2006 Books

A Breath of Snow and Ashes
A Defense for the Dead
A Gift to Last
A Good Yarn/The Shop on Blossom Street
A is for Alibi
A Night of Rain & Stars
A Place of Hiding
A Traitor To Memory
Along Came A Spider
B is for Burglar
Be Mine
Between Friends
Big Bad Wolf
Black Order
Book Club, The
Book of the Dead
Camel Club, The
Cedar Cove Series: 1-6
Central Park
Counterplay
Crazy in Love
Die In Plain Sight
Disordered Minds
Dublin Four, The
Emma
Fox Evil
Gardens of Covington, The
Goodbye Summer, The
In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner
In the Presence of the Enemy
Innocent Man, The
Jane Eyre
Last Time They Met, The
Making Waves
Maximum Velocity
Mitford Series: Books 1-8
My Sister’s Keeper
Partner, The
Playing for the Ashes
Quilter's Series 1-6
Resistance
Same Sweet Girls, The
Sculptress, The
Seasons of her Life
Seven Deadly Wonders
Shape of Snakes, The
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: 1-3
Sunday Wife, The
Sweetgrass
Testament, The
Three Sisters Island Trilogy
Trial By Fire
Tropic of Night
Ultimatum, The
Warning, The
We Are All Welcome Here
White Fang
Winds of Change
With No One as a Witness
Witness for the Dead

2006

This will probably be my final post of the year. Then I suspect I will not post for a while as the next week is a very busy one at work.

My Christmas went really well my hubby got me an MP3 player which I am just learning to play with. He also got me this magical device called an FM transmitter. It allows you to broadcast your MP3 player through ANY radio (car, home, work). It is amazing.

My kids got a Nintendo Game Cube for Christmas so our nights have been filled with Mario Kart. This is our first game system (having resisted until now). It is still plugged into the living room T.V. but I don't expect it to stay there.

Tomorrow, we are off to another family gathering. This one at the Father-in-law's house. Here we usually meet with my husband's brother and family. Traditionally, we meet on New Year's Day but because everyone is off on Sunday we are meeting a day early. This works out well for me because Auburn is playing in the Cotton Bowl on Monday. As a bonus, sis-in-law is also going to make it back to town for the event. She will be spending the night tonite at our house. After reading on her blog about her feelings regarding my attempts at sabotaging her diet (actually, I was just being a good hostess) I fear for what she might have up her sleeve. I am going to try and placate her with Mexican Food.

I am going to try and catch up on all my blog reading now and if I find anything else to say I'll be back.

Diet

Well, I went off the deep end during the holidays and gained weight again!! Ughh! I told you I could not stick to a diet for more than 4 or 5 weeks. I sabotaged my own self not only with sweets but with poor choices and a lot of nibbling during baking. I wonder where I would be if I had not exercised 3 days last week. No self control!! Meanwhile, my sis-in-law managed to lose and is now at a net loss of 10lbs. I tempted her with eggnogg over the holidays and she resisted. That girl is my new hero. I am going to try and be relatively good this week and then after vacation I will try to buckle down and try again.

After Christmas

Today is the day after so to speak. Usually there is a big letdown. The house is a mess. I had to come to work today. The kids had to go to daycare. No one is happy. Tomorrow I have to work at WM and that should prove to be a fun day. Today I have been too busy preparing for year end inventory to catch up on blog reading or update. I'll be back Friday hopefully with something meaningful to say.

Thursday

Yesterday I had a very productive day and I am going to share all the mundane details with those unfortunate enough to find themselves here.

The kids only had a 1/2 day of school and I had planned to attend J's party (he's 8 remember) but he asked me not to. So B and I decided to run errands (and I let her skip kindergarten today) First though, I did my bit of NordicTrac (yeah!) while she made her bed and unloaded the DW.

I started draining the hot tub and after exercising B and I got in and cleaned the nasty ring around the inside (reminds me of Cat & The Hat, too bad I don't have some vroom). We then showered and dressed and left the house.

