WHERE CAN YOU SEE LIONS? ONLY IN KENYA (and also in Calgary) – oh ho ho, I am so not funny, but this is what makes it funny YES?

There were also tigers… (the one sitting up was totally eating a duck that it caught, and it was awesome)

AND BEARS (oh my)

The penguins were also really delightful. They have a fancy new house and like a lot of different varieties of penguins. I think if I lived in Calgary I’d want to get a membership to the zoo mostly to hang out with the penguins a lot.

This guy is the official mascot of my town. Seriously. There is a statue in the centre of the town.

I spent a lot of time yelling at the camels (and also being disappointed that they were so far away).

Also tried to make friends with this caribou, who was smaller than expected. Anyway. Good times were had! You can view the rest of the photos here.

Hello friends, lovers, people of the Internet! Did I promise to post more Calgary photos? I can’t remember. But I will eventually, it’s just… lately my life has been consumed with walking + a sprinkle of running.

Yes, friends. I completed the Sun Run. It was hard, but not the hardest. My butt hurt for a few days afterward.

I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turns out a lot of people are not very competitive about it and they just walk. It’s a pretty ok time. Random strangers high five you and tell you that you inspire them, which is kinda funny to me because I really do not feel all that inspiring, but ok.

See the lady in the pink shirt? She’s inspiring. Her shirt said she was a 4 time breast cancer and liver cancer survivor. Me? I’m just someone who was betrayed 7 months ago and decided to see it as an opportunity to live a more awesome life and do things instead of just talking about doing them.

Anyway, it took me 1 hour and 46 minutes, and if I’m being honest I probably ran about 25 to 30% of the race? I’m not sure. The day before I had stupidly gone for a walk that turned into 7km, and then had trouble sleeping, so I was kinda tired/sore to begin with. But now that I know what to expect, I plan to do better next year.

I’m going to start the Couch to 5k thing again since I technically did not finish it (I made it to week 8 but then started focusing on walking long distances rather than running shorter distances). I’m also trying to be more responsible about what I eat, which is the biggest pain in the butt since I am so lazy about cooking. But! I was gifted a dehydrator by my sweet neighbour, so I anticipate there will be SO MANY DRIED FOODS in my future. Yesssssss.

Next up, the Grouse Grind. Who’s with me?

After the museum, we decided to check out the hoodoos, which are basically just weirdo rock formations caused by when erosion happens. They look pretty cool though.

We completely ignored the no exit sign and ended up in muddy pothole city, which was not the best of times.

There are hoodoos all around Drumheller I guess, but this was like the weirdo official hoodoo site.

You could sort of explore a bit but most of it was just some stairs around some rocks. Plus it was super muddy and my shoes are so not designed for exploring.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for Drumheller.

Today we’re going to see Jurassic Park, and tomorrow we’re going to the Glenbow museum and I’m going to go to the Marimekko talk at ACAD while Raine goes to her foot appointment. (She did a terrible thing of like, tearing a ligament, and it is awful.)

I hadn’t been to the Royal Tyrell Museum in like, 20 years. The last time I went was for a school trip back in grade 4. Yikes.

However, it basically felt the same as it did back then. Not much has changed… there are still random dinosaurs around the town, and the museum looked pretty much how I remembered it. Maybe I’m crazy?

It was only $11 to get in, which is insane to me (it’s like $22 to get into the aquarium in Vancouver and they don’t even really have that many monsters), and we managed to go early enough that it was not completely flooded with children. They also let you take photos as long as you don’t use a tripod. This makes sense as the lighting is complete crap for the most part (I see what you did there, museum).

Anyway I’m not feeling particularly clever at the moment (this draft has been open for 2 days now) so I’m just going to photodump and call it a day.

It is totally crazy and delightful to me that the Earth was once full of monsters. So good. I am pretty into monsters right now.

Oh also I made friends with this little guy as we were leaving. I wanted to get a photo and kept talking to him. Raine was like “he is going to run away, hurrrrry!” but then he actually came closer. I think he thought I had snacks. Sorry friend! No snacks!

I’ve been friends with Google Reader for a long time. I like having all my things in one place. It is convenient to me.

When I first got it, I had no idea how to use it and would often get overwhelmed when I logged in to find like, 1000 things waiting for me. (This is a common thing with me… I get internet things and then it takes a long time to learn now to use it. Examples? Twitter, Tumblr… and I still have some confusion about Pinterest.)

