Makin' Marshmallows

Now that my self-imposed reading prison sentence is complete, I can take more time to make weird things, like homemade marshmallows to take to a New Year's Eve party. (I pronounce that word "marsh MELLows" not "marsh Mal-os". Please read along with my pronunciation to get the full effect of being here.)

Here's the Martha Stewart recipe that I'm following.

First, put some water and gelatin in a mixing bowl and let it collude to form a rubbery disk.

Meanwhile, boil up a bunch of sugar on the stove. I didn't take any photos of either of those steps. Just use your imagination!



Then, mix the rubber disk and the boiling sugar syrup together, and it creates a disgusting smell! You might shout, "Ew! Hot gelatin smells like the horse hooves it's made out of!" and make your loved one go, "WHAT? GELATIN IS MADE OF WHAT???" Then get your loved one to come over and smell it so you can both be grossed out together. Good thing you're taking them to a party, since neither of you finds marshmallows very appetizing now!

Mix it more and more furiously! It will eventually smell like marshmallows.

The mixer has to mix and mix until the motor wears out -- that's how you know they're done. In the meantime, think back to the first time you ever heard of anyone making their own marshmallows. For me, the woman was a rather controlling, possibly obsessive, and almost-always bossy person. And she may or may not have turned out to be kind of batshit, but that doesn't have to ruin marshmallows for the rest of us. SHE dipped them in melted chocolate (Martha doesn't even mention that idea but just shows a picture of a giant marshmallow floating on a cup of hot cocoa -- pretty pedestrian, Martha!)



Finally, when the stuff looks like taffy and your mixer is all clogged up, try to move the hoof+sugar from the mixing bowl and into a pan that has been previously both sprayed with cooking spray and lined with plastic wrap. Still, you will wind up sticky.



Smash the stuff down with a double-whammy top layer of plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray! Flatten it out; beat it into submission. Now let it sit calmly and think about what it did for two hours. Then you can cut it into pieces and cover them in chocolate, or put them in your hot chocolate, or make s'mores, or whatever.

Now, riddle me this, MARTHA! How the hell do I get the oh-so-sticky marshmallow stuff out of the mixing bowl???




...Oh, simply soaking it in water will eventually drain the sticky of all its power?
Okay, thanks.

Book 104: The Pearl

Ah, the final book, finished at about 1:00 PM on 12/31/09, is John Steinbeck's The Pearl. What a great way to end the year. Steinbeck doesn't waste a word, and even though he tells a lot (rather than showing), he does it in a way that is mostly forgivable, and he intertwines the telling and the showing together, so it doesn't seem as much like cheating.

In this novel, a villager finds an enormous, perfect pearl in the Gulf and it changes everyone's lives. "Every man suddenly became related to Kino's pearl, and Kino's pearl went into the dreams, the speculations, the schemes, the plans, the futures, the wishes, the needs, the lusts, the hungers, of everyone, and only one person stood in the way and that was Kino, so that he became curiously every man's enemy."

Read these two sentences, and see if the idea seems true: "For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have."

Well, this pearl is TOO big, and the pearl buyers try to cheat Kino. None of the villagers know how to bargain or how to go to the city to get a fair deal. But Kino will not be cheated. Someone comes in the night to try to steal the pearl. Kino's wife begs him to destroy it, to cleanse the family of its evil. But Kino has seen a future in which his son will go to school and learn to read and then they will all know the things that the Europeans know. They will know what is true.

Oh, that pearl seems to promise safety and security and never being hungry, and that is very difficult to resist.

Read this: "And the sun beat down on the streets of the city and even tiny stones threw shadows on the ground." What would you give to be able to write a sentence like that?

Here is another great tidbit from this novel: "He had said, 'I am a man,' and that meant certain things to Juana. It meant that he was half insane and half god." True dat, right sisters?

The thing that makes this book really great, aside from the talented and skillful writing, is that it rings completely true. Imagine if you won the lottery, and not just enough to pay off the bills, but some insanely huge amount, like $500 million. Some amount that would absolutely destroy your current life and send you hurtling into some other existence. Everyone knows you have the money, and they all want some of it -- and not a little bit. Does a little part of you hate them for their greed? Do you question everyone's motives in hanging around you? Do you have to shut yourself away from the world for security and safety? It's easy to imagine the bad side of sudden immense wealth. Steinbeck wrote something like, when we step into the sunlight, our shadow side is revealed as well. Something like The Pearl could bring out the worst in each of us.





Woo Hoo Hoo!! I completed my challenge of reading 104 books in 2009!! I'm pretty relieved to be done.

But... I have made a new challenge for myself for 2010. I hope it will begin some time tomorrow, and I think it will be a lot of fun, even though I'm just a little terrified.

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope you have fun and get home safely and get ready to start your resolutions tomorrow.

Book 103: Notorious Victoria

Whew! I finished this one at about 1AM. It's a very readable biography of Victoria Claflin Woodhull Blood Martin, the first woman to run for President of the United States of America. That was in 1872, long before women had the right to vote (which came in 1920, if you've forgotten).