Our first stop was the pool store in Madison to pick-up a new filter for the spa and chemicals. It took us 30 minutes to navigate down the busy road to the store (including waiting on the train) and found them out of our filter. Gosh Darn! We then went to Publix to get the needed Wine for the upcoming festivities and other last minute things. We ran into Kohl's for a few minutes to get something else for________ and I found some luggage on sale for our upcoming vacation. Back at the school at 11am for the end of J's party. He made a gingerbread house out of graham crackers. Quite impressive.

Took the kids home where they feasted on Lunch Paks. They helped me finish draining the hot tub and cleaning it. Started refilling and oh! Look at the time! I've got to get to my doctor's appt downtown.

So I arrived at the doctor appt on time and was told "gasp!" they were running on schedule. This is the annual visit. Glad it is over for another year. I saw they were having a blood drive at the hospital (desperately in need of O this time of year) and I made a bargain that if I finished with the doctor in a reasonable time I would donate. Off I went to find the blood drive, gave my precious blood, ate some cookies (because calories don't count after donating blood) and juice. I got my free T-Shirt and movie tickets. (Yes, my blood can be bought for a T-shirt.)

I stopped on the way out of town at the pool store in Huntsville and picked up my filter and chemicals, swung by the dry cleaners and arrived home at 4pm, too late for a nap. The spa was full but not turned on yet (because of absence of filter) so when I turned it on it was a chilly 57 degrees. No hot tubbing for me that night.

So the kids and I started messing up the kitchen. First we made peppermint bark then we made Peanut Brittle. Both recipes from allrecipes.com. Then we tried out my new Wilton cookie press (a gift) using the basic Spritz cookie recipe. We had a really hard time with it. So we decided to try the Pampered Chef one I've had for years but never used. It was a little easier but still a big disappointment. The cookies were also quite bland. They would probably be okay if dipped in chocolate (like most things, come to think of it.) I don't think we'll use the cookie press again.

I cooked a pasta dish for supper and after some complaining I actually to J to eat some. Wow! I'm tired now. I think I'll go sit down. Actually, I am typing this from work and I am sitting down. If I can get through today I have 3 days off. Yeah!

Christmas Cooking

Yesterday I went to the grocery store and did my bit to help along our economy. My family is big on eating and big on cooking and I love to do my part. Here is my ambitious plans for the next several days.

Saturday - family gathering #1
Baked Beans
No Bake Banana Pudding

Sunday - intimate Christmas Eve Dinner
Smoked Salmon Dip
Pork Tenderloin
Mashed Potato Gratin
Mixed Veggies
Lemon Polenta Cake with Winter Fruit Compote

Christmas Morning
Baked Apple Rolls

Christmas Day - family gathering #2
Fruit Salad
Fontina and Mascarpone Baked Pasta

Various Desserts and Candies
Peanut Brittle
Peppermint Bark
Magic Cookie Bars
Spritz Cookies
Peanut Butter Popcorn

I'll let you know how many of my plans go awry and what I actually get done.

My Sister's Keeper

I finished reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I ordered this book after reading J's review on her blog. The book is written in alternating first person accounts of the chief characters. This is the first book I have read by this author

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of Elizabeth Berg's books including Talk Before Sleep and We Are All Welcome Here. It has that same emotional pull that keeps you so entranced (or imbedded, if you will) in the story that you are a part of it even when not reading. I like books like that. I read, in general for my own entertainment. I want a book (and a good movie, too) to transport me somewhere else. I want to forget about my own selfish self for a while.

That all being said the book was somewhat depressing and having a chameleon like personality I tend to take the book's depression to heart and become somewhat blue. It is the second such book in a row for me and I really need to follow it up with something uplifting. I am looking forward to reading more by this author and I definitely recommed this book. Thanks J.

Christmas Cards

In the first 10 years of my marriage I was very diligent about sending out Christmas Cards. I tried write personal notes to people who I didn't talk to regurally or see. I sent pictures of my children. I sent these out the first week of December.

