Happy Halloweeeen!

As soon as I am done with my CRAZY FRIDAY

I am headed to B-more for the weekend to see Ben!

This is actually the first time we have ever gone out for Halloween together,

even though this makes the fourth Halloween that we've known each other!

I don't know how that happened...

I was up until the wee hours putting the finishing touches on my COSTUME.

(aka shredding and stitching a swath of fabric to make it not look like a toga)

Ben and his roommates decided to be the Ghostbusters

(I don't know why but they were excited about it)

So that left me with ZUUL THE GATEKEEPER!!!

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I have actually never seen Ghostbusters, just listened to my uncle's cassette tape soundtrack as a kid

I didn't even know it was a movie; I thought it was a TV show shhhhh...

But I can rock the 80's hair!

This costume may even surpass last year's Ginger Spice. (but probably not)

Happy Halloween!

OPERATION: MOUSE RESISTANCE

OK so...

*deep breath*

You know how a while back I mentioned I was finding mouse evidence under my kitchen sink?

(I quote, and eat, my previous words "...it's not that bad...")

Evidently, the clan leader of the mice read my blog and took my laissez-faire attitude as a signal to COLONIZE!

We have been waging an all-out WAR ever since!!!

Anna vs. Mice

OPERATION MOUSE RESISTANCE PHASE ONE: set no-kill trap and try to empty compost bucket nightly.

This is when I discovered there is more than one mouse.

MICE-1, ANNA-0

Then, the mice took the war to a whole new level: THE KITCHEN COUNTER!!!

Yes, I woke up one morning to find mouse evidence (aka POOP!) on my COUNTER!

NOT EVEN COOL, MICE!

I have seriously laid awake at night trying to figure out how the HELL they/it got up there!!!

HELLO UNSANITARY!

I completely sanitized my counter TWO MORNINGS IN A ROW, feeling extremely violated of my privacy, before moving on to...

OMR PHASE TWO: purchase cute, covered, countertop compost container, and use various layers of material (cardboard, saran wrap, Al foil) to attempt to seal off areas of access under sink.

Too bad the duct tape/packing tape didn't really stick to the wood.

THREE HOURS LATER, I peeked into the cupboard

AND SAW FRESH MOUSE POO!!!

MICE-2, ANNA-0

(While all this is going on, I am literally catching a mouse every single morning and taking it a quarter mile down the road to release, since I figure there is no way it would make it back to my house with all the traffic, hawks, random cats and dogs wandering around, and other tempting houses on the way back. 

Morning routine: wake up, hesitantly tiptoe into kitchen and inspect counters, breathe sigh of relief for no poop outside the cupboard, make coffee, release mouse, etc etc.)

I am feeling good about catching so many mice, EVENTUALLY I will get them all, right? As long as they don't get into my food cupboards....

BUT THEN

one morning, I find THIS:

what the heck!!!!

THE MICE HAVE DISCOVERED HOW TO CHEW THEIR WAY TO ESCAPE!

This startling discovery means one of two things:

1.) The mice are evolving to be able to STRATEGIZE

2.) They are starting to starve with no food source except the bait in the trap, and are gnawing at anything in desperation.

In any case,

MICE-3, ANNA-0

I seriously need to up my game, so I move on to

OMR PHASE THREE: get new mouse trap.

Luckily, I found this gem:

The fine print says that it catches up to four mice! (with the exclamation mark...to make poor people like myself excited)

Just what I need.

(I am still not willing to resort to kill tactics)

what's even better, I found THIS:

(so excited)

Yes folks, ORGANIC PEST CONTROL SPRAY!!!!!

I LITERALLY THOUGHT I HAD DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN

It is supposed to repel rodents AND kill bugs! and it is made of plant-based oils.

I ran home last night and sprayed it ALLLL OVER that cupboard, killing a tiny spider in the process.

