just laura

Bumbershoot was fun this weekend!

I got to see lots of people I hadn’t seen in a while (like Erin and Alan who had been out of town at camp) and I got to talk to others who I hadn’t talked to in a long while (like Mitch and Ryan)! And Beal left today… hopefully everyone had safe travels home!

More later when I have time to write! For now, I’ve got to get cooking for tomorrow’s meals. :)

While I generally try to be a professional and keep the work side of life off this website, I decided this week would be a good time to post anyway. :) As y’all know, I work for a tiny nonprofit here in Seattle that provides positive youth development programming. The 25 folks I just hired for the new academic year all moved to Seattle this month from all over the country and all started work yesterday! It’s busy yes, but that’s not the point. I just had to share because they’re all so fabulously diverse, creative, and unique, and fun! Anyway, enough work stuff.

I’ll babble for a minute about the diet too… since I know many of y’all have concerns about that and are following along at home. I’m now beginning the challenge phase of the process…. yeah!! My first food challenge is soy, so for the next three days, I’m eating 1/2 cup tofu with every meal or drinking 1 cup soymilk with every meal. If no symptoms occur during the three day, I can start another challenge immediately thereafter! Wohoo!! I had my first bite of tofu last night after none for three weeks… it was like heaven… better than ice cream! Let’s hope my body likes it!

And in more unrelated news, Dieter left today for Maui, where he’ll join Andrew, and my friend Suzan for a few weeks of vacation. I was hoping to do the trip too, but it’s the busiest month of work with new folks starting and couldn’t possibly take off right now. Andrew’s never met Suzan, and Suzan only met Dieter once, but they’re all going to try to hang out together while there. I’m glad they’re all getting to go, but admit I’d love to join them! Ah well… I’ll vacation on my own at some point. (Hint hint… if anyone has vacation ideas, time off, etc, do let me know!).

And why ruin the streak of unrelated stuff? My college buddy Mitch called me this weekend, after being quiet for most of the last year! It was quite an entertaining and endearing call, and hopefully it won’t be another full year before I hear from him again. Oh, and to address one of the concerns he expressed and that I’ve heard echoed a lot lately: “When are you coming back to Texas?” Well, the answer’s not easy yet. I don’t know my holiday plans… Family Christmas, I’m told, is going to be in Phoenix, but it’s expensive and I’ve already been there twice in the last two years. Family Thanksgiving is planned for San Diego, and is also looking like an expensive trip. I don’t know if I’ll make it to one or both events, and am not sure about a trip back to Austin either. I’d like to, but will have to find the right time, money, and airfare first. So, that doesn’t actually answer the question, but at least you know where I’m at in the decision making process. If you see cheap Sea-Aus airfares, do email and let me know.

Okay… I think that’s about it for tonight. I’ve blogged all I need to blog. Hope everyone is well! Take care!

Today’s Saturday and I’m enjoying my dinner of black bean and quinoa salad next to my laptop. Did I mention Evan and I are signing up for DSL this week? Wohoo! That’s almost as exciting as getting calls from my new team at work at 11:30pm berating me for not getting my butt out to the gay dance club/video bar they wanted me to join them at!! Too funny! Quite a team we’ve assembled… and amazingly social too!

In other exciting news, today’s the first day of Rosh Hashanah! From an honorary Jew to all of the reals out there, may you have a fabulous celebration!

Book review: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. It wasn’t The Poisonwood Bible, but it was still fabulous! Made me cry, and I’m not even sad or PMSing! I highly recommend Kingsolver if you’ve never read any of her work! Smart women, respect for cultures, and little questioning of religion… gotta love her books! I think I’ll go now and put more on request at the library website. Take care!

Ah wait, I promised to write more on Bumbershoot… so guess I could do that now too! Let’s see. Among the bands I saw:

• Ani D’Franco – didn’t recognize even one song from any of her albums I own. Lame.
  
• Zuco 103 – Brazilian Euro Funky Trip Hop stuff or something… interesting, but would’ve liked some kind of a beat. Or maybe I was just cranky because I wanted food! I was surrounded by amazing food booths from every ethnic background, but the closest Julie and I could find was roasted cashews (and even they had peanut oil so I still couldn’t have them!). Cooking every meal can be hard when you’re gone from home all day! On with the music review…
  
• the Shins – hmm… they were okay. Kinda did the “I want to be trendy, emo, and Euro” thing, but they weren’t horrible.
  