One year I decided to only send cards to those I would not see personally during Christmas and last year I just decided to not send any. This is very liberating, I find. I know there are those out there who otherwise do not hear from me and I am sorry about that. I still delight in receiving cards and especially those "picture greetings" of everyone's children. Maybe next year I will even get my act together and get the kids Christmas pictures made before Christmas. (Right now I am shooting for an early Easter picture.)

Accent Quiz

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Midland
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Quite accurate I would say.

Charlotte's Web (Not!)

I can blog about this now because it has been almost 2 weeks and the shock has warn off and it has faded to a kind of dream. "Did it really happen?"

December 5th I was trying to catch up on the laundry from the weekend. There had been a basket of my children's clothes in the laundry/utility room since Sunday which I hadn't time to fold until that evening. I took the basket into my guest room to fold on the bed (I'm not sure why, really) and was happy folding away. The guest room is sometimes called Grandmother's room because she is the primary guest. My daughter was sitting on the bed watching a Christmas cartoon and kind of helping me.

Then I looked over at the pile of clothes spilling from the overturned basket and saw "The Biggest F*ing Spider" I have ever seen in the house. (I'm getting chills right now while typing.) The THING was sitting on top of the clothes because it had apparently been immersed in the clothes before I began my folding.

Now, I grew up in the country and spiders as a general rule do not scare me but this was SCAIRY!! I told my daughter not to move and I quickly grabbed up a nearby cup and swooped it into the sink. This spider had a very fat black round belly with some kind of red splotch on it's belly. I have never seen one of these "Black Widows" that wasn't on a web somewhere. It was very terrifying to think of it in the basket of my children's clothes. I tried to drown the spider and then I set it on fire,then I sealed up it's remains in a ziplock bag and disposed of it outside in the dumpster.

I called our pest control people and they came out and sprayed for spiders.

Books

I just finished reading Resistance by Anita Shreve. A year or so ago I had listened to her novel, Light on Snow and enjoyed it very much. I had been discouraged, however, by the reviews from her other novels and not purchased one until now. Also, her novel The Pilot's Wife had been an Oprah's Book Club selection. I have been disapointed with the books I've read on Oprah's list and have found them too depressing.

Resistance is set in Belgium in 1944. It the story of a downed American pilot and the short love affair he had with the Belgium woman who helped hide him from the Germans. The story is somehwat depressing and put me in a very melancholy mood. What I liked about the novel is the powerful representations of life for the Belgium people during German occupation and the portrayal of the American pilot.

My grandfather served in WWII and talked of his experiences very little. This book opens a window to what the people living and dying in German occupied countries during the war experienced. It does a better job of eliciting empathy than any movie I have seen. It did in fact make this war which was over 60 years ago become very real to me.

I don't know if I would recommend this book or not. Maybe after some time has passed and I have gained some distance I will feel differently.

Diet

It is more difficult to diet during the holidays than I thought. I worked at WM on Wednesday and hardly had anything to eat but I made up for it on Thursday with lunch out and an evening meeting.

Now I realize the joys and trials of working in a medical clinic. Not only was lunch brought in today from Olive Garden but we received two gift baskets full of food. One is from the Atlanta Bread Company and is full of breads and pastries. The other is a gift basket full of cookies, chocolates & gormet foods.

We were talking of bringing in food for a festive lunch next week and one of the physicians said not to bother. The bounty of gifts has only just begun.

So the dieting thing has really gone awry. First from my depression over gaining 0.5lbs and now to having all this delicious food around. Tonite I think I will pick-up Guthries for dinner. If I am going to fall completely off the wagon I really should make it count. Maybe I can get back in gear before Monday but if not I might as well wait until after my vacation in January.

Emma's Tea Room

Yesterday, a friend took me to lunch to belatedly celebrate my birthday. I suggested Emma's Tea Room because I had heard so many good things about it.

