Read-A-Thon - Random Factoids About Self

1. Where? Broadcasting to you live from My Porch, Oklahoma.
2. Three random facts about me: I'm in the final stages of completing my Tumbleweed Home (Never heard of it? Check it here.), I am the steward of a polydactyl tuxedo cat named Beckett, and I have a black belt in Karate/ Taekwondo/ Muay Thai kickboxing.
3. How many books in your Read-A-Thon pile? Nine, I think. Maybe ten.
4. Goals? Finish the BookBabes selection o' the month, Scarlet Feather, and still have time to go to Lowes.
5. Done this madness before? Nope. Total newb.

Read-A-Thon

7:00am - I'm up, I'm up. Sun is rising, tea is brewing, toast is... well, toasting, and I am reading. Starting out with something easy on my list 'cause my brain hurts this early on Saturday. Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce, prepare to be read-a-thonned! (Pretty sure that's a word, read-a thonned, but as it is too early for me to care if it isn't...)

My Read-A-Thon List

Here's my list for the Read-A-Thon this Saturday:

If the Buddha Got Stuck by Charlotte Kasl
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 8 Vol. 7): Twilight by Joss Whedon
Journey to Center by Thomas F. Crum
Dojo Wisdom for Writers by Jennifer Lawler
Wolf Speaker by Tamora Pierce (on the Kindle)
Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce (on the Kindle)
The Realm of the Gods by Tamora Pierce (on the Kindle)
Square Foot Gardening by Mel  Bartholomew
Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchey
The Spirited Walker by Carolyn Scott Kortage
Stalking the Ivory by Suzanne Arruda

That will be about all I can manage. It's a pretty ambitious list, even with a three YAs and a graphic novel. Since this is my first time to do the Read-a-Thon, is it better to have too many or too few on the list?

Now that I've signed up, I'm rather daunted by the task ahead. Not so much the reading, but the staying up 24 hrs, especially since I've been running short all week and Saturday is my official zzz's catch-up day.

Hell's Meals on Wheels

I have trouble boiling water without it turning into a major international incident. Ask my last two roommates. I have twice fused a boiled dry kettle to the heating element on the stove top. Bread is often reduced to char even with the toaster set on low just because I am present in the room. My oven took out a restraining order against me for good reason. I hate cooking - mainly because I'm not any good at it. Well... not any good when compared to my mother, who is my plumb line for the edible. I don't know why I can't set my standard a little lower, because I know I am never going to live up to it as my mum is a unbelievably good cook and baker.

If I'm going to bother investing the time and the money in order to produce food that doesn't simply come out of a bag, box, or can, then I want to make certain it's going to be edible. I turn to America's Test Kitchen.

Were I to pick a single cooking show to watch on television it would have to be ATK. No, it's not as action packed as Iron Chef, it isn't as campy as Good Eats, and its hosts/chefs don't look like they stepped off a runway in Paris.

FYI, you should never trust a skinny chef.

There are some fairly witty and cutting remarks flying between the host, Cook's Illustrated editor Christopher Kimball, and the variety of chefs/scientists/quality control experts. All of the dialogue is ad-libbed because they are just that comfortable with each other. I like the sense of camaraderie between them. It feels like they're letting you into their exclusive cookery club where all the cool kids wear bow ties and aprons.

There's a LOT of science involved in the testing, retesting, and trial and error of the recipes in the America's Test Kitchen before they reach the stage of perfection necessary to air. It's more like a kitchen/ laboratory. You can rest assured when a recipe has made it into an ATK magazine or cookbook that it is going to be good... as long as you follow the recipe exactly. Because using a pound of chicken vs. a pound-point-five can make a huge difference in the outcome.

I found that out with my own brand of trial and error. And error. And error.

This week I prepared their Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice out of their Light and Healthy 2011 magazine. It was delicious. It was so delicious in fact that I wondered about its "light and healthy" claim. The only issue I had with the end result was the level of spiciness, but that's my personal preference and easily remedied with the judicious application of the world's greatest condiment - sriracha.

I cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven. Why does everything taste better when it's cooked in cast iron?

It's kinda purty, too.

Out of a possible ten toques (white puffy chef's hat) this recipe gets an eight both for ease of preparation and taste.