• Jason Webley – fun as always, wowing the new faces, hamming it up, and getting himself on the evening news for being arrested while trying to perform a mass baptisim in the International Fountain. That silly guy!
  
• Death Cab for Cutie – local band that everyone loves. I didn’t love them, but definitely liked them better than all of the previous bands. :) Seemed like genuinely entertaining guys.
  
• The Minus Five – first really enjoyable show I saw all weekend. Fun too (they kept alive a running joke that they were really the Bee gees), but not still as good as Wilco.
  
• Wilco – good stuff! Rocking, danceable, and cute crowd!
  
• Maceo Parker – former bandleader for James Brown! He got funky like nobody’s business and I got dance for a few fabulous hours!! Wow!! His son Corey kicked some butt too! Best show of the whole weekend! Even got to hang with both former Seattle roomies… Beal and Kathy. Oh, and even ran into Brett and Karen. Long time no see!
  
• The Derailers – Yeah! Austin folks would be proud to know there were so many Austin bands on the schedule over the course of the weekend. The Derailers had a great crowd, and I got to go straight from the Maceo groove to the Derailers grove without ever having to stop dancing. Yeah!
  
• Marc Olsen – I ran into James at the festival (he was “working” a booth for Gregg’s… so rough) and he recommend the show to me. I was really excited to see James and chat with him, but I’ve gotta say his choice in music was super boring. Marc was pretty lame despite his humor between “haunting” songs (how much vibrato can one guy do song after song? geez). Ah well. Wasn’t bad, and the rain was only really light.
  

Wow, so I was just checking out the Bumbershoot website to see if they had pictures I could add, and just found out something exciting about The Minus Five. Apparently the “terrific, catchy guitar-pop” is the pet project of Peter Buck (REM) and Scott McCaughey (REM, Young Fresh Fellows). In addition, the band members change from gig to gig, some to song, but have included folks from the Posies, the High Llamas, Ministry, the Model Rockets, and Mott the Hoople. Who knew? I feel kinda silly… I go to live shows around town always hoping that maybe Peter Buck, or Ann and Nancy Wilson, or Dave Matthews, or the Pearl Jam guys, or the other Grunge kinds will be playing incognito, and there I was seeing Peter Buck and not even knowing it. Guess they don’t surface often for performances, but I was lucky enough to catch them live without knowing it at the time. For me though, that’s what the big music festivals are all about. You pay for an all day pass, and get a chance to sample a bunch of bands for the price of only one show. Quite a steal really. If one sucks, that’s okay because you’re sure to catch a good one before not too long. And when they’re good, they’re really good (like Maceo, Minus Five, and Wilco).

All in all, a lovely weekend. Many thanks to Beal, Julie, Kathy, Dieter, Peter, Marta, and Vicky for keeping me company at various shows! And many thanks to Jake for getting me, Julie, and Beal in free for one of the days! Take care y’all!

Guess what!? I have comments again! The last ones I had worked fine on Win 98 and 2000, but crashed in XP. Try them out on your favorite computer and do let me know if they work! Thanks!

Hmm… I’m progressing in my diet. After being told I’m not eating enough by my nutritionist, I’ve been trying to eat a lot more. Crazy thought as the grocery part of my last credit card statement was over $200… ouch! However, I’ve been baking and experimenting, so hopefully eating more is indeed better. I do admit my energy level is up… guess I was trying to function on too few calories. So, yesterday I made apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast (without flour, sugar, baking soda, or eggs). Impressive, eh? Can’t say they were the most fabulous pancakes ever made, but they certainly weren’t too shabby. Today I made pumpkin muffins (these too were made without the usual suspects of flour, eggs, sugar, milk, etc). It’s kind of a pain, but kind of a fun challenge too. It’s amazing for me to think of how good they are for you too (when you eliminate sugar and eggs and butter, things instantly get a lot healthier!) Now it’s time for me to get creative with cooking my dinner, so I’ve got to run. Hope everyone is well.

Btw, if you see my dad wandering around Austin, wish him a happy retirement! Tomorrow’s his last day of work! Go Dad!!

