Life and living...Random Pictures

That is hail...apparently it's not that common here though.

Yum. Pink Pearl apple! And no there's nothing wrong with the apple or my camera. Pink Pearl apples are pink inside!
Pole decorations for Food for Thought festival...that's my friend Purba

Purba and Erin eating free apples from the festival

Farmer's Market last week...tried to buy a little more frugally...although cheese and raspberries are on the more expensive side. What is here...Red Pepper, spring lettuce mix, watercress, raspberries, cheddar, lots of different apples and one pear.

Enjoying a semi-sunny day by Lake Mendota...those were rain clouds in the background though...and yes it rained while I was walking home...though not enough to soak me through.
Farmer's Market this week! I am so excited about everything I bought and what I'm going to make with it...and this only cost 20 bucks. Pretty cheap for so much fresh organic produce. What I bought...free range happy chicken eggs, green pepper, multicolored cherry tomatoes, various cute tiny squashes and pumpkins, acorn squash, apples and a pear, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, red onion, yellow onion, delicious carrots, and a pumpkin to use for cooking (I'm thinking pumpkin soup). My cooking plans are...vegetarian chili, ginger sweet potato soup, and pumpkin soup. Yum! I'll let you know how they turn out!

As for this weekend...I'm trying to take it easy...I'm teetering on the brink of getting sick. Jennell (my friend from Tandem) spent the night last night and is coming up tomorrow to spend the night again!

Life is still good despite the coldish weather.

And the best part of fall so far...all the fun colorful produce at the Farmer's Market.

Cold don't come yet!

Yesterday morning it was 35 degrees.

Today it was 43.

I hope it warms up again before the winter...even if it's just to above 50 as a low. I didn't get to say goodbye to the warm weather.

Random Days and Tandem

Foggy Orton Park on my bike ride to Tandem


The beginnings of fall colors outside of my apartment!


Cutting, cutting every day.


Wall of ink. Mmmmmmm.


I got to help print those images in the background!!!!

Settled In

So...now I have another job, but this one's for keeps. I'm working at an After School Care Program with K-2nd graders. My first day was last Friday. I work about 23 hours a week, and make enough to make my budget happy. The shifts are fairly short, but regular. It's close-by.

I already quit Eddie Bauer (wahoo!) and now I have to quit my restaurant job. I contemplated keeping it too, but I think it would be too much. I'll work at Tandem from 8-whenever I go into After care and I'll get off at 6. I may or may not take some sort of lunch break in there depending on the day. Anyways, my weekdays will be full and my weekends full of fun things.

For instance- this weekend was wonderful. Friday night I volunteered for a music festival. I was hoping to meet some people. I didn't really meet too many people, but ended up getting free tickets to Andrew Bird making it more than worth it. Yesterday I hung out with my neighbor, Erin a lot. We walked to the Farmer's Market and then ran various errands in our neighborhood (Ace hardware, bike shop, thrift store). We also enjoyed part of the neighborhood fair that was going on. We saw an accordion player who was awesome! Last night I babysat for Bruce, a printer at Tandem. I had fun hanging out with his daughter Lily. Then I got to go see Andrew Bird. It was amazing. He's such a talented performer.

Today I went to the Willy St. Fair. There was a huge parade at 11:00. There were jugglers, tons of people dressed up, and a bubble machine car (which featured tubas expelling giant wads of bubbles). There were lots of food stands and lots of live music. I met lots of new people today. First- Tasha, who is the girlfriend of a guy who works at Tandem. Coincidentally she lived a block away from me in Gainesville last year. Also, I went to a BBQ last night thrown by a UW Printmaking Grad who works at Tandem and met a lot of Printmaking 1st years. Everyone was really nice and easy to talk to. I guess it helps having a common ground in art.

Life is good so far. I can feel the days slipping away too quickly already. The leaves have started changing. The air is starting to get colder. Every day is a new adventure. I'm glad I decided to move to Madison. It feels overwhelmingly right.

Today