Spring Favorites List

Heidi of 101 Cookbooks does these regular “Favorites Lists” where she highlights things she’s read or bought or cooked lately. And since I’m a copycat…

- Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cakes with Nutella and strawberries

- I read about glasses like these in a Hester Browne book, and now I want some for myself.

- My ideal engagement ring.

- Still obsessed with pink typewriters.

- Very excited about this book coming out next week.

- This one, too.

- I love this post on Susanna Kearsley’s blog, and her book recommendations.

- Make some pretty napkins!

- My latest dream house.

- Contemplating buying this car…or should I hold out for a Mini Cooper instead?

- I love the photography (and recipes) on this blog. That spanakopita looks so good I can almost taste it! And her curry and roti…

- Next time I’m on my own for dinner, I’m making this.

- I’m trying to convince my parents we should plant a Beetle in the garden.

- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

So I read this…

“I was a voracious reader of romantic fiction. Novels gripped me and were my favorite mental escape from trials and difficulties, or from an evening which had to be spent alone. With a good love story I was immediately transported into another world, and if the plot was exciting I could not put the book down until I finished it.

We were living with my brother on his ranch for the summer, and as there were no other yougn people around I had to occupy many evenings and found a good novel was my first resort. This particular time, it was an exciting story that I could not lay down. I never did read the modern sexy novels, but chose clean, exciting love stories. Very often these were not really true to life. Life does contain moments of adventure, but these times are interspersed with long periods of plain, unvarnished hard work. The real things of life are attained at these monotonous level periods, so to speak, more than they are at the high peaks of excitement. People who in their reading feed on the lurid and melodramatic are not prepared for the long stretches of routine work which fill every life. I believe this is partly responsible for many broken marriages today. Young people think married life should be all moonlight and thrills, and they balk when they find themselvs on the level stretches of plain, ordinary working together, which actually are the real life and backbone of a home.

Anyway, I was deep in the excitement of the book. Midnight came and I was so near the end that I could not stop. In fact, it was one o’clock in the morning before I finished the book and took up my Bible for evening devotions. But I got no blessing from it. Never had the Bible seemed so drab and dull. When I tried to pray, the Lord seemed far away. It’s just sleepiness, I told myself, and curled up for slumber.

But the next morning things were little better…”Oh Lord, what is wrong with me?” I prayed. “Why can’t I sense Your Presence now as I have lately? Why has the Bible become dry?”

“When a child fills her stomach with ice cream and soda pop,” the Lord seemed to answer, “why does she lose her appetite for meat and potatoes?”

“Lord, do You mean the novel did that to me?”

“It excited all the fleshly part of your nature, didn’t it? Did it to anything to help you spiritually?”

“Nothing, Lord. It kept me up so late. I’m tired this morning. Lord, if I promise to give up novel reading, will You come back to me? Will the Bible come alive to me again?”

“Try it and see.”

From that moment, the Lord was real and present once more and the Word took on new meaning.

From By Searching by Isobel Kuhn

This is a very good book, the story of a woman who decided early on at college that she was an agnostic and gradually came back to Christ, ending up as a missionary in China. But this passage…I’m not sure what to think. I am a voracious reader, not just of romantic fiction (though I do read a lot of romantic books), and I’ve only rarely come across a story that made God or the Bible seem dull to me. And when I do it’s usually a deliberate decision I make, or something else is going on in my life at the same time that compounds the problem.

I also have a lot of Christian friends who read a lot of fiction and don’t seem to feel a conviction that they need to stop.

So I guess the reason I wanted to post about this is not because, Oh my gosh, I’m having a spiritual crisis and need advice, but I am interested in having a discussion about this since a lot of you are those very Christian friends. Do you feel like the books you read have a detrimental effect on your spiritual life or relationship with God? Have you ever given up certain types of books temporarily to focus on the Bible or books about missionaries or books about Christian life in general? When you come across passages like that one do you feel convicted, or what?