Just a little Monday night blogger after a tasty meal of lentil-walnut burgers. Hee hee. Anyway, at work I discovered my comments don’t work on XP and actually leave about 10 error popup messages (Argh! I had this same problem with Enetation!). So, while 30+ people have visited my site today and stayed to read for a few minutes, apparently Josh is the only one who can see the comments. (Thanks Josh!) Does this mean the rest of y’all are getting errors when the page downloads? Or are the links for comments just not showing up? Or do they work, but you’re not inspired to comment? Do share! (Oh, and let me know what kind of browser you use too… that’d be helpful). Thanks y’all! Take care!

Oh, also I should mention that I watched Finding Forrester and Keeping the Faith this weekend. Both were pretty cute films, though nothing spectatular. I’d save my rental money and just get them from the library (that’s what I did). Take care!

Tonight I’m tired. Let’s examine why. Is it because I’m challenging wheat, and it has that effect on me? Is it because I didn’t get home tonight until 8:30pm and didn’t get to eat until 9:30pm? Is it because it’s 11pm and I’ve had a busy last couple of weeks? Is it because I’m tired of flipping channels on my TV and radio because every station apparently feels compelled to run stuff about 9/11 and all I really want is mindless noise and for the families to be afforded some privacy and respect? Who knows? All I know is I’m ready for bed!

Oh, I also know that I might buy a really old car this week. My parents know of one in Austin they think would be good for me. I’m sure it’s an old lady tank, but we’ll see. (Or maybe we won’t… I guess I’d end up buying it sight unseen if they determine it’s good). Hmm… how do I really feel about this?

Anyone out there ever done acupuncture before? I’ve got my first visit this Saturday and I’m kind of skeptical. I’ve heard it’s supposed to be fabulous, but somehow the idea of giant needles puncturing my skin doesn’t seem that fabulous when I get to thinking about it. It’ll supposedly identify my cravings and treat them. Hmmm… Any reassuring thoughts? Anyone?

Tonight was the exciting “Volunteer Orientation” for the Seattle Fringe Festival (now in it’s 12th year!) It’s the oldest Fringe Fest in the US, and only one of 4 non-juried festivals in the country. I volunteered last February when I first moved to Seattle, had a great time, met my buddy Rod, and have volunteered since then at the FringeACT festival and now at the Fringe Fest again! If you’re in the Seattle area, or happen to be traveling with the Canadian Fringe circuit (ahem, Mr. and Mrs. McGonigal?), do come on down and check out the festival. 11 days, 94 companies, 97 shows, and over 500 performances! Hard not to find something you love! Yeah!

The Good News: It was a gorgeous day in Seattle today! Wohoo!! I got to spend it outside, at a waterfront park, with a fun group of people, volunteering with Parks and Rec!! Yeah!!! Clear blue skies and 80 degrees… so nice! So fabulous!

The Bad News: I’ve had reactions to both soy and wheat….. nooooooooooooooooooo! I don’t know they’ll be classified as “allergies” or “sensitivities” or “intolerances,” but either way I’m incredibly sad! How am I to be a vegetarian and not eat soy? Soy = tofu, nuts, veggie oil, Luna bars, ice cream, milk, cheese, soy sauce, etc. I guess I can attempt to get all of my protein from just eating beans three times a day, but I confess that sounds less than ideal. Hmm… must talk to my nutritionist ASAP and see what they say.

Take care! I’m off to the Blue Moon!

For those following along at home, I’m now challenging the nightshades family of vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc). Sadly, I don’t get to pick a random nightshade for each meal and eat variety for three days. Nope, instead I need to eat a raw, whole tomato with every meal for the next three days. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I do appreciate finally being able to add tomatoes to my diet, but I’ll appreciate it more when I can cook with them again, use them in stews and sauces, use peppers for seasoning, potatoes for soups, french fries for snacking, eggplant in Chinese food, etc. Let’s hope all goes well with this challenge! Oh, btw, I talked to my nutritionist today, and he said my reactions to soy were super common. I still need to stay clear for the diet, but he’s not certain I’ll have to avoid it fully for 6 months. If all else goes well with other challenges, I’ll hopefully just be able to cut down on my soy intake and experiment from there. (Rice milk instead of soy milk, etc).

