December Book Review

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It's that time again. Time to pick through the books we've read this month and decide which one we're going to recommend.

This month I'm reviewing/recommending another book by Kim Gruenenfelder, There's Cake in My Future. It's a story about friendship and life and changes, all things that can draw an audience but what I really liked about this book is the way the story was told.

Here's the back blurb:

Listening to her friends' latests travails in love, parenting and careers, superstitious bride-to-be Nic believes she has the perfect recipe for everyone's happiness: a bridal shower "cake pull" in which each ribboned silver charm planted in the cake will bring its recipient the magical assistance she needs to change her destiny. Mel, still ringless after dating the same man for six years, should get the engagement ring charm. The red hot chili pepper would be perfect for Seema, who is in love with her best male friend, Scott, but can't seem to make their relationship more than platonic. And recently laid-off journalist Nic wants the shovel, which symbolizes hard work, to help her get her career back on track. Nic does everything she can to control who gets which silver keepsake - as well as the future it represents. But when the charmed cake is mysteriously shifted from the place settings Nic arranged around it, no one gets the charm she chose for them. And when the other party guests' fortunes begin coming true, Mel, Seema and Nic can't help but wonder . . . is the cake trying to tell them something?

As I said, the base of the story is friendship but situations around the charms brings a lot of comedy to the story. Nic is the most upset with the charm she got. Seema tries to convince her that there's nothing to the charms and she has nothing to worry about, all the while she's freaking out over the charm she got because goodness knows it's the LAST charm she'd choose for herself. Meanwhile, while Mel doesn't give a lot of credit to the cake pull charms, she's doing everything in her power to make hers come true (which is hysterical!).

The story is told in first person perspective from the viewpoint of each of the main characters (Nic, Mel and Seema) in alternating chapters, so you're able to really get to know the characters. It's basically a story about love, friendship and the life that happens while you're busy making other plans (who can't relate to that?).

I highly recommend this book and was excited to see that it has a follow up book coming out next year. I'll try to vary my author reviews but if it's as good as this one, chances are you'll be seeing another review of a Kim Gruenenfelder book. :)

October Book Review

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It's time for this month's book review meeting, hosted by Barrie Summy. :)

Last month I reviewed a book that had been recommended to me by amazon.com. This month I'm reviewing a book that was reviewed a few months ago as part of these book reviews hosted by Barrie. (You can see the review here.)

I don't recall what the review said (I'm going to go back and read it after I write this one but I didn't want to be influenced in what I say here so . . . ) but it obviously got my attention because this was one of two books that I've purchased as a result of reading the reviews posted monthly (I still haven't read the other book yet . . . someday).

Anyway, I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and started reading. The first paragraph got my attention "Some girls have journals. I talk to my poster." Hmmm, sounds like there's a story there, if you ask me. :)

But the story itself is about Alice and her journey to find love. She has a pre-dating Ally-McBeal-sniffs-Billy-Thomas's-butt-when-they-were-eight type of relationship with Jewel (aka Julian - I mention this because I wanted to associate the name of Jewel with a female and that's not the case here). Jewel is her best friend in the world and she's his best friend in the world. They do everything together and nobody understands Alice better than Jewel. But when Simon (the second most popular boy in the school) asks her out, it changes the dynamic of her relationship with Jewel.

Alice doesn't want to hurt Jewel but she wants to explore this relationship with Simon. I think the end result is pretty obvious by page 2 (no, it's not the poster!) but I won't disclose it here, just in case it's not but I'll just say that I found the story resolution satisfying. :)

I'll also say this, I kept looking for the bad guy in the story and there wasn't one. I found the characters to be likeable. I really enjoyed this book.

So, thanks to Beth Yarnall for writing a review that made me want to read this book. It was worth it! :)

September Book Review

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I'm jumping in a little early to post my review this month because the next few days are going to be crazy busy and I really wanted to participate.

That said, the book I'll be reviewing this month is Misery Loves Cabernet by Kim Gruenenfelder. It was referred to me by amazon. Based on purchases and recommendations I've made, they thought I would like this book.

