April Showers Bring Lots of Photos

It's April? Easter is this coming week? Oh dear god. How did that happen??!! My nose has been to the grindstone at work lately but my camera tells me that I actually have been doing some fun stuff too. Wanna see? Well, the first is a cute little vegan tea cafe I stumbled upon one rainy day when walking outside of Harvard Square. The Karma Tea Cafe is connected to the Karma Yoga Studio. You can volunteer to work at the cafe in exchange for free classes at the yoga studio. How cool is that?! Love it!


Only tea here. I had a "honey" rooibos which didn't actually have any honey in it. Just tasted a little like honey. They had a variety of locally baked vegan goods. I had a pumpkin chocolate-chip muffin. Yum...


The lovely zen-like decor is very tranquil. I can see sitting here to write my squirrel book, hopefully this summer!


This past weekend my girl, Sarah and her hubster, Tom, came down for a visit. They wanted to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit (the Obama "Hope" poster artist) at the new Boston Institute for Contemporary Art. And since I rarely get my lazy self actually into Boston, let alone a museum, it was a good excuse to check it out! Here we are posing at the Water Cafe at the museum. The menu was created by Wolfgang Puck (a vegan chef he is not sadly) but was easily veganized by request. Do you think we look like sisters? Lots of peeps tell us that!

The entrance to the exhibit...sorry..not pictures allowed in the exhibit. But it was amazing..

Sarah looking down at the harbor..this room had stairs going down towards the water. This picture doesn't give you a true impression..you literally feel as if you are going to tumble into the water...


I was part of the effort to fete Shellyfish's mom on her 60th birthday! My gift to Mamafish is a homemade vegan lemon bread and two of my handmade lip balms. I hope Mamafish likes them! The card, which is hard to see here, is a pattern I created in Adobe Illustrator for some squirrel pillows I'm working on.


Don't they look so pro? He he he..wait til my next post where I spill the beans on how easy it is to make and package your own vegan lip balm.


A quick dinner we threw together tonight. Two cups water, boiled with a bouillon cube, some saffron threads. Add two cups couscous, let it sit for 5 minutes. Add in peas, carrots and chickpeas. Yum..we gobbled this up. It's kind of plain Jane but such comfort food.


And last but not least..the Degus. Or the "Goos" as we're calling them. Officially it's been a week since we adopted them. I can see why degus, although very sweet animals, do not make good pets. They need A LOT of space. They love to run around, climb, and chase each other. I did read up on the little guys before we got them. Some web sites talked about an ideal amount of space. We had no idea just how much space. We bought a cage but the little guys were fighting like mad the second day home. Um..so bad that one brother ripped off the other's fingernail. I felt so horrible..and somewhat irresponsible. True that there is not a lot of info out there on degus but I should have planned better. So off to Lowe's we went on a Thursday night. A three level Degu Manor is in the works. Here are the Goos watching the construction.


H has been hard at work building Degu Manor. The Goos moved into the first level on Friday night. H has been working feverishly to get the rest done. Complete with a PVC tunnel system (they love it!), chain ladders, a rock garden and more. Degus never had it so good!


The Goos are adorable little guys, very affectionate, very mild-mannered but full of energy. They have taken to grooming us lately..ruffling our hair when they sit on our shoulders.


Since Degus love tree bark and blossoms, we felt these knobs were appropriate for Degu Manor.


Some of the PVC tunnels. Degu Manor is right smack in the middle of our open kitchen/living room area so the Goos are right in the middle of all the action, just the way they like it.


I'm really glad that these little muffins have found a home with us but it reinforces some growing ideas that I have about certain kinds of pets, especially exotic pets. I don't regard these guys as our pets even though others might..I see us as their caretakers instead. Unless I want to smuggle them back to Chile, where they are originally from, they are dependent upon us humans to care for them. We owe them that much especially since their great-great-great something grandparents were originally imported to the US for animal testing against their will (ack! I cannot imagine anyone testing on these sweet little animals). I do not recommend degus as pets at all..they need so much space and care that unless you're willing to drop ~$600 on supplies for a home and supplies at the get-go they may not be happy. That is a bit of money to spend on a small rodent pet vs. say, a gerbil or hamster. They'll pay you back in love though..mine already have!