Bon voyage!

Phew. OK. So, things have been INSANE around here for the past week or so. Sabrina left for Australia on Sunday... I haven't talked to her since she arrived, but my mom reported to me that Sabrina has already dived at the Great Barrier Reef, held a koala, fed some kangaroos, and danced onstage with some Aboriginees. And she's only been gone for 5 days. Sheesh. :D

I've been helping Teddy out on campus, organizing and displaying rock/mineral/fossil samples. Not my specialty, but still pretty cool. They've been in storage for the past 20 years in the rock lab, and hardly any of them are labeled, so Teddy (and I) definitely have our work cut out for us!

Tomorrow, we're getting up bright and early to leave for Norfolk to go to my family reunion. That's always fun; plus its extra-special because tomorrow is Teddy's 24th birthday. I already gave him his birthday present (I just couldn't wait), but my mom is going to pick up a cake, and we'll have a little celebration at the reunion. Then, on Sunday, we're leaving Norfolk and driving about 2 hours north to Wallops Island to start our Coastal Environmental Oceanography class. After about 10 days at Wallops, we'll drive down to the FL Keys and finish up class at the Keys Marine Lab. I just finished packing us up a little while ago, and I still feel like I'm forgetting things. It is so hard to conceptualize packing to be away for THREE WEEKS.

Anyway, we'll have internet through most of the trip, so I plan on posting lots of pictures and hopefully blogging here and there! TTFN!

To Do

1. Work 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.
2. Go to the bank, 1/2 hour away, grr.
3. Work out
4. Vacuum
5. ????

I have such an exciting day ahead of me, har-har-har.

I'm feeling spicy...

Spicy food, that is!

I was having a hankering for some Mexican food today, so I decided to whip up some veggie fajitas for dinner. I used a recipe from this book as my base, and did kind of a 'use what you have' approach to come up with my own version. (I tend to do this with just about every recipe I use, because 99% of the time I don't have all of the right ingredients!)

So, here's what's on the menu tonight:

Fajitas

Tofu (pressed and cubed)

onion, green pepper, corn, squash, zucchini

Spices: garlic powder, chili powder, cumin

Saute the tofu, pressed and cubed, in oil with all of the spices until it is coated and starts to brown. Add in all the veggies and saute til they're done!

Serve in flour tortillas with diced tomato, avocado, sour cream (vegan, for me!), and salsa, and a can of refried beans on the side.

I know, its kind of cheating to use a can of refried beans, but I'm just really happy to finally have a can opener, people! Anyway, this is going to be good. I'm just waiting for Teddy to get home from work so we can dig in!

Today is such a dreary, grey day. I got off work at 2:00 today, and literally as I was walking through the parking lot to my car to go home, it started storming. This always happens to me, I swear! The grey weather makes me feel really sleepy/lazy, so I feel like today is kind of a wasted day.

At least I got some important stuff done yesterday. I registered for another class (this one will start the day after we get back from our 3-week jaunt in FL, yay.), made some calls dealing with financial aid for school, and took Teddy to my favorite antique mall. We didn't buy anything, but sometimes its fun to just look.

I think I mentioned the other day that Teddy woke up with a terrible rash all over his face- well, he went back to the doctor yesterday, and they diagnosed it as poison ivy. We're not exactly sure when he would have been anywhere near poison ivy, but in any case the steroids seem to be helping a lot. His face looks almost totally better (just a little rosy, but the rash part seems to be gone); he just has a few welts behind his ear and on his chest. Poor guy. The steroid makes him really hyper, too, haha.

Anyway, I'm pretty bored so I've decided to do a little survey thingie. Enjoy!

What is your current obsession? Turquoise! Ever since we went to Texas, I want turquoise EVERYTHING! There were TONS of gorgeous turquoise jewelry at the antique mall yesterday, so now I just have to drop a few hints to Teddy..... hahahaha jk!

What is your weirdest obsession? Um...probably my love for all things 'natural'.... which manifests itself in fish skulls that I find washed up onshore, bones I find in marshes, songbird skulls that Teddy has collected, this guy.....we have lots of strange things in our house. My mom says I'm weird.

What do you see outside your window? this

What is your favorite color? It depends on what the object is, but in general its safe to say I prefer blues and greens. Let's compromise and say teal.

What is your weakness? I'm impatient, and I'm also a procrastinator. But it works for me.

What animal would you be? I really don't know.... probably some kind of bird. Or fish. But I'll have to ask someone else what kind of animal I remind them of. I have no idea.

What would you like to learn how to do? Play the guitar! I know I could pick it up really quickly; I just need to sit down and do it.

