fire 7_14_2006
Originally uploaded by heylucy.

The latest news says the fire is contained. Big sigh of relief. I’ll still be watching the news to be sure I can make it home tonight.

I can barely type. I’m at work and Mr. Lucy just called from home. He has 15 minutes to gather whatever belongings he can grab and evacuate. There is a lot of smoke. There is a fire somewhere to the west, moving fast. There are planes dropping water. There are firetrucks on the road behind our house. Please don’t let it burn down.

UPDATE: Watching the news here. Things seem a bit more optimistic, the Fire Department has been very aggressively fighting this fire, about 6 planes and 2 helicopters are dropping fire retardent. Evacuations are voluntary, so that is also a good sign. My stomach has un-clenched a tiny bit.

I think it’s about time to get back into the routine of things. My sabbatical went way too fast, and I had a lot of fun, and there were some assorted smaller tragedies, I was lazy some days, productive on other days. I didn’t spend much time on the computer, except to play, so I have lots of blog catching up to do. I don’t have much time today, so this is just a quick little fly-by to mention that I am still alive, and plan on posting regularly again. The picture above is yesterday’s lunch: hummus, couscous and lots of assorted vegetables as well as feta and olives. I also had a couple mini pitas. That’s my second bento box. It’s actually quite large, that was really a lot of food, but I did eat it over the course of the day.

So, hi! to everyone, thanks for still visiting even though there has been nothing but crickets chirping around here for the past 3 weeks.

Isn’t couscous a fun word to say?


I don’t necessarily want this to become nothing but a bento blog all of a sudden, so I made myself a flickr set for all my lunch pictures, so if you like to see what I make for lunch, check there regularly. I’ll just post the very most delicious ones here.  Besides, starting Monday, I am on Sabbatical for 3 whole weeks! So I won’t be packing too many lunches, although I do have plans for beach days and park days and thrift store shopping days, so there may be a few opportunities to use my little lunch boxes.

Today I made grilled chicken, sugar peas, almonds and Israeli couscous salad. My salad recipe is basically just to put my favorite things in there and mix it all up. I included fresh basil, sun-dried tomatos, kalamata olives, green onions and feta cheese and dressed it with a little olive oil and vinegar. Yum.

Back to this whole sabbatical thing, after seven years, my company offers a 6-week sabbatical (in addition to regular vacation time) so I am taking half now. I’ll be in Boise to visit family for a week, but the rest of the time I get to play at home! I want to plant a vegetable garden and do some spring cleaning and have a pajama day or two and be a tourist in my home town. I can’t wait!

Busy busy, but I wanted to pop in and share the cute little bento box I got last night:

It’s all packed up and ready to go! I added another bowl for some mango slices. Want to see what’s inside? Of course you do!

Fresh rolls (wrapped in plastic so they don’t dry out, brown rice balls (there is an official Japanese name for these, but I forget what it is.), and tomatos and broccoli. I can’t wait for lunchtime :o)

I also got the wicker-like one on EBay:

Pretty, no?

UPDATE: Okay, my e-mail was actually working for about 5 minutes, my account was all straightened out, but now the service itself is down for everyone. So, I have a gmail account that I’ll be using in the meantime, and I might just keep permanently. If you would like to send me and e-mail, use this address: heylucyloo(at)gmail(dot)com. I think I will change the link in the sidebar too, for now.

I finally took some (slightly) better pictures of the pointy kitty I made for Backtack III. She is finally on her way to Portland, and should arrive in her new home by tomorrow.

I like the way the fabric worked out. I had my doubts, but with a little careful arranging, it’s quite cute. I like her little pink embroidered nose, and I’m quite proud of her pretty collar with the knitted rose. It even has a loop and button closure, so it’s removable.  The ‘M’, I’m not totally pleased with, it’s a little wonky, and my buttonhole stitching around her eyes, well, I’ve done better. I also think I should have cut the under body a little shorter, so she would have stood up a little taller. Oh well. I mostly like it, and I’m not too embarrassed to have sent her to her new home. I received a very cute pointy kitty from Lori. I’ll try to get some pictures taken this week so I can share, although you can see her on Lori’s blog. When I first saw Hilary’s pattern, I thought it was cute, but not something I needed to make, but I think I’ve changed my tune. I like the way it came out in the fabric I used, and I really like how it looks in the fabric Lori chose for me. I’ll talk about it more when I have pictures to share.

