St. Paddy's Day bucket list

For 2017, I made a bucket list of things to do for every holiday, and the things on the list for St. Patrick's Day had to be accomplished between February 15 and March 17. St. Patrick's Day is my second-least favorite holiday, since it seems a little pointless, but there's still something fun about it. Here are the ways I accomplished the items on the bucket list. (As I often do, I like to take a theme and then fit everything that happened within that theme. So forgive me for the tangents.)

Wear green. This one was very easy; early on in the season, I fulfilled it by wearing a green tie. But I can't let it go just with that. Twice this week (once at a St. Patrick's Day party and once at a free BYU Vocal Point concert) I was decked out from head to toe. I bought some prescription glasses with green frames from the internet. I don't love how they look, but oh well. On previous St. Patrick's Days, I would wear these old Taiwanese glasses with green lenses--but I got those in 2006, so you can imagine how hard it was to see in them. I opted for clear lenses this time. I have two different green t-shirts (one is a four-leaf clover that says "May the road rise up to meet you" and the other says "Irish-ish* *When I'm wearing this shirt"). I have some poor-quality green pants that I got in 2012. I have green socks with Irish flags on them. And I have neon green Vans shoes that I got three years ago! (Seriously, it blows my mind what happened three years ago. That's when I graduated from BYU! At the Vocal Point concert, they said that all of the members of the group were born in the 90s. I was born in the 80s. I feel old. Also, three years ago, my mom broke her leg. My dad would tease her by limping, and it got so it was a habit, and he still often limps. Yesterday, he broke his foot, but I am so used to seeing him limp that it is hard to remember he is actually injured.)

Pinch someone not wearing green. There's only one day when it's socially acceptable to do this, and that's March 17 itself. I was a little worried about finding someone not wearing green who I could pinch. Well, at work I was invited to a luncheon in honor of the 175th anniversary of the Relief Society. An editor who I used to work with sat by me, and as he admired my green glasses, shamrock tie, and green slacks (different from my other brighter green pants), he remarked that he wasn't wearing green. So while we were standing in line for food, I explained my bucket list item while I pinched him on the ear. At the luncheon, we heard from Rosetti Bahati, the Relief Society president of Salt Lake's Swahili branch, who is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was certainly interesting to spend a holiday celebrating a white culture by hearing a talk translated from Swahili and hearing a choir sing hymns in Swahili while decked out in traditional African dresses and head wraps. (Most of the people were African, but there were a couple of white women also wearing the same style of clothing.) It was a really neat experience to hear firsthand the story of a refugee who went through a lot of hardships.

Go to an Irish concert. At work, a few employees get together during a lunch hour around in March to play Irish music. They're just amateurs, so the quality isn't the greatest, but it's free and convenient and fun enough. There was one old man there whose phone started ringing during the performance, so rather than just silencing his ringer and ignoring the call, he actually answers in the middle of the performance and says, "I'll call you back!" I'm pretty sure this same man did the same thing during a different presentation, and that was even ruder, because someone was speaking rather than just playing music. It would be easy to dismiss it as a generational thing, since he didn't grow up with cell phones, but I don't think that's right, because most people of his generation wouldn't do such a thing. Why, even in the pilot episode of Get Smart, Max's shoe phone went off in the middle of a concert, and he went out in the hall to answer it, and that was even before cell phones. (But maybe that wasn't for politeness but rather so he wouldn't blow his spy cover.)

Go to a St. Patrick's Day parade. This is the only item I didn't actually accomplish. But I tried. See, while I will celebrate holidays a month in advance, my celebratory traditions take the form of "When it's over, it's over." And breaking with years of tradition, they decided to hold the Salt Lake St. Patrick's Day parade after the holiday, March 18, when I've already moved on to Easter. (I don't like the holiday enough to go the day after.) In fact, all St. Paddy's Day parades in Utah were scheduled for March 18. So I began looking into other parades. I thought about San Francisco and taking my nephews, but I didn't think my nephews would like it, and my brother would make fun of me, and getting to downtown S.F. sounded like a big hassle. I honestly began planning a trip to Spokane, WA, my old stomping grounds, but I was running out of time and couldn't find anyone to go with me, and I was feeling nervous when I thought about it. I guess it's just as well, since I was pretty cynical when I went to Salt Lake's parade in 2012. However, even if I wasn't going to see an actual parade, I did decide to celebrate on St. Paddy's Day by going to the parade route.

