January 2010
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I came home with the beginnings of a migraine nibbling at the edges of my brain, to find that one of the corners of our studio had begun flooding to pass the lonely, rainy hours. John came home and the landlord picked up the wet vac and we shoved and vacuumed and wrung everything, and I started a batch of Nutella brownies, on which I broke my favorite spatula. Sixteen minutes till they’re...
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shelbysmith:
I am now $231.25 more poor. But at least I got vaccines for both kitties, a physical, and Ariel’s eye treated.
Boy, do I hear you. Flea and heartworm meds will be the death of me.
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“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to...”
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2010 Book #2: First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria
So I recovered from my Oryx and Crake-inspired outrage in tackling First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria, in a now-for-something-completely-different line of reasoning.
And while the beginning was slow and it took me awhile to warm up to the narrator, I ended up loving it. It’s the memoir of a woman who enlisted in the Peace Corps while in love with her recruiter, served a year in Ecuador,...
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You Know You Live in a Small Space When... →
…you have to switch out the clothes in closet seasonally because only one season fits at a time, for one.
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52books:
Tom Petty - Free Fallin’
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“As the poor economy continues to fuel deep library budget cuts, I’m...”
– American Library Association President Camila Alire [here]
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You know your current job is inadequate when your boss starts shopping for other jobs for you.
Also, that your boss is wonderful.
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Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood)
So years ago, I read The Handmaid’s Tale and since then have stumbled into Atwood stuff occasionally, especially when working on my honors thesis, as Atwood appears to be pretty much the only wildly famous Canadian author besides L.M. Montgomery (Can anyone think of someone else?). But I never could decide if I really liked her or not.
Well, Oryx and Crake settled that eternal question for...
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housewifely highlights
Spinach pesto makes you feel like you’re eating vegetables, when really you’re eating olive oil and parmesan.
Flourless chocolate cake is so tasty you almost don’t mind when then you have trouble sleeping because you ate an immoderately large slice of chocolatey goodness.
We ate the whole batch of easy parmesan rolls, even though they were slightly under-done, and we...
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monday morning
Me: Does this sweater make me look like a rainbow librarian?
Husband: Dress for the job you want.
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Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count...
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new england observation
To a Florida girl, the sound of ice sloughing off and splashing into the river on a sunny winter morning is an awful lot like the sound a largish alligator sliding off the riverbank and splashing into the river. Now you know, and don’t have to jump two feet in the air the first couple of times it happens.
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“You can read out loud, and if you’re exhausted or crying so hard because you...”
– Katherine Paterson, NYTimes
I have a big purse. I keep a book in my big purse, usually. And then in my book, I keep whatever papery bits I don’t want to lose, which are, all too often, coupons. And this gets me thinking: What would these books’ authors think of my penny pinching? What would Thoreau think of me slipping Progresso soup coupons into the front cover of Walden Pond? (Answer: I didn’t finish...
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This morning the New York Times featured a story on the proposed Ugandan anti-homosexuality legislation making headlines, and I read through it with such fascination that I managed to miss the bus to work (note to self: don’t read the news before breakfast).
The whole perspective is frustrating. Reporter Jeffrey Gettleman cites a March 2009 visit from prominent American Evangelicals as the...
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2009 reads
I’ve been all over the map this last year in terms of reading. In Uganda I was limited by what was available to borrow or what I could download for free on my iPod Touch, and I’ve sought out a lot of recommendations. Here’s my list:
To Kill a Mockingbird (re-read, aloud with John)
Stress Family Robinson (loaner from Linden)
Cranford
Wuthering Heights
The Age of Innocence
My...
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Party Round-Up
So my favorite new recipe of the party was this little number from allrecipes.com , a humble Easy Roasted Red Pepper recipe that I followed unusually closely and which made for lovely lemony hummus.
In examining the party aftermath, though, as always, the unimpressive dishes were the triumphs. I took a cheap frozen pizza and added pesto and sundried tomatoes as per these instructions and it got...
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