Friday Funnies

When I'm bored, I stumble. Sometimes I wind up with something funny and sometimes it's a waste of time. Well I've found 2 lists to give me and Tai something to laugh at: 99 Things You Should Have Experienced On The Internet and Exciting Links for Boring Days. Both of these have provided hours of enjoyment, so if you are bored, try these. And I leave you with Tai's favorite:

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Just one book this week. Skin Trade for Tai. He was so excited about the next Anita Blake book he started reading it as soon as I brought it home.
I need to write a review for Food Matters for the Filling In the Gaps blog. I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm reading Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner right now. Very good so far.
So did you get this week?

Linky Love

I decided to highlight a few new book blogs I've added to my Reader lately. I hope you check them out.

A Novel Challenge-Last month I was lamenting that I never heard about challenges before they started, always after. Somehow I stumbled on this blog. I'm so happy to find about the challenges before they begin.

Library Queue-Tricia's going to get blamed for several books on my next list. Her reviews are thoughtful and intriguing.

Rainbow Reads-a new blog about GLBT YA fiction. Only a few posts right now, but keep it on your radar.

The Book Zombie-The blog name is enough for me to love it. I love the way the reviews are set up. Great choices too.

Is This Google Reader Or Am I On Facebook?

I was reading my blogs one morning and I noticed something odd:Click to enlarge but it say "1 person likes this". Since when did Google incorporate Facebook's Like button? Is Google letting you know someone likes your post? If you click on it tells you who liked it. I'm a little too disturbed to like it. Is Facebook infiltrating my life?
And if you want to like something, the button is at the bottom of the post next to the star feature. Yeah it took me a while to find it.
What do you think? Do you like it? Did you even know this existed?

Currently....

using
I finally decided to join twitter. I'm really not sure how useful it will be but I wanted to see what all the fuss was. Plus I'm looking at adding a social media bent to my work so I think this will help. If you are on twitter, feel free to add me.

eating
Those are Rainer cherries. I bought a 15lb box of them last weekend. I really love cherries but by midweek they started to head south. I quickly pitted and froze what was left. I'm thinking cherry pie and cherry turnovers.

reading
I finished Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster this week. This was the first one of her books I've read. Maybe I was expecting more, but I was left kind of meh. I liked her humor but I didn't always find it funny. Maybe hit too close to home? I don't know. I won't be lining up to get her other books. Other reviews can be found at Bookopolis, Bella's Bold, Brillant Blog, and S. Krishna's Books

BlogHop '09

When I read about the BlogHop on Eat At Home and Vanderbilt Wife, I decided I had to join. It sounded like a great way to meet some more people.

Hi, to you new folks! I'm Linda and I live in Bellevue, WA (close to Seattle). I married my husband, Tai, last July. I love to cook although I have my share of fails. I read a lot and have a to be read list of 100 books to read this year. I love to shop, but try to look for good deals.
Stay and chat awhile! Looking forward to meeting y'all!
Want to join? Look here for more info.

Crazy for Polo Shirts

Polo shirts are so 80's to me but I'm crazy about them. I have 4 of them and I'm looking for more. They are great for work!

Untitled by honeylin featuring Old Navy

Any of these can be added to my wardrobe right now!

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
So much loot, I need to take two pictures to get it all in! Starting at the top books 1,2,&4 (Book 3 is still on hold at the library) of The Walking Dead. Tai might have read all these. I'm not sure. He put them back in the tbr pile after looking at them so I assume not. And 2 more Ex Machina for Tai as well. Not sure what number in the series they are but (Smoke Smoke and Power Down in case you need to know). Next on the bottom left is Children of the Mind, the next in the Ender's Game series for Tai. He was not a fan of Xenocide so I hope this one is a better read from him. And lastly, Best Friends Forever, the new Jennifer Weiner book. I have high hopes for this one!
What did you get this week?

Preservation Kitchen

On Saturday, Janet, Kris and I headed to Preservation Kitchen. Janet had been there once before and I had seen how packed the parking lot was on more than one occasion. I knew this was the place to try. The restaurant is in a restored house. It maintains a lot of that cozy house feel.
The food is local and sustainable. I was impressed by the offerings and found it difficult to choose.
Kris ordered the eggs Benedict with bacon. Instead of an English muffin they use a biscuit. And they were stingy with the hollandaise for poor Kris, so the whole thing was kind of dry.
Janet got the salmon omelet. You can't see it but take my word for it. She enjoyed it the last time she was there and got it again.I also got the eggs Benedict but with spinach instead of meat. I got a generous helping of hollandaise which helped the dry biscuit situation tremendously.
Preservation Kitchen is a little off the beaten track and a little out of my way but worth it. Highly recommended.

