Puck the Duck

Here Fishy, Fishy

2011-02-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

So for some reason Susan and Puck have been on a serious sushi kick lately (and have been discovering some very tasty places to eat as a result).

These particular pictures are from visiting one of Susan's roommates in the Indianapolis area - the three of them found a lovely little hole-in-the-wall sushi joint and ordered a lovely set of bento boxes.

Sadly the boxes included something - Susan has a sneaking suspicion that it was Sea Urchin - which somehow became both larger and slimier the more you chewed it.
She tried to pawn it off on the roommate and Puck, but neither was particularly interested in eating it, especially after seeing her reaction.

All that was left to do before departing was a bit of Puck-threatening, which was accomplished in all good speed. Oddly enough, Puck didn't seem to mind this one.

Oh, and it might as well be mentioned (seeing as how it fits into the overall theme of the post) that Susan is now the proud owner of a rather fancy aquarium. Despite only having three fish and three ghost shrimp, she's about as smug as one can be about a large box of water.

Until next time.

Commune Living is the Life for Me

2011-01-27T11:19:00.000-08:00

One of Susan's friends/roommates (a cute lil vegan anarcho-feminist) and her husband (much the same) live with another couple in a large house near Indy and had the pleasure of hosting Susan and Puck at their fledgling commune over winter break.

While there, the two participated in such typical anarchist activities as:
cooking a vegan meal including whole wheat pasta, alfredo sauce, lentils, roasted potatoes...
oh, and salad. (not that Susan has any idea how that duck got in there, of course)

The best thing about commune dinners - in Susan's opinion, anyway - is that there are always enough people so that the ones who made dinner don't also have to deal with the dishes.

(And when you're feeding 7 adults and one 4 year old, there are lots of dishes to be done)
Thankfully, Susan is a rather respectable cook...so she got to push the dishwashing duties off on the menfolk for the evening.

After dinner and dessert (yes, there is such a thing as vegan brownies - apparently the commune just buys Ghiradelli brand and uses applesauce as a substitute for eggs...) the anarchists delved into something really subversive, taking poor Susan along for the ride.
Oh, yes. Refrigerator magnets.

All joking aside, though, a very good time was had by all...even if Puck did make it through the evening without being menaced...

Still Winter Here

2011-01-25T12:41:00.000-08:00

Oh, after another dreadfully long break there comes a new update from the world of Puck and Susan.

This time around there's actually news. :)

Susan celebrated her 21st birthday with cake,

(and with Puck, of course)

Oh, and Susan got one of the best Christmas/Birthday presents ever:

Tea.

Susan's a chronic tea drinker, and received a very thorough sampling of all her favourite flavours from a very dear forum-friend....to whom she is very thankful.

Next post: vegan cooking and refrigerator magnets.

Resurrection

2010-12-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

After four months of being rather lacking in the camera department, Susan had the good fortune to receive a new iPod which had quite the handy little camera attached.

The inagural post of the new camera, of course, would come from Susan and Puck trying to clean off her car..and realizing one of the joys of living on a college campus.

Frat boys.

Puck was not amused.

Susan, however, found it to be a wonderful example of slut-shaming gone amiss...since all it managed was a few wry chuckles and a bit of incentive to finish removing the snow before the next batch hit.

It all went well, thank goodness, and the two were able to move on to better things...such as letting one of Susan's roommates treat them to dinner at IHOP.

And a bit of Puck-menacing, because it's just not a valid outing if Susan's favourite little duck isn't in some sort of peril.

Technical Difficulties

2010-08-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Most notably the fact that Susan's new phone - since the last one died an inglorious death - does not have a camera mean that the blog will be on hiatus. If Henna can be coerced into filling in then the adventures of Paku may serve as a guest-blog, but for now there won't be more of Puck for a while.

If Susan can get her photos off the old phone there may be a few more posts concerning the adventures from earlier in the month, so please cross your fingers.

Boring day at the Office

2010-07-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Puck and Susan signed up to work with the environmental company (hereforth referred to as EnviroCorp) because they thought Susan would get to be out in the field sometime - catching snakes, taking water quality measurements and getting sunburnt.

Instead, Susan does a lot of this.

For instance, Susan's overseer at the office forgot to order enough fliers to pass out...so Susan was tasked with creating card-stock mockups to leave at the farm supply stores in the area.

(Don't worry, Puck's fine...it's just hard to resist the lure of sticking something in the guillotine that's not supposed to be there)

But there have been a lot of days like these - more than Susan would like, at any rate.

