ANTS!!!!

I understand that no matter how hard you try it's impossible to keep the outside from getting in. That will not, however, stop me from attempting to stop ants from invading my house. Coming home from work one night I was greeted by a distraught dog and thousands of ants crawling over what was left of her breakfast. They only seemed interested in my dog Dagnys' food, so after thoroughly cleaning I moved her bowl elsewhere and they were gone. Simple enough, but I eventually want her food bowl out of the middle of the living room floor and back in the spot by the back door. I tried to explain to Dagny that she really need to eat all of her food as soon as I feed her... but she never listens. After a few days I put her dish back in it's original spot... just to see what would happen. 24 hours went by without a sign. Then after the next day of work, I came home to more ants. I want the ants to go away without using chemicals that will give Dagny cancer or cause her to grow another leg, so what do I do? Internet research revealed that ants have issues with Borax, which I happened to have a lot of in the house. After making sure the area was clear of ants I created a 1/2 inch high borax wall around the dish. Take that ants!! Left over-night with a bit of kibble in the bowl, there were no ants in sight. But when I got home that evening the ants were back. They just crawled right on over the Borax wall with little effect so far as I could tell. Frig! So the next non-poisonous cure is to construct a moat around the food dish. The food bowl rests on top of a small dish which is in a pie pan 1/2 full with water. I was careful not to choose a pan that was too much larger because Dagny would likly drink the water allowing safe passage for the ants. Another day of work passes and I come home to find the usual trail of ants, but none are in the food or the moat. Five ants, however, found their way into her water dish. Perhaps they couldn't bear the shame of returning to the nest empty-handed and decided to off themselves. I had no problem with that. It was the first time I could clearly see where they were coming from, and it wasn't the back door. They were coming up through a hole in the floor for the water pipes under the wash-tub. Giving the Borax thing another try I dumped a few cups worth of it all around the pipe. And now I wait.

My 1 year Veganniversary!!

Happy new year 2009!!
First year of Veganism complete.
YAY!!
That is all.

1,000 miles

I was on vacation this past week. I didn't have any vacation type trips planned for the year, so I figured I might as well use the paid days I have while I can. I planned to clean the house, finish some projects I've been meaning to do... that sort of thing. But my main goal was to ride up to 1,000 miles on my bike (my goal for the year.) I had about 200 miles to go and 9 days to do it in. It seemed very do-able. I have friends who have ridden over 3,000 miles this year, so it can't be that hard right? I ended up pushing myself and doing 30+ miles a couple of days, which made me quite sore and tired and very unmotivated to cook dinner let alone clean the bathroom. The hard work really paid off because I only had 17.3 miles to go on my ride today, which was the last day of my vacation. It had rained at least a couple inches the day before. I don't like riding in the rain, I will if I have to, but I didn't... which was ok, I needed the break. So I went to my usual starting point to find that the road was very flooded. Being a scenic road through a flood plain that sort of thing happens. I thought maybe I could ride through the lower areas, but when I saw a group of ducks swimming over the road I thought better of it. At 8:30 in the morning it was very quiet and there was a bit of a fog hanging in the valley that made everything look so serene. I wish I had a camera with me. I imagined that this is what the world would look like if humans no longer existed. But anyway, I got onto a road that wasn't flooded and had one of the most pleasurable solo rides in my life. I was in no hurry I just rode along enjoying the view. Every rider or runner I saw seemed as happy as I was. When I reached 17.3 miles I felt like thrusting my arms in the air and yelling... but I probably would have gotten hit by a car. At that moment I was passing by a church and I thought to myself, "This is what church should be like...."

