Coming back to Southern California

L and I were discussing the other day that despite our desire to see the world and whatnot, we would like to eventually come back to southern California for its beautiful weather. For the house we want in the future and things we'd like to plant, California is awesome. Where else can we plant mangoes, citrus, avocado, peaches, roses, etc. etc.? We really don't have to worry about harsh winters here. I'm glad in a way that my winter clothes consists of a coat, a scarf, and a sweatshirt (this coming from a person who hates being cold). Not heavy duty long underwear or down coat, or whatever people wear in seriously cold weathers. It's nice to walk outside and look at the sun and blue sky and feel warm enough to take off a layer and end up in T-shirt and jeans.

Raised bed gardens/sq ft gardens

Raised bed gardens are nothing new. They are a good way to bypass soil problems.

I recently learned of a new concept: square foot gardens. It's a basic raised bed garden divided into foot squares. One may plant a certain number of vegetables, herbs, or fruit in each square.

There's a good website to help gardeners plan and research their garden from Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner. For example:

 It tells you how many of each plant one can fit in each square automatically. After this stage, it generates a page giving more details on how to plant each selection:

So cool.

Oh and the best thing ever: a salsa garden!

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One shop stop for delicious homemade fresh salsa during summer. =)

Current music obsession

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I love Lady Gaga! In her style, both fashion and her work, there is only one Lady Gaga. I love how she's not afraid to dress up in her costumes. Her music is incredibly catchy. Her music videos are mesmerizing, and not with cliched dance moves. Because of her, I'm currently on a dance music kick. There should be an easy way to get that music into the iPod for when I'm exercising.

Speaking of fashion, I would love to get my hands on any copy of Asian fashion magazine where the stars are stars and stay in their film world and models fills the pages as they rightly should. The pages are so much more informative with the currently styles, accessories, makeup colors and how to's. Looking at them even helps me, who's never been into fashion, get a sense of what goes with what. This is incredibly sadly lacking in American magazines. We are too star and gossip focused.

BMI

President Obama's BMI: 23.7 Upper range of normal.
Mine: 23.9 Even more upper range of normal than the president =(
L's: 25.1 In the overweight range.

I know I know BMI is not completely accurate. I discounted it when I was told during a physical while on the high school varsity cross country team that according to my BMI, I was a little heavy for my age and height. My response? Fuck you. I was running 20-30 miles per week and I'm "heavy"? What messed up test is that? The weakness of the BMI is that it does not differentiate between muscle's and fat's contribution to a person's weight. Thus, there are skinny people with normal BMI who are not healthy because they lack muscle mass.

Point is, I need to lose 15 pounds. *whining* But it's sooooo hard. To start exercising consistently I mean. I know it's a lot easier to do this if I do it together with someone. However, since XC, I'm really picky about my running partners. They have to have about the same pace as I do and be consistent in that pace, meaning not running fast then slowing down and running fast again. I guess it doesn't matter too much on the treadmill. Still, that is not the ideal place to run. I'm just being picky. I'd love to get to a point where I can go out on Saturdays and do a nice 10-12 mile run on the beautiful trails in San Diego while running 4-6 miles daily. It'll be relaxing.

I know I tried to start at the end of last year but the holidays totally ruined that. I'll start again tomorrow. And do it everyday. If not, what should the punishment be?

Strawberry post: the next day

 A bit more natural light. And it's raining beautifully, slowly saturating the soil. Nothing seems wilted, which means they are getting enough water. Can't wait till they start to grow and thrive, hopefully, in one week.

Strawberry project made

Today I accomplished my task of collecting my cultivars: eversweet (I wasn't actually out to collect that one), Chandler, and Sequoia. I picked up the latter at the Walter Andersen with LP. The customer service there was nice enough to bring some out from the back for me because it wasn't out on the table in front. Pictures as promised:

 

The green basket holds my one Chandler, clockwise are the twelve Sequoia and bottom six are Eversweet. 

Other materials:

A 14x14x10in pond basket for $8.89. I figured the more dirt it holds the better even though strawberries are supposed to have shallow roots. And lying on top is the thing I'm going to use to hang it for $1.59. Compared to making it myself, it was worth just buying it.

My work area for tonight (before it rains tomorrow):

 

(clockwise) The potting soil, Dr. Earth organic 5 (5-7-3), bucket with my homemade compost (which stunk to high heavens last year because it was too wet and is now totally perfectly normal looking and smelling), my basket with holes for the plants on the side, the strawberries, and the big pile of mixed soil + fertilizer (~1 cup). Not pictured, the coconut fiber.

