Pick Me Up

I have a book called Pick Me Up. It's really neat and has tons of different and random subjects. One of the neat ones was, What is the meaning of life? Under it, it had all kinds of things, such as:


How do I know I'm not dreaming?

Supposedly, if you pinch yourself and it hurts, it isn't a dream. Well, why couldn't someone dream that they pinched them self?
That was a question someone called Rene Descartes asked. Rene even questioned his own existence thinking it was a dream! Later on, he thought that he could only doubt his existence if he was truly alive to doubt it!

"I think, so therefore I am,"

Pretty weird stuff, huh? Still neat that someone even thought about that though.

Is the world getting better?

It seems like it! We have cars, airplanes, and the internet, and many other things.
Still though, is the world actually getting better? A man named Pluto, who had lived in ancient Greece, thought that we should try to make the world as perfect and flawless as we could. He also thought that there was another world that was called the World of Forms. 1. 'The world of Forms is not a place we can go and live in. It is more like a set of standards we aspire to. The world we live on is just a bad version of the World of Forms. Pluto told how we could use our powers of reason to understand the world of forms and to use our understanding to make our world a better place.'

So, is the world really getting better?



That's just one of the TONS of random subjects! If I find anymore really neat or just totally random ones, I'll post more here! :P

....

Lava Cake!!

I decided to make a lava cake today and it came out pretty good!

Sadly, I didn't make it from scratch but we actually found a vegan mix at our grocery store! We had to use two eggs so I used our replacement and used vegan butter. that was all I needed to add. It was so weird because I'm use to it taking forever but this probably took me about 15 minutes.

Anyway, when they came out, they were great! SO chocolaty and you need silk/rice milk with it but it was so good! :)



Candi and I have been thinking a lot about rescuing a bunny recently. We miss Smokey but we keep seeing bunnies at shelters that only have a few days to live and we just want to save them all! We might go to a shelter tomorrow and check out the animals but if we do, I have this feeling we may come back with a lot more pets than we really need! Lol!




Who could not want them?!

Happy Birthday BJ!!

Today was BJ's birthday!!! Today he is 11 years old and looks only 5!

Candi is so funny always worried about him, saying that he's turning 20 tomorrow and is going to get sick! He's not that old yet Candi! He got really spoiled with tons of treats and a new bed so he can sleep in my room. Also, we needed to clip his claws because he's been ice skating everywhere recently! While he was in heaven with his treats, we were able to clip them FINALLY!! I think that makes him feel a lot better not falling everywhere. :p



Our other dogs are always stealing food from him...but today he got his revenge! He went into their crate and stole his new favorite little bones from them. It looked so funny!

Smokey

Sadly, I come back to blogger with very sad news. Our bunny Smokey has passed away.

Read her story: Abandoned bunny

She was a beautiful girl and very loved. Only a night ago she had come inside and got spoiled with some of Candi's veggies and got to hop around the house! We have had many bunnies in the past years and by far, Smokey was my favorite. It felt great saving her and then being able the teach her to trust us and be able to tame her. I know she is happy now though and she'll be with Beanie and her two kids.

Beanie


Smokey's day old baby girl


It is so sad how bunnies can instantly pass away. I witnessed this when I went out side and saw her hopping around and then came back outside and she was gone. :( She was an old bunny. She could be between 5 and 7 years old. She never showed signs of sickness and she was happy until the end. What a good girl! You'll be missed Smokey!

Photoshop!

I just though I'd do a random blog with some of the pictures I made on Photo Shop. I'll put them from oldest to newest:




I learned how to do this in an art class I took! I also made one of Boots, Oreo, and Mittens. Oreo looked so cute!








I'd never known how to use the clone stamp on Photo Shop before but now I do! This picture used a ton of it and I got to learn from an expert....CANDI!!






I have no clue what made me do this, but it was fun changing around the layers and moving the wolves around so it looked like they were interacting at each other. This one is my favorite. :)



Wolves! I <3 drawing them. I was playing around with textures and if you look closely, you can tell the white wolf in the back is different!



Wolf looking the water...the water and moon were made by using liquefy. The fireflys look like a necklace around her. :)

Sharks!

Recently, I got a zoo books magazine and it was all about sharks. Most people are afraid of sharks. Movies, books, and stories about shark attacks scare you into fearing that you'll be one of the 6 people attacked every year. But after I read this magazine, I didn't feel like I would have Jaws stalking my ankles when I went swimming. :)

Sharks are so different from fish, that some scientists wondered whether sharks should even be called "fish" at all! Usually, fish don't have eyelids, but some sharks have three. The had an upper and a lower lip, then a third that protects the entire eye.

