Go on until you come to the end...

If  any of you want to join in- or just know what we wil be reading.  :)


March: A Wizard of Earthsea- Usula K. LeGuin
April: Mr. Timothy: Louis Bayard
May: The Mosaic Crimes: Giulio Leoni
June: Bridge of Birds: Barry Hughart
July: Black Jewel Trilogy: Anne Bishop
August: 9 Princes in Amber: Roger Zelazney
September: Book of a Thousand Days: Shannon Hale
October: American Gods: Neil Gaiman
November: The Kitchen Boy: Robert Alexander
December: What do you care what other people think?: Richard Feynman

Happy New Year to one and all.  May this year be better than the last.  May heartaches be few and happiness be much.  May we all remember old friends, but still make new ones.  And may all of us, our families, friends and loved ones make the most of this new beginning.  :)

Well, sort of cooking- do rum balls count?

I am making some variations of these this year.

Espresso/ Orange Liqueur/ Hazelnuts
Coconut/ Apricot Jam/ rum
Chocolate/ Peppermint schnapps
Traditional (which in my family means with bits of candied fruit inside along with the rum.)

Of course, rum balls have to "age" for a a few days before they're really good.  I've made the first 2 batches, and will hopefully get the others done tonight and tomorrow.

I also plan to make our family's traditional Christmas Bread- and this will probably be the extent of my holiday baking this year.  Unless I get really excited and decide to do gingerbread or candy bark.  We'll see how ambitious I'm feeling.
  Happy holiday food- all!

One of my favorite times of year (fall) is ending, and another (winter) is beginning.  Yay!  I am using my new advent calendar which makes me very happy.

Dickens was much fun- I had a new outfit- in colors I don't normally choose to wear, but they seemed ok.  It was nice to feel comfortable all day and evening.  Mom came and sang with us again, so that was great, too.  G'ma came out, and J, D, L and I acted as an all-terrain- attachment for her wheelchair in dealing with curbs, railroad tracks, etc.  She seemed to enjoy herself a bunch as well.  :)

That's really all for now, I have many crafts planned for the upcoming weeks, lots of social engagements, a few shows and all that.  Should be good fun- if awfully busy.

Take care!

Our cat Frodo decided to live up to his namesake this last week.  He declawed himself.  Just one, luckily, and we have no idea how our inside only cat managed to do this.  The vet said that she had never seen this kind of injury with cats before- only larger breed dogs.  He'd injured himself previously- although the claw was still attatched then.  On Tuesday, however, he apparently ripped the rest of it right off.  The vet cleaned things up, and he is home and recovering- although we are keeping him separated from the Leo, the kitten, for a few more days.  Running, jumping and pouncing are still out.

In other news, Halloween was much fun.  I was a "Devil with a blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, devil with a blue dress on."  D was "The Adversary", trademarked, of course- with business cards, even.  Even more amusing was the fact that some of our friends came as God and an angel.  Really nice dichotomy.   :)

And now, my favorite month- November.  Perhaps living in Texas always makes me feel that fall doesn't really start until then.  Finally, the days (and nights) are cooler, there's that hint of crispness in the air, leaves are changing, etc.  Yay!

We saw a very interesting play this weekend- imagine this:

'Annie Oakley' meets 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Tank Girl' and then has a run in with 'Snatch' and 'Arsenic and Old Lace.'  I kid you not.  The first 1/2 was just kind of disjointed, but the second half got pretty entertaining.  It was supposed to be a satire on westerns- i didn't feel it really got there- mainly because the playwright was just trying to do too much in the play.  Many of the actors were really good, however.

Beyond that, the weekend was nice and relaxing.  Lots of playing with cats and kitten time, and getting much accomplished around the house, and then much readiing.  yay!

And now it is raining- what a great start to a day!  I love rain!

This post will be much more meaningful to those who do scrapbooking.  :)



And a great thank you to my friend who had supplies I needed on hand and wasn't afraid to have me come over randomly to get them and to loan me her own tools as well.  Yay!

Last night, we went to Screams.  I had actually never been there. 

"Pay It Forward: I will send a gift to the first 5 people who leave a comment here on my LJ on this post."

If you make my list, you will receive your 'gift' within 90 days.
The gift could be anything. A picture, book, postcard, something I've made: drawn, sewn, painted... The possibilities are limitless.

Now in order to participate, the only thing you need to do in return is re-post a similar agreement in your own words and promise to follow through.

If you are one of the top five, please email me your snail mail address.

I had a number of requests for the chicken salad recipe, so here it is, straight from the pages of the Real Simple Magazine.

New backyard. 

So, our backyard had been the yard of shame for some time.  Resembling untamed jungle rather than suburbia.  (and not jungle in a good way- jungle in the bad, you don't want to go there way.)  My husband and I finally decided to fix it.  The lawn guys came out to trim back the trees (and remove some) and remove everything that wasn't lawn or a recognisable, planned plant.  That left us with... dirt.  Yep, beyond the few trees left, and the bushes up against the house, we had dirt.
They even removed most of the plant which was trying to overtake the house.  It may be trumpeter vine, but I really don't know.  I kind of liked the tree house effect we got as it grew over the windows, but it was getting more than a little excessive.  I shouldn't have to turn on lights to read in the day time.

