Visas and Veganry

Hello my lovlies!

Jex and I are wading through the wonderful world of "Visas for a foreign country". It's awful! (^_^) no really it's not very fun. Mostly because the agency we're working for has to go through another agency because of all the hullabaloo with the Thai government right now and it's making everything take that much longer. Time is something we're kind of running short on. Doesn't help that they send us the Visa package on a long American Holiday weekend so I can do NOTHING to start the process till Monday.

That being said I'll just skip to the reason I hopped on the blogger (other than trying to find my zen because of the above). I want to share with you the Awesomesauce I cooked up a couple Vegan Vendzdays ago. Why not wait till Wednesday? Because I have no idea if I'll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off or calling 400 different people and agencies and dancing around the house to horrid hold music for hours this coming Wednesday, that's why.

Ashes' Protein Stuffed Mushrooms

1/4 of a med onion chopped
1/4 cup or a little less shelled pecans
Six good sized Stuffing Mushrooms or One Sm Portobello mushroom
Fresh ground Sage, Rosemary, and Salt to taste.
Coconut oil for cooking the onions.
about 1/4-1/2 cup of water for steaming the mushrooms.

Chop the onions coarsely and throw them in a sm pan over med heat. Stir every now and again, cooking till they're almost golden brown. While the onions are cooking shell the pecans or if you bought shelled pecans throw them in a food processor with the spices and pull the stems from the mushrooms (I saved the stems for omurice the next day, but you can throw them in the pan with the onions if you like. Just add a little extra oil).
When the onions are the desired level of gold throw them in with the nuts and spices. Blend away!
Fill each mushroom with the mixture. It should be fairly moldable, not super crumbly. If it's too crumbly to work with add a touch more coconut oil.
Using the same pan you cooked the onion in place each mushroom stuffed side down, turn the heat up to med and brown the tops, about 2-4 minutes. Flip the mushrooms over and turn the heat up to med high. Add the water (I use less water for smaller or portobello mushrooms and more water for white mushrooms, also less water if you cover your pan, more if you can't or choose not to cover your pan).
Let the mushrooms hang out for 5-10 minutes, serve warm with your favorite sides.

I pared our mushrooms with some garlicy green beans and pan fried carrots.
I'm also thinking about trying to make a miso version of these mushrooms.

Till next time,
The light heart lives long~

Lost in Space!!!

Maybe, I don't know.
I keep losing track of time, and objects, and memories, and oh my god did I feed the dog today?! It kind of feels like my brain has melted, or I'm going through puberty again. *shrugs*

Anyways. I think I announced on this particular space that Jex and I are going to Thailand soon.
We just got back from Storm Con last Monday and I think I've been fighting the germs of 500 people since then while trying to still be a responsible adult. I think so far I've gotten a C+ for my attempt.

So, Storm Con 2014.
Jex decided that it would be a GREAT idea for us to sell Foam Swords or 'Boffer Weapons' at the con this year because we were having LARPers this year and a group of Knights of the Fiat Lux (look 'em up, they're kind of ligit). It didn't turn out so well in that the con was on a UTA weekend thus I was alone running the damn table, and the vendors were cordoned off in a room away from all the gamers so we had very little traffic. But I did get to play in a Call of Cthulu game that was streamed over youtube (didn't see that till the next day, I really just wanted to play with Lance and Amber in a fun Cthulu RPG setting) where I totally choked, and Jex and I won a game called Belfort (so many tiny pieces!!!!). Oh and I LARPed for the first time ever! It was fun. The group wasn't psycho crazy or anything, they were actually all really really nice and helpful to the noob, it was kind of like RPing at a table but we all stood more and were in costume.
Can't find them online though, I'll have to ask the GM about it next time I see him.

Anywho, I met some super rad people I want to tell you about. I guess being a vendor is kinda like being a Gypsy, the moment you're in the ring of tables you're all accepted and stuff (one of us, one of us). I loved all the other vendors that hung out and watched me table for me so I could go to the little girls room. No really you guys are awesome.

Begin the shameless plugging!

The first guy who made an impression on me was this super cute kid (hell he might be older than me, but he seemed like a college student) who was running a booth by himself as well. He just had the best attitude. His name is DJ and this is his booth.

That's him painting away. He and his family will be at Dragon Con this year. So be sure to keep an eye out for them. They're stuff is really cool. They even have an Etsy store if you just HAVE to HAVE a captain america or galifreyan clock.

This was my sad little table. To be honest I had no idea what the crap I was doing. I think if Jex want's to keep doing this as a side job we need to make some weapons racks.

This is the super rad comic book guy, Jerry, corner. He let me watch world cup on his smart phone. Best dude ever!

