[Moriah] Thanksgiving, Now 100% Vegan

Daniel and I are sad now that my parents and Bean have gone back home. We had a fun two days together, with lots of laughs, food and visiting. We even went to see the annual Chuy's Christmas Parade after I finished pet sitting this morning. It was neat to get out and do something fun like that. Sadly, the floats and bands that passed didn't play much Christmas music like we hoped. It was music, like "Louie Louie" and "Hang on Sloopy," along with some country music. But what's to be expected from a Texas parade? Anyway, it was still fun and now we are looking forward to Christmas so we can go up and visit my parents at their house. In fact, Bear is waiting at the door right now, hoping they will come back. How pitiful! We should have lots of pictures to post from Thanksgiving, so watch for them soon.



In other news, Daniel shocked me tonight by wanting to go totally vegan. I had received something from Peta2 (of which I recently became a member) in the mail and he happened to look at it over my shoulder while I was going through it. I didn't push it on him or anything, but he took it from me after I finished reading it and he read through it. I believe I saw tears come to his eyes, and then a few minutes later he basically told me he decided he wanted to go vegan. "That's it; no more dairy or eggs," were his words as he wiped away the tears.



I completely agree and look forward to giving up the last animal products I use: honey and leather (on my shoes). I feel this move to veganism has been a long time in coming, but it took tonight to finally go that last step. I'm just surprised, and very happy, that Daniel wants to do this too. We went around the house and took down all our Native American animal skins and will give those to someone else. We are also getting rid of our shoes and clothes that have animal products (leather, suede, fleece, fur, silk, wool, etc.), while he finishes off the last of his shampoo and other body care items that are made with animal byproducts or tested on animals. I have already switched my cosmetic and body care items to vegan products over the last several months, but I still have shoes and a few clothing items that I plan on donating.



I feel very good about this change and that we will be going through it together. It's always nice to have your partner support you in such an important life-change as this. And I'm proud that, by not eating animal products, using items made with animal byproducts or using products that were tested on animals, we can make the lives of at least a few thousand animals per year better. I question authority. What are you going to do about it?

[Daniel] Guitar

In addition to having a wonderful Thanksgiving, I spent the weekend doing something I haven't done in awhile. I played a lot of guitar for once. Learned a couple new tricks from Dad S. (who played in a band for about 10 years back in the 70's) and surprisingly taught him a couple tricks too.



I've been feeling pretty left out as of late with Patrick gig'ing like mad and Moriah getting back into music quite a bit too.



As part of my "Daniel-improvement" plan, I'm going to start trying to play either daily or every other day. Blues has really piqued my curiosity as of late and I'm enjoying playing again.

[Daniel] Going Veg...

I'm moving to a vegan lifestyle, starting today.



I have been a vegetarian for almost 4 years now. Time and again, I have been asked how I could justify eating cheese and eggs yet not meat. Ragging about where the line is drawn. I've felt guilty at times and lately, totally disinterested in the foods that make me vegetarian.



Tonight, I saw pictures. Yes, they were from PETA. Actually, they were from PETA2. To hell with whatever you think about PETA. I don't agree with all of their actions and ideaologies but what they say about animal suffering is the truth. Ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist might be convenient but so is pretending people don't starve to death or kill each other for worthless reasons.



Am I trying to force this on anyone else? No. I'd love to see everyone go vegan but it's not easy to break old habits or give up tastes you enjoy. This is my choice.



The scope of the changes aren't even that big for me. I threw out my cheese and ice cream. I can't have milk chocolate any more. And no more leather and suede. That's about it.



I feel good about the change as it's been something I've been thinking about for weeks/months. It's all part of the grand, "Daniel-improvement" plan. Hopefully everyone who eats with me will understand. Please pass the lettuce!

[Daniel] MC Chris

Last night, we went to a concert here in Austin at a place called Emo's. MC Chris was touring with SNMNMNM and The Ergs. It was pretty chilly out (~30 degrees F) and outdoors.