THIS STUFF REEKS! *coughcough*

So if the mice still venture into the fumigation chamber, they will be met with the supertrap!

This is my last stand.

It better work.

Flashback

With Halloween coming up soon,

I started to remember crazy Halloweens of the past...

Sophomore year at Augustana, my future roomie Ashley and I didn't realize that since the actual 31st was on a weeknight, there wouldn't be any "parties" for 19 year olds to attend at our small private school...

 We donned our fairy costumes anyways, and hit up the library to study.

(Twas the year of Organic *shudder*)

oh, the days

my backyard mountain

I live very close to the bottom of one of the more popular "mountains" here.

I put mountains in quotation marks because they look more like very large hills, but that's just because the Alleghenies are so old that they have been worn down through time!

I've been DYING to go hiking again ever since the leaves started changing more, and was so sad when the stupid snowstorm ruined what I still believe was the peak weekend for these color explosions :(

It's still gorgeous out though; I am going to blame central PA for my new-found autumn-love because I have NEVER seen such a mindblowing display of leaves, even though I practically grew up in a forest in IL.

I think the mountains make it more extreme. More trees! And also a view from a greater perspective, living in a bowl-shaped valley.

One Illinois or Mississippi River bluff vs. an entire mountain range...yeah. 

I don't know how to describe it, except for an explosion.

(You can get the idea, I've definitely posted enough pictures!)

Here is the view of my mountain I get from the parking lot every afternoon (since I have given up riding my bike in the chilly/nasty weather; such a lazy bikewimp alas.)

GLORIOUS!

Since Sunday was bright and sunny (RARE, believe me) I knew I wouldn't be able to focus until I got some outdoors-time SO off to the mountain I went!

(At first I felt like I was crossing some inviolable safety line; do not hike by yourself, do not go into the woods alone etc. but once I got to the trailhead I realized you will never be hiking by yourself when it is a gorgeous fall day! sooo many annoying couples blecgh.)

I will be hiking/trailrunning more FOR SURE! It was soooo much fun. And gorgeous.  Redgold leaves, in the canopy, blanketing the rocks, glowing in the sunlight mmmm.  Camouflagued with the hair.

I was so excited, haha :)

But honestly, is there anything more perfect than a glowing gold forest on a sunny day???

(Not to THIS Professional Treehugger in training!)

Being by myself let my mind wander and let me appreciate simply existing

Here's the stereotypical overlook of campus:

I liked the mountain/field overlooks better:

(and check it out, Papa and Ben...they have put up these sweet maps at every single station so you actually know where you are haha)

Of course, before I knew of this improvement I had already prepared myself by bringing my OWN official map

that was even better

because it depicted the unmarked do not go there confusing trails that intersect the real trail alot

(AND had topo lines)

lalala, running through the sunny forest :)

I followed the outer blue trail, running (/jogging) the flat non-superrocky parts.

It's evidently 6 miles but it felt like 3??? I was out for a little less than 2 hours but it flew

I was thanking the hip god the entire way for letting me do this without ANY pain or even tiredness!

(Maybe I was too hyped up on coffee and excitement)

I could DEFINITELY become addicted to trailrunning.

(But not the extreme kind where your toenails fall off)

It is fun.

the end

note from Nicole

Aww my little sister wrote me an email and it is adorable! I could definitely not type this well when I was 8 years old (but I didn't play online games with chat-boxes either...we didn't even have a computer in the classroom ugh I'm ancient.)

ANEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I got my Halloweener costume just a few days ago. I got it from walmart. I'm being Cleopatra. I have a white dress with a sparkly belt with a thing hanging off the belt and a headpiece with a red gem on it and a thing that goes around my neck that kind of hangs on my sholders with a big red gem on it with small blue and green gems in a pattern in diaganle rows about an inch away from the big red gem. Today the catties got in a fight much bigger than the big red gems. HANS COOULD HEAR IT FROM HIS ROOM AND IT WAS IN THE FAMILY ROOM! When me and mama got there they were going under the table! they were tumbling everywhere! when papa broke up the fight Peekie's tail looked hillarius! Itwas all poofed up! Bye I'm done with this note!
 