He has a facebook page if you want to find something particular: Facebook.com/ParkCircleComics

These are the Impudent Mortal guys. I didn't get to talk with them much, they were on the other side of the room and I didn't wan't to shout over the Event Horizon guys. I did walk over to see their stuff though. They have some super rad buildings for RP and Warhammer stuff. 

You can take a look at www.impudenmortal.com .  No really their stuff was amazing. 

 This is Mia and Will. I thought their stuff was all one booth but I was wrong.

 Will makes these patches and cuppy things.

Buy his stuff on Etsy!

 Mia makes all this stuff. And this stuff is amazing. If I wasn't going to be near a Mitsuwa here in a couple of weeks I would totally be rocking that Tardis dress right this second.

 Mia will be at Dragon Con aswell this year if you want some incredibly awesome Nerd Accessories. Or you can visit her portfolio at: artwanted.com/miacorn Or her Ebay store.

These are the beautiful brains guys. They're business cards are also savage worlds playable adventure cards!

 You can visit them Here.




Last, but certainly not least are the Henna/Glitter chicks. They're only local to the Charleston Area, but they're work is really good. I forgot to take a picture of the Henna Desi did for me, but she free handed it and I was impressed, and I'm not easily impressed.

If you're in the Charleston area and interested in her services you can find her on the Book of Face.

Running into Recipes

The Spartan sprint is coming up guys!!! March 9 I'm going to go do a stupid 5k filled with stupid obstacles for a T-shirt, some beer, and a little Pride.
You might have to be in the military, or a military brat to fully apreciate this next bit. While testing my 3.1 mile time on base the anthem played.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with why that might have been an issue let me explain. At about 4pm every day the base speakers play the anthem. While the song is playing you stop driving, walking, doing whatever it is you were doing, face towards the nearest flag and put your hand over your heart or stand at attention (if in uniform).
I have done this all my life. Never have I been caught mid PT. And there I was, running my buns off, fighting with my self. Do I stop? Would it be ok if I jogged in place? Is it ok if I keep running?! I had no idea what to do.
Being so close to the end of my run I kept going; feeling guilty the entire time.


Over the past few days I feel like the luck fairy kissed me on the nose while I slept. I have discovered delicious things to eat. Thank God! Salads were starting to make me want to cry.
So, I decided to post some recipes here, maybe some aspiring vegan or someone who is having a vegan over for dinner will stumble across a post or two.

Here's a tip: Asian food is the easiest to veganize.

Lunch/snack
Avocado and brown rice Onigiri (rice balls)
Makes 6 Onigiri

1 Avocado
1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice. Note: rinse your rice before you cook it or it won't stick properly. I rinse mine 5 or 6 times.
2 tsp white cooking wine/sake
1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
Salt to taste.
Furikake (optional seaweed topping)
Saran wrap for forming.

Cut the avocado into cubes. In a small bowl combine the other ingredients. Add the avocado and toss.
Tear off about 16 inches of saran wrap. Place 1/4 cup of the brown rice in the center of the wrap and squish it down into about 1/2 inch layer. Place a heaping teaspoon of sauced avocado in the center and fold up the sides. The saran wrap keeps your hands clean as you press the rice ball together.
Repeat the process, and tada!!! Tasty vegan food.

Till next time my lovelies,
The light heart lives long~

Today I learned...

Today I learned three very important things.
Well one of them I re-learned but that's not the point.

1. Don't stand on your gears.
When going up a hill made of lost hope and death sit your butt back down on that bike seat before shifting into baby gears. If you don't the jarring impact of the bike angrily slamming into gear beneath you will throw your leg right off the pedal and into a nearby tree.

2. You can do anything you put your mind to. Really you can! Just don't expect it to happen at the speed you want it to. It will take as long as it takes and very few things will make it take less time.

3. Barbecue (BBQ) sauce is basically incredibly fancied up Ketchup.

Till later my lovelies!!!
The light heart lives long.

Sunshine 2013

Jex and I had to go to the Sunshine State for some stupid military stuff. So we decided to make a trip of it and visit our super rad friends who we miss so dang much!
You remember the posts I did about a year ago about the long ass trip we took from one coast of the U.S. to the other right? Riiiight? Yeah them.
This time we got to fly. Yay! So it took 1 rather than 4 days. Well it would, if we could ever get out tickets squared away.
There's this funny thing the military likes to do: completely forget about the dependent. Doesn't matter if you're the spouse, child, or mother who lives with ya'll because of extenuating circumstances, if you are not the military member they sometimes forget that you exist. After weeks of talking to every person we got handed off to and promised that the tickets would be taken care of the day we were supposed to leave I still had no ticket, as far as we knew. We decided to just go to the airport anyways, maybe things would work out for the best.
We walked up to the ticketing counter and to the person behind the weird castle wall they've got going on. Lo and Behold, I had a ticket! YES! But Jex's ticket had been refunded. The travel office opened 30 min before our flight was supposed to leave. So we waited and called and waited and called again and prayed and waited and someone picked up the phone! After about 10 minutes the super rad chick at the travel office had Jex a new ticket and we were off. That chick is so getting cookies.

