February 5, 2010 at 10:40 am (Uncategorized)
This is a nicely appropriate question for the frigid weather New England has right now. Not as bad as the storm making it’s way up the coast though! Booking Through Thursday asks us:
The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?
I would like to curl up with either a book about food or travel (or both), a memoir or a good mystery. Nothing to heavy, nothing to serious – mainly something to distract me from the grayness and coldness and the seeming anxiety that is just outside the door. Something like Eat, Pray Love or even Harry Potter or Gone With the Wind (which I may start now that I think about it). Something that is comfort reading – like people crave comfort food or red wine during the winter.
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February 4, 2010 at 10:51 am (Uncategorized)
I know that I haven’t posted in a good long while – since Monday or the weekend at least – but this week has been absolutely awful for me on just about all levels and it isn’t going to get better until tomorrow afternoon. I’m just going to leave it at that.
The only good thing that has really happened is that Nate had his ENT appointment yesterday – they were checking the tubes and seeing if his hearing has improved. While one of the tubes was out, his hearing is much better – the follow up test showed it and the fact that he is talking a whole lot more shows it. I’m hoping that this weekend is quieter then things have been this week, filled with motions writing and getting training materials together and then just relaxing and maybe watching movies and cooking/baking. My goal of trying one new recipe every week fell by the wayside last week so I need to re pick that up. AND some of my way cool co-workers are going to teach me how to knit starting tomorrow! I’m so excited. 
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January 31, 2010 at 12:35 pm (Uncategorized)
So, I had a weird, weird dream last night, when I got to sleep (because Nate was up at all hours again). The dream started with me calling the police about how these people were after a baby – and I was holding the baby. It was dark out – pitch black. People from the local child services agency had arrived before the police, for some reason and for some reason again, had attempted to gain control of the baby and the situation without police back-up or protection. Then, for some reason, I ended up kicking one of them in the shin but instead of the person just yelping in pain (which would be a normal reaction to being kicked in the shin – that’s what happens when I get kicked in the shin because it HURTS) his shit literally split horizontally in two. I could hear and see the bone break – in facts bits of it were coming through the skin. It was at that moment that I realized that I too was a vampire. It was weird. Anyways, at some point minutes later the police arrived and one of them was with me. I think that at this point, I realized and I had made the police officers realize, that I was a good vampire. The bad vampires – there were at least four of them that I could see – were chasing us. We were running through the backyard of my childhood home at night again towards the back, where there was a drainage type of stream and forest. The yard wasn’t lit. As we got halfway through the yard, one of the vampires decided to shine the light across the backyard and when they saw us, they came after us. I knew they were coming fast. I jumped over a fence and kicked through another one before I woke up. Really weird.
It was just very, very odd. I hadn’t been reading or thinking about vampires. Just bizarre.
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January 29, 2010 at 12:35 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: animated movies, book reviews, booking through thursday, books, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, fiction, Gyneth Paltrow, Hyatt Bass, Iron Man, Jeff Bridges, Jr. Comic books, movie, movie reviews, movies, RDJ, Robert Downey, Terrence Howard, The Embers, WILLA
I know that I’ve been MIA lately and there’s a pretty good reason – just not one I’m going to disclose to the whole internet right now. But I’m back, hopefully more regularly. Here’s this weeks BTT:
Jackie says, “I love books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. What is your favourite book with a fantastic twist at the end?”
So, today’s question is in two parts.
1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?
2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?
I love books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. It makes reading more interesting then it normally is for me. I have to keep interested in it and have twists and turns in order to have active reading – active in the sense that I’m trying to figure out what is going on! I haven’t read a good one in a while though.
I do have a few reviews up for your reading pleasure:
1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – an animated movie reviewed here.
2. Iron Man. Review is here.
3. The Embers by Hyatt Bass is reviewed here.
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January 20, 2010 at 10:34 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: CT scan, drama, ENT, health, Kate Winslet, movie reviews, movies, Ralph Fiennes, The Reader
So, I was totally supposed to go to the ENT yesterday – in my mind, it was going to be an almost cathartic visit. We were going to go over the results of my CT Scan and we were going to come up with a plan to treat my chronic sinusitis. I was going to be taken out of limbo. I was going to be able to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel – I was going to know what was going to happen and I was going to start feeling better, even if meant that they had to do surgery. But I got none of that.