I walked through the Gateway where they had already closed parts of the road. And near where the parade was to start, there was a green line on the road. I'm not sure if it was there for this parade, but I assume it was. They clearly were setting up for the parade, and I went there in my green clothes from work, so it kind of counts for my bucket list. That was actually the second time this week I was at the Gateway--my cousin Tammy was in town, and so my niece and I joined her family at the Mystery Escape Room. It was fun, though I didn't feel terribly helpful. We escaped with 20 seconds left, but I think the host was helping a bit too much at that point, so maybe it wasn't quite fair.

Eat green-dyed food. In the last few years, I've started making corned beef and cabbage, but when I was growing up, we would always just dye our food green for Paddy's Day. In the last few years, I've preferred unique flavors that go with the colors, rather than just the colors. So I had a variety of green flavors throughout the season, including mint,

 pistachio,

pistachio on the left, mint on the right

 apple,

 avocado,

 and pickle.

But seriously, that packaging is the stuff of nightmares.

See shamrocks (or similar plants). I saw alfalfa growing as a weed on Presidents' Day, and that counted as a "similar plant." But on St. David's Day, I bought this shamrock plant. After I got it home, I worried, because it had wilted pretty quickly. But then I discovered something interesting about it. When it was sunny, the flowers would be wide open and the shamrock leaves would be spread out, but when it was dark, the flowers would close and the shamrock leaves would be limp. Neat, huh?

On social awkwardness

I've been thinking this week about social awkwardness, annoyingness, and my place within them. I've been shy my entire life, and as I've grown older, I've become increasingly aware of just how socially awkward I am, even as I think my awkwardness has gone down. In the past I viewed myself as a weird person who would always be weird. I still think that's true, but I think I have the potential to be more normal than I previously thought. There's charming weird, and there's awkward weird. I'm wanting to be the charming, rather than the awkward, variety.

First, some awkward people:

I find myself exhaling deeply when I find someone doing something annoying. Last summer, I posted about the old man in the cubicle across from me. Sometimes I feel like he's a robot with only a few set programmed expressions, because he always says them over and over, usually with the same intonation. I find myself exhaling deeply whenever I hear him going, "You dumb thing! Arr!" or "Oh, wow, [sing-song mumbling]." I don't know why it should annoy me, but it does. Sometimes I think he forgets he's in a cubicle and we can hear everything he says. He talks to his wife on the phone several times a day, and last week I heard him joking, "You wore a [something something] bra to her party. That's all you had on?" Keep in mind that these are people in their mid-70s who look like they're in their 90s.

There are some people who are terrible parents; and since they're terrible parents, their kids are poorly behaved and may sadly become terrible parents themselves someday. When their kids do something wrong, it can be annoying, but they're just kids, and the parents' reaction (yelling and chiding but not fixing the problem) makes it so much worse. It's very annoying. They're so blasted dumb. [This paragraph has been toned down since I first posted.]

There are a few people in my ward who love to make comments in lessons, and whenever they start talking, I think to myself, "Oh no, here we go." (I'm not talking about all people who love making comments, just a few specific ones I'm thinking of.) They go on and on with some comment that is not related to the topic. Some of these people are autistic, so it's not really their fault, but others are not, and I can't help thinking, "For your sake and everyone else's, will you please stop talking?" (Once, one of the autistic people said, "I have a question. If someone has their baby tattooed before their blessing, would that be considered child abuse?" I don't even remember what we were talking about, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't about babies, tattoos, or child abuse.)

Yesterday (Saturday), I was able to get out and do some trail running on the Wild Rose Trail and adjoining trails again.

The lines on the hill were created during the Depression as part of the New Deal.

 Some of my miles were very slow because I was talking to people. One man was new to the area and asked where the trail went. I was happy to help him, but I did second guess whether I should have given him clearer directions and suggestions. The second one was weirder, as he started asking me a lot of personal questions. "How often do you get new shoes?" was the first weird question. I told him it depended on the shoe, and he asked if I had sturdy ankles, and he asked how old I was. When I told him 28, he said something like, "So you still have the mindset of bullets coming at you, indestructible?" What was he insinuating by that!? The whole exchange seemed a bit condescending.