I am starting to look forward to the holiday season, chilling at home with my family.

Sometimes I miss them :)

brain hurts.

It's Friday again.

The rain is back.

I have a headache.

Today was a crrrazy non-stop day.

I didn't even have time to make coffee this morning,

which is definitely the root cause of the headache.

I made about 23498734 cookies last night for the Geography Dept. coffee hour reception today, which was good because a man from The Nature Conservancy was the speaker; and I have pipe dreams of perhaps working for TNC someday. Maybe. Haven't really thought about the implications, just say it alot. (like I used to "say" I was going to be a pediatrician...)

And therefore have eaten way too many cookies in the past 24 hours.

I also learned a lot today; starting my weekly half semester mini-seminar "research perspectives in human geography"

woah! human geog is deep, dark, and complicated!!

Did you ever think about how we view poverty as an issue that can only be solved through economic means, but then map "poor" areas of cities based on where people live (or spend their income) instead of where they are actually earning their "poverty-level" incomes?

We often associate poor areas with race, because it seems like lots of black people live in areas we associate as being "low income." But where people work is where the low-income happens, and there is actually no correlation between place of work and race, household size, etc.

So, by trying to solve the issue of poverty by searching for "root causes" and making maps of poor neighborhoods is useless and only prolongs the problem.

More money or jobs will not help people who are only yearning for dignity, health, and a safe community.

Therefore, looking at the problem in terms of "welfare solutions" is pointless.

Even more disturbing are government programs that are trying to create jobs and economic development to bring people to "middle class" level. If middle class is defined as a household income of at least $40,000, HALF OF ALL U.S. HOUSEHOLDS are operating below middle class.

It would take $1,000,000,000,000 PER YEAR to bring that many people up to the defined "mid class level".

Perhaps we should try to make ways of getting the most quality out of income, instead of obsessing over the quantity.  Start community gardens, car-pool, design more comfortable and safe living environments.

These are "discourse" based ideas...or how we view relationships between words and the things they represent. (i.e. "car" can connote luxury, success, sex appeal, pollution etc). We see problems based on only one chosen relationship.

Earlier I said the root cause of my headache was coffee deprivation.

But if we try to find the root cause of climate change, or poverty, or world hunger,

we will only prolong the problem.

because root causes actually do not exist

I have learned about all this from a small Indian man named Lucky Yapa, who exclaims "....my young flends!"(friends) a lot as he lectures. 

photo

The. Best. Invention. EVER!

I am kind of obsessed with random but fun kitchen gadgets

(mini crockpot anyone?? 2 kinds of omelette makers? do I really have to wait years until my bridal registry to get a food processor???)

and when I heard about this thing called the SPIRALIZER I for some reason couldn't resist ordering one off Amazon ASAP! It is this thing that you can use to basically cut vegetables into noodle shapes or very thin chips.

People who eat a raw diet (only raw produce, nuts, etc. with the idea that cooking food destroys its nutrient value) use it to make "pasta" and veggie noodle salads.

I use it...because it's AWESOME and I LOVE VEGETABLES!

I busted it out for the first time last night and introduced it to some zucchinis.

It looks like a veggie guillotine or torture device of some sort.

(which is basically what it is...)

Why yes, little zucchini, you are traveling down the Spiral Path.

...of DEATH!

You just stick your vegetable or fruit on the spikes between the twirly handle and the blade and spin the handle! The blades are sharp (safety hazard!) so they cut very easily.

And watch the NOODLES appear!

OH MY GOODNESS SO MUCH FUN!

It's like those old play-doh machines, only for FOOD!

And there you have it, a bowl full of zucchini noodles. 

I only used one zucchini because it produced a ton.

Curly like my hair!

