Hey blog. It's been a while since we've talked.

Just for Ss & Gs, lets make this a list, kay?

1. A recap of the last two months: Russia was awesome! I have a few more pictures to go up, but I'll get those up in the next couple of days.

2. I have a Kodak coupon, so I can totally get 10 cent prints. Photo party!

3. Here's one more photo to tide you over, though my intent is more Ravelry-related, rather than providing you with information. It involved a leftover tomato that I carried home with me on the metro and made into a (heavily) tomato sandwich. Check out the vertical ratio on this baby:




Enough of Russia (for the time being). Now let's break it down domestic-style:

4. I'm 21. Which is all right. It feels kind of like 20, to be honest.

5. My new license photo doesn't suck!

6. Upon arrival in MN (three hours later than intended don't fly Sun Country out of JFK), I spent four days home with my family in our new house, which I love.

7. Remember the non-Russian non-pie Choco-Pies? Guess who's mother thought it would be funny to buy her daughter two boxes of them for her birthday. It's a good thing she found them at a Korean grocery store. She was going to order them online, if she had to.

8. The Dark Knight, if you haven't seen it, is a really good movie. I biked about 16 miles (round trip) to Amherst to see it this afternoon.

9. I made more vareniki! (= Ukrainian dumplings!) This time, I was smart and didn't stack them on top of each other, so they didn't stick together, and I won't have to cook fistfuls of dumpling matter instead of actual dumplings. Everybody wins! Everybody who eats them anyway. I guess the dumplings don't win.

10. Some friends and I watched 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'. Next summer, you will be able to say that, because you will know that I watched this movie, and then we can listen to Guess Who?, the Who, and Yes, and talk about it.

11. World of knitting: Ravelympics project is a little late. I could be finishing it right now, but I'm blogging instead. I could have finished it earlier, but I made dumplings instead. I only have some ends to weave in, the gathering at the neckline to do, and the single crochet around the neck and armholes. But to be fair, I didn't have the needles with me to start this project in Russia, so I couldn't start until the 11th. And then I was so exhausted/busy I didn't start until the 13th. So I'm not that behind. I joined the race a little late. It's still Sunday in California!

12. I've been seeing lots of people I know in town. Especially today at the Feve! This is always fun.

Well! A dozen things about my life. How is yours?

TWDQ

I realize that I've been terrible about posting this week, so here's a discussion question to tide you over until Monday. I thought of this while walking to school yesterday.

What is the ecological footprint of a bum?

I ask because it seems to me that they've got to be pretty environmentally friendly people. I mean, if you don't have a house, that must rule out a huge portion of normal energy consumption levels. Furthermore, in Russia, they appear to constitute a large part of the recycling system. Rather than having recycling bins anywhere (it's very painful, but I've been having to throw away bottles and cans), the system seems to be that the bums pick them up off the street and out of the trash. (I don't know what they do with them, but I assume they're being recycled, otherwise they'd probably be doing something else.) I figure if I'm throwing stuff in the trash, the recycling is offsetting the bums' consumption, rather than mine.

It kind of has this weird moral edge to it. I feel like people don't tend to think the highest of bums, especially when thinking about who does and doesn't contribute to society. But perhaps from the grandest perspective, they are some of the people who are damaging the world the least. I guess that's kinda cool.

Speaking of people who are not damaging the world this summer, I hope you all know about the One Big Bike Movement?