yoga, books, movies, tv & too many crime procedurals – not necesarily in that order
1. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Started in 2009 but finished New Year’s Day. Despite the Farrah-pariah, I loved it. I’m a bit sad that Farrah kept me off Steinbeck for this long. The family dynamics, debate over nature vs. nurture and economic climate make it shockingly relevant to today’s society. Lots to read and read into, great for discussion.
2. Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris
Read it all on my New Year’s shift. Just as good as all the rest of the Sookie books and my treat for the last month’s 60 hour work weeks. Good resolution to some plot lines and plenty of great character interaction. I hope True Blood delivers half as well.
I’ve been a legal Colorado resident for one year. My trip to the Driver’s License office was on New Year’s Eve 2008. What a year!
We’ve enjoyed the town and love living here. That bodes well as we never felt that way about Saginaw. I’ve also nailed down some full-time work, which kicks the year off famously.
I also finally finished East of Eden today. Despite my earlier Farrah-induced prejudice, I really loved this novel. I wouldn’t have read it at all but for my GoodReads group, so I’m thankful for that. I’m looking forward to rereading it just as soon as I get through some of my TBR list. It was incredibly timely and does a fantastic job of looking at nature vs. nurture and the complexity of family interaction. Loved it.
During my shift tonight I also read the latest Sookie Stackhouse book. I continue to admire how Charlaine Harris pulls off the books in the series without becoming repetitive or dull, and I enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed every other book in the series. While I loved season 1 of True Blood, it really doesn’t hold a candle to the charm, humor, and intensity of the novels.
Next up from Chicks on Lit: Middlemarch. Given my own personal dislike for George Eliot, I’m hoping this turns out as well as East of Eden.
I’m not much for resolutions, but mine for this year is to live each day like it’s my last. Enjoy every minute. More reading, more yoga, more great conversation.
Which for me just means my other job. I’m actually doing double duty tomorrow: 9-1 shift down the mountain, back to Pb to work 3-11(ish). In additional awesome work news, I won’t have a day off work until Christmas which means hella bonus cash for the holidays. With any luck we can buy our new front door before the new year!
Tonight’s dinner-cooking was inspired by my email inbox again. I did a variation on Meatloaf Wellington – made my usual meatloaf (1.5-2.0 lb ground beef, 1 pkg French onion soup mix, 2-3 T of A1, 1 egg, breadcrumbs) and after I cooked it for about 45 minutes, I drained the fat. Then I took a package of crescent rolls and unrolled them, layering them over the top (and slightly overhanging the sides) of the meatloaf and cooked another 15 minutes. It was FANTASTIC and will definitely be added to the regular line up. I didn’t make a gravy and, because I knew I’d be using the crescent rolls, I baked it in a small round casserole dish and angled the beef in away from the sides. It worked really well.
The other day I got an email about a southwest chicken bake using green chilis and tortillas. I sauteed diced chicken with the two shallots leftover from Thanksgiving and 1/4 of a red onion, salt, pepper and some cumin. I took 5 small cans of diced green chilis and put them in a bowl with 1 small jar of salsa, 1 can of kidney beans and about 1/2 c of chopped frozen spinach. Just before combining with the chili mixture, I added the remainder of a package of frozen corn. Stir everything together and then I put a tortilla on the bottom of a round casserole dish, filled it with the chicken mix, topped it with cheddar cheese, then continued layering. I topped it with a tortilla and cheddar cheese. Bake for 1 hour at 350. It made enough that I have dinner for tomorrow and leftovers for the weekend, plus a casserole that I put into the freezer for baking later.
Considering I won’t be home from 8am until almost midnight tomorrow, I’m feeling pretty good about my advanced prep skillz. Now I just have to clean the kitchen before I leave for work in the morning.
The old hard drive remains impervious to my efforts to access files. I’m searching for things which will let me at them but in the meantime the only thing I’m really MISSING is my holiday card list from last year. Damn and blast. I was quite proud of myself for having done that, too. This year I’ll upload it to Google docs and save myself this sort of aggravation in the future.
TV this week has been awesome. The Glee midseason finale was about as close to perfect as you get on television, plus a fantastic closing number. Criminal Minds cranked it up a notch by forcing a leadership decision. Also, the killers who want to pretend to date their victims still creep me out the most. The Mentalist was great tonight and it was nice to see the chemistry returning to normal. The odd insertion of a new Red John team didn’t really ever fit right for me but Jane is funny enough that I didn’t care.
I’m still plugging through East of Eden, though I’ve been distracted by work lately and not making as much progress. I’ll take it to job 1 tomorrow and get some pages in while it’s slow in the afternoon.
Mom is headed to Mexico this weekend. I hope she has a great trip – she deserves it. My next (last?) holiday task is to bundle up cookies and mail them out.
Today was a little work followed by a massive amount of baking. G and I made four batches of cookie bars – all of which seem to have turned out fantastically. I also got a call from work asking if I’d like to pick up some more hours tomorrow (working 8 rather than 4) and then Husband and I settled in to watch Star Trek.
Man. That movie is JUST as good as it was in the theater and I still laughed out loud at all the funny parts. And it was still FUN to watch. We’ve got a couple of more in the queue (Angel of Death and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). In other media news, finished the latest installment of Charlaine Harris’s Grave series and it was really really good. I”m hoping it isn’t the last.
I’m about a third of the way through East of Eden and enjoying it. I blame Mr. Farrah and his need to read Steinbeck aloud (with character voices) to our AP English class junior year for all my avoidance of Steinbeck since. I’m okay with blaming him since I know he didn’t care much for me, either. Also, CHARACTER VOICES. Ugh.
While Husband catches up on the Texas/Nebraska game, I’m going to read some more fiction. Photos and recipes from cookie day will be posted tomorrow.
