First three things.

Three things! The first three things post of 2012! I'm carrying over a theme from last year, like continuing with a New Year's resolution. Consistency and routine is the name of the survival game; it's going to be what keeps my blog going.

Thing #1: Film

We saw two movies on Saturday, one right after the other. The first was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Who could say no to over two and a half hours of Daniel Craig? He did not disappoint, but he was a little more covered up in most of it than I would have liked. Wish I could have said that about the girl with the dragon tattoo. There was something about her naked body that bothered me. It was so incredibly thin, and there was this muscle that stretched across the length of her ribcage that you could see contracting. It was disturbing. Actually, there were many things that were disturbing about the movie, but not necessarily all in a bad way. I thought the use of disturbing scenes was effective, and if you're looking for an action thriller then you could spend your time watching a worse movie.

We also saw The Artist. This movie was a sweet little film that was clever and visually impressive, but ultimately, for me, a little light; a little fluffy. Maybe it just seemed that way because I had just spent a couple of hours watching a somewhat violent drama, but nevertheless I liked this film. I don't like silent movies as a rule, but this one held my attention. The well-trained dog helped quite a bit.

Thing #2: Vampires and Werewolves

I can't even begin to count how many pages of vampire and werewolf melodrama that I have read over the past couple of weeks. It started the week after Christmas when I plowed through New Moon in two days (how glorious it is to spend two days reading!). Because the book went so quickly and because the story is so enticing despite the frustration I feel at the utter simplicity of the writing and character development, I immediately went to my local public library and checked out the final two books in the saga. I devoured the third one with almost as much speed, but because work and routine are getting in the way again, my progress on the fourth book is somewhat less speedy.

The series, as I said, is enticing and gripping in the way soap operas tend to be, but also as I said, I am just so frustrated at the flat emotional output that I have when I read the books. So what does this mean? It means that there is only so much sparkle and so many tortured vampire looks that I can take. I have reached saturation, but will finish the book and the series - can't give up with only one hundred and fifty pages to go!

Thing #3: Weight Watchers

And yes, my third thing to write about is Weight Watchers. I joined Weight Watchers at Work, which is Weight Watchers but with meetings held at the workplace. The informational meeting was this past Friday, and our first meeting is this coming Friday. I won't be around for the first meeting, where we have our initial weigh-in, set our goal weights, and determine what our daily point allowance will be (so I'll be a week behind everyone else), but at least I've paid my monthly dues. That's a start.

Why join Weight Watchers, you may ask? Well, I asked myself that same question as I looked around the room of easily forty women (and a couple of men!) and felt like the smallest person in the room. But this is not necessarily about weight for me, though I would be lying if I said that I didn't want to lose a few pounds. This is about re-establishing a healthy relationship with food for me. In my last post I mentioned that I had put on a few pounds since Wyatt died, and that's true. For the past year and a half I have been trying to eat my emotions (as if happiness or contentment really does live in a bag of potato chips). Emotional eating has never really been my thing and I don't like it, but I'm at the point that I don't really know how to stop it. I eat well for a few days and then have one chip or one French fry, or one cookie, and bam! The whole bag is gone. So I'm hoping Jennifer Hudson and Charles Barkley can support and encourage me in ways that I don't seem to be able to do for myself.

So yes. Three things. Movies, books, and food. That's my life, people, all right there in those three things.

Weekly update.

So here's the weekly update (warning - I don't have any new photos).

