The Weekly Triumphs (Now in Picture Form)

If there's one thing I really wish I could do well it is take pictures. My camera is garbage and I just don't know how to do it well. With that caveat, here are some photos of gardening stuff.

The most beautiful turnip EVAH:



A rilly HUGE turnip (pix subtitle: did I actually get that thin?):



and, as an apology for the tiramisu, some totally homemade strawberry shortcake:

I'll Take an "i" for $110, Please

alternate heading: I just spent $110 at the County Courthouse and all I got was this lousy "i"

Long day. Long, long day.

I wanted to spend my day off being productive so I did what I've been putting off for a long time: getting a new birth certificate (lost mine in a move somewhere) and social security card (ditto). lack of these two documents plus expired passport and lame drivers license meant no going to Canada this summer, and made it really hard to get hired places. So it was time to change all that.

Got the new DL last week. (Got a high-five from the guy when I told him my new weight!) Set out for the birth cert and SS# card today. Oy.

Birth cert = no problem. Easy easy, fill out the form, hand over $20 and yay! Birth certificate. Didn't need to show ID or nothing, which I thought was weird but whatever! Then I walked 1.3 miles or so to the Social Security building and that's where the fun began.

I love sitting around in public buildings watching other people doing the same civic sorts of things; I love voting and going to the DMV because everyone's equal there. No cuts in line--everyone has to fill out the same forms. And the diversity is amazing; you can't get it anywhere else. The SS building was no different--Russian students getting SS cards so they could work the canneries in Alaska this summer, some girl trying to get her father's death benefits and wearing a huge floppy hat and sunglasses indoors plus a scarf around her neck and lots of visible sunscreen (either she's allergic to UV rays or trying to disguise herself, I thought), people behind me discussing the Ukranian currency, a deaf man and who I thought was his daughter rolling her eyes at him (turned out it was this long complex story, they're not related at all, he was living with her because she was trying to support some "reintegrate the disabled" program but he was a huge PitA--sorry, I'm sure there was more to it but my eavesdropping skillz are shabby), the security guard and some anarchist-looking dude from TX both eagerly discussing their service in the armed forces for Iraq War II and how they thought Bush was full of shit and should have stuck to Afghanistan, and a large group of students from Jamaica fist-bumping the guard, all dressed like insanely cool urban youths (except that one was also wearing a hot pink Jansport backback, which really threw me). The anarchist-vet ended up helping them navigate the Seattle bus system via glossy tourist maps.

All was great--service was slow but the assistant manager actually came out and apologized and said they were trying to go as quick as they could; why do I keep getting such great customer service from the government?--until I tried to get my new card. Problems.

Turns out, although my supporting documents had the name I go by, "Annie", my birth cert and name in the SS system is "Anne". And to get a new SS card my name had to match exactly. Even though Annie is clearly a simple derivative of Anne the rules are apparently pretty clear. I could get a new DL and passport and new credit cards and everything so all my documentation matched, or I could go and do a legal name change for $110.

[When I asked the ladies helping me why "Anne" and "Annie" couldn't be considered the same name they said it was because security got tighter after The Incident (as if I knew which incident they meant). Which one, I asked? The one in 2005, they replied. What happened in 2005? September 11, they answered, looking startled that I did not know, or was it 2003?. THE September 11, with the planes and buildings? I asked, thinking perhaps there was a different 9/11 that I had missed somehow... oh yes, that one! Um, that was 2001, I said. Oh, that's right, they said, smiling.]

So another 1.3 miles walking back to the courthouse--in the process seeing two homeless men I'd seen on the walk out, plus two old men off my bus AND a friend's ex-fiancee, proving once again that Seattle is a very small city--where I had the fun of getting my purse searched by security, who then told me I had to turn over my 10-in-1 screwdriver to the deputy before I could enter (I got it back when I left). Ha ha. After MUCH wandering (boy was everything hard to find) I made it to the Name Changes room, got to stand in line behind a niqabi Muslim lady in full robes including face veil, incidentally sporting an accent from--as far as I could tell--exotic West Seattle and working on a name change, divorce papers and full custody of her daughter; not terribly conservative Muslim things but Hey, what I love about America is the room for contradiction. Sunglasses-and-hat girl was also there, trying to finish up paperwork involving a car accident. I began to suspect she was some sort of con artist.