Personally I feel a little convicted, not that I should stop reading all light or romantic fiction altogether but that I have let my reading standards slip lately and have been reading Harlequin Presents novels which have a lot more sex and ridiculously unrealistic portrayals of relationships than is good for me. I also feel convicted to read the Bible more and not let it slide so much, but that’s not something I let slide because it seems dull in comparison with the other books I’m reading or because I don’t have time, but because when I don’t have a through-the-Bible plan of some sort to work on I never know where to start. I flip aimlessly through and try to find something that applies to me, but that’s pretty ineffectual.

And I wouldn’t say she’s exactly wrong about too much romantic fiction leading to unrealistic expectations about life, but I also don’t think she gives people enough credit for knowing the difference between reality and fiction. This comes back to things I’ve said before in defense of romance novels – that I think most people are perfectly well aware that real life is rarely like fiction, and while we might indulge in a romantic daydream now and then it doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of being down to earth and knowing how to function on a day to day basis.

But that’s me. I’d really like to know what you think!

And I care what you think because…?

You’ve probably already heard about Joel Stein, who wrote in the New York Times that adults shouldn’t read young adult books because they’re embarrassing.

I think Kristen Cashore’s response is the best one I’ve seen: There’s no need to write rebuttals or even pay attention to him, because anyone who reads young adult books already knows that he’s wrong. “I can’t get myself worked up about this article. Why? Because he’s wrong. And he’s the one who loses out. I’m happily here with a lot of good books he’ll never read.”

I’m still here!

I feel like I’m becoming one of those people who drives everyone crazy: the Person Who Never Posts. I was having some trouble adjusting to my new glasses, so I stayed away from the computer and mostly just checked Facebook and Twitter to keep up with friends, and suddenly it’s been ages since I posted here (or on my other, even more sadly neglected blog).

So what’s new with me…um, I finally made edible Hot Cross Buns for Easter, and I watched Doctor Who the other night and discovered that Doomsday STILL makes me bawl like a baby even though I know what’s going to happen, and I read Nine Coaches Waiting for the zillionth time and discovered that I still love it more than any other novel I’ve ever read. Even Twilight. But I still love Twilight, too. If you were hoping I might “see the light”…keep dreaming.

At work we’re gearing up for a big switch to a new computer ILS, which means our entire catalog has to be migrated to the new system and then we all have to learn how to use the silly thing. This would be easier if they’d been training us on it, but so far only the catalogers have been trained. The processors (my job) have been told we’ll figure it out as we go, basically. Yay.

I’ve been using some organic ayurvedic face cleanser and moisturizer for the past month and it’s really making a difference, but it’s way too expensive to buy on a regular basis. I almost cried when I dropped the jar of clarifying oil and spilled half of it down the drain. That was $32 for a tiny little jar!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was driving to town and saw several hot air balloons floating along the highway, relatively close to the ground. I seriously want to go for a hot air balloon ride now! Maybe for my birthday…?

(Not my picture, this one’s for sale on Etsy.)

Speaking of Etsy, I found this yak today and fell head over heels in love:

And then I made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Zucchini Spaghetti for dinner and it was to die for.

There, I think we’re all caught up. I feel so much better, don’t you?

In which I am about to bore you to death with talk of makeup

I apologize for this in advance, but I saw this on someone else's blog and I've always been kind of obsessed with knowing what makeup and stuff people use, so I filled it out for myself.

Skin Care
What facial cleanser do you use?

Right now, St.Ives Apricot Scrub in the morning and Clearasil Daily Face Wash at night, but it changes all the time. Whatever’s cheapest and smells nice and doesn’t make my skin itch.
What toner do you use?
Witch hazel
What moisturizer do you use?
It changes about as often as my cleanser – right now I’m using a Boots Organics Daily Moisturizing Lotion, which smells a little too perfumey for me but makes my skin soft and doesn’t make me break out.
What eyecream do you use?
Um…none. I know I probably should use one, but my eyes water just thinking about putting something that close to them. (I have a really sensitive face, okay?)
How many times a day do you wash your face?
Twice! I used to wash three times a day because of a book I read in junior high, but my face was so dry it started peeling, so I went back to just two.
Do you use eye makeup remover?
Just soap and water.
If so, What kind?
Whatever I’m using to wash my face, and a wet cotton ball if I need to get some stubborn mascara off!
Is your skin oily, dry, or combination skin?
Oily and sensitive, which is the worst. I need oil-fighting stuff and acne-clearing stuff, but half of it makes my face itchy so I can’t use the lotions and such that work the best to clear up pimples.
What is the best part about your skin?
That it’s oily, so I don’t have to use a lot of moisturizers and I won’t get wrinkles until I’m really old – like, 40.
What are your skin problems?
It burns after about 5 minutes in the sun, and I break out pretty much any time I try something new on my face.
What sunblock do you use?
Avalon Organics Vitamin C lotion with SPF 15 for everyday, and Neutrogena Ultra Sheer SPF 45 for going outside in summer.

