Ten on Tuesday - Books, books books!

1. When someone asks you for a book recommendation, what is your go-to book?
It really depends on what kind of books the person likes. Food Porn? Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. Non-fiction? Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot or Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell. Classic literature? McTeague by Frank Norris or Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald. Modern novels? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Young adult? Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater ... I probably have tons more recommendations if you really want them.

2. Do you buy your books, or are you a library patron? I hate to spend too much money on books, so I download a lot of free and cheap ones. Before I got my Nook I had a lot of books from the library, but now I frequent the overdrive website (ebook library) and download almost every free or discounted book spotlighted by Nook.

3. E-readers, yay or nay? Up until Christmas I would have said no way, but my MIL gave me a Nook (she wanted to get me an eReader and I researched the major brands to decide which I wanted) and I LOVE it. So yay e-readers!

4. What was your favorite book as a child? Harold and the Purple Crayon as a toddler. A Wrinkle in Time and The Face on the Milk Carton when I was a little older. I can't remember a whole lot of books from my childhood, but I devoured them more than I do now.

5. If you could be any character in a book, who would you be? Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time. I identified a lot with her when I was young.

6. What book would you love to see turned into a movie? I honestly never think of books in terms of what would make a good movie. When I find out that a book I've read is being turned into a movie I wonder how it will be, but I never read a book and wonder how it would look as a movie. However, when I found out that they were making Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series into a movie the first thing I thought (after the fact that Heigl didn't make a good Plum) is that I think it would be a much better tv series.

7. What is your all-time favorite book? McTeague by Frank Norris. Or anything by Fitzgerald. Or almost anything by Nick Hornby (Not Long Way Down. Juliet, Naked would have been fantastic without the last chapter or two).

8. How many books do you read at once? Usually only one, occasionally two.

9. What is your favorite book genre? Memoir or supernatural, these days.

10. Which Harry Potter book is the best? Or haven’t you read them at all? I don't have a favorite. I enjoyed the series although I read them really late - just around December/January. I finally decided that maybe I should check them out, given my propensity to read YA lately.

For more, see Chelsea.

Leftover hoarding

Brought in to work today: 3 yogurts, a chicken flauta, a chicken enchilada, the last of the sour cream, some turkey tettrazini and three pieces of banana carrot bread. Obviously for more than one breakfast and lunch. Obviously.

Since my hubby is now spending more time at home, I don't always get first dibs on leftovers to take with me. This week I have taken it upon myself to take care of that.

Go me!

Don't mind me; I'm delirious from craziness since my system at work has been slow all day and I haven't been able to do the 8,172 things I had planned.

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De-grass-i High

I hate gardening. I think I might be the only blogger ever, according to all the blogs I read, who hates gardening. But I do - it's hot, and sweaty, and two weeks after all your work the weeds come back and your flowers die and bugs eat your parsley.

But since over there <---- in my resolutions I noted that I wanted "to replant my front flowerbeds and keep them properly weeded and tidy (and alive)" and "get the deck done and the backyard spruced up appropriately", I decided that today was the perfect day to start cleaning the grass from my back flower bed across my fence. There was so much grass in with the jasmine that you couldn't really tell how much jasmine was there. Four hours later most of the grass is taken out, some of the trees from the other side of the fence have been pruned back so that they don't overhang (also our property, it's an easement), and some of the invading vines have been pulled off the fence.

You know what? It really wasn't that terrible. I don't know if it's because I'm in better shape or because it's still relatively early in the hot season, but I wasn't dying at all while I was out there. As a matter of fact, I even came in, made chicken flautas for lunch, ate lunch and then went back outside with no moaning and groaning. My hands hurt a little, but otherwise I'm feeling great, and I'm so happy to have relatively one relatively clean flower bed!

I'm also thankful to have some plants that grow all on their own:



My jasmine. Two years ago I cut it all down because it was so thick it was pulling down the fence, and now it's back! I haven't so much as watered it.


My rose bush. It came with the house, and is always teeming with roses. I cut it back once a year (I was told to do it on Valentine's day) and it's the most fertile rose bush I've ever seen in my life. Fertilizer? What's that?

My gardenia bush. Oh, how I wanted one. Last year my MIL gave me this one, and I nearly killed it by not replanting it, and then I dropped it in a hole with no potting soil and still it loves me. I don't know why, but I am thankful. (PS - see the grass? Yeah, that's supposed to be a mulched flower bed. Let's remind you that I have a lot of work to do).

Oh, and also - this post was going to be called "Why I hate the grass-roots movement". I thought it up while I was yanking out grass roots. Damn grass roots.

*edit: evidently I just had to sleep on it because now I'm SORE! But not uncomfortable, can't get out of bed sore. More of a "Hey, I have muscles there?" sort of sore. And my hands are killing me.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband. It's been nine years together, four years of marriage, three years of children, twenty months of pregnancy, seven residences and lots and lots of love (and a few fights, but that's to be expected). I'm always looking for a best girlfriend that I can tell all my secrets to but you are my best friend.


And we sure make cute kids, don't we?

