HO-LY CRAP!

This guy is good! You can also find him at goodwatermusic.com

Musical Crystal Glasses Like Never Before

Call me sometime

2nd door-to-door saleman of the night, after learning that his co-worker was unsuccessful with me: "So, what would you say if I asked you out on a date for tomorrow night?"

Me: "No-- the other guy was better looking"

Carrots and Oranges and Lettuce, Oh My!

Our GLORIOUS produce from our first pick-up at
Take Root Farms:

You Don't Have To Be A Yokel To Buy Local

Tonight I'm going to depart from my usual witty dialogue and get a little serious. I have recently been reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and MY LIFE HAS BEEN CHANGED. I kid you not-- this is the most life-changing book I have read since the Bible. Most of you know that I am not easily excitable nor prone to gushing. However, I will gladly overthrow any reservation and unabashedly promote this highly readable tome.

The author (who happens to be one of my favorite novelists) talks about the year her family decided to eat only local produce and meat. She intersperses her descriptive and lust-inducing gardening stories with commentaries about what is wrong with America's current food situation and how organic, local farming is the way to go. She never preaches, but rather only presents the facts for you to make the logical conclusions. I have never been one to really care about organic food, and still am not completely on that train yet, although I'm close enough to the tracks to jump on at any time. However, the plea for consumption of local goods swept me away. Read the next paragraph from her book (p.121) about the organic goods you may be purchasing.

"Furthermore, the paper trail of organic standards offers only limited guarantees to the consumer. Specifically, it certifies that vegetables were grown without genetic engineering or broadly toxic chemical herbicides or pesticides; animals were not given growth-promoting hormones or antibiotics. "Certified organic" does NOT necessarily mean sustainably grown, worker-friendly, fuel-efficient, cruelty-free, or any other virtue a consumer might wish for."

Buying organic goods IS NOT ENOUGH. Knowing where you food comes from is a mighty powerful thing. I encourage all of you to look into local products in your area and to read the book for more about why it is so important. Jess has started to read it as well and we have been inspired to join a CSA farm (community supported agriculture). Once a week, we will be picking up a box of produce from Take Root Farm, which is close to our place. Delicious, organic vegetables and fruits coming from a known source that supports our local economy. I impassionately implore each of you to think about what YOU can do to buy local.

An update on the evening...

Yes, post-mimosas we are both doing well...one better than the other. As giggled by Angie, "It's just so hard to think right now!"

And yes, this would be Jessica with my second post to the blog in its existence.

Love lorn, we have actually had a mighty fine evening accompanied by Henry, our faithful companion. Get this... he is NAKED except for a beautiful garland of red tinsel hearts with a rose tucked behind his ear! Strong, steadfast (actually immobile), perky listening ears, dark caring eyes, toothy grin...Could we ask for someone better to share the evening with? I think not.

Now it's off to bed to read (maybe a few pages if I'm lucky) and then heading to sleep. I am looking forward to a relaxing long weekend while all of my students at school detox from their Valentine's sugar high. Let's just say we were all ready for the weekend at about 1:00 with 2hrs and 15 min left to go!

Don't be expecting any more posts from me any time soon. At this rate my next post will be Valentine's Day 2010 and let's just hope that one is a bit more productive in the romance department.

Coming soon... the night wear of Jess and Ang vintage 1995!

Keep Them Coming!

What do two roommates do on Valentines Day in lieu of dates? Why, drink themselves silly of course! Just joking, although we have been enjoying our mimosas. I am currently writing this under the influence of more than a few of them and claim no responsibility for my words. The night started out like this:



And ended up like this:


Multiple times. So good.

And of course I had to make something heart-y (oh, what a great pun) for dinner, so I made shaped pancakes. I have always felt like my pancake skills are lacking, but tonight I pulled through. No broken, messy, misshapen cakes-- only perfectly formed and browned hearts. I really can't believe how well it went.



We watched The Break-Up, which has to be one of the most wearing movies ever. Really, the last thing we want to watch is two hours of a couple fighting. It gets irritating. We ended up skipping the whole middle section and watching the final scenes to see what happened. We certainly didn't miss much.

Valentines Day 2008 is almost at a close and we want to say we love you all. Granted, this might be the alcohol talking, but we really do. May you love and be loved as much as we are.

And I Developed My Morality Just Last Year...

I promised you more words from my 8th grade English journal and would hate to renege on our deal. I wouldn't want to be called a liar after all...

