pre turkey madness

Tonight Michael and I went to the grocery store for our last minute list (which qualifies differently than tomorrows last minute list, which includes all of the things I realize I needed when I got home from the first trip).
We walked into the store and headed to the spice aisle. As we neared the turkeys the grocery store traffic started looking like the freeway traffic (see look at that east coast people I just used the word freeway, in a sentence). There was a pile up of turkeys on the 10 and 3 carts idly maneuvering around as they rubbernecked the turkey carcasses. Michael and I were cartless. Soon we were stuck with 3-5 carts in front at interlocking angles. A meat/turkey guy unloading carcasses into the freezer and 3 interlocking angled carts behind us. Michael with his newly cut mohawk threw up his hands when I denied his escape path and tried to continue maneuvering towards spices. Onlookers tilted their heads and creased their eyebrows to try to understand the AH AH AH noises he emanated as he u-turned towards ethnic foods. I took Michael's first escape route back towards red meat and sausage. We both spent about 10 minutes shopping at opposite ends of the store with out looking for one another. Then we met spontaneously up front by an empty register. Michael had held the list. The damage? NONE. I got poultry seasoning, thyme, fresh parsley, replacement fake swiffer dust clothes, and 3 bottles of white wine
Michael got milk, seltzer, 4 gatorades, and 1 bottle of white, 2 bottles of red
Well hmmm 3 extra bottles of wine as our only double purchase. I don't think that is a mistake I think it is a blessing.

Now. stuffing is made and baking, green bean casserole is made. We are ready to go.

the little things

me kids colds tea
I have a cold and I cannot explain how good it feels to go to bed at 9pm and just sleep. I never do that and last night was the second day in a row. Added to that is the feeling I had yesterday and today when I know I don't need to greet eleven 5 and 6 year olds in an hour and a half. 5 and 6 year olds that may be feeling tantrummy, or bitey, or runny nosed, or just plain runny. And I may be the only person greeting them while I wait to see if my district has deemed me worthy of a substitute classroom assistant for the day. Wait, stop I am not supposed to be whining about work here. Its not professional. Instead I was going to proclaim my happiness of this morning and last while I enjoyed my hot tea and buttery toast knowing that if I don't leave my house at 7am I am still good, no running around or crazy phone calls to make.
Turkey
Last night it dawned on me that I have been assigned the turkey in our potluck style Thanksgiving feast. Well that is not entirely accurate. I said fine, sounds good, last Wednesday when RT said "You've made turkey before, it was good, how about making the turkey" then I said "sure" and we commenced stuffing ourselves with wontons and fried tofu. Then on Saturday I bought two turkeys. One big one for now and a little one for later. But I didn't actually think about it until last night. At which time I had a brief moment of holy hell, I am making the main ingredient and I better not screw it up. Then my gnat sized brain started thinking about something else. Or as Mir would say I saw something shiny and was immediately distracted. I did call Jerome who saved me last Spring when the water department decided to turn off my water just when my guests were arriving for dinner. When I had not yet made gravy. And I ran into the bathroom to see if the kitchen sink was broken or if I could get bathroom sink water only to discover that the water was turned off and have the bathroom light burn out. Keep in mind I have 10 foot ceilings. I have no ladder, I have no replacement fluorescent bulb. I have friends calling my phone to say they have arrived and did I know there was a water main break in front of my house. Oh yes the water department folk I called told me this when I called to tell them to come help. There was already a crew outside. There is a strong chance this story has already been told on this site. Well it is 7am. And the point is, it can't be that bad. Jerome made the gravy with the vitamin rich potato water I had the beautiful mom habit of setting aside. It was good. I'll let you know about Thursday. I hope the turkey is defrosted. I keep my refrigerator way too cold.

no shoe

A record day in my second year of teaching special education, today I sent home my youngest student, my only Kindergartner, with only one shoe. Yes, you read that correctly. He came to school with two and I sent him home with one. Lucky for me the Mom seemed amused when we called to tell her that this occurred about 10 minutes before the end of the school day. I hope she can continue to laugh because I have no idea where the other shoe is. This is not my first lost shoe of the year. Another child had lost shoes during a fire drill earlier in the year. Those shoes however, where inside my classroom and had to be somewhere inside my classroom and where eventually located. This new missing shoe is possibly somewhere in the ivy covered hill on the other side of the fence from our playground.
While I was in the school office to make some copies to go home and I warned the office manager that I had lost a shoe and apologized in advance for any parent phone calls she needed to field in this vein. Another office staff member told me excitedly that the head custodian had found a shoe. "Really!" I exclaimed as I briefly felt relief from our Kindergarten APB on the shoe search. "Yes" she said, "He found it on the lower playground around 9:00 this morning" I said "Wait a minute I may be negligent on the shoe matter but I'm not that bad, he had his shoes until 2:30pm"
In my defense this kid loves to take his shoes off, and though I have been told differently when I commented about playground observation on another blog, it is damn near impossible to see every child every minute on the playground. The consensus is my shoe taker offer, walked out of his shoes in typical fashion and another group of 5 year olds found a shoe to play with, a shoe that may have or may not have gone over the fence. The other little ones that play with my special needs boy spend some time after recess digging in the playground sand and tracking shoe prints to try to locate the little guys shoes. They are the best.