The finished product: 

 

I planted the strawberries in three layers. First I filled the bottom with potting soil up to the bottom of the first row of holes. Then I stuck the plants through the holes. After the second one, I realized that I need the coco fiber to prevent the soil from falling out. So I had to pad all the plants on top and bottom with the fiber. Same with the next layer. The top was the easiest. However, as soon as I was done, I realized that I should have put the fiber all around the basket to prevent soil particles from falling out. *sigh* Live and learn.

L helped me hang it up. 

 

I mulched the top with some of the left over coco fiber and watered it the best I can. Depending on the amount of rain tomorrow, I might have to water more tomorrow. Hopefully all the plants will survive.

"wth" picture of the day, courtesy of L, titled "The Terror of Bettas"

Spring fever: strawberries

It's all Home Depot's fault. Well, I suppose if I am going to blame it on Home Depot, my brother shares some of the blame too. He's the reason I stepped foot into Home Depot. And of course, being me, I had to check out the garden section. And of course, being almost spring, there were tons of plants there. I walked all around the store. No orchids dying of thirst that needs rescuing. Check. What's this? Strawberry plants in a bag? Interesting. And thereon after, I could not get the image and its possibilities out of my head. I have conquered maiden hair fern, thriving now in its third or fourth year, surviving a buzz cut after a pot upgrade. Now, a new challenge lies ahead: making a productive strawberry patch/basket. A worthy cause considering just how disappointing most store-bought strawberries are. They are the epitome of false advertising. Think lady in red from afar, only to find it diseased and puckery up close. I forgot just how sweet and delicious strawberries can be until I had some the size of quail eggs in China. It struck me that natural strawberries are not supposed to be the size of a ping-pong ball or bigger. The better quality to select is sweetness, sorely lacking in most commercial strawberries (the only place I can think of to get that quality are farmers markets, if not then organic).

...all to justify my current obsession with strawberries. =)

At least I learned a few things about them. The most surprising: they are perennials, being fairly productive up to 3-4 years. I thought they were annuals. They certainly looked like it.

They are divided into three, or for the purpose of awesome California, two strains: June bearing and ever bearing (the other name for ever bearing is day neutral). For June bearing berries, the plants produce one big crop in June, good for jams, preserves, etc. Ever bearing or day neutral (so called because fruit bearing is independent on day length) produces pretty much continuously from early summer till frost or October for CA.

50 plants will produce enough berries for a family of four.

Cultivars good for SoCal:
Chandler (June bearing): large, juicy, flavorful.
Sequoia (June bearing): long fruiting season, flavorful and productive.
Seascape (ever bearing): large, flavorful

Can be purchased by bundles. ~$8-10/25-30 plants. Buy in Nov-January.

Do not bury the crown.

Require consistent watering. Fertilize using 10-10-10 fertilizer. Once before flowering starts, once more after fruiting is over, or before overwintering. Organic material. Slightly acidic. Or use tomato fertilizer.

So my plan for this year: plant between 10-20 plants in a basket and see what comes for it. Currently, I'm collecting my plants. I have six Eversweets and one Chandler (shh...L doesn't know about the latter).

Also allow me to recommend a few nurseries that I love.
First and foremost: City Farmer's Nursery Owned by family who lives on the acre and a half of nursery. They are incredibly knowledgeable and experienced with which varieties work in local areas. They also support organic farming and hydroponics. The place itself is amazing. They have fish, rabbits, chickens, doves, llamas, horse, geese, bees. They have what I would like to have in the future. All on 1 1/2 acres. I feel peaceful just walking around. They are also happy to order things for you.

Walter Andersen: 2 locations in SD. Again, family owned, I think. Incredibly knowledgeable and helpful staff. Ask them anything. They have quality plants and gardening tools. Plus, visit the Poway location, and they have an awesome track of miniature trains. They also have a rewards program called Hedge Funds. A little bit like what REI has.

Armstrong: Better than Home Depot? I don't know too much about them to say the truth, but they do have a large variety of plants.

There will be more posts, pictures included, about my strawberry project.

Catching up

On a meta note, February has not been a good month. For two weeks, my stomach was the pickiest organ. One little swallowed mouthful of raw pork because I was too lazy to get up and take one step to the trash to spit it out. One wrong food, the stomach will either reject it or give me heartburn for hours on end. I realized the best state for one's awareness of our innards is none. Just work. I don't care how, just be normal. Chinese New Year wasn't exactly great either. My dad's almost like another person. Scary. I feel bad for my brother for having to live in that environment. Hopefully, he'll be able to take something good away from it.