To swim, sharks do not have to wriggle their whole body side to side like a fish. They have a powerful fin called the caudal fin that can give them all the power they need. Some sharks and even swim up to 40 miles per hour. Fish are cover with smooth scales, but the shark has a rough skin. You could cut yourself by rubbing it and that is because the skin has lots of tiny teeth. These are called denticals.

The Whale shark is the world's largest fish. It can be more than 45 feet long. Its mouth alone can be five feet wide with rows of 300 teeth. With a mouth that big, it can scoop up lots of very mall plankton, which is its main food source.

I was shocked when I read about some of the things sharks ate! Here they are: Nails, crates, wine bottles, a drum, a box, necklaces, a crown, a licence plate, jackets, and a suite of armor!

Frank T. Hopkins and Hidalgo

Last night Candi and I watched a movie we've wanted to see for a long time...Hidalgo!
The movie is based on the true story of the life of Frank Hopkins and Hidalgo. In the movie, Fank and his tamed mustang travel around doing long distance racing.

1"Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire--a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian desert--was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy sheik invited an American, Frank T. Hopkins, and his horse to enter the race for the first time. During the course of his career, Hopkins was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the U.S. cavalry--and had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known. The Sheik puts his claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang, Hidalgo, against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders--some of whom are determined to prevent a foreigner from finishing the race. For Frank, the Ocean of Fire becomes not only a matter of pride and honor, but a race for his very survival as he and his horse attempt the impossible."




Frank won over 400 long-distance races, including the 3,000 mile ride across the Arabian Desert in 1890 on his mustang stallion, Hidalgo. :O Frank raced all the way into his sixties then died at age 86. Can you believe this person was real?



ABOUT THE MUSTANG!

2"Some people think that mustang and wild horse mean the same thing. They do live in the wild but are not really wild, they are untamed horses that could have escaped or have even been released into the wild.

Ancestors of the mustang who were already tamed where brought over by Spainish explorers, like Christopher Columbus, and Francisco Pizarro. Some horses escaped from their owners and went to live in the wild and that is how they got the name mustang other known as mesteno, meaning untamed.

the mustang depends mostly on grass and water. Mustangs can be found in ten different western states; you can find the most mustangs in the Great Basin in Nevada. Mustangs are smaller than the regular horse; they only weigh about 1,000pounds, which is 450kilograms, or they can weigh less. The regular horse can weigh about1,200pounds which is 545kilograms, or weigh more. The mustang is smaller becasue they have trouble finding enough food in hot areas."




Source 1:Here!
Sorce 2: Here!

What do you eat?

I'm good with keeping up with my blog... O_O

Most people I know think that I just eat carrot sticks and apples all day long. I constantly get the question, "What DO you eat?!" Well, this is what our breakfast/lunch was:

Cheerios
Soymilk
A tofurkey sandwich with kale on 7 grain bread
Cherries
Pasta salad

It's all totally normal, just instead of mayonaise we use veganaise in the pasta salad and on the tofurkey. (Plus, why use turkey when we have tofurkey? :P)





These people have seen to many advertisements for milk because all of them seem to think I'm going to be weak if I don't drink 2 glasses of milk a day. -_-
"Calcium, needed for strong bones, is found in dark green leafy vegetables, tofu made with calcium sulfate, calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, and many other foods commonly eaten by vegans."
Dark green leafy veggies? Kale. Soymilk? Yep. :P



One annoying thing is that if you sneeze once, people think you're sick because of your diet. O_O I've only been sick twice in two years and these people have had the Flu, stomach bugs, and are taking about five pills a day. When a meat -eater is sick, it's totally normal. Weird huh?

There is some sad news that came to us a few days ago...my Aunt's hedgehog, Razzle had passed away. I was shocked and very sad. He'd been having some problems recently but I was still surprised. I know he'll be missed a ton.


Quote from Here
Images from Here

Museum Of Science!

Today, went to the Museum of Science in Boston! It was so much fun. One exhibit we saw had neat illusions and talked about how the world wide web was created. On the other side, it talked all about your body. They had a machine that used CGI (computer generated images) and you could look through the human body. (It was gross looking through an intestine!) You could also see x-rays of someone's lungs with the start of cancer in it.

