Quilting Fun: Update

I put anything cozy looking on the floor for 5 seconds, and Crayon curls up on it.

It's almost done! Now I've just got to do the fancy quilting stitches to connect all the layers and put a border on it to cover the edges.

How does it look for a very first quilt? Better than Abigail Duniway Scott's?

It's Monday Morning...

...And there was no coffee!!!

Well, no roasted coffee. So, that's what I did, still bleary-eyed and tousled-haired. This time, since I wanted my coffee 20 minutes ago, I made medium roast.

Sorry it's blurry. The coffee was cooling, so I couldn't drink it yet. Cameras are difficult to use.

While it was cooling (it's still brewing right now) I decided to take a photo of a recently finished project to share with the world: My Bottle Path.

An entire summer in the making, I've finally finished it! There must be over 300 bottles in the path, beer and soda - and maybe a hot sauce bottle thrown in for kicks. It involved many many weeks of asking neighbours, party hosts and parents for their glass recycling. Then it took trench digging, bottle placing and finally a lot of sand and dirt and sweeping. But now it's done! And we can walk on it! Just in time for the rain to keep us inside for the next 6 months!

(I took an overall shot of the path this morning, but it was blurry too. Sorry!)

Now that we're talking about re-using excessive packaging, I'd like to talk a little about plastic grocery bags:

STOP USING THEM!

Roommate has a habit of going shopping and coming home with 10 plastic bags (sometimes double bagged). I've tried offering him the use of our canvas bags, of which I have more than enough for him to borrow, but to no avail. Earlier this year, the collection of plastic bags in our house got so insane that I macaramed a lampshade out of all of them (it had to be at least 100).

That was, seriously, only 3 months ago. The collection has gotten ridiculous again. I guess I do have another lamp in need of a shade... My original plan was to make it out of fabric (I have some old silk slips just dying to be repurposed). Oh well.

I remember when I bought my first re-usable canvas bag: Summer, 2001 in Stuttgart. My travel-friend Kelley and I were taking a German-language immersion class for a month. The first time we went grocery shopping we had a little bit of a culture-clash:

As we went to pay, we were informed that we either had to buy a canvas bag or carry our food out in our hands. So I bought a bag (picturing a turtle kissing a frog and the words: Schützt unsere Umvelt) and NEVER forgot it again. We desperately need such a policy here in the US.

For the next 6 or 7 years back in California I used that bag, and others added to my collection, while getting hard looks from most cashiers and heavy sighs from baggers. Only in a Mexican grocery store in Van Nuys did I ever receive praise from a cashier for bringing my own bags.

Until I moved to Portland, that is. Not everyone in this town uses canvas grocery bags (i.e. Roommate) but it's not just accepted here, it's generally expected and encouraged. A lot of that may be due to environmental-responsibility suddenly becoming hip, but I'll take it!

In conclusion: seriously folks, STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS. It's wasteful and unnecessary and an easy thing to do for the planet.

Murray at his Finest

Murray Von Staunch was very brave and he would never, NEVER, give up until he was absolutely SURE the threat was completely annihilated.

Make sure all small dogs are out of the room before playing.

The First Dozen

Meet Nyneave and Egwene (from left to right).
Yes, we're big Wheel of Time nerds.

Egwene is a Black Minorca and Nyneave is a Dark Brahma. We got them both this May. Egwene recently began laying eggs, but Nyneave just hangs around looking worried whenever Egwene starts squawking. I started to worry about her, but a little bit of research revealed that Dark Brahmas can take up to 2 years to become real women!

Egwene has finally reached her first dozen! We're very proud of her. I decorated an egg carton specially.

Her eggs began very tiny, almost golfball sized (it was very cute). But now she lays real sized eggs.

She's laid a great many more than a dozen by now, but she's finally caught up to our egg usage. I'm gonna have to make dozens of cookies today to keep on top of it! Once Nyneave begins laying, we'll have to start giving eggs away!

Rosemary Vinegar: Success

It's as delicious as it looks. Kind of sweet, actually. Which surprised me, but it shouldn't have, because I am a huge fan of the Rosemary Mochas from Pix Patisserie.

(For a few months I was adding rosemary to my coffee every morning, until I switched to cinnamon and nutmeg, until I switched to ginger, until I switched to cardamom, until I switch to roasting my own coffee).

In fact, I threw a splash of this vinegar into my morning coffee. Yum!

