I’ve been absent for a bit. See… I’ve had this exam hanging over my head for months and months. Not for class or school, but to be a Registered Seed Technologist. (Yes, same test I took last year, and passed half of it.) This year I took the second part, which for me is testing my weakest subject (Seed identifications.)

I fuckin passed.

For realsies.

It’s still sinking in for me, because the lasttwo yearshave been devoted to studying and prepping and agonizing and stressing over this exam. There are only about 160 RSTs in the country. So, some states don’t even have one. Any time seed gets sold or grown or planted or shipped through the US- an RST has to sign off on it, or a federal lab has to sign off on it. Anyway, most people don’t care, but for seed people- it’s a big deal.

I guess for comparison, thousands and thousands of people will graduate college this year. Tens of thousands even. Hundreds of thousands? I don’t know, maybe.

3 people got their RST certification this year. And that’s it.

Anyway, now that the weight is lifted, I’m excited to have a life again! To see my friends and family again and not just look at seeds all the time. Last night was time to celebrate, big time, for me. The hotel I’m at (if you’re ever- for some god forsaken reason- in Des Moines, IA- stay at the Embassy Suites downtown. It is awesome) has a manager’s special every night from 5.30 - 7. Free draft beer, free well drinks. Mmmhmm. Then to a divey punky kind of bar (some guy named Igor from Russia and I had an in depth discussion about ‘Cabin in the Woods’ and the bartender was legally named Megan Tron.) Then back to the hotel to find the hospitality suite (also known as the free drink room) and meet up with other seedy people. After which things get a leeetle fuzzy. I know we went out somewhere else, and I know there was skipping.

The moral of that story is, at breakfast somebody asked “So when did you get in last night?” And I said, “That is such a good question!”

I’m a little groggy today, but honestly, so happy. So relieved, I don’t even care.

Oh, I will say this.

Things Iowa has:

• Fuckin- ballersteak. Jesus Christ I do miss that.
• Nothing open on Sunday. Seriously? I walked around downtown for about an hour and only every third place was open. Craziness. I’m from agnostic-ville I guess, but it’s weird. I mean- midday! In a city! I passed maybe 15 people in an hour of walking all around. And at least three of them were from the convention.
• Shittycoffee. Hooooleeeee shit. I found a cool looking place, kind of funky and old school looking. Coffee- abysmal. So bad I considered just throwing it out. (Only considered, I am drinking it because- you know. Coffee.) But man.
• People who smoke and are not hipsters. That’s a pretty Portlandy thing, I guess. Most of the people I see around Oregon that do smoke, are doing it outside a bar, and leaning against a fixie.
• A store called Raygun with a t-shirt that says “Don’t meth with Iowa.” I almost bought it.
• A store called “Seed” where I did buy a t-shirt that says “Seed is a need.” Everyone I’ve talked to about that place from the convention is VERY excited. Because seed people have mental problems.
• No concept of salad dressing to lettuce ratio. I got a steak salad (see above note on steak- that part was sublime) and every leaf of lettuce was bathedin dressing. Gag. I picked the steak out and left most of the lettuce.
• Did I mention the shitty coffee? I’m sad that I have to basically wait until Portland to have good coffee again. The Denver airport is a coffee wasteland as well.

Now my hungover self is going to take a nap.

82 degrees and sunny. In APRIL. Supposed to be 57 on Friday. Last year on this date was 51 degrees.

I went for a long walk yesterday because I’ve been very disinclined to go outdoors because the weather has been shit. And then because I was sick for forever, and I’ve just now stopped hacking up stuff. (Mmm yum.) It was lovely. Probably about 75-80 yesterday too.

It’s nice to have some summer mixed in with our winter. Ahh Oregon. We have all the seasons. They’re just not always in order, and sometimes they’re all in one week…

Harry Potter

The Hunger Games

Twilight

Anything by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, that other one, the other other one I didn’t much care for)

That guy who is in the Nicholas Sparks movies. With the one girl. You know, the one with the lopsided face. Ryan something. Gosling, there we go. Seriously. I did a photoshop of his face, one with two left halves, one with two right halves. It was frightening.

Cinnamon

I may have Captain Trips. I will resume dying now. All I want is ramen and peanut butter and jelly.

Another cooking adventure for me. Not very adventuresome. More- convenient. But the first time I’ve made this, and it got positive reviews, so- will make again. (Also it makes a shit-ton so I’m freezing a bit.)

Sausage and bean soup

• Butter beans
• Black eyed peas
• Black beans? (I used black beans anyway, they’re not super necessary.)
• Kidney beans? (I didn’t have any, so I skipped them. It’s good with kidney beans though.)
• Lentils -half a bag-ish? Some.
• Barley - also half a bag-ish? It swells up a lot, good to remember.
• Smoked sausage. I used turkey sausage, but this is also awesome with a polish sausage or beef smoked sausage.
• Spinach. Some.
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrots
• Garlic powder?
• Thyme

If you get canned beans- put a can of each into a slow cooker. My slow cooker is enorm, and has room for all this. If yours is not that kind- maybe a big pot? If you’re using dried beans- do whatever you do to get them soft and foodlike. Make sure you rinse the beans though.

Peel and slice the carrots into rounds. I used two carrots. I could have used three, but I didn’t.

Cut onion up into pieces. They can be big-ish pieces, or tiny if you have a picky eater. This would also be a good recipe with leeks! But I didn’t have any.

Chop celery up fine. I like celery in soups because it adds a really nice flavor, and if I have some celery that is losing water pressure (getting a little soft) soup is a good save for it instead of just dumping it.

Dump in as much lentils and barley as you’re using. This makes a shit ton of soup with half a bag of each. Just sayin.

Cut sausage up into slices and put those in too.

You could add the thyme, or omit it. For spices I just snuffle through my spices until I find some that smell like the thing I want to make. Then I dump them all in my mortar and pestle the shit out of them. I think I put basil in this too, but who even knows, it was all crazy and in a blur.

Add water until there’s about as much water as you would like to have soup. You might need to add some later, because quite a bit will be absorbed by lentils and barley.

About 20 minutes before you want to eat, put in some spinach leaves.

20 minutes after that- eat!

This probably only needs to cook for 35 minutes or so, I let mine go all afternoon because I was running from zombies. Makes- I dunno. A lot. I put up 3 cans to freeze, and there’s still enough for two meals each for Radhusband and I left.

*Bonus!*

Because I’m studying for a seed ID test in May, here’s the latin names for the plants used in this dish. At least, the ones that are on the ID list.

Black eyed peas - vigna unguiculata sbs. unguiculata

Lentils - Lens culinaris

Barley - Hordeum vulgare

Onion - Allium cepa

Carrot - Daucus carota sbs. sativa

Celery - Apium graveolens

Basil - Ocimum basilicum

Spinach - Spinacia oleraceae

Bam! You’re welcome.