Often referred to as "The Woodhull" by the press, Victoria was scandalous and outrageous! She was ahead of her time (and still might be today in some areas). She divorced two husbands, but the first one lived with her and the second husband for some time. She was as involved in the Women's Movement as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, but she pissed them off so much that they completely wrote her out of their 900-page history!

She was nominated for the office of President on the Equal Rights Party ticket, with the famous Frederick Douglass nominated as Vice Presidential candidate. But, many Republicans were aghast at the thought of the re-election of the corrupt Ulysses S. Grant, and so they banded together to support Horace Greeley, leaving Victoria with little support. Besides that, she was not listed on the ballot due to being a woman AND being only 34 years old (one year shy of being legally able to hold the office). Grant won anyway.

She believed that women and men were equal and that women should have careers and be able to vote and run for public office. She and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, ran a brokerage house, published a newspaper, opened a school for teaching micro-agriculture to women, and was very involved in leading Spiritualist, Labor, and Women's groups.

Victoria was the first woman to address a committee of the U.S. Congress (arguing for women's suffrage). She was much admired by our well-known feminists at that time (Anthony, Stanton, etc.)

The Woodhull gave lectures all over the Eastern U.S. and in England about various topics, including women's suffrage, Spiritualism (by which I mean talking to ghosts), Unions, 8-hour workdays, the poor rising up to take back their wealth from the rich (she was aligned with communists for a while), and Free Love.

The feminists of the day possibly could have continued to support and appreciate The Woodhull if she had only:

* stuck to the topic of women's suffrage rather than getting involved in other areas of politics (labor, restructuring the government, etc.)

* kept quiet about her ability to speak to the dead, which was embarrassing

* kept quiet about Free Love. Victoria did not believe that a woman should be forced for survival to marry any man and have to submit to his unwanted sexual attentions. Women should marry for love and have sex because they want to -- she was truly a radical in the 1800s! Victoria had a love affair with Theodore Tilton during one of her marriages. Tilton revealed to her that his wife was sleeping with the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe (famous feminist).

When Victoria told the world that the Reverend was a Free Lover (to support her supposition that men are allowed to remain respectable while having sex outside of marriage, and women should be as well), all hell broke loose. Rev. Beecher never admitted to it publicly (though he did privately). Harriet Beecher Stowe was instrumental in kicking Victoria out of the feminist club as revenge.

PLUS, The Woodhull and her sister were imprisoned while being tried for libel after printing the story in their newspaper. But while imprisoned, "the other inmates agreed to refrain from smoking while the ladies were in residence." So at least there was that.

The Woodhull's story is very entertaining and amazing. How did this woman totally disappear from history? I have a minor in Women's Studies and I never heard of her. Re-write the books, Women's Historians! Don't let Harriet Beecher Stowe continue getting revenge forever.

Mary Gabriel's writing is almost conversational and easy, while always objective. Notorious Victoria is a great read.

Fun With Spelling

A local radio station keeps advertising an upcoming concert at a venue near Denver. The venue has been renamed, and the DJ said, "at the Odium."

I was all, "WHA??" Why would you name an event center "The Odium"??? That means something horrible, and hated, and dreaded! That doesn't make any sense at all. If it were some kind of heavy metal club or a Goth parlor or something, it would make sense. But this place has concerts and horse shows and UFC MMA events.

*** just a quick aside to mention an episode of The Simpsons that I saw last night, in which Marge objects to MMA fighting and says, "Just because this isn't my taste, I think no one should be able to enjoy it." And then she and some other meddlers picket outside the arena and my favorite picket sign said, "UNMIX the Martial Arts!" ***

Anyway, I confirmed my definition, and sure enough, "Odium" comes from Latin and refers to something that is hated, detested, and makes people angry.

Then I thought: I'd better just double-check.

So I looked up the word Odium AND the city name, and guess what. It's spelled ODEUM, which comes from Greek and means a theater or concert hall.

Now THAT makes sense.

.

Book 102: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

This book by Annie Dillard took me a long time to read. It's not because I didn't enjoy it, but just because it's a book best savored. I'm so out of the habit of quickly reading and digesting serious material that I have to read slowly and break it up into smaller installments. I can still read easy fiction at hyper-speed, just not serious books.

I first read this book about 10 years ago, and I liked it then, and I liked it this year. Dillard lived for a year in Virginia, near Tinker Creek. She read and walked around and looked at nature and thought. Doesn't that sound great? It was the '70s, so she surely wasn't as addicted to technology as many of us are these days -- it wouldn't have felt quite so foreign to live more in nature.

Dillard tells little stories about nature and Nature and science and God and horrors and beauty. Her prose is just right to reflect a young woman who is extremely excited about life and science and nature. This book won the Pulitzer Prize.

Some of my favorite parts:

* She tells of a man who measured the pressure exerted by a growing squash. It was 5 thousand pounds per square inch! It made me wonder if the pressure of a growing baby is the same, but of course we could never hook a baby up to a machine to measure the pressure exerted by its growing body. Dillard makes you think of weird experiments. You won't be able to help it.

* She writes of human beings, "Our excessive emotions are so patently painful and harmful to us as a species that I can hardly believe that they evolved." If we were all lobotomized, we could all be happy.

* Here's a perfect line, "I felt a rush of such pure energy I thought I would not need to breathe for days."

* On navel gazing: "I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves."

