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The Graveyard Book
Nobody “Bod” Owens is the protagonist of Neil Gaiman’s newest story, The Graveyard Book. The book starts with the murder of Bod’s family, and his unknowing escape as an 18-month old toddler. Bod climbs out of his crib and down the stairs, and, finding the front door open, takes the opportunity to explore, unaware that his parents and sister are being ruthlessly stabbed inside. He ends up at a nearby graveyard, where he is taken in by the dead (and undead) residents. His story is told in a series of episodes, some seeming more like short stories than part of a larger tale. He grows from a toddler to a…
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Being a Mom
KarenMEG over at A Day in the Life was tagged for this meme, which got me thinking. It was started by Her Bad Mother, who wants to know about 5 things you love about being a mom, at the same time acknowledging that it’s not all buttercups and milkshakes. That many of us feel ambivalent about the day to day frustrations in parenting, while at the same time deeply understanding the gifts that it bestows upon us. Like KarenMEG, and I suspect many parents, I am much more interested in my own child than in yours. Sorry, it’s just true. I wasn’t really interested in kids before I had Maya,…
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Red Jade
(photos taken from Check Please, Bay Area site.) One show we like to watch is Check Please, Bay Area. There are a few Check Please shows around the country, and I think it started in Chicago. It’s on PBS, and the idea is that three local viewers each recommend their favorite restaurant, all three go (separately) to all three restaurants, and they then come and talk about what they liked and didn’t like about all three restaurants. Maya and I watched a new episode last night, and the one restaurant that all three participants liked was Red Jade, a Mandarin restaurant on Church street in San Francisco. They talked about…
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Penne with Sausage
Many years ago, my mom gave me this cookbook for Christmas, and it’s been one of my favorites ever since. I love pasta. I could probably eat it every day, without getting tired of it. Not everyone in my household feels this way (in fact, I suspect I’m the only one), so I limit our pasta dinners to once or twice a week. When I decided to make Penne with Sausage this week, Pasta Fresca was the first cookbook I pulled from the shelf. It didn’t disappoint, though they chose thin rigatoni rather than penne for their sausage sauce. Gnocchetti Rigati con Salsicce aka, Thin Rigatoni with Sausage Sauce 1/4…
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Friday Already?
Hard to believe it’s Friday already. This week sure sped by, didn’t it? So. Grandma’s feeling a bit better, though not at all happy about going into assisted living, no matter how temporarily. The silver lining to this whole thing is that she realizes that this might involve some money on her part, and so is cutting off my blood-sucking vampire of a cousin, who has been milking her and my Great Aunt dry for years. Lining your pockets at the expense of old women on a severely limited income is tantamount to elder abuse in some circles, so this cutting off is very much welcomed by our entire family. …
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J’s Grandma
Sorry for the little hiatus there. My Grandma fell on Monday and broke her leg. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it probably wouldn’t be in someone young. But she’s 86, and her bones are so brittle, the doctor described them as eggshells. He also described some of the risks of surgery on someone of her age, which scared us all a bit, and had my grandma making lists of what piece of jewelry she wants to go to go to which granddaughter, if she should die. Tuesday, she had surgery. They put in a titanium plate, so she’s got titanium from hip to knee. The surgeon said it…
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25 Things About Maya
You’ve all seen the Facebook Meme, 25 Things about me, right? Well, today is Maya’s 13th birthday, so in her honor, I thought I’d take a stab at 25 Things About Maya for you. As you can see in the photo, she’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s a loyal friend. She loves the group, Paramore, and all things Twilight. She loves her iPod. She’s generous. She offered to give me her Target gift card when I mentioned that I liked a top there, but new clothes weren’t in my budget. She’s kind. She doesn’t let this get in the way of her wicked sense of humor. She volunteers at a local animal…
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When Parents Die
My friend Cindy, whose mother died about 5 years ago, met me for lunch a week or two ago, and she loaned me this book, When Parents Die ~ A Guide for Adults, by Edward Myers. The book is specifically written for adult children who lose their parents, whether it be a long, slow decline, a shocking sudden death, or anything in between. I’ve read a few books about death, dying, and grief since I lost my mom last June, and this is the one that has thus far proved the most comforting. I’m not sure if that’s because more time has passed, so I’m more easily comforted, or if…
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Persian Pomegranate Walnut Chicken
(Gorgeous photo along with a pretty cool recipe project along the lines of ‘Julie and Julia’, found here) I was looking through my cooking magazines the other day, trying to find a recipe that calls for chicken breasts, and I came across this recipe in Cooking Light. We tried it for dinner last night, and it was a hit. It didn’t look as gorgeous as the picture above, but I forgot to take a picture, so we’ll just pretend mine looked as awesome as KC’s, OK? Really quite yummy. Persian Pomegranate Walnut Chicken Based on the Persian dish fesenjan, this streamlined entrée features a sweet-tart sauce of pomegranate juice thickened…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Nationalizing Risk, Privatizing Wealth
The whole AIG thing is bugging, you know? I know that it’s important to retain your top talent when you’re a huge company with fingers in every pie in the U.S., such as AIG is. I do understand that. If they should fail even worse than they already have, we’re all screwed even farther than we already are. But it pisses me off that anyone in the WORLD thinks they’re worth this much money, let alone taxpayer money. No one is worth this much. No one. But people who took huge chances that resulted in the collapse of our economy, resulting in this huge loss of jobs, why should they…
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Duplicity & I Love You Man
I’ll admit it, I’m a Julia Roberts fan. She’s not my very favorite actress ever, but I do like her, and when she has a new movie out, I’ll usually go see it. Our local theaters charge $6 for the first showing of the day, so Friday at 11am, I was found with popcorn and diet coke, plopped down in the seat to see the newest Julia Roberts’ film, Duplicity. Claire and Ray are special agents, aka spies, for their respective governments, and when they first meet she plays him and walks away with the secret information. The film takes place 5 years later. They’re both still spies, but now…
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The end of BSG
Last night was the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, though there will be a TV movie out this June, “The Plan“, and there’s the premier of “Caprica” to look forward to, if you’re so inclined. Last night’s two hour episode was 2/3 of the finale, making me want to sit down and watch last week’s episode along with this one. I have a feeling we may be doing just that later this afternoon. Overall, if you weren’t a fan, there would be nothing to see in this episode. But if you were a fan of one of the best shows on TV (The Best currently on TV, we would say…
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Most Awesomely Yummy Cookies
Imagine my surprise when I came home yesterday to find a box of yummy cookie goodness on my doorstep! I opened it up and found a delicious package of cookies and a sweet note from my pdx bloggy pal, BMC, aka Bite My Cookie. Maya was generous enough to model for me, both the anticipation of pre-bite into some chocolate chip gooey heaven, but also an action shot of an actual bite. Notice the very cute new top she bought herself with a gift card from Auntie Janet, as well as the fierce pink streak in her stylish new hairdo! The cookies were pretty big, and mighty rich and buttery,…
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New Budget
(money photo found at Gourmet Gal) The first few weeks that I was out of work, I didn’t really change my spending habits much. I had my final paycheck, complete with over 100 hours of PTO. I had my severance, puny though it was. I won’t say I was in total denial, but I was in partial denial. I bought some clothes, thinking that I will need them when I start working. Having worked from home for several years has put me in a bad situation in that department. I stopped at the grocery store whenever we needed anything, and as often as not, I ended up leaving with a…