We got to Sunshine, not many problems later and waited for Cait not to DIE driving through the scariest city on the west coast. Then we drove 5 hours north to where she and her lovely little fam have made home for a little under a year now.
It was soooo good to see them again. God knows how much we've missed their distinct and shiny presence in our lives. Cait is the only one who can take my complaining for what it is, venting. Then turn around and give me super radtastic advice. It also helps that we're kinda married to the same person.
Whoa, whoa now. We're not actually married to the same person. Our husbands just tend to be semi-clones of one another on the personality level a lot of the time.

Pterodactyl and Kitten have gotten so BIG! They're still the most adorable things ever. Pterodactyl is talking now and she's super astute. Kitten is in danger of being sold from time to time, but he's still the sweetest snuggle bug. Two is a hard age.

Then we drove back to where we had to do our thing. Bought armloads of Japanese goodies from the super cool Japanese mall we found. Melon Cream Soda how I've missed you!

Now we're home, cleaning everything, trying to downsize and get rid of unnecessaries.

Picture time!

Everyone loved these silly disguise glasses

Remember these magical toys?

Best Picture Ever

Uncle Jex and the Pterodactyl

The Gaggle Rock

Helping

Kitten was tired. He is also made of lead.

Look!

Underwater shot with the super rad Olympus Tough. I love that thing.

Kitten and he's pretty mama.

Jex looking all thoughtful and stuff

Pretty

Pterodactyl's favorite things right now are sharks. She's so awesome.

This Jellyfish reminded me of a wedding gown

Sea Lion 

Hurry take a picture, we're passing the Dreamworks Studios!!! Oh we were so lost. 

What? Me addicted to Japanese junk food? You must be confusing me with another dashingly handsome fellow with an armload of goodies.

Taiyaki Pan! It was so hard not to buy this

And this guy. 

I would've gotten a better picture but we literally ran from one flight to the connector and barely made it

Have a lovely week all of you.
The light heart lives long~ <3 p="">

What I've Neglected

I should have named my blog "the Lazy Blogger" rather than its current (slightly awesome) title.
I thought about it actually, but there's probably some one else out there who already snatched up the title and blogs way more often than I.

I finally got around to downloading the pictures I took at Storm Con! Three cheers and all that for it only taking me right around a month to hook up my camera and external to LOR. (LOR is what I named my super rad tower computer... I did tell you that I built my own computer right? RIGHT?!)

Jex and I just got back from a totally awesome Sunshine trip. Which I will type up a post for before we leave day after tomorrow for SandLand again. I feel kinda lucky, I get to take 3 whole deep breaths before leaving this time.

Oh, and our car is on the fritz. Yeah. I'm not happy about that. It's a 2010, it shouldn't be falling apart yet! Today while in the middle of driving home the gas pedal just stopped working. Then I thought I could make it to the butcher, nope. About halfway there the engine just stopped. Thank GOD I was able to coast the car to a good out of the way spot. Silly me, I decided to try again, I was nearly to the butcher anyways. A third time the car simply forgot how to run properly, luckily, a few hundred feet uphill from a church parking lot.
I apparently need my meat, because I kept going to the butcher, made it there, and home again with no further incident.

This does not exactly bode well for the 300+ mile trip we have to take the day after tomorrow. At least we have roadside assistance, so if it really does die we won't be stranded for 8 hours or more in the middle of nowhere. *Knock on Wood*

Anyways, you came here for pictures or something.
There shall me more next time!!!

This is the StarTreck Battles game we played. Jex and I were Klingons and totally won by the skin of our teeth. It was pretty cool, I won a mug.

I just liked this image. Didn't play the game or anything.

 This is called a benny. A battle for Oz benny, you get to buy second chances and other cool stuff with it. 

Here's the game board we played on; really really fancy stuff. 

And photobombed. But that's me and Pheonix being pals and some loud young RPer. 

Pheonix and her character cards. 

One of the vendors decided to cosplay the last day

She's a fluttershy.

God is good, but don't dance in a small boat. 

Till next time my lovlies!

Lazy

So I have pictures from Storm Con!
But haven't loaded them to my computer yet. Because I'm lazy!
No not really, because I'm busy. Between the garden trying to completely die on me, wifey house hold stuff for the most messy dude ever (I love you hunny), and only being home 9 days out of any given month (this is probably why the garden is trying to die so hard) getting the pictures off the camera and into my tower isn't really high on my priority list.

Actually, I'm probably just lazy.

Storm Con was AWESOME. We played so many games. For three days we played as many table tops and board games as we could shove into 17 hours the first two days. We lost a little steam on the last day, but it was great!

