Vegetarianism & Mathematics.

When Newton’s friends and biographers tried to clarify his views on black pudding and rabbit meat, they weren’t afraid that he’d be thought a closet Jew; they were concerned that he’d be taken for something called a Pythagorean. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras of Samos—he of the theorem relating the hypotenuse and the perpendicular sides of a right triangle—founded a community of mystical mathematicians who, it was said, observed a general prohibition against eating animals, “as having a right to live in common with mankind.” Interest in the Pythagorean ban was renewed in the third and fourth centuries A.D. by pagan Neoplatonist philosophers seeking purification of the soul in advance of the afterlife, and it persisted until at least the early nineteenth century. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the resonance of the term “Pythagorean” was more dietary than mathematical. One explanation of Pythagoreans’ vegetarianism was their adherence to a doctrine known as metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. If your soul, after death, could pass into the body of another animal species, vegetarianism was the only sure way to avoid cannibalism.

From:

The History of Vegetarianism.

by STEVEN SHAPIN

Article in the New Yorker

Deep Blue Something.

Apparently, they're the ones who sang "Breakfast at Tiffanies". Mike and I were convinced it was Del'Amitri until Brodie proved us wrong by singing an actual Del'Amitri song..."Look around the world pretty baby, is it everything you hoped it would be, the wrong guy the wrong situation, the right time to roll with me." Brodie was right. He's the winner.

There's one snippit of what kind of general converstation goes on in my daily life. Now, suppose I wrote every day for the past week instead of very unintentionally ignoring my blog. Imagine what kinds of useless junk you would learn, or, re-learn.

Anywho. Sorry I've been slacking. I'm not quite sure who I'm apologizing to exactly, but I'm just throwing it out there. Here's a quick round up of what's been going down:

1. I was sick for the better half of last week.
2. I cleaned, almost constantly, while I was sick.
3. I went to "Steak night" at Quinns Thursday night with Jen, Adam and Tom and had the most wonderful meal. No, not steak, but seared tuna. Damn! Best tuna I've ever had. I played backgammon at the bar, then hung around for a bit and laughed with people I haven't seen in a while. It was a great time, and I'm glad Jen convinced me to come out.
4. I was in cleaning mode again Friday night, so I made a run to Linen's N Things b/c I had a coupon. Came out with a new showerhead, shower tower, and blow dryer amongst other things. Came home, scrubbed the shower, installed showerhead, and tower, and took the best shower ever. Brodie cooked dinner and we watched tv and went to bed early. Whoop!
5. Saturday was a lazy day. We sat around for the majority of the day, then decided to get started on my Mom's birthday present. I can't say what it is yet, b/c it's not finished and she hasn't received it yet (although her birthday was yesterday, doh!). New material, new project, now I know...
6. Saturday night we went out to see My Friend Ben play at Brennan's, then to Quinns. I had a super fun time b/c Brodie didn't drink and I had the luxury of not worrying about taking care of him/getting us home. This has never, ever, happened before in the 11 months we've been together. I took full advantage and had a blast. Whoop!
7. Sunday was spent watching an opera on channel 13, baking a cake for my mother, and reading the Times. It was fantastic. We all went out to dinner for my mother's b-day at Penninsula in bay shore. The meal was great, and it was a fun time with the fam. They let me bring my cake in, so we sang happy birthday while this crazy guy banged on a gong. It was hilarious, so much that I was in tears. It was really a fantastic way to end a great weekend.
8. Last night Brodie, Mike, and I made burritos and had a feast. Then a bunch of us watched Saw III. Gross!!! Loved it though.

Whoop!

I need to knit tonight...

Tea with honey.

My honey just made me some chamomile tea with honey. He's the sweetest. Needless to say, I'm sick again. AGAIN!!! Jeez. I can't catch a break here.

After waking up at 4am, and being unable to get back to sleep because I felt like my throat was completely closed up, I decided that I was going to call into work and try to get some rest. I stayed in bed until around 10, then moved onto the livingroom couch. I spent about 5 minutes there before I decided I needed some food. Thank goodness Brodie and I went food shopping last night. I had this new Total with some organic milk. Mmmmm, it was delicious. I watched a little TV, then decided that I should be a good mommy and sew up some of Dylans favorite toys that he has teared holes in.