I'm sure this vinegar would also be excellent for marinades. I've yet to try making marinades with any of these vinegars, as I don't really cook meat all that much. But eventually I may try marinating some squash or tofu... What else does one marinade?

This was the last vinegar to be made this summer (my vinegar shelf is quite full now). I'm moving on to canning for the next few months (hmm... rosemary vinegar for pickling?).

In the meantime, here's my rosemary vinegar recipe (I don't remember where it came from):

A bunch of rosemary
White vinegar to cover

Wash rosemary and place in a tight-sealing jar. Cover with vinegar. Seal, and let steep in a sunny window for 6 to 8 weeks.

6 to 8 weeks later, strain contents into a saucepan and bring to a simmer (DO NOT BOIL) for 5 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool, then pour into a pretty bottle. If desired, place a sprig of rosemary in the bottle for extra pretty-ness and identification. A label works too.

Since rosemary is pretty much an evergreen (at least up to zone 9, such as Portland) you can gather enough herb to make this vinegar any time of year... although the sunny windowsill might be problematic for cloudier climes.

The Murray Song

Today is officially Murray's first Death Day.

Listen to the song that I (and Jesse Rimler from Kapowski) wrote about my dog, circa 2002.

And enjoy these photos:

The Chronicles of Super-Muddy

If you've ever wondered how I survived Public High School in California without losing all of my brain cells from utter boredom, well, Murray saved me. Repeatedly.

Murray vs. The Squirrel

In addition to Chicken Chasing, one of Murray's favourite activities in his youth was Squirrel Barking.

I personally found this adorable and encouraged him in his scholarly squirrel pursuits. I read somewhere that dogs need to feel like they have a purpose, a job to perform. Since we didn't have any tiny sheep for my tiny Sheltie to herd, I figured, why not let him think he was our Great Protector from the Ravenous Squirrely hordes?

The rest of my family, however, thought that his vigilance was obnoxious.

One afternoon, as Murray was persistently telling a squirrel loitering in our walnut tree to Get Out And Stay Out, my dad decided to help him out. He found a suitably sized rock and, with amazingly good aim, my dad knocked that squirrel out of the tree and right in front of Murray's schnoz.

For a full second Murray stared down his arch nemesis, frozen in uncertainty. The squirrel stared back, frozen in terror. Then...

Then nothing. The squirrel got its heart out of its throat and scampered across the yard and over the fence. Murray recovered a split second later and gave chase, yelling "Yea, you BETTER run!"

While Murray failed to taste squirrel blood that day, I can only assume that this particular squirrel never dared come back.

Murray "Millionaire" Von Staunch

One day, in 1994, my parents gave me and my sister a choice: a new dog or a trampoline. That Christmas we got a tiny sheltie-shaped ball of fur with an attitude. I wanted to name him Billie Joe (I was really into Green Day at the time), but my dad insisted on naming him Murray Von Staunch.

Shelties are very loyal dogs, usually to one person in particular. Murray quickly latched on to me. I brought him to school with me, even though it was against the rules. But no one minded - he had magical Cute Powers. He even acted alongside me in our highschool production of You Can't Take it With You and was featured in our yearbook.



I missed two years of his life when I moved to Southern California for college, but after that Murray moved with me everywhere: from San Diego, back to the Bay Area, to Los Angeles, and finally to Portland. He was always my right hand dog. I had planned to get a place with a yard for chickens, so that Murray could once again engage in his most favourite activity: Chicken chasing.

Murray may have been the smallest Sheltie ever, at 10lbs. I had planned to enter him into the Smallest Sheltie contest during Sheltie Daze. Murray and I had met a previous winner, while on a walk, and Murray was much smaller than her.



On a sunny day in the summer of 2009, Murray had a seizure. Worried, Boyfriend and I took him to the vet, who recommended a neurologist, who recommended a cardiologist, who told us that Murray had an incurable infection in his heart. He gave us antibiotics and painkillers to help extend Murray's life as long as we could.

I couldn't fool Murray into taking his pills (not even cheese or peanut butter worked). I couldn't force Murray to take his pills. Eventually I had to give up, because it had gotten to the point where Murray wouldn't even eat his food, convinced there were pills hiding inside his kibbles.

On Thursday September 10, 2009, Murray succumbed to heart failure. He was nearly 15 years old. It was the end of an era. He and I had been together since I was in the 7th grade. Sometimes I still expect to see him staring at me whenever I open a bag of chips.