I’ve spent the last few days obsessing over Bento Boxes. I go out to lunch almost every day. For the most part, I think I make pretty healthy choices, but I know that if I made my own food, it would be much better for me and cheaper too! And I could control the quantity, and avoid that afternoon, "I’m so full, I’m never eating again" mantra that we chant nearly daily around here. I’m stopping by Mitsuwa tonight on my way home to get myself a bento box and I’m going to make myself lunch at least 3 days a week. I actually started today, even though I had to use ugly disposable plastic containers for my food. I made Japanese noodles (I don’t know what kind they were specifically, the package just said "Japanese-Style Noodles") with spicy peanut vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s. I added shredded chicken, green onion and a sprinkling of sesame seeds and topped it with some shredded lettuce. I tossed it all together before I ate it. I also made a cucumber-radish salad with rice vinegar dressing and some cantaloupe melon balls. Delicious! Although I am pretty full.

Some inspiring links I’ve found about bento:
Cooking Cute makes some very tasty looking lunches for herself and her husband. And it sounds like she has a Trader Joe’s nearby too. Lots of good ideas here and some really great links to all sorts of bento resources.

Some seriously beautiful bentos

This is from June 9, I love that green bouquet on the rice. And that’s not even the most elaborate one.

This is a nice little introductory site about bentos.

I’m watching a couple boxes on EBay. This one is pretty. I think this one is really elegant, and this one is just cute.

This post at Recipezaar is informative, and has links to some recipes that look really delicious.

PBS has a nice feature about a mother who makes a bento for her child each day.

Live-journal has a bento community, and there is a Flickr group too. 

For a more modern version, you could go with Mr. Bento although  $44.29 is a little pricey. I’m sure long term it would be worth it.

Stay tuned for more Bento mania!

Let’s lighten the mood a bit, shall we? This is a transcript of the message I left on Mr. Lucy’s mobile phone this morning when I got up (Mr. Lucy works at night), while standing cross-legged in the bathroom:

"Honey, I’m looking for a giant $10 package of toilet paper, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere."

Yesterday I asked him to stop for some toilet paper, because we were dangerously low, and he was kind enough to do so. I asked how much he spent at the store, so I could note it in the checkbook, and he said $48. "I just wanted toilet paper, what else did you get?" I asked. Well, the toilet paper alone was $10, he told me.  Now, I do generally buy the economy packs, but I don’t remember paying $10 for them. Six or seven dollars, surely, but $10?  How many rolls will $10 get you? Interesting question. I wouldn’t know the answer to that question however, because the giant package of toilet paper was still in the back of his car.

Here is a sneak peek at the pointy kitty I made for Backtack:

I am going to have to play the blonde card on this one. I thought we had to have our kitties mailed by June 10 (really, I was just so busy concentrating on all the rules-black & white, no more that 20% a third color, 5 buttons, a monogram…there just isn’t enough room in my brain sometimes), not sent so they would arrive by June 10. I actually was quite a bit ahead of the game and would have made the date easily, but I was planning on using this past weekend to make some other little treats to include, and obviously that didn’t work out too well. Ah well, I will have her in the mail in the next day or two, so hopefully she will arrive by Saturday, or Monday at the latest. I hope I don’t make the list of shame.

I really, really appreciate the kind words of sympathy. I would like to e-mail each of you personally with my gratitude, however my e-mail is yet again, not working, so I hope this will do. It’s very comforting to know that there are lots of people out there who understand what it is like to lose a pet. She was my friend and companion and my routines are all out of whack without her. There is just this absense that makes me ache. Dune is depressed, it’s like he is just pining for his Gigi. I hate it. Crap and darn-it, I miss my girl. We will get through this.