decem-BURRRR

December has made its mark and i think all of California is frozen over.



it is so COLD everywhere and it seems like there is no way of getting warm here; especially here.


I don't think that a single home here was build with insulation because everyone seems to be experiencing the same problem...a FREEZING HOUSE. An easy solution would be to turn on the heater, but now that i have gas and electricity bills of my own, I understand why mad dad would never want us turning on the heater back home.



when the thermostat gets below 55, the roomies and I make an exception to turn it on till it reaches 60. then it get turned off again.

our thermostat at 1pm

its dead week here, the week before finals...bleh. it consists of late night studying, lots of coffee, and yes...finals. its weird but true. there are a good about of classes that turn in final papers and presentations the week before finals.i notice that the professors who give their finals the week before they are supposed to, are just as eager to finish the semester as we are. but it has its pro's and cons.



one of the funniest things happened yesterday:

to help warm up (and get clean) i took a hot shower. the hot water felt so good and gave me a chance to defrost. for about 15 minutes, i was actually warm. it was bittersweet though because right when i turned off that hot water i was freezing again. 


not only that, but my hair was wet for the next half hour in which time mike stopped by to join the study party. while i was moaning and complaining about my wet hair that was the root of my discomfort and making me colder, mike offered to blow dry my hair to warm me up. HA! it was so great. we even got it photographed. hah

i thought it was pretty hilarious

sugar coma

i am officially going into a sugar coma, caused by a sugar overload.

all 3 of us roomies are.

you might ask how did the sugar overload came to be...

i have 2 words for you:

CARMEL CORN

{Bianca} made the most delicious, creamy, outstanding carmel corn i have ever tasted. 

all the time i have been spending walking to school has been in vain after a night of eating this deliciousness. 

that just means i'll be walking more!

thrift stores

i've come to the conclusion that thrift stores are amazing.

actually, i already knew that.

 but i was recently reminded of their awesomeness when i went to one and hit the jackpot. i got a few goofy christmas presents for certain people so i cant list everything i bought, but there was one item in particular that i am so EXCITED about:

...a bacon press...

i think this is the coolest thing ever! not only that but i know someone who was just gifted a brand new one. She knows i LOVE bacon so she showed me hers and i thought it was so funny. so i was stoked when i found one.

i love it!

some other good finds:

1. Lederhosen. Seriously, if you have ever been to a good Oktoberfest party you'll know that a pair of these suckers will elect you as best dressed for sure. And really, i think i was morally obligated to get them since they are real and they were only $14. yea, i know...pretty awesome....

below: dad and Tirz at the annual Oktoberfest party

2. Lamp. i love lamp. My mom and i were in a thrift store once and found an AWESOME 70's lamp. it looks a little bit like a yellow bowling ball with a lampshade. it is BRIGHT YELLOW and was only $3.50. i think it might be my favorite part of my bedroom(either that or my huge chair that i got for FREE on craigslist). 

3. A great vintage shirt. I didn't put up a picture because it didn't do it justice. but just know, its amazing. 

sweet cream

ATTEMPT #1
three nights ago was our first attempt to make chocolate chip cookies.
but we had no chocolate chips. 
so the cookies had to wait. 


ATTEMPT #2
our 2nd attempt was successful.
last night we made the cookies.


it was an interesting cooking backing sesh if i do say so myself. for starters we had no measuring spoons. hah. yea, that makes baking cookies a problem when you need to add minor ingredients like salt, baking soda, and vanilla. 
but no worries, we improvised by guesstimating with a regular spoon. (:

When i was hovering over the baker snapping pictures of this i was asked not to write about this embarrassing episode of having no measuring spoons; it might make the baker look bad. 

he later reconsidered.

another fun fact about our cookies was that we tried sweet cream butter instead of regular butter. I learned last night that sweet cream butter messes with the salt measurement-i thought that was interesting.

The reason why we used the sweet cream butter instead of regular unsalted butter was because that was all i had. 

it was all i had because when i was in Trader Joe's on sunday i need to buy butter and as i looked at all the varieties and brands of butter i had an urge to get sweet cream butter. i have always wanted to try it and it sounds so delicious. just say it... sweet cream. it just sounds good (it sounds even better if you say it with an English accent). 

ALL that to say, the sweet cream butter is overrated...and not the best to use when making cookies. I could definitely taste it when i was eating all the cookie dough when we were finished. 

the cookies ended up great! sweet cream butter and all!

at least i think so...i tend to be the only one eating them around these parts. 

The Duck Shack

thanksgiving

Spending Thanksgiving with my family is a truly unique experience. 

And when i say 'unique' i mean that it is a novel episode that can't be given justice when it is written about in a blog. 

but i will do my best....   :)

In Willows, California there is a trailer park where 3 families get together to share thanksgiving. This is an annual tradition where at least 40 people cram into 2 modular homes (one of them being a double wide) and a camper and share one of the best holidays. This tradition began about 50 years ago, and started with 4 people- 2 of them being my grandparents. 

{Willows is SUCH a random town! which helps make Thanksgiving what is. It has a population of 5,000 people and consists of a sketchy airport, Wal-Mart, a Black Bear Diner, and trailer park.}

To help you further understand this tradition you must know that my grandfather (aka: the ol' tiger) is an avid duck hunter (Willows is his hunting area of choice?) and according to him, Thanksgiving happens to fall on duck season. So ever since, his family has spent Thanksgiving in small 'shacks' within the Willows area where he has been able to duck hunt to his hearts content and have thanksgiving on the same day. From this, we got the name 

"The Duck Shack".

Currently The Duck Shack resides in a small trailer park that is anything but glamorous. But that is what makes it so great. There is no parking and the term 'personal space' doesn't exist.

