Kombucha & Joe Brooks

Howdy!

Darwin fueled me to start blogging agian, thanks Darwin for making me realize that I have a baby blog that I needed to tend to.

I have been busy with school and the lack of access to my computer doesn't help at all.

I have been packing since yesterday and THAT took 6 hours. That was 6 hours of being overwhelmed! I did not eat at all with all that dust flyin' around, opps. I blew my nose and there was dust, tmi. I am not even close to being done with my room, which is all I need to worry about. In fact, my room looks even more horrendous. The reason it took more than 6 hours was due to the fact that I needed to pack so little ( I am moving back home to mom! and there's little space) BUT I felt the need to hold on to things.

(source)

I realized that was the problem, I kept holding onto STUFF. Stuff that I didn't need that were just taking lots of empty space and dust. Perhaps when I get home I can toss my old theatre uniform from two years ago? "...but it was from my first job.., ahhh!" It had to take me a few hours to go back to what I packed and toss it out or donate. Eventually I just didn't care, but I still do. argh, packing :o(

Anyway, a couple days ago, I got to see one of my favorite musician, Joe Brooks. I've listened to him since 2007, and fell in love with him and his music ever since. Do you ever get vivid flash backs just from listening to a song? A song that evokes distinct emotions from long ago and takes you back some place, a song that makes you happy because it reminds you of ________, or sad because of ________. His songs definately do that for me! It's definately bittersweet. 

Fortunately, I found out he was coming to San Diego a few days before he was set to play. Lucky me. I thought it was free, but it wasn't. The $ was definately worth it, who knows when I'll see him again.

He has a very charming british accent and it helped a lot that it was an intimate venue. Front row!

I bought his cd and love it!

Last week, my batch of kombucha was ready to be bottled. Unfortunately laziness played some part of a role and I left the kombucha fermenting for longer that expected. The result was a sour tasting brew. I also added WAY TOO MUCH starter in the beginning. So I started all over and made new tea and added more sugar.

 A huge baby scoby forming from a mother. I use green tea only when it comes to booch, but now that I have plenty of scobys, I feel comfortable experimenting. I know that if I ever fail on a batch I have plenty of back ups for trial and error :)

Bubbles are a good thing! it's feeding off the sugar and fermenting. woo hoo!

I started this batch on 9/5, so I should bottle it tomorrow depending on how sweet/fermenty I like it.

Which I will bottle in these awesome mason jars. They have been sanitized, so no funky microorganisms floating around in my booch ya know? :)

This booch was bottled almost a month ago and left at room temperature for the kombucha to continue maturing, like wine?

I added TJ's concorde grape juice (10%) to the mason jar before I bottle it up. The ingredient is just grapes, so I wasn't worried! The result was that it tasted just like the regular grape kombucha I used to buy at grocery stores.

cheers!

Check out Joe Brook's video, so adorable.

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What I love, the good and the ugly.

School starts on Monday and in all honesty, I think I could've had a better summer. I could have MADE it a better summer, maybe could have and should have are both dangerous words?

- I realized that if I would've in fact were to have a bad one (I didn't), then I have the choice to do something about it. Just like this morning, when I was frustrated with a situation, I identified what made me angry and I chosed to do breathing exercises to help ease the situation.


Something that I have been worried about is getting enough rest for school, because my sleeping habits are weird right now. It's obvious that if I come to class rested, I'll be ready to learn. I LOVE sleep because I don't get enough of it. When I know I don't have to wake up early the next day, I am so grateful to sleep in.

"Sleep is a gift from God."



1. Rest:  The average hours of sleep I get is five hours, when the recommended is eight. What happened? We live in a society where we have technology that serves as a convenience for us. To give us things quicker and faster (automatic toliets anyone?) but apparently there still isn't enough time in the day. We still can't squeeze in rest, instead that goes in the backburner. I can recall days where I did not sleep at all, due to school, work, or caffiene :o)

-This makes me realize, are you more or less loving, patient, caring, helpful, happy, and alert when you are tired or asleep? Having enough rest will enable you and I to be the best you, for ourselves and other people. Also, it'd allow us to be healthy overall mentally and physically.