* I love her description of a muskrat-watching adventure, in which she is lying on a bridge close to the water, trying not to move when the animal can see her, but rolling back and forth to watch him as he swims back and forth under the bridge. "All this time I was not only doing an elaborate about-face every time his eyes disappeared under the bridge, but I was also smoking a cigarette." Ah, the 1970's when cigarettes and nature could be combined without irony!

I love Annie Dillard and highly recommend her books.

Book 101: Under The Dome

I couldn't resist this huge tome from Stephen King, even though I need to read quickly to finish my challenge! It's 1072 pages long, but it went fast anyway.

The premise is that a little town in the Northeastern U.S. is one day trapped, inexplicably, under an invisible dome. No one can get in or out. Water and gases can slowly trickle through, but heat and pollution are building up after only a couple of days. The military can't breach it and no one knows what to do.

There's a bit more of a supernatural element to it, but I won't ruin the surprise for you. Mostly, King sticks to what he's great at: developing characters who seem real and pitting them against each other.

There is a really, really bad guy who is GLAD for the Dome because he would love to take over as dictator. There are other bad guys and stupid guys who help the Bad Man and enjoy the hateful, childish tormenting of the good guys.

There are the good guys and the medium-good people who try to help each other and stop the bad guys, and some just aren't trying to hurt anyone.

King builds the plot up until the reader wishes to go to that town and kill the bad guys herself. But instead, all she can do is keep reading and trust that an appropriate fate awaits the baddies.

It is fun, imaginative, and entertaining. King's still got it.

Truffles: First Attempt

One day, earlier this month, I suddenly became VERY INTERESTED in making chocolate truffles. I'm sure that reading the sequel to Chocolat played a role in this obsession. I found a few recipes, including this one for Honey Vanilla Chocolate Truffles from Martha Stewart. I rounded up all the chocolate and what-not that I needed, and set to work.

I envisioned beautiful chocolates that I could package and give as gifts, wowing people left and right!

Well, the Honey Vanilla Chocolate Truffles turned out DELICIOUS! But I thought they were too ugly to share, even when sprinkled with colored sugar. Even the one that was rolled in chopped slivered almonds. With practice, and maybe with something called Luster Dust (which I hear was invented as an edible body paint-type thing, but then got co-opted by bakers), perhaps I can make attractive truffles next year.

 

The OTHER batch I made was just regular chocolate truffles, except that I added some peanut butter to the mixture. Well, I did it WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! My ganache never hardened. It spent the night in the freezer and was still too soft to roll into balls.

But it tasted really, really good. So, I did what I had to do. I made some yellow cupcakes and used the peanut butter ganache as icing and it was so, so good!

They may look ugly, but my taste buds did not mind at all.


 

Lessons learned:

*The first time I make something, I should follow a recipe instead of winging it.

*But sometimes winging it leads to a great cupcake icing or other surprise treat.

*And if you make ugly candy and are forced to eat it instead of giving it away, YOU GET TO EAT A BUNCH OF CANDY! And cupcakes!

A Few Simple Ornaments

These are really simple to make: just cut out two layers of felt for the main shape. Sew any decorations onto one layer with matching embroidery floss (making all knots on the back), and then sew the two layers together (all knots will be in the middle).

You can sew the ribbon on with embroidery floss as you sew the two layers together, or use sewing thread to attach the ribbon once the ornament is done. I think the thinner ribbon looks better (as opposed to the Gingerbread Man's thicker ribbon).

Gingerbread Man and Snowman


Back sides



Crooked Star (you may want to make a perfect template rather than cutting yours out freehand). I like crooked, but not everyone does!



Stocking: I sewed green pieces on top of a red sock shape.

Candy Cane: I sewed white stripes on top of a red cane shape.

Tree: is it weird to put a tree ornament on a tree? Should I have made tiny tree ornaments to decorate the tree ornament? And so on! When would it ever end?

Book 100: Girl With A Pearl Earring

This novel by Tracy Chevalier is set in Delft, The Netherlands, in the 1660s. You may have seen the movie based on this book, which stars Scarlett Johansson.

The plot is that a young woman's family hits hard times and she must go to work as a maid in Vermeer's house. She struggles with doing as Vermeer asks without offending his wife. She must avoid a handsy patron and deal with her impatient future husband. And her worst enemy may be a 7-year old girl who likes to cause trouble.

Chevalier's writing is excellent. She develops characters well and times the plot nicely. It is fun to read about Delft in the 1660s. It brings back memories of touring Amsterdam several years ago. I never saw Delft, but I think there are many similarities between the cities. I was able to go on a tour of Rembrandt's house, which is being restored with historical accuracy. He also painted portraits in the 1600s, but in Amsterdam. Chevalier's descriptions of Vermeer's house meld with my memories of Rembrandt's house to create a very full, vivid experience. I love it when it all comes together!



Four books to go! I couldn't resist starting Under the Dome, which has over 1,070 pages! The other three are already started, as well: Steinbeck's The Pearl, Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Notorious Victoria (author's name temporarily forgotten).

Goodbye, Junk!

We sorted and re-sorted and debated and hemmed and hawed, and finally we made a finished DONATE PILE. Then it sat in the garage for a couple months until I finally called a local thrift store that does pick-ups. Then we waited two weeks for the big day to arrive.

