Because that makes sense, right?

I'm bi-polar.

But not the kind of bi-polar you're thinking (for King of The Hill fans, I love Kahn's crazy manic-depressive episodes).

Half the time I want to control it all, no surprises, just a tight grip.  The other half I want to be that Zen master, mentally floating down the stream of life and enjoying the ride.

The Buddha taught you can't control anything.  He was probably right.  No, I know he was right, and this crazy year is just smacking me up and down with opportunities galore to let the f*#! go.

So I bought a $500 blender.  Because -- when your husband is laid off, and you have no clue what the future holds -- that makes sense, right?  In my defense, this is no ordinary blender.

It's a VitaMix.  I know the Buddha didn't mean that we should buy expensive blenders in order to resist the temptation to attempt control... but he'd really like my homemade almond butter.

And my homemade whole-grain crackers with hummus...

Because I started out with these soft white wheat berries...

And the VitaMix made this flour.  Yes. The blender ground the flour.  It's soft enough to make a cake with, but I made these:

Then, I cooked up some dried garbanzo beans, drained them, and I threw them in the VitaMix with some lemon, garlic, and -- wait for it -- sesame seeds.  Where's the tahini, you're asking.  No, the VitaMix MAKES it for you while you're grinding up the hummus.

Yes.

We ate this for dinner:

Yummy, creamy hummus.  No cans, all whole grain.  It's even tastier than it looks.

And then we adopted Dobby.  Because that makes sense, right?!

Yes, we did.  He is ours.  Well, not yet.  He will be once the paperwork is completed with the shelter, but I already let the shelter know.  Cute n evil wins every time.

For those keeping track, we bought a car, went to Arizona, Shanti was laid off, we bought a $500 blender, and then we adopted another dog.

Perfectly reasonable.  I swear we'll look at the garden next time I blog.  I swear.

Unless we buy a boat.  Or a Cessna.  Or do something else rash.  Or we just get rashes.

All the babies!

The day we said good-bye to Lucas was the day we said hello to Dobby.

Hello, Dobby!

Dobby is officially listed as a Papillon Mix, but if you Google "Papillon Puppy" he's obviously all Pap, all the time.  We started fostering him when he was 4 weeks old, and we've had him for nearly 4 weeks now.  He still only weighs 2 pounds.  We've potty-trained him, crate-trained him (although he'd rather be out and about), and now he's learning "Leave It" and "Up".

ZOMGisn'thethecutestthingevah!!!!!!!!

"There's nothing I can't do!"

While Lucas was Puck's BFF, Tucker has taken to Dobby.  They play together, sleep together, and Tucker grooms him and teaches him.  It's all just too stinkin' cute!

And now I've given you diabetes.

As if a baby puppy wasn't enough, we also added to our flock of hens!  3 new chicklets -- Mary, Sybil and Edith -- came to live with us.  They're still living in our back room, because it's been below freezing every night, but I'm anxious to get them out into the coop (they're stinky!).  Shanti built them their own little Mini-Coop (get it?  like a Mini Cooper?! aren't we so clever?!), and I've been popping them in there in the backyard when it's sunny out.

Anaya came over and photographed our new ladies.  I'll share her photos with you later (they're amazing!!!), but I did get some of the photog-in-action.

These super close portraits turned out especially well!  Edith here looks unimpressed.

Mary says, "I'm ready for my close up!"

And that's the update on the animals!  Tomorrow we'll meet another new occupant of Chez Shunn, the ultra-sexy VitaMix!

"Didn't You Used To Write A Blog?"

Yes, and thank you for asking!

The Mr. took over my office (plopping his laptop right in front of my sexy iMac), so I literally have not been able to make it to the computer to blog for you.  Yes, I have an iPad, but the blogspot interface doesn't let you upload photos directly to the blog (or I haven't found a way) unless you put them on Picasa first... which I didn't want to go through that hassle.

Soanyways...

February 27, I took some photos of my garden.  At that point, it was just one box of things I had planted in fall 2012.

Fall planting (other than garlic) really gets short shrift in my garden.  Sweet onions, carrots, broccoli, some leeks, all the hardy brassicas... these can all get planted in the waning days of summer.  But what I usually do is throw my seeds into this box, and whatever grows, I eat it in spring.  I know.  But, this was Chinese cabbage from seeds I saved myself; the problem was the cabbage was a hybrid.  Some seeds turned into the "dad" plant -- a short pac choi-looking thing, and some turned into the "mom" plant, which you see here.  This plant cooked up OK in a soup, but it had these awful spikes all over it.  I won't be planting those seeds again.