Today, therefore, we asked a few friedns for advice and headed to the nursery to get means for planting a lawn.  According to them, it was a much easier process than the books or websites made it out to be.  We also bought some herbs to try growing.  Much labor later, we still have mainly dirt, but now it's dirt with potential.  :)  We'll see how much in a few weeks.

I passed the English test!  Yay! 

Hopefully there will be no problems with it being added to my certificates, which will make me all legal to teach this year and everything. 

Wow, that's a huge relief.    Whew!

Now, off to get ready for another day of school.  :)

Today is the first day of school.  I'm always excited about this, although I've had enough of them now that I can usually sleep ok the night before.  (I used to wake up 10-20 times, or not be able to sleep at all.)  I'm excited about the new class I'm teaching (nervous, too) and I'm hoping it will be a good year.  I have a pretty good team I'm working with- they all know what they're doing, which makes things easier for me.  I think most of my challenges will be internal this year, but we will see.

HeyD also starts classes again today- so we are both in school mode.  :)

We had a really good wkd, spent time with lots of friends and got some relaxation in before all the craziness starts. 

I have some goals for myself for this year. 

Less procrastination (even about grading- my bane!)
More fitness- physical and mental
Stretch myself more as a teacher- I think I've become somewhat complacent
Improve dancing!  (ok, not a school related one, but it's still a goal)
Be more organized (mentally and environmentally)

ok- that's about enough for now- everyone have a good day!

Went to see Cat yesterday- she was in good spirits and enjoying the relief her pain meds brought her.  We spent some time laughing and giggling over various silly things.  Her new room is bigger- but friends and family have filled it with cards, flowers, etc.  There's lots of love surrounding her.

Took a certification test on Saturday- I don't know how it turned out yet.  (Results will come in about 2-3 weeks.)  Unfortunately, the content of the actual exam and the content of the practice exams didn't match.  (The practice exams were heavy with Literary analysis and grammar- the actual exam was almost all pedagogy- maybe 10 total questions out of 90 on lits stuff and grammar.)  So- hopefully I was able to put myself in the heads of the test makers and answer the questions correctly.  I need this certification to teach my new course this year.

It has been a good summer.  I've accomplished a lot of things- although not nearly everything I had planned to do.  Now is the time, however, to begin the buckling down to work again.  I have some studying to do today and tomorrow, a meeting on Friday, my classroom to finish, etc.  Lots of stuff- and, of course, MORE JAM!  :)

I have posted my Oregon pictures if anyone would like to see them.  :)

Pictures

Enjoy!

Back from Oregon- Heydan's high school reunion.  We had fun, but it's very good to be home.  I will be posting pictures and everything on my PBase tomorrow.

BTW- we have an official name for the new kitten.  He's very brave- but not always very smart.  So, he's now Leonidas.  Leo, for short.  :)

I wasn't expecting my Harry Potter book until Monday (I had ordered it, and that was their expected arrival date,)  However, it came this morning.  So, yay!  I have read it, it was good, although probably not my favorite of the series.  Maybe just because it's the end?  I don't know.  But, I spent a very good day reading it, so that was nice.

Also, there was more jam today!  Blackberry Apple, flavored with cardamom.  It smelled really good.  :)

Well, my summer work is almost over.  The 2 sessions I led seemed to go well- I'll know more when they mail the evaluations to us.  Met some super cool women at the first one, and got to spend time with my family in Houston at the second.  So, good all the way around. 

Next is getting through the English certification test I need in order to teach one of my courses next year- I have a few weeks of concentrated study ahead.  Grammar workbooks- really they're fun for the whole family.  promise.

In other news, we have a new addition to the family- a new kitten.  We haven't found his name yet, although we're using the nickname he came with (Zuka) until we find something else.  He's very sweet and fun.  So, that's lots of goodness.

I keep forgetting how long summer will be this year with the start date moved back.  I keep thinking I only have a couple of weeks left, but there's more than I think.

Newest hobby I've found this summer is making cards.  It's keeping me very entertained, although I suppose I should send some of them to people, since I keep making them.  :)

The PAD project is going pretty well.  I'm posting the link again here, if any of you want to see my progress.  My PAD
The pictures aren't all great, but I'm pretty proud of some of them. 

I've also convinced my mom to join in the pbase fun, so if you like travel pictures (Africa, China, Russia) you can see them here.  She and my dad have been able to take some pretty cool trips.

So that's my update for now.  Things are good.  :)

Well, my little brother is now married.  We went for the wedding this weekend- and it was great.  Of course, I love my new sister- in- law- she's totally the jam on the toast.  :)  BTW, when I refer to J and L in this post- I mean them- as opposed to the J and L I know up here.  :)


And- I've decided to start really taking Irish classes again.  If anyone is interested, I can give you the information.  It's an adult class- they are very welcoming- and will teach at whatever level you need.  Adult classes meet either on Monday nights or Saturday afternoons.  I will probably bounce back and forth between those 2.  On Saturdays they have a figure dancing class (group dances), too.

Rather than repeat what he's already said, I'll just link you all to heydan's site.

heydan + zombies

Stay safe- and I'm going to be really mad if I have to use all my jams as bombs.