This place is definitely a "Ladies who lunch" kind of place of which we have several in the Huntsville area. It is located in a renovated house in the historic 5 points area on Pratt Ave. In the spirit of the setting we both elected to try hot tea although neither of us are really (hot) tea drinkers. We both had Cranberry Orange and it was excellent. I tried the salad sampler which included seafood salad, curried chicken salad, and chicken salad over a bed of mixed greens. My friend chose the summer squash soup and a chicken salad sandwich. Both of our meals were enjoyable. The service was good (our server had an English accent!) and the setting ideal for a lunch out with a girlfriend.

I would definitely recommend this place for a ladies lunch but call ahead for reservations.

Alphabet Meme

Here is a fill in meme because I haven't had much to blog about this week:
(thanks to J at Thinking About...)

A. Available or Single? Married 12 years

B. Best Friend? My mother (check out her blog)

C. Cake or Pie? Cake, chocolate cake, pound cake, any cake.

D. Drink of Choice? Sierra Mist (cold) Suisse Mocha (hot)

E. Essential Item I use everyday? Deodorant

F. Favorite Color? Green

G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Bears

H. Hometown? Boaz, Alabama (don't tell anyone)

I. Indulgence? My hot tub.

J. January or February? I hate January. I always have that depression from holiday letdown. In February we have Valentine's Day and Crocuses (and hope for spring).

K. Kids and their Names?2 Kids - no names on the blog, please.

L. Life Is Incomplete Without? Chocolate

M. Marriage Date? November 19, 1994

N. Number of siblings - 2, a brother in Maryland and a sister (who I just found about 18 months ago. Perhaps I'll blog that story sometime.)

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples, definitely

P. Phobias/Fears? Falling down large hills on hard snow as in skiing.

Q. Favorite Quote: "But they that wait upon the Lord...Isaiah 40:31

R. Reason to Smile? Hearing my babies say "I love you".

S. Season? I love fall.

T. Tag 3 or 4 people. Do 3 or 4 people read my blog? Ok if you read this you should consider yourself tagged.

U. Unknown Fact About Me? My life is an open book. If there is something that remains unknown it should probably stay that way.

V. Vegetable you do not like? A better question would be name a vegetable I do like.

X. X-rays I've had? Well, chest, mouth, had an MRI once

Y. Your Favorite food? Chocolate

Z. Zodiac Sign? Sagitarius

Book Update

I just finished reading and excellent book, Tropic of Night by Michael Grueber. This is the author who had been ghostwriting the Robert Tannebaum books. This subject matter of this book was not my usual cup of tea but the writing style and prevailing mystery kept me interested. The book jumps from a first person account, a second person account, and journal entries and ties it all together nicely in the end. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Tuesday, (after I ordered from Amazon using the gift certificate my wonderful sister-in-law gave me for my birthday) I noticed that Michael Chricton has a new book out. I am dissapointed that Amazon did not alert me to this new release. Isn't that their job? Anyway, if no one takes the hint and buys it for me for Christmas I will order it later.

This morning I am starting B is for Burglar. This is the series by Sue Grafton. I read Q is for Quarry a while back and I decided to start from the beginning. This is a murder/mystery series about private investigator, Kinsey Millhone. The books are quite short.

The last 3 books I read by Minnette Walters (Shape of Snakes, The Scuptress, Disordered Minds) were all about a murder that occurred some years ago (from 6 to 30) and the character's efforts to solve it after it was considered closed by police. Walter's books take place in London and the characters are different in each book. They were all quite good.

8.5lbs

Smoking, Retaraunt review

A year or so ago our city (Huntsville, Alabama) banned smoking in restaurants. I was quite happy with this. I do not care if people choose to polute their bodies with this obnoxious poison as long as it is not in my vicinity. No smoking in restaurants means that you can sit anywhere and not worry if smoke from the "smoking section" will wander over to your table. It also means at most retaraunts there is seating in the bar with no waiting. I am not all that concerned about health concerns from second hand smoke. I just don't like smoke. I don't like it my hair or on my clothes or especially in the air I am currently breathing. I know several otherwise plesant people who smoke and as long as they respect my air space I feel I am very tolerant. (I think this is as preachy as I plan to get on my blog).

