What lies beneath…

August 31, 2010 in Education by molly | 1 comment

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Picture of a rather large mushroom breaking its way through the driveway at my mom’s.

Aaron and I wanted to attend a mushroom workshop held at UW-Mil in September. All of the spaces were filled, so we were put on the waitin list and told to, well, wait. Being that it’s almost September already (!), we decided to just let it go. Then Aaron found another mushroom workshop closer to home (at least in the same state). And it’s a series which means we will learn over longer periods of time-  greatly increasing the odds that I will retain the information. Not exactly sure what we will be doing, but I am excited to learn!

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Garlic Fest

August 14, 2010 in In the Kitchen by molly | 1 comment

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We are coming back from attending the fifth annual Garlic Festival in Hutchinson, MN. You can bet that our breath smells A-MAZING! I had never been to any kind of garlic related event before, and this festival helped make clear how much I actually love it. The smell. The taste. The way it can be incorporated into so many different dishes! All in all, this trip was a success. When we got there, we made our way to the Great Scape Cafe for some lunch. Between Aaron and I, we shared a curried tofu sandwhich (garlic cooked in a kind of peanutty sauce), a veggie burrito (filled with all sorts of beans, onions, garlic, and cilantro), and two ears of sweet corn with garlic, lime and chili pepper butter. I also had an ice tea, free from garlic. Aaron’s parents had a veggie burrito and vegan taco.

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After eating, we checked out the vendor booths. Garlic for sale-  free samples! There was also a lot of tomatoes, soap, honey, and coffee. Lots of organic, fair trade kind of stuff. You know. We listened to some music, heard a talk all on garlic, and even tried some garlic ice cream. Yummy!

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It actually was good (to me) because it was slight amounts of garlic and not too sweet as far as ice cream goes. We bought four different cloves of garlic and a jar of honey. I do believe that if we are in MN next year, we will have to attend again.

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Stolen cat

August 8, 2010 in Family by molly | No comments

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We brought Zoë over yesterday – took her from my mom’s when no one was home. I believe it was the longest car ride she has ever taken, and she does not care for them at all. She panted the whole way, and actually threw up in the car (which was a first). After we got her in our place, she plastered herself to every available corner and hid for the remainder of the day. Today she seems to be in a more easy going mood when she is out and about, but she still spent most of the day in hiding. We didn’t see her for a good four hours today, and I was getting anxious. After searching all over the apartment, Aaron found her behind a cupboard in a nook from an old icebox. After we boarded that up, her new favorite spots are under the coffee table and on a corner of the kitchen counter. I really hope that tomorrow and each day after is better for her.

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Tastey faces

August 4, 2010 in In the Kitchen, Self-Reflection by molly | No comments

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We are finally moved into our new place, although not all unpacked. The days/weeks leading up to the move was very busy busy busy. We are loving it so far- still finding out the little quirks that give the place “character”. I am commuting to work now, and that means I have to get up even super brighter and earlier. That also means that I am a little loopy in the morning.

Like this morning – I made our breakfast into a big lipped face and walked around saying ‘shipshape shipshape shipshape’ (from Ponyo). I cannot say, though, that making food into faces was/is a one time event…Aaron says that this looks like a Picasso. What do you think?

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brunch & farewells

July 11, 2010 in Interwebs by molly | No comments

Today marked the last day of VIDCon. It was also the only unprogrammed day, so nothing but a book signing by John Green and a brunch in the morning was planned. We got up early to take advantage of the first part of the signing. I brought along Paper Towns, and Tanya brought An Abundance of Katherines and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. John was awfully tired, but cheery nonetheless. Afterwards, we went back upstairs to wait for brunch, and then made our way down as the clock tolled ten. I was SO looking forward to brunch because for the past three days we had been subsisting off of peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and fruit that we had purchased from the grocery store (except for when we’d hit up the food court in the mall for suppers). A nice, warm, filling breakfast was in order. In short, the brunch was disappointing in that the only warm option was a sausage egg breakfast sandwich and that the strawberries tasted awful, but otherwise the muffins, juice, croissants, and other fruit was AMAZINGLY just what I needed.

We took another nap after brunch, and then came back down to see what the vlogbrothers had organized. Turned out everything was kind of impromtu, so our options were to watch the World Cup finali with John Green, or go find Rootberry‘s act & watch Truth or Fail. We chose to go to Rootberry’s act, and it was a fun time. The whole thing was unplanned – just sort of talking and performing tricks, but it was really entertaining. They are two funny people. They juggled and swallowed swords, talked about past injuries, and answered questions. After that, we really didn’t have anything to do. We walked around a bit, and then came back to the hotel room for most of the afternoon. When we got hungry, we walked to a pizza place called Johnnie’s and had calzones. They were nuuuuuummmy. Tomorrow we have a free day. Not sure what we’re going to do.

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second day of VIDCon!

July 10, 2010 in Interwebs by molly | No comments

The second day of VIDCon started out rather interesting – after a panel with the women of Vlogvetica, there was a performance by Rawn (Hi I’m Rawn) with some other people. He sang a song about a man that loves to wear a bikini (while of course, wearing a bikini), and random characters danced around the stage. There was Batman, gold peoples, marching band folk, and a giant turkey who happened to be John Green.