What do you want to never happen in life? I don't ever want to see anyone I love suffer terribly. But who wants that? Selfishly, I hope that I never have to start all over again. I like the way my life is going, thank you.

What is on your bedside table? The actual table is on my side of the bed,and it has my awesome globe lamp on it. Underneath the table are some big, scary knives that Teddy insists on keeping there 'just in case'. Teddy has a dresser on his side of the bed, and the top of it is filled with his junk.

What’s the last thing you bought? OK, technically I didn't buy it, Teddy did, but I chose it. Last night Teddy was looking on Amazon for a cable that we can use to connect our laptops to the TV (so we can watch Netflix instant-view movies on the TV, of course), and he said I could pick something out so we could get the free shipping....so I picked this. Yay! Technically, the last thing I bought was an $800 Geography class at school. Joy.

What was your favorite children’s book? I had a lot of favorites, but this is the first one that popped into my head. I have a signed copy that I got in 3rd grade.

Who do you want to meet in person? Jacques Cousteau. Or I'd settle for Steve Zissou.

What did you want to be as a child? Like most kids, I wanted to be a marine biologist. It has never changed.

What did you dream about last night? I usually have such epic dreams, but I don't remember any from last night. That may or may not have something to do with the fact that we downloaded a bartending app. for my iPod yesterday, and there is a bottle of coconut rum the fridge.

Which do you prefer, day or night? It all depends, but mostly I prefer days. I get sleepy at night, and I don't like to do much after about 8:00. Haha!

What’s your favorite piece of clothing in your closet? Right now its probably the strapless hippie-looking dress I got in Texas. Its just perfect for summer, lightweight and pretty, and it goes well with just about anything. Oh, and of course my cowgirl boots!

What’s your plan for tomorrow? Not sure yet. I'm off work, so I was thinking, if its good weather I'll take Daisy for a walk over to campus to see Teddy while he's at work; maybe do a little thrifting (gotta keep the shop stocked!), or perhaps go to my parents' house for a bit.

What would you like to get your hands on right now? I seem to be on an accessories kick right now, especially things with natural, organic elements like gemstones, rocks, fossils....

from masaoms.etsy.com

What is your must-have of the moment? I like to change it up most of the time, but the one thing I've been wearing almost ever day is a pair of silver earrings I got at - get this - Walmart last week. They're just really simple, but interesting, and they go with just about everything. Plus they were only like $3.00.

What’s your favorite tea flavor? I'm not much of a tea-drinker, but I do like Starbucks' black tea lemonade and passion tea. That's about it.

If you could go anywhere is the world right now, where would you go? Honestly, I've been thinking a lot about San Antonio lately. I feel like I could have spent another couple of days there. We were only in the city for a few hours, and then it started raining, but I feel like I could have really loved that city. I definitely want to go back there again. I also have a hankering to go to the desert (which is a big deal for me; I've NEVER wanted to go to the desert before!)...maybe New Mexico? It just looks so beautiful.....

In other news, I've been adding/organizing on Flickr, so go check it out. Oh, and I ate this for an afternoon snack.

Good morning

Good morning, world. I woke up in a pretty good mood this morning, probably because I was having a fun dream in which Teddy and I were driving off to some adventure in a Jeep (??), eating candycanes. How odd. Oh, and we were looking through a catalog full of beautiful dresses, and talking about going to some fancy dress shop. I have no idea how I come up with this stuff. But anyway, it was fun.

I've been meaning to share this for a while now... look at what Teddy got me last week, as a 'just because' present:

The bottom-left frame is a digital frame, and the other 3 are regular frames, but its all one piece. How sweet is that? I just got around to loading some pictures in the digital frame, but have yet to put photos in the other frames. So don't laugh [too hard] at the stock photos in there right now! Haha. What a sweet gift, though, huh? I'm a lucky girl. :)

Interesting day...

Hmm. Well, I've had a pretty strange day so far. I just feel.....off. No other way to describe it. I think its mostly because the upstairs neighbor were apparently having a grand party at 3:00 this morning, complete with what sounded like leap-frog, hopscotch, and maybe even a beanbag toss. Or something like that. There was lots of thumping, running from one end of the apartment to the other, and loud laughing and talking. I think they had a party. At 3:00 in the morning. Daisy and I were not amused. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired today.

I went to work at 8:3o this morning, but I came home around noon. I just really wasn't feeling very well; I think it was a mix of getting over my cold and being exhausted. As I was walking to my front door, I saw our nextdoor neighbor. She told me that she's moving out sometime in the next month, and would Teddy and I like her apartment? She invited me in to look around, and its much nicer than ours, haha! Its all hardwood floors (except for the kitchen, which is tiled), and the bathroom is bigger, and she's leaving all of the curtains! I told her we're interested, as long as there's no change to our rent or anything. So, we may be moving again in a few weeks. Good thing its just from one side of the house to the other!

