Summer favorites: Farmers’ market.

Posted on August 23, 2011 by sorellaaglio

your honey ain’t just honey, honey

Posted on June 20, 2011 by sorellaaglio

This weekend I saw the documentary Queen of the Sun. While I felt like the movie was lacking a clear story line and perhaps message (other than the fact that trying to control agriculture may leave us with none) the content of the movie, the facts and the images to prove those horrifying facts were incredible.

The one that resonated the most with me was the fact that bees are often fed High Fructose Corn Syrup. And you guys know how I feel about that (see number 9). They feed the bees HFCS to help them grow strong, to get through cold winters, etc. But what do bees normally eat in the winter, you ask? Why, honey, of course! You don’t think they just make honey for us, do you?

So here are some bees, making themselves foodstuffs for the winter, and some beekeepers take that, sell it, and feed the bees HFCS instead. Which, to me, is already deplorable. Couldn’t commercial beekeepers just leave enough honey for them to get through the winter and take the rest? But, as the movie pointed out, it’s mostly about finances. The commercial beekeepers can’t afford to do that.

And, in some cases, if the beekeepers are feeding the bees HFCS, the HFCS is getting into the honey they produce. Which means your honey ain’t just honey, honey.

There are many other atrocities that are happening with bees that should alarm you. Monoculture is one of them, which basically boils down to only one crop being produced in a large area, which doesn’t leave much for the bees to eat. Which leads back to feeding them sugar, etc.

Another is moving bees to pollinate monoculture crops, such as almonds, which leads to death in transport, more sugar feeding, and cross contamination of disease among the North American population of bees.

And why should you care? Because, in case you didn’t know, bees pollinate most of the food we eat. So no bees, no fruit. No vegetables. No nothing.

I encourage you to see Queen of the Sun. To do some research about bees. To advocate for natural beekeeping. To advocate for an end to monoculture. Because we all love fruit and veg, right? And we’d like to keep that around. Here’s some more information.

shower the people.

Posted on May 26, 2011 by sorellaaglio

I’m feeling love, today, friends.

And so, I shower the people I love. with love.

Mary: Happy Birthday, lady! Happy 25. Happy done with 365. Happy new job where you get paid to do what you love. Happy summer. Happy memorial day. Happy I’m glad you’re alive and we’re friends.

Ellen: I am so proud of you in your new venture. You’re a champion of the world, and I know that getting the opportunity to get paid to write is the start of something big!

Katie: Happy belated b-day, lady. And happy back to the US, been to London, and holy crap! writing mag release is inching closer every second! I miss you every second of every day.

Nikki: Happy almost wedding. I promise to be more organized from here on out ;). Happy race weekend, and happy maybe running in clouds not pouring rain? You are awesome.

Marissa: I was thinking about you last night and sending you love vibes. It was when I was thinking to myself, “Man, I have such successful friends.”

Corelyn: I miss your face. But I have big things planned for GMS. Does that abbreviation work, by the way? I don’t know if it does. Anyways, I am excited. Hug Meg and Mary for me. Twice.

SS: I saw pregnant in heels the other day. It made me want to be rich and pregnant and live in New York. You could be my fabulous (although not uber gay) best friend and we could stroll around bossing people around looking hot. Thoughts? I miss your face and wish, poor and not pregnant, we could hang out more.

Megan, where have you been all my life? Let’s hang out soon. Rebecca, I loved seeing you two nights in a row. Let’s rinse and repeat soon. Melissa, good luck today. Jen, hope you’re feeling so excited as you leave SO SOON for such an adventure! Caitlin, thanks for bringing brie to book club. You rock my socks. Suzanne, welcome to book club and I hope we don’t scare you. Liz, thanks for always understanding that I need you to go with me on my errands because I need a second opinion, always. Courtney, Memorial Day plans worked to our favor, yesssss. Barbra, Fanboy Comics has been stellar lately. You are working so hard, and I hope we can have a girls night soon to celebrate. Traci, Marc Broussard. You, me. So excited. Jessica, can’t wait to see your new place! Cricket, I think you should reconsider joining book club, because we seem to talk about you every book club anyways. I’ll even consider reading another Nora Roberts. C’mon…. Ana, I am excited that you’re not going away this weekend because I’m selfish. There, I said it.

