It tastes like burning.

Blehhhhhhhh. I'm a sicky. My throat started getting really sore last night, and I couldn't sleep because it hurts so bad. I am an unhappy camper. Pity me.

Did everyone get nice loots for Christmas? I did!

I lied, best Christmas Eve ever

So apparently all it takes is food to make familial drama calm down. Kelly and I made THE BEST EVER vegan Christmas Eve feast and everything so amazing and delicious and OMGwooooooow. And that's not even including the piiiiiiiiiie we still get to eat with soy whipped cream!

Picture time!:

The pretty table that Mumsey set:


Kelly being a drunky:


Mumsey 'basting' me:


All the famfam in one photo! Sort of.


The vegan roasty!


The chef (sans sous chef):


My plate, complete with delicious homebrew courtesy of Johnny-poo.


The rest are here: http://flickr.com/photos/herbstanfang/

Jesus H. Christ (it's timely)

Worst. Christmas. Ever.

Later: Okay, things have gotten better. Kelly and I have been cooking all morning/afternoon for our vegan Christmas Eve feast and it's been really fun so far. I am still in my jammies too!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Mrrrf. I get all lonely without Johnny-poo around, I'm such a big baby. Not sure how I'm going to handle it when he moves away next year.

Made buttery lemon cutout cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance tonight, really good, ate about a thousand of them. I found the 6-8 minute baking time not enough for them though.

Kelly and I are going out tomorrow in search of a Celebration Roast from Field Roast for our vegan Christmas Eve dinner we are cooking. Menu:

Hot cider (with or w/o rum)
Celebration roast
Sweet potato cassrole
Green beans
Corn bread
Garlicky kale with tahini dressing
Gingerbread-apple pie

YUMMERS.

(...It's my blog and I'll say 'yummers' if I damn well please, thankyouverymuch.)

Save Lucy the pitbull

Dear Friends,

Please click on this link to learn about a case I have been working on to save this beautiful, wonderful, pitbull named Lucy.

http://www.freewebs.com/freelucy/

She is the victim of breed prejudice, and because of one mistake, she has been on death row, and after several appeals and attempts to save her, we keep hitting walls.

My clients will be at the Sunnyvale City Council TOMORROW (the 18th of December) and we need 10,000 SIGNATURES BY THEN!

Please, please sign the petition, and forward it to everyone you know.

Thanks so much,

Shannon Keith, Attorney for Lucy

---

The website has annoying music but please sign the petition. Humans bred pitbulls and now are trying as hard as they can to destroy them. Many pitbull owners testify to the kindness and gentleness that their pitbulls have shown them. Any dog can be trained to be vicious - pitbulls are no exception, and we shouldn't discriminate against them.

Stayin' alive

I'm still alive, just not very motivated to do much of anything, let alone blogpost.

In California, going to San Francisco tomorrow to spend a few days with the sister.

It's almost Christmas! :D

Bakestravaganza and P-town

Had a lovely time in Portland yesterday (lunch with Morgie-poo and Gillie-poo, parties at Cad & Emily's and at Erica's, met Josh Hooten when I went to Herbivore to buy myself a Christmas present). Got lost in Beaverton for an hour and a half (stupid clusterfuck city). Had lovely foods and lovely alcomahols, got preeeeeeesents that I am not going to open until christmas. I love christmas. I love that it's not a huge stressful thing for my family. I love Bing Crosby christmas carols. I love gingerbread. Sigh!

It's been Bakestravaganza 2007 over here lately. Two batches of chocolate chip cookies, then chocolate peppermint cupcakes (see picture, very christmasy), scones (plain AND blueberry) this morning, and later today, banana bread. Most of this go divided between parties, John & I, and the vegan bakeswap I'm participating in. I am going to bake gingerbread for the Rawjmas giftie exchange, too, I think, but not until next week.



And the lovely cook:



Tomorrow John and I are driving down to California. I will not be back in Oregon until January 5th. Great googley moogley.

Christmas is coooooooommmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiing. :D

All my heroes have FBI files

Peter's talk last night went really really well. I was surprised by the large turnout. We had reserved PLC 180, which is a pretty big lecture hall, and it was at least half full if not more. A lot of folks looked like the hippie kids from the Lorax, but there were also some local peace activists, and John and his mom came as well (who both deserve big hugs after helping me so much with this).

