12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of

i just randomly looked at mother earth news today. and lo-and-behold, here's an story about new places to explore. and potentially to live. of course, since i am always dreaming of new places and perfect little towns i had to read it. and there it was, shining in all it's spelndor. the one and only gj. Inconceivable!!12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of

Grocery Warning

i've been wondering lately what this new "torula yeast" thing is. and i even went so far as to find who manufactures it and what it's derived from. of course their website is all clean and shiny with pictures of yummy looking food. well apparently it's like an MSG. great, and i thought it might be like nutritional yeast or something. here are some more things that are dangerous....
Grocery Warning: The Seven Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods

Tord Boontje

i have a new love. Tord Boontje. he's a designer based in france, and his stuff is just....perfect. it's whimsical and forest-y and flowered and filled with a magical kind of spirit. and at the same time it's crisp and clean and modern. i want to meet him personally and say "tord, i think you have read my mind and created some pieces of art that fit my life, perfectly...now can you send me a set of your forest stories dinner plates for cheaper than $78 a set of two?" but really, quiet fun. just google him.

Pack a Lunch With Punch!...in the gut

i am very disappointed with PETA right now. sure i think they are a little extreme all the time, but they are PETA and that's what they do. but this has nothing to do with their splashing red paint on fur wearing celebrities or renouncing the use of glue on envelopes. this has to do with the health of our future. i agree that vegetarian diets are much better for our children than feeding kids (and ourselves) hamburgers and cheesy fries. however in an effort to appeal to the masses, i believe PETA has slightly lost sight of part of the point of abstaining form animal products. a large reason for abstaining is for health reasons. but on their veg cooking site, there are numerous rather unhealthy lunch suggestions for kids school lunches. amongst these are peanut butter slices (packaged like american cheese) and smuckers frozen pb&j sandwiches. these are neither healthy, nourishing, nor life giving foods. these are for lazy parents who don't have the 2.5 minutes to make a regular pb&j for their kids school lunches. i hope that PETA thinks more about the overall impact (on families, the environment and health) next time they come out with a list of vegetarian alternatives. let's look for overall healthier foods, not just convenient meat alternatives. to a longer healthier life...once again. VegCooking > Pack a Lunch With Punch!

you are what you eat

hmm, just the type of website i would be intersted in looking at. somebody (the folks at George Mateljan Foundation for the World's Healthiest Foods) took the time and effort to look at a bunch of different foods and determine their healthy-values. this is simply a list, not a ranking system. and i liek it that way. so instead of saying "oh, i need to eat more brocoli than spinach and more blueberries than peaches" you can simply try to stay with the foods on the list. and really, there are quite a lot so it's pretty simple. the website also has a link for every food, and the link tells you all about that food and it's benefits. more and more it appears we should just be eating simply. WHFoods: The World's Healthiest Foods List, A-Z

a whole week together

ooh, two weeks ago i got back from a trip out east. a whole week of vacation, and with my lover on top of that. It was beautiful and fun and we had a great time. (except for the beginning which was terrible...my flight out of Charlotte, NC to Portland, ME got delayed and once we got on the plane and were 1/2 way to Portland we had to turn around and go back to Charlotte due to bad weather. We got back at 2 am so I spent the night in the airport. bleh, but at least I made It to Maine on Sunday afternoon!) Sunday-Tuesday we went camping in Acadia national park. And i realized how much i miss the coast. and i found starfish in the tidal pools and watched the sunset in reverse and swam in the ocean. Then we went up to Baxter state park and climbed Mount Kathadin, Maine’s highest peak (also the end of the Appalachian trail.) It was such a hard hike, the ascent was so steep! Then it was on to the farm for Thursday-Sunday. We went to Québec city for a day and met up with my sisters and Emily’s boyfriend and they all came up to the farm for a couple days. damn, vacations are way to short.

and another

and i found out that penny rose has decided to finally show her beautiful face and arrived last saturday. wow!

having seen pictures nw, i must say they are both adorable. and perfectly formed. penny rose has an adorable, serne face and sonya has an alert look about her, like she might just start talking..and she's got great hair.

i am still trying to take in that two of my great friends are now mothers. now totally in a world apart. and yet very much themselves at the same time. i'm so happy for them. and curious about their lives now. and content in knowing that these two moms (and the dads) will do such a wonderful job. yay!!