I could garden for a million years and never understand carrots.  When I plant them in spring, water the hell out of them, totally baby them, I get nothin'.  These seeds (from my own plant) were literally tossed into the dirt, and here's a carrot.  Best carrot ever?  No.  Free carrot, though.

Arugula (again saved from my garden) is an easy plant to grow.  I need to buy mesclun seeds to mix in with it (or just buy mescaline, and then I wouldn't care what grew and what didn't).  These plants are 3" tall now.

"What's in here?"

That's kale in the back and along the front.  Those kale plants are now 2 feet tall.  I need to make some soup.

Then in March we flew to Arizona to see two spring training games.  This was even more awesome than expected, because there you are seeing your favorite teams in stadiums that hold 10,000 fans (as opposed to 40,000).  At Camelback Ranch, which is the home field for the Dodgers and White Sox, you can ask the players to autograph hats, balls or t-shirts for you before the game.  At HoHoKam, the Cubs' spring training facility until next year when they move to a new ballpark, Hall Of Famer Ferguson Jenkins (and other famous retired players) will sign autographs for you all through the game over near the food area.  Both the Dodgers and Cubs won the games we saw.

As you can see, these parks are much smaller than a Major League park.  I mean, Dodgers Stadium holds 52,000 people; by comparison, this is much more intimate!!!

There is a Dodgers side...

And a White Sox side!  (The gift shop is split in half)

This was my favorite part, though:  any Dodgers fan knows a Dodger Dog is the only dog to eat at a ball game (unless you're a vegetarian, like me), but what about those poor Sox fans?  Chicago dogs for them!  No, I have no idea what a Chicago dog is.  Maybe a brat?  Or a sausage?  I had a pretzel.

You're welcome!

The next day we saw a game at HoHoKam.  Since this is the last spring the Cubs will play at this park, it was nice to catch one game there.  The Oakland A's will be taking over, and the Cubs are moving to a new park being built for them.

Seeing a Cubs game is always a treat for me.  Not just because I'm a Cubs fan, but -- living in baseball-free Crapville -- I'm pretty much the only Cubs fan around.  There's a guy who works at the Grange, and someone who drives around with a Cubs logo on the hood of his car, but when I go to a game...  EVERYONE is wearing blue!  They all know what the ivy and scoreboard look like at Wrigley.  They all miss Ron and Harry Caray and revere Fergie, Ernie, Billy, and Ryn-O.  They all know what it's like to be a Cubs Faithful.  It's a neat feeling to be surrounded by people who have loved (and felt the pain of loving) the Cubs far longer than I have.

Again, this is a much more intimate feeling than even the Friendly Confines of Wrigley.  That green board is not a hand-turned scoreboard, though; it's just the back of a place to buy hot dogs and beer.  And, yes, they sell Old Style.  And, no, I had a couple gin n tonics.

In fact, over by the mixed drink booth (and a margarita stand and a place to get these awesome stir-fried veggie bowls) is the autograph booth.  You pay a fee (100% of which goes to the Fergie Jenkins Foundation/Cubs Cares Charities), and you can get a signed baseball from Ferguson Jenkins.  As you can see, other Cubs players (and other teams' greats -- hello, Gaylord Perry!) will sign things too.  Shanti got me a signed baseball last year.  And Ryan Manies got me a photo signed by Andre Dawson photo last year.  I really need to put my Cubs shrine together...

This is the view from the hill beyond right field.  Just like Wrigley's famous bleachers, the hills in right and left fields are very popular.  These areas are cheaper than the seats, there's food vendors nearby, and your children can run rampant.  I spoke with a beer vendor who worked this section; she had NEVER been inside the park itself.  **shakes head and wanders off**

This is the Delman family (or at least 3/4 of us).  Apparently, the bright Mesa sunshine was too much for whatever setting I had my camera on.  I don't remember the shadows being so dark...

You may be wondering why the Cubs would want to leave HoHoKam Stadium after playing here since 1979.  I think this handwritten sign says it all.  This electric box is hooked up to the electronic scoreboard above.  "It may not work again."  Yeah, I'd be ready for a new park too.

I think that's enough for today.  I have free use of my computer tomorrow too, so we'll take a look at some goings-on in the kitchen and the new foster pup!

"I want my money back!"

Some of you may be wondering what happened to my blog, including photos of my recent trip to Spring Training and info about gardening (it's happening!).  After the lay-off, the office became job-finding HQ.  The conflict lies in the fact that my computer sits behind the job-searcher's laptop.  No computer, no photos.