Anniversay Cruise

For our anniversary I knew I wanted 3 things: to find something related to the water (either close to it or on it), to being doing something, and it had to fit in our price range. After going through dozen of options I finally decided that a cruise with Argosy to Tillicum Village would fit the bill. I've been on this tour at least ten times but it was Tai's first experience. Tillcum Village is on Blake Island, a state park. Tillicum Village is an Indian Longhouse where they have a presentation about Native American culture and serve an all you can eat salmon dinner. Tai was just excited about the boat ride.
So on Sunday we boarded the boat for the 50 minute trip to Blake Island. Here are some photos I took from the boat:The Space Needle (top left), a light house on Alki (top right), Qwest Field (where the Seahawks and Sounders MLS play) and Safeco Field (where the Mariniers play) (bottom left), and Mt Rainier (bottom right). As you can see we had a beautiful day.
Once on the island, we got a steaming pile of clams to enjoy as an appeitizer.
Inside we scarfed down our salmon, bread and salad. Sorry no picture much too hungry! I remember the food being so much better though. The salmon was a little dry. Then Tai and I bailed on the show and went for a walk around the island. It was so beautiful and peaceful.I got a little photo happy and tried to be a little artistic! After a 30 minute walk, we headed back to the boat for the trip home. Once we got home we had some cake:Chocolate Mousse on top for Tai and Black Forest at the bottom for me. Since everyone devoured our wedding cake we didn't keep any. So Sunday morning we stopped at the bakery and bought slices of cake for tonight. Just as yummy as I remember them.
It was a great day. We had so much fun together. Sigh, one year down, dozens more to go!

Happy Anniversary!

One down!

Review-Where Shall We Go For Dinner? by Tamasin Day-Lewis

While reading Where Shall We Go For Dinner, the thought "What a bitch!" crossed my mind several times. To me, Day-Lewis is the worst kind of foodie. She's a snob. She holds each experience up to a previous experience. This peach cannot be as good as the peach I had 7 years ago. These jams can't stand up to jams in England. Rather than facing each experience fresh and judging each on its own merits, she insists on comparing. I found the constant comparisons irritating. If I had to travel with her, I would quickly lose her or book a trip home.
I also did not care for her constant name dropping-Kinsley Ames and Julia Roberts just a couple she mentions. I've never heard of Tamasin Day-Lewis before picking up this book, but I understand that she's written numerous cookbooks. Also she's the daughter of a famous poet, Cecil Day-Lewis. So she lived her life surrounded by famous people. I've seen people name drop with more grace than Day-Lewis.
The one saving grace was passages like this:

"It's primrose pale, so crisp it shatters in the mouth once its hermetic seal is broken and the instensfied flavours within are released to flood onto the tonuge in a whoosh of perfect contrast: creaminess, spring softness, milkness with a lactic twinge."

Does it make you want to eat? The description was about stuffed courgette flowers with fresh ricotta and buffalo mozzarella. There were descriptions like that made my mouth water. That was really the only good reason to read this book. I did learn about new foods and I am excited to try new cheeses and Puglian olive oil. So if you enjoy her writing or her cookbooks (there were a couple of recipes at the end of each chapter) then I suggest picking it up.

Baked Lemon Chicken

Last week, I had some chicken chilling in the fridge but unsure what to do with it. I was going to make my fall back, spicy apricot chicken, but it wasn't calling to me. When I saw Lisa's post on Mixing Bowl, I figured I'd use it to see if I could find an alternative chicken dish. And I found my new favorite Lemon Chicken dish.The chicken was crispy and flavorful. I have to admit I suck at making sauces. They are usually too thin. But this recipe called for cornstarch. At first I dropped the cornstarch into the sauce as is. It just balled up. I pulled out those cornstarch balls. I then mixed the cornstarch with water in a separate bowl and the whisked into the larger pot. Worked like a charm. You all knew that already didn't you? The sauce was the best sauce I've ever made. The sauce was lemony, absolutely perfect. I was licking the sauce off the plate! Very easy to make after work or as a quick lunch on a weekend.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Amy mentioned the Wicked Lovely manga series. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before. I got Stone Gods again since I didn't get around to it the last time I got it. Nemi was recommended by Blodeuedd last week. I was excited that my library had 2 of her books. If I really like them I may have to hunt the rest of them down.
I reviewed Little Bee over at Filling In The Gaps. I liked it. If you've read it let me know. Other reviews can be found at A Babe In The Making, Literary Licence, and Curled Up With A Good Book.
What did you get this week?

