READING: The Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. I like to have books at swim meets that I can pick up and put down quickly because swim meets are very distracting for attempting serious material...swims to watch, photos to take, people to chat with, etc. Also reading Henry James (after my Edith Wharton kick, I felt it was only right and all, and then maybe after HJ, I should segue into re-reads from college days of Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola...if you get the connection between them all, you either have an extensive reading background or were a literature major in college. I have decided that Henry James is like reading Hemingway in timing: he takes way too many pages to say he went from one room to the next and why. My patience is not very simpatico with Henry James or Ernest Hemingway, despite their reputations as great writers. After spring break, I am moving back into more serious fare, thinking of doing WWII finally through the rest of the year. Yep, thinking.
LISTENING TO: The Beach Boys...something light, fast, fun, and conducive to getting blog posts caught up.
COOKING BYTES: Phyl, the bread baking lawyer from Ohio who has already completed all the breads in the BBA Challenge, is getting up a new group to blog the book The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri. I like the book as it is filled with new and different things to bake (some savory, some sweet), things that Tuesdays with Dorie doesn't necessarily have, or maybe different recipes from what that group has going with that book. He is going to do the book over the next two years, starting in April. I figure that I have eaters here for the next 18 months or so, then not so much, so if I want to bake, I better do it now. Look for posts from that book every now and again, thinking maybe Saturday posts for that one is the plan at the moment.
FAV NEW FIND: It's always fun to find a package on a cold, rainy, and busy day. So it was that day when Margaret's Secret Baker package for me arrived, filled with three different kinds of cookies and a loaf of pumpkin bread. (She knows the guys are big eaters, so I have a feeling she packed that box with them in mind!)
Let's see, there were Coconut Oatmeal Cookies, Snickerdoodles that melt in your mouth, seriously, and Unbelievably Great Peanut Butter Cookies with Reese's Chips in them (Alex loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups).
It was all very much appreciated, and very quickly eaten by very appreciative guys...I loved the Coconut Oatmeal Cookies the best as it was a recipe created by Margaret, so I hid a couple of those away just for me. In a household of guys, cookie hiding is sometimes necessary.
FAV THING THIS WEEK: Well, it wasn't this week, rather last week, but it was awfully fun to watch Matt go up and get his trophy, medal, letter jacket, etc. for the CHS Swimming Championship at the awards dinner. Since he transferred schools, and CHS swimmers do not get letter jackets until their second year of participating, I was surprised that his lettering the previous two years at Guerin transferred to CHS and he got to have a letter jacket, etc. this year. He was very excited about all that, naturally. Just fun to see.
GOING TO: The USA Sectional meet are these four days (Thursday through Sunday), both morning prelims and then evening finals, so if you're looking for us, I would start there. In the meantime and off-times are the NCAA Championship games. I can't think that we will fit a whole lot more in of the weekend.
PRAYING FOR: People suffering...awful to be the one suffering, awful to be the one watching...please join me.