Yesterday, L and I went to play bingo with his mom at Viejas. I actually had lots of fun. These bingo players are scary in their intensity. The numbers show up on screen, the person calling it out gives everyone a few seconds and then officially calls it. One has to wait till she calls it before yelling bingo. The first round, I missed the third and fourth number simply because I couldn't keep up with the speed. L told me afterwards that I stressed his mom out because she didn't expect me to be so slow. =) What can I say? I'm not good at numbers. People are surprised by that, but I'm not. I have to say the number in my head. Plus, I'm too afraid of marking the wrong number because I can't erase it. So I take my time. It took a few rounds but I got the hang of it for the most part. I don't know how people do it with 24 squares since I'm barely keeping up with 12 and barely have any time in between to look for patterns.

During one round, I was one number away from blackout. 58. And of course, I didn't win. It was 24, then 59. Ah well. It was very exciting though waiting for the last number. I was not too disappointed. I saw it as $7 for about two and half hours of entertainment. Plus we got free food out of it. If I win something, great, if not, oh well, I had fun. There was this one jackpot game where if someone got blackout in 52 numbers or less, the prize money is $10K, 53 numbers or more, the money drops to $1000. Someone got bingo on the 53 number. We heard someone say something and people laughing at the 52nd number and figured out why when the 53rd number was officially called. It sucks for him, but funny too.

Alright. Anyway. February's almost over. I'm going to get back to a regular schedule of blogging because it's a whole new month.

L & Butters: who cleans a bowl better?

It seemed like Butters has been a little picky about his food lately. He hasn't been eating as much or as quickly as he used to. Yesterday, I decided to give him something a little different. I mixed the rice and soup (that I made for L & me) with canned albacore. The soup has cauliflower, tomato sauce, chicken broth, peas, carrots, celery and onions. Butters ate it all up and cleaned up the bowl...unlike someone else who always leaves a pea or two and some grains of rice. Little thing that irks me. Is the last pea not good enough for you to eat? You have something against the last pieces of rice? I guess next time I'll let Butters do it.

3rd book club mtg

It took awhile, but we finally had our 3rd book club meeting at the new apt.

The book was How I Became A Famous Novelist by Steve Hely.

Kathryn chose it because the author gave a really great and funny interview on NPR.

I didn't think it was as funny as it was purported to be. Perhaps it's me because I rarely laugh out loud while reading anyway. Failed on the humor front.

The moral of the story seemed to be sincerity sells books. When the protagonist was not sincere both in his writing and promotion of his book, the sales weren't doing too well. Yet, when he explained his real feelings on popular books, it generated controversy that helped his book sales. However, it came at a price as the controversy created and and lead to bad publicity. His memoir containing his sincere efforts to explain his life sold better that his fiction.

Overall I liked the story up to the point where the protagonist, Peter, began having a change of heart regarding his venture. The change of heart felt contrived, unnatural in the plot, as if it was only there to teach us that lesson. I would have liked it better if he achieved all of his goals listed in the beginning of the book.

Having said that, one issue raised during discussion was whether this was at all possible in real life. I think it's completely possible. Just look at all the different formulaic fiction out there. There are certain themes that lends itself very well to human fancy. Love affairs between gods and mortals, love affairs between vampires and humans (yes, that was a dig at Twilight).

On a related publishing issue, is it possible at all for contemporaries to spot a classic? With so many books published today, even awards are no guarantee which books will endure the generations. If someone writes a book that becomes a classic in the future, how can we know today? My book selections are generally from the classic canon 90% of the time. I've always wanted to figure out what made them endure? I am sad at the thought that I will miss out on good stories written during my lifetime.

It's not a book worth my $14 or even $1 were it on sale somewhere. However, I do appreciate it for making us think about quite a few issues despite the fact it's supposed to be light reading.

First hotpot party in apt

The unpacking continues. We are one box away from done with the kitchen. Luis bought his desk and relinquished control of the dining room table. Closet is still undone. Everything is coming along.

Went to the dog park in the morning and found the weather to be quite warm. I decided that it was warm enough to make bread. The whole process did not take long at all, and in almost no time at all, we had delicious warm bread with thin crispy crust.

G then treated us to hotpot for dinner and it was soooo filling that all I want to do is close my eyes and sleep...