I got there early to table for Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, REALLY YUMMY vegan chocolate chip cookies in tow, and talked to a few people before the event. Peter came up to the table shortly before six and introduced himself and thanked me for being involved and helping out and I blushed. He's cute. And vegan. Man. :3 We talked about the use of animals on campus. I didn't realize that in addition to zebrafish, there are (or at least were as of 2005) rabbits as well as two non-human primates being tested on as well. He got this information from a USDA FIA request that he found online. I was a bit surprised, because I'd been told there was no more testing on monkeys done.

Around 6.10 Daniel introduced Peter, who stepped up to the podium to loud applause. He introduced himself, and then introduced the documentary we watched for the first hour: Behind the Mask, a documentary directed by an animal rights lawyer about the ALF, direct action, and animal liberation activists. It was an amazing film, mostly talking about fur farms and animal testing laboratories and the activists who talked about their experiences. Which, btw, I've waffled about animal testing before, but now my stance is that I'm definitely against it, if anyone wants more information I will be happy to round some up.

It was very hard to watch at points. Seeing what is done to animals, especially beagles and monkeys, is intolerable. I was crying at numerous points during the film. There was one point when an undercover activist at a lab filmed a lab tech beating and then shaking a beagle because it didn't want to get injected with whatever was in the syringe. I felt angry and sorrowful and the only thing that kept me from being incredibly upset was knowing that I don't eat animals, I don't buy products tested on animals or that contain animal products, that I'm trying to make a difference.

The film also talked about activists, and one they mentioned was a girl named Jill Phipps, a British animal rights activist who was killed in 1995. The film pointed out that all of these people who have been to jail, people who have been killed, NONE OF THEM have ever hurt anybody, human or non-human. It's appalling that the U.S. government has named ecoterrorism and the ALF the number one domestic terrorist threat today. Yes, lanky and bespectacled and compassionate Peter sure is threatening. Opening cages. I'm really worried for my safety.

After the documentary Peter talked about himself and his experiences. He started off talking about what had made him start being involved in direct action. He had been vegan already in Seattle for a long time, but one night a friend showed up at his house, covered in feathers. Not far from where they lived and skateboarded many times, was a chicken slaughterhouse. They climbed up on a box and peeked in the windows and within a matter of minutes, they saw hundreds of birds being strung up and then slaughtered. That was when he decided he had had enough. He and this friend pulled out a map and planned a road trip to Wisconsin and South Dakota to release animals bred for fur from their cages. On a shoestring budget, they released at least 8,000 animals including mink and fox during a few weeks time (more info: Wiki site on Peter). I found this amazing, and he spoke very candidly and honestly.

He also talked about his time in prison. He pointed out some of the hypocrisy inherent in jailing animal rights activists, and just what kind of FUCKERY the whole thing is. Our tax dollars are going towards jailing and feeding compassionate caring people who commit selfless acts of humanity and courage, most of whom get put in there for inflated charges (the FBI tried to charge Peter with EXTORTION...wrap your head around that one). After he got out earlier this year, he gets put under surveillance, and followed, etc...the government doesn't do this to rapists and murderers. Maybe we should think about prioritizing a little bit.

He talked a bit about being straightedge, and vegan, and some other things. He ended with the hopeful and positive message that one person can make a difference, which I truly believe as well.

After he talked I went and sat at the SETA table, talked to some people about veganism and animal rights, dealt with the annoying hippie kid, was told many many times that my cookies were delicious :3, and then got a ride home so I could take care of the SETA sign and such.

Anyway. The talk was really good, I was really pleased with the turnout, but it was a really stressful day compounded by some school stuff and I didn't get much sleep last night (got home at 10 after leaving at 4.30, ate dinner at 10.30) and I kind of just want to go to sleeeeeeeep. Going home from work at around 2 to go home, run to Safeway (lame) to get some baking supplies (semi-sweet chocolate chippers, flour, canola oil, applesauce, etc), then bakebakebakebakebake, then a Christmas party at Aaron's. Hurrah!

I need a nap.