You can then use your noodles to make something delicious,

like zucchini pasta in a bowl

This was so delicious.

If you want to re-create, I mixed together in my biggest pot

-sliced garlic chicken sausage

-chopped garlic

-onion

-1/2 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

-frozen broccoli and carrots

-sploosh of pasta sauce

-can of pinto beans

-various spices including but not limited to:

red pepper flakes

salt/pepper

oregano

garlic salt

DELICIOUS!

The noodles taste like very al dente spaghetti.

And you can feel very virtuous for eating vegetables instead of refined carbs!!

There are 3 different blade attachments for the spiralizer; I used the thin noodle one. There's a thick noodle one (curly fries?) and a slicer one (dried apple chips?)

If you have been sold by my little blogomercial and raving, let me know and I'll tell you how to buy your Very Own Spiralizer.

Color Explosion

I feel like this blog has a pretty strong Autumn theme going on...

I just can't help it!

I have fallen in love with this season, for some reason.

I usually cling on to summer and think of fall as the harbinger of doom (aka the dreaded winter)

But this year is different.

I have completely wiped our little winter weekend from my memory.

Today was positively BALMY!

We're talking, high 50's/low 60's, pure sunshine.

I had a hard time getting out of the house this morning, not wanting to face the day of WORK and PAPER WRITING, and I stretched my walk across campus as looooong as possible.

Taking in all of THIS

and some roses survived the snow!

beautiful

During lunch, my labfriend Nancy and I escaped our windowless cave to walk through downtown so she could hit up Jimmy John's and I could stop by the (small but still awesome) Tuesday Farmer's Market.

To get my latest addiction: sweet bell peppers!

because

Organic red bell at grocery store=$4 (!!!!!)

Organic red bell @ farmer's market = $0.75

score!

It was ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS OUTSIDE

Now I have to try to focus to slap together a paper for Forest Geography due tomorrow
A write-up of one of our mini-research project field trips
It should be no big deal, since it is an undergrad class, this is our first paper, he basically TOLD us exactly what to write, I have written scientific articles gazillions of times before, and not to mention I will be expected to write a freakin thesis in a few months
but...I still get writer's anxiety.
Not writer's block, but an inability to mentally FACE THE WRITING PROCESS!!!
and an easily distracted mind.
grrrr.

Return of Fall

Fall is back YAY!

Just like that, all the snow melted in one day.

Thank goodness.

Ben came up to visit me again :)

I wanted to go on a huge hiking trip to take in all the gorgeous fall colors in the mountains

BUUUT then the winter storm extravaganza crushed my visions.

(They even had to ban tailgating for the homecoming football game...lame!)

It was kind of fun to pretend Christmas was coming

(ONLY because I knew it would warm up again this week)

I baked amazing cookies

We hung out with new friends

Did a lot of cozy nothing

Ate pumpkin pancakes

and made

BENANNA CREAM PIE!

 [aka ghetto-fab homemade graham cracker crust with sliced bananas and REAL whipped cream squirted on top, silly-string-style]

I don't know if I'm ready to face another week! Back to "reality"...sigh.

 

...Merry Christmas?

Guess what...

yup, STILL SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!

so I'm just eating my oatmeal and pretending I'm HERE:

instead of HERE:

It's not too hard to pretend!

the Ice Queen has arrived

I somehow missed the memo this morning to wear BOOTS to school...

luckily I did wear my fuzzy alpaca gloves because it was raining and freezing when I left the house

and then it snowed.

all day.

I scraped 2 inches of wet soggy slush off my car to go home.

byebye, raspberry bushes

The funniest thing is, LOOK AT THIS WEATHER MAP!

www.noaa.gov

Notice the pretty pink blob sitting on Central PA...

it stands for "winter storm warning"

Not even ALASKA has even a winter storm "watch" (the purplishblue color)!!!

My soul is crushed. Just a little.

Winterwinter go away