Balsamic grilled veggies over Couscous

I came home from work today and thought to myself... what shall I do with the huge load of veggies I got yesterday from our CSA. Itching to try out a new recipe I opened up The Garden of Vegan cookbook by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I decided to try the balsamic grilled veggies with couscous.
Recipe:
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 eggplant, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup veg. stock
1 cup couscous
1- 14oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp dry basil
2 Tbs capers (optional)

Confusingly, the veggies are roasted and not grilled as the title suggests, but whatever... So I had most of these ingredients on hand, but I made a few substitutions. I don't keep canned tomatoes around because I'm sensitive to high acid red tomatoes. I did however have fresh low acid yellow tomatoes so I diced up 4 medium ones. I also omitted the tomato paste. Rather than dry basil I used fresh. Also, something I've never understood is that the ratio of liquid to couscous is always equal in recipes. Maybe it's just the kind I'm buying, but 2 cups liquid to 1 cup couscous seems to produce better results. To give the meal more substance I added a can of white beans. Oh, and I didn't have any capers...

--- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In foil lined pan, lay out pepper, zucchini, eggplant and onion. Drizzle with oil and stir. Roast 15-20 minutes, or until veggies are browned. (My veggies were well cooked before they browned!) In small saucepan heat vegetable broth until boiling. Remove from heat, add couscous, stir and let rest. Fluff couscous to prevent sticking. In large pan stir together tomato, vinegar, sweetener, basil, (beans) and roasted veggies. Cook 5-8 minutes. Serve over couscous.

Thoughts... Good, but the sweetener was a bit off-putting. I really don't know why it was added. I would this again, but I would make a few more changes. I think some mushrooms would be a nice addition. Re-hydrate a 1/2 cup dry mushrooms in 2 cups water and you'll have your couscous cooking liquid too.

Good Morning

Construction crews have been tearing up our neighborhood replacing water pipes for the past 2 months. Now they've made it to our block. I'm glad I was awake already, because at 7:01 AM this thing started busting up our sidewalk. Sounded like a woodpecker on steroids, and it made the house shake.
When I left at 7:30 I was greeted by two backhoes digging a 6 foot hole across the street. Had I left later they would have most definantly blocked me in.
I was actually happy to go to work today (first time for everything) So I would not have to deal w/ all the banging and water being turned off. When I came home that evening I found they removed three slabs of concrete and filled it in somewhat nicely with dirt. The pipes are full of air and spattering and the water is brown.. yay.... Why am I writing about this? Well, not much else has been happening, so there you go.

Not my dog...

Cute picture though.

Over 600 miles

Last year I rode an estimated 550 miles. After tonights ride my total mileage for the year is now 608 miles. With so many riders on our cycling team well over 1,000 miles, some over 3,000, my riding 600+ miles doesn't seem too impressive. It means a lot to me though, I'm to a point now where I was angry at myself because I couldn't get in at least 20 miles. There was a very strong headwind tonight. I rode out from the bike shop to Hines with Brian and Scott, but I wasn't able to stay with them very long. Before the ride I wasn't feeling my best, but I knew I had to go, since I hadn't ridden for the past week. The first 1/2 was into the wind, I was pushing so hard to catch up to Brian that I was becoming less and less aware of my surroundings. I've never had such severe tunnel-vision. I was going into potholes that I've been easily avoiding for months, slipping on patches of sand, then got a branch in the face. Now I understand why Tour de France riders crash into clearly marked signs and other obstructions in the road. The turn around point for me was 5 mile hill, which I somehow got to the top of. I stopped and rested for about two minutes. Once I re-hydrated myself and caught my breath I rode down. Then just for fun... I climbed it again. After another rest at the top I headed back down and back to the shop. With the wind for the most part at my back I was able to finally get moving. I gathered up every bit of what I had left and pounded my way back. Every time I glanced at my speedometer I was doing 20-22MPH. Totally spent, I pull into the parking lot and looked at how many miles I put in tonight. WTF!! Only 17.93 miles! Crap! After an hour and ten minutes of hard, miserable riding, my average speed was only 15.3. Double Crap! It really just proves that I need to ride more, much as I hate to say it. I have to blame work... after doing the work of three people for 9-10 hours, I don't feel like riding my bike, I feel like banging my head against a wall then going to bed. Speaking of which, I really should be in bed right now....