After that I decided that I should maybe take down some Christmas decorations seeing as it is the end of January. I would have done it sooner, but I have been staying at Brodie's for the past couple of weeks. While taking down decorations, I noticed that there was a little too much dust for my taste, so I decided to dust the entire livingroom. I've been on a bit of a cleaning kick since I've gotten back, and I tackled the kitchen last night. I did everything from the refrigerator to the stove, but I haven't had the chance to do the floors yet. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll probably do the bathroom tomorrow. My room needs some special attention, but I'd rather take care of all of the common space first. Looks like spring cleaning started way early this year, but it feels good to have a clean place, it makes my mind clearer.

While in the process of cleaning like a lunatic, Brodie came by and made me some soup. I love him. We had a little visit by Mike, and have been sitting on the couch since he left. I tried to work on that 3/4 finished lace blanket that my Uncle bestowed upon me, but 4 rows in I decided that it was just too screwed up to keep going and frogged the entire panel. I know it's going to take me at least a month to redo what was done, but at least it will be done right and match the other 3 panels. I suppose it's also good practice with lace for when I decide to do a project of my own. Eh.

It's just past 10pm, and I feel rotten, so I'm heading to bed. Unfortunately, I have to go into work tomorrow to do payroll, but I'll probably wind up leaving early. I wish I would have got some Nyquil. Doh! G'night.

Tiiiiiiiiiime, is on my side. Yes it is.

I'm currently alone in the office, so that means I have a little time to catch up on blogging. We'll start with this past weekend.

Friday night, Brodie and I decided to have an Arts and Crafts type of night. I had a plan for his bare livingroom walls for a while now, and we finially decided to get it done. Here it is:

First, we picked out a bunch of our favorite records.

We chose our layout, used the level to mark the wall, and began...

We used sleek furniture tacks instead of ugly nails to hang them.

Almost finished!

Tada! Done.

We didn't finish until sometime around Two am. There might have been some alcohol involved. We also planned on making paintings for the kitchen, but, although we ran to Michaels at closing to get supplies, it was way too late and I was way too grumpy to get started on another project. Perhaps it's because while Brodie was so diligently hanging albums, I was busy making this:

We were going to my Uncle's on Sunday to celebrate a late family Christmas, and I couldn't arrive empty handed. I made a bunch of these ornaments for Brodie's family for Christmas, and I loved the pattern. I made another one Saturday morning.

I really love how these two came out!

Brodie slept in on Saturday morning while I finished the second ornament. My friend Chris was in town from Colorado, so we planned to drive out to Hampton Bays where he was staying to pick him up and bring him back to Bay Shore for the night. We head out there around 2pm. It was quite the rainy dreary drive, but we made wonderful time. After picking him up, we head up to Mattatuck where Chris's dad was working at this wonderful little cheese shop

We purchased some yummy cheese and tons of candy from the Godiva shop next door. Then we went up to Sound Ave and stopped at Martha Clara Vinyards for some wine/champagne tasting. We hung out with some Bison, then stopped to get Peach Pie. Then we came home, ate pasta, drank whiskey, and went out to the bar. Good times. You can see all of the pics from our wacky time on my Flickr.

If I had the time...

I would write about these things:

• Being so busy at work
• Not finishing Mike's birthday gifts.
• Lentil soup at Mark and Linda's last night.
• American Idol is funny.
• Ella and Dylan tongue kissing.
• Brodie's heat doesn't like to work.
• I have to do laundry. A lot of laundry.
• Not buying a new cell phone.
• I have a million photos to uplaod to Flickr.
• There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day.
• I bought new underware.
• Cups of pretzels.
• Strange things that bring me to tears.
• Pineapples.
• Soup.
• Being unable to remember how to spell things in German.
• Un Peu. Being able to spell only a few things in French.
• I haven't read my book at all this week.
• I want to take a bubble bath.
• Dylan would most likely want to join me.
• Lemon Merengue is not so bad.
• Peach pie is scrumptious.
• The cheese shop in Manatuck is my new favorite place.
• I love Bison because they are so colorful.
• I should buy some champagne tonight.
• We are going to the Philharmonic on Sunday.
• We are also going to the Nassau County Museum of Art of Sunday to see the Picasso exhibit.
• Dylan is never growing, and I like it.
• I want toast.
• It's almost Friday.

Fishy.

Brodie's a sweetheart. He worked in a pathmark seafood department yesterday (doing construction), and surprised me by bringing home salmon for dinner. I love salmon. I stopped by my apartment and grabbed some potatoes and we had a fantastic meal of Pineapple glazed salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, and broccoli. He cooked everything while I played with the pup and showered. He's the best a gal could ask for.