Instead, I got an appointment canceled by the doctor about 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there and in spite of the fact that I had spoken to the receptionist yesterday and made clear in no uncertain terms that I was confirming my appointment and wanted to come in. I had 2 pages of questions for crying out loud. I was annoyed that I was told not to come in less than hour before my appointment, because I had talked to the office the day before. It showed me that, at the very least, the doctor hadn’t even looked at my file. I was told that I had to get another CT scan and to get to an allergist, both of which had never been told to me before. I was able to get an appointment with the allergist today, which is fortunate. ARGH!
Anyways, I watched The Reader, starring Kate Winslet, over the long weekend and reviewed it here. Enjoy!
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January 19, 2010 at 10:48 am (Uncategorized)
I put a link on the sidebar for Haiti relief. Please do what you can.
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January 18, 2010 at 8:35 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: book, books, Monday Musings, reading
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about tidy reading around people.
When is it inappropriate to read in front of others? Is it ever appropriate?
It’s always appropriate to read when you’re alone. For sure. And I think that there are definitely times when it’s appropriate to read in front of other people. In college, when I was in a large group of people, and it was super casual, I would often have a book. I would read. I read when my husband is in the room now, and he’s on the computer or watching television or both. There are times when I read in front of people now – when we’re hanging out and it’s casual and it’s not people that I very rarely see. I read on the subway, on the commuter rail, on airplanes. I don’t read in front of people when I’m at a dinner party or at the theater or something like that.
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January 18, 2010 at 11:10 am (Uncategorized)
Tags: Aya, Benicio del Toro, book reviews, books, Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis, Clement Oubrerie, Elijah Wood, fibromyalgia, graphic novels, health, Jessica Alba, Marguerite Abouet, Mickey Rourke, movie reviews, movies, RA, reading, Rosario Dawson, Sin City, skiing, WILLA
I went skiing yesterday and I have to say, it might not have been my most brilliant decision ever because I got home yesterday and I was in absolute pain. My body hurt to the touch. My joints were killing me. I was tired and I had a sore throat. I ended up eating and passing out at around7:30 or 8:00 – pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow. I feel better this morning as far as the soreness and pain but I do have a sore throat. I’m lucky that the office is closed today because I plan to just relax, pump liquids and maybe do some yoga later on to stretch out my muscles and joints.
I have managed to write a couple of reviews though:
This review can be found here.
This review can be found here.
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January 16, 2010 at 10:28 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: adultery, book, book reviews, books, butcher, cardio, class, Cleaving, cooking, exercise, gym, Julie Powell, Julie/Julia, kickboxing, marriage, Rachel Ray, reading, thirty minute meals
…should be in everyone’s plans, if your gym offers a class. I went to my first cardio box class, at least the first one that I’ve been to, in a while today and it was so much fun. I felt like I got a really great workout, but wasn’t totally clutzy about it and the instructor was great to. She was able to keep me interested and motivated for the entire hour, which included mostly cardio but also some resistance training at the end – the kind where you use your own body weight as the resistance. Lots of squats, push ups etc. And I felt really good after it. I need to do more classes like that because I find it really hard to stay motivated and interested in my work out. I’m not nearly as disciplined as I used to be – in between my junior and senior years in college, I would work all day and then run five miles a night after I got home from work and I was able to keep that sort of schedule up during the fall, so that I was in pretty good shape for varsity squash season and then rugby season after that. I can’t do that now – maybe it’s cause I have a kid, I don’t know, but the point is that until I get in better shape (the kind of shape where I actually enjoy running five miles a day again), I’m going to go to three classes a week.
Before I went to class, I reviewed Cleaving, Julie Powell’s new memoir. The review is here.
I made this really yummy chicken dish for lunch – both Izzy and Nate devoured it and it left me wondering if maybe I should have made more. It’s another of Rachel Ray’s thirty minute deals – I’m really trying to cook as many of the dishes as I can. Anyways, this one is the Southwestern Chicken and Black Bean Burritos. Here you go:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
a couple shakes cayenne pepper sauce, such as Frank’s Red Hot or Tabasco
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (I used pam cooking spray)
1/2 medium spanish onion chopped (I just used regular yellow onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 Tbsp smoky barbecue sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 heart of romaine, shredded
6 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
4 large flour tortillas, flavored or plain
Rub chicken with cumin, chili powder, and cayenne sauce. Heat a griddle pan to high. Cook chicken breasts 4 minutes on each side and remove from heat.
While chicken is cooking, heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Go once around the pan with oil. Cook onions and garlic until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add beans and barbecue sauce. Chop cooked chicken breasts and drop into barbecued beans. Heat mixture through. Season with salt and pepper.
Place a tortilla on a plate and pile chicken and beans in center. Top with lettuce, scallions, and tomatoes. Wrap, roll, and repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. Serve with chips and salsa.
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