The Ergs were up first and played through a pretty fast set. Decent punk music but not a lot of variation in their songs. The bassist bounced like he was on a pogo stick.



SNMNMNM, despite the crazy name, were much better. A pop punk group, their lead singer played guitar, accordian, keyboard and trombone. The other guitarist (his brother) played trumpet on a couple songs. But the best was their "bassist". The guy played the tuba through the entire gig (no electric bass). He was super-smooth, had excellent breath control and a huge range. They even fuzzed his sound on a couple tracks. Absolutely amazing. I had to go talk to them afterward and I was very impressed by their live act.



Finally, MC Chris took the stage around 11:45. MC Chris does what's called "nerdcore", which is basically rapping done in a geeked-out way. He's a voice actor (works for Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and uses a very high-pitched voice throughout his songs. His DJ has also put together some really good backgrounds using stuff like Nintendo and Star Wars sound-effects. Very hilarious. I highly recommend "Fett's Vette" (free download off MC Chris' website).



We had to leave early (1:15am), given the whole "work the next morning" thing but it was a very worthwhile show. Great to get out and see something new, in addition to spending our first evening out on Austin's legendary 6th Street.

[Moriah] I'M BACK!!!

Simply put, today was awesome. I took part in the first musical performance of my career down here in Austin. The Austin Flute Club hosted its first annual Flute-A-Thon, a fundraiser for the club to be able to create more musical activities throughout the year. It was held at the Central Market store on North Lamar and was run from 1-5 PM in the outdoor cafe. The Austin Flute Choir, of which I'm a member, performed for the first 20 minutes, so we got to play several of our pieces for the upcoming season. Shortly afterward, I played in a trio with two other members of the flute choir. The ladies and I had put some music together about two weeks ago and rehearsed together twice before the event. Throughout the afternoon, I also helped fill in some empty air time by sight-reading some music with other flutists. It was a heck of a lot of fun and we had a very appreciative audience! I can't wait for next year's Flute-A-Thon. I would like to prepare a solo, and perhaps something with Daniel on guitar or Native American flute. We'll see about that, though. Today was a great start to what I hope will be a continuing trend of performances for me down here. And as the title so appropriately states, I'm back!

[Moriah] New Theme

I now have a new blog theme, Eighth Note, thanks to Daniel's help. We worked on it together and finished it last night. Check it out!

[Moriah] Mmmmmm!

Cream of broccoli soup was on the menu tonight for dinner. I had never made this at home before and was eagerly awaiting supper time so I could attempt yet another new recipe. Since I didn't have an actual cream of broccoli recipe to go off of, I used a different cream soup recipe and adjusted it, both to be cream of broccoli and to be vegan. It turned out awesome!!! It was delectably rich and flavorful. I will definitely be adding that to our regular menu, especially for winter. I think it would be a great meal to serve if guests come over. And for those of you who are freaked out by vegetarian meals because you think they all contain tofu, relax. This recipe has no soy in it whatsoever. It's just pure, downright goodness. Shh, don't tell Daniel...I think I'm going to go snitch some leftovers now...

[Daniel] New Theme

I took the liberty of modifying the WordPress "Kubrick" to my own wretched means. As a result, Circular-Reference has a new-ish look. Really, all I did were some style changes and image swapping but I'm reasonably happy with it and given that most people probably only see the main page, I'm not real concerned. Good for a hour's worth of work.



A redesign was started for Moriah's blog tonight but she is not feeling well and we had to stop halfway through. We hope to finish it before the weekend is out.

[Daniel] I'm somewhat less than smart...

I asked Moriah this evening to take a note down for me, so I would forget. I had my hands full with Bear, who decided to perch on my lap. Moriah picked up the spiral-bound notebook and wrote down with a mechanical pencil what I asked of her. This is all well and good. I was feeling pretty smart after this revelation and absent-mindedly told her:

"Save."

We had a good laugh over that and I felt very, very stupid. Nothing quite like being put in your place.