Now, having said the above...
Friday night with a rare night without the kids my husband, R and I decided to try out a trendy restaraunt in the downtown area, 801 Franklin. I had been told reservations were not required and we arrived early (5:30 or so). As might have been expected during the holiday season they were booked up and asked if we would like to sit in the bar. I agreed ONLY because I knew of the smoking ban. We sat at a small table against a long bench which was shared by other tables along the wall. A loud foursome of business men were sitting next to us on one side and a quiet foursome of ladies on the other. Now, this is one of those restaurants where they do not give "the lady" the menu with prices. I did check out the prices before ordering. This was in the "special occasion" range of prices for us but certainly not beyond what we can afford. The wine was pricey and we elected for only a glass each. We ordered an appetizer that sounded good but was only adequate. I had an excellent pasta seafood dish with amazing scallops and shrimp (topped with calamari) and R had swordfish. The food was excellent, the service cordial and quick and all was going well, until...

After the business men vacated the table beside us a couple sat down and the lady began to smoke. I thought someone would come over and say something to her, but no. I thought, "I will try to tolerate this", but no. I thought this meal will be over $100 and I can't sit here. I asked our waiter (privately). He explained to us that because they did not allow patrons in the retaraunt under 19 years of age smoking was allowed in the bar. This is an exception to the smoking ban that I was aware of but believed it only to be true of bars, nightclubs, etc. He offered to move us and we moved down two tables. This worked well even though at the end another patron lit up at the bar. As we were leaving I was just thinking that we might come back if we didn't sit in the bar because afterall the food was wonderful when we walked past the EMPTY dining room. No, we will not return. For the money I would rather dine at Ol' Heidelberg or Bonefish without the smoke.

Food Meme

I found this food meme (thanks to Allybean) and thought I would put it out there.

Favorite food to crunch: Crunch n Munch
Favorite comfort food: Mashed Potatoes or Chili
Food that makes the best noise: Rice Krispies
Favorite picnic lunch: cheese, crackers, & grapes
Favorite food scene in movie: Lady & The Tramp - the spaghetti scene
Favorite food lyrics: "Settle for a french fry..."
Least favorite food lyrics:
Best food smell memory: Smells of concession food like at a football game or fair
Favorite summer snack: cantalope
Food that reminds me of the ocean: shrimp
Favorite winter snack: Suisse Mocha & chocolate
Most likely to eat for lunch: WW meal and jello
Least likely to eat for lunch: fried liver
Makes me gag: fried liver
Food tradition I don't like: black-eyed peas on New Year's
Saturday night food: Rosie's (Mexican)
Favorite wild foods: strawberries - does that count?
Favorite food for sex play: food for sex play? Is that sanitary?
Favorite medicinal food: Wine - it's medicianl for me.
Food that reflects my heritage: fried okra, cornbread, kraut n weanies, pecan pie
Food most like me: M&M's sweet, colorful, & easy to take-along
Favorite raw food smell: fresh-ground coffee

M&M's puzzle

While reading blogs I ran across this link to an interesting puzzle sponsored by M&M's (my favorite chocolate). I managed to get 39 with lots of help from the internet. See if you can help me out. I can't figure out the fish, monkeys, juggling pennies, the lady holding a barrell of water, the lady with 2 children, the M on the stairs, the two men on the stairs, the planets, the man peering out the window with a telescope, the mountain, the 'dark' doorway, plus a few others.

Christmas Meme

My friends in Sunday School have been emailing this meme around and I thought it a great way to introduce some memes to my blog.

Get To Know Ya Christmas Style

1) Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? Actually, I like General Foods Suisse Mocha.

2) Does Santa Claus wrap the presents or just put them under the tree? Santa does not actually visit our house. Neither does the tooth fairy or Easter Bunny.