We took Sherman to the emergency vet last Sunday morning. I won't go into the details of why, but let's just say that I noticed something about him that was abnormal and concerning. So, we pack him up and drive him to Walpole to the Tufts emergency vet clinic. It's odd being there just about a year after we brought Wyatt there, but hey. That's the way the cookie crumbles. So the vet sees Sherman and determines that while he doesn't seem to have an emergency per se, he does seem to have some medical problems, none of them stemming from his neck surgery. (By the way, there was a vet on duty there that day, Dr. Paul, who performed Sherman's neck surgery the day the Animal Rescue League brought him in and she was absolutely over the moon to see Sherman doing so well. She showed me photos of his wound pre-, during-, and post-surgery. I'm telling you, it's a miracle this cat is alive. Dr. Paul feels he was burned by the tailpipe of a car, and was convinced that he either wouldn't survive the surgery or that he would be deformed post-surgery. No to both. So Sherman is one lucky cat.) Anyway, we are currently trying to treat his itchy ears and the issue for which we brought him to the vet, and if these treatments do not work then we need to take Sherman to a dermatologist for his ears and an internist for his other issue.

So. That's the deal with Sherman. We have been giving him his ear drops still and also his new oral medicine, and he hates both, and I end up wearing more of both medicines than actually get into his ears or mouth because he thrashes about when we are administering them, but we're still trying. And we're still trying to get Sasha and Meg to coexist with Sherman. I feel that Meg is now used to him. She walks around him and stays in the same room as him, and she'll give the most inoccuous growls in his direction only when he is within maybe 5 feet of her. So I consider her integrated. Sasha... well, she's still another story, but who knows. Some days she can be within five feet of him and not pull a Linda Blair-Exorcist move. Other times she can't. Overall there's progress, but still. My nerves are pretty much shot from this whole thing and I cannot wait (let me reiterate - I CANNOT WAIT!) for our week's vacation away from the house, away from the commute, from work, and, most importantly these days, away from the cats.

On Thursday night I went to see The Names of Love, which was playing as part of the Boston French Film Festival. (What a fun film, by the way. It took on some pretty weighty issues, like the deportation of Jews in France in WWII and the French hostilities and open prejudices against Muslims and North Africans, but really didn't have a dark tone at all. If you want to see Sara Forestrier in all her glory, too, please see this movie.) I got to hang out with a very fun friend who I really do not see often enough, and all I did was blab the whole time about the cats, late-quarter life crises, and a lot of other boring stuff. Next time we hang out it's her turn to vent. But I also got myself a ticket to the MFA, which I plan to use to see the new American wing of the museum either today or one night this week. Can't think of a better place to go to beat the heat.

And, on a final note, we're in the middle of a heat wave. Apparently there's a heat dome over the entire United States (and probably the world, and we'll be enclosed in this dome for eternity, until we shrivel like raisins or run out of water and die. At least that's the sense I'm getting from all the news reports, which really put me in a great mood and make me look oh-so-forward to the future.) and yesterday the temperatures in Boston cracked 100 degrees. I do not believe I ever remember the temperatures - in the shade, no less - ever cracking 100 around here. So yes, it was mighty hot. Still is. We put the air conditioner in the window last night and actually turned it on. I will honestly say that I am not complaining. I would much rather take a few days of this kind of heat than take months of this:



At least I can walk outside without turning into an icicle. And if I sweat and smell, so be it. I can always go inside somewhere to cool off, but in the winter I feel like I can never get warm enough. But I won't have to think about that for at least another four months, so for now I'm just going to focus on enjoying the summer. Here's to 100 degrees!

Weekend Edition.

I think that should be the new name of my blog. Or maybe "The Weekly Update." I seem to blog only once a week now, and it's mostly just a recap of what we've done (usually what we've done on the weekend).

Anyway, just a few things to catch you up on. I have a new addiction - to the WBUR app on my phone. I can listen to WBUR anytime now, and I do. While at the gym, while jogging, while on the train (until the signal cuts out), walking to and from the train... it's wonderful! I was listening in the mornings to a great recurring story on evaluating teachers (there is more than a little bit of me that is interested in being a teacher, even after listening to that series). And Weekend Edition on Sunday morning is perhaps my new favorite show to listen to. This is a case where I am happy to own a bit of modern technology. I think my phone does enhance my life.