and I quote

chris from Notes from the Trenches
"...even though Monday was a holiday this has been a L-O-N-G week, all two days of it so far."

I celebrated the 2nd day of the work week with dinner out, with Ryland and surprisingly Michael. I am so full. Dinner was very nice, Ryland and I compared our opposite food weirdness while Michael looked on in amusement. Michael's only food weirdness is no food with tentacles. I don't understand what compels him to draw the line there, because nothing else seems to bother him but I guess it is the same thing that keeps him away from the surgeries on television or horror that I enjoy.
I won't detail Ryland's weird because I don't have permission and Jake is making a list of this that may be an interesting read in the future. Did I ever introduce the boys to you? I certainly talk about them enough. When Michael started the USC program last year he met the guys in his program. They are a cool group of guys and I have made friends with several of them, Hey Michael even started up a business with them, but the actual boys are Jake and Ryland. When we first met we clicked and in a seemingly instantaneous fashion we have bonded in coupledom with the boys as our alter egos. Sometimes our similarities and fast friendship are frightening sometimes when Ryland calls to tell me he is watching Celine Dion on Oprah in a non-ironic fashion I think "Do I know you?"
But anyway, here after that long winded empty intro is a view into my food weirdness. Which in my opinion is not hugely weird, because I will eat most things I just won't enjoy them.
Things I do not enjoy that the world at large seems to like a whole lot:

• cake!
• mashed potatoes
• sweet potatoes in most forms
• cooked carrots
• most gooey desserts that are very rich and sweet/puddings/mousse
  
• most meat (and yet I did Korean BBQ, see I can eat these things I just mostly choose not to)
• oatmeal, cream of wheat or any other product of questionable texture like tapioca pudding --see mashed potatoes
  

Things I enjoy that people tend to not like so much:

• raw veggies-spinach, carrots, peppers, broccoli, most greens some need blanching and some acidity
• candy you liked as a little kid, now'n'laters, tangy taffy, sweet tarts etc.
• seltzer water
• vanilla or plain yogurt with granola and fresh fruits
• nuts, unsalted almost anything except peanuts which should probably be added to the first list
• practically anything with garlic and/or ginger

That's all I can think of now. I am sure that if Michael was not still working all the time (2-5 hours of sleep crazy composer guy) he could add something. He would definitely add a list of junk that I eat, but I don't need to detail that. I talk enough about my wine and chips habit.

I am a burrito

Had burritos last night for dinner, this afternoon for lunch and now as I sit in my house and think about what I could eat for dinner, I have come to the conclusion that the only fast thing is a burrito. At least I know that tomorrow I am going out for Thai with Ryland. Until then I need to think of something non-burrito like for lunch tomorrow. Any suggestions are appreciated keeping in mind that my refrigerator only contains burrito fixings, spinach, lettuce, and condiments. I think I see a spinach salad in my future.
While I was finishing up at work today I thought of something from work that could have become a blog post. Unfortunately for you as you read about burritos you will recognize that if it is not written down immediately it leaves my brain. Maybe if the burrito aids my brain in the thinking I will write about it later.


Oh and this is my brain on burritos or actually some of me practicing with the pencil/brush tool in illustrator with my touch pad.

today

Today I had off. I have been looking forward to this Monday all week. I slept in late, I painted a wall in my bedroom. I finished that crappy book I have been reading. I played with Illustrator because I was inspired by this post of SAJ and this match. In typical fashion I have nothing to show for it but I am definitely starting to feel like maybe someday I could create something I liked enough to show. Well, I will keep going and see if something comes of it.