Shadow Run, Savage Worlds, Iron Kingdoms, Myskatonic School for Girls, Garden Dice, Star Trek Battles, so many games. This is probably only half of what we played on the first day. I lost count pretty quickly.
Not only that but we met some super rad people. I'm really glad my first Con was a first year Con. I'm super stoked for next year.

Now this was a gaming Con, nothing to do with Comics and/or Anime. Though I would absolutely love to go to AWA (anime weekend Atlanta) at some point. I really admire people who can make really good costumes. And, lets face it, I've loved the anime style since I watched Sailor Moon a million years ago.

I even drew a couple of pictures of the adventures we were part of during Storm Con. However, I find that without a scanner I really don't like uploading my art. Maybe I'll get brave and finally post some of my comics to the blog that was supposed to house all my comics. *laughs*

Oh yes, the fleas. I told you I'd tell you how that was going.
Well the almighty internet sage known as the Google helped me find a lot of really interesting ideas on how to combat the fleas. I mixed baking soda and salt and brushed it into the carpet. It's supposed to dehydrate the fleas. Then you set up a cookie sheet with very soapy water, no bubbles *sadface*, beneath a night light and the fleas jump to the warmth and wet and drown screaming. So far it's worked pretty well. I've only gotten one new flea bite; they love my ankles. I'd have 6 or so new bites every day. Oh yeah, my ankles look baaaad. Anyways, we also gave in and bought Trifexis for the dog, so now she's a fluffy flea trap. The cat just got the regular stuff that keeps them off her.
So far, I'm winning!!!

Anyway, it's late and I'm rambling.

More random pictures!!! Bet'cha can't find me in this one.

Remember my lovlies, The light heart lives long.

I'm finally DONE!

I finished the Quilt Yo! Today!
*runs around whooping and hollering like a sugar infested toddler*
But no pictures yet. The recipient of said wondermus item reads my blog from time to time, and I want her and the babies to pull it out of the box with abject curious excitement. As soon as I get the 'yay I got your box' text I'll put up pictures of the little thing that took nearly 9 months to make.
Hand quilting is hard, yo.

That being said: I've decided to take a little break from quilting. I'm going to work on a steam punk jacket for a little bit instead. When I do start another quilt it will be for my little brother who just graduated highschool. *sniff* I can't believe he's 18! Where's my annoying 8 year old brother who broke all my shiz?

So... I just overheard a tiny bit of what my husband is watching on youtube (how do I know it's youtube? Because it's coming from his laptop.) and I'm pretty sure he's watching a zombie survival tutorial. *laughs* I love that man.

Oh. So our house is infested with fleas. They just showed up. Which sucks because we've been good about keeping flea stuff on the dog. I'm setting up traps and learning all kinds of things about how to get rid of the little vampiric pixies without chemicals (because my pets are stupid and will eat whatever I stick on the floor). I'll write about that adventure as it happens.

The next thing you'll probably hear about is StormCon. This weekend peoples! Wooooh!

And I leave you with a random picture.

God is good, but don't dance in a small boat. (^_^)

Me and my sister, half a lifetime ago.

Wedding Bells and River Tales

My friends just got married! Yaaaay!
I just got back for the festivities, sort of. We ended up staying the night with my brother in law because we decided not to drive an hour home after 10 pm. It's nice being able to make that decision, and just sleep. We don't get a lot of that in our lives.

Upcoming attractions in the life of Ashes and Jex include a trip to our first Con ever! Storm Con!
We figured if our first Con was also a First Year Con then it'd be doubly special. Right? Haha, no not really. It just turned out that way.
I'm thinking about going to Anime Weekend Atlanta at some point. But I really want to make a ridiculously awesome/silly costume and soak up the entire experience. Haven't had time for the costume thing this year.

Kinda convinced that my baby quilt will never be done. I keep seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and then having to go back and do a bazillion more stitches.

Oh and my pumpkin plants have EXPLODED! Really, they're taking up almost the entire garden now. I had to redirect them away from my herbs and lettuce. I'm so excited for Fall. I'm going to have a dozen pumpkins easily this year. YAAAAY!!!

Also I have pictures from the Kayaking trip a really cool elder couple took us on not too long ago.
Enjoy.

Jex in all his muscled glory

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily

Merrily

Merrily

not so merrily

Life is but a dream.

Then Jex decided to play with the filters on the camera, they're pretty awesome.

The Swinging Bridge

A tree root thing

The river just beyond the Swinging Bridge where everyone got tipped over

River!

Ashes on the Bridge with Kim and Mike

Jex deigning to let me take a picture with him

Mike on the Bridge

Oh hey... there are people...

The tree root thing again, this time with us

And this is us bailing out or kayaks so we can keep going

And me in a borrowed red hat