You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
It started with Little House on the Prairie and The Boxcar Children before moving on to Anne of Green Gables and The Nancy Drew Files. I wouldn’t even realize it until much later, though, and by then I was old enough to face the truth. I have addictive personality disorder.
To be completely honest, I’ve never been diagnosed. I’m not even sure it’s something you can be diagnosed with. It was only when I began Netflixing the first season of Veronica Mars and found myself buying the entire series within 24 hours of watching the first disc that it became truly apparent to me: Books, movies, hobbies–each of these had the potential to completely hijack my life, sometimes for a week, sometimes for years. Phone calls go unreturned and happy hours unattended. My brain becomes consumed and the line between reality and fiction blurs a bit.
Last night I could feel it creeping up on me again. The coldness of an oncoming obsession. The tight ball of anticipation.
My brother had pushed the boxed set of Heroes Season 1 into my hands on Sunday during a break in the football action, securing my word that I would give it a fair shake. One episode in–which was intended to lull me to sleep–and I’m already consumed with that most horrible of questions: “What next?”
Add another one to the list. Superheroes get me every time.
A little bird just reminded me that today is the end of November’s blogginess. And while it seems as if I should close out the month with a bit of reflection, I’m too busy looking forward–forward to Christmas tree chopping and trimming, forward to football games that remind me of where I’m from, forward to weekends with friends old and new, and forward to new challenges.
Here it is the last day of November and December already holds a new opportunity for me.
After the death of my grandmother in June 2006, there was a debate about who should inherit her magnificent diamond pendant. It was my mother who finally decided that it would be shared among the daughters and grandaughters, each having roughly a month with the necklace and accompanying journal.
Did you get this idea from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Mom?”
“What are you talking about, Kate?”
“It’s these books… and well… it’s a movie now, too, with Rory from the Gilmore Girls–I can’t believe Dad loves that show so much–and anyway, they have this pair of jeans that fits them all perfectly and… “
“What?”
“Well, they are all different sizes… oh nevermind. Sounds like a great idea.”
We refer to the necklace as “Elle.” I know my mother selected the name because it is the literal interpretation my grandmother’s first initial, but I love it for what it represents on a broader scale. Elle the French word for “she.” And as we pass it around to each of the “she”s in my family, recording our experiences and thoughts in a journal to be shared with one another, I find that when my turn arrives I feel a renewed sense of purpose to represent my grandmother, my mother, my aunts, my cousins, and each of their daughters.
December is my month with Elle. December is a time of family and tradition and remembering the past year and looking forward to the new year. I can’t wait!
hint: yesterday evening
After a week of holiday travel, a day of airport delays, and 8 hours of playing catch-up at the office, coming home to two cats and a sweet boy and preparing soup and pie to ward off the cold before cuddling up on the couch with the New York crossword puzzle (the magazine NOT the Times–let’s not kid ourselves) was nothing short of h-e-a-v-e-n.
I cannot wait to dive into The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones–the autobiography of the editor behind Anne Franks’ Diary, Julia Child’s cookbooks, and John Updike’s fiction (just to namedrop a bit). Nevertheless, I’m holding off until I finish my holiday shopping. Luckily I have Powells.com’s interview with the lady herself to tide me over in the meantime.
Last week, I dove into Don Delillo’s Underworld, after months of feet dragging and bedside table intimidation. Instantly captivated by the (60-page) prologue, I set out to find some background information on Mr. Delillo.
In Conversations with Don Delillo published by University of Mississippi Press (2005), Delillo said the primary influences on his work and development are “abstract expressionism, foreign films, and jazz.”
Jazz. I love that. The idea of a musical style influencing a writing style. The repeated themes and refrains, the bridges, the melody. A marriage of artistic mediums. A novel approach to putting the pen to the paper.
My attempts at NaNoWriMo this November have been less than inspirational, but these tidbits of wisdom are what keep me returning to the notebook and laptop.