After the musical performance, there were more Q & A’s, panels, and gatherings. We got a picture with Charlie McDonnell, saw Rootberry perform their juggling/sword swallowing routine, and listened to Dan Brown share his exciting new project, Dan 3.0. In the afternoon we came to a panel about writing music/making music for YouTube with Hank Green, Molly Lewis, and Julia Nune. It was pretty hilarious. Shane Dawson was more interesting than I thought he would be (he is also very good with his fans, apparently). We got chinese food for dinner from the nearby mall, and brought it back to eat while we waited for the nightly concert. Highlights of the concert included Julia Nunes, Charlie McDonnell, and the peeps from AutoTune the News – the Gregory Brothers. The Gregory Brothers sang my new favorite song, Double Rainbow:


Live version


Regular version

I thought the second day, while still pretty full, did not offer as much for me as the first day did. It was still fun, though, and I am glad there were so many opportunities to be had.

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accio awesomeness

July 9, 2010 in Interwebs by molly | No comments

View from our hotel room

Am I ever tuckered out! We’ve been at it since about 10 this morning until about 30 minutes ago. With lunch and dinner breaks, of course. There were serious talks, questions & answers, performances, dancing, laughs, and much more. At one of the break-out sessions, we went to a nerdfighter gathering in which Hank and John Green took questions and acted a little loopy from lack of sleep. The gathering ended with a giant group hug (VIDCon was their baby, so many of the people here are nerdfighters = a very giant hug). We learned easy film tips to take videos to the next level (three most important things – 1) lighting, 2) stability, 3) audio). We got advice on how to start, what to do, and how to keep going.

A lot of this seems to overlap with blogging, in my mind, or even any kind of creation as Hank was saying. So much of it is just starting and making sucky stuff, and then you get better and better and start to form this mold for yourself. Hank told it like each person on earth is basically the same – we all have this level of awesomeness we possess. When we upload a video, or write in a blog, or paint, etc. we use “splice cuts” to take out the boring/sucky parts and are left with this ‘super awesome self’ that we portray through our art. In this way, there is a disconnect (to varying degrees) between our real life and our presented self.

Also today – we got ice cream. We went up to the topish of the hotel and down many, many times. We saw WeezyWaiter in the elevator carrying a bagel. We started stopping people to get pictures/autographs, and I bought Molly Lewis’ CD (her real name is Margaret, btw). All in all, it’s been a very nice, very full day. And we get to do it all over again tomorrow!

As Hank says, bad content is better than no content. And with that, I am going to read some Hunger Games and then go to bed.

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preparing for the awesome

July 8, 2010 in Interwebs by molly | 3 comments

While exploring the hotel, we found that early registration had started tonight downstairs. So we waited (and waited and waited) in line, handed the nice ladies our ID’s, and took our bag of goodies! We figured that the wait in line would be much more bearable tonight than tomorrow morning. YouTubers were floating in and out all around, and after a couple mishaps (Tanya’s badge didn’t get printed, our proof of Sunday brunch purchase hadn’t yet showed up) we were all set. The gift bag included a tote, stickers, a mix tape CD, wrist bands, a badge, program, poster for autographs, granola bars, tongue brush, and a T-shirt which I forgot to include in the picture.

Did you know there was recently a quake here in LA? Yeah, ObviouslyBen tweeted that the early reports suggest the Magnitude 5.9 quake was caused by OVERWHELMING amounts of AWESOME due to an IMPENDING VIDCON!

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trying to make some sense in Los Angeles

July 8, 2010 in Interwebs by molly | No comments


Tanya and I arrived in LA this afternoon, and after a LONG while of waiting for a shuttle, we made our way to the hotel for VIDCon! Nothings scheduled for today, but we do need to find some food and purchase snacks for the weekend. We’ve run into WhatAboutAdam already, on our way to the room, so I have a feeling gatherings and encounters will abound this weekend. Tiredness and hunger are getting to my brain – need to refuel before much substance can appear on here.

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sleepy puppies & interviews

June 23, 2010 in Self-Reflection by molly | No comments

I take the puppies on a walk each morning so that by the time we get back, they are all tuckered out and sleep lazily most of the afternoon. Plus, it never hurts to get a little exercise, right? Popo was so tired when he got back that he would try and fall asleep but after a minute or two had to wake up to resume panting. Each day I take them a little farther, though. Man, it’s like I am a professional dog walker, or something.

Popo would probably sleep anyway, but the real treat is tuning down the hyperactive Ren. I am still getting over being sick (second time we both got sick since the wedding – can you tell we were stressed??), so I slept in late and enjoyed the quiet morning. Pretty much a verrry slow day.

But there is some good news! Aaron found out that he gets to move onto the next round in the Minnesota Reading Corps application process, and he is scheduled to have his final interview at a Twin Cities elementary school on Friday afternoon! He has worked so hard in the finding-a-job arena, has gone through so many loops & turns to get here. I hope it all goes well on Friday and he can finally get some experience doing what he loves – teaching! This job really sounds like it’ll suit him well.

Other than that, not much to report.
Cheers!

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