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Graphic Novels Challenge
Dewey, from The Hidden Side of a Leaf, has decided to host a Graphic Novels Challenge. I’m here to confess that I’ve never read a graphic novel, and haven’t had much interest in them. But there’s a film out right now, Persepolis, which the review in our newspaper said is so much like the graphic novel, you get pretty much the same experience by reading the book that you do watching the film. I’m not sure if we can get to Berkeley before it goes away (which may be soon), and it’s not playing out here in the sticks, so I’m thinking I’ll go for the graphic novel instead, and…
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Gnocci
One thing I like about cold weather is cold weather food…spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, roast chicken, chicken and dumplings, eggplant Parmesan, butternut squash ravioli…it all works. One of my favorites is gnocci, which I buy frozen from a locally produced brand, Genova, and cover in a lamb ragu type sauce. It’s lovely. (Can I claim cold weather when our high yesterday was in the mid to high 50s? No? Well, it was foggy at least, which gives a certain damp cold feeling to the day.) So, for your dining pleasure, I thought I’d post the recipe I use for the sauce. The recipe is from my trusty pasta cookbook, Pasta…
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How To Look Good Naked
I caught an episode of Lifetime’s new makeover show, How To Look Good Naked, last week. The premise is that style guru Carson Kressley (of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame) takes a woman who is unhappy with her body, and helps her to come to terms with it…nay, to LOVE it, to flaunt it, to feel sexy in it. You can see an entire episode, if you wish, here. The episode started with the body-hating woman having a picture of her body, sans head, clothes only in her underwear, shown on the side of a building in Los Angeles, where Carson asked passers by what they thought of…
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Jammies?
This morning I woke up and contemplated not getting dressed. Just staying in my jammies all day, watching tv maybe, reading my book, taking it easy. Then I got out of bed, jumped in the shower, and got dressed. I’m just not the ‘all day jammies’ type of person. Even when I’m sick, I like to have my shower and get dressed. Even if I’m not planning on leaving the house, I really like to feel like I could leave if I wanted to, and I just don’t feel that way without a shower and clothes. How about you? How often do you stay in your jammies and lounge around…
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Boom or Bust
For awhile there, this was starting to look like a book blog…I had so many book reviews, and I was just tearing through books at an alarming rate. I love reading, and I like writing the reviews, so this seemed like a good thing to me. But lately….not reading so much. You might think that with the writers’ strike affecting the quantity of new programming on television, and the fact that we didn’t move meaning I’m not quite as addicted to HGTV (though now I’m watching for ideas of how to fix our place up for us, not how to get it ready to sell), plus the fact that I…
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Right Here, Right Now
A woman on the radio talked about revolution When it’s already passed her by Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about you You know it feels good to be alive I was alive and I waited, waited I was alive and I waited for this Right here, right now There is no other place I want to be Right here, right now Watching the world wake up from history I saw the decade in, when it seemed The world could change at the blink of an eye And if anything Then there’s your sign… of the times I was alive and I waited, waited I was alive and I…
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Sure Lock
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aikg6OP3jwU[/youtube] Ted brought this tasty morsel home from work today…his coworker sent it to him, and he showed me, and it’s pretty funny. Perfect solution to a girl with nothing much to say today, but still wants to post on her blog…
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What to eat in the New Year
One of my gifts for Christmas this year was a cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters. So far I’ve made exactly one meal using the cookbook, but I’m going to say, GREAT gift. Really, I think if one buys the right cookbooks, one needs very few, but they need to do certain things. They need to give you good, basic information about how to cook good food. That’s it. This book does that, including tips on putting together a great home kitchen (what knives you really need, what pots and pans, that kind of thing), and tips on how to make really good food, rather than just…
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A Day at the Aquarium
Way back in March, Maya received gift certificates for the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a birthday gift. Between girl scout activities, school activities, trying to sell our house, trying to avoid crowds, etc., they have been sitting in a drawer since then. When we decided to take 2 weeks off from work for Christmas and New Years, we decided this would be a good time to make use of the tickets. And yesterday, finally, we did. We started out late, as befits a family on vacation, and stopped for a late breakfast on the way. I’ll tell you, I’d move to Monterey in a minute. It’s so pretty there, and…
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Juno
Part of my birthday celebration was that when I wanted to go to a movie, Ted and Maya were game, and I got to pick what movie we would see. (And Ted paid our way…Thanks, Ted!) I picked Juno, a quirky movie I’ve been hearing good things about. Juno is the story of a 16-year old girl who for some reason decides to have sex with her best friend, and finds herself pregnant. You’re never sure exactly sure why they do it…was she curious what the whole sex thing was about? Bored? Trying to diffuse tension? He’s clearly in love with her, but she doesn’t appear to be in love…
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Tuesday Five
I saw this on a brand new blog today, Blues Butterfly’s 5 & 10s, and thought, why not, I’m in. So, here goes, a fun meme to start the new year. Fast five questions. 1. Do you feel respected at your workplace? How do you feel disrespected at your workplace? What can you do to improve your work situation? Sorry, I don’t blog about work. Haven’t you heard the term ‘dooced’? 2. Tell us about a dish that is special to your hometown or your family. My hometown claims to be the asparagus capital of the world, or at least, to produce the most asparagus in the world. So if…
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365 days until my birthday! (or, 0 days until my birthday!)
I saw this meme back in November, over at Josey’s blog. I decided to save it for my birthday. And just right when you’re still feeling kinda puny from being sick, and though the stomach flu has left you, you now seem to be enjoying a chest cold during vacation. Sigh. what do to: Pick your birth month. Bold the 5-10 traits that best apply to you. Copy to your own blog, with all twelve months. JANUARY: Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep…
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Merry Sickmas!
(disgusting but sadly appropriate graphic found here) We’re home from Portland, and I must say, it was a mixed bag of a vacation. We arrived on Saturday evening, and my poor dad was feeling fine, but then not so fine, and by the end of the evening he had all of the oh-so-fun symptoms of either stomach flu or food poisoning. Yay. We all hoped for food poisoning (so it would go away quickly, and so no one else would get sick), and washed our hands a lot. Too bad, it was stomach flu, and the good news kept coming in. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece had a variation (though…
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Merry Christmas!
This is Maya at about 9 months old. Laluna had Santa come to see Chee and Big Sis, and Maya was there as well, and got a peek. She had a lot of stranger anxiety, so I’m surprised she let this even happen. We’re off to Portland now, back on the 27th, so no bloggy-blog from me for a few days. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and that it is filled with laughter, family, and yummy food.
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Untitled…
Have you ever cried the make-up off of your face for someone you don’t know well, have only met once or twice? Sadly, I did exactly that today. An ex-coworker of mine, who I liked very much, lost her daughter to suicide last week, and the funeral was today. All I could think of was what a sad, tragic waste. What a beautiful, loving person she was, 22 years old with her whole life ahead of her. Surrounded by family and friends who loved her very much. Her mother’s sobs ripped my heart out of my chest and stamped it into the ground. I cannot imagine anything worse. (No picture…