Well fed

As I sautéed veggies (onions, poblano chiles, asparagus and mushrooms) to add to a box of 2% Velveeta mac and cheese Monday night for dinner, it occurred to me that I need to start menu planning again. I did so well for months and months, and then this year I’m pretty sure I haven’t done it at all – more than 3 months. I don’t know about planning for a whole month like Jennie, but certainly back to weekly or even biweekly. Hubby is trying to start cooking instead since he feels a little useless on the job front. Does anyone have any suggestions for somewhat healthy recipes he can make?

Also regarding food, I’m struggling with the toddler-eating situation. Here’s how it goes: I’ve never been a food pusher. Spencer spent two years of not really eating dinner, and I never cared. He eats ridiculous amounts of food for breakfast (he could out-eat me and my husband combined) but as the day goes on he eats less and less. We are not a dessert household, so there’s no “treat” hanging over his head if he doesn’t eat.

All that being said, lately he’s been telling me he’s hungry, so I make him a (very small plate) and about 30 seconds after I put it in front of him he starts to get up and says he’s not hungry. At this point we usually make him eat half of his dinner but I feel so conflicted about forcing him to eat! And then Hubby’s favorite threat is to tell S if he doesn’t eat it, daddy is going to eat it which completely gets my goat. Every night, same thing.

So Help! On both fronts, help please.

TOT - random pieces

1. If you work, do you drive to work or take public transportation?
I drive. I wish I lived in a city that had decent public transportation or a state that promoted public transportation, but alas the city buses are stinky and scary and the state government rejects federal grants for public transportation in the name of tax cuts. For awhile I carpooled but I no longer live near anyone else working the same early shift as I do, so I dirty up the environment all on my own.

2. How often do you get your haircut? Do you go to the same person every time?
I only get my hair cut every 6 months or so, when the style has completely grown out and hideous. I used to go to the same girl all the time, but she defriended me on FB (I don't think it was malicious, but still) so I shopped for a new person and I think my last stylist was a winner. I'm keeping her.

3. Do you read the newspaper? If so, a hard copy or the online version?
We recently subscribed to the paper copy for coupon reasons, but I read online and also pick up the TBT, which is our local free paper, when I get a chance.

4. What is the best book you have read this year?
Hmmm ... Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead is the last book in the Vampire Academy series and I salivate over those books. One Day by David Niccolls was excellent. So was Listen by Rene Guttridge. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot was the only nonfiction book I read, but it was wonderful. Keeping a list this year of all the books I've read really helps me remember the really good books.

5. What is the best movie you have seen this year?
I haven't seen that many (still more than many years) but The Fighter was fabulous and I hate boxing. Check back with me when I'm finally able to see The King's Speech.

6. Do you tend to crave sweet or salty foods?
Hmmm. I crave food, period. I crave salty foods mostly, but a well-placed small bit of sweet can satisfy me to stop snacking.

7. Do you eat breakfast every day? If so, what do you have?
yes. I need proteins to keep me going, so I usually eat eggs or peanut butter and honey on toast. And coffee - lots of lots of coffee.

8. If you celebrate Easter, what Easter treat/candy are you most looking forward to?
I'm not looking forward to candy in the house again ... the last candy in my house was Christmas and I gorged myself on them. I do love jelly beans.

9. How late is “sleeping in” to you?
Once upon a time was it was 9am or so (I've never been huge at sleeping) but now anything past 7am is gravy.

10. Where are you going on your next vacation?
In August I get to go to Delaware to visit a friend for a long weekend for her wedding shower ... so excited!! (except that she has eight thousand cats and I'm allergic ... I'm a little worried about staying in the house with twelve cats for four days, but I'm going to stockpile allergy medicines and hope for the best)

For more, see Chelsea.

Status - post vacation

I go back to work in T minus 9 hours. I should be attempting to sleep but I thought to ease my way off of my Grey's Anatomy addiction, I would post a quick update before bed. Otherwise I might accidentally hit "next episode" on Netflix and then another 42 minutes would go down the drain. I'm now nearly halfway through the fifth season. That means that I watched approximately 50 hours of Grey's Anatomy during my vacation. I also read one book (not my book club book, still need to get on that), had two dates with the Hubby and WE STARTED THE DECK!

Well, actually, Hubs started the deck. I babysat. And really, he didn't start the deck as much as took down the old crappy enclosure for the back porch, but STILL! I'm so excited.

In other news, there is yet more proof that 2011 is the year to forget, as today we found out that yet another close family member has yet another type of cancer. And this is a scary kind (hell, they're all scary). I really don't know what to think, what to worry about. I can't worry about it right now but that also means that is all I can do is worry.

In more less important news, I've fallen off the wagon a little this week in my vigilance for healthy living. Snacking more, carbing more (I never cut carbs, but I was being better with carb portion control. Was being the operative word). I only ran twice, and the second time I allowed myself to get picked up at 2.3 miles because my ankle was hurting. That was Tuesday and I still don't have a new ankle brace. This stops tomorrow - I've worked too hard to slide too much. That said, there's no way I'm stepping on the scale until I feel like I've gotten back on the horse.

More information: Spencer got his fake tooth on Friday, I never conquered my insomnia (no kidding), family photos went well on Saturday and It's all I can do not to log back on to Netflix right this very minute.

Okay, now I try to sleep. Ha. Happy vacation to all, and to all a good night!