Anyway Google decided they were not clever enough to make money off Reader so now it’s going away and I had to figure out a different thing. I just signed up for Bloglovin’ and it told me to add this to my thing so uhh here it is.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

(Is it so obvious that I do not know how to use this yet?) I think this means that I am the boss of this blog now (perhaps I should, you know, blog about things?)

I keep wanting to talk about fitness and how like, if you believe in yourself you can run a thing, but then I go to type it and it becomes too much work. I am on week 5 of the Couch to 5k program, and tomorrow is the day of running 20 minutes with no walking breaks. I am oddly looking forward to it, which I don’t think I would have said when I first started this thing.

Basically I just want to say… don’t let people tell you that you can’t do a thing. Also do not let yourself convince you that you can’t do a thing. If you want to run, you can learn how to run. It is a thing that can happen. It won’t happen overnight, and it will suck for a bit probably, but then it will get awesome. Just listen to that kid up there; he has the right idea.

Pro tip: one of the easiest ways to ensure you meet your goals is to not think about it too much. Do what needs to be done. Sometimes this means setting your alarm for 4:55 so you can do the Couch to 5K at 5 am before you work at 6 am. Sometimes it sucks, and you’d rather stay in bed, but the satisfaction of completing a task makes up for it.

The whole reason I am torturing myself is because I agreed to do the Sun Run in April, which is hilarious and probably I am going to die. But Current Tams is trying to be kind to Future Tams so she doesn’t entirely hate Past Tams. I don’t think I’ll be able to run the full 10 km but if I can even do half and walk the rest, that would be amazing.

Another thing I’ve been talking about for a long time is knitting a sweater. I started Argo a long time ago, but got bored/lost interest because it just seemed to be taking forever. It wasn’t really but I imagined it was. I  picked it up again last week and after a few nights of knitting while watching the Canucks I suddenly had something that was starting to look like a sweater. Whoa.

I’m on the sleeves right now, I actually finished one tonight before realizing that I didn’t read the whole pattern and was supposed to be doing decreases. Whoops. I went back in time and am doing it properly, which is annoying but hopefully for the best. The sleeve looked kinda weird without it.

Not reading everything is a common theme in my life lately. I made my own pho because the vegetarian place in my neighbourhood has secret gluten all over the place. Then I felt sick and realized  that the broth I used also had secret gluten (why is there gluten in vegetable broth?). My guts hurt for a bit afterwards but I think I’m ok now. Gluten free life is bullshit, in case you’re wondering.

Another goal, sort of… Hilary, Steph and I have been talking about going to visit Rebecca for ages. The stars aligned and we all had the same day off, so we decided to go out today. Steph is moving back to Ontario in a couple weeks, so it was pretty good timing.

We hung out for a bit at Rebecca’s and holy crap side note how cute is Boston? He is seriously the biggest baby ever. So cute! His face is basically always this adorable concerned/wrinkled face and I just want to love him forever.

We went to the new Birkeland’s location in Abbotsford . I’m trying to be frugal so I didn’t buy anything, but Rebecca rented the window in December and sold a bunch of things. She now has a ridiculous store credit, so we admired some spinning wheels and Hilary bought some mystery yarn (it was a good deal!).

Mostly I just admired all the sweet sweaters and wished I was more dedicated about knitting. Can I just go to Iceland and find someone to make me one?

Rebecca’s foster kid is in 4H, so she took us out to meet the Llamas and holy crap I almost lost my mind! This one was pretty muddy but had the best ears. Wasn’t interested in being friends, though.

This lady was more into it. When I took out my phone to take a picture she was like HELLO FRIEND (maybe it is because my case looks like a Panda?) and I was like whoa whoa whoa, I don’t really want to make out with you, my llama friend. Look at those eyelashes though!

Steph and Hilary fed them but I was too weirded out. I thought they were going to spit on me for invading their land but they were pretty ok about it.

On the way home we stopped at Chomp, which was pretty much the greatest day of my life. I was so excited to be able to eat anything on the menu… it was kinda overwhelming actually. This is seriously a thing you take for granted when you do not have all the food restrictions in the world.

In the end I went with the sliders and yam fries, mostly because I had been whining about wanting a burger all day. The buns were ridiculously delicious.

So, back to hopes and dreams.