- If our bodies suffer, so does our soul. Our body and soul are both connected, if you can't function because of sleep, your soul can't function too.

Goal: To get more rest! and train myself to sleep early.

Something(s) I Love

I love vegan green monster muffins.

Vegan Green Monster muffins from The Chiclife. This muffin is so great. I love the concept healthy muffins. It isn't green because of food coloring, but because of spinach :o) My favorite color is green. That helps.

I realized this morning that I frozed some GM muffins from a couple weeks ago when I looked through my freezer. When you don't see it, you forget it! so true, so true. It proved to be true when I cleaned my trunk today, I realized that I need to resell my old text books and that I don't need to buy more index cards.

I also love this cow dog

especially dogs that wear diapers

When Lily "cow dog" came into our lives, she was a terrified and fragile little thing. Afraid and rattled by everything that surrounded her, she did not bark at for the first couple of months because she was neglected by her previous owner. After we decided to keep her, she grew comfortable around us and started barking. Her barks are obnoxious! but I love it because I was starting to worry for a bit when she didn't. On the plus side, she also gained weight because my mom feeds her everything.


I love at at-home beauty remedies

Let me intorduce you to a do it yourself pore strip! I realize how disguisting it is, and how I am possibly embarrassing myself for posting this, but it's so cool not to.

The last time I ever bought Biore Pore Strips was in high school, the downside to buying these strips is the cost and the pain. ouch, but it works.

You'll need:

- 1 tbsn of milk (fat free, 2%, whole works)

- 1 tbsn of unflavored gelatin powder

- brush pen (think paint brush or a small cosmetic brush)

Directions- Mix everything, then pop it in the mircowave for one minute. Stir again, and wait til it's good enough to brush a thin layer on your nose. You don't want it to cool all the way because it will harden fast, so hurry! Then brush a thin layer on your nose and wait for ten minutes or until everything is completely dry. Make sure you brush it all over your nose and a bit on the outer layer of your nostrils, so that you can begin peeling from the outer layer towards the tip of your nose.

Let me warn you, it smelled like armpits. yuck. Make sure you deep clean your nose after, because we still smelled stinky pits after.

The peeling was a little painful at certain points, but if I recall, the Biore strips hurt like hell to peel off. I cried tears. But with this home made one, it was only a drop of tear that fell from my eyes this time.

Okay, I am warning you with this next picture. Be prepared to be disgusted, or if you're like me...AMAZED!

This is how it looked like after the peeling. It's kind of hard to see using my camera, but with my naked eye, I saw everythaaang.

I darkened this picture to give you a clearer look.

You're welcome! :oP My nose definately felt softer after.

mmm, I love figs.

I truly hate fig newtons, I don't like anything about the cookie. I can see why people like them, but yuck. This year was the first time I tried fresh ripe figs from the tree. OH.EM.GEE! they taste so amazing, just like candy. I love the texture, the sweetness, and the fact that there are millions of seeds inside. They remind me a lot of chia seeds.

My co-worker Jeff is so lucky to enjoy these fruits of labor. It's a gift.

If I ever own a home, I would definately LOVE to grow my own garden and plant trees. I am adding tomatoes, a fig tree, an orange tree, a grapefuit tree, herbs, onions, peppers, zuchinis, lettuce, etc etc etc. wishful thinking? Well, I am going to turn it into a reality someday :o) Do you plant a garden? If so what are you growing? If not, what would you like to grow?

I also love my home brewed kombucha

I added TJ's concord grape juice before bottling it because the only ingredient is grapes, and oh my goodness, it tastes like the real thing!

                                                             

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I love how my mom suprised me by bringing home pasta. nom nom

And she loves volunteering me to do the dishes.

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