...until I was mesmerized by this from BakingMum. Everything looked incredibly delicious. It also comes with recipes for the more Chinese foods. Will have to make a list of things to try later. Sometime in the near future: SPONGE CAKE!

German Shepherd

While I am happy that Butters is fairly well socialized with most things in life, at times, I wish he just wasn't so darn friendly. Sometimes in the dog park, he lays down next to another person or licks them when picked up or plays with them. Whenever he does that, I call him a little traitor, in jest, but not really.

This got me thinking about a dog that's loyal, not incredibly friendly, obedient, active but graceful, and intelligent but not stubborn. German shepherd. After going through pictures online, I want an-all black German shepherd.

(img from http://www.fouranfass-gsds.co.uk/)

Don't they look cool?

I want to teach it tracking, so I'll never get lost in the woods (I have a horrible sense of cardinal directions, or left and right if I'm unfamiliar with a place, such as the wilderness). I want to teach it to protect me.

Besides things I want to teach it, I also want to play fetch, go hiking, and jogging. I want it to be a reminder that life is not all about work. Do take time out to enjoy relaxation as well.

Don't get me wrong, Butters already does that. However, he's doesn't fetch outside the apartment and he can't keep up on hikes. =( I know he's not really the right breed for it and it's not his fault. I'll just have to wait till I'm more settled in my life to even think about getting another dog. I'll also have to find classes where I can teach it the stuff I want it to learn.

Life update: moving across the street

So L and I moved from our 1bd to a 2 bd in the same complex with G on the 7th and the 8th. The moving only reinforced my hatred of moving. Each time, I want to throw away everything and walk over with my clothes and electronics. How do we accumulate so much crap in our lifetime? Thank goodness for friends who helped us move. Despite the help, I was still sore, tired, and cranky. We didn't finish till 11pm on the 8th.

I am trying to figure out how to make this whole ordeal easier, and the only things I can really come up with is to pack things way ahead of time. Don't organize. If things need to be organized, give yourself even more time. Get plenty of boxes. I cannot emphasize that enough. Get enough of them so everything can go in them. Get a dolly. It will save your arms. Live with some sacrifices, such as not cooking, or wearing the same selection of clothes. *sigh* I hate moving.

Saturday was recuperation. I took a long walk with Butters because the poor thing had been totally ignored and locked in our room while we were moving. He eventually gave up waiting for us and just sat against the wall.

Today, we cleared our bedroom and much of the living room. Tomorrow, we'll work on the closet and the rest of the boxes. I can't wait till it feels like home again.

In the afternoon, we also went to the dog beach. Mona and her humans joined us on this two hour trip. I am amazed that Butters actually really tired himself out. On the beach though, he sniffed as many dogs as he could and chased Mona wherever she went. As soon as he came home, he went to his kennel and laid down. He didn't even follow us around. It's wonderful to see him so tired from having such a great time.

We finally have internet again, and of course, entertainment. Something my generation cannot live without. Yay!

Wisteria bonsai

Isn't that gorgeous?

I've always loved wisteria for the beautiful name, flowers, leaves, and delicate woody vines.

A few months ago, L and I went to Wild Animal Park. I saw the wisteria seedpods hanging in the water-wise garden. When I went back with G and her cousin, most of the pods were gone. My brother finally found one high up and jumped to get it for me.

I think I'm going to try to sprout the seeds, plant and train them into bonsai plants.

I read that it takes ten years for wisteria to flower. I think they are a good symbol for where my life is going. Hopefully, my efforts will come to fruition in ten years as well.

Secret Santa 2009

A little late for true Christmas, but given everyone was busy for the holidays with families and friends, we exchanged gifts Monday after New Years when the spirit of the holidays still haven't flown away yet.

My secret Santa was LP and here are my Christmas presents:

A wooden box hand covered with a beautiful flower print cloth. Wait till you see the inside.

The cover contains a white meshwork. I'll probably put the Secret Santa photo with everyone in there. LP painted the edge of the box with gold paint which matches the deep blue of the cloth perfectly. I can hang my many earrings on the tacked red ribbons. To add to my earring collection, I also received a pair of dainty pink pearl earrings, again handmade by LP. (The three black objects are wisteria seeds. More in next post.)

On the back wall of the box sits a simple music maker, officially making this a wonderful little music box. My first.

I don't know what song it plays, but it sounds incredibly soothing. I especially like it when the spring winds down and the gears slow, like a last contented sigh before a beautiful thing ends.

Thank you LP, I'll also treasure this and it will hold wonderful memories starting with this year's super successful secret Santa.

Random Butters picture: