kick'n butt and decorate'n

I had plans to go on a walk/run today, but the torrential rains quickly changed my mind.  I watched a couple TV shows- Once Upon a Time because it was recommended to me (it's alright) and Californication (a favorite of mine).  Then I made myself a goal, do some major spring cleaning, or as I like to think of it.... aerobic cleaning. 

I switched out my winter clothes for my summer clothes (early, I know, but I'm optimistic) and washed every piece of clothing I own.  I like to wash everything every once and a while.  The wood scent of my cedar dresser seeps into my clothes if they sit in there for too long.  I don't like that scent, so I take the opportunity to purge a bunch of my clothes while I do it.  I figure if it sat in my dresser for that long, I don't need it.  I cleaned out my closets, getting rid of a ton of stuff, I moved all of my furniture and cleaned under it.  I found out where my cats have been hiding their toys (under the couch).  I had Deadmau5 pumping on Pandora and before I knew it, I was redecorating my living room.  It feels fresh and new, like I just moved into my home.  Best of all I worked up a pretty good sweat. 

My sister sent me this picture from Pinterest earlier this week. I had thought of doing something similar. Last summer I bought a sticker tree but didn't get around to putting it up.   My version isn't so awesome.  I thought it was going to be a lot bigger.  I'd have to put teeny tiny pictures on it, all the frames and pictures I have would overwhelm this little sapling.  I might just leave it as is.



Not bad I think.  The biggest change is in my bedroom.  It was a disaster.   It's the only room that I can close a door on, so if I need to hide something away, chances are it was in there.  Boxes, recycling, vacuum, clean clothes in piles waiting to be put away, bills, etc etc.  I find the messier my room, the poorer I sleep.  I should sleep like a baby tonight.

I'm hoping that tomorrow the weather is better, I have a trail in mind I want to do.  

You're Welcome

Can I just point out that you have just received 7 fabulous blog posts from me in the month of March and the month is not done yet.  I only hit 15 posts in 2009, so I'm kicking butt.  Gold star for Hilary

Sprout You!

Okay, well when I took this picture I had the best of intentions of following through.  I bought a sprouting kit and this was day one.  I planned to take a picture every day until they were ready to eat.  Whatever, I'm sure you can imagine that. 

Sprouting is really really easy.  All you do it soak the seeds for a few hours and then twice a day you rinse and drain on an angle.  In 3-4 day you have sprouts.  Above is a jar of beans, peas and lentils just waiting to sprout.  On a salad, let me tell you, they are so amazing!!  I have also grown sandwich sprouts; a mix of clover, alphalfa and something else. 

Why?  I would buy sprouts from the store, and they would go bad before I could use them all.  I would feel bad, so I wouldn't buy them again.  Or worse yet, I would try to juice the sprouts- yuk.  This way I can grow a smaller quantity when I want them.  Plus it's dirt cheap.  The hardest thing is waiting for the sprouts to grow.

**Important**
Have you fallen in love with dates?  I am so in love with dates!  (frozen banana, frozen blueberry, date, kale smoothie is to die for with a bit of "chocolate"protein powder.)  But I never mentioned this super important thing.  Always look inside the date before you eat it.  Every now and again, I find a date with little bugs or bug eggs in it.  It's gross, but the dates must be good if bugs want to make it their home.  I'd rather have bugs in the odd date, than pesticides.  I ate a lot of dates before I read that you need to check them.  I don't want to think about how many bugs I've eaten.

Bonus Post

I have been going though my back log of posts I created and never posted.  This is one from 2007, back when I lived in the ghetto co-op and when I was still at SFU.  Wow, that was 5 years ago!  Marley still stares at me for hours a day.  No blinking, just staring. 
------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes it's hard for me to focus. I find it hard to keep my mind on whatever I'm doing on the computer. I just have this feeling that someone is watching me.

Let's lighten stuff up

It's a product review.  I think it's been years since I did a product review on the blog.  How exciting!

