just laura

I’ve been looking online for manuals for the Panasonic bread maker Dieter’s mom graciously gifted us at Thanksgiving, and looky, looky at this little tid bit here released just last month. Amazing!

25.11.02

PANASONIC BREAD BAKERY RISES TO ANY OCCASION

The latest bread bakery from Panasonic – the SD-253 – offers a range of baking
modes for tasty, nutritious loaves.

For perfect fruit and nut loaves that are bursting with flavour, it has a large,
removeable dispenser that automatically adds raisins, dried fruits, nuts or cereals at
the appropriate stage during the kneading process – so they are not crushed or poorly
mixed. The dispenser is removeable and non-stick, making it easy to clean.

The SD-253 also has a new gluten-free mode, which is designed for gluten-free and
yeast free bread mixes. This new model has been tested by the Coeliac Society of
Australia, with specialised recipes developed for these requirements included in the
operating booklet.

That’s so cool! That’s not the bread maker that I own (I’ve got the Panasonic SD-BT55P), but at least they’re realizing that all of us gluten free folks can’t eat store bread and must make our own if we’re to eat any. So cool!

Happy New Years! And for Brian, who requested in his Christmas card that I post more pictures, well, today’s your lucky day! Here are pictures from last night… wohoo!

A big shout out tonight goes to yet another amazing Laura, Laura V.V., a long ago friend I met while in middle school! Laura and I both grew up in Central Texas, but we didn’t see each other very often. I could probably count on one hand all of the times I’ve seen her though high school, college, and afterwards. Well, tonight I got a holiday letter from her… too cool! She’s now living in New York City taking a stab at the big, bad word of book publishing. I’ll definitely have to call her so we can catch up! (Side note… if anyone has any nice friends in NYC we can introduce Laura to, do share!). Take care, and TGIF!

Dieter’s back in town today and we’re celebrating with dinner at Cedars… the best Indian food in town! Yum! Actually, I just watched Monsoon Wedding this weekend and am on an Indian kick. Dieter’s arrival in town was just a convenient excuse to eat out at one of my favorite places in town. Wohoo!). :)

Sunday I worked all day. Monday I worked all day and worked all evening, with a short break in the middle between the two for a trip to the doctors and the pharmacy. Whew! So much too report! Such an exciting life I live! Whee.

Actually, guess it’s not that boring. Well, I take that back too. It might indeed be boring, but at least I still have truly fabulous things happening that remind me of how much I love life! In fact, I had a truly inspiring moment tonight while walking home… I looked up into the sky and saw stars!!! It may not seem like much to those of you from sunny areas, but for those of use living under cloud cover for months on end who forget stars are even up there, it was pretty cool. It stopped me dead in my tracks and left me slack jawed staring at the sky with a giant grin on my face. The site was quite truly lovely!

Also lovely this evening was the nightly trip to my neighborhood grocery. Reason #392 that Marketime rocks: The cashiers tell me dirty jokes! Not one, but two, different cashiers tonight told me dirty jokes! Ah yes… it’s good to be alive. :) Take care all!

Another busy week of working lots! Even had time to fit in a Sonics game on Wednesday, so about 23 of us from work and random friends all went to the game vs the San Antonio Spurs. We got our butts whopped, but it was still fun to go with a group and just watch the game. (Many folks there had never seen a pro ball game before, so that was nice to provide new opportunities. Tickets were only $10, how could you resist? I even got to see my old roomie Kathy… was cool). Yesterday was nice too! When I was coming home from work at 10pm, I checked my voice mail and got a message from Dieter saying dinner was going to be ready waiting for me when I got home… how fabulous! He’d even made enough so I could have leftovers for lunch at my off site meeting today. What a swell guy! Okay, that’s about all I can muster up tonight. I’m exhausted and need to get some sleep so I can be at work again in the morning. Take care all, and happy birthday to Miss Beal this weekend!

Can I just say real quick how much I love beans and rice? It’s got protien and carbs, add some cheese and salsa and you’ve got veggies and fats too. It’s an all inclusive meal, super cheap, super quick, and most importantly, it’s soooo good! Yum!

One more reason to love life: My team at work is open about giving feedback. We’ve been able to foster an environment where people speak up when something is on their mind or when they don’t feel a shared need for something that happens in the program. It may not be a huge thing, but I think it’s monumental and I can guarantee it doesn’t happen in every organization.

