I am so obsessed with banjolele’s now. After seeing the Fishtank Ensemble perform with one and this absolutely adorable man play Stagolee blues on the banjolele… I am sold.

1. I am now back in school! It’s was kind of a stretch getting back, but now that’s over with and I’m already swamped in school work. I’m pretty happy to be back actually- I’ve started working on my major now! I’m also a year behind now though, but it hasn’t been bothering me much at all.

2. I have a brother-in- law now! Yikes…? My little sister married her fiance this summer and I am now the spinster older sister! (Which I am quite proud of by the way)

3. I am living at the Love Corner for another year! We have two new, awesome housemates as well- Katie and Whitney. There are great and appreciate baked goods, pretty things and a happy home just as much as the rest of us.

4. I am spending Christmas and New Years Eve in Germany this year. Gasp!! I’ve realized the past few Christmas’ have been more stressful than I’ve liked and I could really use a change this year. I am going by myself and it will be my first time traveling alone for longer than two days… it’ll be good.

That’s the update!

I’ve had this big bag of lentils sitting on my shelf for months now- last night I finally built up the energy to cook up some yummy veggie lentil soup! I always procrastinate on this recipe because it takes soo long for the lentils to cook! It is always so worth it though, because I end with a week’s worth of left-overs for lunch! Also, lentil soup always tastes better each day it gets older.

Here is the recipe I use (cred. to Paul Dragy):

Amazing and Wonderful Vegetable Lentil Soup

1 Cup of Lentils

6 cups of water (with lots of olive oil, garlic and salt) or vegetable broth

3 large peeled chopped carrots (i guess about 1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups chopped celery

2 cans whole foods brand garlic and olive oil diced tomatoes (or green chile diced tomatoes if you want to be a little daring- or to keep it fresh- 5 or 6 tomatoes diced) i prefer the canned tomatoes because they are pre- seaoned and super tasty

1/2 chopped red onion

3 cloves garlic

Several pinches of salt

3 tblsp olive oil

Bring the lentils, 1 clove minced garlic and water/ broth to a boil a large pot. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer and cook for about 30min (or until cooked).  Make sure to add a few pinches of salt to the broth.

Heat 3tblsp olive oil in a skillet. Once heated, add onion and carrots, once carrots look cooked or soft to touch add the celery. Add two cloves of minced garlic and two pinches of salt . Cook until celery is transparent.

Once the lentils are cooked, depending on how soupy you want the soup to be you can leave the remaining water in the pot or drain a little bit of it out ( I like hearty soup so I drained a little out). Then add the cooked veggies and tomatoes to the lentils. Warm the entire soup in the pot on low to medium heat until everything looks like it has been fully mixed together/ cooked.

Serve with some bread or crackers! Yum yum!

P.S. I think this soup would taste good with some diced potatoes and/ or basil but I have yet to try it.

Banjolele

Oh my goodness they are soo cute! And so easy to transport!

I love learning lessons of life the hard way…

Banjo

I started plucking at the banjo in January because my roomate has one and can play a little bit. Joanne, my roomate started teaching me how to strum the banjo, then I started to get interested. Kat, another roomate- her father plays banjo and offered to give me free lessons, which I of course graciously took. There ya go, I’ve been learning the Earl Scruggs finger- picking style since January. It has been great, I have written two songs which are awesomely sappy yet folky (I like to think). I have also learned how to play Worried Man by Earl Scruggs.

Here is Worried Man:

That guy is also super cool by the way. I only wish I had hunted that many deer to mount on my wall.

Tap Dance

So I have all this free time since I’m not in school right now, and I also recently received my income tax returns- two awesome things. So I decided to treat myself and buy some tap shoes and learn how to tap dance. I’ve always wanted to learn. I’m thinking I am going to use most of my time off to learn a bunch of random skills- perhaps I’ll tack on ribbon dancing, steel drumming or juggling. Basically I want to become this amazing, multi- talented street performer so I can quit school. Anywho, I learned a few steps off of YouTube and then signed up for a beginners tap class on Saturdays in Greenlake. I went to my first class last week, and me oh my… it was so much fun! I love how tap dancing is so rhythmic and musical. Tap dancers are also considered rhythmic musicians by the way- Wikipedia says so. We also learned this cute little dance to a show tune, I was so happy.

How cool are the Nicholas Brothers.

Thrift Shopping/ Fashion

i love the lace top and Vancouver

like the denim jacket and converse

dark florals yes

boots, denim vest, dog and hula hoop

classic casual

love the sweater

comfy

These pictures are all from lookbook.nu. I hope I don’t get into any copyright mess for this. I guess I’ll find out. I love all those outfits and lookbook has become this awful new way for me to waste more time on the computer.

Mayer Hawthorne

Mayer Hawthorne is a singer, producer, and multi- instrumentalist part of the label Stones Throw. His music sounds like soul from the 1960’s and 1970’s, his influences are ” Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White” and inspirations are “Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, and Eddie Holland Jr.” (Ronnie Reese, Wax Poetics / Rollingstone.com)

I went and saw Mayer Hawthorne along with James Pants, Dam Funk and Peanut Butterwolf on their Stonesthrow Dj set tour at Chop Suey on April 25th. I have to say I was very pissed to have sat through James Pants for an hour to only hear three of Mayer Hawthorne songs. I was so bummed. I guess Mayer Hawthorne’s band wasn’t there? I don’t know what the deal was. I caught a bit of Dam Funk and he sounded pretty good, we danced to him for a while. Peanut Butterwolf was also awesome. I’m just not that into watching a guy look at his Mac, however intense he his nodding his head, or however cool the videos/ slides he is displaying. We ended up leaving early.