We got up at the crack of dawn to put it all outside and tape signs on the items and boxes. The picker-uppers could arrive at any time between 7:30AM and 5:00PM. How convenient!

At the last minute, an old bicycle was begrudgingly added to the pile after much consternation. Possibly it could have been altered and made into some sort of single-speed cruiser. But it would still be too small and it would still be a third bike for only two people. BUT again, it was much beloved and had been expensive when purchased 15 years ago. HOWEVER, it would probably never be ridden again, and it's not that easy to store bicycles. ON THE OTHER HAND, he loved it.

Well, I was able to watch the pick-up through the window when the doods showed up at about 10:00AM. They parked their giant truck in the parking lot behind our place, rather than pulling into the alley. So they had to take everything over a curb, and down a small hill to get it to the truck. They insisted on carrying two items at a time, which was unfortunate.

For one thing, DOOD #1 totally dropped the box that contained a perfect, complete coffee service set. All the pieces were wrapped in newspaper, but that couldn't protect them from a harsh fall, a tumble down the hill, and then being thrown back into the box. I had never used the set, but had I known that DOOD #1 would break 1/4 of the pieces on the way to the truck, I probably would have held on to it and pretended that some day I would have people over and serve them coffee by pouring the coffee from the brewing pot into the serving pot, and pouring milk from the plastic jug into the little milk pitcher, and filling the sugar bowl from the sugar bag that's inside a ziploc bag. AND serving little cups of coffee upon matching saucers. Yeah, right.

Poor DOOD #1 was trying to carry that coffee service box along with a dismantled CD rack, which is very tricky to move around and really requires 2 - 6 hands.

Next, DOOD #1 grabbed a heavy box full of books AND the microwave oven at the same time. I have to admit that I was and still am slightly aghast that he carried the microwave BY THE CORD! Oh my God! You never, ever, EVER carry an appliance by the cord! That was a perfectly good microwave, and CLEAN! And it had a glass plate in the bottom, on which to sit your food item so that it could rotate around and heat evenly. That glass plate is probably broken now, but I guess that doesn't matter if the electric cord was ripped out of the thing.

Finally, DOOD #2 carried some over-the-door shoe racks and the beloved bicycle at the same time, but tripping over the curb on his way down the hill must have pissed him off, and he literally threw the bike into the truck, right on top of all our breakable donatables. Poor bikey.

So, I know that it was all stuff that we didn't want (excepting maybe the bike, kinda sorta), and it doesn't matter what happens to it as long as it's gone. But part of being able to let go of it was the belief that someone would get some use out of it, and that it could maybe help some people. If I ever try to purge again, I will have to forget about this experience. Half the stuff you donate just gets ruined by the employees! Imagine what happens at the Great Sorting Warehouse!

I guess the other reason I was so surprised was that the lady on the phone who set up the pick-up for me GRILLED me about the condition of the donation items. Are they clean? Does everything work? Would you give them to someone you know?

She's probably wondering why half the stuff they get is broken and the other half needs to be re-wired. Why do all the bikes look like they got thrown into a truck? At least the over-the-door shoe racks seemed to be intact -- some thrift store customer out there must have some shoes that need organizing.

TOO high

Here's an SUV we saw in a parking lot and I couldn't resist embarrassing Jason by posing next to it. I'm almost 6 feet tall, and would have some trouble getting into it -- how do the owners climb in?

I tried to stall and hang around to see the giant rednecks who drive it, but alas, we never spotted them.

And seriously, doesn't that kind of alteration make an SUV 97% likely to tip over when going around the gentlest curve? What is the point of it?

New Dress

I finished sewing this dress the other day.

 


I'm not that experienced with making sleeves, so I'm thrilled with how they turned out.

 

The pattern is McCall's M5576. The fabric is Echino by Etsuko Furuya Fall 2009 Ornament Turquoise. It's a linen and cotton blend, and I love it, but I think this dress would have been better with a little stretch. It turns out that I am not very good at being ladylike. Wearing this dress, I am very aware of how often I make big movements: reaching, stretching, picking up heavy things, running up and down stairs, etc... In this dress, I have to be a little more calm or I will rip the seams apart, Hulk-style.

 

If anyone knows where I can get some really cute cotton fabrics with a little stretch, please let me know! The cutest fabric that I find always seems to be non-stretch.

Book 99: Poppy Done to Death

This is my last Charlaine Harris book -- until she writes some more. In this one, Aurora's step-sister-in-law is murdered, and guess who finds the body! It's Aurora, like in every book!

Well, sister Poppy has been having affairs with everyone, and our heroine is pretty disgusted. The disgust and the multiple suspects make it even trickier to figure out who killed Poppy.

Additionally, Aurora has a little half-brother. They share the same cheating father. Little brother is now a teenager and he comes for a visit, complicating and livening up Aurora's Thanksgiving plans/murder solving.