Doug and I went to the Bruins parade yesterday (FYI - they won the Stanley Cup). It was a good time. It was also a very hot day, and thanks to the inaccurate weather forecast I brought with me my raincoat and umbrella, only to wish that I was wearing a sundress and had my sunhat. Doug was very happy to be there and so were the thousands of other revelers who stood out in the bright sun to cheer the Bruins on. We took the train into South Station and walked over to City Hall Plaza. It was a good place to watch from, but it's not like we could see much. We were about thirty people back from the road and the Duck Boats. BUT... we did get a glimpse of the team as they rolled by, and even of the Stanley Cup. It was fun to see all the black and gold confetti floating in the air. I'm so glad this parade wasn't for the Red Sox or the Patriots. I am tired of both teams, and tired of everyone wearing their red and blue. It's nice that another team has their moment of glory.

I saw two movies this weekend, too. First was Midnight in Paris, which was very good. Owen Wilson did a very good Woody Allen-lite character, and I enjoyed seeing Marion Cotillard and Lea Seydoux. French women are more than a bit beguiling. I also saw Bridesmaids, which was also very good, and actually quite funny. It was The Hangover, but for women. Same kinds of jokes, exact same idea, just with women. And like The Hangover, this movie somehow worked. Would I recommend it to men? Probably. The food-poisoning-pooping-in-the-street scene is something everyone can laugh about. Right?

What is perhaps most monumental and in need of relating, though, is that THE BIKE RACK IS NOW ON THE CAR! Doug, inspired by seeing Chara ride away from the Bruins parade on his bicycle, finally decided to grant my birthday wish of both last year and this year and got the bike rack on the car. So now we can bike. I'd love to bring the bikes to our vacation in Maine. Don't ask me where we'd ride to, and if we'd be in any kind of condition to ride around those hills (that's putting it mildly), but still. I can dream. It's good to dream.

It's all in the timing.

Here's a little update on us adding a third animal to our current brood - we have not added a third animal to our current brood, but not for lack of trying. We were delivered some sad news this past Friday about a dog that we were hoping would be ours (he will not be), and so now we are questioning whether or not we even want a third pet. I mean, this is probably just not in the cards for us right now. We'll just keep waiting and if the right one comes along then we'll act. If we get it, great. If not, then we don't. The timing just has to be right.

I really thought the timing was right this time, though. Girl Chris mentioned to me last week that a coworker of hers had to send one of his dogs back to the breeder, the male, because he needed to focus his attention on the female. Z is a 6 year-old coton de tulear, a stud who is just about the cutest dog you've ever seen. Almost exactly like this: (Photo courtesy of Dog Breed Info Center.) Z's owner brought him back to the breeder on Wednesday; on Thursday I emailed the breeder to get more info on Z and to find out about adoption; and on Friday I learned that Z was gone. Gone really before he was even brought back to the breeder - she had someone lined up for him already. The breeder did tell me that she had coton puppies available, very nice females and some sweet males. A puppy! Imagine the cuteness there! But of course I had to ask how much they were before I said yes, we'd take one, and of course they were just way, way too much for us. More than the Scottish fold! We could put at least three new, vinyl, energy-efficient windows in our house for the price of the puppy. So we had to say no (and more evidence that a shelter dog is the way to go - at least it won't break the bank!). And now we're back to the drawing board, waiting around for the right pet, while enjoying enjoying Meg and Sasha's company just fine (though the walking-on-the-stovetop-when-the-burner-is-on thing that Sasha does is a little annoying, I admit).

