When we were in the North Carolina mountains last weekend, i had no phone reception, and when I returned to civilization I had worried texts wondering whether the Rapture had gotten me. Turns out we don't have to worry until October. good to know.

My friend made a strong case for the North Carolina mountains as the place you'd want to be after the apocalypse because there's fresh water, a long growing season, and it's cold enough to kill most serious pests. But frankly i'd be too worried about all the hillbillies emerging from their bunkers with their stores of shotguns.

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my friends have created the most beautiful garden on the farm they're living on: one example is 50 heads of lettuce in a 2m x 2m space... they dug the beds extra deep and planted the plants close so the roots would have to go down. There's hardly any room for weeds, and it totally works! When I got home, I looked at my single languishing basil plant and resolved to do better one of these years.

They're using the John Jeavons book, 'How to grow more vegetables than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine', and it's on my Someday list.

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For the third year in a row, I managed to land in Ethi*pia for the rainy season. After melting in the N*w Orl*ans summer for the last month, this mild, soft coolness is heaven. I know I'll regret this when I get back to Canada one day, but I don't miss the sunshine. I love cool, grey summers. Put that on the list of things I never thought I'd write.

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walking back home after dinner last night, my friend and I got crowded by a few adolescents dead set on intimidating us into buying something from them (they hang out by restaurants selling gum, cigarettes, tissues). It suddenly escalated into several of them around the two of us, and it felt more aggressive than I would have expected from Addis. There have apparently been a few more muggings and purse snatchings lately, and my friend got pretty panicky. But it must be the India/New *rleans combination of experiences, because that kind of street intimidation fails to elicit a response in me anymore.

They could sense who was afraid, and left me alone completely and swarmed all around her. For a moment it felt like it could go either way, and I was mentally reviewing our options (which were few), and then they just suddenly gave up and dropped away into the night.

11:14 p.m. - 2011-05-28