Gotta say, the title is what first caught my attention - I love it. But, I didn't want to purchase it just because it had a catchy title so I jumped down to the reviews. I don't typically read reviews that give away the story and this wasn't an exception but what I discovered was that an overwhelming majority of the reviewers loved the book. The only concern I had was that it appeared to be part of a series, and not the first one. If I know a book is part of a series, my preference is to read them in order. So, I checked into the first book. It didn't seem bad but it didn't intrigue me as much as Cabernet did. Kind of broke my own rule when I started with the second book.

Anyway, I really liked this book a lot. It's about a woman making it on her own. She's got quirky and interesting people in her life and ridiculously funny things happen to her. I've said before that the heroine may not know who the hero is but that I want it to be clear to the reader because if it's not clear to me, I don't enjoy the story as much.

Well, this book makes an exception to that theory because I had no idea who the hero was supposed to be but I didn't care. I was enjoying the journey Charlie (the heroine) was on and I was looking forward to seeing where it took her.

And I loved the characters in the book. In particular, I loved Drew - Charlie's boss. She's his assistant. He's like a little boy that doesn't know about "boundaries". Honestly, I was rooting for him to be the hero because they kind of complemented each other. She'd probably want to kill him in a year or two but the book doesn't take it that far so they would've been fine. ;)

Now, I've said I loved the book but there was something that bothered me from early on. Cabernet is what I'm going to call an independent book. I don't mean stand alone as in one of a series of books that continues the story but it stands on its own. I mean independent as in - in my opinion - the beginning and ending of the book don't allow for a satisfying story before or after the story in this book. To me, this book opened in the exact right place and had a satisfying ending. Thing is, what I know about the first book, it also had a satisfying ending. Had I read it first (and assuming it is as good as this one) I probably would've snatched this one up in a heartbeat, thinking it would be a continuation of the satisfying ending. Of course, that's making assumptions on my part but I just can't see myself reading the first book now without being annoyed by it. The same would go for a book that would follow this one. Sad too because I really did love this book.

So, bottom line is, I loved this book. Definitely will read other books by this author . . . just not necessarily ones that follow this same character's story. :)

Happy National Dog's Day

It's funny because I'd planned to blog today about my dog, Harley. Then I discovered that it was National Dog's Day so I figured I'd better blog about all my boys. I figured I'd tell you how they came to be my dogs.

First there's Max. I like to joke that he came with the house but the truth of the matter is that he was born roughly a week before I moved in and it was a few weeks before I even met him.

He came from a big litter of puppies, all of which would crawl under the fence into my back yard (oh yeah, his "birth owner" lives behind me). All but one of them would climb on me and scratch me, with one sitting back looking at me as if to say "I'm good. I'll still be here when you get a minute. No rush." All but one would wiggle and squirm when I'd pick them up and snuggle them up on my shoulder. The one would rest calmly on my shoulder as if to say "this is the nicest place I've ever been." This went on for weeks.

Of course "the one" is Max. Well, one day the dogs were all in my back yard and I'd actually brought Max into the house with me then noticed that his "birth owner" was at the back fence looking for the last dog that hadn't come home when he got there. I went out with Max and was apologizing for having his dog and asked if I could buy him from him. He gave him to me. And I never looked back. :)

Next came Brewsky. When I moved into my house I had a doberman, Cleo. Max adored Cleo so when she died in 2004, he took it pretty hard. Cleo's death also coincided with a job change (that included longer hours) so Max's life changed dramatically in a very short time. I quickly realized that I needed to change things and pick up the slack and become the "other dog" in Max's life. I started walking him in the morning before work, coming home at lunch and playing with him and then walking him two or three times in the evening just so he was getting exercise. But even with all that, he wasn't handling things well. Then one day this adorable little dog followed us home from a walk. I let him in the front door (okay I had to force him through the first time, after that he knew it was okay) and he played with Max for a while. This became kind of routine that this dog would follow us home several times a week. When he didn't meet up with us Max was visibly sad about it. Over time I kind of figured out who the owner was so I approached them to see what we could do about coordinating play dates with the dogs (yes, play dates!). Long story short, they were looking to get rid of him because he kept getting loose and they ended up giving him to me. I wasn't looking to get another dog at the time but he was what Max needed at the time and now I can't imagine my life without him.