If anyone would like to provide some diversions, Susan is looking for something to do in her time off. Any suggestions?

Working the Fair

2010-07-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Just a few days ago, Puck and Susan were at a county fair promoting the environmental group she works for.

Puck very sweetly assisted with setting up the table with all of the information on government assistance programs, brochures and giveaways that the interns had worked so hard to pick out and get logo-ed.

After sitting out in the sweltering humidity for a while, Susan has developed a certain distaste for fairs.
Generally these sorts of things are tolerable, but there's just something deeply irritating about fair-goers who have the audacity to saunter up and grab one of everything. They don't make even the slightest pretense of caring about the mission or the message - they just want to grab the damn can cozy or water bottle and be gone.

The children's game? Almost as bad.

The premise behind the game (which happened to be where Puck and Susan found one another) was that children are asked questions about water quality or critters found in the streams...and when they get a question right they can "fish" with their hands in the straw to get a prize.
Of course there would be some dirty little ragamuffins that decide to fling hay everywhere and want to get to pick and choose their prize instead of settling for luck of the draw.

Susan would very much like to hate these children, but the blame really lies in the parents that didn't do a better job of raising said children.

In any case, more fun was had once Susan and Puck got away from the booth.

They met a goat. A very affectionate goat. (Which was almost enough to make the whole day worth it - goats are Susan's very favourite farm animal)

Water Testing

2010-07-19T19:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Puck had the good luck to accompany Susan on a water testing excursion with a local teacher.
This involves lots of chemicals and water samples, along with plenty of puttering around in the creek looking for critters.

(Puck posing neatly with the unpacked testing kit)

Susan does a lot of water testing and education for her internship, so this was almost a run-of-the-mill excursion for her. Puck, however, found it all quite new and unusual.

He spent some time floating in the creek as the crew searched for macros - macroinvertebrates, that is; it mainly involves flipping over rocks and checking for the presence of isopods, mayfly and stonefly nymphs, caddisfly larvae, water pennies and whatever else clings to stones - which was quite relaxing, even though he did almost get taken away by an oddly-placed culvert.

In the end, though, a good time was had by all and many samples were taken back to the lab for analysis. Just another day in the life for Susan and Puck.

And, as a special bonus...a surprise shot of Susan and Puck on the way back.

Forecastle!

2010-07-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

Puck and Susan had a very busy weekend attending the Forecastle festival in Louisville.
(pronounced /ˈfoʊksəl/, by the way...not fore-castle as she'd originally thought)

They splurged for the 3-day tickets, and watched a sinful amount of good music being played.

Friday:

(Yeah, it's a terrible picture, but Susan would like to see you make Puck look photogenic in the midst of a mob of thrilled hippies all dancing around like their elbows are on fire)

Friday Puck and Susan had the pleasure of listening to Widespread Panic as well as meeting an endearing little astrophysicist from up North - the two of them had never been to a music festival before, so meeting up with someone who was more familiar with the atmosphere did a lot to make our lives a bit easier.

Saturday, however, was where they did most of our festival exploring.
Puck and Susan bounced between most of the stages, caught bits and pieces of the majority of the performances and a glorious time was had by all. The most notable shows of the day would have been Umphrey's McGee, Mimosa, and the very amusing FreakShow Deluxe (featuring Reverend Tommy Gunn and the absolutely stunning Miss Malice Aforethought). The high point of the night (for both Puck and Susan) would have to have been the Bassnectar show - throbbing bass, an energetic crowd, and just enough of a breeze off the river to cool you down...until you're caught up and start dancing again.

And Sunday was when everything came together: Susan and her good friend Henna were intent on seeing The Flaming Lips play (and oh, god of gods...that was the best show Puck and Susan had ever seen. By the time they walked out of Forecastle last night, it was as though they'd been through the most intense orgasm and the most cathartic cry of their lives)
(Bloody amazing light-show...hell, Flaming Lips has the happiest damn experience....)

In any case, Sunday was full of hooping with Henna and Puck as well as getting to see the Cirque Bezerk - they're almost like Cirque du Soleil, but with more freaky.

Sunburnt, exhausted and more than a little grimy - this was a good weekend for Susan and Puck.

Hello, World!

2010-07-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is Puck.

As for me, well...you can call me Susan. This is our blog.

Susan works at a rather interesting side-job on the weekends and masquerades as a successful college student during the rest of the week.

And this blog is how they plan to blow off steam.