Korean barbeque

Last night Michael finally had the opportunity to go out for Korean barbeque with Bart, Ben and me. Finally because he has been dying to eat this barbeque since we moved in the apartment in Koreatown last July. You can't walk to the end of the block without passing 3 bbq restaurants (well that and 3 Salvadorean restuarants and 2 taco trucks, but the point is meat.) Michael has been desperate to spend an evening cooking and eating all you can eat meat. This is not my idea of a great time at a restaurant with the just the two of us. So it was perfect to go with the boys to help plow through the platter of meat, and then the unfortunate second platter of meat. For the second platter, I actually had enough soju and an overly full stomach so I did the cooking, yay me! The service was all in Korean and we had Ben who knew to order the A platter sans tongue, thus we avoided the tripe and other intestinal goodies. Except then we met Susan the Korean mommy type from the table next to us. She adopted us for the evening and made sure the waiter kept our barbeque clean so we weren't completely smoked out. Then she ordered us an even tastier bottle of soju. Then she ordered us soup (that I know was full of questionable meat products and yet with a belly of other meat, kimchi and soju I ate the spicy yummy soup and tried not to think about questionable meat content.) Susan was incredibly sweet and told us about her daughter's English husband and ordered more and more food for us "I pay, I pay!". All around a good evening. We went, we ate, we came home and some of us showered to remove the meat smell from our clothes and hair. Others sat and basked in the continued smell of meat. A bunch of the other boys came over for beer and Back to the Future watching. It was a great Saturday.

"Man they do all sorts of crazy things in LA"*

Michael came home from work the other day with some wonderful news
At the house of the composer he is working for they have the coolest tree. He says "It is a limon tree!, It grows both lemons and limes." How innovative we think, hmm.

And then I ask him,

"Michael so you were looking at the tree and there were plump, juicy lemons, and hard small green fruits?"

"Yeah, sorry to tell you that those were not limes, just small unripe lemons."

So sad. Maybe by the time we can buy or rent a house there will be limon trees.


*thank you to Kate and Syrah

good reads, or not

If you look to the right you will see the horribly adjusted frame or some such old website patheticness that shows the books I have been reading. My current listed and listed for way too long is the Anthony Keidis bio or autiobio Scartissue. This post is only here to explain why. This summer I had free tickets to a concert festival in Indio. I went without Michael and bought him this book in the tent city Virgin store. It made sense at the time. He loves biographies, he loves music, and in high school or for baby him possibly in middle school, he loved the Chili Peppers. He read it and said it was okay, possibly to make me feel good for purchasing said book. I was desperate recently and found no other unread non school related books in the house.
This book is ridiculously awful. In the same way that reality tv from E! is awful and yet I still watch it. Anthony Keidis is every guy I hated in high school. So me, I'll continue reading because I cannot stop. But that book is lame. For the record.

surrogate husband

Michael's friend Bart is staying with us through the rest of the week. He is in his words my surrogate husband of the week. He is staying at my house soaking up alcohol and cable television. He is providing conversation in the evenings and I think there is a possibility that he even cleaned up a little. Granted there are only few Michael's in the world who will do dishes and laundry but, having conversation in the evenings while Michael is busy working 2-3 jobs and driving all over Los Angeles is preferable to drinking wine by myself, while perseverating on the overall suckiness of my job and its possible legal entanglements. And see this is it I posted again in November.
Tomorrow is a field trip. My first at this school. I would be nervous about this but this day was so stressful and this week was so stressful I feel nothing can top that. I might even convince Bart to chaperone. Wish me luck.

More obvious reasons why I shouldn't post daily

Today (in bullets):

• another horrific day at school 2 assistants out, no calls back from administration, lots of children testing limits due to changes, one incredibly useless sub assistant

alright that was harsh-the day was tough but not horrific, some minor injuries but everyone went home intact (I think), the new assistant was young and followed direct instruction so in many ways had use

• getting back 90% of my Friday field trip permission slips
• PTA babysitting
• dinner in Pasadena with Bill (mmmm, mini sliders and beer, I needed comfort food)

Then

• successfully picking up Bart from Union station in one of those amazing pick-ups where you pull up at the curb and the person walks out of the terminal at the exact same time, then you see the person before you can even hit their number on your speed dial. It is the best
  

in keeping up to standards

oh yes, I have no standards. This boring and lazy week is continuing. I have very little to say. I have to write a report and an IEP (Individualized Educational Program) tonight. Fun. I am with Angelique on continuing to celebrate my birthday week. This would be better if my idea of celebrating tonight looked more like a party and less like going to bed at 9pm. Maybe I will make it a party with a glass of wine, while I write the report. That always makes things interesting. Well at least it makes spell check interesting. I can't wait until I am living in the super flying cars future and I can have a waterproof laptop to use in the tub. Then I can combine all my favorites of a quiet evening at home, with the hell of having to bring work home.