That leaves us with Harley. For several days before I met him I'd come home and the house smelled like wet dog to me. I have a doggy door and at the time I had a kiddie pool for the dogs in the back yard but I couldn't smell the wet dog smell on them so I wasn't sure what was going on. Plus, Max seemed really tired for several days - to the extent I was thinking of taking him to the vet to see what was wrong with him.

Anyway, I always talk to my dogs when I'm leaving the house, even if it's just to say (like I did this morning when I left to go to the grocery store) "I'll be back shortly." Well, on the day I first met Harley, I had a massage scheduled for after work so I told Max and Brewsky that I'd be late that night because I had a massage after work but I wouldn't be too late. Then I got to work and had a voicemail message that the massage needed to be rescheduled. So I came home at my regular time. When I came into the house I was greeted by Max, Brewsky . . . and Harley. He was IN my house! Turns out there was a fence post down and he'd wiggled his way through it and followed the other dogs into the house through the doggy door. (I apparently took them by surprise because they thought I'd be home later and I've since amended my "discussions" with them to include "no friends can come in the house!" hehehe)

For a while he'd camp out on my front porch and follow me in the house to play with Max and Brewsky for a while and then I'd put him back out again. Once I saw him follow two girls with a dog down a cul de sac street so when he wasn't on my porch one day, I went down that street to talk to his owner. I was concerned that he was always loose but I wanted to have play dates with my other dogs. Long story short, this family was feeding Harley but didn't consider him their dog. She said that his real owner had thrown him out and they were considering calling animal control on him. I told her if she did that, they'd destroy him and I said I'd see what I could do about finding him a home because I already had two dogs and that's the limit in the subdivision.

He's been my dog since I walked away from their house with him. I worried for months that it'd be found out that I had more dogs than allowed but it's been almost five years ago so I think I'm okay. :)

Happy National Dog's Day!

Little Women

A while back Turner Classic Movies ran two versions of Little Women. Then a couple of weeks later, the third version was run on another station (unfortunately with commercials!). I set my DVR to record them all and today I finally sat down and watched them all . . . back-to-back-to-back. I watched them in the order they were filmed.

I started with the 1933 version starring Katharine Hepburn. I'll start by saying, I enjoyed the movie. I also love Katharine Hepburn. That said, I didn't much care for the way Jo was portrayed. At least for the first 30 minutes or so of the movie. Katharine Hepburn has a husky voice to begin with and the character of Jo is a tomboy but, for whatever reason, that combination wasn't working for me.

After a while though, it seemed like the "butch-ness" of the character was toned down. Jo was still a tomboy and Katharine still had the husky voice but it seemed to fit better. Maybe I just got used to it. Whatever the case, it wasn't grating on my nerves anymore.

Bottom line, I enjoyed the movie.

Next I watched the 1949 version, starring June Allyson. According to my DVR listing, it starred June Allyson and Peter Lawford. When I started playing the movie the opening credits showed that Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh were also in the movie. As I was watching it, I realized that the March's maid was played by the same person who played the cranky neighbor / Little Ricky babysitter from I Love Lucy, Mrs. Trumbell! I guess what I'm saying is that I was surprised at the number of actors I was familiar with in this version of the movie.

That said, I had the same problem with June Allyson's portrayal of Jo as I did Katharine Hepburn's. Her voice is husky and the tomboy-ishness of Jo was overplayed, in my opinion. I think what it is is that they didn't come across as feminine at all to me - and that bugged me. The difference with this version is it didn't seem to go away during the course of the movie.

Despite that, I did enjoy this version as well. There were other distractions too though. For example, this was before Elizabeth Taylor developed her classic good looks - at least in my opinion. But the character of Amy (which is the part she played) was very vain. Kind of funny / ironic, if you ask me. Oh and Janet Leigh. Very understated. I thought she did a great job as Meg. I had to keep reminding myself that it was Janet Leigh.

Then last (but not least), I watched the 1994 version, starring Winona Ryder. I think it's very possible that I liked this one best because it was the first version I ever saw of it.

But then again, I didn't have the distractions about it that I had with the others. From Winona's portrayal of Jo I got that she was a tomboy but she also was very feminine. No "butch-ness" about it.