I hate to seem like I'm judgmental or rude, but these are the kinds of behaviors I want to avoid. Not that the people are bad, just that I want to avoid the behaviors that make people uncomfortable. But I often worry that I am equally annoying or awkward.

This week, I was invited to attend a luncheon for the launch of the book At the Pulpit. It was a little intimidating. There were a lot of high-ranking, highly educated people there, and my Target cardigan seemed out of place among all the suits and sports jackets. I feel too much like a little peon to really interact with all these bigwigs, but the resulting awkwardness makes me even more of a little peon. I don't know how to stop the cycle.

There were also several other people I ran into this week where the exchange was awkward. I'm inherently shy and quiet, but I'm also terribly insecure that I'm going to come across as one of these annoying people, so I don't want to say too much. But sometimes that just makes it worse.

I finally got my new suits this week. I'm tired of always looking as awkward as I feel, so I'm trying to alleviate that. But I don't know that I'll ever really be able to shake my awkward image. Even if it's only in my head.

St. David's Day

Quiz: What holiday, besides Ash Wednesday, was on Wednesday this week?

Answer: You already know, because it's in the title of the post.

What is St. David's Day, you ask? Well, it's the Welsh version of St. Patrick's Day.

But instead of the 17th, it's on the 1st.

Instead of green, red is the dominant color.

Instead of shamrocks, they have daffodils and leeks.

Instead of leprechauns, they have dragons.

And, instead of a kitschy, popular celebration, it's largely unheard of in the United States. It does puzzle me why some cultures get their own popular celebrations, whereas others don't. I'm not complaining, it's just curious. The internet tells me that the Welsh immigrants were Protestant, so they assimilated easily, while the Irish were Catholics, so they retained a distinct heritage. Hence one holiday is still common and the other is not

I've heard a little about St. David's Day here and there, but this was the first year I was really aware of it.

When I was a kid, we had these Childcraft books, one of which was about holidays (which was really the only volume I looked at), and it told the story of the Welsh army wearing leeks to distinguish themselves from their enemies, thereby winning the battle. I didn't even know what or where Wales was back then, but I always remembered subconsciously that there was a holiday about leeks on March 1, somewhere. That was the first time I ever heard of leeks, and I didn't like them when my mom later put them in soup.

In 2013, I had a roommate who was a member of BYU Men's Chorus, and one March day he told me that their director, Rosalind Hall, got up and said, annoyed, "None of you are wearing red!" They all were like, "Sorry?" She said, "All you care about is Ireland!"

Sometimes I enjoy thumbing through old editions of the Children's Friend (especially at Halloween). Recently I was looking at some March issues from the 1930s, and one of them briefly mentioned St. David's Day (with no apparent references in the issue to St. Patrick's Day. More Mormon pioneers came from Wales than came from Ireland).

I've been researching different areas of the world from the 1850s, and as I recently wrapped up my work on the Sandwich Islands, I have been researching Wales and the efforts of Dan Jones therein.

And since I now knew more about St. David's Day, I thought it was a perfect time to acknowledge its existence.

So, on March 1, I wore my red sweater (even though I decided it was too warm to wear after Valentine's Day). And I spent the day researching Wales. I didn't learn as much as I would have liked, but it was still fun to delve into a place and language I haven't studied before.

And I had to have some kind of leek dish for dinner. Last summer, I made a tomato cobbler, which was quite satisfying, and one of the recipe variations was leek cobbler.

It was OK. The tomato cobbler was better.

But it was still fun to pretend to be culturally cognizant.

Presidents' Day

Martin Luther King and Presidents' Days are welcome winter holidays, but they're usually fairly boring. This year, though, I had an enjoyable Presidents' Day. (Note that the apostrophe comes after the s, because it's plural. Trump doesn't need his own holiday.)

One of the things that gets depressing about this time of year is that it can feel like winter is lasting forever and spring is never going to come. While there is plenty of snow on the ground today, I'm not depressed about it, because I got a taste of spring and a trail run in. The snow had melted enough that I was able to run to Ensign Peak. It was actually my first time running the entire way, since the last time I walked some of the time. I started running from home, but it was crazy windy, so I decided I would rather skip right to the fun part (i.e. the trail) and drove to Tunnel Springs Park. It was so wonderful to be out again. It was a little muddy, but not too bad. It was 6.65 miles roundtrip.

