Lucky

After a couple of reschedules yesterday, we were able to interview Jenny Brown of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary today. I love Jenny—she’s so funny and frank—I just finished her book, The Lucky Ones, and I highly recommend it. Although it covers very serious issues, she had me laughing out loud at times.

I can’t wait to edit the interview and hopefully air it for our live pledge drive show next week. Between the interview and recording our news segment, we’ve been at the station a lot over the last few days!

Now that I have my books and VegFest is over, I’m starting to get caught up on reading and homework, but still have quite a way to go. So, I’m off to read some essays for Environmental Ethics from Earth in Mind.

Sofa versus couch, drawing

We bought a sectional sofa today! We haven’t had a couch in many years. The old sofa/love seat set got saggy and cat ripped and we finally got rid of it and have limped along with a hodgepodge of chairs and a small uncomfortable chaise lounge ever since.  It won’t be delivered for a couple of days—can’t wait! And in case you were wondering what the difference between a couch and a sofa is {I had no idea—growing up we said couch, I eventually switched over to sofa}:

sofa (n.) 1620s, “raised section of a floor, covered with carpets and cushions,” from Turk. sofa, from Arabic suffah “bench.” Meaning “long stuffed seat for reclining” is recorded from 1717.

couch (n.) mid-14c., from O.Fr. couche (12c.) “a bed, lair,” from coucher “to lie down,” from L. collocare (see couch (v.)). Traditionally, a couch has the head end only raised, and only half a back; a sofa has both ends raised and a full back; a settee is like a sofa but may be without arms; an ottoman has neither back nor arms, nor has a divan, the distinctive feature of which is that it goes against a wall. Couch potato first recorded 1979.

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Picked this up from the library today. Think I can learn how to draw? {doubtful}

Distracting, and a couple of interesting books

So nice when things go right for once! {And this family can certainly use good news.} Distracting and productivity sucking, but nice. As a result, it was one of those days when I was up at 7:30 a.m. but got pretty much nothing done that I had planned on.

While we’re processing and plotting and scheming, here are a couple of interesting books I’m reading for school:

• The Third Side: Why We Fight and How We Can Stop by William Ury

• Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey

Vegan in Israel, our HOME is in trouble, and Forget Sorrow

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, by Belle Yang

Here’s what I did on this beautiful Saturday:

• Spent 6 hours finishing up the radio show, featuring some great info on the vegan movement in Israel. {And tried not to fall asleep during the last several hours.}
• Took a nap.
• Managed to stretch watching a 90-minute video required for school over 4 hours {breaks for food, mostly}. Good video, though, with stunning videography of the world: HOME.
• Spent zero time outside {sigh}.

Last night, I finished up Forget Sorrow, by Belle Yang, a memoir in the form of a graphic novel, and I highly recommend it. The illustrations are lively, intricate, and expressive, and the story unfolds in a non linear fashion that I wouldn’t have thought would work in this format. I learned a lot about China and how the people there coped with numerous conflicts and wars over the last several generations. For some reason, I can’t find a good image of the hardcover that I have out from the library, but this paperback cover represents her style nicely as well.

2nd try: Chickpea crêpe fail, too much computer time, Wichita and modern book editing

I tried to make another chickpea crêpe this morning, using this recipe. Epic fail. It was way too thick, stuck to the pan, and I had to cook it forever to get it past gooey stage. I didn’t have asafoetida, garlic paste, or ginger paste, so I guess I subbed too many things? Or maybe I just needed to make sure the batter was a lot thinner. Next time I’ll start again with the VegNews recipe and try my variations from there.

Unfortunately, I spent most of this beautiful late summer day in front of the computer, working on the show (at home and at the studio). This evening, though, I was able to hang out with the hubs for some much-needed time together—sans kids.

I’ve also had a chance to read a novel over the last few days, something I’ve been going without for a few weeks. I’m working on Wichita by Thad Ziolkowski. It took me a few tries to get into it, but now I’m flying and am halfway through. Problem is, the egregious amount of typos and errors is distracting and sometimes confusing. We’re talking whole words omitted or repeated in the wrong place, in multiple areas of the book. I don’t understand why this is happening more and more in the books I’m reading lately. Why aren’t modern books being properly edited?! Or am I losing my mind? {Don’t answer that.}