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We saw our friends Jessica and Neil last night. Ate dinner at Shawarma King and saw Mademoiselle Chambon. Doug and I hadn't spent an evening in Coolidge Corner in quite some time, and we're not quite sure why. It took us all of 20 to 25 minutes to get there, and probably even less to get back. I guess we're just habituated to our little neck of the woods, and habits are hard to break. Our dinners may have been enough to encourage us to break habit a little more often, though, because you can't get good Middle Eastern around here, really. There is a place in Norwood that we've been to, and a new Lebanese restaurant opened up near the Home Depot we go to in West Roxbury, but still. When we lived in Allston we could - and did - walk to Coolidge Corner to Shawarma King, Trader Joe's, Gourmet India (no longer there, but still), Lemongrass... it was all right there within walking distance. There really isn't much near us within walking distance. Nothing that seems as convenient, anyway. That, of course, got us all to talking about living in a condo in the city or living in a house in the burbs. There are pros and cons to both options, really, but I do see advantages to urban condo living (and so does my stomach).

Though we do have a good movie theater here in our zip-code, and it's where we saw I am Love, the movie that I thought was essentially the same as Mademoiselle Chambon, only in Italian. Both had minimal dialogue and told their stories through visual and other audio cues, like music. Both were about people (a woman in I am Love and a man in Mademoiselle Chambon) in the middle of their life who were apparently unsatisfied with it, and chose to find satisfaction in the company of someone other than their spouse. I won't say more about either, in case you want to see them, but I will say that I while I do recommend both I would not take either too seriously. Because the directors did, in Mademoiselle Chambon especially. Some of the lines - right out of the playbook. How can I still recommend it, then? Because, it's a French movie, and I'm biased towards anything even remotely French. French fries, for example, are my favorite vegetable :)

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In other news, I've finished the back part of my quilt. I have a photo, but just didn't upload it. You'll see it next time. Next step is to get some batting and to start assembling! Hopefully I'll have it done by next summer, but it all has to do with timing (as in having enough free time and being motivated enough in that free time to work on it). Seems that's a theme these days!

Too many things on the list.

Often I find that I have way more things on my to-do list than I have hours in my day. Tonight is no exception. I wanted to come home, quickly do chores, go to the gym, cook dinner, eat dinner, hang up some of the art that we got at the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, blog, do some brief work on the computer, work on my photos a bit, head upstairs to watch Coco Channel, and be sleeping by 11pm. Well, you can never tell me that I'm not ambitious! Needless to say, not everything's going to get done. No Coco for me tonight, which may be just as well, since it's long and I'm not the biggest fan of Shirley Maclaine. For me she's like tomatoes. Sometimes I like them, but often I don't.

Anyway, last weekend Doug, my mother, my brother, and I made our annual trip to the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival. Last year my sister joined us, but this year she's in Maine so she couldn't be there. We missed her, but she's probably having a blast in Maine and not thinking at all about art. We thought a lot about art, though, and made a few key acquisitions for our art wall. It's funny, but last year I don't remember seeing much art that I really connected with at all. We bought a small watercolor for the art wall, but that's it. And this year we connected with many, many things. And so did my mother, who bought several pieces of art for the rooms that she's redecorating. She bought a really nice piece of original art - a scene on Sconset in Nantucket - that was supposed to be for her bathroom, but it's really too nice for the bathroom so now she has to find another, more prominent place, to put it. It's nice to have these dilemmas.

At the art show we saw other kinds of neat things, like animals (and their butts) and nineteenth century whaling ships being restored and smiles from my brother! That might have been the loveliest part of the day.

And I can tell you what wasn't the loveliest part of the day. Seeing The Expendables. It's not that I didn't enjoy spending time with my mother and brother or being in the movie theater (I rather enjoy the movie theater, really the best way to see most movies), but I was very disappointed in the movie. I know, but really, what was I expecting? Certainly not good acting, a good plot, and understandable dialog from a movie staring and directed by Sly Stallone. But I was, actually. Turns out this might have been the best part of the whole show: Next time I think we'll have to listen to what my brother tells us The New Yorker says. We'll let it be our cultural guide.

Nothing much.