Shower your people with love, guys! Happy Thursday!!

All our friendship has been for the past 2 years is RUSHING.

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Jennie Palluzzi

I said this to Corelyn last night as we RUSHED out of the door to Trader Joe’s and I said, “Remember that time that we went to TJ’s and forgot our list?”

“Yes, we talk about it nearly every time we go to TJS, obviously it was traumatic.”

“Well yes, and we were rushing for some reason….”

“WE’RE ALWAYS RUSHING.”

“Corelyn, all our friendship has been for the past 2 years is RUSHING. We just RUSH around all the live-long day.”

Last night was no exception. The plan was to do the following: paint chairs, make granola, exchange music (if we had time), maybe slap on a second coat of paint, outfit plan for the photo shoot on Sunday.

On the actual docket? Unexpected visit from Mary, which turned into outfit planning whilst waiting for dinner to arrive. This was a blessing (not in disguised, as Corelyn pointed out) because she had insight into what she really thought would look great. Also unexpected visit from Becca, who showed up because she was supposed to grab dinner with Mary. This turned into dinner with Mary and Becca, whilst hanging out with Melissa, who actually was supposed to come over.

This led us to a late start on our painting, which meant we painted the chairs in my garage in the dark, using a camping light and head lamps. Mary watched for a few minutes before turning to go inside and keep Becca company.

“How do they look?” Mary asked as we came in, about 30 minutes later.

“Well, you’re not going to like them. But we’ll put a second coat on them and they’ll look great,” was my honest response. After that, we sat around for a few minutes making plans for the granola we were about to make, waiting for the food. The Indian place we order from somehow was very late in getting us our food, so this led to us eating and finishing up around 9:15. Since our normal TJ’s closes at 9:00, we had to head to a different one.

As we were going to the car, after saying goodbye to Mary and Becca who were rejuvenated by delicious food and ready for another adventure, Melissa, Corelyn, and I were reminded a) how late it was b) that we had the list and c) all we do is rush.

We headed to TJ’s where we had a hilarious conversation with the check-out guy, “You know how there is always something in granola that you don’t like? This granola will have nothing you don’t like, because YOU made it.” He seemed intrigued. He gave us stickers. One has a chicken with chicks that are multicolored.

Then we went back to the house, when we realized it was 10:00. Perfect time to make granola and paint the second coat. We got everything ready for the oven to bake, then took the timer, the camping lamp, the headlamps, and headed back to the garage.

27 minutes later, we headed back inside, but not before Melissa came to say goodbye and tell us someone had left a hilarious note (which is going to be posted soon, I promise.) She headed home, and we headed inside to finish the granola.

As we washed our teal hands, we could smell the oats and maple syrup all deliciously roasted. We documented what we had already added, and then added a slew of other things while making sure to keep track of what we were adding. Pictures were taken, random splotches of paint were found on each other’s arms, and granola was finished. By the time Corelyn left it was nearly quarter to midnight. We hadn’t had a music exchange, we didn’t pack the kitchen, but other than that, we had accomplished a lot.

Tonight, book club. Tomorrow? Rinse and repeat Tuesday’s chaos with some donuts, muffins, and pancakes. Stay tuned.

Friday morning (afternoon) things.

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Jennie Palluzzi

I can’t seem to keep my shoes on at work (or home for that matter) for more than ten minutes.

This often results in the following conversation:

“Incoming!” (Liz says from her seat behind my desk.)

“But I’m not wearing any shoes!” I rush to find my shoes under/around my desk. Usually I am at least wearing socks, if nothing else.

Inevitably about 80% of the time I don’t find my shoes in time, and I end up having to talk to people in my socks or bare feet. This doesn’t, however, make me wear my shoes any more often.

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This weekend I went to the Songkran Festival with Cricket. It is the Thai new year celebration. Here are some photographs.

Our delicious lunch. We also shared a bag of fried bananas.

There was live music everywhere!

Some of the girls that danced for a large audience. They were so lovely.

This is my Buddha pose. In Thailand, you pray to your Buddha pose that is the day of the week you were born on, and also give donation to that Buddha. I was born on Monday. Here are the rest.