Dylan loves to shower. He begs and begs to come in when I'm in there, so yesterday I just took him in. Brodie's shower is gigantic, so he just hung out at the end where the water wasn't streaming down. He got wet enough not to be cold, but I didn't have to worry about him drinking any soapy water. After I was done with my routine I lathered him up and rinsed him off. He absolutely loves it. This is the 2nd bath he's had in less than a week. I guess I can't really complain because he's the best smelling pooch around, but I'm just worried his skin is going to get irritated if I wash it too much. The best part is when we get out and he gets blow dried. He loves the blow dryer. Most dogs would bark at the thing, but Dylan loves it. He's so damn adorable. Oh man, I have to get a wet picture of him. He definitely looks like a rodent. The cutest rodent ever, of course.

After dinner we laid in bed and watched the golden globes while sipping champagne and eating peach pie. Gosh, I'm such a lush. I think I was tipsy and asleep by 10pm. It was a super relaxing evening with my two favorite boys and my two favorite indulgences. Who's got it better than me?

I woke up to the noisy garbage trucks around 5am and was pretty much up from there on. I wasn't really tired because I went to bed so early, so I just laid there and waited for Brodie to wake up and played with the pooch. Work has been super busy today with the Accountant coming tomorrow. Let's just say I do the majority of the work for him, and he just files the forms. I should really look into that profession. I love numbers.

Tonight, my parents and I are going to the Verizon store where I will hopefully not leave without a brand new phone. I have to work on Mike's birthday gifts later, but really all that I can focus on is eating some more peach pie. Thank goodness it's almost hump day/pay day. Jen got Brodie and I tickets to see the Long Island Philharmonic this Sunday from her job. I'm super excited!!!!! I love Wagner.

In other news, this morning I purchased this fabulous variegated yarn from Jojoland to make a throw blanket for myself. That's right, I said FOR MYSELF! It will be the first thing I've ever knit for myself. I'm so excited!

I haven't chosen a pattern yet, but I think I'm just going to make a bunch of squares and piece them together. The yarn should be here by the end of the week, so I plan on starting this weekend. Should be super fun!

Love.

How friggin' adorable is this super duper old couple?

Oh man. This will make me smile for the rest of the day. Maybe even the next two.

This should be a long weekend.

I'm not going to try to hide the fact that I'm completely jealous that other people have off from work today. I'm in dire need of a break from this place after what went down on Friday. I normally love my job, but Friday was just a mess, ending in a fight with one of my superiors, and stressing me out to the max. He was on top of me as soon as I got in this morning and something tells me that he's not going to back off any time soon. Ugh. He's just one of those people that you have to yes to death even though you know that they are dead wrong, EVERY TIME. I finally had enough on Friday and spoke my mind. Bad news.

I just want to get through today. I know I will, but I just want it to be quicker, and less frustrating.

A girl can wish...

Blogging.

Hi guys,

I love you. I love all of you that comment and say nice things. Hell, I even love when you comment and tell me to get my act together or to shut up and be happy. I love my friends. On the other hand, I do not like when people that pretend to know me leave anonymous comments calling me a hypocrite. Oh, and spelling it "hippocrite". Good one. Grow up. If you don't like what you read, don't come here, it's as plain and simple as that. Or, come, bring it, and do yourself a favor and stop being pathetic and post comments under your real name.

Shout out to Jen, Kiesha and PFR. xoxoxoxoxoxoxox!

Doggie hoodie and vest.

Come on!, originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.

Dylan should be in fashion magazines.

Angry.

Don't ever watch "The Last Kiss".

I don't think I ever hated a movie so much in my entire life, yet I watched the entire thing. It's a "coming of age" film about dishonesty and infidelity in seemingly secure romances. It was just awful. I cried throughout the entire movie. They were tears of anger, but mostly tears of fear.

I watched the movie with Brodie and I couldn't help but put myself in the characters shoes. It was terrifying. To me, the most important things in a relationship are trust and honesty. Cheating is unforgivable because it means for that moment, you weren't in love with me. You would never hurt someone you love so badly. I've always had trust issues, partially because I have been hurt before, and partially because I invest a lot into trusting others. I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes it makes me seem naive, but I could never make it through life as a sceptic. Breaking that trust is something that's irreparable for me. I know about forgiveness, and I practice forgiveness quite often, but when it comes to infidelity I think it's better to just go your separate ways then to spend the rest of your time together wondering if it's going to happen again. I can't handle that stress and that pain. I may be weak, but I also see it as being strong. The bottom line is that infidelity is a deal breaker, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Dylan was almost named Moussa.

