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Read’N’Review Challenge
Here we are, it’s almost the end of January, and I’ve finally gotten off the fence and decided to take a reading challenge this year. I tried to muster some enthusiasm for it back in December, and I just couldn’t do it. But I’m reading nonetheless, and I like having the list of book reviews over there on my sidebar, so I decided to sign up for the Read’n’Review Challenge, hosted by MizB, which is an easy challenge, because there’s no lists of award winners or particular genres that you have to look for. Just list the books that you want to read, read them, and review them on your…
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The unnamed narrator of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ is a writer, who has recently moved into a Manhattan Brownstone inhabited by a cast of characters, most prominently Holly Golightly, who lives below him. Holly nicknames him ‘Fred’, after her brother, who is away in the army. Fred is a writer who can’t publish what he writes. Holly is a lonely party girl, who makes her money by spending her time with wealthy men who give her $50 every time she has to go to the powder room in a fancy restaurant. As the story takes place in the 1940’s, $50 was a lot of money. The average employee in 1949 brought…
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Ribollita
(photo courtesy of SFGate) This week’s Sunday paper had a drool-worthy section of soup recipes, including a recipe for Ribollita, which is a Tuscan soup with bread in the bottom of the bowl, and a rind of Parmesan simmered within. It sounded perfect for a rainy evening, and I wanted to try it. But when I looked more closely at the recipe, I decided I wasn’t so sure. 3 cans of beans is a lot of beans for a soup, and I’m not that fond of kale. So I thought I’d look and see if Giada had a version I might try. What do you know, she did! So I…
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Friday Randomness
Thanks everyone for your kind birthday wishes. I had a lovely birthday, and a lovely time off from work. One of Maya’s Christmas gifts was tickets to go see Wicked, which was a lot of fun. I’m not a huge fan of the musical as a play, but this one was really fun and interesting and kept your attention the whole way through. Excellent gift, Ted! Btw, Ted wrote a great review of the show for Popdose, and he included a couple of YouTube clips that are pretty great. Along the theme of gifts that are not things, we also received tickets for dinner on the Napa Valley Wine Train,…
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The Road Home
Lev looked at the cloth. He was indifferent to it. He felt indifferent to all that was untrue. Behind him, somewhere, he could hear a tennis game start up and he envied the players. He thought how, in his life in England, he never ran anywhere anymore, but only stood at his sinks or crept into bus shelters or wandered the streets with slow steps, like the steps of a n old man. And this realization wounded him the more because he knew suddenly – as he stood and stared at the shining holly so ridiculously festooned- where he wanted to run to. He stood very still, gazing at the…
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11…22…33…44!
(44 graphic found here) Today is my birthday, and I’m turning 44! I’ve always kind of liked the 11 birthdays, when the two digits of your age are the same. Which got me to thinking about what I was doing at these different stops along my life so far. When I was 11, we were living in Campbell, CA. It was probably the worst year of my childhood, though not for any definable reason. All I know is, we were all pretty miserable and stressed there. The kids were kind of snotty, but I made a good friend. I liked my teacher. Richard was in jr. high and having a…
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Monday Meme
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a meme, but in honor of my SIL, from whom I have never received one of these before, I decided to bring the Monday Meme back to life. And FYI, she watches What Not to Wear. I never knew. I pink puffy heart that show, though I haven’t seen it in quite awhile. Here goes: Three names I am called: 1. Julie 2. Jules 3. MYOB (no, I’m not called MYOB, but I’m not telling the world Ted’s pet name for me. Some of you know. The rest of you, MYOB.) Three jobs I have had in my life: 1. Cleaning out stalls at…
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On the First Day of Christmas…
(image found here) A Facebook friend posted this morning, “Happy First Day of Christmas”, which confused me, because I thought Christmas Day was the first day of Christmas, with Epiphany being the 12th day, and the day that the magi came bringing gifts to the baby Jesus. But what do I know, I’m an atheist. Thanks to the internet, all I had to do was search for ‘1st day of Christmas’, and I found this very informative page, which both agreed with what my Facebook friend said, and what I had said as well. In other words, different traditions and churches celebrate it on different dates. I don’t know about…
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Friday Randomness, Now on Tuesday!
(photo found at SF Gate, here) Does anyone else still get a newspaper delivered to your house, as opposed to looking for your news online? We are suckers and pay quite a bit to support this dying industry. Sometimes I wonder why, and other times, I’m glad. Today I was glad, as I saw the picture above, which I might have missed if I had been looking online. The story is that the San Francisco Ice Co. donated 10 tons of ice to the San Francisco Zoo, which the zoo had blown into snow for the Polar Bears, who look like they’re LOVING it, don’t they? Doesn’t the bear in…
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
Mariam had never before worn a burqa. Rasheed had to help her put it on. The padded headpiece felt tight and heavy on her skull, and it was strange seeing the world through a mesh screen. She practiced walking around her room in it and kept stepping on the hem and stumbling. The loss of peripheral vision was unnerving, and she did not like the suffocating way the pleated cloth kept pressing against her mouth.“You’ll get used to it,” Rasheed said. “With time, I bet you’ll even like it.” They took a bus to a place Rasheed called the Shar-e-Nau Park, where children pushed each other on swings and slapped…
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Half Life
I know, you’ve seen this picture before. I do like it, though, and gosh, we’re so young way back then, huh? I was thinking the other day that this is our 22nd year together. Our first date was December 12, 1987. Then I realized, I’m turning 44 in a few weeks…which means, I’ve been together with Ted for longer than we were apart. More simply put, he and I have been together for over half of my life thus far. How can that be? How can I be that old? Kinda strange. But when I look in the mirror, and see that I’m not that fresh faced, wrinkle free girl…
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How I Live Now
Daisy is a fifteen year-old anorexic from New York, sent to live in London with her aunt and cousins when her father and her pregnant step-mother decide they can’t deal with her and her disorder anymore. They are much more interested in the unborn child they have not yet met, than the very much alive and in-need-of-help-daughter they already have. Daisy arrives in London, met by her cousin Edmond, who is fourteen, smokes, and drives. She is impressed. Her cousins appear to be somewhat telepathic, though that isn’t the crux of the story. The crux of the story is that soon after she arrives, her aunt has to leave on…
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Wordless Wednesday ~ Gorgeous Edition!
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Beef Stroganoff
(photo found here, along with quite a few stroganoff recipes, but not the one I used) When the weather turns cold, it’s easy to start thinking of yummy warm dishes like stews and roasts. The other day I was trying to think of a beef recipe that I hadn’t made before, but might be fun to try. I decided a nice Sunday dinner would be a good Beef Stroganoff. Mmmm. Beef, mushrooms, butter and cream, what’s not to like? I found the recipe here. Looks like it came from an old issue of Gourmet magazine. A lot of the comments said to double the sauce. So I did. This is…
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Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!
(picture courtesy SFGate.com) We got a dusting of snow on our local mountain ranges last night. We often get one or two dustings a year on Mt. Diablo (shown in the picture – this is actually the hills at the base of Mt. Diablo…the top is covered in clouds right now. Cherry found a webcam, so if you look soon, you might see the whole thing here…Thanks, Cherry!), but rarely as low as this. Some places as low as 350 feet got a bit of snow. Sadly for us, we live lower than that, so we just got rain. Still, it’s nice to drive around and see it in…