So I remember being little and setting up a toothpaste taste test with my friends down the street.  We collected toothpaste from our homes in little sandwich bags and then tasted them.  I don't remember which kid had the best tasting toothpaste.  We kids were freaks, this is what we did for playtime.  After we were done with the taste test, we turned the baggies inside out and threw them at the neighbours house where they stuck to the vinyl siding.

I'm still picky about my toothpastes.  I cannot handle minty toothpaste, it's so intensely hot, it burns my mouth.  I used soft mint flavours up until Crest came up with a Vanilla Mint flavour.  It made me feel like this...

But then I for a while I couldn't find it in the stores.  So I was forced to look for something else.  From what I've been reading, fluoride isn't good for you, and the action of brushing you teeth does more than the actual toothpaste.  (side note, my teeth don't get fuzzy anymore being on the raw vegan diet, but if I cheat and eat non raw, I notice my teeth feel nasty)  So I was in the health food section of my local Thrifty's and saw this brand... Newco Bubblegum flavour, made in Canada, vegan, not tested on animals and fluoride free. 

  Ingredients
MSM & Aerobic Oxygen in Deionized Water (Cellular Energizer), Vegetable Glycerine, Calcium Carbonate (naturally occurring source for abrasion), Carrageenan (emulsifier & thickener derived from Irish Moss), Unpasteurized Honey (natural preservative), Foodgrade Bubblegum Flavor, Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), Yucca Extract (foaming agent), Organic Tea Tree Oil, Sea Salt, Organic Sea Kelp (Source of Vitamins & minerals), Neem Oil (healing properties for mouth), Stevia.

It sounded a heck of a lot healthier than the Crest label.  It doesn't taste like bubblegum at all.  It's really sweet and tastes a little like fennel and smells a little like Eucalyptus.  It has a smooth texture, not gritty and reminded me of brushing my teeth with jell-o.  I was able to tough it out, but remember it is supposed to taste like bubblegum, it's for kids!  There is no way a kid would want to use this.  Also it doesn't foam up when you brush.  I didn't like that, I almost felt like I wasn't cleaning my teeth without the foam. Oh and did I mention the tube was like $7?

So I got to the end of the tube (thank god!) and it was time to find another brand.

I decided to go with a more well known brand Tom's.  I have used a few of their products in the past and liked them.  I had the choice between fennel or strawberry flavour.  Strawberry was the obvious winner.  It's good, tastes like strawberries, good about of foaming action, vegan and not tested on animals.  I like that they out the ingredients on the box like this:

Name	Purpose	Source
Glycerin	Moistener	Vegetable oils
Water	Consistency	Maine aquifer
Calcium carbonate	Mild abrasive	Purified calcium from the earth
Hydrated silica	Stain removal	Purified silica from the earth
Fruit extracts	Flavor	Strawberry, banana, & other natural flavors
Carrageenan	Thickener	Seaweed (Chondrus crispus)
Sodium lauryl sulfate	Dispersant	Derived from coconut and/or palm kernel oil

 
Nice and easy to understand, and I don't have to google ingredients to make sure I'm not putting gluten in my mouth.  (gotta read those labels, I just noticed the new hand soap that I bought has wheat in it.  Can't use that!)

I bought the next tube at the same time because I was afraid of being stuck with nasty toothpaste again.  I figured this upped my odds.

Now the only reason I even bought this one was because it was cheap.  50% off.  I did not want to get suckered into another tube of expensive toothpaste that tasted like crap. 

Ingredients: Calcium, Sodium, Magnesium, Zinc, L-Absorbic acid, Calcium carbonate, Glycerin, Water, Stevioside, Carrageenan, Grapefruit extract, Silica, Aloe vera gel, Cranberry extract, Sodium bicarbonate, Perilla extract, Essential oils (cranberry, blueberry, strawberry, cinnamon, ginger), Sodium cocoyl glutamate.

