fact that none of us actually know her and she lives in Utah.   So apparently no one cared about what I thought because it was agreed that we would go visit.  We go up to what is the Armstrong's house in my dream which just happened to be right around the corner.  We go to the side door.  The porch light is on but the house is dark otherwise.  The leader of our fearless group knocks on the door.  We hear bumping and cursing and then someone answers the door.  There is mumbling between our leader and whoever answered the door.  We are invited in!  The house is homey and kinda dark, reminds me of your grandparents house.  Then- Heather and Jon start serving us ice cream! I love ice cream! But then I start to feel guilty.  Because Jon and Heather don't have a dishwasher!!  They are going to have to wash ALL these dishes after we leave!  Derrick is also feeling guilty so we start collecting all the dishes and washing them by hand.  Everyone else is leaving but we just keep washing dishes.  There was like a never ending pile of ice cream dishes.  Then I woke up.

THE END.

Things I Accomplished Today

1. Looked at an excel model I made a long time ago
2. Went to lunch with my lab group
3. Drove to Genentech
4. Went to HoHo
5. Made 2 powerpoint slides
6. Drove home
7. Took a nap

Vacation 2009

We went on vacation a couple weeks ago.  It feels like forever ago since things have been so busy though.  Anyway, I took over 900 pictures but I only posted about 100 for the internet to enjoy.  Since then I have played around in GIMP with a couple of them.  I think they are cool so I will post them here for you too!  I am generous like that.

We went out to the coast- started in Monterey and ended in Marin Headlands with stops in Santa Cruz, Big Basin SP, Half Moon Bay and San Fransisco.  It was our most low key vacation ever and probably the most enjoyable.

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Pictures!

This post is from back in June.. I'm not sure why it never got published.  I must have gotten distracted!.

I'm pretty sure that I promised pictures  month ago so here they are finally!

So I'll start with the flowers/herb section.  On the left are most of the herbs and the flowers are on the right.  Herbs include cilatro (flowering), oregano (front half of the giant bush), lemon balm (other half of the giant bush), peppermint and mojito mint (buried under the the giant bush), sage (can't see it behind the lemon balm) and rosemary (in the very back).  On the right are the flowers- calendula (orange ones in the back), zinnia (can't see it), cosmos, mexican sunflowers (haven't bloomed) and then chammomile (sprawled out on the path).  The macro picture is the zinnia. So pretty!

Here are the peppers, ocra and eggplant.  The peppers are looking sad.. they always do until around August when they suddenly start making tons of peppers.  I will wait..  The ocra is even more pathetic.. it hates this dry heat and clay soil..  The eggplant has lots of holey leaves but has still made several nice sized fruits.

The tomatoes look great! I have not done a perfect job on picking off the suckers but much better than last year.  They are at least climbing the string instead of just sprawling everywhere.

This is the jack and the beanstalk beans.  These plants are HUGE and flowering all over the place but I have only gotten 2 beans!  The flowers keep falling off and I don't know why. Too hot?



yay watermelons!  These are Derrick's babies.   They are yellow fleshed fruit and supposed to taste tangy!  Then there's the corn.. It is freaking huge but making lots of yummy sweet corn so I am not complaining (too much).

Here's a macro shot of the silks and a little visitor (death to the cucumber beatles!!)  And finally the corn tassle.  So pretty!

The garden is alive!

I am barely alive but luckily the garden hasn't needed too much of my time lately. I am doing an internship at Genentech this quarter along with school.  I am really enjoying this internship but the drain on my time is making me slightly insane.  Anyway, in my absence (aside from watering) the garden has been doing pretty well.

I went out this evening and found that I have my first baby tomato- the green zebra! The others (san marzano and yellow pear) have blooms but no fruit that I have found. The corn is getting tall, should be putting out tassel soon! I also have baby peppers on 3/4 of the pepper plants.

Last week was attack of the cucumber beetles week. My poor beans barely had a leaf left on them but they seem to be recovering. My pest control method is squish all the ones I find and hope for the best. I am lazy :)

My herbs and flowers make me so happy. All the herbs are so easy and taste/smell so good! I have lots of calendula- I have been cutting them and bringing them back to the apartment for display.

