Monday, September 30, 2013

Boxed In

I've been practicing the art of improvisational cooking:  four ingredients and no heavenly idea where a knife could be.  For people who like to have the odd cookbook (Hotdish for 100?,  The Pleasures of Cooking for One, Eggs and that ever popular Potato), might I suggest a cookbook for the week before and four weeks after you've moved?

It could well include chapters like:

* Philipps or Flathead for your Stand In Spatula?
* How to rescue food from burning with your brand new oven
* You need wine
* Throw away those condiments
* What to with six packets of yeast
* Eat everything in a bowl
* Your gym towel as a stand in oven mitt (if you haven't been to the gym)
* Ensure - it's the drink for the aged and people who move frequently
* How to sterilize your box cutter if you need to cut a bagel
* Aren't you glad you have three dozen wine glasses?
* Have your Dad bring tomatoes

Just a thought.  I'm sure there must be others suffering through a corral of boxes.

Right?

Saturday, September 28, 2013

It's So Easy

Linda Ronstadt is one of the artists included in my Dad's record collection.  I can't remember the first time I heard her music, but she's one of the singers who stayed in my personal musical rotation through the years.  Her biography  Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir has been added to my book list at the positive review by another artist and GBC local, Gretchen Peters.

Hope you're finding a little musical inspiration this weekend.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

je ne sais quoi

Paris has been on my mind this year.  It's the trifecta resulting in pined travel:  a few years since I've been (three), I've had dear friends make the trek this year, and a blue-eyed wonder said "take me to Paris".

You'd have Paris on your mind too.

Lisa Appignanesi pens her top 10 books about Paris in The Guardian.  I've read two, have two more on my book list, and have one associated book that was a gift from a colleague (Balzac's Lost Illusions).  A respectable start, don't you think?




Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Moving On Up

Based on current trends I should be unpacked by the end of October.

I will find my spare toothbrush in the next three weeks, that leather cuff in about two weeks, and if I'm lucky, my astronaut shirt in the next seven days.

All cookbooks are accounted for and I've asked the Universe to forgive me for the unkind thought to the boy who gave me a two pound Oxford French dictionary which landed on my foot.

Every day feels like Christmas.

(And Groundhog Day.)


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Thursday Night Lights

Historical theatre with a historical band.  Music soothing the soul.

Princess Theatre, Decatur, AL
September 2013




Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Bringing into Focus

Photos...worth more words than I can muster with just a few sips of coffee.  I found this collection by Bryan Schutmaat incredibly moving.  I hope you'll check it out:

Monday, September 16, 2013

Wifi High and Lowe's

Sometimes you find yourself in a very small town at the end of a thirteen hour workday.  You're hungry and you'd like a side of wifi with perhaps some eggs on toast or a tomato panini sandwich.

Simple, yet accessible.

Not too demanding. After all, you're still without water and home internet access because of a little utility accident with a very large shovel.

In that moment after a long drive around the city, desperately hoping for something that stayed open past nine, you realize you're in a town of introverts, and that instead of making wifi available in late night coffee shops around the city, each individual would rather be at home, alone or in small groups...programming, saving the world, creating the next best efficiency, or just playing a game on their super-secure, non-broadcasting networks.  Because after all, this town is smart.

So when you find yourself in a Lowe's parking lot typing away in your lap with a bag beside you that will be forever unnamed, you will try to forget that you ever read Fast Food Nation and hope that this isn't the first book you start to unpack.  When you go home, you will need a glass of reading water.

And when you go to sleep thinking about this very odd day, you will know that despite nights like this, you are still pretty darn lucky.


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Moving On

Combining two stressful life/work events in the same weekend probably wasn't my best idea.  As an upside, I'm getting a nice bicep workout from carrying lots of boxes of books.  My bookcase has also found its new home and at some point in the near future, I'll have a lot of fun re-organizing the books to whatever whim I happen to have on the day.  Typically, they are (loosely) arranged by genre and then by height.  Authors sometimes are on the same shelf, but not always.

I don't have a future as a librarian.

Hope your weekend is going along well.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Something About Mary

The Man Booker Shortlist was named Tuesday.  Who will be your first read?

Image from Manbookerprize.com

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

I'm a Boxer

I've packed my books three times in the last three years.

The first time, all books were carefully cataloged into a spreadsheet and packed according to genre.  Some of the more delicate items were wrapped with brown paper to keep them from shifting.  It was all very deliberate.

The second time, I was still careful, packing books by genre but without the additional packing paper and spreadsheet.  I did dust off a couple of spider webs.

This weekend, Whitman was mixed with Tove Jansson mixed with Kaplan.  I didn't have time to sort and I resisted reading too much before the books went into the boxes (but I still reviewed all my bookmarks aka boarding passes).  I think I've reduced the number of boxes by seven or eight.

Still, I have these, two more boxes of cookbooks, and two shelves yet untouched.  I hope I didn't pack any spiders.

Then there were 19

Saturday, September 7, 2013

OM is where the ART is

GBC P@1ge recommended Where in the OM Am I by Sara DiVello for my booklist.  I always take her suggestions anyway, but as an added bonus this book was published the same day I decided to learn to water ski.  (I think I uttered similar words after taking a header into the lake on my first try.)  I especially like the odd coincidence and the few things I expect to have in common with Ms DiVello based on the book description so this read will be next up in the queue.  

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Short and Sweet

I really liked this essay on the Kindle Single published today in The Guardian.  I'd missed this Amazon launch (to which my vacation account is probably grateful).  According to the article, the format is geared toward items of 5,000-30,000 words in length, perfect for that weekend jaunt or an evening in.  Several writers are adopting the format, including Howard Jacobson and Margaret Atwood.  Look out, 1-Click!


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Eight is Enough (Legs)

One of my favorite things to do is to talk about books.  I like to hear what others are reading and attempt to sufficiently describe what I'm reading as to entice the other person to give it a chance.  During my recent travels, I finished Feynman and although I had planned to jump into another story, a discussion about books led to a book loan/gift (the best kind really), This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong. (Wong is actually a pseudonym but since he wanted to keep his personal and online lives separate, we can do that too.) 

I'm not particularly keen on the arachnid family and this morning's walk through a spider web made me jump a little more than usual after having read more of the book last night.  Nevertheless, I'm hooked (and keeping a vigilant eye for unexpected movement).    

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sunsets with No Internet

A Friday photo a few days late....

Hope you have had a story-worthy weekend.

Santa Monica
August 2013