Tasty dinner

Tonight for dinner, I made myself a delectable sandwich. I toasted some whole grain baguette with spinach, fresh local tomato slices, and fresh mozzarella. Then I made a balsamic honey reduction and drizzled that over the top. It was summery and satisfying. To round out the meal, I had a Georgia peach (they seem to be particularly good this year, I have to say) and a Virgil's Root Beer.

Let the packing commence!

My rolls of bubble wrap are bigger than yours! I got these HUGE rolls of bubble wrap from Office Max so I can start packing fragile items. I am probably the world's worst packer, so I wanted to get a lot of bubble wrap. So far I've done mostly sorting and very little packing, but it's coming together well.

Cleaner pantry

Here is a picture of the pantry now that I've unloaded a lot of stuff from it. There are pretty much the essentials I use to cook with (oil, vinegar, some pasta, rice, flour, sugar, etc...), plus some snacks and some sodas. I will try to use as much of it as possible before I move, but I won't mind taking it with me if I have to.

FreeCycle foreva!

I have all this food in my pantry that I am not willing to transport to Baltimore. It will cost more to move it than to replace it and I really can't store all that stuff in the new apartment. I also have a ton of meat in the freezer leftover from my meat-eating days. I was sort of at a loss about what to do with it all, but then I remembered FreeCycle. I get e-mails from them, but I've never given anything away or taken anything from it. So I put out an ad for the pantry items and the meat and got like a dozen responses within the first hour! It seemed like a lot of people really NEEDED the food and I felt badly that I could only give it to one person-- I decided to give it to the first person who responded to me; that seemed like the fairest way to go about it. Here is a picture of the pantry items. I'm going to pack up the meat tomorrow morning right before she comes to get it.

FINALLY, my day has come!

New Apartment

Here are some exterior photos of my new apartment in Baltimore. It is on the corner of 32nd St. and Guilford Ave, in Charles Village, right by Johns Hopkins University. The garden is really gorgeous and I can't wait to plant some fruits and veggies. Also, there is an adorable park across the street. Pictured are the back yard garden, the front of the house, and the park.

Another Virginia Wine

This is a wine from Prince Michel winery in Virginia. It was ok, but nothing to write home about. It wasn't as good as the Oakencroft, I thought. There was a lot of inbibing of wine over the weekend. Tee hee.

Pasta Salad

I made a tasty pasta salad while we were in Virginia. I didn't use a recipe-- I just sort of made it up and kept adding stuff until it tasted right. It could have used more dressing, but I ran out of olive oil. Along with the pasta, I included bell pepper, tomatoes, and peas. It was a delightful summer meal.

Bunny

While S was teaching me how to pitch the tent (I needed to learn for my one week camping stint in July), we saw a little bunny in the back yard of our cottage. Cute!

Oakencroft Vineyard

There are lots of wineries in the Charlottesville area. I wanted to do the tastings at 4 or 5 of them, but I got too drunk at the first tasting to continue! I thought it would be rude to spit out the wines (even the ones I didn't particularly care for), so I drank them all. There were 9 wines to taste, and the guy poured a couple of them for me twice. Oops. Oh well, we did visit Oakencroft-- the vineyard was really pretty.

Old Gas Station

We passed an old gas station in Virginia and I just thought it was cool looking. I have this thing for vintage commercial objects.

Crappy Wine

I picked this wine up from Trader Joe's in Reston, on the way to Charlottesville. With the intense heat and humidity of summer, I've been enjoying lighter, sweeter wines. This one, however, was HORRIBLE. It tasted like fermented grapefruit juice-- it was like it had never even come close to a grape.

Scrabble

I love Scrabble and Scrabulous. I'm pretty mediocre at both-- however, during this particular game, I scored 87 points with "UNZIPPED". It was the zenith of my Scrabble career.

Cat in repose

Winston never ceases to amaze me with his cuteness. He always looks so peaceful and comfy when he is asleep. I love that little goober!

No More Hangers!

I've posted before about how much I hate wire hangers. I don't use of buy them, but when I pick my shirts up from the dry cleaner, they always put them on wire hangers and wrap them in plastic. Well, I found out that they will box my shirts! So this time I asked them to not use any hangers or plastic and this is what I got-- yay for paper bags! It WAS more expensive, but I think it's worth it to not have to deal with returning the hangers and all the plastic.

Din Din

Tonight's dinner-- stir fried tofu and spinach with a quick sauce of soy sauce, a dash of fish sauce, sriacha hot sauce, and the juice of half a lime. I served it over brown rice and with a side of kimchi. Yummy, healthy, and full of protein.

Cheese!

In July I will be spending a week at the John C. Campbell Folk School, in the mountains of North Carolina. I will be taking a cheese making course. I am so excited about this, I can't even begin to explain it! There are so many things I want to learn how to do-- brew beer, make my own wine, learn organic and sustainable farming methods, become a beekeeper, and make cheese. It will be nice to cross something off my list of weird skills I'd like to learn. These are my registration materials, which I received in the mail the other day.

Carnival

This was a strange sight I encountered while driving. A truck carrying construction equipment and ticket booths for carnivals, fairs, and such. Very bizarre.

Rural Life

When you live in the land of farms, as I do, you get used to certain sights. I'd say two of the top things I come across are old, dilapidated farm equipment that's been left out in pastures and such, and old, dilapidated barns. I think both things actually look kind of cool and contribute to the scenery.

Where part of the money goes

I saw this on the gas pump when I stopped to get gas the other day. I'd never seen anything like this before, but I think it's a good idea. It also shows you what an idiotic idea it is to repeal the federal tax on gas for a short period of time-- there are a billion reasons why I believe that idea is bonkers, but for one thing, as you can see, it would not really make much of a difference in what you're spending at the pump. The real issue is the price of oil, not the taxes you pay.

Woof Woof

What is this, you say? Well, it is a mailbox. Pretty original, huh? I myself prefer a more modern, but classic mailbox. I do appreciate the person going out of their way to do something unique though. I thought it was cute.

Sad and lonely Subway

Yes, I know I have been woefully behind in my posting. I regret to say that I have not been taking a photo every day. I will try to be more diligent. On to the actual posts now...

This Subway cracks me up. It was part of a larger shopping center, but they tore the rest of the center down to rebuild it. Why did they leave only the Subway? Odd. I wish I could find out what the deal is, but I don't really like Subway enough to go in and find out.