Makeup
What foundation do you use?
Skin 79 Super+ BB cream – it’s foundation, moisturizer, and sunscreen in one, it’s supposed to help clear breakouts (I haven’t noticed much of a change, but I haven’t been using it that long), and it stays on my face better than most makeup. You have to really rub or scratch at your skin to get it off without soap and water!
What powder do you use?
Bare Minerals Mineral Veil when I can afford it; L’Oreal True Match Super Blendable Powder (they’re the only ones who make makeup light enough for my skin) when I’m feeling frugal
What eyebrow pencil do you use?

None. I have naturally beautiful eyebrows.
What eyeliner do you use?
None. Eyeliner just makes me look like I got punched in the face.
What is your favorite eyeshadow?
Bare Minerals, because it’s fun to put on. It’s loose powder that you put on with a little brush, which feels nicer on your eyelids than those little spongey things.
What mascara do you use?
L’Oreal Voluminous
What are your favorite lipbalms/glosses/sticks?:
Maybelline Colorsensational lipstick in Pink Me Up – tap it on really lightly, so your lips look just barely pinker than normal. Then put lip gloss on top. I use Perfumeria Gal lip gloss in Peach. When I’m not wearing lipstick I’m addicted to Burts Bees Lip Balm with Mango Butter.
Hair
Do you color your hair?
Nope.
What is your stylists name?
I don’t really have a regular stylist.
What salon do you go to?
Wherever I feel like going, gosh.
What is your natural hair color?
Sort of a combination of blond, brown, and red.
What is your hair color now?
Ditto.
Do you have straight or curly hair?
Sort of wavy.
Do you use a curling iron?
Nope.
A straightener?
No.
Do you use a blowdryer?
No, it’s bad for your hair. Plus I hate the way it smells.
Do you use gel and if so, what kind?
Nope.
Do you use mousse, and if so, what kind?
No.
What shampoo do you use?
Kiss My Face Whenever Shampoo
What conditioner do you use?
Kiss My Face Whenever Conditioner
Do you use leave in conditioner?
No, it just makes my hair look greasy.
Scents
What deodorant do you use?
That Crystal deodorant rock stuff. I’m paranoid now that the regular stuff will cause breast cancer.

What body wash do you use?
Whatever nice-smelling soap I’ve bought most recently. Right now I’m using Dettol.
Do you use a loofah, washcloth or soap to wash?
I like the idea of loofahs, but I usually just use the bar of soap.
What perfumes do you use or like? Name five.
Clean Provence is the only one that I really love. I like a lot of perfumes in the bottle, but on me they all smell the same – sort of generically floral and powdery.
Do you always have to smell good?
It’s not so much that I have to smell good as that I have to feel clean. If I don’t take a shower every day I feel greasy and stinky, even if I’m not really. I do like lotions and things that smell nice, and I’m really picky about them. Lately I’ve been using The Body Shop Satsuma Body Butter, which smells wonderful, so I keep sniffing my arms, which probably makes me look like a lunatic.
Jewelry
Are diamonds really a girl’s best friend?
Not this girl.
What is your jewelry essential?
Um…whatever.
What jewelry do you wear most?
I don’t wear much jewelry. I have a lot, especially earrings, but I never remember to put them on in the morning.
What jewelry do you crave most?
Do people really crave jewelry? An engagement ring, I guess…? (joke)
Purses and Shoes
How many purses do you own?
I don’t know, four or five? I’m always looking for the perfect purse, but the ones I like always seem to cost about $400 so I end up with something cheap from Walmart instead.
Which is your favorite?
The pink one with mirror embroidery from India, except it’s too small and the zipper has a really sharp edge so I always scratch myself when I’m getting things out.
How many shoes do you own?
Um…two pairs of flats, a pair of (really low) wedges, five pairs of flip-flops, and some walking shoes.
Which pair is your favorite?
The bronze-colored flip-flops with henna designs
Who is your favorite handbag designer?
Coach, apparently. Not that I actually own one.
Who is your favorite shoe designer?
Um…Payless?
This or that;
Manolos or Jimmy Choos?
I wouldn’t pay that much for shoes even if I had the money.
Dolce and Gabbana or Chanel?
Neither.
Micheal Kors or Bebe?
Wouldn’t know either one if they were standing right in front of me.
Louis Vuitton or Coach?
Coach! Finally one I have an opinion about!
Gucci or Prada?
Whatever.
Miscellaneous
Favorite Magazine to read?
UK Country Living
Favorite nail polish?
Butter London in British Racing Green
Favourite Book?
Anything by Mary Stewart
Favorite Band?
U2
Favorite Girly Movie?
Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley one)
Are you high maintenence?
HA HA HA no.
Do you enjoy being a girl?
Usually.
DONE!!! What makeup do you use? Or like?