,

= 8

Thanks to the BookBabes

I always knew you guys were awesome, but now I have to admit you may know me better than my own family.

I hope you take that as the compliment it was meant to be.

Our most recent book club meeting was at Holly House and was officially the first party to be held at my mostly-completed domicile. As long as we're not counting the time shortly after having poured the slab for the foundation I took a bottle of booze and sat on the concrete rectangle in the middle of my acre getting hammered, waving my bottle in the air, and yelling "You may now address me as the Land Baroness!" at passing cars.

Yeah, I know you're thinking, "Crazy, party of one", but you shouldn't be so judgey.

The BookBabes came bearing gifts. Who doesn't like prezzies - ANY prezzies, right? However, these gifts were even better than your average housewarming presents because they were absolutely perfect - wine and a pair of bookends shaped like chairs.

Get outta my head, guys.



Emily Dickinson loves the new furniture.



Thanks. You're the best.

The Walking Dead (contains spoilers)

On my Netflix, I'm watching the second episode of the TV series The Walking Dead.

So far, I'd give it two Beretta 9mm (with full clips), two shotguns, and a hand grenade. In zombie warrior rating terms, that is the equivalent of 5 stars.

I am a mass of contradictions when it comes to horror in any medium. I don't particularly care for the books (Not even Stephen King. Sorry, Kate), because I find the contents of an average daily newspaper much weirder and scarier than any work of horror fiction. Since I'm blessed with an overactive imagination and a twitchy trigger finger, in the interest of public safety I don't watch horror movies -- no slashers, no gorefests, and no monsters.

Except for zombies.

I'd analyze the crap out of that, but I don't have the extensive time necessary to excavate all the dark places in my psyche properly. I got other sh*t to do. 'Nuff to say, that when it comes to the undead, living dead, jiang shi, walkers, geeks, ghouls, the old-stump-and-drags-dressed-in-blood-and-rags, I find the subject of the zombie apocalypse fascinating.

This series is well-done and not without its humorous moments, which are of a distinctively gallows variety.

***SPOILER ALERT***
Our small gang of the living and breathing have figured out a way to slip through enemy zombie lines and get out of the city (Atlanta) where they have become trapped by the hordes of flesh-eating undead shuffling about in the streets. With much gagging and puking, they hack up a dead (headshot) zombie with a fire axe and rub zombie goo and guts all over their trenchcoats to disguise their "living" smell. Then two of our smaller brained, stainless steel nutted heroes open the door and shuffle out among the dead and attempt to blend their way past them to a getaway vehicle.

The vehicle is in sight, a mere hundred yards away just beyond a chainlink fence. "It's working. We're going to make it," one of them mumbles. The other one grins in agreement.

Then it starts to rain.

******

I prefer my zombies old-school, slow and stupid, not fast and able to use rocks as tools or scale a chain link fence.

Going (H)ooooooommmm...

Whew! Another Vipassana meditation retreat completed. Props to all my Vipassana peeps this year. You guys rock. Figuratively.
I'm in the airport in Dallas waiting for a flight home and having my first cup of coffee in eleven days. Needless to say, as I cradle the warm cup in my hands and sip the dark nectar, I'm having a hard time maintaining my equanimity. In fact, I'm having a hard time not reinacting the infamous "When Harry Met Sally" orgasmic scene, but I'm afraid the TSA would take it the wrong way.
Ten days. Ten days of Noble Silence (no talking, writing, eye contact or communication of any sort with the other meditators), vegetarian meals, meditation sessions or instruction from 4:30 am to 9:00 pm, no sex, cell phones, tv, or books. It's incredibly liberating, and extremely challenging; the most physically and mentally challenging thing I've ever done.
Given my martial arts background, that's saying something.
Every year my experience has been completely different. This year was deeper than last year, not as intense as the first (hard to top a new student's experience in intensity). Each time I attend I'm able to get rid of more misery, more suffering, improve my awareness and equanimity, tally up some good parma, and come back to the real world with more compassion and luuuuurve for my fellow human beings.
It is a bit of a shock though to come from the Vipassna environment to the deluge of chaos at the airport. The bombardment is almost painful.