You add to that that there was more humor in this version of the movie. Overall, the characters were more relatable in this version than in the other two versions. At least in my opinion.

They all three were good movies that I can in good conscious recommend but when it comes down to it, this one was my favorite of the three.

In a related side-bar, I also learned today that there were two silent film versions made based on the book. I don't know if there are copies out there to be had but I think it would be real interesting to see what they did with those. What do you think? Would you watch a silent film version of Little Women? Inquiring minds want to know.

July Book Review

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I originally told Barrie that I was going to review My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody. I love the concept of this book - letting someone else make your decisions for you. It's well written and a lot of fun. And, if you've never seen Jessica's book trailers, you really should check them out because I don't think anyone does a book trailer better than Jessica - and her books live up to the trailer. So, that's my mini recommendation on that book (and Jessica's books in general).

But like the first sentence of this post suggests, I changed my mind about what I wanted to review. That's what happens when you read several good books in a month, and in particular, what happens when you read a great book AFTER you say what you're going to review. :)

That all said, I want to discuss Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby. For starters, I'm a huge fan of Amanda's. Her debut book You Had Me at Halo is still among my top three favorite books of all times. So I was excited when Fairy Bad Day came out.

Here's the back blurb:

My life seriously couldn't get any worse

First, my rightful designation of dragon slayer is STOLEN right out from under my nose by Curtis Green. Sure, he's really cute, but that doesn't give him an excuse.

On top of all that, I am assigned to slay fairies. I know what you're thinking--how hard could it be, right? Wrong! These menacing beasts with their tiny hipster clothes and mocking sarcasm love taunting me. And they won't STOP!

But the thing that tops my list of stuff to ruin my day? That would be GIANT KILLER FAIRY that I have to hunt down and slay because I am the only one who can see it. There is someone who can help me. Unfortunately . . . it's Curtis.

It's going to be a Fairy Bad Day.

It's smart and funny. I loved it. I will say though, that it started slow for me. I was a couple of chapters in and kind of worried that I wasn't going to like it because it really hadn't grabbed me yet. Next thing I knew, I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it. :)

June Book Review

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Okay, I'm having computer issues this morning so I'll have to add the picture of the book later today but I wanted to go ahead and get the party started!

This month I'm reviewing Eileen Cook's Fourth Grade Fairy. I should probably mention that Eileen is one of my "auto-buy" authors. I don't care what she's writing, I want to read it. And so far I've never been let down. Fourth Grade Fairy was no exception.

Willow is born into a family of fairies. Due to some bad history with humans, the fairies are not allowed to be friends with the humans anymore. Unfortunately, Willow wants this more than anything. In fairy school everyone is already partnered up with a best friend. While she has friends, she doesn't have a best friend and because of the number of fairies in school, having that special friend doesn't look likely. So, she wants to attend human school because there are so many more people there and the chances of finding a best friend are greater.

For her tenth birthday her grandmother gives her the gift of attending the human school (where she is the principal) for two weeks. Her parents agree to it, provided she doesn't get her special power (fairies typically get their special powers on their tenth birthday) while there. So, when she gets her power, she decides to hide it from the family until she's secured a best friend (after all, how hard can that be?). Of course there are complications along the way. (Life is what happens when you're busy making plans, after all. Right? :) )

One of the things I love about Ms Cook's books is that she taps into the "every man/woman" vulnerabilities so well. She paints a picture that is so vivid that it's very easy to visualize. Which is why when she paints her characters into impossibly funny situations, I find myself laughing hysterically. And this book was no different. I completely loved it. I loved the characters (this is another one where an animal stole my heart - Winston, I'm talking to you!!!). It was well written and fun. I highly recommend it.

May Book Review

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A month or so ago I purchased I So Don't Do Mysteries by Barrie Summy. Afterwards I wondered if it was the first in the series. I emailed Barrie and asked her, then had the thought of what happens if I don't like it and she asks me what I thought of it. You know, since she knew I had it.

Fortunately I didn't have to worry about that because I thoroughly enjoyed the book. While I'm quite sure I'm outside of the targeted age demographic, I kind of classified it like I would movies made in the 50s and before. There were elements of sophistication, innocence and humor that make it suitable for readers of all ages.