One more reason I’m going to be an old maid with 14 cats:

Yesterday I was looking for season 2 of Fringe when a guy walked up to me and started asking questions about the library – how long you can check movies out for, what time we close, that sort of thing. And then, when I was getting ready to politely move away and go about my business, he asked for my phone number, “if you don’t have a husband or boyfriend you’re going to watch that movie with.”

Ugghghghggh. When I imagine meeting a man at the library, he looks like Richard Armitage and we bond over some shared interest. When it actually happens, he looks like Dave Chappelle and acts like a sleazy cheeseball.

And for the record, “Randall”, it’s not anti-social to not give your phone number to a complete stranger.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

I’ve got house-hunting fever again, which, as we all know by now, never actually goes anywhere. But while it lasts I have fun looking for houses and imagining owning them and decorating them.

Right now I’m in love with one that looks like something out of a fairy tale and has a very hobbitish living room:

Though if I was really going to look for a hobbit house (and money/location was no object), this one would be even better:

My newest dream house…

…is this fairytale mansion in Siberia. I’m taxing the limits of my self-taught Russian to figure out what the text between the pictures says, but words aren’t really necessary, are they?

Imagine it in winter, covered in snow…

More pictures and details (if you can read Russian, that is) here.

And now I’m in the mood to rewatch Lucky: No Time For Love, even though Sneha Ullal’s baby voice annoys me, just because it takes place in Russia.

Random Pictures I’ve Been Hoarding

Tiny pig!

I love this idea for place settings.

The other royal wedding of the year: the king and queen of Bhutan. Isn’t she gorgeous?

I just love Corgis, don’t you?

Amrita Rao’s outfit at the Mausam premiere was so pretty.

One of these days I’m going to make these.

Old-fashioned elegance and glamour:

Much too cute to eat.

Prince Hisahito of Japan is TOO CUTE.

I just love these arches.

And this balcony.

And the poolside pavilion…basically I want to move in to the Lake Palace hotel in Udaipur, okay?

There’s something very Bollywood about this bridal bouquet.

I’m a published author!

I have an article in this month’s Femnista magazine, which you can read online or download here. It’s a magazine published by my friend Charity, which takes a Christian look at various books and movies and tv shows. For the Halloween issue she wanted a pro and con discussion of Twilight – I took the pro side, obviously.

October Movies

I would like to say that I didn’t watch many movies this month because I had better things to do, but…not really. I was just busy watching season 2 of Vampire Diaries, and then my sister and I watched Gilmore Girls every chance we got, so there wasn’t much time for movies.

Quantum of Solace (2008, English) – Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko
Follows up the events of Casino Royale, with Bond hoping to avenge Vesper Lynde’s death while pretending he’s fine and doesn’t need a break. It’s a Bond movie. It’s exciting while you’re watching it and then you forget everything you just watched…if you’re me, anyway.