I always look forward to thanksgiving because it is a casual time to eat, drink, and be merry. It is a time to catch up on everyones busy lives. It is a time for the men to go hunting and the women to go shopping. And when the Turkeys finally come out of the ovens, it is a time to sit in a warm room filled with the smell of delicious hot food and toast to all that you are thankful for with the people you care most about. 

Thanksgiving is splendid. 

in the car...the Sutter Buttes: smallest mountain range in the world

we cant forget about Black Friday now can we? 

The friday after thanksgiving the ladies make the trek on up to Chico to get some boutique shopping in, although, i didn't buy anything this year :(

Every year my experience at The Duck Shack has 3 consistencies:

1. There is ALWAYS drama with the hotel rooms-no matter what

2. There are at least 3 turkeys (one is deep fried! yum!)

3. There is an abundance of Dogs-which means dog hair and slobber

One: Cramming 40 people into 2 trailers is a hard thing to do when planning dinner, but as far as sleeping arrangements go, it is impossible. Every year we rent 3 hotel rooms for those of us who don't want to be sleeping on the floors of the dirty trailers with the dogs. However for some reason, EVERY YEAR there is always some kind of drama with the hotel. For example, last year they didn't have our reservation. this year the rooms were FILTHY, and i mean grimy, slimy, dirty toilets. ewww. But everything worked itself out, like always, and we upgraded :)

Two: Yea, we have 3 turkeys for dinner and 4 fresh geese for hors'devours. YUM!

Three: Every family brings their dogs. there were at least 7 dogs this year, including 3 puppies. One of those puppies was a St. Bernard and at 7 months, it was bigger than all the other full grown labs. My dog is Otis...a Jack Russell who I consider to be my main man (sorry mike). 

meet Will and Otis 

Thanksgiving is always a treat. This year was so great. But now i am home and back to reality of writing papers and memorizing more about the human body. ughh...

i can't complain though, it was such a nice break.

i couldn't ask for better...

Oh! and it was EXTREMELY W-I-N-D-Y last night and this morning. We almost blew away :)

walk

I woke up at 7 am this morning

so i could walk to school instead of drive. 

according to mapquest my house is 3 miles away from the school.

so it was a pretty legit walk. and, although the sun was shining, 

it was FREEZING to say the least. my face almost froze off.  

thankfully i had a hot mug of coffee to keep my hands warm.

It was the first time i have ever walked to school from my house 

and it felt great! I want to get more 

outdoor activities in before the weather gets to nasty

and if walking to school is all i can get, it's what i'll take.

While i was walking i saw the coolest scene. 

There was fog covering the meadow and the sun was trying 

to shine through. I'm lucky i had my camera.

Walking this morning was peaceful...

Until 2 middle school boys riding their bikes to school almost hit me.

it was partially my fault though because i was taking up the 

whole path by walking right down the center of it.

 and i had my ipod in so i didn't hear them on my tail.

They scared me but i was so cold that my reaction time was even slower than normal and i just stood there as they whizzed by me on either side.

after that incident, my walk became peaceful once again.

chesse enchiladas and salty waffles

Day 1 of my vegetarian diet was a lot easier than i thought it would be...

...that is until dinner time came around. 

It was about 5:30 pm when the boy asked if i wanted to go with him to this AMAZING mexican restaurant in downtown Petaluma. 

i was so excited to go, and the first thing that popped into my mind was the delicious steak burrito that i would get. Then Mike reminded me of my new meatless diet and i'm not going to lie...i got bummed.

i will probably say this a million times but i am not very good at cooking and, as i am learning, ordering food. i once ordered a waffle with bacon inside it. 

lesson learned: bad choice. it was like eating a salty waffle. 

When we got to the restaurant i ordered a cheese enchilada with rice and beans. 

Lesson learned: a cheese enchilada has absolutely nothing in it but cheese. with even more cheese on top. that is a lot of cheese and not much substance.

All that to say, today went a lot better as far as my vegetarian diet is concerned. no cheese enchiladas (or salty waffles!)

untill next time!

food

This week i have decided to try to eat as a vegetarian.

Saying that this trial is going to be a struggle for me is an understatement because i absolutely LOVE hamburgers! i would gladly take a burger over an expensive five course meal any day. 
i also LOVE steaks (but due to my 'poor college student' budget, it is not in my diet these days). I eat a lot of chicken burritos and chinese food (orange chicken is my entree of choice), all of which have meat. 


Clearly i was not raised as a vegetarian, in fact, my family consists of very hard core meat eaters (i know, "hard core meat eaters" is a weird phrase). Not to mention that my mom was raised on a dairy farm where they had an abundance of beef. 


I have some friends [Pilar] who are vegetarians and they claim that when they stopped eating meat their bodies "just felt better." I wonder if this is true-not that i don't believe them because i think they are lying, but because i have a feeling that it might be harder to convince me of a vegetarian diet than it would be to convince them (based on how we were raised).

Last night i told Mike (the boy. he likes to point out the grammatical errors in my blog) of my plans to eat only vegetarian for a week -starting today Monday, November 16, 2009. You might wonder why I am not eating meat for ONLY a week. why not a month? well, like i said, i LOVE meat and Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and i can't pass up a deep fried turkey. sorry.


Also, when it comes to food, i am a baby step type of gal. I know that if it is only for a week, i will be able to stick to it. :)


so, untill Sunday i am a vegetarian. and let me be clear: a real vegetarian eats NO MEAT of any kind. That includes chicken, fish, and fast food. 
Freshman year i was eating dinner with some friend in the school cafeteria. One of our friends, Grace, was all about being a vegetarian ...i mean ALLLL about it. But when we would get to the caf she would pound down a burger. when we asked her about it she said that she was "only a half vegetarian." Haha.


To start my week of eating nothing with face i will have some hot oatmeal...