Monday Monday

Today it was incredibly difficult to get out of bed. Then I remembered that I forgot to adjust my alarm clock an hour back. Not much, but a little bit easier.
Last night, the boys came over and cooked me dinner. They are the best. I was dragging from the winey brunch and I guess just life in general, but managed to sip some more wine and eat hummus and very spicy avocado and brie and other yummy munchy things. All around an ideal Nancy dinner involving sitting around and talking with friends, good music and picky food all laid out on the coffee table. RT got me Mylittlepony plates and b-day sign and those funky non-noisy making party favors of the expanding paper variety. He planned to get me my little ponies too, to play with. I don't think I have every had one. too girly. and now remembering television commericials of the 80's "and you can even brush her hair.." still so sweet and birthday like. I am still getting birthday presents and that is nice.
This post is very very boring.

my birthday

Today is my 31st birthday. I am exhausted. The very nice Hilton we stayed in charged $10 a day for in room wireless internet. I thought that was lame so here is my post much later than I would like. Spent the day Saturday just hanging out with Michael, shopping (which I never do) and eating out. We picked up Bart at the airport and went to meet his friends in Pacific Beach. We had good beers served in funny heavy goblets and a bar I do not remember the name of, it was like a workout holding up that beer and a good time.
Today we got going late and went to "Brunch" with extended family. It was fabulous. The food was delicious. The wine was plentiful. And there was champagne and pumpkin cheesecake for my birthday. Cannot be beat.
Currently I am contemplating a caffeinated beverage, all the work I should be doing for school tomorrow, and the friends that are expected shortly, who have graciously offered to come over and cook me a birthday dinner. Bed is calling but I am sure I will rally.

Day 3 still going

I know that unless you know me this is very difficult to read. I am a haphazard editor at best and I rarely use correct punctuation to get my point across. Early on, my sister said reading this made her feel like she was back in our shared bedroom and could reach out her hand across the foot of space between our twin beds to touch me. I like that, so I am saving my editing for my professional writing: grants, papers and IEPs (Individualized Education Programs). It is 7:52am and I feel that the sound of my typing probably sounds like a herd of elephants to the very sleep deprived Michael. He found a beautiful hotel for us to stay for my birthday and then in typical fashion worked overnight writing music and then stayed up all the next day to get things prepared to go. (things being clean kitchen, laundry, car washed, oil changed, suspected birthday present buying) I am a very lucky person. So instead of taking photos of this beautiful room I will stop typing now and let him sleep.

wait wait I still have some photos on my computer from the great external hard drive move of '07
Here is a picture of Michael and his friend Bart at our old place in Cincinnati. I think I have seen this one in an email somewhere titled bedroom eyes.

day 2 late but here

Crazy day at school. Severely understaffed but with the most responsive understanding assistants ever. Seriously.
Home and then to San Diego. Lots of fun singing at the top of my lungs in the car. Being made fun of by Michael who continues to criticize my IPOD music (though he did not bring his) and it is my Birfday weekend so he must listen to Elliot Smith and Postal Service and Regina Spektor and anything else depressing and emotive that I desire, interspersed with Beatles, Otis Redding, Aretha, Dire Straits so in reality nothing to complain about.
We have a beautiful hotel room in The Bristol. Fancy shmancy for sure. We spent the evening with my extremely extended family having wine. Extremely extended equaling, cousin in law's once removed that I call Aunt, and Uncle, and second cousins. In short things are very very good, and wine infused. Also, Hurray I actually posted for the second day in a row.

posting

People that write these things seem to be doing a thing where they post everyday in November. I pretty much stopped writing on here so maybe that type of thing will be the impetus to get me going. I stopped writing because my job in many ways is sucking. The nature of my job makes most of the sucking confidential or at the very least wildly inappropriate to complain about in an online forum. Lucky for me I have some fabulous co-workers who seem to be endlessly supportive in listening to me bitch. Wow, now I feel like they deserve some cookies. Or maybe some margaritas.
As for the job, the kids are great, very cute, and snotty (in a nasal drainage sort of way not in an uppity sort of way). From them I received the gift of a horrific stomach virus. Very fast way to lose ten pounds, eat nothing but Gatorade for 4 days, then have a saltine cracker. This will make you very weak and lazy, but bored to tears. If you are me you will be taunted by unopened cans of paint for the living room. You will need to paint at least one wall. This is accomplished by painting 1'x1' sections and then resting on the couch to admire each section for 10 minutes. But then Michael helped me with the other walls.
This is very rambly. This Sunday is my birthday. I am going to San Diego. It will be good. My expectations for good are low. Nice hotel sheets, cable, wine, and sleeping in. I think Michael and Bart will want to go outside the hotel. I may consider this option. Tonight, I am looking forward to some delicious ginger chicken from my favorite Thai place, and drinking one of these gingerades, must be in a ginger mood. Finally, wah my throat is sore.

