I have been thinking lately about the idea of how we’ve all gotten used to so many luxuries that previous generations wouldn’t have ever considered. Namely, our somewhat strange demand that we have fresh summer fruits everyday of the year. I go to the supermarket in January and I get upset if I don’t see fresh peaches in the produce aisle. That’s starting to seem a little weird to me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the fact that I am not completely relegated to dried and canned fruits during the horrid winter months. I do, however get a slight twinge of guilt that I feel somewhat entitled to all these comforts. I think there is wisdom in reflecting on how everything won’t always be at our fingertips and that we need to appreciate what we have, when we have it. Rather than having the expectation that anything we want will be available to us anytime we want. This is why I’ve decided to learn how to can.

And by can, I really mean jar. Why don’t they call it jarring? You put the stuff in jars, not cans.

Behold! Strawberry Jam!

Today was my first real attempt to can jam. Amazingly, I was able to find a canning pot with a rack and Ball jars at Wal-Mart. The pick-your-own farms aren’t quite open for picking yet, but since strawberries are in season right now, I felt pretty good about heading to the supermarket to get some. The results were fantastic. I was so thrilled when I pulled the jars out of the water bath and started to hear the popping of the seal. I won’t know until tomorrow whether or not the seals actually held, but so far everything looks great. And the jam is really yummy. Straight up strawberry, but I might stop by the green market on monday and get some rhubarb and make strawberry-rhubarb jam for my next batch.

From a purely economical standpoint, I’m not really saving money. This mostly has to do with having to buy strawberries in smaller (more expensive) containers. Once the pick-your-own farms open it will be better. I’m especially looking forward to making applesauce, salsa, and tomato sauce later in the season. I might do peaches, but haven’t found a use for them other than making cobblers. Does anybody have any other uses? I’m also turned off by the fact that canned peaches are sugary.

Today I also bought a few more herbs and was pleasantly surprised to see how well my little window sill garden is doing. I have one tomato plant–which I didn’t expect to every produce tomatoes, but it is now flowering so my hopes are high–and the rest are herbs. Someday I’ll have a piece of earth to put them in.

A sincere and hearty thanks to the lovely folks who have anonymously been sending me socks over the past 2 weeks. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I never buy socks because I’d rather spend my money on technology and I facetiously wrote about a plan of not buying socks for 4.8 years in order to justify buying a cintiq. Now, thanks to anonymous donors, I’m well on my way.

I was so delighted to open the surprise packages and see all sorts of stripes, colors, and argyle patterns staring back at me. I would stuff my bag full the day’s gifts and empty them out onto the sofa at home, much to Rick’s amusement. I’ve tried to guess who the generous friends are, but haven’t yet figured out exactly how this all happened. The most bewildering thing to me is how they seemed to cross different scopes of friends. Somehow relatives, high school friends, and New Yorkers all got in on it and I really am not sure how they would even know to contact each other. Regardless, I’m full of gratitude and am thrilled to have such lovely people in my life. May each of you get little surprises in your life.

In addition to the aforementioned wedding, we were able to spend some great time in Hollywood with family and we got a tour of Thaitown, an area in LA where a large Thai community lives. Also, we experienced a great west-coast urban treat. The hot dog cart is a staple on most corners here in New York, but in true LA-health-nut fashion they have fruit carts instead. A man cuts up fresh mango, pineapple, coconut, cucumber, cantaloupe, and oranges and put it all in a bag. Then he sprinkles fresh lime juice, salt, and chili powder on top and you mix it all up. It’s delicious and it’s inspired me to stop by the occasional mango cart you see here in the city when they come out for the 3 hot months of the year. There are a lot of produce stands in New York, but I’ve never seen a fruit-salad stand like that here.

Also, speaking of fruit. While we were in Thaitown we went to a market and they had durian. I may have seen durian before in Chinatown, but don’t remember if I did. I’m so intrigued by it. I don’t think I actually want to experience the apparently similar to rotting flesh odor it produces once cut, but I’m fascinated that other people feel the smell is worth it for the fruit inside.

It was great to be able to catch up with some friends as well. I met up with Hannah, an old friend from High School and it’s always so great to see friends happy and successful as adults. Her husband even let me play for a few minutes on his Cintiq. Which actually reminds me of a conversation Rick and I had last night while I was sewing up one of my socks. (All my socks have holes in them- and that’s not an exaggeration) Rick said, “We should really get you some new socks, unless, of course, you enjoy darning socks.” I replied with, “No, I don’t enjoy darning socks but I hate spending money on stuff like socks. I’d rather have computers.” So if I saved that money I would be spending on socks, say $8.00/week (that’s assuming I’d have to replace all of my current socks and then replace the new socks as they got holes in them within the year), I’d be able to purchase a Cintiq display in 4.8 years, not accounting for tax and inflation. The funny thing is that I’m pretty sure I have socks that are WAY older than 4.8 years on my feet at this very moment.

This post is becoming very stream-of-consciousness in style and I apologize for my leaky brain. So, yeah, California was fun. I heart the weather and I talk a lot about wanting to live there, but don’t worry, Rick. I’m 80% sure I’m all talk.

Pictures from the trip here.

We were thankful to be able to go to Los Angeles to see friends of ours get married in the LA temple. The sealing was very nice and the reception was beautiful. I’ll expound more on our trip to the City of Angels at a later time (when it’s not 1:30am), but I’ve posted up pictures from the wedding for all interested parties to view.

Here’s the design. Tomorrow I’m going to make the iron-ons.

Pretty sure we’ve all done stupid things with microwaves, but now you get to watch things spark and melt from the safety and comfort of your living room.

I'm lost and weird without you here.

If you haven’t yet noticed, somethings a little different these days here at hillaryandrick.com. I’ve pretty much decided to cut my beloved out of the {blog} picture. Pretty sure the expiration date for a “couples” blog passed when we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. So in the next coming months my plan is to merge my personal blog with a site I want to develop to help showcase my (what vaguely passes as) design work. This is, of course, all contingent on me actually following through.

The new site will be www.littlegreenandmean.com. As you can see, there currently is nothing there except a logo and that’s because, well, that’s all I got. Eventually you’ll be able to go there to explore the blog and to see what projects I’ve been working on, if you are at all interested.

So that’s that. You’re welcome, internet.

Cameron Moll’s Letterpress Salt Lake Temple

Something about this says “obsession” to me and I can only dream of creating something half this interesting. Cameron Moll is a graphic designer who mostly does websites (namely lds.org), and on his website it’s funny that it explicitly says:

Word on the street is Cameron’s not currently seeking employment or freelance but may accept speaking invites.

Oh, the luxury. I’ve always wanted to go on a speaking tour like C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands. Maybe some day I’ll have something interesting enough to say to warrant it.

Sad Guys on Trading Floors

This is something I don’t really understand. Maybe somebody out there can answer this for me. Why do traders seem to take it so personally when the stock market goes down. Are they personally loosing a log of money when that happens (more than the rest of us, that is), or are they just so emotionally invested in their jobs that they get really depressed when they have a bad day at work. Aren’t they just basically taking orders from people to sell and buy? Where does their personal responsibility lie?

I was wondering enough to stumble upon a kind of funny blog devoted to sad guys on trading floors.

Crazy Intricate Scissor Work

I came across this artist Aoyama Hina who makes these beautiful paper cutouts of sentences from a paper art blog I read sometimes. It says she really does it with scissors. Dunno, but it’s amazing.