Also, it's been gorgeous and in the 60s, so I'm outside a lot.

He'll find a job soon, and then we'll get back to your normally scheduled blog!

Thinking Out Loud

So, we go on vay-cay (pix later), and the day we come back, Shanti gets laid off.

I'm stressed (bc that's what I do), but we're in pretty good standing, all things considered...

1. We don't eat meat, and that is the #1 food expense
2. We are just getting into spring; winter is by far the most expensive season, between heating and no solar power
3. I have a pantry full of tomato sauce, tomatoes, flour, oats, sugar and salt; for the last 2 yrs, I've been buying 50# bags of the staples
4. I have a freezer full of more tomatoes, canned peaches, coffee and cheese
5. Gardening season is just getting under way
6. We have spent the last 8 yrs building up enough savings to live on for a year (putting this much into savings and not buying/doing fun things was painful, but I'm glad now!)
7. We are also pre-paid on our house through July 
8. We owe only on our house, and we are not upside-down there (no car or c/c debt)
9. The hens have just started their laying season, and 3 new little layers are coming soon!
10. Car insurance is paid through June, home insurance through next March, property tax through November

So, all is not lost.  I will be much happier when Shanti gets a new job, but I am grateful for my paranoid planning. :)

SB 633

Oregon State Bill 633 would strip the rights of seed-producers to make decisions about seed production. If this passes, all control of seed production will be at a state level.

If you write to racquel.rancier@state.or.us TODAY (3/11), your mail will be entered as testimony in tomorrow's hearing.  What follows was my email (feel free to copy):

I am writing to voice my objections to State Bill 633.

As a family gardener, there is no greater joy than growing your own food.  And when that food is grown from seeds you saved out yourself from the previous season, it becomes something special.  Your micro-climate, your selection of plants, your watering schedule... They all contribute to producing a unique product.  To a non-farmer or non-gardener, this may seem like nothing big, but in the wine industry the French refer to it as terroire, and a wine's terroire can mean the difference between a $200 bottle of burgundy or filler for a table red.

Oregon, and Southern Oregon specifically, is a collection of microclimates, each set up to grow wine, watermelon, peas, cranberries or hazelnuts to perfection.  Governance of the seeds and plants that make the crops we eat and sell needs to be at as local a level as possible, in order to maintain the terroire of each product.  Hermiston melons should ALWAYS taste like they came from Herniston.  And I don't buy Ocean Spray cranberries every fall, because I want Oregon cranberries; they do taste different!  

The "Buy Local" movement is thriving here, because we know OR makes the best.  If our diversity is homigenized, what makes Oregon unique will be gone.

Please save Oregon terroire and vote no on SB 633

Foster Mutt #6 -- Lucas!

We've had PorkChop, Miley, Pedro, Kota, Ginger and now Lucas!

Lucas is 5 months old, and was listed as a shepherd mix (I'm not sure about that).  He is housetrained, crate-trained, and knows all of his basic commands.  Someone spent a lot of time teaching this boy some house manners.

So why is he in foster care?  He is recovering from being hit by a car.  And here's the thing:  when the veterinarian X-rayed his leg, it was found out that he already had a pin in the other leg.  In other words, this is not his first interaction with a car.  Our best guess is that some idiot owned him, didn't have a fence, paid the money when Lucas got hit the first time, and just didn't care when he took off the second time.

Like I said, he's a very good boy.  We have him for at least 4-6 weeks while he recovers.  Next week he gets his stitches out, and in 3 weeks he gets a follow-up X-ray.  At that point, we'll be able to determine when he can be put up for adoption.  In the meantime, we're giving him tons of love, he's getting the fun of being in our little pack, and we have an awesome third pup.

He's definitely a pup.  His canines only recently came in, according to the vet, so he's been teething a lot in the back of his mouth.  He doesn't eat as much as I would have thought, but he's also on antibiotics and painkillers, and that's enough to destroy anyone's appetite.

He sleeps most of the day... or at least he used to.  He's starting to get restless at being inside all the time.  I'm sure if the weather was nice, he'd love to hang out in the backyard all day.  He's just not healed enough for that, though.

And, because of the meds he's on, he has to pee 9 or 10 times a day.  He had one accident, and it was while we were out of the house, and at least he went on the $25 rug from eBay (and not on our carpet like Ginger did, and now we're gonna have to remove the carpet in the hallway).

**sigh**

He's totally part of our family, though!  He and Puck have even had a couple tug o' war sessions with the chew baby.

I'll update you on his progress!