Looking down at Ensign Peak from the top of a steep hill

The view from Ensign Peak

Looking back at where I came from

The steep hill I had to go back up. I had to take a couple of breaks to drink water and catch my breath, but I did run up the whole thing!

My Fitbit GPS shows just how steep that hill was. (Note that the 1,720 feet counts every time I went up. I wasn't actually at that high an elevation.)

The only portion of the trail with snow.

After my run, I went out to do a few errands. I drove to Best Buy because I had a bunch of electronics I had to recycle. I opened my trunk to get all the electronics out, and it was very windy, so a plastic bag was blowing all around my trunk. It was an old BYU Bookstore bag, a very durable and useful one. At the precise moment I closed the trunk, it blew out of my trunk, so I wanted to chase it. But as luck would have it, it kept blowing away as soon as I got to it. And then the plastic bag in which I had many electronics broke, spilling all over the parking lot, breaking a spiral lightbulb in the bag. So much for catching the errant plastic bag! Mother Nature, I was trying to help you by recycling, and you thwarted my plans by taking the bag out of my trunk and making me break one of those mercury-filled bulbs!

I'm all into green foods now, so I went to Burger King for a mint Oreo shake. (Last year I think it was a seasonal offering, but apparently it's permanent now.) While I was there, someone's car alarm went off. As I was going out, a black man with dreadlocks followed me and said something like "You decided to play with your car alarm?" His tone was kind of confrontational, but I was saved because it wasn't my car. I was a little frightened. And then I wondered, am I racist, because I was afraid? Would I have likewise been afraid of a white man with dreads, or a cleancut white man? I was kind of surprised at the confrontational tone of something as innocuous as a car alarm.

One of my bucket list items for the St. Patrick's Day season is to see shamrock-like plants. I think this alfalfa growing as a weed in front of BK fits the bill.

I had to stop at See's Candies to get their St. Paddy's Day candies. Their St. Patrick's Day potatoes blow my mind for their resemblance to actual potatoes and their tastiness.

On Presidents' Day, I spent more than a week's salary in one day. I bought concert tickets, and the cheapest tickets were sold out. (You might say the cheap ones were a perfect illusion. I had a hundred million reasons to walk away, but I got the better tickets anyway.) I also decided to buy some suits. I have one suit, but I rarely wear it because I don't like it. I bought two suits, because it was buy-one-get-one-free, although the price for one was ridiculously expensive. I also went to Old Navy and got socks with shamrocks, Irish flags, puffins (yay!), and pineapples.

But, unfortunately, I don't get another paid holiday until Memorial Day. (Technically, that might not be paid anymore, because my contract status might be changing.)

But maybe this dearth of holidays is a good thing. I might go broke otherwise.

Not interesting this week

Valentine's Day was this week, which is really a rather boring holiday if you're single. And I bet that even if you aren't single, is still relatively boring.

I spent Valentine's night playing my Valentine playlist and cleaning the fridge. Romantic, right? My Valentine's Day playlist is my shortest but third best, after Halloween and Christmas.

During the season, though, I was able to fulfill my holiday bucket list, meaning that between January 15 and February 14, I wore heart clothing, went on a date, made valentines, received a valentine (thanks!), and gave valentines. I also consumed conversation hearts, chocolates, chocolate covered strawberries, red velvet cake, and red velvet cupcakes. I have some unusual plans in the works to fulfill my St. Patrick's Day bucket list.

I was happy that this week, the snow had melted enough for me to go trail running again, the first time in three months! Only on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which isn't my favorite, but it's still a trail. It dries faster. On Monday, it was very short, and very muddy. My trail shoes are rather new; I've only worn them a few times, so I was a little disappointed to get them so muddy, but it makes me feel more official that way. Saturday, I ran from Tunnel Springs Park to a neighborhood above the Capitol, six miles round trip, including portions of the trail where I'd never been before. (I was too lazy to run from my house, which would have made it more than eight miles.) Trails aren't that interesting in February, because everything is dead. But it was still better than streets.

After I got to the neighborhood, it was a little daunting to look at the hill I had to climb up again. That's why I mostly look at the ground when I'm going up, so I don't get discouraged. But it was still less of a climb than North Canyon.

I also had to spend a lot of money this week. First, I had to pay to have my car fixed. It was probably about the worth of the car, but still cheaper than getting an entirely new one. I kind of feel like I have bragging rights that my car is twenty-two years old, even if it has its issues.