new music

Alright. I just watched a JC Penney commercial with a Regina Spektor song I already own in it. Now I can't decide if this makes me feel old and lame or if I have just become the kind of person who only listens to music used in commercials. I'd like to believe that going commercial is one of the few ways left for musicians to be heard and to move out from under the thumb of big recording studios. But my other side is yelling "sell out!". But everyone needs to pay the bills and if that is the way to do so, maybe I just need to stop watching so much television, or start making enough money to get a DVR so that I never need to watch commercials again. I think the big answer is that I need to think about all of this a lot less and just go on living and enjoying music without thinking so hard about it. Now I am going to go beg Michael to let me use his itunes gift card to get that Feist song from the new nano commercial and the Ingrid Michaelson so about the sweater from the Old Navy commercial. I am old, and if I didn't have commercials and tv shows to show me new music I would only have KCRW and so much of that is "whatever world music was trendy that day" --from High Fidelity

little kids

Why when little kids sneeze does snot come flying out (if I'm lucky into their little hands). Does this happen to adults? not me.



hmmm yeah, haven't posted in months but Michael said this sounded like a blog post. Today was the first day of school. Buses came about an hour late. I can't decide if this is good or bad. Probably good but I would probably rather just jump in with all the little ones and tread water for awhile.

Spent the summer, visiting, and reading as you can see from my very poorly formatted sidebar.

claps

Do you remember claps?
Here is the little kid clap I have heard the kindergartners at my school singing. The kids at my school tried to do it in groups of three at warp speed and then someone would inevitably smack someone else in the face and they would get all exasperated and try again.

slow part
ice tea clap clap clap lemonade clap clap clap coca-cola clap clap clap pepsi clap clap clap
double time
ice tea clap clap clap lemonade clap clap clap coca-cola clap clap clap pepsi clap clap clap
say (and do) the following
turn around, touch the ground, kick your boyfriend out of town

Well now that you know I expect you to go out and teach your friends and all the little girls on your block.


I am on summer vacation. No I am not working (in the making money sense). or volunteering, or doing much of anything. And the beautiful thing is I don't plan to. It is lovely. I am being a dork and watching lots of HGtv, and Food Network, and in between times cleaning my house, going out to lunch, and reading lots of books. Are you using GoodReads yet? You should be. I am using it to track books I read and ones people tell me to read. Its working out much better than the little slips of paper I usually use and then lose. I changed my phone number so if you know me and you don't have it send me an email. I may feel more inclined to write here now that I am not exhausted from hauling around small children, or worried about confidentiality issues. Not much confidentiality involved in cleaning floors while watching Hey Paula!, wow that's a trainwreck. If you need clarity in your own life. Someone to reassure you that life is not bad; 10 minutes of that show will make you feel like the most normal, most sane person on Earth.
This is my first week off. I foresee more time at the beach and I hope for more wine in the future.
Wine tastings anyone? Anyone in this case being Amy.

online spirograph

This was fun.













Created by Anu 
Garg.

I am deep.

the difference between House and ER
on House
every week someone vomits/spews blood and the smartypants dr's call for help
on ER
they actually (or in a pretend tele drama way) help the people while calling for help instead of going straight to commercial to clean up the corn syrup and red dye.


I am brilliant and this is the sum total of my postings over a month. bah.


other stuff.
school is almost over-have I actually taught anything?
I still need to complete my online class, I hope that I am not too late in my procrastinating way
I spent 3 days of spring break in Palm Springs. It was lovely and warm and I got tan (for me) while wearing 5ospf by the pool applied hourly)
While sitting by the pool I studied (or at least practiced high school math) by the pool for the CBEST
I really hope I passed. The test is not nearly as bad as sitting in a high school desk for 3 hours. I am old and sore. That makes me stiff.
I am going to Wildwood with my family this summer. Hurray for a baby niece and nephew and east coast beaches with murky water and waves that don't threaten my life.
oh and probably lots of other things, Michael's new business, his graduation and internship.
I can't stop moving furniture around, or searching for homes/apartments I can't afford on Craig's list.
miss me?

I am deep.

the difference between House and ER
on House
very week someone vomits/spews blood and the smartypants dr's call for help
on ER
they actually (or in a pretend tele drama way) help the people while calling for help instead of going straight to commercial to clean up the corn syrup and red dye.