That's because I love Moose. I love them. Moose are wonderful.

This, on the other hand, is not so wonderful.

They're moving moose from Utah to Colorado by netting them, blindfolding them, and airlifting them, via helicopter, away from their homes.

I'm bummed.

An open letter to liquid.

Dear Water:

Oh water. One day we'll be able to live harmoniously and I will be able to consume you in normal increments throughout the day. I'll be hydrated, and you'll have a home in my belly and, consequently, the toilet, and you'll go back to the place you came from. Oh water, when will this utopian lifestyle come to be?

Severely dehydrated and refusing to drink you,

Suzy

I called it.

My weekend was more like craftless. Boo.

Friday night I cooked a meal of:

- Baked Tilapia in Lemon and Garlic Sauce
- Boiled brussel sprouts
- Mashed potatoes, with the skin on, using Lactaid b/c my man is a lactard. (I kinda goofed and used too much lactaid not really realizing that the consistency is so damn thin. Made my potatoes a bit watery.)
- My favorite salad including: Lettuce, raw mushrooms, red onion and chic peas.

Brodie brought over a bottle of white wine, and I have to say that our dinner was quite delicious. After eating I jumped in the shower, got my stuff (and the dogs stuff) together, and headed over to Brodie's place for the weekend. I was feeling quite exhausted when I got there from a combination of rushing home from work and cooking, going a million miles a minute from there on, and my lovely monthly visitor wreaking the type of havoc only it can. We got into bed sometime around 10 to watch Little Miss Sunshine, but I was asleep withing 10 minutes of the movie. Brodie watched the entire thing, then started to watch Snakes on a Plane, but fell asleep.

I woke up Saturday morning, pretty early, and decided that I had to finish Little Miss Sunshine right away. That movie is just hysterical. Definitely a new favorite. It was kind of overcast and dreary outside and I was so nice a cozy in bed watching my movie, that I decided that watching another wouldn't be such a bad idea. Brodie had to run out and he promised to pick up breakfast on the way back, so as soon as Little Miss Sunshine was over I popped in Funny Face. I only got about 20 minutes into it before Brodie was back with my absolute favorite, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Pancakes!!!!!!!! We ate our breakfast and then both finished watching Funny Face. By the end of the movie it was 70 degrees and sunny outside. Brodie was itching to get out, but I was still feeling pretty yucky from my aforementioned monthly ailment (did I mention I have a nasty cold on top of it all?), so he made arrangements to go to the batting cage with Brucia. I originally planned on running home and showering and stuff, but then I had a hallway run-in with Meathead and I could swear he said "take me for a walk", so I did. I held Dylan (3 lbs) in my left arm and walked Meathead (80-100 lbs) with my right arm. haha. It was a sight. Brodie called me while we were walking and had Brucia drop him off on our route. We decided to go up to the local pet store, Cattitudes, and buy Dylan his first harness and leash. As soon as we put him down, Meathead tried to eat him (no, those two haven't learned to like each other yet), so we kept our distance and walked them back to his apartment. Football was starting, so Brodie got to fixing the living room tv so that we could get cable. While he was in the process my Mom called, so I told her to come by b/c she'd never seen his place. My Mom and Dad came and sat in the living room with us and drank a beer. It was a nice visit. After they left we watched football, ordered Gino's, watched football, then retired to the bedroom to watch Snakes on a Plane. I have to tell you that I began watching it with little hope, but the movie was half-way decent. It had me screaming. Needless to say, I fell asleep halfway through and finished the rest of it Sunday morning.

I woke up early Sunday morning and snuck out (I left a note) to run home and clean up a little bit. I grabbed the free stuff we got when we went food shopping (Eggs, Bacon, English Muffins, and OJ) and went back to Brodie's to make him breakfast. We ate and then finished watching Snakes on a Plane. After that we watched football all day, breaking at 5 to go to my parents for dinner. We did a quick CVS run and back to Brodie's to finish watching my team (the Giants) lose. We watched some mindless tv including "You're the one that I want" the search to find Danny and Sandy to play in Grease on Broadway, followed by the "Apprentice LA". Dumb.

