What should my resolution be?

     MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM TEA KETTLE

     There is a whistling noise in the house, only at night.  It sounds like my old red tea kettle did that didn't really whisper but did make a noise.  I think to myself have I been making tea and do I need to check the stove top?  Living in a different house every year or so for the last 8 or so years has me more forgiving on odd quirks (I still don't know how safe radiators are) and different designs.  Like making the bathroom door only fully open from inside when you wedge yourself into a corner between the toilet and the shower.  Or why everyone uses shower water at the exact same time you took your off-time shower.  Every oven I cook in has its own quirks and for sure the current gas stove and oven has the most to get used to.  In return my kitchen is never cold because the upstairs hot-water pipe is right in the middle of my kitchen and will burn you when on.

     Kindle update!  I have yet to do anything more with it.  I'm terrified to bring it out without a case or something, I'm really thinking about a sock, to cover the fancy screen.  Unfortunately (what, no! Never!!) I'm still going through my physical books.  Two came in from the library today!  Psycho, oh, maybe you saw the Hitchcock film?  Yea, that one.  And FINALLY The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle who is most well known for his story The Last Unicorn.  This book was ordered nearly two months ago and it hadn't been returned until this week.  I feel like it wasn't that long ago I was unicorn obsessed.  Maybe like 15 years?! ohGODnoway.  Yea, wow, my (so long ago!) childhood fascination with unicorns and their magical powers and even more amazing was that they were fantasy and if they could be real (yea, I dare you to explain medieval theology to a seven year-old) then anything could be real.  And Hobbits!  And umm, I dunno, what did I believe in as a child?  Umm.. Santa Claus?  Sure.  Let's go there.

     Tomorrow is New Years Eve.  As is tradition since everyone was a kid I should name a resolution or two.  I want to simplify my life but most of the sites I've been looking at for ideas give vague useful suggestions with nothing that I can put into practice.  Own one car per family.  Done.  Eat mostly at home.  Done and double done.  Make meals ahead of time.  Err, my freezer barely fits a bag of milk buns and some frozen blackberries.  And I share it with, not including Tad, three others right now.  Wake up an hour earlier and exercise.  I wake up around 4:30 AM four days a week.  Yea, I don't think so.  One thing I really want to get back into is growing my own herbs or veggies.  I don't know when I can start here in the North.  The light lasts much less time than I thought.  Yea, what's up with Winter.  Sucks. 

     Back on track.  Veggie garden.  I would like to grow at least 3 herbs and two veggies.  Sound ambitious?  I hope not.  I miss being able to harvest ingredients watch as I neglect them.  Just something green.  Or a cat.  a green cat?  Sure.  Green cat for my resolution.

     Or maybe I'll make my resolution an easier one.  I will not start new tasks (not new books though!) before finishing any older, similar tasks.  I picked up some baby alpaca yarn to knit but I still have an unfinished pillowcase to embroider.  Bad pillowcase.  Finish yourself!  I haven't been really inspired to work on that at all.  I need more thread to finish the interior stitching I'm doing and I need a central design for the main piece.  There's the real reason I haven't worked on it.  I need a design.  I'll have to start looking.  But not today... Not today.  Good night everyone and enjoy the New Years with friends and loved ones.  jaa.

Muppets movie madness?

    Err, not really madness.  Great movie though.  It received a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and even better the theatre by us had a 6 movie pass for $25.  Considering that a single ticket is $9 per person (with no discounts) that makes it cheaper than three movies.  So next on the list will be the Tintin movie.  What? Don't remember Tintin?  I kept calling the dog Tintin but he's Snowy, as Tad loves to remind me.  A few good friends of mine from Orlando are up in NYC with their little one and we're hopefully going to see them tomorrow evening.  Ohh! Maybe we'll go to the Doctor Who bar and play the trivia game!  Nah, maybe we'll go get some good Indian food.  Who knows!  We'll spend some good time together and I'll be happy and kinda cold-ish really.  Weather hasn't turned for the worst yet but I don't trust winter.  It'll snow here soon and then I'll die from frostbite and that'll show.. well... nobody.

