Back in Stumptown

Hihihello! I am back at it in Portland, and it is not too cold! In fact, it was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and also today. I am only taking 3 classes as it turns out, which I wasn't expecting, but this just means more time for gardening and creating. I ran into the last two people who are moving into my house next week on campus today - Matt & Molly. They were there stealing internet. We sat outside and ate our lunches together and they shared their homemade candied oranges with me. I have very good feelings about the next chapter of life.

Mung Bean Cutlets

Last night, my housemate Robby and I made mung bean cutlets and ate 'em like hamburgers.
Did you know? Mung beans are easier to digest than most other beans. They also have one of the highest protein content of any bean!
Note: This recipe is in no way precise. We winged it. For the spices, we just kept adding them and taking taste tests until it tasted to our pleasure.
1. Reconstitute dried beans (find them in the bulk food isle) by soaking them in water overnight. 2. Cook 'em. (1 C beans: 2 1/2 C water; yields 2 C cooked beans - decide on amt to cook accordingly)
3. When cooled fully, finely dice a purple onion and ample garlic. Saute in olive oil until onion is translucent.
4. Add onion&garlic to mung bean pot + ample thyme, oregano, rosemary, s&p, red pepper flakes, and cumin
5. Mix thoroughly and make batter into patties.
6. Fry in olive-oil equipped pan on stove (like latkas!)
7. Enjoy on pleasantly toasted bun w/ fresh onion/tomato/ketchup/mustard!!

Robby does the Mung Bean Juggle in the Downstairs Mini-Kitch

Grass and rainbows and a glowing glowing sun!

Arial shot. Mine was pretty messy. To my awe, Robby managed to maintain his composure.

After dinner origami! This loooooong (the photo is deceptive) piece of butcher paper will soon be a Coo-Coo Clock

Back in Stumptown Preview

Good ol' Humboldt folk keep migrating on up yonder-

We were so caught up trying to figure out the Elk Conditions radio station, we almost missed the real deal!
Crescent City Seaside

Charlie thought he was out of danger. Little did he know...

Truck Stop Flop

7 hours flat! 4:00 arrival on the dot!

Just Uncovered: A really adorable picture!

Oh those lovely long hot israeli summer days and jackal nights spent slept outside...

Visiting Louis at Kibbutz Hazorea with Ross & Julian

Home Again, Home Again, Lickity Split

or, How I Spent The Dead of Winter:
A Photo-Essay

I got real friendly with some older men

I freaked out about the coming takeover of technology demise of humankind as we know it

I successfully watched a move a night
(from all corners of the world) and
1. wished i was still traveling
2. finished my socks in the process

I held Israel close in my heart and tight on my face







I did in many Fun Activities with my mom (like sweeping the roof!)

had my fair share of sushi
and ate my weight in challah

Relived my childhood years

I was here, fifteen minutes before this happened...

...Family huddle, transistor radio, headlamp equipped.

So I survived the 6.5 earthquake, and am making the pilgrimage back north tomorrow.

Much love,
health and happiness to you all in the new decade

Merry Merry Christmas Christmas, from the Wolf pack

Preparing for Departure

שלום ישראל
I will miss you.
If you were cleaner, I would kiss you.
Your university was bland, so I took to the land
Layered coats of בוץ
And herded goats.
Met a boy which sounds cliche
But it wasn't at all because I read him Nietzche.
He's gone now, anyhow
and I am left with your fine sand in my hand.
The days are growing colder
as I am growing older
So glad my twentieth year
is not spent as a soldier.
On the bus they look at me
and I think how they travel for free.
My jealousy, though, never got my too down
I simply started tremping around.
They say that you are a dangerous place
so all those uniforms aren't a waste.
What's scariest to me
is that I ain't scared one bit -
Nothing can bring me to the end of my wit.
Those bomb bursts at night
and planes in midday
Never once got in my way.
Now listen hear, folks
for what shocked me most, I read in the post:
The exodus from Egypt
was all a hoax.
Still, I'm a Jew
so I learned some Hebrew
למשל, ממש כזה כאילו
I'm thinking of writing my thesis on you.
Oh Israel your varieties of religions never abate
they bind communities and they create hate
my goodness just look at the West Bank Gate.
For this reason and more my Judaism did not flourish
I told my mother this and it gave her much surrus.
But even though I chose not
to wear a head cover,
she should rest assured I did not
become a Jesus Lover.

The Miracle of Life

I look happy, buy its all just for show.

According to Leo, one in six baby lambs does not naturally drink their mother's milk from their tits. In a certain case one December in a certain place, humans decided to intervene. I was given lamb feeding responsibility. Morning, afternoon, and evening, mama sheep was milked by Theron and baby lamb was bottle fed by Maya. I did not enjoy it, which made me feel rather like a really bad person. It seems that I helped save the lamb's life, but it drank so little anyways and it was such a fight and so so so filthy it was hard to focus on the positive. Every time when Theron went to milk mama she poo'd in the bucket. I guess that boys dont have as much of a sense of cleanliness as us girls in such instances, because this stopped neither Theron nor Albert from indulging in the very same liquid that was moments before harboring big brown turds. (I hope you aren't eating your cereal as you read this)

The situation went as follows:

Albert: Do people drink sheep's milk?

Maya: Hmm, good question. Ive never seen it. Cheese, either. I wonder why.

Theron: There's only one way to find out.

The report back is that it is tasty as can be, creamy and fatty goodness. This became a daily occurrence. The leftover milk once the bottle was full went into the bellies of these two growing boys. In the meantime, I covered myself with milk throwup and poopie wool. The lamb, plain and simple, did not want milk. But it was a strong sucker, boy, we all suspected that somehow it was milking from its momma, though none of us ever witnessed the act.

Well, its still with us today. May it have a long and prosperous life, In Shallah.