The man behind the counter began to tell me I needed to put both my OLD name and my NEW one on the paper and I pointed out that I had; he did a double-take, said "huh--that's not much of a name change" and then commented that it was a very expensive "i". We laughed. It was fun.

I go back to court next Tuesday to change my name legally, then back over to Social Security for attempt number 2 at a new card. Because nothing is more fun than spending all my days off sitting in public buildings paying paperwork fees.

One the way out I called my roommate Sean to find out on what street I would find my bus home and he said that since he was in downtown Seattle too I should join him for lunch. And I did. French food and limonada with lemon-ricotta cake for dessert.

Excellent.

Deep Thought

I cannot decide whether I want to punch Obama in the junk for the DOJs arguments on DOMA and his total lack of interest in suspending DADT, or whether I want to drop to my knees and thank God that he is currently president what with the delicate situation in Iran and whatnot.

I'm torn.

Tiramisu FAIL

I was going to be all adventurous and culinary tonight and make some of our most recent strawberries (purchased yesterday, almost gone now) into a strawberry tiramisu, because my roommate made one in March and I thought "man, that's great--wouldn't it be better with local berries that are actually ripe?"

After much stirring and whisking, $24 worth of supplies, one near fight with the Captain, an hour and a half of homework time given over to cooking, and two separate attempts at the egg/sugar/whipping cream topping that totally failed to gel either time, here's the result:



I am not making that up.

I'm sticking to pie from now on.

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UPDATE: on the other hand, it tastes like a bottle of condensed tastiness just landed in my mouth. Damn, that's good whatever-it-is. I will eat it with my eyes closed.

More Photo Blogging, Because it is the End of the Quarter and I am Really Busy

Here are some of the lovely but unusual flowers springing up in our garden. I say unusual as these flowers are less well known because they are useful, not decorative; unlike roses and tulips, they will become food!

thyme flowers, threatening to overrun the rosemary (note the delicate purple color)



potato (the flowers, like the stems of the plants, are also a lovely shade of purple--just one more benefit to growing purple potatoes!)



chives (also purple... I swear it's coincidence)



fava bean (NOT purple!)



and two soon-to-be-eatens: the first tomatoes and sugar snap peas





and finally, strawberry-rhubarb pie. mmmmmm.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

Garden then...






and garden now!



fava beans



potatoes and tomatoes



sugar snap peas



green onions with salad greens in the background



rainbow chard



turnips!



chocolate mint (yum)

Some Recent Revelations I've Had

Highly complicated writing, full of technical terms and twisting sentences, is NOT necessarily good writing and I should not be intimidated by it. If I can not make out what you are saying then you are not saying it well, because good writing should also be clear and lucid.

I have now enjoyed my job several days in a row. This means I am getting decent at it.

My psychology class has taught me (among many other things) how to study well and retain information. I cannot believe I did not know this all before. Or maybe I just didn't believe people when they told me that making outlines of chapters was a good thing to do. Well, now I am a believer. If only my study habits had improved the first time through college...

My ideal vacation is not sitting on a beach for a week. That makes me overheated and cranky. My ideal vacation would be spending two weeks in a cottage (preferably in the Cotswolds, if I can swing it) gardening and cooking and reading books. Maybe taking some walks. But none of this pure leisure time; I'm happier when I have a truly enjoyable sort of task to do.

Baking is insanely satisfying. So are knitting and canning and gardening. Naturally I am reluctant to admit that because I used to make fun of people who did these things. I will have to take back everything I have ever mocked other people for lest it all come true and happen to me.

Losing the weight I wanted to lose has not made me more relaxed, happy, satisfied or pleased with myself. Now I spend all my time worrying I will put the weight back on. So nothing has really changed except that I'm 30 pounds lighter and my knees hurt less.