It's the same kind of deal you expect from Charlaine Harris (just seeing her name makes me want to speak in an outrageous parody of a Southern accent: Sharrr-LAYYYNE!). The characters are much more important and interesting than the mysteries. The characters are pretty well-drawn, and the mysteries are not. I have just discovered that this type of novel is called a "cozy." They usually take place in small towns, and the mysteries are solved by female amateur sleuths. There's not much graphic description of blood, violence, or sex. There's little to no cursing (or as I call it, cussin'). It's a whole genre that I never knew existed.

Thanks to this quick read, I am officially now CAUGHT UP and only have to read 5 more books by the end of the year. I'm horribly tempted by a couple of 1,000-pagers that are weighing down my shelves, but I'll try to wait until after Book 104.

Books 97 & 98: A Fool And His Honey & Last Scene Alive

Oh, Charlaine Harris, your Aurora Teagarden novels continue to move me closer to my reading goal!

In A Fool and His Honey, Aurora has to watch over an abandoned baby, try to figure out the parentage of the baby, travel to the North (Ohio), see how useless a father her husband would be, and solve a tacked-on second mystery. As usual, it's fun to read about the characters. The secondary mystery was quite unfulfilling and very much seemed like an afterthought.

In Last Scene Alive, Aurora is a widow. She's also dealing with the film crew that's making a movie of her own experience of almost being murdered! But guess what, the script was written by her ex-flame, Robin Crusoe, who helped her solve her very first mystery. Someone dies, and someone has a secret past, and Aurora meddles in it all while being pursued romantically by multiple men (typical set-up from Harris).

I liked when Aurora mentioned that with her glasses on, she could hear better when she talked on the phone. She also talks later about being without her glasses, saying, "I am never at my most alert when the whole world is a blur." Now, I'm not nearly as blind as she is supposed to be, but it is true that I feel pretty out of sorts without my glasses or contacts. The last time I went to the eye doctor, she did some looking in my eyes and then didn't give me my glasses back. I honestly had a little bit of trouble talking to her without my corrected vision. I felt very vulnerable and a little bit stupid. So, kudos to Charlaine for capturing such a true detail. She does that kind of thing a lot, actually.

I only have one more Harris novel to finish, and I'll be caught up! Only 5 more books needed after that to reach my goal of 104. I'm pretty sure I'll make it. I can't wait to read LONG books again next year, or maybe magazines! Or watch movies! But I will miss having the excuse: "I can't do XYZ! I've got to read for my blog!" That has been pretty nice.

Books 94, 95, 96: Three Bedrooms, One Corpse; The Julius House; Dead Over Heels

These are three more novels in the Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris. These quick reads are really helping me get caught up on my goal of reading 104 books by the end of the year!

As usual with Harris's work, these are character-driven much more than plot-driven. Aurora is a fun and interesting character. She dresses and styles herself in just as poor taste as does Sookie Stackhouse. She is a tiny little librarian who is often stumbling upon dead bodies. Aurora also loves mystery novels and true crimes, so she enjoys trying to solve all the murders that happen near her.

In these three novels, she looks for a new house to buy, dumps her minister boyfriend for a more exciting man, and finds the Realtor Murderer (I made up that nickname just now, just for you). She gets married, takes ownership of a house with a mysterious past, and discovers some unwelcome secrets about her husband. She finds the corpse of a man she has hated for years, fights with a fellow librarian, sees a stabbing, and is pursued romantically by a few men other than her husband.

Even though death, betrayal, assault, and hatred are major themes in these, they still remain rather light-hearted and are very easy to read. And thank goodness, because I don't think I would reach my mass-reading goal without them!

Book 93: A Bone To Pick

This is book #2 in the Aurora Teagarden series, by Charlaine Harris of Sookie Stackhouse fame. In this episode, the tiny librarian inherits a house and half a million dollars from a casual friend from her murder club. The Real Murders club, which disbanded in the first novel, was a group of people who loved reading and talking about true crimes.

In this book, Aurora discovers a human skull in her new house and has to figure out who the murderer is AND who the victim was.

As usual in Charlaine's work, the dialogue is stilted and unrealistic, but the characters are fun, and you want to find out what happens to them. In this one, the whole mystery is suddenly solved with no subtlety or finesse. I'll still read the rest of the series, even though I have some complaints about her writing.

Book 92: The Girl With No Shadow

This is Joanne Harris's sequel to Chocolat.

Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, have been on the run for a few years, changing their names and their background stories, and raising little Rosette, Vianne's second daughter. They have stopped doing magic/witchcraft and are being as normal and boring as possible.

Then they meet their match: a woman who travels around, stealing identities and practicing her own brand of magic/witchcraft, with spells and symbols and charms. She moves into their lives -- too far into their lives.

The writing is lyrical and mystical. Vianne's still making chocolates and the descriptions might lead readers into chocolate binges.

The major theme is Identity. Can you change yours? Can you just become someone else and be happy? Can you deny your true self? Yes, no, and no, of course. If you liked the first book, you'll probably like this one, too. It's a fun, exciting story about magic mixed with modern life's text messages, security cameras, and internet searches.

Book 91: Buster Midnight's Cafe

This is another novel by Sandra Dallas, who wrote The Persian Pickle Club. This one takes place in Butte, Montana, in the 30s and 40s.

Our narrator tells the true story of her famous friend who went from being a poor little girl to a prostitute to a Hollywood starlet. Along the way, she tells about another friend who became a famous boxer. She also tells about her own life and that of her best friend.

