Oh, and does anyone know of an environmentally-friendly way of getting rid of caterpillars and snails? Especially those darn caterpillars-- they've eaten my marigolds almost down to the roots, and have chewed holes in my basil, my cornflowers, my ageratums, and my bleeding heart plant. But now they've really crossed the line-- they've started in on ( Read more... )

I made a deal with Rick (and myself) a while back that I would start treating school-related stuff (I still need to write two term papers and a thesis) like a full-time job, meaning I would start waking up at a reasonable hour, and would be better about doing "fun" stuff (reading, poking around in the kitchen, checking various online forums, LJ, ( Read more... )

I'm having sort of a crisis of conscience at the moment with regards to what I eat.

A year or so ago, I read Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser. Yeah, I know, a couple of years after everyone else on the planet, but better late than never. :) Anyway, the parts of the book that affected me the most were the chapters having to do with the beef and ( Read more... )

My last couple of entries have been sort of mundane, I know, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here on LJ. I felt sort of weird bursting in after two year's radio silence and immediately posting about all kinds of personal things. There's plenty I'm dying to tell, though, so I promise it'll get better. :)

I was reading through some of my old entries yesterday, and what really jumped out at me (besides the fact that I rambled on pathetically about my ex the whole time... thank god that phase of my life is over!) is how often I talked about baking cookies. Cookies as a reward when I was feeling good about myself, cookies to cheer me up when I was ( Read more... )

Friday, after four years of faithful service, my laptop finally decided it had had enough. The timing wasn't great, since I owe several people translations and was busy designing a card which needs to get sent to the printer this week. To be honest, I should have seen it coming. Lately our relationship hasn't been what it once was, with much ( Read more... )

It feels a bit strange to be posting again after having neglected this journal for more than two years... I hadn't planned on ever returning to LJ, but my thesis advisor recommended that I start keeping a journal to get back into the habit of writing in English, so here I am again. I suppose I could've just started from scratch somewhere else, but ( Read more... )

Things are back to normal now with our living arrangements, leaving us to have a very pleasant weekend. :) We woke up at 6:00am on Saturday to bake apple-cinnamon muffins, brew coffee, and make tea. As soon as all this was done, we put on a bazillion layers of clothes and loaded up all the food and drinks into Rick's dad's car, which we had ( Read more... )

The day before I left for the US, I finally got my lovely residence permit, which, according to the IB-groep website, entitles me to receive a bit of money from the gov't every month, as well as free public transportation during the week for the duration of my study. Which is a Really Good Thing, since I live in the middle of nowhere, and the train ( Read more... )

So I was thinking earlier. Just random, nonsensical stuff... I was thinking about how paralyzing choice can be, and how cruel we are for telling children that they can be anything they want to be, that there's a world of possibilities out there. Because there's always that doubt lurking in the back of the mind (or in my mind, at least) about ( Read more... )