30 May 2013

Quick update

I feel like things are pretty same ole' same ole' here and that consequently I have little to write about. But at the same time I definitely have had some interesting things happen in the last couple weeks that I keep meaning to write good posts about. Clearly that isn't going to happen today, so here are some one (ish) liners about what I've been up to.

I got about a wardrobe's worth of clothes for free from a good friend's attic. They're amazing. They're clothes that are my size and my style.

I watched the parade for my town over Memorial Day and got lost in Mt. Auburn Cemetery (which is easier to do than you'd think)

I had some really good fish. It was so good that my leftovers were still amazing. That's how moist it was.

I rescued a 7-speed bike from my basement. It's pretty cool.

I worked on my own bike and learned how to true wheels. Yeah, I felt empowered.

I took an awesome book repair class. It involved ripping pages out of books (which is surprisingly satisfying) and then putting them back in.

I made samosas. I got lazy though and baked them instead of frying them. I should have fried them.

I started reading Zero Waste Home. It's fantastic. I can't wait to finish it. 

I became the owner of 4 baby tomato plants. And spent an hour getting my hands dirty today weeding what will soon be my very own garden.

16 May 2013

Bathroom inspiration

Remember last week when Melanie posted pictures of her bathroom? Well, I was a little bit inspired. The apartment (/house) that I live in is old. Very old (though compared to some apartments around Boston it's just a baby since it hasn't quite reached centenarian status yet). And because it's old, it's also dingy. About every time I have a break from school I do some deep cleaning and a couple weeks ago that resulted in me spending several  hours cleaning my bathroom. And for about 10 hours it looked great. Though the dinginess doesn't go away. Now I'm not ambitious enough that I painted my bathroom, or even hung pictures in it, but I did get a new shower curtain. And I think it's an improvement.

14 May 2013

Bay State Bike Week

This week is Bay State Bike Week!! As part of the festivities there have been a number of free breakfasts. With a little planning I'm pretty sure I could get free breakfast nearly every day this week. I haven't quite managed to arrange my schedule to take advantage of all of them, but this morning I headed over to Broadway Bicycle School before work and had some delicious free pancakes. They were good. And something that I liked even more was that they were served on real plates, with real silverware and real cups. And you know it didn't seem to be that big of a deal to have to wash the plates before they could be used again. And it seriously reduced the amount of trash generated by this event.

One of the other great perks of this event was that Mass Bikes was there giving free mini tune ups. Nothing big, mostly just lubing chains and pumping tires, but the guy was super helpful and explained some things to me that I should get adjusted on my bike (my new-old bike--a story for another day), and it was great. My tires were super low and so riding since he filled them up has been wonderful.

I love that I live in a place that has such a strong bike culture. And it was great to get to spend a quarter of an hour in the company of people who think that bicycling is important.