I don't really have anything to blog about. I was going to blog about the Oscars, but I have nothing else to add to the night; dear Chris summed up the evening nicely with the photos of the pretty dresses. I will say this about the evening, though - we turned it off right after the Hugh Jackman-Beyoncé musical routine and I don't feel like I missed a whole lot. I was pushing for Mickey Rourke to win the best actor Oscar, but that's probably because I have yet to see Milk. I recently read a Rolling Stone interview with Sean Penn, and while it didn't make him seem like a terrible guy I do think that for me he's a little clichéd. He seems to play himself in every movie - slightly gruff, slightly sensitive, a five o'clock shadow personality. But maybe this is why his role in Milk was so great - Harvey Milk may have been his polar opposite.

Anyway, I picked myself up this jacket at the end of season blowout sale at a local sports store and I've been living in it. Literally. I have been wearing it as an extra layer to protect me from the biting winds that we've been having, but then when I come into the house I don't ever take it off. This is a way for me to layer up without having the bulk of a second wool sweater, or of a sweater and hoodie. I imagine you'll be seeing a lot of me in this jacket come spring, even though it's apparently a model from the Marmot fall collection. Fall, spring - what's the difference, really. Spring is just as cold and wet as fall it seems, so I don't think I'll feel too what-not-to-wear this coming season. Plus, I love the color. So bright! So spring! I need all the color I can get in my life right now, so this little jacket is here to stay.

Other than that, I really have very little to say. My mother and brother were here this past weekend for an overnight - our guest bed had its first guest in my mom. She thought the guestroom was very cozy and didn't mind the bed, so that's an endorsement for future visitors... the room won the mom approval award, so please book your stay now! We've put a kitty window shelf in our bedroom, so Meg has been sleeping there at night; you won't have to share the bed with Meg anymore. Though the bed has been no less hairy... I think she still prefers the warmth of the covers during the day when the heat is down low. Never fear, though - we give the bed a thorough vacuuming before the guests come.

Time to do a little work before watching a recorded Antiques Roadshow - Wichita, part 2. Yay!

Killing Hitler is killing me.

I have been reading Killing Hitler for over a month now and I want it to be over already! I was hoping it would be a little more lively, would pump a little life into war history (which I normally don't like and this book isn't helping to change that opinion), but so far it's desert dry. And it's taking so long to read! I only read now on the train to and from work (and some nights I'm coming home from work so late that my eyes sting and I can barely see straight - is there a rule that says one should not stare in front of a computer screen for thirteen hours straight? Because if there isn't, I'm going to make one.), and non-fiction always takes me longer to read than fiction. This means that I've still got about one hundred pages to go. Ahh! Enough! I keep seeing great books that I want to start reading (American Lion for example), but I can't give up on this book yet. So close to finishing... so close to completion. I have a hard time giving up on books. I'd rather skim parts to speed to the end than start a book and not finish it. Does anyone else have this problem? I guess I just feel badly for bad books... it's like I don't want their feelings to be hurt, or I don't want them to hate me for not liking them, for not seeing them through to the end. This probably indicates some serious psychological problem, but hey, I wouldn't be surprised there. I should probably be speeding through those last one hundred pages right now... I've got Elegance of the Hedgehog sitting on my nightstand, waiting for me to open it and dive in. I just can't bring myself to pick Hitler up. I'm just not that into it.

As for movies, well I've been watching a few (or starting them and then falling asleep before finishing). The most recent ones I've seen are The Seventh Seal, the classic Ingmar Bergman film that takes a look at a medieval knight who engages in a game of chess with Death. We're trying to watch more classics, and while I'm not a huge fan of black and white movies (I tend to like a lot of color in my life), I'm getting the hang of appreciating them. I thought this one was good, and I liked that it was in Swedish. Most foreign films I see are either French, Spanish, or an occasional Asian film. Bring on more Swedes!