I've spent the rest of my afternoon lounging on the couch with Teddy (until he had to leave for work a little while ago) and listing some new items in the shop.

I'm debating still over this one.... I really like it, and want to keep it for myself! Hmm... I think I'm going to hold onto it for a little while anyway.

Tiger's Eye sparrow pin I'm hoarding for myself....for now, anyway!

Yesterday

I had a so-so day yesterday. It was my day off from work (yes!), but Teddy had to work all day (boo!). It was rainy and dreary and kind of chilly, and I couldn't stand the thought of staying in the apartment all day, so I put on my cowgirl boots and headed straight for the Antique Mall. I hadn't been there in probably at least a year, and saw a billboard for it the other day, so I decided it was time to stop by. Man, am I glad I did. I ended up spending like 2 hours there, perusing the shelves for interesting little bits. I ended up getting some pretty things for the shop (which I'm going to try to add this afternoon, after work) and a paperweight with a scorpion in it for Teddy. There was so much I wanted to buy, but I just can't right now... I still have to come up with almost $700 still for the Wallops class! Not good.

I had the cooking bug again yesterday, so at about 8:15 last night I decided (ambitiously) to make vegan Shepherd's Pie. It was actually pretty easy; it just required me to be doing like 6 different things at once. All in all, it took a little less than an hour, and it was sooooo delicious. Teddy absolutely loved it, so that made me happy. :D

Vegan Sherpherd's Pie

"Meat" layer:

1 bag of Morningstar crumbles

1 small onion, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

a few tablespoons of spaghetti sauce (optional, to taste)

Corn layer:

2 cups of frozen corn

1 cup of frozen green beans

spices: turmeric, garlic powder, salt, pepper (to taste)

Potato layer:

About 3 large potatoes, mashed

*I used instant mashed potatoes to save time. I used about 3 cups of flakes and ended up having a little bit extra. I added a little bit of garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the potatoes for some added flavor.

Nutrional yeast flakes for garnishing.

OK, here's what you do:

Saute the onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil. Add the Morningstar crumbles and a little bit of tomato paste or spaghetti sauce, if you want. Simmer on low while you prepare everything else.

Cook the corn and greenbeans together in a pot; add the spices while they're cooking.

Make the mashed potatoes according to the directions on the box (or, if you're using real potatoes, just make 'em however you normally would!)

Once all of the layers are done cooking individually, layer them in a casserole dish in this order: meat on the bottom, corn/green beans next, potatoes on the top. Sprinkle the top with nutritional yeast flakes.

Poke holes with a fork through the mashed potatoes, all the way to the bottom, so steam can escape while it bakes.

Bake at 375, until the top is lightly browned, or juices from the 'meat' layer start to bubble up.

Enjoy!!

Today, I have to work a nice, short shift (9:30-2:00), run a few errands after work, then I plan on getting some inventory added to the shop! My 'shelves' are empty, as I've had a little influx of sales all of the sudden this week. 4 items sold in one week!

Here's a picture my aunt Shannon took at Cavenders. How awesome is that? I could have spent all day looking at the different designs.

Here's me holding the pair that I ended up buying:

(That's Penny and little Gracie, carrying my purse, haha)

We're officially back into the daily grind - work, work, work. We have had a couple of afternoons off together this past week, so that was nice. Our schedules are usually pretty hectic, so when we have an afternoon or evening together (or, dare I say it, a whole day off together?!) its a big deal around here.

We were both off work Sunday (miracle of miracles), so we went to see a movie (loved it) and then spent the rest of the day at my parents' house. That was nice, since I hadn't really seen them in a few weeks.

Yesterday we had an afternoon/evening free, so we went to the laundromat (exciting!!) and Teddy graded some work while we waited. I don't think I mentioned it before, but Teddy is a Grad Assistant this summer at the school, so 'yay!' for him! I had the urge to do some cooking last night, so I made (vegan) stuffed green peppers and beer bread, which was absolutely delicious and ridiculously easy. I will be making more of that very soon!

I've had a bit of a head cold for the past week (actually, ever since my first day back to work...hmm), but I seem to be on the mend. Teddy, of course, is now starting to feel sick himself. I'm off work tomorrow, and I'm (selfishly) hoping that maybe Teddy will stay home from work, and we can have a Veronica-and-Teddy-Fun-Day.... which would probably consist of watching ESPN Sports Center and eating fresh strawberries and beer bread.