How fast can I type?

I've got a lots to write about, but I have a lye/water mixture cooling for some soap I am going to make tonight. This batch will be Woods, perhaps my favorite batch of soap I've made in the past. A few others have been asking for it too. Woods is made up of the following essential oils: Rosewood, Peru Balsam, sandalwood, spruce, cypress, juniper berry, sweet birch, atlas cedar, Virginia cedar, fir needle, and oak moss absolute.

Someone clarify the blogger beta issue for me... Is the problem that people who upgraded can't comment on any blog? Or is it that people that upgraded can only comment on other beta blogs? If it is the latter, then I will upgrade.

A few of you have asked for pictures of Tommy. Here is picture of Tommy from awhile ago. She currently has some feather issues and I hate to post current photos of her until she is looking better.

Yesterday I went into the city for a vegan meetup at Veggie Planet again. This time I decided to take the train instead of driving. I got a little lost, driving to a different T station in Quincy and then the wait for the train was very long. By the time, I got into the Harvard Square, I was pretty late for the meetup. Though, it turned it out there was the Cutting Edge of the Campfire Folk Festival going on. That meant we couldn't eat there without buying a ticket to the show. ---Bad planning on the part of the meetup people. (Megan, I hope you stayed home and unpacked instead of heading over to the meetup.)

Now I have no problem buying a ticket and hanging out for the show, but they only sold an all day pass. Unfortunately, I could only stay for a an hour or two and I didn't feel like buying an all day ticket. I got my lunch and hung out on the steps next door. While I ate, I got to listen to some cool folk music for free.

After the failed meetup, I headed over to The Coop. That is the Harvard/MIT bookstore. It is rather well known around the city and I had never actually been. As I wasn't interested in a clothes, I walked over to the regular book shop side after a quick wander through the student bookstore. It is a very pretty shop, but I can't say I was overly impressed with it.

Before heading back to the train, I decided to check out an ice cream shop I saw. Perhaps I was feeling lucky after finding Tofutti at Sweet Claude's. Worst case scenario, I figured they'd have sorbet. Lizzie's Ice Cream recently opened a shop in Harvard Square and guess what? They also carry Tofutti. It is just two flavors---chocolate and coffee at this time, but how cool is that? I've still got to send them a thank you note.

After my yummy coffee Tofutti, I got on the train and went home. The clouds looked ominous, but I was able to finally get lawn mowed before the rain. Saturday night, I had tickets to see Staind at Mohegan Sun in CT. The first time I saw them, was a festival with five bands. The only group I really wanted to see was Stone Temple Pilots. Staind really surprised me and I've been a fan every since. Aaron Lewis has an incredible voice.

Their current tour also included 3 other bands. They are Seether, Soil, and Three Days Grace. I've heard of each of those bands, but don't know them very well. Unfortunately, Seether did not perform and I missed Soil. Three Days Grace was ok. They have two songs I like a lot and I didn't care too much for their other music. The singer has a very cool and distinctive voice, but the music wasn't very creative.

Staind... They put on a great show. Some of their newer music is louder than I care for, but the more melodic tunes really showcase Aaron. His voice takes over and owns the room. At one point he did an acoustic cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. ---If loud doesn't scare you, you should definitely check out Staind.

Last thing... I've been in touch with some of the local veg bloggers that I know and we've talked about getting together. I'd hoped to have a picnic this summer, but my schedule kept me from doing much of anything about making this happen. Tonight, I set up a group for us on MSN. That would allow us to stay in touch and have a shared calendar where we could setup group get togethers. Whether it is just a potluck for people in RI or something cool like apple picking in a central location for all the New Englanders. ---By the way, I'd like to setup an apple picking get together. We could probably have a picnic for that one. I know of a few of you in NH, NY, and Boston. If you are interested, then join the MSN group or just drop me an email. The website is: http://groups.msn.com/LocalVegnBloggers/homepage

I did not have a chance to do anything fancy on the home page or update much more than the blurb about what the group is. I will slowly get that done! Originally I thought we could use meetup.com for it, but they charge a monthly/yearly fee and MSN is free. ---Free is good.