Today this quote struck my fancy: “You can not make the revolution, you can only be the revolution” – ursula le guin

In other exciting news, Kim Z is coming to Seattle from Dallas for a client project for a few months! Wohoo! Sadly, I don’t know if she’ll have tons of time for socializing or not (I remember my days traveling and working like mad), but hopefully I’ll get to see her at least a little bit! Yeah Kim!

Hmm… I am a bit slow on the posts lately, but I guess I’ll make up for it tonight! :) Guess what? I’m going to New York in a few weeks! Our annual meeting for work is in DC over a four-day weekend and since we finish on a Tuesday, I decided I might as well extend my ticket so I can stay through Sunday. I’ve got some friends I plan to see in New York (namely Dave and Laura, though if anyone else is living in NYC and reading this blog, I’d be happy to visit strangers too). :) I’m pretty excited! I haven’t done a real vacation in many moons (since a 3 day weekend in Vancouver last summer if that counts), so it should be great! If you remember my blog from a few weeks ago, I haven’t seen or heard from my friend Laura V in many years, so it’s pretty exciting! I also get to see Dave who moved last spring and who has a new puppy… also very exciting!

Guess what else exciting is happening tonight? Tons! I made my first loaf of bread in the new bread machine! Well, I just dumped in a bunch of gluten free flours plus some liquids, but hopefully the bread machine will do it’s magic and it’ll be bread in just three hours! (Keep your fingers crossed and we’ll keep you updated!).

And in other exciting gluten free news, I went to the Flying Apron tonight for the first time and bought myself a little snacky poo. Flying Apron is a tiny little bakery in the University District by our offices that has wheat-free, gluten free, and vegan treats! They had tarts, cookies, scones, cakes, and all kinds of other yummy treats! After much consultation and debate, I decided on a ginger cookie and it was yummy!! I’ve been snacking on it for the last few hours and I’ve still got some left! (I think I intended to chow it down, but I guess it’s good enough that my brain decided to savor it for as long as possible). Anyway, it’s yummy! I think I’ll have to send the owners a thank you note!

Okay, guess that’s enough for now! Happy birthday wishes go out to Beal, Mike, and Mitch for a few days ago, and for Chris tonight who turns 27! :) Happy birthday to all!! Take care!

Tonight I’m going to hit a jazz show at Tula’s and tomorrow I’m going to a hip hop show at the Vera Project. Yeah live music!

Wow!!! Tonight I got a phone call from a web surfer who found my request from a year ago when I was looking for mechanical bulls! Not only did he search out my site, he actually found a mechanical bull in the area and then called me to let me know. So, if anyone else is wondering where in Western Washington they could go to ride a mechanical bull, look no further than the Cloverleaf Pizza/Bar in Bremerton. Many thanks for the energetic visitor who called tonight to share this great info!

Sadly, when I just called the Cloverleaf in the middle of typing this blog, the woman on the other end of the line shared the depressing news that they no longer have their mechanical bull. I then found another Cloverleaf bar in Tacoma and tried them with the same sad luck: no bull there either. (The man on the phone in Tacoma said if it was still 1970, he would’ve been able to give me a whole list of options for where to go). I’m guessing it’s an insurance liability nowadays that most establishments just aren’t willing to risk. Sad!! Seems there are no mechanical bulls left in this country!! I know it probably wasn’t intentional for this web visitor to get my hopes up and then dash them, but sadly, such was the case. Ah well. If I survived this long without getting to ride a mechanical bull, I’ll probably survive another year… :( If only it were 1970 again!!

In other news, my roomie just found a new job! Instead of slinging coffee at Starbucks like he did last semester, he’s now a genuine snowboard instructor out at Snoqualmie Pass. Ah… such is the life of a good Seattleite. :)

Other good news: I got word this week I’m approved for a P-patch plot! Yep, as of this week, I’m the proud momma of a 100 sq ft garden plot where I can do any organic gardening that suits my fancy! I was on the waiting list for a while, but I just got the P-patch a block from my office so it was well worth the wait! I don’t claim to know much about gardening, especially gardening in the Northwest, but I’m starting to research and hope to be growing veggies and herbs in no time! (I am expected to plant and harvest for the full year I get the plot, so I should start soon!) So, if anyone knows about gardening in the NW, do share! Or, if you know of resources where I can find what to grow here, when to grow it etc, that’d be super helpful too! Yeah gardening!!