Here is a song from Mayer Hawthorne. He was absolutely adorable and charming onstage.

That’s about it for now. Goodnight.

So I make these lists about things I want to do/ accomplish/ be. I’ve been making them since high school and I have several little notebooks full of all these lists (some about other things besides myself). I started looking through them the other day and found them to be pretty amusing and interesting because of how my interests have changed over time, or how much I had “checked off” on that list.

Here are some kinda random ones:

“Favorite Things to See/ Things that Make me Smile”

• People singing along to music in their cars
• People walking dogs
• Old people at cafes
• Kids and their parents at stores
• Awkward dates at restaurants
• Polite strangers
• Bus drivers waving at each other
• People who love their noble jobs
• Homeless people dancing
• Loud booming music from cars (only funny music)

“Things I Have Accomplished” Jan. 2009

• Met family in Guatemala
• Good vibes with family
• Well- known in children’s society (as in work)
• Healthy
• Cooking/ baking much more often
• Biking to commute
• New friends
• Living frugally
• Visited derm.
• Watch movies via netflix (I am sooo proud of this one)
• Manage money
• Don’t use credit

“Things I have Accomplished” April 2009

• Started beginnings of a dance program at Seattle Gymnastics
• I got another raise yeaaah babay
• Learned to how to play the banjo
• Wrote a song on the banjo
• Kept in touch with old friends, made some new ones
• I can ride up 45th up to Laurelhurst on my bike without passing out (yay)
• Got my tetanus shot

seeing an old woman pushing one of those walker- things smoking a cigarette at the same time. when i’m old i think i will take up smoking too. what have you got to lose at that point?

i bought some doc martens today at value village. i am officially grunge now, yeah!

sam left me some baileys and i poured it all into my coffee today and sat on our back porch and drank it. that was wonderful.

Has been wonderful!!! I have never allowed myself to lock myself up inside for longer than a day but I did it this time because I was sick with an awful cold.

It all started Friday morning. I woke up, felt sniffly and tired but headed to work anyways. I guess I was so tired that I forgot to walk fast/ run to the bus stop like I normally do every morning so I missed by bus. I said “Fuck- shit!” then called my co-worker who I knew would pick me up. Last time I missed the bus she picked me up in less than ten minutes, so I asked her to just pick me up at the bus stop instead of my house- I ended up standing on that corner for forty minutes!!! It was awful, not only was it freezing cold, my sniffly-ness turned into a sneezy, eye- watering, sniffly chaos. And then we were almost late for our classes, and my Friday class has six kids, ughh. Anywho, I made it to work but had to work throughout the entire day being awfully sick/ a mess. By the time I got home I put on long-johns, sweats, a fleece and another hoodie on top of that, a hat and slippers and then made some delicious hot tomato soup. After that I couldn’t stop eating, and eventually I took a nap. Then I watched I Heart Huckabees on our projector (awwesome) with my blanket and teddy bear. Then Kat came home with deviliciously delicious brownies (ha…) that I am pretty sure I still haven’t stopped eating. The next morning I woke up around 11am, ate a huge breakfast, read a little and then took another nap. When I woke up, I met Joanne in the living room whom I guess was also taking a nap, haha. Then I took a shower and finally prepared myself for the outside world to meet up with some friends for thai food. I was really hoping that the spices in the thai food would clear up my airways, which it did but it was kinda painful.

It was so wonderful napping all the time. I am definitely not one of those people that looses weight when they get sick. I’m pretty sure I am the opposite, because I double up on food and sleep. But hey, I am feeling much better today! I even went for a run! Actually I don’t think the run was that great, it was soo cold.

I also made an amazing playlist- these things always get me excited. It’s so much easier to listen to music when it’s on a playlist.

Easy Listening #2

1) Nowhere Near- Yo La Tengo

2) Most of the Time- Bob Dylan

3) Poison Cup- M. Ward

4) Oh! Sweet Nuthin’- The Velvet Underground

5) Our Way to Fall- Yo La Tengo

6) Cold Blooded Old Times- Smog

7) I Have Often Wondered- Gene Pool

Walt Whitman’s Niece- Billy Bragg & Wilco

9) Shadows- Yo La Tengo

10) Post- War- M. Ward

11) One by One- Billy Bragg & Wilco

12) Through the Stars- Gene Pool

13) I Heard You Looking- Yo La Tengo

Yeah, I’m a sucker for sappy music. Also, Gene Pool is actually my pal, who is also my friend Joanne’s brother. He is really awesome, and his music is really great- check out his myspace

He played with the Moondoggies at Neumos last Friday Jan. 16th and also in Portland on the 17th. We have high hopes for him!

I think it’s really interesting how my interests in music change from time to time. I feel like all the music I have listened to holds a ton of memories of where I was at in my life at the time. I wonder if that’s a reason why I listen to certain music more often than others. On that note I’ve also recently deleted a lot of shitty music on my Itunes. I guess that was music that didn’t bring back good memories? Haha.

Today I went to Pike Place Market and bought tulips and tea! It was wonderful.