I also went to get my eyes checked, and I had to pay for new glasses, which I don't have. I was amazed how expensive Standard Optical was. Of course, I second guess myself (which I do with everything): should I have gone elsewhere? Should I have bought different glasses? But I will have had the experience.

Later this summer, my family will be visiting Niagara Falls. When I went as a kid, you didn't need a passport, but you do now, so I had to go get one. I stood in the line for an hour and a half. It was so slow.

Our cat has gotten a lot healthier, but we still have to give her pills. I thought it would get easier, as the cat would get used to it and I would get better at it. But it only got worse. She even hissed at me this week, which she has never done before. She hisses at children and dogs, but never me. I think I figured out the trick is to put the pill on her wet food (which she loves, and which we never gave her before). All this trouble just for a cat's thyroid. I've become that person.

A sick cat and a sick car

Last fall, I made a post about our fourteen-year-old cat, Jenny. Last weekend, she really gave us a scare. We had noticed that she'd gotten thinner, even though she's usually fatter during the winter. Last weekend, she seemed especially thin, and she had no energy. She wouldn't go outside, even though it was a warm day, and she spent most of her time hanging out in a dark corner downstairs. She hadn't eaten very much of her food.

It all happened so fast that we realized we would have to take her to the vet. Since she's fourteen, we worried that they might tell us it was time to put her down. I worried this might be the last picture I took of her.

I was feeling really sad with the prospect of losing her. I never thought I would be very sad--she's just a cat, and she's not even a great cat.

On Monday morning, I took her to the vet. We don't have a kennel for her, so I improvised with a plastic crate with a towel on the bottom and a towel on top. As I carried her out of the house, she had a sad, howl-like meow. When I put her in the car, she climbed out of the crate and went and sat down on the floor of the driver's seat. She was in really bad shape, walking funny and slowly. Since it was already traumatic enough for her, I figured I wouldn't enforce the crate on the car ride, so I transferred her to the floor of the passenger seat. She kept making her sad meow, and whenever I was stopped (like at a stoplight), she tried to get up. I made it to the vet and took her in in the crate. I explained what was going on, and as I walked out, she really was meowing sadly. It made it hard for me to leave her, but what else could I do?

It turned out she had an abscess on her hind end that was preventing her from eating much, so they cleared it. The vet said it was really nasty and looked like pistachio pudding (an interesting visual, since once Valentine's Day is over this week, I'll start eating green desserts). They put a drain in to get the rest of it out. They also performed some tests to see if anything else was going on. She has hyperthyroidism, and she appeared to have high blood sugar. When we went back to have her drain taken out, they tested her again, because sometimes cats will spike when they are stressed, and that appeared to be the case, because her sugar levels were much closer to normal. She was less stressed on her second trip to the vet.

Her thyroid problem makes her lose weight even when she's eating, so the vet gave us pills to regulate it. We feel mean and ridiculous giving pills to a cat (it involves holding her head up, prying her mouth open, and dropping the pill inside), but we want to help her. She has improved dramatically, so we hope she will continue to improve and be back to catching mice this summer.

Just as the cat is improving, my car is not. I started it to go to work on Thursday, but it shook really bad and shut off. It's at the shop right now. We own five cars, but for some reason only three were at our house that day, so there wasn't a car for me to take that day, and I had to work from home. (I have that luxury, although I don't prefer it.) Talk about first-world problems. I'm borrowing the Pathfinder that used to be my sister's but my parents bought but my sister still uses.

I enjoyed some things that went on at work. Last week, I received a copy of an article I helped annotate about the first Mormon mission to China. (It just came out, so it's not free yet.)

Then I got a call from a missionary in the department. He told me that he had bought a copy of the book I coedited, A Historian in Zion, which was flattering, because I honestly didn't think anyone would read that book. But he called to tell me that on page 50, it said they traveled 111 miles rather than 11 miles. An unfortunate error, yes, but you'd really call me to tell me that? What do you expect me to do about it? It's already been published. He also called my boss, the other coeditor, who is a very busy man.

Off and on from about August 2014 to April 2015, I was able to work on a book about the pioneers, which just came out this week. My name isn't on the book, but it's in it, and I feel like this is more my book than the one that actually has my name on it. I learned so many interesting things, and I did a lot of work on it. I can't wait for its reviews to trickle in. (Although maybe I don't want to see them. :/ )

For part of my 2017 resolutions, I made a bucket list of things to accomplish for each holiday. One of these bucket list items was to make and give valentines, so I used my Cricut machine to make valentines for those I home teach. I like the way they turned out.