It's good, unpretentious storytelling, fun, and also a tear-jerker. It's fun to read about life in that era.

--

Oh My God! NaBloPoMo is over! I did it. I posted every day this month. Thanks for reading along.

Now to finish my reading challenge -- only 13 books to finish in one month.

Today I did one of my most-dreaded things: calling up customer service numbers to take care of stuff. And I did it THREE times. I had to get my online banking unlocked, set up a day to get our junk pile picked up by the thrift store, and call Nautilus about a faulty handle on my Bowflex Selectech dumbell. All three calls went very smoothly and I got great service. I was on the phone for over an hour, but it all seems to be taken care of. Phew!

Home Again!

After a trip, it's always so nice to settle back into home, and start the laundry and put away all the bags and chargers and road snacks. And have a full wardrobe to choose from, as opposed to just what I thought to pack (do you ever get tired of wearing the same shoes for several days in a row?). And have a much-needed pedicure while watching "Dexter".

At our house, we have hard water, and it has a distinctive smell. The smell was really strong when we first moved in, but it had subsided... until we left for several days! Now it smells like minerals in here again. I guess that's now the smell of home. Weird.

I'm excited to:
sleep in my own bed
sleep for a long time tonight
look for a fun new job
do more sewing
play with the cat
lift some weights

And, tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo, and I am on track for successfully posting every day in November! I can do it!

Fleece Dolly

 

She liked it okay.


 

She didn't say anything about it being wiggledy-piggledy.

Recent Events

We got to watch the Avalanche play hockey while we sat in a fancy box.

 

There were free eats and drinks.

 

We visited a little girl with a balloon on her foot.

 


And saw some dancing.

 

Little Owl

Mom made an owl using my pattern. Pretty cute!

 

Book 90: The Year of the Flood

This is Margaret Atwood's sequel to Oryx and Crake. It takes place concurrently with Oryx and Crake, and is told from the points of view of two women. Both women were one-time reluctant members of a religious cult that believed in vegetarianism and protecting animals from extinction (how extreme!). They also dress very modestly and don't believe in using cell phones and other technology (how horrible!).

Both women survive a major man-made plague and then deal with the aftermath. All lone survivors believe they could be the last people on earth. Is there a reason to live, then? If so, what is it?

Again, we wonder about whether or not humanity deserves to survive, and if we can and should be forgiven for our destructive behavior and greed. Again, we consider love and friendship and loyalty.

One of my favorite moments is when a cultist prays for strength from the spirits of the Wolf, the Leopard, and the bio-engineered Liobam, a Lion-Lamb cross meant to somehow appease contrary religious groups. The cultists don't approve of creating weird combo-animals. Still, the Liobam looks harmless, but is quite an effective hunter, so her choice is logical, as she plans to hunt.

I really enjoyed returning to this world, but there were maybe a few too many coincidences. Still, I was impressed at how she wove this story together with Oryx and Crake. She just could have let a few more characters die in the plague.

views

Power Plant steam

 

Mountain with window reflections
 

Cloud shaped like a briefcase
 

This one looked like a zipper when we were driving around, but in the photo it doesn't.
 

Book 89: Oryx and Crake

This is a science fiction novel/cautionary tale by Margaret Atwood, published in 2003. Atwood just released the sequel, The Year of the Flood, which I'm reading now. I really enjoy Atwood almost all of the time. She often has a sci-fi component to her writing, but it's tempered with a heavy literary bent.

Oryx and Crake is about the last man on earth, and how he got to that point (or is it?)

It's about science-for-profit gone awry, and some of the horrors that can be created, such as chicken knob-thingies: giant chicken breasts growing without heads or brains; just throats down which nutrients may be poured. And gene-splicing to create giant hogs that grow human body parts for transplanting.

Or it's about the convenience and modernity offered by super technology: "a gym suit that cleaned itself overnight due to sweat-eating bacteria, a shirt that displayed email on its sleeve while giving him a little nudge every time he had a message, shoes that changed colour to match his outfits, a talking toaster."

And it's about there being such a huge separation between the classes that our protagonist, Jimmy, who lives in a guarded, gated Compound looks forward to escaping to the dirty "pleeblands" just for a bit of freedom. Atwood describes him riding on a train through the world of the middle class who have nothing to do with the big science corporations: "He glimpsed a couple of trailer parks, and wondered what it was like to live in one of them: just thinking about it made him slightly dizzy, as he imagined a desert might, or the sea. Everything in the pleeblands seemed so boundless, so porous, so penetrable, so wide-open. So subject to change."

And it's about love and obsession and friendship and loyalty.

The setting seems to be the U.S., but slightly in the future. It's an entertaining, imaginative read, and the world Atwood creates is not too much of a stretch from our current reality.

Day 22

It's Day 22 of NaBloPoMo, and I haven't missed one yet! Eight more to go.

I'm 5 books behind on my reading challenge, and I only have 6 weeks left, so I'd better hurry and get caught up. 16 books to go.

I'm thinking of reading and/or finishing these:

*Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
*and its sequel, The Year of the Flood

*Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

*Buster Midnight's Cafe (by the author of The Persian Pickle Club)

*Notorious Victoria (about the first woman to run for U.S. President, plus an outrageous feminist otherwise)

And maybe some old favorites by Vonnegut, Paul Auster, and Jim Thompson.