Cowboys and Aliens (2011, English) – Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde
A man wakes up alone in the desert with a wound in his side and a strange metal device strapped to his wrist. He stumbles into town, gets in a fight, and winds up in jail…until spaceships appear over the town and start abducting people. It’s cheesy and predictable and silly, but also a lot of fun to watch. I wouldn’t buy the DVD and watch it twenty more times, but once, at the cheap theater, I liked it.

Bodyguard (2011, Hindi) – Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor
Bodyguard Lovely Singh is hired to protect the daughter of a man to whom he owes his life. Divya is annoyed by him at first, but comes to love him and wants to marry him. Lovely, however, is in love with the fictional Chayya, a character Divya and her friend Maya made up to prank call Lovely when he first showed up. Salman “naked mole rat” Khan creeps me out generally, but Kareena Kapoor is one of my favorite actresses and she made up for his sleazy-cheeseball-ness.

*Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002, Hindi) – Hrithik Roshan, Esha Deol, Saif Ali Khan
Esha and Rahul are pen pals, but agree never to meet or reveal their real names since Esha’s strict family would frown on her corresponding with a man. When Esha’s marriage is arranged to Rahul’s best friend, he figures out who she is but leaves without saying anything, not wanting to mess up the wedding plans. I can forgive a lot of things from late-nineties/early-00′s movies, and usually I can overlook Hrithik’s overacting, cheek-quivering, Stare of IntensityTM, but when Esha started fake-crying so badly that I actually felt my skin crawl, I turned it off. Life is too short.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 (2010, English) – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out on their own to find the Horcruxes which are the key to destroying Voldemort. This is the first of the Harry Potter movies that I actually loved and thought did justice to the books, and I cry from beginning to end at all sorts of random little places.

Moulin Rouge (2001, English) – Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman
In 1899 Paris, naive and romantic Christian falls in love with the courtesan Satine, but their love is doomed from the start when a wealthy duke also pursues her. Every once in a while I hear a song from Moulin Rouge and get all nostalgic about it, and then I rewatch it and realize that I don’t actually like the movie all that much. This was one of those times.

In Defense of the Romance Novel

This is a long-overdue post, but it’s taken me this long to sort out my thoughts on the subject and not rant and rave incoherently.

Back in May I started to see links to this article on several blogs. Almost everyone who linked to it seemed to agree with the author Russell Moore, who states that all romance novels – even the Christian ones, even the YA ones, even the ones with no sex scenes – can “hurt your heart” if you’re a woman. He worries that reading romance novels is the equivalent of porn for women. It might make us discontented with real life relationships, if we’re expecting an Alpha Male Hero and instead get, as he puts it, “what by comparison must seem to be underachieving lumps lying next to them on the couch”.

There were a few other articles at the same time, which I can’t find now to link to, saying much the same thing: Romance novels give women unrealistic expectations about love and men and romance and life. They encourage us to believe in happily ever after. They fill our heads with happy fluffy nonsense and turn us into mushy nitwits.

And always that refrain of “porn for women”.

Let me get my issues with that out of the way first: If you’re talking about the books where a thin veneer of plot is stretched between graphic, descriptive sex scenes, I agree with you. That is porn for women, because its only purpose is to arouse the reader, in the same way that “porn for men”, or visual porn, is designed only to arouse the viewer.

But to take that so far that you’d say Beverly Lewis’s books about Amish people falling in love are also porn is simply ridiculous.

Aha, but it’s “emotional porn”! they cry. It engages your emotions and makes you feel, or want to feel, what the characters are feeling. To which I respond: what is the point of reading a novel which doesn’t engage your emotions? If I’m reading a book and I don’t feel sad when the characters are sad, or frustrated when they’re frustrated, or scared when they’re scared, then I’ll probably put it down and never finish it. We’re supposed to be engaged by a story.

What bothers me even more than the porn comparison is the overall tone of these articles, especially when they’re written by men. “Oh, those poor silly little women,” they seem to be saying. “We can’t let them read things like that, it might fill their silly little heads with ideas and then us men will have to live up to Mr. Darcy instead of being able to sit around watching football and putting off mowing the lawn.” It’s appallingly sexist.