In non diet related news, this weekend was very nice. I hung at the Blue Moon tavern on Friday and it was much fun. Acupuncture on Saturday morning wasn’t bad at all. The needles were little (I don’t know if I was expecting knitting needles or what), and they were painless. I had them in my foot, leg, arm, hand, and 10 in my ears. I don’t know if the results are supposed to be instant, but I did feel much better the next day (of course, that could be because the wheat had finally left my body). I forget my acupuncturist’s name, but he was nice and very supportive when I told him the idea kind of sketched me out. (He himself doesn’t like needles, but has to do a rotation in acupuncture before he can get to medicinal herbs). Interesting fact: by feeling the pulse, he could tell my blood was warm and asked if I smoked. I denied smoking, and he asked again (pot maybe?). I told him no still, and he was baffled because cigarette smoke generally makes the blood warm. A-ha! I remembered I had been at the Tavern the night before, quite a smoky place. I was out after midnight, and by my 9am visit, the smoke apparently hadn’t left my bloodstream yet. Crazy… scary too. Anyway, the experience was fine. Guess I’ll schedule my next two visits. Nothing to lose if it doesn’t work, but if it helps a little, why not give it a try?

After acupuncture, I meet up with Jake and headed down to the Cirque de Broadway (Capital Hill’s other street fair). We saw Fringe Festival preview shows, live music, open mic, cheerleaders, artists, and more. Was pretty low key, but nice to see people out and about. :) Also this weekend I went to Gas Works to fly kites then walked along the Burt Gilman trail (did about 5-6 miles). When I was wandering through the Fremont Sunday Market, an author named Rohan asked if he could read me his book. I said sure, he read it, and it was so great! It was called “The Perfect Gift” and it was about the cutest little book in the world about Leo and Lisa Rabbit, two best friends. I wasn’t going to spend $8 on one, but asked for his card in case work wanted to buy one. When I told him it was a nonprofit, he said he’d donate it and gave me an autographed one free. Wow! What a nice man! Seriously, this book was about the sweetest thing I’d seen in months!! That nice I went to Trista’s for a dinner party, and finally got to meet all of her friends. Very nice folks! We also watched a Margaret Cho movie (or TV special?), which was much fun! Overall, nice weekend… nice walk, nice market, nice dinner and friends…. nice day!

Went on a retreat this weekend for work… weather on the Key Peninsula was beautiful! We got to boat, hang on the beach, grill, etc. It was lovely. Last night upon arrival home, Dieter made me a fabulous dinner and put up quite well with me in my hormone induced emotional state. Thanks Dieter! Today I’m volunteering again with the Fringe… should be fun! Hopefully I’ll get to see a few good shows. Take care!

Tonight at the Fringe Fest, I saw “Laura McKenzie Feels Like Makin’ Love,” a very funny one-woman show about the need for lovin’. If this production comes to a city near you, I highly recommend it! Last week at the Festival, I saw “Rouge’s Harbor,” a production about a family on the move refusing to deal with the life they are given. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t the best it could have been. I still hope to see “Cannibal: The Musical!” and “Church of Pie” and “Kali & Cookies” and “George Bush’s Nuts.” All of these shows have gotten good reviews and look like lots of fun! We’ll see how many I can get to! Wish me luck.

In other good news, I’m not allergic or sensitive to cheese! Yeah!! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Take care all!

Today Andrew and I went down to Tacoma to check out the new Museum of Glass. It’s in a fabulous building and the grounds around the area are full of fun sculpture. There’s a “water forest” fountain made of glass, a glass bridge with gorgeous blown glass vases and flowers, giant woven basket looking structures 15 feet tall, and more. I can’t really tell you any more of what’s on the inside since we arrived at noon and saw the big “Closed Mondays” sign hanging on the door. Ah well. Guess we’ll have to come back some other time. If anyone has been, or if you want to join me for a trip, do let me know! For today though, we lunched at the Swiss Tavern then we drove back to Seattle and went to the EMP instead. It was lovely. Tomorrow the World Wrestling Entertainment folks are holding a press conference at the EMP to announce that Wrestle Mania will be in Seattle for 2003 at Safeco Field. Too funny. Apparently there will be 12 wrestlers on hand for the press conference… should’ve gone tomorrow instead of today! Ah well. I probably don’t need to see wrestlers anyway. Hmmm… wonder if Ryan will be coming to Seattle in March for Wrestle Mania? That’d be funny. :) Take care y’all!