P.S. Emma said my cookies were one of the best cookies she'd ever had, ever. Squee! Thanks Isa Chandra-Moskowitz for making me into a vegan baking domestic goddess/terrorist! :3

Peter Young speaks @ University of Oregon tonight

Peter Young- Former Animal Liberation Prisoner Speaks
When: Thur Dec 6th @ 6pm
Where: PLC 180, University of Oregon, Eugene

Peter Young is an American animal rights activist and former political
prisoner jailed for two years for his role in releasing and conspiracy
to release thousands of mink from fur farms in the midwest. He was
released earlier this year and has been speaking at numerous events
around the country. He will be speaking about his experiences, going
underground for 7 years, being jailed for freeing animals, and on animal
rights.

There will also be a presentation of "Behind the Mask," a documentary
about the Animal Liberation Front, and a free vegan dinner will be
provided by Food Not Bombs!

Admission is free! If you're unable to attend, please feel free to
invite friends and community members who are interested!

For more info: www.supportpeter.com

Come by the SETA table to see meeeeeeeee and eat some of the chocolate chip cookies I made! :3

...on a slightly unrelated note, organizing this has been a nightmare. At least, for me. The guy in charge has really not been very good at keeping me in the loop and has done a lot of things at the last minute. I took today off from work so I could help out, because I was told we would be doing food prep at 9am...well apparently not. >:/ It's really frustrated me and I just missed the bus, so all I'm going to do is do what I said I would do: show up, table for SETA, and try to get people interested in the club and in veganism. Plus I made effing cookies for the SETA table.

DONE!

WOOT! \o/

Rats in the corn

Huh. So I always thought I was an ox on the chinese zodiac...turns out because chinese new year is in February, I am actually a rat (a wood rat, apparently). I'm a rat in the hour of birth as well.

*grunt*

Jesus 10.06 and I'm already grumpy (and already at the library). And I my VFF will be gone until tomorrow or the day after! *cries*

Stupid German paper. Makes me hate everything.

IDK my VFF?

My Vegan Freak forums have been down all day for maintenance. This makes me sad.

HOWEVER, it is probably why I was so productive today. I spent 8 hours in the library and I got my entire anthropology paper done and started brainstorming for German (which is due tomorrow at 4pm). Yay productivity! Also the boy brought me lunch, and it was really tasty.

3 recipes + garlic!

Well I have some time before the bus comes to take me to the library for lots and lots of writing (two papers due tomorrow) so I thought I'd take the time to do some recipe reviews.

I did THREE from Vegan with a Vengeance this weekend. Saturday night I made lemon poppyseed muffins. They were really good and REALLY quick! I whipped them up in about 20 minutes while John was making dinner and then they bake for 20 minutes. w00t! A dozen delicious muffins in less than an hour. And I had everything on hand except the lemons.

Sunday for breakfast I made Banana-Walnut pancakes (I subbed walnuts for pecans because that was what we had). They were EXCELLENT! I normally don't like pancakes because they're too cakey and fall apart or taste too sugary. I blame the egg. These eggless yummies were nice and firm but a little gooey, which is exactly how I like them! They puffed up right fine and made for a thick banana-y pancake with lots of walnuts for crunch (I added 2/3 of a cup instead of 1/2 because I chopped too many but they tasted perfect).

Last night I made the roasted butternut squash soup. It was really good, except it was pretty dang garlicky. Normally I love that but we tried some new garlic from Sundance that was advertised as being very strong, and put a lot in...and it was definitely very strong. But still very yummy. Even my overly-roasted squash didn't mar an otherwise very good recipe. I also modified it a bit - I left out the serrano chile and used lemon juice instead of lime juice to save a trip to the store. I also only used half an onion since I'm not an onion fan.

It was definitely a perfect soup night last night, too: it's been VERY windy up here (knocking down branches and setting off car alarms) so it was the perfect night to settle in on the sofa, have some very squashy soup, and watch The Paperchase.

Well I finished this after being at the library for a while. I'd best get back to researching paleoenvironments at Koobi Fora.

I like the blogspot entry post form better than LJ. So far I'm happy with the switch. I figure this way people don't have to have animal rights entries or vegan food entries on their friends' list if they don't want to see them since a couple people had expressed...distaste, if you will, about certain entries.

Meggie-poo's new blog

Soo...here it is kids.

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