This morning before we left, I finally applied for a passport, which is sort of a second step towards the great adventure of 2014. Hilary, Val and I are planning a bike trip in the summer… it is a little bit crazy pants but I am excited. Currently the plan is to cycle from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Obviously I need to become more awesome at bicycles, and also save up money before this can happen. So far I have just over 1/3 the flight saved up, which is not bad considering I started saving in November. Maybe one day I will get a raise?

Anyway, the first step is learning Swedish, which I don’t think is really necessary but it’s hilarious (why is the word for noon and dinner the same?) and gives me something to do that is… somewhat productive? I still am planning to post about it but I have shame over how terrible my grammar is.

Another life goal I have is to do the Grouse Grind this year. Apparently I have a lot of fitness related goals, but I think it is because I am getting old and I don’t want to feel like crap. It’s been good. I’ve been accomplishing things that I thought were impossible or just too hard, and it turns out you just have to do them and keep doing them and then they become less hard (who knew).

Ok! I have to go to bed now so I can get up and run tomorrow morning. Have a good night, internet! If you want to leave comments to tell me about your hopes and dreams that would be ok, but if your hope and dream is not to be coerced into leaving comments I understand . <3

Het Verzameld Breiwerk van Loes Veenstra from Christien Meindertsma on Vimeo.

Now I want to knit a whole bunch but I have old lady bones and my hands hurt. Le sigh.

You guys, I am so full. This is both delightful (I got to eat something that wasn’t salad!) and sad (omg I want to eat more they were so delicious).

Sometimes I get wistful for the carefree days where I could eat whatever I wanted and I’d get to go to Ikea and eat Swedish meatballs. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I had them, and I have serious doubts as to the authenticity of Ikea meatballs, but whatever, sometimes you take what you can get (story of my life).

So I decided I wanted some Pie Balls, and that today would be the day. And now I am going to share my findings with you so you can make some, too!

The first thing I did was I soaked some cashews overnight to make cashew cream for the sauce. Basically if you haven’t made this before, you just soak your cashews (I didn’t measure but I’d guess there was about a cup?) with about 2 or 3 inches of water covering them for 12 hours. Then you drain and rinse them, and chuck them in the blender with some water. I used just enough to cover them.

Then I put it in this jar because I am a classy dame.

Ok here are the things you will need (measurements are mostly approximate… I trust you.)

1 can of lentils
1 package of walnut pieces (100g or 3.5 oz if that’s how life works for you)
1/2 cup of (gluten free if you’re sad like me) oats (plus more later on) and 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds soaked in 1/2 cup of soy milk
1 medium onion
12 mushrooms
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom
salt
pepper
Earth balance for fryin’
couple tablespoons of some kind of flour (I used brown rice)
1 cup vegetable broth
lingonberry sauce (or cranberry if you’re lazy)

Ok let’s do this.

First thing I did was process the walnuts. You want texture so don’t turn this into walnut butter, ok?

Then I set aside the walnuts and processed the mushrooms and onions. Again you still want a bit of texture so don’t go too crazy. Then I cooked them in some oil until they turned brown and delightful. I also added my spices at this part. Add more spices if you want, I kinda didn’t measure that well. You should end up with this:

Then I processed the lentils, and if you’ve noticed a theme here I hope that theme is do not overprocess your stuff, we’re makin’ meatballs not goo balls.

Now you want to mix the things together.

This is where I also added my oat/flax mixture and squished everything together.

It felt too wet so I added more oats. Eyeballed it. Go for it, you guys. I trust you.

All the recipes I read said to fry them in butter, so I got out the Earth Balance and commenced frying. Little bits stuck to the pan and I started to get worried but it turned out ok. It will be ok. Also don’t crowd them, they need space to roll around in there. I did 4 at a time but you could probably push it and do 5. Or more if you have a bigger pan. Whatever. You’re the boss of your own pan.

Once they were all browned I put them on a baking sheet and chucked them in the oven at 350 F for 10 minutes.

At this point I probably should have also started on the mashed potatoes but I forgot until the end. Don’t make my mistake unless you want to be delayed in your meatball eating.

Then I made a roux in the pan I used to fry the pie balls. I used brown rice flour but I’m sure you can use other kinds. I added about a cup of vegetable broth and once it thickened up I added the cashew cream. It ended up being a bit grainy but it tastes delicious so who even cares.

You should now be ready to assemble your plate and stuff your face. If you’re not too lazy to go to Ikea, get yourself some lingonberry sauce and a new duvet cover while you’re at it. I served mine with wild cranberry sauce and it was a pretty ok time, too.