3)White lights or colored on the tree/house? Well, we like the whites the most. My tree is traditionally all white. I have some color in my yard display. The children like colored lights on their minature trees in their rooms. Of course, at the time of this blog there are no Christmas lights on at my house yet.

4) Do you hang mistletoe? No. I probably would, though, if someone gave me some.

5) When do you put the decorations up? Usually the first weekend in December that I am off work. Big plans for this weekend, I have.

6) What is your favorite holiday dish excluding dessert? Fruit salad or chicken and dressing

7) What is your favorite holiday memory as a child? This is too hard to narrow down. My parents always made Christmas special at our house. We always had lots of food and family gatherings.

8)When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have an older brother so we both 'figured it out' about the same time. I think I was 8.

9) Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Actually, since there is no Santa visit we open all of our Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. We save our stockings for Christmas morning.

10) How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I collect Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments and I have a lot!!! They no longer all fit on the tree so I choose some for other areas of the house.

11) Snow. Love it or dread it? Snow? What is snow? I have a distant memory of it snowing on January 1 of 2000. But that was our last real snow here in North Alabama. We generally have to go snow skiing to see good snow and I love it.

12) Can you ice skate? Yes, a little.

13) Do you remember your favorite gift? I think it would be the year I got a big-girl bike.

14) What is the most importang thing about the holidays for you? Well of course I am going to say celebrating the miracle of Christ's birth. But outside of that it is spending time with family.

15) What is your favorite holiday dessert? fudge

16) What is your favorite holiday tradition? With the kids we try to decorate a gingerbread house together every year. For many years my family had this crazy tradition of watching the movie, E.T. on Christmas Eve.

17)What tops your tree? An angel

18)Which do you prefer - giving or receiving? What a silly question!

19) What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carol of the Bells, I'll Be Home for Christmas, Why Can't Everyday Be Like Christmas.

20)Candy canes - yuck or yum? Yum, especially Bob's Old Fashioned Sugar Canes which I haven't been able to find this year.

21) Favorite Christmas Movie? It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Charlie Brown Christmas... what don't I like?

22) What do you leave out for Santa? see #2

23) (I added this one myself) When do you complete your Christmas shopping? Usually, I start in August and consider it a success if finished by October 1. I like them wrapped by November 1. Of course, there are always last minute things but I hate going in the stores this time of year and try to really plan out my presents in advance.

Okay. That was fun. Let's see if anyone else reads my blog. Come on BearsInExile, AtHomeDaddy, Cherry Extract, Maya's Granny, LittleTrucker.

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday (or the anniversary of my 27th birthday actually). It was a good birthday. I did not have to work, my husband remembered and (gasp) bought me a present. Last night at the Maccaroni Grill I was serenaded in Italian by Robert and presented with a huge piece of chocolate cake. My presents included an Auburn tag for the front of my car and a new pair of headphones. My present to myself was a new sweater I found at Dick's Sporting Goods last week.

So the Christmas season is officially upon us. I am listening to seasonal music this morning and I suspect I need to get busy and decorate before we are shunned by our neighbors.

Despite several days of eating whatever was at hand and celebrating my birthday (and those wonderful fried peach pies), I had a net loss this week. I know I started last week rededicating myself to dieting but Wednesday's events "through a wrench in my gears". I did manage to Nordic Trac 3 days and I tried hard to make good choices. I am still happy to be losing and hope it continues, however slow.

9.0 lbs

Funeral

Well, I got through several days of visiting family and the funeral. It was a very draining time emotionally. However, it is good to see so many family members. I got through my "solo" at the cemetary, also. Thank you to my cousin Nita for standing by me during the solo and for all the encouraging words.

My grandfather was buried with military honors and I am thankful for the service people who drove over 70 miles to honor him at the funeral.

I enjoyed spending time with my brother and his family. Our children do not get to see each other often and enjoyed the visit.

Over 200 people attended either visitaion or the funeral. It makes my heart swell to know that my grandfather was loved by so many people. However, his leaving leaves a empty place in my heart.

Thank you to everyone who left comments or called or remembered us in their prayers.