Even the secular articles which don’t try to convince you that romance novels are sinful take this tone. One doctor in England had an article – again, I can’t find the link – where she accused Mills and Boon (our Harlequin) novels of causing unplanned pregnancies. “Women read these books,” she said, “and then think it’s okay to have unprotected sex, and then they get pregnant and the father isn’t anything like a romantic hero, and that’s why we have so many single mothers: Mills and Boon novels.” (I’m paraphrasing from memory, obviously, but that was the gist of her argument.)

Look. If you’re using Harlequin romance novels as your guide to life, you have bigger problems than a possible unplanned pregnancy in your future. But I have yet to meet anyone who goes around asking herself what the heroine of The Greek Tycoon’s Pregnant Virgin Mistress Dilemma would do in every situation. Women read those books for an escape from humdrum every day life, not for realistic plots and characters.

I’m not married, so I can’t say whether reading romance novels makes you less in love with your husband. I do know that a lot of romance novelists get letters like the one Teresa Medeiros often talks about, from a woman who’d had a hysterectomy and was afraid she’d never feel any desire for her husband again, until she read one of Medeiros’s books. I also know that it isn’t romance novels which gave me my ideas of what men should be, it was Lord of the Rings. And that while it’s true that love stories in books and movies make me wish for romance in my own life, so far at least it hasn’t turned me into a romance-crazed ninny. It’s more of a “*wistful sigh* I hope the right guy comes along someday” feeling.

But that’s just me. If reading stories about romance fills you with contempt for your husband, or makes you want to run out and have a baby with the first Italian billionaire or vampire you find, maybe you should be looking elsewhere for your reading material.

Let’s just all imagine we live here for a moment.

(From The Cherry Blossom Girl‘s recent trip to Kenya.)

“After the power has gone out and your apartment is pitch black”…

…is not the best time to remember that you took the batteries out of your flashlight a few months ago and put them in your alarm clock.

Last night there was a crazy storm! No tornadoes, thankfully, but strong enough winds to bring down a lot of tree limbs around town. I thought I was never going to get to work this morning; it seemed like every street I turned onto to get away from one tree branch had an even bigger one blocking the way. I went to bed right as the storm was starting and lay there mentally kicking myself for not going to bed 2 hours earlier…I’d have been able to sleep through it then! I was tired enough that eventually I did fall asleep, but it was hot without the fan going (no power) and I had strange, disturbing dreams all night.

This morning I’d planned to go to McDonalds and get a mango-pineapple smoothie and hash browns for breakfast. I don’t allow myself to eat fast food for breakfast very often, so I was looking forward to it all week. I pulled up to the drive-through and ordered, and the guy said, “Sorry, we’re cleaning the smoothie machine right now.” So I said, “Fine, never mind, just the hash browns,” and he said, or at least it sounded like he said, “Blibberdiflobbit gargle gurgle glom.” I said, “What was that?” and it was silent for a good two minutes. So I just drove off and went to Spangles for breakfast instead.

Ugh.

Not to be yet another person complaining about the weather, but…it is really bloody hot. I’ve never been a summer person, but I don’t remember it ever affecting me so much before. There are days when I feel like I will actually go crazy from the heat. I’m not sleeping well, either, which doesn’t help – even with a ceiling fan overhead and a smaller fan next to my bed, and the air conditioning on, I wake up feeling sweaty and miserable and annoyed, and still tired.

I’m not sure whether it’s tied to the heat or not, but I’ve felt very discouraged and hopeless about a lot of things lately. I feel stuck in a rut and annoyed about it, but I can’t see the way to get out. It’s like I can see the person I want to be and the life I’d like to be living, but I can’t figure out how to get there from here.

Well, I’m cheerful today. Now you see why I haven’t been on here much lately?

Hello again!

I would like to do some sort of “what I’ve done on my vacation” summary post, but it would not take very long:

Baked a cake, watched Full House (the Korean drama, not the ridiculous old American TV show), read two Vicky Bliss books, saw Harry Potter, turned 29, went to my Grandma’s funeral, lamented choosing not to go to Washington and Oregon where it’s only 70 degrees and staying in Kansas where it’s over 100 every day, took the dog for four walks per day, discovered Jamba Juice Strawberry Lemonade popsicles.

