One good reason for doing your dishes immediately after eating is so that when you learn on wednesday at work that you will, in fact, have company over for dinner on thursday, you don't have to scamper to figure out when you'll do the sink full of dishes between now, the bonfire you're going to tonight, and work tomorrow. However, that does mean I get to turn my old hen that's been sitting in the freezer into stock and make some thai-style winter root veg curry (I'm making up the recipe - leeks were too expensive and pathetic-looking) with lemongrass (cheaper than leeks!) and black soy beans (my new favorite bean for asian-style meals - they absorb flavor so well!), add into that some kraut-cum-kimchi (I'll be adding chilis, ginger, garlic, and thin-sliced turnips to some of my kraut and letting it all sit in brine overnight so the flavors can meld), and some spiced peach cobbler, I say we'll have ourselves a dinner. Whether or not the kitchen will survive, that i don't know.

In other news - I ran out of my lovely local onions yesterday. I probably had 10 pounds or so for the winter, and they were perfect, little single-serving onions. Moral of the story: I'll need double the onions for next year.

I'm also on a mission to have more dinner parties so that i can use up the rest of my winter storage veggies as spring comes upon us. Anyone have some good winter veg recipes you want to share?

Life is going to change. No doubt about that.

I've started drawing sketches to accompany the blog, but I don't have a functioning scanner in my life. The one at work doesn't seem to work, though i spent more time than I should have trying to fix it. Please forgive me, dear readers, for my dislike of digital photos. They just take up way too much time. sketching is much simpler and more satisfying.

Now I must admit a thing that has made me sad and that will definitely impact this blog and the pace of my life, though I have no idea how (who ever knows?). Now that I've finally fallen in love with living alone, I have put out a call for a roommate. there was no way to avoid it. I can't afford to live in my sweet little house alone, and there's no way in hell you could get me to move. I have found my little piece of heaven. I intend to stay here until I have no other choice. So there it is. I wish I were filthy rich, so I could be a real fashion farmer and live wherever I wanted and grow whatever I wanted just for the hell of it - and because it makes me feel good about myself (warning about the link - don't open it if you're an ex-suburbanite-turned-rural-farmer and take yourself too seriously).

As a result of me not being a trust fund baby, you, my dear readers, can expect to find posts about building walls (because i intend to separate the loft into 2 rooms), arranging work-trades, and figuring out how to convince your roommate to do all the dishes (I will think of a worthwhile exchange and appreciate any help in doing so). Also, I will inevitably have to discover how I can listen to NPR as often as i want to with another human being in the house, who probably hates Allen Chartok as much as I do but isn't as fascinated by the constant chatter.

Wish me luck, and if you know anyone who wants to be my roommate, send them my way!