PS. Sorry for no pics. I promise it looks really great! ;)

Today I- oo! something shiny!

Today I came home early from school because my eyes were starting to cross from looking at the computer screen all day and my neck was starting to ache.  I was in the mood to do something

active so I decided to clean the kitchen. Not just surface clean but go through the cabinets and organize, etc.  During my cleaning session I came across treasures that I had forgotten about.  Look at these wonderful silver pieces! These are two of many pieces that my mom tried to force on me.  Not that I really mind, but a girl like me only needs so many shiny things.  I do love shiny things though..

They didn't look so shiny when I found them.  They were basically all black and still wrapped in saran wrap from when we moved almost 2 years ago!  I polished them up so they look all pretty now.  I love polishing and cleaning things like this.  Its such an immediate gratification- look what I did! I made all that tarnish go away.  Unlike the rest of my day- look, I worked in excel all day.. wooo..

I also found these beauties.   I am very conflicted over this crystal sugar and creamer set.   They were a wedding gift from I don't even remember who.  Neither of us drink coffee.  We don't even own a coffee maker.  But they are nice and if I ever did pick out a fancy sugar/creamer set it would be these.  So we keep pushing them around.

Do other people have stuff like this, that you never use but its so nice that you just keep it anyway?

True Leaves

Today I came home to find itty bitty true leaves on the tomato seedlings!

Seedlings!

I finally got around to starting seeds a couple weeks ago, on Feb 16th to be exact.  I planted tomatoes, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, bell peppers and parsley.  Thus far everything has come up except those pesky bell peppers.  The seed was a couple years old so maybe it is bad.  Anyway, on to the exciting part- the picture!

In the left column the only thing that came up was one cilantro.  There was another cilantro and chives planted in the other two.  Next column has three basils- they are so cute and already starting on their first true leaves!  Next column has parsley at the top (it hadn't come up as of the picture but its up now) and two marzano tomatoes.  Finally, two tomatoes- one still trapped in its seed coat- and an empty spot (the hot pepper peat pellet has now been transplanted there).

I am trying something new this year, starting the seeds in the peat pellets and then transferring them to the bigger 6-pack when they sprout.  I find the 6-packs much easier to work with, but the seeds sprout much easier in the pellets. We shall see how it goes.

I just love having these little bits of green in the apartment- especially on days like today when it is rainy and dreary out.  I just sit and stare at them, marveling at the miracle of a sprouted seed.

Is it spring yet?

So I've been a little bit busy and gardening has not fallen by the wayside but my blogging about it has.  I had quals in December so all my spare time went into prepping for that.  Its over though so now I can hopefully get back into regular garden blogging. Thanks to Paige for the reminder ;) My last post was in September so I guess I should try to summarize the last 4 months. .. I grew lots of tomatoes and made some really bland sauce.  I think it needed more herbs or something.  I also grew a pumpkin that didn't ripen until about Thanksgiving.  Its still sitting in my kitchen.  Its not a pie pumpkin but I can't bear to throw it away.  For the winter I planted peas, broccoli, garlic, green onions and beets.  Still waiting on the peas to make peas. They got a little frost bitten and have been slow to recover.  The broccoli, onions and beets have been very yummy and easy. Last year I had a big problem with aphids in the broccoli. This year I companion planted with garlic and mint and it seems to have done the trick.  No aphids!

OK, now for future plans! I have decided to dedicate the back fourth of my garden to herbs and flowers.  Thus far I have oregano, peppermint, parsley, cilantro, rosemary and in the future there will be basil.  I may also companion plant some basil in the with tomatoes.  I also want to put some wildflower mix back there to attract pollinators.  RIght now I have daffodil and freesia bulbs poking through.  As for the veggies, I have seeds for San Marzano tomatoes, some yellow watermelon, cantaloupe, green pole beans, black beans, corn, sunflowers, bell peppers and maybe some other stuff that I forgot.  I am going to try to grow with beans with the corn as the 'pole'. Last year they were next to eachother and the beans on the edge climbed up the corn so I decided that might be a good way to save some space and the corn probably appreciates the extra nitrogen from the beans.  Hmm.. I think thats it for now! I need to get my tomato seeds started..