Last night I saw the late showing of “Cannibal: The Musical” at the Fringe and it was quite entertaining! It’s adapted from the movie written by Trey Parker (of South Park fame) and it quite funny. If it tours near you, go check it out!! In other news, some of you may have already noticed that I disabled my alumni email account this weekend… I was getting way, way, way, way, way too much spam mail from some evil marketing folks who sold their soul to buy my email address (bad investment on their part – little did they know at the time that I don’t need a university diploma, sexy teens, cheap insurance, a penis enlargement, a DVD burner, or 12 CDs for $1). So, anyway, please update your address books with my hotmail account (same user name, just change it to @hotmail.com instead of alumni). Thanks! Hope everyone is well! Take care!!

Guess what? Yep, you’re absolutely right!! Last night I did check out another Fringe show! I was really hoping to see Church of Pie, but the house manager seemed confused with the sold out crowd and didn’t leave a seat open for me with my comp ticket. Lame. I ended up seeing Baccarat instead. It was a story about an apartment full of people who’s personality dramatically change when they put on masks. Neat idea, but so-so play. Alas, it was free and it’s supporting local productions.

Tonight I was skipping a kung fu class at Erin’s school so I could go home and pack since Dieter and I were going to go camping tomorrow afternoon. However, he just postponed till Saturday morning so it turns out I really could have signed up for the kung fu class after all. Too late now though… they needed reservations by Monday. Lame. Guess that’s okay though… I’ll actually give me time to cook a nice meal and pack and read and watch a movie. (I still have lots of movies from the library… I just returned Goonies, Gone in 60 Seconds, and Green Mile, but still have About Last Night, Amistad, Ask Alice, Get Carter, etc). It does actually sound nice to have a night home now that I think about it. I haven’t seen my apartment much lately since I’ve been working so many hours and volunteering at the Fringe with all of my spare time. Hmm… speaking of spare time… Seattle folks: anyone want to hang out Friday night? My camping trip’s postponed so I can now go be social! Do let me know! Take care!

Guess what else? I just added August photos to the site tonight! Took me long enough! I also got to see Kathy… yeah! She brought me over mail from the apartment that was never forwarded to my new place. Super nice of her to do that! Thanks Kathy!

Everyone out there should give Charles a big “Congrats” on finding a new job… at a company with no dress code even!! Yeah Charles! Since I couldn’t go out with Charles to celebrate, I spent another lovely evening at the Fringe. :) Saw a bunch more plays…. Primary Guardian, Searching for Julie Wisch, and Aaron Aardvark’s Drama Pinata of Sin. All three were pretty fun. For now though, I’m off to go camping. Take care!

Hello! Dieter and I just got back from camping out at the Mt. Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest area. The weather in Seattle when we left was in the 70s, though out in the forest it was chilly and beautiful!! We went on the Nobel Knob trail and hiked about 3 miles until we decided to pitch our tent. Mt. Rainier was looking beautiful, there were blue skies, and the huckleberries were ripe on all of the bright red and yellow bushes. Yum! After we cooked dinner and watched the gorgeous sunset, we jumped straight into the tent where we stayed for the next 17 hours to keep warm! It was about 6,000 ft elevation and it was cold! It rained for a while last night and this morning our tent has icicles on it when we got up. It was just an overnight trip, but it was very beautiful! Side note that Dieter pointed out: last year on this same weekend in September, we also went camping. We’ll call this the second annual fall camping trip!

I just found the world’s easiest peanut butter cookie recipe and I really want to try it! I can use cashew butter instead of peanut butter. I can use rice flour instead of wheat flour. And I can use 2 egg whites instead of a whole egg. What to substitute for sugar though, I’m not entirely sure. (I can use brown rice syrup and pure maple syrup, but the consistency would probably change pretty drastically). Hmm… this might require some experimenting here…

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

2 Combine ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Must let cool before removing from cookie sheet.

Suggested additions: 3 tbls flour and some vanilla.