Books

Having seen the trend of book-culling passing through Charles' and Cliff's blogs... I sort of shudder in horror. I've got two bookshelves, one tall, the other a two shelf half-size thing that my mother bought for me when I was little and she thought that was 'enough books'.

There are never enough books.

However, there are enough that I have to keep. It's a somewhat smaller number. But still large enough that I found a program online to catelog my books so I can assign them numbers and boxes and put them in the garage.

Culling happens when I need something to return to the used book store, or the romance novels are piling up. But still, horror of horrors. I'm a rereader. I'll reread something many, many times.

The record, for now, is Jurassic Park. I got the book new, the summer the movie came out. It is now covered in duct tape and the pages are falling out. It survived, um, 18 rereadings in a row. (It might have been more but I can't recall now) I'd get to the end, shut the book, and open it again. Again and again and again, all in one summer (being defined as the months I spent in Florida with my father between school).

Probably a close runner up on rereads is Companions of the Night by Viviane Vande Velde. It's probably the open ending on the book that draws me back again. Of course, that book also spawned an incredible number of fanfics from yours truly. When I was organizing all the stuff I've written on paper I had to dedicate a whole stack of folders and notebooks just to Companions fic. Sigh, how I miss you High School.



Or, for instance, I was cooking dinner the other night on the stove. Something about it reminded me of Sunshine, the baker in Robin McKinley's novel of the same name. The main character is a baker who winds up kidnapped by (bad) vampires, for the purpose of feeding to another (good) vampire- The good vampire refuses to eat her, on principle (please don't think Mopey Vampire, like Angel or Louis). They escape, adventure, yadda, yadda... I'm cooking and suddenly I *have* to reread the part where Sunshine and Connie (short for Constantine, the good vampire) have their first chat and he says, "Speak. Remind me that you are a rational creature."

Something about that line just sends a shudder down my spine. The bad vampires have starved and beaten him, and he's still trying to hold out against them, even though they've just thrown him a human. Willpower. Strength of character. Or maybe it's the Sheherezad part, because she has to talk to stay alive.

I burned dinner because I went upstairs to find my copy of the book, and then I stood on the landing, having flipped to that well-read page, and read. Dinner burned. *fwoosh*

Monday 22

Despite the lack of posts I have been eating. ^_^



For lunch today we're having some wonderful chinese I ordered last night for dinner. Something under the name of "Mushroom Beef"- You can't see the rice in the picture, but it's there. Dried apples, fruit bar, boiled egg like usual. And for desert- Vanilla Pudding and Strawberries.

And here's a closeup of desert again. Oh man that looks good.

As for food this weekend...

We had heart shaped pancakes (I'm not sure why I did all of them that way. I think it was mostly the challenge of it.) Eggs over easy (except for mine, pictured. runny egg is only good on eggs benedict for me), strawberry topping and powdered sugar.

Lastly... I dropped one of the eggs on the floor. And then I burned two pancakes. These made their way onto a plate for the dog. At the table.

Cliff, do your cats eat at the table?

No bento

Didn't pack a lunch today. Yesterday I had a lunch date set for today, that got cancelled, and then uncancelled, so I wound up packing nothing. Turns out the lunch that was cancelled was at another time, so I did get the pizza I was promised. Hooray.

As for cooking, I did do a little of that last night. I saw these (I guess) Jello Tarts online, just a picture, with fruit and swirls of different jellos going through them. I thought they looked pretty sharp, and I wanted to see if I could do something like that. I tried something a little easier though, just combining mostly set jello jigglers with fruit. It looks like crazy stained glass. I hope it's tasty.

Wednesday 17th

Kinda in a hurry this morning. It's frighteningly cold outside and I wanted comfort food.

Thus,

New Potatoes covered in Turkey Chili and Cheddar.

And Home Made Mac and Cheese that my friend Matt's Dad made for me. (It's the best ever and has crispy flavor stuff on top.)

For breakfast or break I've packed a Strawberry Fruit and Nut bar and a boiled egg. Eventually I'll figure out what kind of tea you need for Tea Eggs, and maybe I'll be brave and try that. Maybe.

Tuesday, January 16

For Lunch,

Rolled turkey, cheddar stars, brown mustard.

Potatos with parmesian cheese, italian herbs, and pepper.

Chocolate Chip Rice Cake. Dried Apples. Strawberry Grain Roll.

Hooray!

Oh, not pictured, but a hard boiled egg too.