 I also made red velvet cookies...

 and used the leftover white chocolate to dip strawberries in.

The last item on my Valentine's Day bucket list is to receive a valentine, if anyone wants to help out with that. ;)

Last night I dreamed that I went to check the mail, and it was full of minty shamrock ice cream sandwiches and four or five valentine-themed tubs of ice cream, including red velvet, chocolate strawberry, and conversation hearts. I couldn't carry all the mail in at once, so I brought the ice cream in and went out to get the rest of it. But by the time I came back in, my dad had already thrown all the ice cream away, and I was really sad.

Do you ever wake up and have to Google something you dreamed about to see if it's real? I had to Google conversation heart ice cream. (It's not made commercially, but you can make your own.) I also had to Google snakes with the jaws of snapping turtles. (I haven't seen that they exist.)

A Mormon mommy blog

The stereotype for blogging is the Mormon mommy blog. I've got the Mormon part down, but I'm neither a woman nor a parent, so that part's not relevant, and I get a little annoyed with the Molly Mormon, picture-perfect posts that are all too common.

But as I thought about the things I would be sharing this week, I realized that this post was really going to turn into a Mormon mommy blog, albeit with a masculine touch. (By "masculine," I mean "ugly.")

Exhibit A:

Last fall, I bought a Cricut machine, so I thought I would use it to make a little heart decoration. I had the idea and designed it all by myself--no Pinterest for me! I'm really pleased with how it turned out, since I'm neither crafty nor a woman. It wasn't as good as I imagined, but it was better than I honestly expected it to turn out. I'm trying to do things to make this time of year fun, because Valentine's Day is my least favorite holiday. (Well, my least favorite of the ones I actually celebrate. Don't get me started on Groundhog Day.)

Exhibit B:

Two weeks ago, my favorite singer-songwriter, Cherie Call, came to my church building to give a fireside to the wards in my building. She, of course, is a Mormon mommy songwriter. After the fireside, I went up to her and told her I was her biggest fan, and I told her that to my knowledge, I had all of the songs she's written and recorded (including some songs on obscure multi-artist albums). But I knew that after her very first album, she released a Christmas EP, One Star, that later became a full album, Gifts. I had heard some of her Christmas songs on the radio, but I could tell they were a little different from how they appear on Gifts. Being a superfan, I asked her if there was a way I could buy the One Star EP. She told me she had some copies at her house, so she would send me one (for free)! When I told her my name, she recognized it, probably because I have contributed to a Kickstarter project or two. It arrived this week. I listened to it to see what it's like (different and a little less polished than the full Christmas album), but then it goes on the shelf until after Thanksgiving.

Exhibit C:

When I was nine and ten (and eleven) years old, I had this obsession with these anthropomorphic vegetable and fruit toys. I can remember asking my neighbors if they had seen them at the store, which probably embarrassed my family. I was never too big into toys, but I totally geeked out over these Veggie Friend Seedies (this was at the time Beanie Babies were wildly popular). Well, the company that made these, Toybox Creations, no longer exists, and there were a few collector's items I never got while they were in business. One such item was the Veggie Friends Calendar. A few years ago, I bought the figurines on Ebay, but the rare times I found the calendar to go with them, it was too expensive. Well, I found it again, so I ordered it! I have to find a place for it to go permanently (I need to organize my room better), but I'm glad I finally have this kitschy decoration. (I don't know how much I'll actually change the dates, because it was poorly designed, so changing the numbers is cumbersome.) From January to December, the figures are Collie Flower, Charles Broccoli, Ollie Onion, Belle Pepper, Beta Carrot, Spuds Potato, Skeeter Squash, Ripe Tomato, Cabby Cabbage, Corny on the Cob, Crunchy Celery, and Moy Mushroom. (And I liked these veggie toys before I even liked vegetables!)

Exhibit D:

OK, I wasn't going to blog about this, but I'm including it to keep with the theme. I made this creamy carrot soup. It's one of my favorite things to make, because it's simple, tasty, and healthy. (Beta Carrot, Ollie Onion, and Spuds Potato are all ingredients.)