I am brilliant and this is the sum total of my postings over a month. bah.


other stuff.
school is almost over-have I actually taught anything?
I still need to complete my online class, I hope that I am not too late in my procrastinating way
I spent 3 days of spring break in palm springs. It was lovely and warm and I got tan (for me) while wearing 5ospf by the pool applied hourly)
While sitting by the pool I studied (or at least practiced elementary high school math) by the pool for the CBEST
I really hope I passed. The test is not nearly as bad as sitting in a high school desk for 3 hours. I am old and sore. That makes me stiff.
I am going to Wildwood with my family this summer. Hurray for a baby neice and nephew and east coast beaches with murky water and waves that don't threaten my life.
oh and probably lots of other things, Michael's new business, his graduation and internship.
I can't stop moving furniture around, or searching for homes/apartments I can't afford on Craig's list.
miss me?

my job

I don't often hear people saying the things that I say about my job.

examples:

"So I walked out onto the playground today and..."

Also I say many stupid things...(seriously more than usual)
ABC's the remix
ABCDEFG (Suzy, turn around and sit down) HIJKLMN (warning # 2 at #3 you have a time out) OPQ RST UVW XYZ. --did anyone notice the first typing of this where I missed the letters U and V. whew. Its tough mastering this academic content. Especially when you change the meter of the ABC's for someone as rhythmically challenged as I am.

We do this weird OCR clapping version where you clap after the G, N and then Q, T,X and Z to avoid the old elemenopee conundrum.

impressed you say?

While you may have been impressed (or even skeptical) about my supposed reading list below I present for you this month's reading.
hmmm.
nothing.
wait some magazines --
O-thanks to Amy
Some free copies of Body & Soul
some random articles in
Electronic Musician, ReMix, Mix
and the ever classy Hollywood Life also free
as well as the ubiquitous...blogs.
Yeah, I am so smart S-M-R-T. But it is okay because Michael loves me. He went to the school library today to try to get a copy of In Cold Blood (misshelved, no luck) and The Jungle (both misshelved, no luck) (and yes, I read those two also), and while he was there he picked up books for me. Little Women and My Enemy, My Love:Women, Masculinity and the Dilemmas of Gender. This selection is very perfectly me. A nice reread and a smart person piece of non-fiction. However it also paints me as a very confused girl who will once again be crying over Beth's death scene while pondering the "Dilemmas of Gender".
And Michael got Uncle Tom's Cabin because he's apparently spurred onward by the reading bug and catching up on classics.

books meme

I found this here and I am just lazy enough to continue using memes for posts instead of anything original.

Anyway here are Krissa's instructions.
Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole (I've got books I've READ that I wish I had used a 10 foot pole to avoid, thus they are both BOLD and STRICKEN, -KC), put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

I am adding that this list seems very random to me. Keep in mind that I read most of the books I will deem smart people books when I was forced to for smart people English class in high school before they decided I was not smart enough and no longer ivy leauguey enough for their ranks (do you think it was the use of the rogue -y to make things descriptive? I wish I did that in my papers then) Many times I reread the good ones for actual enjoyment because I am strange that way. Also I don't really own any books. This seems strange when I think of how my tall bookshelf overflows. However, it is full of textbooks, art books, and Michael's scores. Also, I am a library girl at heart but when I do buy books I enjoy I pass them on because I want everyone I know to read it too. Also my ten foot pole rule gets broken if I am stuck in a house with no other reading material. Then I would read anything printed.


1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling) read it with the U.S. title Sorcerer's Stone
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom) I think I read the abridged version of this that Michael got as a gift. That was more than enough.
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) tried once never finished, gave up
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. +The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) this is everyone's favorite book except me
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

My siblings started another one of those erase my answers and send this to everyone email that I thought died in the late 90's. Well I was wrong and here's another one. (oh and I am sure they are all over stupid myspace, but I try not to pay attention to that tripe.)

thanks to matt and then kate

Welcome to the new 2007 version of getting to know your friends. Who writes this crap? What you

are supposed to do is copy, (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it

onto a new e-mail that you'll send. Change all the answers so they apply to

you, and then send it to a bunch of people including the person who sent it

to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your

friends, that you may not already know about them. Because you obviously don't have time to actually call or send a real email you are too busy answering forwarded surveys. Inquiring minds want to know what is your favorite color, ice cream, puppy? It definitely reminds me of conversations had with Kindergartners. Except with Matt there is more cursing (not more than some of my student's but a little more). In several instances I am lazy and just decided to agree with Kate.

1. What time did you get up this morning? alarm 5:30am reset for 6:30 I think but instead I reset the time. wake up at 6:30am and see the clock says 7:30am fling off the covers, leap out of bed, turn on the light blinding Michaela and curse about being late. Notice it is very dark. Run down the hall and into the kitchen...it is 6:35. sleep in until 6:45am

I am nothing if not lengthy.