This is my face before I went to see Gogol Bordello. It was full of EXCITE.

It is pretty similar to the Beast’s EXCITE face, no?

Good times were had, as evidenced by this crappy photo. They played a lot of new songs that were delightful and I am pretty excited for the future when a new album happens.

Other things that have happened recently include working on a rag rug made of old pants. I’ve been spending a bit more time at the studio with this crazy pantsless lady:

And also this deranged looking knitting lady:

And also this beast, who guards my loom for me and barks at my studio mates.

I also started learning Swedish for lols. I am planning a European adventure with Hilary and possibly Val for 2014. There’s no way I can afford it this year but I’m hoping if I squirrel away some beans I can make it happen next year.

You better learn the name for rice or this lady will eat your face!

I also hung out with Steph a bit, even though we both seem to work all the time and life is hard. Do you like how awesome she is at dog whisperin’?

I went to Sarah’s solstice party and had some delicious vegan snacks. Not these ones, obviously, but there were vegan style ones as well.

I also played so many Mass Effect, and beat ME2 on Insanity, which was pretty satisfying.

Another thing that happened is Jen and I went to my Christmas party and I somehow managed to get SO DRUNK at dinner. I recently talked to my boss and he was like “You had like 10 birds in your purse!” and then I told him how drunk I was and he told me I hide it well. This is a lie. According to Val, I don’t get loud or super handsy like most normal drunk people but I start saying even more weird things and this is how you can tell Tams needs a time out from more booze. I had tall hair that night, it was a good time.

All things considered it was a pretty decent night up until I went home alone on the Skytrain and then suddenly started feeling so sorry for myself about being a single lady and cried a whole bunch. So I guess now is an ok time to talk about that.

It’s now been about 4 months of single life, and for the most part it is glorious. I haven’t really been single as an adult except for that summer of drunk in 2007 where I made some poor life decisions that led me to where I am now. I’m finding that I really enjoy living alone – my mess is my mess, I can watch whatever I want, I can make whatever I want for dinner (more on that later), I can decorate however I want… you get the idea. Things are now completely on my terms and I don’t have to have those obnoxious “but what do you want to do” conversations.

I don’t miss my ex, but I am still angry at him and do not want to be reminded of his existence. This has meant unsubscribing from mutual friends on Facebook (it feels rude to un-friend some of them completely) and also removing people from Twitter who are generally not so bad but still hang out with that guy and seem to think he’s a decent human being. He’s not. But that’s no longer my problem. Occasionally I am annoyed that things did not end on better terms, that he didn’t have the balls to just tell me he was unhappy before going off to bone some broad behind my back while complaining about how immature she is to me and also saying crap like “you’re the one I come home to”  (gross, right?). Had it ended before that all happened, we might still be friends. But then when I have this thought my brain gets mad and yells WHO WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE WHO WOULD DO THAT ANYWAY and then it’s like “I am woman hear me roar” or some shit and we listed to some Gloria Gaynor or Kelly Clarkson.

Anyway! Being single is awesome but I’m kinda lonely sometimes and that part sucks. But it doesn’t suck enough to reactivate my Ok Cupid profile cause I don’t really want to talk to creeps. (Not everyone on there is a creep but let’s be real, did you see the “Nice Guys of OK Cupid” tumblr before it was taken down?) For now I guess I’m just going to continue focusing on being more awesome and then maybe I will charm some Scandinavian babe when I save up enough beans to go to Sweden (related: does student loan debt follow you if you run away to another country? hahahha).

Speaking of being more awesome… So for ages I’ve always been complaining about feeling sick after eating and Val was like “OMG TAMS STOP EATING WHEAT” so… that’s what I did as of January 1. It’s not really a New Years Resolution but it seemed like as good a day as any to start.

My intention is pretty much to go maybe a month or so and see how I feel. Then maybe try eating wheat again to see if I die. I’m hoping it’s all in my head because bread is delicious. I feel better but that might also be because I have been eating so many beans, salad, qunioa, and other delicious healthy things. I also kinda feel like all I do is eat but at least it’s fruits, veggies, nuts, and grains instead of garbage.

So. I guess that is it. We are up to date in the life of Tams. I would like to start making more of an effort to e-hang out with you more, internet, but I make no promises. Life is hard. Typing is a lot of work. You can always creep me on Instagram though and we can be friends there.