Quinoa among other things

Ack.  Whoever said quinoa was easy to harvest was a lying bastard.  You have to strip the heads, roll the seed pods in your hands, soak the seeds and rinse them about a hundred times (must determine a method that doesn’t involve gallons of water).  They’ve finally come to the point that I can eat the seeds and they taste like raw food instead of a bitter chemical (saponin).  Now I can dry them, all three of them.  (Not true, there’s a meal’s worth in there, besides the seeds I’m saving.)  Anyway I need to know this for the story I’m writing, in my head.

It’s our problem free…. philosophy…..

Work is marginally better.

Another solid night of sleep, thank goodness.

More comments about family and internet and church

I got to see Katie’s apartment yesterday!  We can tell she’s a real New West Girl, she can see the bridge from one window.  She doesn’t think she’ll be cold this winter, but the scarred single pane windows (they haven’t been painted since Tommy Douglas was alive, if appearances are anything to go by) and her remoteness from the furnace lead me to believe otherwise.

Despite the 101 bus going right by her place and despite how close she is to the Skytrain tracks, it’s a quiet house.  She lives there with Mona and a couple of other people in a house sharing arrangement.  Mona’s about my age.  She lives on the ground floor, Katie lives in the attic and some guy lives in the basement.

Daxus is currently living with a married couple who just had their first child – at home.  Katie doesn’t believe this living arrangement is likely to last but I’m sort of hoping it does.

Paul returned safely from Ontario.  He and I and Keith and Jeff supped upon a variety of things including the two cobs of corn I harvested from the garden.  They were tiny but perfect.  Now that I know corn will grow nicely in that location I will plant more next year, and earlier, too.

The quinoa harvest has started; it was either that or let them rot on their stalks.  The first batch is hulled, but by god they are still very bitter with the saponin layer, and most of the grains are much smaller than the commercial variety.  I will have to clean them some more.  I have to find a more efficient way to clean them.

I was invited to Tanya’s and to Baumfest this weekend and as I was feeling quite low I didn’t go.

Church was excellent.  The minister preached of one of the theologians of Unitarian Universalism, Hosea Ballou.

Chipper sends me this disheartening news from the internet front.  Disgusting.

Ziva is running quite rough – she hates the wet.

I have a sound tech for the Social Justice Open Mic.

Midnight gift

I awoke last night to the unmistakable sound of Eddie meowing with something large in his mouth. One small nearby thump later and his voice returned to normal. “Yes, Eddie, I see the rat. You’re a mighty hunter. Thank you so much. By the way, you’re soaking wet. Thanks for the late night weather report.” Later, I heard Margot snorting around and discovered her playing with the rat. She paused to barf on my floor, then slowly dragged the dead rat into the small pile of barf. Thanks, Margot. Also, yuck.

Off to work….

I know it’s early but I need to get some stuff done before the endless series of sensory interruptions that is my day gets going.

Look what somebody pulled out of the Fraser about an hour east of here.

Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters RULE.  I just finished watching ep 3 of the first season of the Wire, and it is among the best television ever, right up there with Homicide and Deadwood.

My parents gave me the wrong freaking name

I shoulda been called Cassandra.

My whole life I’ve been predicting things that any sane person, looking at the evidence, could predict.  But for some reason the sane people don’t look at the evidence, and the crazy people make up their own.

I have too much work and not enough mojo, brains or skill to deal with it all.

I love Jeff.  He is being very supportive about an organization change I am working toward right now. 

My boss RULES.  I can count on his support.

Keith RULES.  He’s the second brown belt in the Caspell clan, as of this week!!!!   Welcome, third kyu!  (Bows).