Cute spider!

I found this little guy among my marigolds.  At first, I thought he was just fluff.  But then he started running from me and I realized he was a spider!  Typically, I don’t much care for spiders.  But he looks like such a tiny, silver squid that it’s hard not to love him!

Pests

The leaves of my strawberry plants have been eaten alive these past few weeks.  I checked underneath the leaves and found a bunch of tiny little caterpillars happily munching away!  I sprayed them with my insecticidal soap several times to no avail, so today I picked each one off by hand.  I think I counted 22 of them, the jerks.

Aphids love my pepper plant, but the insecticidal soap spray seems to work on them.  Oddly, nothing seems to be eating my tomatoes and basil.  I thought those plants were highly susceptible to garden pests.

Let’s talk about Summer Blockbuster Movies.

I had nightmares this evening, and couldn’t get back to sleep.  (I blame the Rainbow Raw Slaw.)  To take my mind off it, I started thinking about the movies I’ve seen this year and how disappointed I’ve been.

They changed the ending of Watchmen.

They changed the entire storyline of Star Trek, creating an “alternate timeline” so J.J. Abrams will be free to destroy as many planets as he wants in future movies.

I didn’t see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, because I was dead set on Josh Holloway playing Gambit.

The Soloist made me cry like a little girl.  (Although this was to be expected, and this movie wasn’t really a disappointment.  It was the best movie I’ve seen all year.)

Up made me cry like a little girl.  (This was not expected.)

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian was just OK (but Bill Hader’s performance was exceptional).

No one will see The Brothers Bloom with me, even though I’ve heard from multiple sources that it is amazing.

Apparently Megan Fox has a weird thumb, so is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen even worth seeing now?

At this rate, Harry Potter is probably going to suck, even though the original trailer quite literally gave me chills.  But The Half-Blood Prince certainly wasn’t the best book in the series.

Rainbow Raw Slaw

A friend recently told me I’d probably like the book Sound Bites by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.  I didn’t just like it – I loved it and highly recommend it!  In one essay, he talked about staying with a friend who is either vegan or vegetarian (I forget which).  He explained that she used to only eat raw foods, and when she did, her allergies completely disappeared.  I was curious, so I did some reading.  Apparently, a raw diet can cure what ails some people.

I’ve been coughing my whole life, and I haven’t ever been able to figure out what my problem is.  Is it allergies?  Is it asthma?  Is it allergic asthma, as I suspected in a previous post?  No doctor has been able to say for sure.  Chest x-rays and blood work always come back clean, and drugs only work sporadically.  So a few years ago I just gave up – love me, love my constant coughing.  But now I’ve decided to try eating raw foods for one week.

Only of course, like everything else in my life, I’ve been procrastinating that week.  Finally, I decided it might be best to ease my way into it.  (Hey, why buy raw soy sauce when I already have brewed soy sauce in my fridge?  I’ll buy raw when I run out.)  This evening I tried my first raw meal from The Raw Truth by Jeremy A. Safron.  (I don’t agree with everything he says in his book.  For instance, I have no plans to holistically charge my water by letting a quartz crystal soak in a glass of it while sitting in the sun all day.)  I decided on the Cabbage Rolls – everyone loves a wrap, right?  I ended up tweaking the recipe so much, I kinda came up with my own slaw recipe, as the wrap thing didn’t work out (too runny) and the dressing wasn’t to my liking (too sour).  Here’s my version:

Rainbow Raw Slaw

1 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup mung sprouts
2 tablespoons raw white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons raw black sesame seeds
1/2 cup nama shoyu
2 tablespoons raw almond butter
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix cabbages, carrots, sprouts, and sesame seeds in a bowl.  Set aside.  In a blender, combine remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture over bowl of shredded veggies and toss to coat.  Refrigerate 2 hours, tossing every 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Crafty

Yesterday, I went to the Handicraft Exchange with some friends.  It was held in conjunction with the Independent Music + Art Festival downtown.  I got some cool stuff:

Students at VSAI – a nonprofit to bring arts education to individuals with disabilities – made these small ceramic bowls.  For $5, you got to pick out your bowl and they filled it with the ice cream flavor of your choice!  Proceeds went directly back to the program and its students.

Mythdemeanor! prints keen designs on thrifted and hand-sewn clothing.  I love my upcycled necktie with white syringe!  (I’ve been rocking the menswear lately.)

I also wanted to get an über-cool mug from Sally Harless, who prints her original illustrations on all types of items.  I fell in love with a thrifted sea foam green mug with a colbalt blue squid printed on the side.  I should have bought it when I first saw it, because when I went back, it was gone.  Sadness ensued.  However, she currently has a Narwhal coffee mug for sale at her Etsy shop.  Hmm…

Wormy

My vermicomposting kit arrived today!  I spent the evening setting it up, and had a worm unveiling party with a few friends.  There were many ooooos and ahhhhs as we anxiously watched the little redworms wriggle their way into the bedding that I spent hours preparing.  I also had to rip apart the cardboard box in which they were shipped, as I found that many worms had hid inside the corrugated flaps at the bottom.  I caught this little guy exiting his cozy hole to check out his new home:

I hope they are happy in their bin!  I even buried my first organic waste this evening – dead flowers.  Yum, yum!

Jorge Garcia of LOST also has a worm bin.  While his bin is more advanced than mine – having several trays you fill in succession – I’ll go out on a limb and say I’m more hardcore than he is since I’m keeping my bin in the kitchen.