There were a couple of passages that I completely got wrapped up in. I don't want to be too specific because they could be considered spoilers. But in one scene Sherry's talking up a storm and I'm kind of thinking it might be a mistake so I might have started yelling at her, you know, so she wouldn't do the wrong thing because yelling at a book in a character can change what they do, right? But seriously I'm saying "Nononononononono! Stop talking. Stop talking. Stop talking. WHY did you say that???"

She didn't listen to me. But I guess that's typical for a kid that age. :)

I also got pretty attached to some of the secondary characters. In particular, the wren. I've heard actors say in interviews that it's a mistake to work with children and animals and Sherry might want to look out because the wren is a definite scene stealer, in my opinion.

Now, without saying the outcome of it (and hoping this isn't too much of a spoiler), the wren gets sick and it's not known if he's going to make it or not. The not knowing was hard for me because, let's face it the next book in the series isn't I So Don't Do Mysteries Either (the adventures of Sherry's friend/family/wren). We know Sherry is coming back, and therefore will find a way out of whatever she gets herself into. But all other characters are expendable and fair game. You never know who's going to be in the next book so you just hope your favorites make it through too.

That said, in the end I needn't have worried about telling Barrie I'd bought this book because I really liked this book. I liked everything about it - the storyline, the characters . . . everything. :)

Sparky

I love this story! It's about a deaf dog named Sparky. I'd read about him in People magazine this week and what this article doesn't say is that the breeders were thisclose to putting him to sleep because he's deaf. They figured he was no good to anyone and that no one would want him.

Then, he was adopted by a family that decided his "handicap" was to much to handle so they deposited him at a shelter.

From there he went to a prison in Licking Missouri (you can't make this stuff up!), where he was taught sign language.

Now he happily resides at a school for the deaf where the students love him and are teaching him more sign language. How cool is that?

Did I mention that I love this story? ;)

Happy Easter!

Good Stuff

It used to bother me when I didn't have all the ingredients for a recipe because I thought its success was based on making it exactly as the recipe called for. Now that doesn't bother me as much because I figure if the dish turns out bad, I can always make it again, following the recipe. If it's still bad, well, I don't make it again. :)

Anyway, the other day I decided to make Roasted Cauliflower and Rice Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. There were four ingredients that I didn't have.

1. white wine vinegar (I substituted brown rice vinegar)

2. ripe tomato (I substituted cherry tomatoes)

3. & 4. red bell pepper and celery (I substituted with steamed asparagus)

It still was delicious! I took a picture of it but blogger isn't cooperating with me posting it.

Oh, but a funny thing about it. The ingredients call for navy or other white beans. And then they aren't mentioned again . . . so they didn't get included in the dish. They weren't missed. Maybe I'll include them next time. :)

Last night I used the left over rice to make Rice Waffles with Vegetable Melange from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. I've had this several times and really like it. My nephew was over and he was having it for the first time. He scraped the vegetables off of the waffle (after piling them on himself) and ate them first. Then he went in search of my maple syrup. He said he liked it all but prefers the waffles with syrup. (Again, I have a picture I can't post. *sigh*)

Today for lunch I wanted something fast and easy so I went for the Chickpea-Tomato Wraps from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. This was one of those situations where I ultimately found out that just because it doesn't look good doesn't mean it doesn't taste good. It called for sun-dried tomatoes. I've never eaten those before but I did happen to have some on hand. I didn't take a picture because I fully expected to not like it because the tomatoes, when cut up, made me think of meat that has been chewed and spit out. But the wraps were surprisingly good despite that. This was another recipe where you had to mash the beans and that was the hardest part of the preparation.

So there you go, three dishes and three winners! :)

Vegan Quesadillas

One of my new year's goals was to blog more. So far I'm not doing so good on that one. So, in an effort to jumpstart that goal, I've decided to do some blogging on foods I've discovered since becoming a vegan. I haven't totally worked out how I'll do it - whether or not I'll only discuss new recipes or if I'll discuss some I've already tried and liked. Most likely it'll be a little bit of both, seeing as how I've made roughly 100 new recipes in the last year and it'd be a shame not to discuss some of them. :)

Anyway, to today's new discovery . . . Refried Beans and Salsa Quesadillas.