There was an animation room filled with cartoons showing how they were made and letting you do some of the drawing. There was even a part where you'd get to talk through the cartoon's mouth. They'd show what to say and then you'd have to say the words into a microphone. Then, you'd replay the show clip and your voice would come out! It was SSSSOOO fun!!

We also found a circle room with camera all around it. We went inside, and jumped when the screen told us to, and when we came out the picture of us jumping was on a big screen! The picture was really funny! :) We kept going back and doing more!

All of that was fun, but the BEST part of the museum was the animal room in the New England Habitats exhibit. They had huge replicated scenes of life-sized animals of New England. They had a cougar, HUGE moose, a doe and fawn, a black bear and her two cubs, and a lot more. It was so neat. That was my favorite part of the whole thing. :)

We saw a lot more but I can't post it all! Check out their website
here!

Feral Cats!

Our neighbor (the person who lives above us) is great! :P She is very sweet to us and the feral cats who live in the woods! It all started by some people dumping off cats they didn't want. Our neighbor was quick to start feeding them and putting beds and little houses out for them. :) She takes all the cats that are not fixed and spays/neuters them so they can't keep having more and more babies. She also tries to find them homes, but most of the cats are full grown and have been living in the woods for a long time so people don't want them. :( Luckily, one of the kittens (I named Cookie!) found a home. She's really cute and I have been trying to socialize her to lure her out. She is getting better but this is going to take a while!

I fell in love with these cats at first sight! There is a very cute one named Daisy that I love but my favorite is Boots. He is a small dark gray with black stripes and huge yellow eyes, and always greets me when I go outside to give the kitties treats. :) I usually go outside and help feed the cats, give them treats, socialize them, or just play with them! (Candi was laughing and said it looked like I had no friends because I'm always playing with the cats! :P)

A lot of the cats live in the shop next to our place, but go outside so people seem to think they can just take any cat they want. Our neighbor's cat, Daisy, was taken by a group of kids and it took her four days just to get her back! Grr! I am so worried about Boots being taken because the kids also took two other cats and keep coming back. Luckily though, our neighbor is going to put up a "No Trespassing" sign so our kitties will be safe from these people!

Here is Boots:


Some of the cats have Feline Leukemia which is an non-treatable disease that can kill cats. There are two stages of the leukemia: "Primary viremia, an early stage of virus infection. During this stage some cats are able to mount an effective immune response, eliminate the virus from the bloodstream, and halt progression to the secondary viremia stage. Secondary viremia, a later stage characterized by persistent infection of the bone marrow and other tissue. If FeLV infection progresses to this stage it has passed a point of no return: the overwhelming majority of cats with secondary viremia will be infected for the remainder of their lives." *1 Feline Leukemia can be transfered by a infected cat to another though urine, milk, saliva, biting the uninfected cat, and by eating together. Sadly, there are some cats here who definitely have this sickness. The cats' life span with Leukemia is unpredictable. It can be from 3 years to 9 months. One good thing is that they have had Boots and Daisy tested and they do not have it! Yay! :)

I want to adopt Boots so much! He already likes the dogs and he loves trying to sneak into our house every time I open the door! Awww! He is short-haired so it won't bother Candi's allergies. He doesn't meow much at all, and also he is just has the best personality! :P I hope Candi gives in...hehehe!

"Give in to me, Candi!"


*1 source: Get more info here about Feline Leukemia

Warrior Cats

"Fire alone can save our clan..."

I decided to blog about my favorite books EVER, Warriors. The first series starts off with a kitten named Rusty who joins a clan of wild cats. There a four different clans of cats: Windclan, Riverclan, Shadownclan, and Thunderclan. Rusty, now called Firepaw, lives in Thunderclan where he learns how to live in the wild. All through the first six books you follow Firepaw through his adventures until the next series came out...



"Darkness, Air, Water, and Sky will come together...and shake the forest to its roots."

The next series is called The New Prophecy where we follow a cat called Brambleclaw and Firepaw's two daughters as they try to find a new home for their clans as humans come and rip up their original forest.



"Before there is peace, blood with spill blood..."

I am so sad because I read these books so fast and I've now finished all of The New Prophecy and have to wait until April for the next series, Power Of Three, to come out! I can't wait! :P

The offical Warriors website: Click!

Vegan Meetup!

