“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
I would give this book 3 USGs. I liked it better than I thought I would but it took some time to hook me in. It was an interesting read and got me thinking about what I would do in similar circumstances. I doubt I would have survived.
*
“Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain
I would give this book 3.5 USGs. It was funny, irreverent and enlightening in some ways. I love to cook and people are always telling me that I should be a professional cook and my standard response is that I do it for fun, if it were work it probably wouldn’t be fun anymore and . . . this book definitely supports that. That said, I think I would function well in the environment described in this book but . . . for sanity’s sake, glad I’m not in it. I think this is a must read for anyone contemplating becoming a professional chef or owning a restaurant.
*
“Lamb” by Christopher Moore
I would give this book 3.5 USGs. It was funny, entertaining, and I liked the premise. I love Christopher Moore -- he can be offbeat and clever without trying too hard and this didn’t disappoint.
*
“My Life in France” by Julia Child and Alex Prudhomme
I would give this book 3 USGs. Julia Child has been one of my personal idols for quite some time. She lived a fascinating life and it was interesting to find out how she got started. But . . . I have to admit that by the end of the book I was a little tired of the francophilia, it got a little old and, I really hate to admit this but, I was getting a little tired of Julia Child. I started feeling like she was quite full of herself and needed to get over it but, maybe it was just the way the book was written.
*
“The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri
I would give this book 3 USGs. I liked it very much but, by about half-way through started wondering what the point of the book was, where the story was going. At the end I have to say that I enjoyed it but it’s a quiet book so not for everyone, I think.
*
“Double Cross” by James Patterson
Unrated. Patterson books with Alex Cross are one of my secret reading pleasures. I enjoyed this as much as the other Alex Cross books.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Update . . .
Been kinda busy lately between work and home. Mostly been absent due to the fact that I have had constant house guests every single weekend this year. My brother, the one who is going through a divorce, has decided that he and my nephew are coming up every single weekend until the snowboarding is no longer any good which . . . on one hand is nice because I get to spend time with them and I get to cook for more than two people and we all have fun but . . . one weekend off would be nice.
I’ve gotten my brother and his kids hooked on Law & Order SVU and Criminal Intent which, I’m proud of. The standard weekend, for every single weekend of this year, has been pretty much as follows:
1. Everyone arrives late on Friday (my brother and nephew have been here every weekend but often others are here as well).
2. Everyone plays a few rounds of Liar’s Dice and snacks while they wind down from the drive up.
3. Everyone conks out.
4. Everyone gets up on Saturday morning and someone makes breakfast while we all sit around and eat and gab and play Liar’s Dice while we eat and wake up.
5. Around 10:00 everyone starts getting ready for skiing and snowboarding.
6. Around 10:30 we leave for the resorts.
7. We’re all back around 4:30 and everyone relaxes, watches Law & Order, showers, and snacks.
8. Bottles of wine are opened, drinks are made, and we play Liar’s Dice.
9. I make dinner.
10. We all eat and drink.
11. After dinner someone cleans up (I used to have a rule in my house that no guest cleans but, that’s been rescinded in view of the constant stream of guests this year).
12. We play Liar’s Dice and hang out.
13. Everyone starts to wind down and we plop around the front room and watch more L&O.
14. Everyone slowly makes their way to their rooms.
Sunday:
1. Reset, rewind. Except that instead of everyone going to their room they go home.
*
On other fronts, my crazy aunt is getting crazier and crazier. She’s realized that she only has one month left to distribute my uncle’s estate (her brother) and she tried to trick us into signing over our part of the trust to her. She sent around letters saying that since he left 1/3 of his estate to our mother and our mother is dead, we should sign my mother’s portion over to her (my aunt). Yeah, she’s worth about $20M last I knew . . . she really needs our $400K portion.
*
H and I need to figure out exactly what we want to do to the Tahoe house to expand it. I know that I want to add a mud porch, that’s the #1 priority. In a perfect world, what I’d like to do is build a second story on the house and make the first story one large open living area and the second story all bedrooms. I want to have the kitchen and living area on the first floor but I want a big open area rather than rooms (I realize there will have to be some walls here and there for load bearing). The problem with this plan is that we’d have to empty the place during construction which would probably take a year up here given the local weather and work ethic. The second option is to add a family room to the first floor and a second story master suite. This wouldn’t be as invasive but also wouldn’t be exactly what I want.
*
Not much else new. I’m looking forward to the snow being gone and having a little break from guests. I say that now and once that happens I’ll say I miss the bustle of having guests. Greener grass , etc.
I’ve gotten my brother and his kids hooked on Law & Order SVU and Criminal Intent which, I’m proud of. The standard weekend, for every single weekend of this year, has been pretty much as follows:
1. Everyone arrives late on Friday (my brother and nephew have been here every weekend but often others are here as well).
2. Everyone plays a few rounds of Liar’s Dice and snacks while they wind down from the drive up.
3. Everyone conks out.
4. Everyone gets up on Saturday morning and someone makes breakfast while we all sit around and eat and gab and play Liar’s Dice while we eat and wake up.
5. Around 10:00 everyone starts getting ready for skiing and snowboarding.
6. Around 10:30 we leave for the resorts.
7. We’re all back around 4:30 and everyone relaxes, watches Law & Order, showers, and snacks.
8. Bottles of wine are opened, drinks are made, and we play Liar’s Dice.
9. I make dinner.
10. We all eat and drink.
11. After dinner someone cleans up (I used to have a rule in my house that no guest cleans but, that’s been rescinded in view of the constant stream of guests this year).
12. We play Liar’s Dice and hang out.
13. Everyone starts to wind down and we plop around the front room and watch more L&O.
14. Everyone slowly makes their way to their rooms.
Sunday:
1. Reset, rewind. Except that instead of everyone going to their room they go home.
*
On other fronts, my crazy aunt is getting crazier and crazier. She’s realized that she only has one month left to distribute my uncle’s estate (her brother) and she tried to trick us into signing over our part of the trust to her. She sent around letters saying that since he left 1/3 of his estate to our mother and our mother is dead, we should sign my mother’s portion over to her (my aunt). Yeah, she’s worth about $20M last I knew . . . she really needs our $400K portion.
*
H and I need to figure out exactly what we want to do to the Tahoe house to expand it. I know that I want to add a mud porch, that’s the #1 priority. In a perfect world, what I’d like to do is build a second story on the house and make the first story one large open living area and the second story all bedrooms. I want to have the kitchen and living area on the first floor but I want a big open area rather than rooms (I realize there will have to be some walls here and there for load bearing). The problem with this plan is that we’d have to empty the place during construction which would probably take a year up here given the local weather and work ethic. The second option is to add a family room to the first floor and a second story master suite. This wouldn’t be as invasive but also wouldn’t be exactly what I want.
*
Not much else new. I’m looking forward to the snow being gone and having a little break from guests. I say that now and once that happens I’ll say I miss the bustle of having guests. Greener grass , etc.
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