And in more news, this weekend was pretty lovely. Joseph got back from his month in France and went to see some jazz music on Friday night at Tula?s… he’s always entertaining and music is always fun. He might even take the organ Wild Bill is trying to give away, so that’d be pretty cool. He can be his own one-man band with a flute, sax, and an organ. What else to mention? Saturday night’s MLK Jr. Hip Hop Show benefiting Seattle Young People’s Project was lots of fun. Spoken word, DJs, MCs, and art are all cool, but I definitely liked the break dancing the best! Seems anyone can rap or do art… some good, some not too good. However, I’d venture that not everyone can break dance… badly or otherwise. As always, the b-boys and b-girls in the Seattle scene were pretty fantastic! I see a lot of these guys all over town doing their thing and it’s always mesmerizing. And today was another lovely day. I didn’t have to work and instead finally had a chance to clean my apartment, cook, enjoy the bread maker bread from earlier this week, etc. That’s right – I enjoyed my bread from the bread maker!! I had toast yesterday with my breakfast and today for lunch I had a grilled cheese with New Zealand Sharp Cheddar. YUM! (Many thanks again to Dieter’s mom for donating the break maker to us!) Oh, and to top the weekend off, Dieter, Andrew, and I made a trip to Ikea today. Dieter wanted new bookshelves and Andrew and I were just along for the ride. Of course, I went in there not needing anything, but struck with the dreaded Ikea curse, I left with a big shopping bag full of goodies (namely a new duvet cover, some $0.95 fluorescent bulbs, and a sweater organizer for my closet… so nice to get organized in the spring)! I don’t feel too bad for getting stuff though… Andrew has great self-control when it comes to Ikea but even he broke down and bought an end table and some other little things. :) Gotta love Ikea!

This is the last week that I do three jobs…. WOHOOOO! I worked late last night trying to get caught up on everything but still had a stack of stuff left when I headed for the bus at midnight. And, while I’m out of work early today (3pm!!), I’m debating whether or not I’m feeling energetic enough to go out tonight. Trivial Pursuit night at a friends is option A. Option B includes Brian and some crazy folks gathering at his place. Dunno. None of these are really grabbing me right now. Hmm… think I might just go wander Capital Hill for a while, maybe hit Pike Place, and maybe do a little shopping. What to do with all of the new found free time? It’s so crazy!!

These last two weekends have been great after working so much since Thanksgiving! I’m finally getting to socialize again after a month or so of being tired from working all the time! It wasn’t that I was feeling particularly anti-social in December and January… it was more I wasn’t in the mood to socialize when I was so tired. You know? Anyway, it’s been good recently! First I cut my retail hours and got to go out for the first time in a while! Like last weekend… I went out for Jazz with Joseph and saw hip-hop with coworkers. And then this weekend my coworker returned from her month long holiday in Australia so now I’m no longer filling in for her job in addition to my stuff! What’s it mean? No more working 70+ hours a week trying to do three jobs! As of tomorrow, I’m down to just 40 hours a week! Wohoo! This means I’ll have time to eat, cook, read mail, do taxes, etc.

This weekend I had time to read my book, clean my apartment, go to the library, take a walk, and do some shopping. I even went to Blockbuster and finally spent the gift card I got last year at Christmas (after much debate, I decided to add Amelie to my DVD collection… such a great movie!). I also went to two parties this weekend. Erin’s birthday party was yesterday and it was much fun! I got to meet a ton of her friends from camp; all were very cool women and it was nice to finally put faces with the names I always hear. We ate ice cream and played board games like Cranium and card games like Sets and Canasta. I’ve got to say… girl parties rule! Boy birthday parties are rarely a board game and ice cream affair. :) To keep the weekend balanced, tonight I went to a Super bowl party at Andrews. The game was horrible and all of the commercials sucked, but the socializing was much fun. I was dragging my feet about going to either party this weekend, and kind of wanted to leave early from both so I could get more stuff done around my apartment, but once at the parties it was a different matter. I don’t know if the people at the parties were nicer than most, but it’s possible. I do know that after a month of working lots without socializing much, I really kind of liked being around people.

Anyway, it’s getting late and I need to go to start my taxes or go to bed!! Take care all!

Seattle’s Mt. Rainier is quite lovely in the morning!

Tonight I was home in time to watch the State of the Union address… ugh. Oh the brighter side, I also got to chat with Andy who called from Austin. Hadn’t heard from him in a while and it was good to catch up. Speaking of catching up, here’s this week’s fabulous news: My mom and my Beal both got jobs this week!!!!! Yeah Austin!!