Last Sunday, Candi and I went to a vegan meetup! :o This was our first one ever and it was fun! (It was funny seeing people from online in real life!) We went to a place called, OneLove. They had some green soup, (No idea what it was though! lol!) little veggie patties, rice and beans, salad, and lots of other things. :) I really liked it would want to go back. They were thinking of doing a potlock for the next meetup and I hope they do! It will be my excuse for making thousands of cupcakes! :P





A picture we got at the meetup. :P Thanks Lex for letting us use your camera!

Also, yesterday I made scones! I got the recipe from VwaV and they turned out really good! Even though the recipe didn't call for vanilla extract, we added it in because we love it! :P (We just did a little splash)

Brownies

I think you've seen Candi's blog about our dinner! We're addicted to peanut sauce now! :P

Anyway, I got the recipe to make brownies for dessert from Vive Le Vegan! They were so good and easy to make!




They only thing I changed was instead of using ground chocolate chips, I just put whole ones.

I found out that we didn't have Arrowroot powder and I was so sad thinking we couldn't make our brownies! I later looked online and found out I could substitute cornstarch for it! :D (That was great to know!)

Night at the Museum

After so much hard work in the last two weeks, Candi and I decided to go see the movie, Night at the Museum. It was kind of scary at first, but I loved it! It was a really neat idea and it was very funny! The place it was based at was at the American Museum Of Natural History Museum in New York. I had already wanted to go there and after seeing that movie...I REALLY want to! (I'm going to be staring at the lions waiting for them to come to life) One day, Candi and I will go to New York and hit it up as a homeschooling trip! :)

American Museum Of Natural History website: Click me!



If you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it!

Into MA!

Candi and I did end up driving cross country to MA! It was such a long trip and got boring staring at the hills for hours, but we brought things in the car for entertainment. :D We got to hit up Chicago and see my aunt and that was so fun! We stayed in a pet friendly hotel for two nights and got to go to the Chicago Diner! It was SO good! I got the Pan-Seared Tofu and a Cookie Dough and Peanut Butter 'Milkshake.' :P

Anyway, we finally made it to MA, and we love our new place! (Though we are very sad not being able to have our two dogs who are being taken care of by a friend.) We've already decorated a ton and got our place setup nice. It's still missing a few things, but it looks great so far!

For Christmas, which was only a few days after we got to MA, we did setup a tree and decorated it. :) It was really fun getting to see all of our family (whom we hadn't seen for two years!) for Christmas. :)

Also, there is some bad news. One of our bunnies, Beanie the black bunny, died yesterday. He seemed perfectly fine too. :( Candi and I were so sad but got to bury him in a nice place today. :(

I know this is late but...Happy New Year! Candi and I had Isa's pizza and Candi made a carrot cake. (which was SO good) Then, we got to watch the count-down until midnight and saw fireworks on TV and also saw a few real firworks through the trees! Lol! I haven't thought of any resolutions yet though. :(



Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

image source: MSN Encarta

Moving!

I am so excited for our move back to Boston! The road trip is going to be very fun and once we get out there, we get to see friends & family again and the fluffy snow! No more crazy rain storms and flooding! :D We've been doing well on packing though we still have a LOT of other things to pack!

Also, it did snow today. It was slushy though. :( Later on, it ended up snowing again and actually stuck! I was shocked! It stayed on the ground but it's too shallow and icy. :( (I can't wait for Boston!!)


BJ and I walking in the snow last year. :)

Pumpkin Carving

Wow, I am feeling guilty! I haven't written a blog in a long time or blog hopped! :o Tomorrow I will be checking out all of your blogs though. :)

On Halloween, for the first time, we didn't go trick-or-treating and carved pumpkins instead! I was going to carve a horse from the web, but it was SO hard! I was expecting it to be pretty easy, but we didn't have the right tools! I ended up not carving the horse and making up my own design. I ended up creating a wolf instead. Here's what it looked like all lit up:




While I was making mine, I hadn't noticed Candi making a very cute raccoon:



:) I think I'll stick to just dressing up for fun though. Carving is so hard! :P

Chip!

I know I already wrote a little about this but just thought I'd share some pictures! Sadly, I couldn't bring a camera on Chip (I would've if I could!!) and Candi couldn't walk the horse trail with our group but she able able to snap the pictures of Chip and I. :P


Candi got this picture through a barn window. I'm in the pink jacket getting ready. :) (Chip is in the way background too! Aww!)


Just meting Chip. I still couldn't believe I got him to ride!


Chip all all saddled up and I'm ready to go! I loved the fact that they let you choose English or Western. I love the look of Western and the little horn on the saddle!