Then last night I watched 95% of Brideshead Revisited (fell asleep for the last 15 minutes). The movie was good, but only good. Not great. It reminded me of Atonement in that the book was much better than the movie - you got so much more out of the story on paper than on screen. It really irritated me that on screen there was the budding of some kind of romance between Charles Ryder and Julia before their eventual meeting on the oceanliner. Hated that! And the subtleties of the religious tensions and of the alcoholism were not present in the movie. The camera takes in Julia as a whole upon our first viewing of her, and then focuses on the gold cross hanging around her neck. Hmmm, something about religion must be going to happen here! Great foreshadowing.

Anyway, what's up next for cinema? Nothing for tonight at least. Right now the Grammy's are on and I have no desire to watch, but I'm not sure what else we'll put on. I am Trying to Break Your Heart won't arrive until Tuesday, and The Dark Knight not until Wednesday, so until then the little time I have for TV will have to be filled with On Demand. Thank god for cable!

Food, food and more food.

Wow. I figured it was time for another blog, and really all that I have to write about is food. I've been cooking more from that Quick Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook from my sister, Doug finally got me to try the Half-Way Cafe in Dedham, and as a treat after a couple of very stressful days back at work we got dinner from Blue Ribbon. I have pictures of all of the above, of course.

First up - my own cooking adventures. I am a much better baker than I am a cook, I'll say that. Why? I think it's because if I overcook something like a cookie or a cake it's not going to burn. It will just get tough and won't be as tasty. But if I overcook something like a steak, or some kind of vegetable, I'm likely to practically burn the house down. Such was the case with my eggplant sandwiches, but I'll get to that. Here's a few photos of my Irish Golden Raisin Bread, a variation on an Irish soda bread. The bread is quite good, and even better warm with some melted butter. It has wheat germ in it, as well as raisins, so I don't feel quite so much like a sugar-saurus when I go back for a second slice.

Next up - photos of the eggplant sandwiches. They started out with such promise, and they ended up pretty good, but the in-between part was a little touch-and-go. I was supposed to broil the sliced eggplant (that was dipped in mayonnaise and parmesan cheese), but, not surprisingly, my broiling turned into burning. Yes, the smoke detector in our house did the usual blaring and screaming of, "Fire! Fire!", but I was able to salvage most of the eggplant to make the below sandwiches. Warning - they're very garlicky, so only eat them if you're not going to worry about your vicious breath. Thankfully, Doug and I were only breathing on each other that night (and our breath even with garlic fumes will always been a thousand times fresher than any of that of our cats) so it didn't really matter to us.

Okay, so as you may have read in my previous post, Doug was sick for the New Year's holiday. I felt a little bad for him so I thought we could get his spirits lifted by seeing a movie and then going out to dinner. We saw Gran Torino, which was very good, though not really an uplifting film. I left the theater with tears running down my cheeks, but I won't say any more about that. Doug suggested we have dinner at the Half-Way Cafe in Dedham (he thinks Mikey Adams goes to the one in Dedham), and since he said it was his dying wish to go I was obliging and went. We ate what we seem to eat everywhere... sandwiches. The sandwiches were fine, the fries were fine, the atmosphere was cramped but fine, so all in all the experience was fine. Is Doug sorry he used up his dying wish? Possibly. Here are a couple of photos.


And, of course, lastly we have our most recent Blue Ribbon experience. I love, love, love Blue Ribbon, but this time it was not so good. Possibly it was because we had to drive the meal about 10 miles back to our house so by the time we got to eat it the food was cold (and I'm sorry, but food reheated in a microwave never, ever tastes as good as the original), but it could also just be because, for whatever reason, the food was not as good tonight. It didn't help that Doug ordered the meat loaf platter and he got some kind of salad with a couple of slices of meat loaf on it, and that one of our cornbreads was left out of the order (and that the one we got was the nub - who likes to eat the nub?). This experience won't keep me away, of course, but it does make me disappointed. Here's a look at some of our Blue Ribbon not-so-goodness.


What will we be eating next? Spit pea soup. Haven't made it yet, but after a doctor's appointment (I've waited almost 9 months for this appointment!) and our mattress delivery, I think a good homemade meal tonight will be a treat.