I'm in love with Jason.  The flavor is orange, cinnamon and mint, but it's mild not painfully minty.  And this stuff really foams up when you brush.  This would be my only complaint.  It's almost too foamy, and I need to spit before I'm done brushing. It's also vegan and not tested on animals.  Now the Crest Vanilla Mint is back in the stores, but I'm not going back.  I'm committed to Jason and Tom.

PS thanks for the comments and texts from my stinky post.  Appreciated.  I should probably do a product review of deodorant, I literally have 10 different brands/scents in the house right now.

Thoughts on Whitney Houston

Yes, I realize it's been a while since Whitney Houston died.  I've been thinking about writting this post for a while, and have written it in my head about 4 times.  I'm processing some recent family drama, it's all interconnected.  Old drama, new drama and Whitney Houston.


Warning, this is another heavy post.


So my mom died when I was 12.  I didn't know she was dying, not because I wasn't told she was sick, but because I didn't understand what I was told.  So anyways, on a fateful day in December 1992, my sisters and my oldest sister's boyfriend drove us to the hospital where my mom was staying.  Blah blah blah.  And then a nurse came in and said she was dead.  Blah blah blah.  Funny thing is, the blah bah blah, is because I don't remember the things that happened in between.  So in between people crying, I remember the hospital being really really quiet.  I remembered that I wanted to leave, and that I wanted to go see the nurses station becasue they had a dog there.  And I remember that the nurses station had the radio playing.  I remember that the song that was drifting down the hallway when my mother died was Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You.  As a result, the song means a lot, and at the same time I sort of hate it.  I never told anyone about the significance this song holds for me.  Not for any reason, it just doesn't come up in conversation.  Know one ever asked if my mom died to music. 

The week that Whitney Houston died, I heard that song a lot.  I found myself being strangely upset that this washed up has-been crack head died.  I"m not a huge fan, and I hardly ever listened to her in the last 10 years.  But I can never think of Whtiney without thinking about my mother and vice versa.

After these last two posts, you're going to be happy to read about kale.  Aren't ya.

Edit. turns out I have one more depressing post to go after this.  2012 is shaping up to be a real piece of shit year.

Just Putting it Out There

This is probably one of those posts that is going to be deleted shortly after I write it.  It's 100% cathartic, and if you actually got to read these words, you will probably be learning more than you wanted to know about me. 


So I have said before on the blog that I have an obsessive thought, but I didn't say what it was.  I had done some work on re-training my thought processes.  I had a really good stretch, but today it's back.  In sum, I obsess that I could/might or actually do stink.

Now where did it start?  Well not to place blame, but my nickname growing up was stinky.  But it didn't bother me.  If fact this wasn't even a thought in my head until I accidentally left clothes in the washing machine too long and got the dreaded musty towel smell.  Unfortunately, I also had a cold, and was completely unaware I went to work smelling like musty towels.  For a while it totally devastated me.  So that was the beginning.

Now here's the thing, I'm obsessive about doing everything to not smell.  Showering daily, wearing only freshly washed clothes, smelling my clothes frequently, bringing changes of clothes with me, using soaps, body washes, scented lotions or perfume, using pantyliners, applying deodorant several times a day, applying multiple brands of deodorant a day, carrying baby wipes with me and smelling myself multiple times a day.  Even in doing all of these things, I still worry that I might smell.  If someone touches their nose, of sniffs or coughs, or moves away from me, or doesn't sit next to me, I'm convinced it's because they could smell me.  If someone mentions they smell something stinky, it sets me into overdrive.

I work in a scent-free workplace.  This has caused me some issues, because in the past if I ever worried I smelled, I would quickly use yummy smelling moisturizers, or something.  I can't do that now.  So today after lunch a co-worker mentioned that she thought she smelled cat spray.  I immediately panicked.  I had done all of the good hygiene things, so why would I think it would be me?  I rushed off to the washroom at break to check out the situation.  I definitely smelled my laundry soap on all my clothes (fresh out of the dryer),  my hair smelled good, deodorant was doing it's thing.  So I knew it was not me.  Even though I knew, I cannot possibly be smelly, I was still convinced that the co-worker was talking about me when she was whispering to someone else.   