In 2010, I am excited to read 2666 by Roberto Bolano, a LONG book that I couldn't spare time for this year. I also want to re-start Don Quixote and finish it this time.

I'm feeling more and more interested in reading history books, but I want them to be entertaining, not dry. I'd like to read a great history of the building of the Great Wall of China. If you know of one, tell me.

Dr. Seuss house?

 

This camping cabin in Carlsbad, with its weird, surreal tree (actually some kind of succulent), made me think of nothing but cartoons.

2nd Dolly

I truly thought this dolly would be perfect. I cut and sewed SO carefully! But, she turned out a little weeble-wobbly like the first attempt.

 

I still think she's cute, and she and her dress are made of fleece, so she's super cuddly.

She's for a little girl and I think the girl is little enough that she won't care about the non-perfection of the dolly.

Are you familiar with the Japanese term "wabi-sabi"? It is an aesthetic based on the beauty that is found in imperfection. Do you think children can have a wabi-sabi view of dolls? I hope so!

Book 88: The Serpent's Tale

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin is a work of historical fiction. Judging by the very defensive post-script by the author, apparently some of her historical assertions are debatable. I just read it as fiction, so I didn't care.

Here's what it is. It's the second book about The Mistress of the Art of Death, Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar. She just goes by "Adelia." It's the 1150s, and Adelia was born into circumstances which allowed her to be raised without much religious influence and with all available education. She is known for solving murders by performing autopsies, but she has to pretend that her male friend is the doctor and she is his translator.

King Henry insists that she help solve the mystery of his girlfriend, Rosamund. Others want her to prove that King Henry's wife didn't kill his girlfriend so that the country won't have to endure another civil war. The political stuff is actually pretty much just background when you're reading; it's more about Adelia.

Adelia is a fun character. She's very self-interested, and must be forced to help others. She is extremely frustrated that the state of society forces her to hide her intelligence. Also, Adelia is often involved with hyper-religious folks who object to autopsies (and sometimes object to all scientific inquiry), hindering her murder-solving.

It's a pretty good novel, with interesting characters and settings. If you're an English history buff, you might dislike some arguable inaccuracies, but if you just read it as a story, it's very enjoyable.

Werewolf!

This morning I opened a set of blinds in my office and got my first peek into the neighbor's bedroom. This is what startled me:



It's that Taylor guy from the Twilight movies! The neighbor is a Twilight fan.

Here's the weird part: I've only ever seen a grown woman and a little boy come and go from that house. Which one loves the werewolf?

Book 87: The Persian Pickle Club

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas. I've had this on my shelf since I first read it in 1998, but I didn't remember anything about it. It's somehow kind of lighthearted, even though it takes place in the dust bowl of the Great Depression, and there is a murder, and another death.

A bunch of women in a small town in Kansas belong to a quilting club ("persian pickle" means "paisley" -- they have a story about some paisley fabric). A new woman moves to town, joins the club, and begins working on solving a town mystery.

It's very readable, with an entertaining narrator.

Book 86: JFK and the Unspeakable

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died & Why It Matters by James W. Douglass

I was watching Bill Maher’s show last spring or summer, and Oliver Stone was on, and he brought this book with him, confusing Bill and all the rest of us. Bill asked if Oliver had written the book, but no. He just recommends it. You remember, Oliver Stone made a movie about JFK’s assassination – a movie in which the CIA orchestrated the killing, framing Lee Harvey Oswald. This book is about the same conspiracy theory.

Douglass cites tons of sources: The Warren Report, interviews with witnesses, letters between Kennedy and Kruschev, and interviews with liaisons between Kennedy and Castro. It’s pretty easy to believe that this version of the story, or something like it, is the truth about how Kennedy died. Of course, I have no idea what actually happened. I wasn’t born yet, and I hadn’t read much of anything about it or thought much about it before picking up this book. Other theories may be equally convincing.

It’s very easy to believe that the CIA, NSA, and the military didn’t want a Kennedy as president. JFK wouldn’t go along with starting WWIII, or using nuclear weapons against the U.S.S.R., or against Cuba. Douglass says (and presents evidence) that JFK was about to pull us out of Vietnam permanently, that he was working up to having peaceful discussions with Castro, and that he had a secret peace-seeking letter-writing friendship with Kruschev.

Right before he died, JFK gave a commencement speech at American University in which he announced that the U.S. “will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war…” He also pledged that we would stop atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and if the rest of the world also stopped, we would not be the first to resume.

I watched a TV show on the assassination that was touted to be an exploration of the different conspiracy theories, but really it was an attempt to de-bunk them. I did not find it nearly as convincing as this book. One problem was that some of the men insisting that it was just Lee Harvey Oswald were only my age! They only know what they’ve been told, just like I do. I don’t find them persuasive.

I think it’s generally pretty easy to believe in the corruption of government. Particularly in that era of such intense fear and hatred of Communism, big sections of our government would have been willing to do anything to try to stop the U.S.S.R. from getting a foothold in Cuba, so close to the U.S. ANYTHING.