Us coming back from our long trail ride. It was fun! What a good boy Chip is. :)

Cupcakes!

I since I was finally feeling better after days of coughing, I made one of the recipes from the new book I just got, ""Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" (I am so thrilled I got the book! All the cupcakes look SO good!) I ended up making a basic chocolate cupcake and then made a vanilla frosting and put oreo cookie crumbles in it. Though they didn't look anything like they did in the picture, they were SO good! :o I didn't get any pictures of them yet but I will and I'll put it soon. :)

OK! Here is the pic!! :)

=|

I had my horse riding camp AND I got the best horse! I got their new Appaloosa named Chip. I wanted to ride him since the day I saw him. He is so cute and a not threatening at all, so it wasn't scary. They have lots of small ponies, but Chip is big and that thrilled me. (I don't mind riding the small ponies, but the bigger the better to me! ;)) I didn't do great tacking him up, but luckily you had someone with you who actually knew what they were doing, and they were able to help. Once on the trail, Chip and I had fun! Even though they (sadly) held a lead rope and lead him, I still got a chance to turn him without their help. Overall, it was fun, even though my hands froze off since it was morning and SO cold! :P

Sadly, there is some bad news: my hamster, Starlight, died yesterday. I am so saddened. I keep looking at her empty cage expecting to see her running around. :( I can't believe almost two years of having her passed by so quickly. It feels like I got her yesterday. I have never lost so many pets in a year, and I just can't believe what our animal ark has dwindled down to. Even our fish tank is looking more empty than ever.

Lush

Sadly, I have a lot of old bath products that are animal tested, and I was looking for a company that has vegan products. I found Lush in my search. I found out they are only 73% vegan and hopefully more in the future. "An amazing 73% of our current product range (Not including the gift range), is suitable for Vegans"

Here's a link to the vegan products they have: Vegan items!


This is my favorite item that I want to get when Candi and I go there:

This is just a fizzy ball called Big Blue Ballistic. The black stuff on the top is seaweed. If I buy it, I will let you all know how it smells! :P



Quotes from the Lush website.

Rice Protein Powder

Awhile back, Candi and I found a supplement called Rice Protein Powder. "Rice Protein is a great tasting vegetable protein free of the common food allergens normally associated with products such as soy, milk, egg, wheat and yeast. NutriBiotic® Rice Protein is a highly soluble powdered formula that mixes easily into a glass of water or juice. Add to beverages or meals for an extra protein boost. No chemicals are used during processing. All that we use to process our rice protein is purified water and natural enzymes."

I thought it would be disgusting, but really, you can't taste it at all! I LOVE tomake shakes with it for breakfast. (Most of the time I use chocolate, but sometimes I'll have fruit ones.) I think it even makes a really good snack or dessert. They have three different flavors: Vanilla, chocolate, and fruit. I like vanilla the best, but the chocolate one is OK. :P

It isn't really good to make up for lunch, but it's perfect if you're running out the door. :)




More info from the web:

"Low Temperature Enzyme Process:
The whole brown rice is first ground into a fine flour. Pure filtered water is then added, forming a thick slurry (called liquefaction). Natural enzymes are added in at different stages to break down and separate the carbohydrate and fiber from the protein portion of the whole grain. All processing temperatures are kept below 90 degrees F. The low temperature and chemical free processing prevents denaturing of the amino acids. The final stage involves filtering, drying, and low temperature milling.

- 80% Protein Content
- Vegan
- Completely Vegetarian
- GMO & Gluten Free

Contains no soy, milk, egg, yeast, corn, wheat, sugars or preservatives. NutriBiotic Rice Protein is free of the common food allergens normally associated with soy, milk, and egg proteins."

Quotes from here

Dumdums!

Candi and I always go to the restaurant The Teapot. They always gave us dumdums and we never knew if they were vegan! I did not want to take the risk because I know a lot of candies use gelatin. "Some candies are made from things like gelatin, which is mashed up cow skin, cartilage, and bones. And carmine, the red coloring used in some candies, is made from ground-up bugs." GROSS. x_x When I finally remembered to look up the ingredients, I found out that they were only made of: sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, malic acid, salt, and artificial colors. YAY! I'm thrilled because I love dumdums. :D

I had to look up malic acid and citric acid since I wasn't sure about those and I found out citric acid only comes from citrus fruits, and malic acid comes from plants or animals. I kept researching malic acid until I went through PETA and found out that all the ingredients in dumdums are vegan. :)