>2. Diamonds or Pearls? Neither

>3. What was the last film you saw at the Cinema? Children of Men

>4. What is your favorite TV show? nothing in particular, I like HGTV and food shows. I am watching L word through Netflix.

>5. What did you have for breakfast? an apple and tea (in the car)

>6. What is your middle name? Marie

>7. What is your favorite cuisine? sandwich I agree sandwiches

>8. What foods do you dislike? weird texture things, oatmeal, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, cream of wheat, grits etc.

>9. Your favorite potato chip? Herr's... clearly no Herr's near me, Now I eat Lay's or Pringles

>10. Favorite CD you've listened to lately? a mix of KCRW stuff made by a friend very cool...ask me for a copy

>11. What kind of car do you drive? 98 honda civic

>12. Favorite sandwich? avocado

>13. What characteristics do you despise? extreme social awkwardness even after many get to know you type meetings. but I can't really say I despise this it just irritates me

>14. What are your favorite clothes? comfy jeans and long sleeve t-shirts (w/ fashion sneakers that have velcro, and offer no actual support like my rocket dogs)

>15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where WOULDN'T you go? Antartica

>16. Favorite brand of clothing? things that fit (even after the washer and dryer)

>17. Where would you want to retire? beach house

>18. Favorite time of day? 3pm the kids go home

>19. Where were you born? havertown

>20. What is your favorite sport to watch? meh, competitive cooking shows? Iron Chef anyone?

>21. Who do you think will not send this back? this is a blog, maybe someone desperately bored will answer in the comments.

>22. Person you expect to send it back first? nobody

>23. Pepsi or Coke? Coke

>24. Beaver or Ducks? Duck, Goose... i don't get it (I'm with Kate here, and I'll add that I did play a stellar round of duck duck goose today)

>25. Are you a morning person or night owl? neither...can I be an afternoon person. I never want to get up at 6am but I do for work, then I fall asleep on the couch when I try to watch a movie that goes past 9:30pm

>26. Pedicure or Manicure? both

>27. Any new & exciting news you'd like to share? I think I am full of new and exciting from last year. Now I am ready for regular.

>28. What did you want to be when you were little? a doctor, or an artist (but secretly a teacher, I just thought it was lame cause that was the only profession you saw everyday)

>29. What is your best childhood memory? dancing in the basement to Billy Joel thanks to Dave... thinking i was the coolest 6 year old around to Kate--you were the coolest 6 year old around. I will add Jumping up and down on the beds, the above ground pool in all its 4.5ft water glory, jumping of the platform, big waves in the ocean with boogie boards, all the music...

>30. Piercing? ears, nose

>31. Ever been to Africa ? No

>32. Ever been out toilet papering? No (when I read this on Matt's I thought it said Ever been out of toilet paper and I think that is a no too)

>33. Been in a car accident? one, if you don't count when I scrape the side of my car against the house or fence trying to get it out of my very very narrow driveway

>34. Favorite Restaurants? I love restaurants. No favorite here yet, but there are so many we just keep trying new places.

>35. Favorite Flowers? blue hydrangeas

>36. Favorite Ice Cream? I like sorbets

>37. Favorite Fast Food Restaurant? Chipotle

>38. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None

>39. From whom did you get your last e-mail? Kate

>40. What store would you choose to max out your credit card? credit cards make me nervous. also I hate shopping at just one store how about Amazon I think they have everything

>41. Mountains or Ocean? Ocean but the beauty of California is that you can be at both

>42. Who are you most curious about their response to this? most curious for someone else to continue on with this thing

>43. Last person you went to dinner with? Michael, Jake & Ryland

> 44. How many tattoos do you have? none

>45. How many people are you sending this to? sending it to family, narcissistically posting on my blog for lack of actual content

>46. What time did you finish this e-mail? 6:47pm

>47. Favorite magazine? I love magazines. No current favorite but have started receiving all sorts for free Body + Soul (some sort of Martha Stewart thing), Spin (I don't know any new bands, it is boring to read about music you haven't heard, Hollywood Life (this is the most ridiculous magazine ever. it is like a magazine version of E!) also lots of ridiculous michael magazines like electronic musician etc.

>48. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be? Maya Angelou, I like this choice Kate, thanks

>49 If you could choose another first name, what would it be? I think the two I have are enough

>50. If you could change your profession right now, what would you be

doing? I'd like to choose independently wealthy. or maybe I could organize and decorate other people's houses...or be an artist that can actually sell art in order to support myself and my family and have health insurance...