Let the Stock Piling Begin

I've been bemoaning the fact that our freezer is tiny. I hate it cause we can't stock pile any good meat deals I find at the grocery store. See how little and jampacked it is:
I've been on the lookout for a chest freezer that we could use to stock pile extras when good deals come up. Saturday morning, Jen called me to see if I wanted a freezer she found for $40 at an estate sale. Uh, yeah! And because Jen and Pat love us they even delivered it for us. Look at all the room. Look out Safeway, I'm headed to fill that thing up.

Symphonic Video Games

For Tai's birthday I got him tickets to Final Fantasy:Distant Worlds. When I saw the signs on the bus I knew he'd be into it. So I bought tickets and we eagerly awaited July to use them.Saturday we treked to Benaroya Hall to see the Seattle Symphony play music from Final Fantasy.
We had pretty good seats (Go me!).
Tai wanted me to get up to the stage and take more pictures but I didn't want to. Close up pictures of empty chairs you do not need. And on that screen, they showed pictures from the game while the music played.
Ok, I've never played Final Fantasy. Jeff and Tai have both given me the opportunity to see the game, the movie, and listen to music. I knew I'd enjoyed it because I love classical music. It was very beautifully done. To show you how pheomenal this was, I found 2 youtube videos of the music from the concert. I think these were both done in Japan, but it's the same thing we heard.


Definately not what you expect from a video game huh?
Plus here's part of Final Fantasy IX, so you can see how well done the characters are. It's such a beautiful video game.

Currently....

drinking
I'd heard about Shandy's before. We choose this because Tai's not a fan of most beers. It's smooth and a little sweet. Perfect for both of us. I like the combination. Tai likes that it doesn't really taste like beer.


needing

Sunglasses by honeylin featuring Forever21 accessories

I've broken 2 of my sunglasses and left my other pair at a friend's house. And it's sunny here. I need sunglasses. I'll be out looking for a pair this weekend.


using
I bought this pan at Target last year. It's from their Calphalon line. I thought I'd use it occasionally. Ha. It's replacing my cast iron skillet as my go to pot. If only it went into the oven.

Thoughts on Fragile Eternity

I have to say I'm pretty happy that I found this series. I'm enjoying it overall. I definitely liked Ink Exchange the best though. I have a thing for tattoos and dark fairies. Fragile Eternity was a little on the darker side than Wicked Lovely.
Fragile Eternity deals more with Seth and his developing relationship with Aislinn. More of the story is told from Seth's perspective than Aislinn's which I thought added depth to the story. Niall also has more of a role in this story. He's definitely one of my favorite characters. The tension really builds quite well in this book. The characters become more complex and there are less happy endings.
There is a big build up and left me wanting more, so this isn't it? There's another book coming right? You can't leave me hanging, Melissa!
Other reviews of Fragile Eternity can be found at Becky's Book Reviews, Book Reviews by Mary, and In Bed With Books.

Book Review-Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro

From Publishers Weekly

A frumpy, depressed woman is reborn as an assertive diva in Tessaro's debut novel, thanks to a 40-year-old style manual she discovers in a second-hand bookstore. Louise Canova is an American woman from Pittsburgh who lives in London with her chilly actor husband. Louise once dabbled in acting herself, but now works at a theater box office. She's overweight, badly dressed, has purely platonic relations with her husband and is surrounded by more-glamorous-than-thou types-her friend Nicki, a former model; her mother-in-law, a former model and a socialite-who condescend to her. Everything changes, however, when Louise discovers Elegance, a fashion guide from 1964 written by Genevieve Dariaux, a legendary (and fictional) Coco Chanel-like arbiter of taste. Quoting liberally from the guidebook, Tessaro writes a lighthearted contemporary version of Pygmalion. In this case, Louise is her own Professor Higgins, and using Dariaux's amusingly anachronistic (is anyone wearing veils these days?) yet timeless advice ("being beautiful is no guarantee of happiness in this world"), she changes her appearance, her self-image and her entire life. The author introduces each chapter with a relevant excerpt from the manual. This structure sometimes seems a bit forced, especially when Louise's husband turns out to be gay (there is no worthwhile advice from Madam Dariaux on that situation), but on the whole the book is a lively, irresistible read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