Plus, we know how corrupt the CIA and FBI were in the 1960s in trying to stop the progression of the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. They’ve shown us over and over again that they operate outside our laws, and outside of what we consider “American” behavior – treating everyone fairly, not punishing people for crimes unless they’ve been tried and convicted in a court of law. It’s easy to believe they’ve killed many people who threatened the status quo or the CIA agenda.

The “Unspeakable” that Douglass refers to is a systemic evil. Institutionalized evil. That kind of beaurocratic evil that lets everyone off the hook – no one in particular is responsible. No one has to feel responsible, and no one can be held responsible. The person with the ideas doesn’t actually carry them out; it’s not his fault. Those who carry them out are just following the orders of the middleman, so it’s not their fault. The middleman had no ideas, made no decisions, and performed no actions – he just passed along the message, so it’s not his fault.

I would add that it’s also unspeakable that we are all complicit when we allow evil acts to go on. We are willing to be convinced that it didn’t happen. We are willing to look the other way and not force these agencies to be held responsible for their actions, even though those actions are the exact definition of “Unamerican.” It’s much easier to go on with our days, watch our shows, and think about our own little lives than to admit that there is a problem and that we actually have to do something about it, risking our own personal security and comfort.

In the case of JFK’s death, many of those who tried to tell any truth that was inconvenient to the CIA ended up dead or locked up in mental institutions for the rest of their lives. Bad America!

By way of contrast to murderous political corruption, on “Meet the Press” this week, guess which two political figures were talking about their JOINT work on improving our public education system? Al Sharpton and freaking Newt Gingrich! Not bad, America.

A Couple New Little Houses

This weekend I had a vision of an all black and white Christmas theme, and I made an ornament to go with it.

I also made a cottage with weird, fantasy trees.



It was a perfect weekend for sitting inside and sewing: I had the TV all to myself and got to choose which movies to watch, and it was cold and snowy and icy outside, and I had no obligations to anyone. I need those weekends every so often!

Saturday

 
Today I made a juice of apples, ginger, and "Sugar Pears," which turned out to be less sweet than regular pears, so I now think of them as sarcastic fruit.

Those darn sarcastic pears refused to juice and just made mush in my juicer. I saved some mush to eat as pearsauce, which will probably be good, but not what I expected. Still, the apple and ginger juice with a hint of sarcasm was terrific.

--

Today was another snowy day, and after THUNDERSNOW last night (one of my favorite things! the crash of thunder and flash of lightning and then the gently falling flakes), today was super cloudy and dark and dim. A day requiring lights on all the time.

I just went out for a brief walk in the snow, and at 10:00PM, it is exactly as bright outside as it was all day. I can clearly see for blocks, and the sky is light grey. It is WAY too light for nighttime, yet way too dark for daytime.

Today should have been Friday the 13th, with the crazy lighting scheme. But since it is the 14th, it was just a super cool nighttime walk rather than a creepy, ominous set-up for unlucky events.

Utilitization and You

Doing one of my editing jobs, I heard a man say the made-up word, "utilitization." COME ON! You guys, I hate the made-up word "utilize" enough already. For fuck's sake, just say "use," as though you're not a moron.

Generally, people make up fancier-sounding words to attempt to cover up their own stupidity. I am instantly wary (not weary, although eventually that, too) of people who feel they have to show off their made-up Corporatese or other jargon (perhaps it would help if I put on my Creativity Hat and grabbed a different colored umbrella and Thought Outside the Box).

It usually gets worse once they know that I'm an editor, or that I have an English degree, or that I have a law degree, or that I read books.

Honestly, I'm just as mistrusting of "utilize"-sayers as I am of people who don't have any books in their homes. (No books in the house gives me the creeps and shivers and willies. And CHILLS.)

Why go to trouble to make things more complicated? Why must there be such needless over-utilitization of over-complicatorization?

First little quilt-blanket is done

Here is the finished Little Quilt-Blanket


I'm happy with how it turned out. The front has the shiny, satin blanket binding as an accent between the quilt fabric and the fleece backing. I sewed it to the quilt front on the sewing machine.



I used embroidery floss to attach the fleece backing.

I'm considering this a successful fleece project. I have another blanket to finish and I want to make another something with additional, accessory somethings, but I only have a week and half. If everything works on the first try, I might just make it.

Deal of the Day

Holy cow, you guys!

 

Pig heads are only 97 cents a pound!

Seriously, is that pig chomping on a cigar??

I am freaked out by the thought of eating heads. I know that it is no different from eating legs and backs and chests, which give me only the slightest creeps. I do detest dealing with raw meat, and I would always rather get it as sliced/shredded/chopped as possible so that it doesn't look like the animal it once was. But since I like to eat meat, I do prepare it myself and deal with the small amount of creeps I get.

Anyway, I think it's really psychologically interesting that I'm SO conditioned to only eat the parts of animals that I mentioned before, and that I think that's normal. But I think it's totally DISGUSTING to eat heads, ears, brains, intestines, feet, ankles, beaks, fetal birds, eyeballs, etc...

Knowing that it's hypocritical does not make me change my taste in meat products in the slightest. So I will offer no competition for you in your race to buy up all the sale-priced pig heads you can eat! Cigar included free of charge!