Longboarding

A couple of weeks ago I bought this longboard (it was on sale at the time.) For those of you who are unfamiliar with longboards, they are basically long skateboards. They are great for going really fast downhill, cruising around, and transportation. I bought mine mostly for transportation. Parking permits at school are upwards of $400, which I think is ridiculous. So I did not buy one. As such, I usually park off campus about .5 to .75 miles from school. It usually takes about 15 minutes to walk to the math building. This is kind of long and I get tired of doing it every day. So out of laziness, I bought a longboard.

Enough of that. I use my longboard to:

Get the mail

Take out the trash

Ride down to Big 5 and back for fun


View Larger Map

And of course, ride to school

Overall it rides really well. So far I can't really do anything cool except not fall off, which is a big improvement from the first day I took it out. I went from stumbling and sending the board into the bushes and  wiping out right in front of the library to riding smoothly while cutting my commute in half (and having fun!)

I feel pretty confident pushing (standing with one foot on the board and the other foot propelling the board by pushing along the ground) but I'm learning how to pump (propelling the board without your feet leaving the board by shifting your weight and turning).

Carrot Cake

Today I made this Carrot Cake. The cake is sweetened with dates and bananas rather than sugar and the cream cheese frosting is sweetened with maple syrup. I added some vanilla, butter, and cinnamon to the frosting to add some extra flavor. I'd never cooked with or even seen dates before. I was able to find some at a local farmers market. They were very sticky with a seed inside that looks kind of like a pecan.

Dates. Very sticky and sweet.

The inside of a date. Who knew?

Flour, cinnamon, & baking powder; carrots &bananas; dates & butter

I may have licked some batter from the bowl :)

Yum!