I can never have too many tote bags: lovely for knitting, shopping, books, ect. And there are no words for how much I love this one–
Find it at www.buildanest.com. I mention this only because it’s that special time of year when we’re all desperately trying to find the perfect gift–and if you can’t find the “perfect” gift, check out this Web site and find a cute (and charitable!) gift:
Nest is a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of women in developing countries. The mission of Nest is to support women artists and artisans in the developing world by helping them create sustainable entrepreneurial businesses. To do this, Nest provides micro-credit loans to be used for the purchase of the supplies and materials necessary to begin and/or maintain art or craft-based businesses.
The funds for these loans are generated by selling a unique line of clothing, accessories and merchandise for the home produced exclusively for Nest by a group of artists and designers.
Happy shopping!
Last Wednesday. A conversation between me and my younger brother, a Mizzou alumni.
Me: Chris was being weird about going to your gig on Saturday night because of the Mizzou game. I told him he could watch the game at the bar.
Bro: Yup. It’s a sports bar. Crazy how everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.
Me: What’s the deal with Mizzou football, anyway? Are they still ranked?
Bro: Kate. (pause). They are number 4 in the nation. (pause). If they win on Saturday, they could be number 1.
Me: Oh. They don’t tell you this stuff out East… I want to jump on the bandwagon, too!
By the way, they won.
I think the CBS News article sums it up nicely: “Missouri is on the front page of the New York Times today. . .“
To read the front page Times article, click here.
This year was the second annual Family Christmas Cookie Extravaganza–a gathering of all the womenfolk in a kitchen, competing for oven time and cookie sheets. It’s usually good testing ground for new cookie recipes. The spoils are divided up amongst the participants, and voila! The cookie baking season has begun.
Hoping to avoid the chocolate chip/sugar cookie bonanza of last year, I turned to the ever reliable allrecipes.com. Among the new cookie recipes they had posted was one for chocolate candy cane cookies. Despite one burned batch, I’ve decided to add these to the holiday repertoire as something “just a little different” and rather festive looking!
INGREDIENTS:
1 (8 ounce) package of softened cream cheese
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 squares of baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1 (6 ounce) package of baker’s premium white baking chocolate
12 hard peppermint candies, crushed
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven t 350 degrees F. Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well-blended. Add flour and baking soda; mix well. Blend in semi-sweet chocolate.
- Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into 52 balls. Roll each ball into 3-inch long rope. Place, two-inches apart on baking sheet bending top of each slightly to resemble a candy cane (Note: I made mine a bit larger without any problems–just fewer cookies! You do not need to grease the cookie sheet.)
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned; cool 5 minutes on baking sheet (unless you burnt them!–then remove them immediately before they burn more…). Transfer to wire racks; cool completely. Microwave white chocolate as directed on the package; drizzle over cookies. Sprinkle with crushed candies. Let stand until chocolate is firm.
Final note: I found that drizzling each cookie separately over the bowl of white chocolate worked best.
Every Christmas “Santa” brings the family a new game to conquer. We usually give it go after Christmas brunch, clumsily stumble through the rules, have a few laughs (or not) and shove it in our Game Closet to never be played again. The Game Closet is where games go to die.
Except Scrabble.
We love Scrabble. We play Scrabble on holidays. We play Scrabble on Friday nights. We play Scrabble on family vacations. We rehash the game afterwards, the loser always begging for a rematch.
Last year, I watched the documentary Word Wars in fascination. The power of Scrabble in action.
Friday’s Match of Words in Numbers
- Number of participants: 3
- Number of letters an individual should have: 7
- Number of times a player used all 7 letters: 3
- Number of times all 7 letters were used in the first two plays of the game: 2
- Number of times Dad consulted the Scrabble dictionary: 0
- Number of times Mom and I consulted the Scrabble dictionary: umm… more than Dad.
- Number of winners: 1
- Winning score: Over 300
- Number of things I would have rather been doing on a Friday night: 0
- Number of rematches: 1