That’s about it. I tried to go to the library the other day to pick up some holds that have come in for me and were taken to my desk, but I got halfway up the stairs to my office before I realized I didn’t have my ID badge with me and wouldn’t be able to get in.

Three people this week have told me I should be writing novels. Clearly they’ve never read anything I’ve written.

I hate coming up with titles for these things.

I spent all weekend wishing I could get to the computer to write a massive entry on everything that’s been going through my head lately. Now I’m at a computer and I can’t remember any of it. Argh.

On Friday I made Alicia Paulson’s Go-To Birthday Cake for my mom. The cake itself is very good, but the frosting is just too much, especially for a frosting-hater like me. And as you might have seen on Facebook, it didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as Alicia’s. There’s still quite a bit of it left, so stop by for a slice if you’re in the neighborhood!

Then I went home and watched Eclipse twice (once with the Kristen Stewart/Robert Pattinson commentary on). Oh yeah, that was one of the things I wanted to write about. But I don’t think I’m going to. I always feel like when I mention Twilight people are rolling their eyes and thinking, “Get over it already!”

Last night I played tennis for the first time in years. It’s funny, because I hate playing sports in general, but for some reason I like tennis. I’m no good at it, and get stressed out if I have to actually remember any rules, but as long as I can just hit the ball back and forth and run around a little, I am as happy as a little kid. Maybe it’s because we never played tennis in school, so the evil P.E. teacher couldn’t ruin it for me. (I’m not exaggerating when I call her evil. When I was in 6th grade she called me over one day while we were playing dodge ball or something to tell me that I needed to lose weight (I was mildly chubby at the time, but hardly obese) because “no one will like you in junior high if you’re fat”.)

Yesterday our Jane Austen Book Club finally met to discuss Sense and Sensibility, and I met the friendliest cat I’ve ever come across. He rolled over and plastered himself against my leg, and headbutted me every time I stopped petting him. He even let me rub his belly! I tried to take him home with me, but Karly wouldn’t let me.

I’m reading M.M. Kaye right now, which makes me daydream about living in India in the 1910s, wearing white tea dresses and playing croquet and taking tea in the afternoon. Maybe I’ll have a theme party for my birthday and that’s what we’ll do…

Life in Tornado Alley

Saturday evening I sat down to watch an episode of MI-5 (oh, Richard Armitage) and enjoy my cheese enchiladas (I’ve given up trying to make my own enchilada sauce and gone back to Old El Paso…I feel much less domestically competent, but at least I want to eat the results) with a side of refried beans (also, tragically, from a can). Just as I paused the show and got up to put my plate in the sink, the tornado sirens went off.

I grabbed the first few things I could think of that seemed necessary (my phone, my wallet, and a book to read) and went down to the laundry room which doubles as a tornado shelter at my apartment. Fortunately I live far enough north and west that there wasn’t much to get excited about, just some pea-sized hail and a few soaking-wet people who stumbled in full of stories about seeing funnel clouds above the restaurant where they’d been eating dinner. So I spent 40 minutes reading Sense and Sensibility while a large black and white dog named Igby attempted to sit on my lap, and then the storm moved on and I went back home to finish MI-5 and wash the dishes, keeping an eye on the weather reports in case things turned nasty again.

And that’s as close as I ever want to come to a tornado, thank you very much!

Not my style.

My dad thinks he’s figured out the problem with my car’s air conditioner, so he’s keeping it for a week to work on it.

This is what I get to drive in the meantime.

I know I said Hondas were boring and I was looking for something new, but this was not what I had in mind!

House-Hunters, Jane Austen Edition

As you may know, I have a bit of a house-hunting obsession. I don’t know why – I’m nervous enough living on my own in a one-bedroom apartment, so I can’t imagine what I’d be like in an entire house full of closets and rooms and places for burglars and vampires and goblins to hide – but there you are. I am nothing if not irrational.

Lately, though, I haven’t been finding many houses I like on the Topeka-area house hunting websites, so I set my sights a little farther afield. Like, say, Bath?

You don’t find listings like this in Kansas!

Sydney Buildings: “An exquisite Grade II listed semi-detached Regency home in this highly desirable location.”

Very reasonably priced at…oh. 1.3 million pounds. I knew there was a catch!