It was a pretty mellow and relaxing weekend with my boys. I did do a little knitting. I began a hat for my Brother-in Law. It's my altered version of this London Beanie. No stripes, chunky yarn, and size 9 needles make it a semi-quick knit. I'll definitely get a pic up sometime this week.

Craftacular.

I really want to have a full on crafty weekend. I'm thinking it's totally doable for the following reasons:

- It's going to rain all day, every day.
- We're going to be at Brodie's place. Just us and the dogs.
- There are 4 football games that I need to watch, prime knitting time.
- Brodie wants a painting for his kitchen.
- We have a gigantic bottle of champagne, paint, and a wooden board.

All of the ingredients for either a very lazy, unproductive weekend, or a super crafty, productive weekend. We'll see.

I just knit Calorimetry from Knitty for Kiesha for her birthday. I used chunky yarn and cut the pattern in half. It was a super fun and quick knit and I absolutely love how it came out. Maybe I'll knit a few for myself? Of course I gave it to her last night and forgot to take a picture of it. Why do I do that? Errrr. I'll see if she can take a pic and send it to me.

For her birthday, Kiesha got a bunch of old college friends together for dinner at Ruvo's in Port Jefferson. I went there for my birthday because the food is fabulously yum! It was great to see Chris Cooke, Alex, Liz, Ginny, Pedro, Scotty and of course, Kiesha. It was a great night with old friends and lots of champagne and wine. I got the Lobster Ravioli and they were just to die for. I'm actually glad I live so far away from that restaurant, or else I'd be there at least 3 times a week. Needless to say, I got a little tipsy and Brodie drove home. I wasn't in bed until 1am and I'm hurting today. This sudden Champagne addiction is going to be so bad, but soooo good.

Whoop!

Almost the weekend!

Tipsy.

Champagne is fantastic.


It's also the reason why my head hurts so much today.

Some notable events.

Happy New Year!



We took it easy New Years Eve and stayed in with our friends Joe and Scott and played Trivial Pursuit while drinking champagne, wine and martinis. It was nice an mellow, and a whole lot more affordable than the $100.00 a head dinner/open bar that my favorite local bar was offering. I had a fantastic time, in the company of those I really truly enjoy. Plus, I got to stay home with the pooch, and he always puts a smile on my face. I'm so excited to start the new year off with my wonderful boyfriend and our adorable dog. I feel very lucky to be so happy in my life.


I rearranged the living room a bit to make he crafting corner more functional. There is now a desk area to sit and make cards or sew. It's so nice and tidy and I'm so anxious to get a project started. I just have a few more small knitting projects to complete before I can dive into something else. My first major project will be a painting of sorts. We'll see...


I'm very disappointed that I knit 10 gifts for Christmas and hardly have any pictures of any of them. Not until after I wrapped everything did I remember that I didn't photograph anything. Booo. Total bummer. I have a few pics of the wire votives I knit from Handknit Holidays. There was a bunch of tweaking to the pattern and a lot of pain and finger cuts, but all in all I absolutely love the way they came out. I wish I had the drive to make some for myself. Ha! Yeah right. Here they are alone, and wrapped up in a basket with some wine or other candles, which is how I gifted them to a bunch of people.

In other news, I've started the new year off right by going food shopping last night. I'm going to try to cook the majority of my meals instead of eating out so much. Good news is I went to the grocery store with a $100.00 budget last night and came out spending $109.91. My cabinets and refrigerator were practically empty and now they are overflowing, so I think I did a great job for the money, plus there was some kind of sale thing where if you spent a certain amount, you got free items. I came home with free Orange Juice, a dozen eggs, bacon (I'm a vegetarian, but Brodie is not), and English Muffins. I also saved around $15.00 in coupons. I feel really great about my purchases, and I am confident that I won't have to eat out or go shopping for at least the next 2 weeks.

And last but not least, I was very surprised to see that I got a $3.00 raise today. That's a 15% increase in pay. I'm completely excited. I will put all of the raise into savings, and with that I'll be able to save $5,000.00 this year. My goal has now changed to $7,00.00 in savings this year. No problem, right? Fingers are crossed. I'm going to do my best.

We're taking the pooch to the vet tonight for his final booster shot. After this he'll only have to get his rabies vaccination. Then Brodie and I will continue the great neutering debate '07 until I win and we get him fixed. It's only the right thing. God, I love that pooch. And that man. The man before the pooch, but Brodie is going to have to step up on the kisses, because the pooch is winning by a landslide there. ;)

Yay 2007!