Feb 7, 1996 Lying

I used to lie all the time when I was younger. "Did you brush your teeth?" "Of course", I'd answer (when in reality I hadn't done it for a week). "Did you make your bed? Get started on your animal report? [I never actually did that report in 5th grade. When my teacher asked me where it was, I told him I had turned it in already. Since I was a well-behaved kid for the most part, he thought he had just lost it and gave me FULL CREDIT! Damn, I was good!] Clean the living room?" "Yes," I would answer, "I always do." I lied for the simple reason of wanting to get outside and play with my friends. [If I remember correctly, playing outside wasn't really the incentive. I liked to read more. So basically I just lied in my essay on lying. Huh.] I got so used to lying that they just slipped out like butter. Then when my parents found out that I was lying, they'd give me a good scolding or even a spanking. [They never did find out about that animal report. Oops. Am I going to get a spanking now?] Eventually I stopped lying, when I realized it was wrong. I am so against it now, that if I lie to someone, I feel guilty for a week [A week. Not 6 days. Not 8 days. A week.] and have to go say that I was sorry for lying to them. When you are little, you don't have much of a conscience or at least I didn't. Fortunately, I developed one around age ten. [WHAT? I had no conscience before then? No way of determining right from wrong? I guess I must have been a wild child who killed gerbils for fun and set buildings ablaze "just to see what would happen".]

Love Always, George W.

I hate to bring up anything political because not much else gets people as heated as the good ol' Red vs. Blue debate, but Jess and I aren't big fans of Georgie (no offense to our readers who feel the opposite). However, one day I came across the White House website where you can request a letter from the President for special occasions such a births and birthdays. Of course I wanted to get in on that action before our "favorite" Prez left office! I decided that the ironic and really the best way to get the letter would be to request one for my "gay marriage". It's ironic because Bush is against it and it's the best because well, it's just funny. So I filled out the form with a bit of fudging (kids, don't try that at home) and Jess and I have now become a couple in the eyes of the White House.

Today I had the good fortune to open my mail and be greeted with this:


"Congratulations to you both on this wonderful day. Your marriage is a celebration of your love and commitment to each other. May this deep and meaningful bond provide strength and friendship in the years ahead. We send our best wishes for a lifetime of happiness together."

Well, we do have a deep and meaningful bond that has provided friendship for many years. Here's to hoping we have many more and a lifetime of happiness!


I love that the seal on the card was actually embossed! It made it just that more special and presidential looking.


I think my favorite part of it all is that the envelope was hand addressed. I love knowing that a 70-year old woman is sitting at a desk somewhere in D.C., offering her best cursive handwriting as her civic duty. Can you imagine her shaking her head as she writes "Mr. & Mrs. Angie Tjoelker"? Muttering under her breath that the boys names these days are starting to sound an awful lot like girls names. Oh, if only we would all sacrifice a little hand cramp for our country.


I was sad that the signatures weren't the real deal. I realize that W must be busy with other things, but gosh darn it, I had hoped for an actual pen-to-paper attempt from the Mrs. Oh well, they say it's the thought that counts. Thanks for thinking of us Bushys!

OOOO 1&2: Dancing & Girls Wrestling

Some of you may be acquainted with Wild and Crazy Day. For those of you not in the know, it is a holiday Jess and I started our freshman year of college on February 25, 2001 when we got a few additional piercings in our ears. Feeling like we were being somewhat rebellious and wild girls (we do realize it is actually pretty tame), we decided that we needed to continue to do it. Thus, Wild and Crazy Day was born. It is the 25th of every month and we have to do something out of the ordinary for it. Doesn't have to necessarily be crazy, just something we normally wouldn't do. Over the years we did things like playing pranks on people, sleeping outside in the middle of winter, and essentially were huge dorks. While we don't officially celebrate the holiday anymore (other than saying "Happy Wild and Crazy Day" to each other), we have birthed an off-shoot of it: Out Of the Ordinary Outings, or OOOO for short.

OOOO 1:
It started last weekend when we went to see Winterfest, which is a dance festival put on by a dance school here in Puyallup. One of the girls in my youth group invited me to go (she was in it), so Jess decided to tag along. Four hours and 65 dances later, our butts were sore but we were in awe of the performances. From the elementary schoolers who shimmied and shook to the high schoolers who's dances were evocative with emotion, we were highly entertained. These kids were astounding!

OOOO 2:
Earlier today Jess and I ended up going to a high school girl's wrestling match. There were guys there as well, but we were there mainly for the females. One of Jess' friends is the coach for Rogers HS, so we went to be spectators for this surprising sport. At first when we got there we really didn't have any idea what was going on. Previously giggling at the sport never left us with much desire to learn its intricacies. However, we quickly surmised that if we were to enjoy this at all, we would have to get a tutorial, and quickly. We turned to our friendly-looking bench neighbor and pleaded for some information. He was able to give us the basics of the sport and answered some of our questions. We were able to then get into the matches and were surprised at the strength of some of these girls. At times we weren't sure if we were watching male or female matches (no offense meant there).

So our OOOO were born, and we hope to continue them. Nothing too drastic, just something we wouldn't normally do-- Out Of the Ordinary Outings.

Pandora Radio

You HAVE to check this out: www.pandora.com It is basically an online radio that plays the music that you want it to. You type in a song or an artist and it will create a "radio station" that plays music in the same genre. Not to mention that it is good quality sound too! Seriously, this thing is amazing.