Quesadillas was one of the few Mexican food dishes that I liked but I haven't had any since I became a vegan. Then a few weeks ago I bought a new cookbook (1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson) and it had several recipes for vegan quesadillas. The Refried Beans and Salsa Quesadillas looked to be the least complicated with the least amount of ingredients and the least amount of cooking steps so it's the one I picked.

I should mention that I somehow missed the "Refried" portion of the recipe name, not that it really matters since "refried" beans aren't a listed ingredient.

Anyway, I did a mental check of the list of ingredients and the only item I wasn't sure of was the salsa. There's a recipe for homemade salsa but I didn't have all the ingredients and it would be more work so I was going with store-bought salsa. I looked everywhere and didn't find it. So it was on my list when I went to the grocery store today. Since the list was in my head, it was the one thing I forgot to pick up at the store so I decided to make up my own recipe for salsa and I was digging through my pantry when I found a bottle of salsa in the back. I figured I was good. Right?

I have so many variations of beans in my pantry it's not funny. But do I have the pinto beans that the recipe calls for? Uh, no! So I substituted red kidney beans (because I had multiple cans of it) for the pinto beans.

Bottom line, I loved this dish. It was fast. It was easy (the hardest thing was mashing the beans!). It was delicious. Pinto beans might give it a different taste or texture (maybe?) but I can't imagine liking it any better than I did.

I give it two spoons up!

April Book Review

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Without going into a lot of detail, the past year has been such that I haven't done a lot of reading. That said, I decided to go a different way this month on the book review. My theme for this month is "Regardless of what life throws her, a girl's gotta eat" so I'm going to talk cookbooks. Over the years I've gotten a number of cookbooks but it wasn't until last year that I actually started using cookbooks to make meals from. There are a number of great ones out there but the one I'm going to talk about today is Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

I chose this one because of some special features it has that I've not seen in other cookbooks. For example, it tells you how long it will take to make each dish. Most cookbooks have the instructions, telling you how long each step takes but this book takes the math lesson out of the kitchen. ;)

Aside from that, the book also has icons with each recipe to help you know what to expect from this recipe. The icons include:

• A shopping cart indicating that the ingredients for the recipe can be found at any grocery store.



• 45 - indicating that the recipe takes 45 minutes or less to make



• F - indicating that the recipe is fat free (or at least lower fat)



• S - indicating the recipe is soy free



• G - indicating the recipe is gluten free

It was a while back but within a 24 hour time frame I learned of three people I knew of having an allergy to gluten. Every time I make one of the recipes indicating they're gluten free, I think of those people. Several of these recipes are staples in my diet! In any event, I like knowing what I'm getting into when I make a recipe and this book gives me more information than any other cookbook I've used. And the end result is pretty tasty too! I've made quite a few of the dishes and so far I haven't found one that I didn't like. Yes this is a vegan cookbook but I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand by meat-loving folks. It has a whole section of side-dishes that could nicely complement any main dish - meat or vegan. In my opinion, it's just a great cookbook that would be a great addition to anyone's library of cookbooks. :) I refer to it quite frequently when planning my menus and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cooking.

Experimenting

Before I decided to become a vegan, I was not what one would call an adventurous eater. I was the person who looked at the menu for 30 minutes before I would order the same thing I ordered every single time I went to that particular restaurant. I'd break out in a cold sweat if someone suggested we try somewhere new. But since becoming a vegan, I've tried things I never thought I'd try - tofu being a big one. Now, however, if I know a dish is vegan, I find it exciting to try something new. And when I like something I've had at a restaurant, I go online to find a recipe for it. I've even found vegan substitutes for some of my pre-vegan favorite dishes. Anyway, I recently bought yet another vegan cookbook. It had several sample recipes available that actually sold the book to me. One of those recipes is Green Tea Rice and Lemon Snow Peas with Tofu. You make green tea and then cook the rice in it. Who thought of that because it never would've occurred to me. This morning I made the Dawn's Early Couscous for breakfast. I've had couscous before but it didn't really strike me as a morning food. But, it was a quick and easy recipe so I decided to go for it. Worst thing that would happen would be I'd toss it out and have to eat homemade granola cereal, right? Anyway, to make this dish, you boil three cups of apple juice and then add the couscous (and a few other ingredients) and there you go. It was good. If I hadn't made the dish myself I wouldn't have believed couscous was involved (mind you I like couscous - I just didn't see it as a breakfast food). But again, I have to wonder, what made someone decide to boil apple juice (instead of water) for the couscous? How do you know what and how much of something to try to make a good recipe? I realize that these recipes were all tried and tested before they were published in the cookbooks but I just find myself wondering how someone came up with some of the combinations. P.S. I also made the Chocolate-Macadamian Cheezcake Truffles (recipe on amazon). All I can say is, YUM!!! :)

