our very own earth machine.

Matt and I picked up one of these sweet things for ourselves this weekend - courtesy of Orange County Solid Waste Management. We've gone back and forth about making a composter ourselves, but then I heard about the OC Solid Waste sale (thanks, WUNC!) and thought it was a great deal.

The Earth Machine is made of recycled, UV-resistant plastic and has a 10-year warranty. Lookout earthworms and other helpful microorganisms - Guig's Gourmet will be open soon for you to feast away on assorted fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grinds, tea leaves, grass, weeds, and leaves.

The Pour House

On our way home tonight from The Pour House, I promised Matt that I would blog about the AWESOME show we went to tonight. We saw the Benjy Davis Project opening for Pat McGee. BOTH WERE AWESOME. They moved from the stage into the crowd in the middle of the show and even asked for a volunteer who could play the guitar to play with them and sang right in the middle of the crowd and Matt and I were front row for the first part and for the in the middle of the crowd part. Also, we talked to Pat after the show and told him how great this show was - we've seen him a number of times in a bunch of different venues and this one was so different. It was small, and intimate, and crowd participatory. I mean, Pat McGee didn't even come out with a set list - he just took requests from the crowd and played what he felt. AMAZING! Anyway, we give our stamp of approval/WE LOVE IT to The Pour House. 30 beers on tap - all $4.50. We drank many of them. GOOD NIGHT!!!!!111

update two.

the latest article in the N&O about the new farmer's market.

farmer's market update.

Background: Jess emailed us a blurb about a month ago she found in the N&O about the NC Cooperative Extension considering a new Farmer's Market in N. Raleigh. I called the Coop Extension that morning to tell them I thought this was a great idea and I offered my support. They asked me if I would be willing to consider being on an advisory board. I said yes. They said we'll call you back. They called me back later that week. I missed the call. They left a message. I listened to the message. I promptly forgot about said message. I never called them back. (LAME, I know!)

Update: This morning on the news, we caught part of a story about the new location - and the guy they were interviewing was the guy I was supposed to call back. (I'm SUPER lame, I know!)

Anyway, this is exciting!

guess who else is on Twitter...

no, it's not me.

But NASA is.

And here's the latest update on the Discovery launch attempt that I mentioned in a previous post. I can't imagine how frustrated everyone involved is, but at least they're on the side of caution.

The Hawkeye State

This past weekend I traveled to Iowa City, enabling me to not only to visit a great friend from college, but also to see where my grandparents lived and went to school after they were married over 60 years ago. I wanted to share just a few of the many highlights from the trip:

* trying a bunch of midwest/Iowa-ian beers that I'd never had before

* eating at the Hamburg Inn, a restaurant that my Grandma remembers going to with my Grandpa

* visiting the library and checking out and copying my grandpa's archived Masters thesis in Chemistry, A Spectrophotometric Study of the Sulfonium Polyhalide Complexes (complete with the greek symbols handwritten in since the typewriter didn't have those keys)

* drinking at Joe's Place, which my Grandma told me they used to go to - only once or twice, I'm sure...

fun and educational!

Don't you want to know the context of this picture?!

In my Physiology class, we're currently in the thick of learning Cardiovascular Physiology, and today my professor suggested checking out the Electrocardiogram educational game from nobelprize.org for fun. I've only tried a few of the medical ones, but it appears that the site has an expansive collection across the Nobel Prize disciplines.

And you know I have a sweet spot in my heart (well, actually, in my limbic system - a set of structures in my brain) for Neuroscience-related topics...don't you want to learn how to make this doggie drool?

Or maybe play with Mr. Split Brainy to find out about the two hemispheres of your brain and how they talk to one another and work together via the corpus callosum?

i'm ants-ies in my pants-ies.

As you can see, we are creeping closer and closer to prime produce time. While I'm throwing around the idea of trying to grow a few things in our backyard, I'm way more excited about our CSA box from Vollmer Farm and weekly trips to the Farmer's Market. (And there's a rumor that there might be a new market opening this summer somewhere in N. Raleigh. Hopefully, I'll have more details on that soon.)

Tar Heel Trot 5K

Spur of the moment decision - we ran the Tar Heel Trot 5K Saturday morning. They had a great turn out despite the rain, and it was actually pretty warm (in the 50's), considering how much colder it got later in the day. Money raised goes to Friends For an Earlier Breast Cancer Test, an organization out of Greensboro, NC.


I thought this was worth documenting...it's a good look for us, wet and stinky.

Eno River Hike

I'm a week late in posting, but here are a few photos from our latest hiking adventure at Eno River State Park. This footbridge at the start of the trails was pretty awesome - that's Matt pretending to be Indian Jones.

And evidence of what's now becoming a tradition...cold Bojangles chicken and biscuits for lunch.