     No new recipes, sadly but here's the coolest house in Dyker Heights.  It was recommended in multiple places to see the lights between 83rd and 86st St and 11th to 13th Ave over here in Brooklyn. 


     OK... well... I would show you that picture but I can't get the computer to read the card it's on.  Hmm.. I might update later if I get it working again.  ::poutyface::

Day after Christmas is lame

     I had not only an amazing Christmas (I did not close Christmas eve for once) but made amazing food!

     In ode to Tad's new worry about his cholesterol levels this is a no cholesterol (ok, very little in the whip cream) chocolate olive-oil cake.  And let me tell you it is DELICIOUS!!!  I cooled it out of the pan then sliced neatly in half and filled with sliced strawberries and whip cream.  A little powdered sugar on top and voila!  New delicious foods. 

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Chocolate Olive-oil cake

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/8 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Oven preheated to 350 degrees F.  Mix all dry ingredients (flour to salt) then add wet ingredients until well combined and smooth.  Pour into a oiled and floured cake tin or 9x9 baking dish and bake for 30 mins or until baked dry in the middle.  Remove and cool in pan for 10 mins then on a cooling rack before decorating.

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     I got a new Kindle Touch from Santa for Christmas!  So far I have almost thrown it at a wall when it wouldn't connect to the computer than have read free books on it in between the two other books I'm reading.  I do love to use the touch dictionary when I'm uncertain of a word.  I wonder if I can get the Oxford English dictionary as my standard?  I'm sure that one will cost much more than this free American Heritage version.  I'm more than halfway complete reading The Island of Doctor Moreau on my KTouch.  KT?  Touch is an iPod product... hmm.. I need a term for it.  But yes I'm finishing off my sci-fi novels on my sci-fi device!  Nothing finished yet.  May go see a movie tonight, we'll see.  Jaa.

Holidays are here

     Happy holidays.  Still working retail and still losing all holiday sleep over it.  I moved up to the Cosmetics Specialist and no, I don't wear make up.  That's kind of the best part.  So what have I been doing the last 6 months or so?  I don't know, reading, cooking and exploring NYC mostly.  Volunteered at a Target library makeover event months upon months ago.  Didn't get to meet Oprah which sucks because we were hoping to get apartments or something when she did a show.  Oh well.

     I did, on the other hand get through quite a few novels.  I'm currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.  Instead of a deep insightful commentary on my last list of books I will for now give names and authors.  Want me to comment, anyone who exists on the internet?  Leave me a comment and BAM, I'll write some insightful commentary.

     Since June I have read:

*Who Goes There by John W. Campbell
*Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Farenheit 451 by ray Bradbury
*City by Clifford D. Simak
*Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Kim by Rudyard Kipling
*Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
How to Make Friends and Oppress People by Vic Darkwood
Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi
*Time Traders by Andre Norton
Flow My Tears by Philip K Dick
The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick
Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K Dick
*A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho
*More Than Human byTheodore Sturgeon
*The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
*Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Night and Horses and the Desert edited by Robert Irwin
*Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Noctournes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
*The Trial of Socrates by I. F. Stone
*84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik
Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions by Brian Hayes
*The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann von Goethe
*A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
*If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Plus a few I think I'm missing....  The starred items are on the 501 list. 

     So yeah, I don't only read 501 books but sometimes I really enjoy them.  Also, this list is not in order.  I tried a few other novels, Kazuo Ishiguro's most recent novel Never Let Me Go and an international 'best seller' The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordiano but both were so insipid I was ready to burst.  Prime Numbers made me pretty much go like this: ARRRGGG!!!  It's all angsty lameness.  Oh well.

     It is Xmas time now.  Here is our current Christmas decoration status.

     We sent around 40 Christmas cards and still have a few more to go out.  Updating addresses is pretty time consuming but we're about done.  We have a few in return here from family members and a postcard from Hawai'i.  The coup de gras (our false star) is a friend's graduation announcement!  Hooray for that!!!!  Now that I am writing this list out I really want to complain and comment about some of these books.  Maybe I will.

     Happy holidays.  Kai out.

501 books count: 91 (Will I make 100 by Jan 1st?!)