I read about Elegance on Stacked during the 24 hour Read a Thon. I haven't read any chick lit in a while so I was excited to read this one.
In my opinion, all chick lit should take place in England. It's so much more fun that away. I love hearing about London and what it's like to live there. I doubt life is really like it is in the books but I love to imagine it is!
I liked Loise immediately. She's let herself go. Part of it that her husband doesn't care how she dresses and part of it is that she doesn't care herself. But she comes across A Guide To Elegance by Genevieve Dariaux, a book I have on my tbr list. She uses the book to change her life. Well that's her purpose but she usually doesn't follow the advice of the book. She goes off on her own and winds up wishing she would have followed the books advice.
I also loved Louise's friends. She goes to live with Colin and Ria when she leaves her husband. They provide some good advice and some comic relief. Her coworkers help her navigate British society.
In the end this is great chick lit. There are parts I cringed, parts I laughed, and parts that made me teary. Recommended.
Other reviews can be found at Pug Notions & Kitty Convictions, Smithereens, and the Savvy Reader has a Q&A with Tessaro about the book.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Ok, I got some books this week! Daywatch is for Tai. He read Nightwatch a couple of weeks ago. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for Filling In The Gaps Challenge. It was in my movie section. World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war is for Tai. Staci mentioned The Zombie Survival Guide last week. I checked at the library to see if the author had any other books Tai might like. So hope he likes it.
Here is usually where I recap what I read last week, but I have several this week so I'll be posting short reviews in next couple of days. But I did review The Reliable Wife on the Filling The Gaps blog.
So what did did you get this week?

Kitchen Decor-Check

I had been looking for something to go on the wall in our kitchen. I didn't want to hang a picture since I knew they would get greasy and grimy after awhile. Since I tend to be lax in my cleaning, I wanted to find something low maintenance and attractive. I settled on these from Joann's.
I wish they were a little bigger but that's ok. And that's as clean as I get in the kitchen!
I finally got all the walls in the apartment decorated. Woo Hoo!

Exhausted!

I dirtied almost every dish in the kitchen. I sweated and slaved to make risotto.I'd never made risotto before. But I had a delicious lemon scallop risotto once and I always wanted to recreate it at home. I used this recipe as a base and went from there. I sauteed the asparagus and the scallops separately. The risotto took a long time and more liquid then the recipe called for. It was very lemony. I added lemon zest at the end. I enjoyed it very much but it will be a long time before I make risotto again. Perhaps baked risotto next time.

Happy 4th of July & Answers to Triva

4th of July Comments



Here are the answers to the triva questions.


1. What are the names of the children from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I already gave you one.
Charlie Bucket, Violet Beauregarde, Mike TeeVee, Veruca Salt, and Augustus Gloop.

2. From Dr. Seuss, what does Sam not like? Green Eggs and Ham

3. In Anne of Green Gables, what did Anne serve Diana, causing her to become dizzy? Current Wine but Anne thought it was raspberry cordial.

4. In The Little Princess, where did Sara's father go? India

5. What do Margaret and her friends want to increase in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret?
Their busts!

6. What curse did Harry Potter survive? Killing Curse or Avada Kedavra.

Thanks to those who tried to answer the questions! It was fun. I'd love to do it again!

Mid-Year Recap

Let's what books I've read in the first 6 months of 2009.

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao-Junot Diaz
Dark Places-Gillian Flynn
Ink Exchange-Melissa Marr
Wicked Lovely-Melissa Marr
Fragile Eternity-Melissa Marr (not yet reviewed)
Sarah-Orson Scott Card
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Perfect Fifths-Megan McCafferty
The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry-Kathleen Flinn
Lark and Termite-Jayne Anne Phillips
Alchemy of Stone-Ekaterina Sedia
Handle with Care-Jody Picoult
A Homemade Life-Molly Wizenberg (Oops I think I forgot to review this one!)
Saving Juliet-Suzanne Selfors
Revolutionary Road-Richard Yates
Bottlemania-Elizabeth Royte
Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted-Elizabeth Berg
Shop Your Closet-Melanie Charlton Fascitell
What A Scoundrel Wants-Carrie Lofty
I Feel Bad About My Neck-Nora Ephron

Total so far is 22 books. Not bad. I've got my 23rd under way right now.

Gasp, no library loot! Nothing was ready to be picked up at the library before today. Perhaps later in the week!