Gettin' Fancy!

In case you forgot, it snowed on Tuesday! Crazy!

My Bikram Yoga 60 day challenge is winding down. 9 days left!

I decided to further challenge myself by taking a "double" on Wednesday. I took the 10am regular class and the 1215 advanced class. Four hours of yoga later I was ready for a nap, an epsom salt bath, and a slathering of muscle cream.

The instructors at my studio are amazing. They not only are completing their own challenge, but they teach classes on top of that. And they regularly take doubles with students to motivate them. So I decided to bring a few of my kale chips to give to the teachers.

This time I wanted to try two new flavors, Orange Sesame and Salt n' Vinegar.

I toasted sesame seeds

For the Orange Sesame: orange juice and orange zest, crushed ginger, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, and dark soy sauce

The other batch had Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar, Kosher salt, and lemon juice

I also decided to make labels.

Even though some of the chips did not end up as crispy as before and I now know what to do to my next batches to make them extra vinegary, I hope everyone who got to try them enjoyed!

Updates, Woweeeee-Pow!

I am currently reading Michael Pollan's 'Food Rules', and hope to move on to "Omnivore's Dilemma" afterwards. I tend to have a hard time finding books I like or can get through so I'm hoping the food-subject-approach will help. :)

Today I was informed that I won the best booth/ activity for the Chinese New Year celebration I wrote about earlier. Yee-haw! An accomplishment as a teacher to put down for upcoming job searches. The school gave me a gift certificate (in a red envelope!) to Toys-R-US and I'm looking forward to exploring and finding some new games.

I have only one(ish) week of my Bikram challenge left and we are going out with a Bang! I plan to continue practicing 5-6 days a week after the challenge is over, but it will be nice some days (like when i'm running fever) to not feel like i have to go. It has been an amazingly challenging and rewarding experience thus far. I will write more about it after I officially finish!

Speaking of the yoga, this is Ky Ha, who has been guest teaching at Bikram Yoga Davenport. The other day I asked him about Bikram Yoga studio locations and the possibility of me continuing my practice in the Peace Corps if I go. He taught in Singapore the past two years and is about to move to London. Pretty amazing.

Eggceptionally Sunny

Although I hold a strong fear deep inside, I've always had a love for all things farm or ranch related.

My grandparents have a wide assortment of animals on thier West Texas land, from llamas and miniature donkeys, to two dromedary camels. I could watch these guys (and feed them!) for hours. But I prefer to be on the other side of a fence from them. Even my grandparent's sweet, bottle-fed longhorn/cow Oliver scares me a bit with his giant horns.

Enter chickens.

Mr. and Mr. Roosters, roosting on my bike

Randy had chickens when I met him but they were soon killed off by raccoons because of his unfinished chicken coop. Randy and I finished his chicken coop. Randy's roommate Tara got chickens from her friend.

Pro: baby chickens to look at, and feed, and watch gro.

Con: baby chickens that were not sexed. Nobody knew how many would become hens or how many would become roosters.

Now they have grown in to 3 large cacklin' roosters and 2 hens that lay eggs.

Lately one hen and one rooster have gone missing so we are left with one hen and two roosters. I'm sure one rooster will kill the other soon enough. Lovely.

Despite what some people might think, these roosters begin their crowing well before sun-up. I'm sure the neighbors are just thrilled.

Even though they poop everywhere and their pointy beaks and claws somehow scare me, I can't help but have a strong attraction to the little guys. Every time I go to Randy's I am outside feeding them and more recently looking for eggs. I love that we even have the opportunity to own such animals in our backyard in East Austin. Like a lil' slice of country living. Did I mention Randy also has one "Hunny Bunny" left by an ex who I have also adopted as my own?

I even set up a nesting spot for the hen that she now goes to and lays eggs in. I found 3 yesterday!!

So what is the point of this post?

Simply to gloat that I will soon be eating backyard chicken eggs.

And

I foresee chickens of my very own in my future.

And a goat.

Possibly a bunny.

Hopefully a pot belly pig.

And they will all be friends with my future Basset Hound named Pickle