What a Nice Day! Quack!

Destination Destin!

I actually get a week off for Spring Break this year! And I will be spending the majority of it on an actual vacation! At the beach! 

My mom and dad used to own a house in Destin, FL before I was born and shortly afterwards. My dad hasn't seen it since then, so he booked a condo and invited us to join them (him + stepmom). They'll get to escape the snow, and I'll get to spend the week in a part of FL I would never otherwise visit. Plus, Brian and I just bought the book Oddball Florida, and a lot of the attractions are up that way. It will be an interesting week!

A Beautiful (Chilly) FL Day

The thing on my head is the kercheif I made over the weekend with my birthday knitting needles. It was my first experience increasing stitches and using circular needles.

I love the circular needles! They were especially useful to transport the project to Brian's parents' house (where they watched the Superbowl and I sat in an easy chair knitting like someone's grandmother).

Now I need to find more excuses to use my new needles. Suggestions?

My day at work...

I was only at the Sanford campus for a couple of hours this morning, but it was an eventful time.

First thing this morning, I made friends with a poofer! He was just hanging out in the parking lot. He let me get really close. If he let me get any closer, I would've snatched him up and taken him home!

Then, when I was leaving, I saw these awesome giant birds. They were just hanging out by the Science building. I have no idea what they're called, I love these birds. 

Two Things

(The following is not a paid advertisement; simply a bit of nerdiness.)

Pictured here are a couple of my favorite things this week: Yes to Cucumbers Soothing Eye Gel & Badger Sleep Balm.

 I'm not an insomniac, but I do often have trouble telling my brain to settle down when it's sleepy time. The balm smells great and subtly nudges me to calm down. And no matter how much sleep I get, I've inherited a bit of the poofy/dark-circle-y eye syndrome, and the gel really seems to help with that.

That's the end of today's (unpaid) product placement. Stay tuned for next time!

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A different kind of food

So, this isn't about cooking (yet), but it's still food. These are my first tiny lil' tomatoes. Hopefully someday soon they'll be big yummy tomatoes in my bellly.

PETA's "Sloppy Joes"

I certainly don't agree with everything that PETA does (as I, too, would swat a fly that was buzzing around and getting in my face and stuff), but they did a great job with their two-week sample vegan menus. I found it a while back while obsessively trying to find new things to make and working out a schedule for the week's meals. You can find it on their vegcooking.com website for free: http://www.vegcooking.com/veganMenus-1.asp. I printed the whole 20+ page PDF and have made several of the recipes in the last month or so.

What you see above is the "cookbook's" version of sloppy joes. I subbed in frozen veggie burger crumbles in place of the tofu called for, because, for being a vegetarian, I don't care so much for tofu. They were really tasty, especially served up on potato buns. I will definitely be making these all of the time.

Thank you again, PETA, for thinking for me.