In Loving Memory

Sunday night I received a call telling me that my Uncle Bro had passed away earlier that day. He was 90 and not in the best of health and he had a heart attack.

Although I hadn't communicated with him in several years, it tore my heart out to hear of his passing. I've always thought of him as the rock and back-bone of my family.

A good part of his life was dedicated to military service and as such, he was a strict disciplinarian but he didn't have a mean-spirited bone in his body. He was very loving and I never, for a moment, doubted his love for me. I never once doubted that he would be there for me if I needed him.

There are two memories I have of him that pretty much sum up the kind of man he was. The first was from when I was 12 or 13 years old. Me and my sisters were visiting my grandmother and Uncle Bro and Aunt Marion (his wife) came to visit. My grandmother lived on a 99 acre ranch and lived in a 2 bedroom house (with one bathroom) so when my aunt and uncle showed up, they got the guest bedroom and me and my sisters got to sleep on blankets in the living room. One morning my uncle came into the living room and barked at us to get up. I grumbled, "Five more minutes." and he left the room. Five minutes later he came back into the room said our five minutes was up and he jerked the blanket out from under us. Not only did that get us up, from then on, we got up the first time he told us to. :)

The other one was from 14 or 15 years ago. He and my aunt were renewing their vows for their 50th wedding anniversary (if I remember correctly, they actually did it closer to their 51st wedding anniversary). I flew up to be there (there being West Virginia) for the event and when they were exchanging their vows, my uncle got choked up and right before he "kissed his bride" he told my aunt how much he loved her, and then everyone else got choked up. It was very emotional and I was so glad I was able to make it.

His funeral is tomorrow in a town outside of Dallas and because of the ridiculous-extremely-out-of-the-ordinary cold weather we're having (accompanied by rain and icy roads), I won't be able to make it and it makes me sick.

To Uncle Bro - you will be missed.

8/26/20 - 2/6/11

Magical Bathrooms

The other day I was in the ladies' room at work and a co-worker started talking about the water pressure of the toilets. The truth is, it's kind of hit or miss in there. One time the pressure will be great and everything goes down easily. Another time you can hold the handle for what seems like five minutes and nothing but water goes down.

Meanwhile, there are signs posted all over the bathroom and stalls saying to hold the handle down until EVERYTHING (including paper) goes down.

Which brings us to my co-worker's comments. She was telling me that she flushes with her foot because the handle has germs and she can't balance herself well on one foot. Then she told me she'd had this conversation with my boss and that my boss agreed.

It got me to thinking. Does the toilet handle have some magical properties whereby touching it removes all the germs you may have had on your hand?

For the sake of argument, let's say it does. So, all those people who use their hands to flush the toilet have had their hands magically sanitized before they touch the stall lock. But what about those people who use their feet to flush the toilet? Their hands weren't magically sanitized so their germs would be on the stall lock, wouldn't they? Perhaps they somehow use their feet to unlock the stall too, I don't know. I didn't ask.

Then you have the water faucet and the door handle. We can pretend these things all have magical properties but the reality is, they don't.

When I go to the ladies' room in a public place, I flush with my hand. I open the stall with my hand. I turn on the water faucet, with my hand. But once soap and water has touched my hands, I don't touch anything else in the bathroom. I turn off the water with a paper towel and I use the paper towels I dried my hands off with to open the bathroom door with. I dispose of those paper towels outside the bathroom.

My co-worker, however, flushes with her foot (thanks for the extra germs, by the way), opens the door in an undetermined manner, uses her bare hand to turn on the water faucet and uses her bare hand to open the bathroom door. It could just be me but for some reason, that just seems backwards.