I realize this is 100% crazy.  But what if I really do fill a room with stink?  OMG that would be the worst.  Now the obvious solution is to just ask someone.  I have asked a few trusted people, and they have confirmed that I'm insane.  So why can't I get past this?  It doesn't help me in my social life at all, let me tell you.  Anyways, if you think I don't smell, I could really use the confirmation.  I'd rather be crazy than smelly :)  

um yeah, this post will have a short life.

Today was grocery shopping day.  I like grocery shopping for the most part.  I like checking out what's available and deciding what I''m going to buy.  As if making those decisions are big life decisions.  It's so satisfying.  And then!  (Now this is the really bitchy part of my personality that I try to squash)  I like looking at other people's grocery carts and I like to judge them for their choices.  (Ugh, I know.)  This is a really bad thing.  But when I see someone buying 6 frozen pizzas, diet coke, ice cream and fruit loops, I just can't help it.  Now when I see a cart of junk like that, I like to look at the person and see if they match the food in their cart.  I am always disappointed if they aren't obese.  Like, how are they eating total garbage, and not fat?  But those are few and far between, usually, people match their food.  I wonder what people think of me sometimes.


Today I was checking out the organic section, marvelling at how good the prices were today.  So I grabbed two 5lb bags of apples, a 5lb bag of oranges and then the pineapples were under $2 each, so I grabbed two of them.  I was making my way back to my cart, lugging about 20lbs of produce, when I noticed I was being watched.  A middle aged man was looking at me like I had 3 heads.  Apparently I was the only person that bought like 50lbs of produce today.  (???)  I was contemplating asking the produce guy if I could buy a case of bananas or coconuts, but then I decided the guy that was watching me would probably lose his shit.  Here I thought I was just buying a bit of fruit, but to others, I was a total freak.  Oh well, I guess there are worst categories of freaks out there.


Edit: I came back to this post to add something really profound.  But in the 30 seconds it took me to get here, I forgot what that was.  Must start writting things down...

spring time

Ok, it doesn't look like spring.  But I'm back walking at one of my favorite walking places in the sun, and that makes it feel like spring.  Actually it was really cold, and my nose started running, and I was forced to be super classy and use my sleeve.  :)   In the fall I kept wanting to take a picture of this stretch of the path when the leaves were changing, but there were always too many people in the path.  This was the last week of February, and I had the path to myself.  Too bad the colours are so drab.

I thought I spotted a lookout through the trees last time.  This time I decided to check it out.  It's a lot of slippery stairs to get there, but the view of the lake was pretty good.

This weekend, I decided to go to the garden centre and say goodbye to winter.  Did I mention it snowed like 2 days ago?  I'm pretty happy with my new container ($9) and $8 for the flowers.  They are growing in organic soil.  But I didn't buy the soil for them.  In between the flowers I sprinkled salad green seeds.  When the spring plants are done, the lettuces should be on their way.

I'm very ambitious this year.  I'm growing parsley and cucumbers in these little pods.  In the past, I haven't had great success container gardening fruits and veggies.  I'm going to give it another go.  I have also talked Dad and Judy into doing a patch of kale for me.  I dropped a package of kale seeds in their mailbox on my way home.  That will probably really confuse them.  It's like a drive-by involving kale.

And if that wasn't enough, I also bought a sprouter!  Sprouts are supposed to be so good for you, and taste good.  I don't usually buy them at the store because they are expensive.  This set up was $14.99 including the sprouter, and 1 bag of mixed beans and peas, and 1 bag of sandwich sprouts (radish, alfalfa, clover).  I'm most excited to try the bean mix.  They should be ready in about 3 days.  Stay tuned for an update.

AND.. I'm going to have to have a discussion with the Canucks staff.  Why are they moving out all the hotties.  I had a whole post planned for Byron Bitz.  They better call him back up for the playoffs.