Good Friday

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

Thomas Kelly, Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture, 1804

Not the brightest crayon in the box…

Basically, ignore everything I said about the Magical Breakfast Cream being disgusting yesterday…it was only disgusting because the yogurt I was using was over a week past its expiration date! I thought it said April 18, but I looked at it closer last night and it said April 8. I don’t know if yogurt can technically go bad, since it’s fermented or cultured or whatever, but it definitely gets more and more sour the older it gets, so that was making the MBC taste more sour and acidic than it was supposed to.

So I started over this morning with a fresh container of yogurt, and it was SO GOOD. Due to this revelation, I am going to share the recipe with you:

Magical Breakfast Cream

1. Put 4-6 tablespoons of plain, full-fat yogurt (can use Greek yogurt too, just make sure it’s at least the 2% kind because you want the fat in this) in a bowl.

2. Stir in 1 tsp flaxseed oil (or safflower oil, or nut oil, or any healthy oil that doesn’t have a strong flavor). Mix well.

3. Stir in 2 tablespoons of fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Mix well.

4. Stir in 1 tsp of honey (or 2 tsp maple syrup). Mix well.

5. In coffee grinder or small food processor (or mortar and pestle), grind enough plain shredded wheat cereal (or oatmeal, or another high-fiber low-sugar cereal) to make 2 tablespoons when crushed, and enough walnuts to make 2 teaspoons when ground. Add to yogurt mixture.

You can add fruit to this if you want – Mireille Guiliano suggests half a banana, mashed, or some dried berries – or eat it plain. I like it plain (well, I do now), and eat a banana around mid-morning so I’m not falling over from hunger when I get home for lunch.

Want!!!

I’ve never been very good at patience, especially when it comes to shopping. Credit card companies love me because “Impulse Buy” is my middle name, and if I don’t have the cash, well, charge it!

I’m trying to change, though. I’m trying to stop using my credit card and save up money a little at a time for some of the more expensive things I need. Sure, I could just go ahead and buy whatever it is I want, but I think I’ll feel better about it if I wait until I actually have the money to pay for things instead.

What is the point of all this? Oh, you know, just a clever introduction to my latest list of Things I Want But Cannot Buy At the Moment.

Sari-inspired bedspread from Saffron Marigold. (And yes, I know I just bought “the bedspread of my dreams” from Urban Outfitters a few months ago. A bedspread is not a husband, you know; a girl is allowed more than one!)

Garnet ring from OneGarnetGirl on Etsy. Well, I really want this one, but it costs almost 4 times as much, so I’m trying to be realistic.

Strawberry Tea Cup

Vintage peacock-feather-embroidered purse.

And in the “I don’t know what I’d do with it because I wouldn’t have the guts to wear a sari in public but I WANT it!” category, this sari is my newest obsession. At first I thought about buying it to turn into a shower curtain, but I really don’t think I’d have the heart to cut it up!

Aloha.

I like how sometimes I start feeling sorry for myself because no one’s left any comments on my blog for a while, and then I realize that it’s been a week since I posted anything or left comments on anyone else’s blog, so what do I expect you all to comment on?

So, hello. I am still here. I had a five-day weekend and it was lovely and I wish I had thought to take Monday off as well because I’m kind of liking just being lazy and doing things at home and having time to cook nice things for lunch instead of having to heat up leftovers and gobble them down in ten minutes before taking the dog out, getting the mail, and rushing back to work.

Oh well, at least I have some nice things in the fridge for the week: spaghetti and meatballs and vegetable tacos – I highly recommend the Vigo Yellow Rice mix, which I tried for the first time with these. And tomorrow night I’m making chicken in lemon-tarragon-cream sauce to be served with rice pilaf and parsley-buttered carrots.

I’m a huge fan of this cookbook right now.

I recommend pretty much everything in it. Every recipe I’ve tried has turned out marvelously.

Lazy Saturday in Pictures and Exclamation Points

Replaced the ugly old toothbrush holder with a Moroccan tea glass!

Easter candy!

Tulips!

Cupcakes!

Reading!

And making blueberry cheesecake bars, but they’re still in the oven so I don’t have any pictures yet.