Lexus parallel parking

I always wondered about about the new Lexus that self parallel parks. Having lived for three years in a city apartment with no off street parking I perfected the skill of parallel parking in a spot only inches larger than my four door Honda Civic. I thought it was a sham so when I read the NY Times article by Calvin Trillin I was redeemed.

"Then I got behind the wheel and we set out to find a beautiful spot. Well, not exactly a beautiful spot. A spot that is worthy of that name — a truly satisfying spot, a spot good enough to spin yarns about in bars where parkers gather — requires some skill to get into. The Advanced Parking Guidance System works only if the spot is six and a half feet longer than the car — the sort of spot, in other words, that the average Manhattan parker comes upon about once every 14 or 15 years. The only parker who might need help from a guidance system to get into such a spot is a parker who is driving himself home from rotator cuff surgery. For Lexus to offer a self-parking system for a spot that size is the equivalent of some high-end kitchen-equipment manufacturer offering a self-carving system that only works on meatloaf."

via kottke

Now I am in L.A. and I am so happy I have a place to park my car. Though the lot is so small I spent the first 3 months scraping the side of my car against the house trying to manuever out of the driveway. Its 2007, still no flying cars.

internet special sauce

Well my daily affirmations must be working (thanks! Stuart Smalley) because I feel special in a very dorky internet sort of way. I got a little mention from a blog I read (one of so many because my life is so very short on actual books and heavy on internet musings). So, just in case one of my readers (Hi Mom!) is interested here is the link.
IKEA HACKERS
This is a very cool blog that explains how people (very cool creative people) screw around with their Ikea furniture or furniture components to make them less factory and more personal.


Other life news:
School generally still sucks even though kindergartners are unbearably cute. I am invariable short staffed 4 out of 5 school days. Today, I held a bucket so one of my cuties could throw up in it while he uncontrollably cried and his face blazed red with fever. I want to say something here about all the other snot and children pilfering my desk and beating up on other kids but I can't keep thinking about it at night. I just have to do what I can do and watch enough bad t.v. to numb my brain. I can't wait to get back to thinking about actual lessons and teaching and away from the damage control and cross fingers to hope no one goes home injured kind of school day.
Other life is good and relaxing. Last night Michael got me Thai Food and we watched Street Car Named Desire. Tonight I have prepared homemade Big Mac's (thanks to Ryland and Jake).
So Yummy! and not sick making yucky fast food...but they still taste good. Thanks Secret Sauce a.k.a. Thousand Island Dressing.

the why didn't I think of this years ago
Homemade Big Macs
ingredients:
Ground Turkey
Romaine Letuce
Sesame Seed Buns
Butter (low fat if you are Jake and Ryland, the real stuff for me)
Thousand Island Dressing
almost minced onions
Tomato and Pickle (if you so desire)

Make ground turkey patties and cook in a skillet. Chop onion super super tiny like they have at McD's. Slice Romaine lettuce into thin shreds. Thinly slice tomato and pickle (you can chop extra pickles super fine for the dressing if you want). Spread melted butter on inside of Sesame seed buns and toast in skillet.
Put burger together with liberal amounts of special sauce.
yum.

monthly posts?

Yeah, typical of me, I never post here. I think about it, but mostly what I want to post these days is shut down by job confidentiality or my own conscience.
So instead here is some insipid tripe.

• I am watching 13 going on 30 tonight and feeling very cranky
• Work is really hard and I have had a cold for a month. (ew)
• I like stupid teen movies. Especially if they include choreographed dance scenes. In fact, all stupid teen movies should include choreographed dance scenes.
• I am a grown up (30 in fact). Case in point, tonight I wanted to just drink wine and eat chips, but instead I made broccoli and pasta in a basil garlic butter sauce and garlic bread. (howdy dragon, breath) then I had wine with my yummy dinner. I may go have some chips now though.
• I am exercising (walking with a friend from work), multiple days a week. Just because it is healthy.

still a child?

• When I watch stupid movies like this or Sex and the City I want to drink colored drinks from martini glasses. In real life I should really not drink even water from a martini glass because I usually slop it all over myself.
• I realized yesterday that I should always buy name brand Ibuprofen because it is bright orange and easy to find a tiny pill on the bathroom floor after (in typical fashion) I drop one trying to get the lid back on the bottle.

last questions:

• Could I be any more incoherent?
• When will summer be here?
• Is it possible for me to write a narrative/journal type entry here without resorting to using bullet points?
  

the end (for tonight...or until next month)

-if you want to see my craptastic taste in movies you can be my Netflix friend just email me.