I've been reading lately...

But those are just a teaser...

What I really want to talk about is a book I finished a few days ago, Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon. Check out her blog - she's a rocking funny writer, which I totally did not expect since I read the book without researching the author at all. I will definitely be adding her to my author list.


"Godmother" is about a lonely old woman, Lil, who works in a dusty Manhattan book store. But there's more to her than what you can see. Namely, wings. Giant, white, gorgeous, feathery wings that she keeps bound on her back and hidden under her clothing during the day. She possesses this magnificent pair of wings because she's actually a fairy godmother; in fact, she's the fairy godmother, responsible for sending Cinderella to the ball and her fate. However, that's not exactly what happened, hundreds of years ago. Things didn't quite go as the fairy tales would have us believe. Something went quite wrong.

Lil succumbed to human emotions and desire, and fell in love with the prince. Due to certain circumstances, she went to the ball in Cinderella's place, and for this she was banished from her magical world. A long time later, in the little book store, Lil meets the beautiful and vibrant Veronica. She is dark and light, a girl with her own tragedy and a passion for life, and so much like the other fair beauty from so long ago. Lil suddenly understands that she has been given a second chance: if she can unite Veronica with her own Prince Charming, she will be able to return to her dearly missed fairy world and friends, and suffer no more.

"Tous mes anciens amours vont me revenir..."

* * *

This book is dark and beautiful, magical and gritty. I found myself yearning as Lil yearned, falling in love with the sweet and animated Veronica, wanting Lil to succeed and return home. Without giving too much away, I finished the book feeling both joyous and broken.

After reading this and Gregory Maguire's Wicked series, I am definitely a fan of the re-imagined fairy tale. Taking a different perspective than the usually Disney-fied, saccharin storylines we all know is very refreshing. And reading the original Grimm tales are eye-opening (I haven't read the original Wizard of Oz); they are brutal and not often ending happily. Its like looking in mirror and only noticing, when you get right up close to the glass, the tarnish and spots that aging has left behind; from a few feet away the reflection is perfect, but up close it becomes wavy and uncertain. Maguire has done a few other books in this vein, and Turgeon is working on a little mermaid story; I'm very much looking forward to reading more. According to Turgeon's website, "Godmother" has been optioned for a film... I will definitely watch it, and I will most certainly cry. I can't wait!

* * *

So, back to my teaser earlier. I've been debating whether or not to write about this, but since I have very few readers, I'll go ahead and do it.


I do not remember how, but I'm part of a program from Random House Publishers call Read it Forward. Every month or so I receive an email about new releases and reviews, with the option to request an advance copy of soon-to-be-released books. So far I've received and read Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram (wow, its incredible and heartbreaking!) and "Godmother." Last week in the mail I received Something Missing by Matthew Dicks and Where the River Ends by Charles Martin, apparently a guaranteed tear-jerker since it came with its own pack of tissues. Due to some current circumstances, I'm not really up for a sob-fest right now, so I started "Something Missing" today and already have high hopes for this novel about a "... career criminal with OCD tendencies..."

Check out Read it Forward, but don't take my books! Just kidding... kinda. :)

Quick Mammoth Trip

We ran up to Mammoth for the weekend to take care of some family business. Driving through Yosemite over Tioga Pass is definitely worth the price - its only 4.5 hours from our home to Mammoth, and the drive itself is gorgeous - so we went ahead and bought a Yosemite pass. Perhaps the next time we'll find a place to stop with the dogs and enjoy the park a little.

Saturday Chris and I took all three dogs up to the lakes to tire them out, took care of family stuff, and then grilled in the evening on Greg's awesome balcony. Sunday Greg took us out to shoot clay pigeons, which was a blast. Greg is a great shot, no surprise since he's also a great hunter. Chris has always been a good shot, and completely obliterated some of the pigeons to dust. I only took a few shots, but I hit a clay pigeon that was really far away, so I'm quite proud of myself. I really enjoyed chucking the pigeons for both Greg and Chris to aim at and trying to figure out who's shot took it out too. Then we took the dogs up to Horseshoe again and had a great time.

If only Mac wasn't such a little punk - he started a fight with Willy, and got his butt handed to him (ha!). Its always a great time up at Greg's, but its also very nice to be home again.

I finished the Watermelon Dress last week for my co-worker's baby shower. I'm very happy with how it turned out - I left off the collar edging, and did the flower pockets using duplicate stitch rather than intarsia, and finished it all of with some supposedly vintage wooden-look plastic buttons. I hope the new mom gets as much joy out of it as I did making it.

Lastly, here are a few pictures I snapped while playing fetch with Mac and Ayla last week. I've been taking them out together and its actually going quite well so long as I have two toys and a bag of treats.Time to start another week!

Change of Weather

I was woken up early yesterday morning by rumbling thunder and a few flashes of lightning. As summer draws to a close I become anxious to turn up the oven and bake.


Last week I got a craving for zucchini bread. I cannot remember the last time I actually had zucchini bread, but I picked up a few squash at the market.


The recipe I based my bread on is from Smitten Kitchen, and I used my handy mandoline with the julienne insert to grate up two zucchini.


A fragrant hour later and I had these two beauties. I love the cracks in the top of breads, it always makes me think of minimiam (really, check that site out!).

Zucchini Bread

2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 zucchini, grated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8×4 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a hand mixer. Add applesauce and mix again. Add yogurt, oil, and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into the pans.

Bake loaves for 50 minutes, plus or minus, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

I do not taste much zucchini in this bread, but I feel healthier eating a baked good when it contains vegetables. You could also add nuts, dried fruits, or even chocolate chips. I enjoyed mine plain, with butter melting atop a warm slice, and a cup of chamomile tea.

Labor Day

Working to make our place the best we can is a never-ending pursuit. On Saturday we did some running around for a few things to help out. At Bed, Bath, & Beyond we found this bedding set, which I love with the new bed and our wall color.


It came with a crazy amount all in one bag: comforter, two standard pillow shams and two euro shams, two complete sheet sets, bed skirt, three decorative pillows, four window valances, and a throw! All on sale for $199, minus 20% from one of the ubiquitous coupons that are always coming in the mail. What a deal!

We also picked up this giant wall clock to replace the little office-style one we had. I love that it shows the temperature and humidity as well.


And we bought this secretary desk at Ikea to set up a small office area in the back room, where we only had Gretel's cat tree for a while now. It closes up to hide all of the office stuff. I also think its funny that on top of the desk is a Halo Master Chief helmet (Chris') and a tote of yarn and knitting paraphernalia (mine). While Chris was assembling it, I went to the pool to hang out with some of my neighbors and drink mojitos. :)


I'm looking for a chair to go with the desk. I'm thinking an upholstered straight-back chair, not an office chair, maybe in a pattern similar to the bedding. We'll see what I find.

Speaking of knitting, I've made some progress on Anouk, which I'm now renaming Watermelon because of the colors. I'm making the 6-months size according to the pattern, but I think it might turn out quite a bit bigger.


In honor of the End of Summer, I grilled some burgers (veggie for me, of course) on the BBQ and whipped up some coleslaw. These, with a few cocktails, and Band of Brothers on TV, pretty much sums up the day for us.

Happy Labor Day!

Day Off

Hey Ayla, Mac... you guys want to go swimming?

I've also been knitting. The Seascape Stole is coming along, into the second section now. I am loving the Frog Tree alpaca yarn, so incredibly soft. I think this will be great to wrap around myself when the weather cools, though I might gift this away if it turns out really nice.


However, I'm putting this aside for a little while. A coworker that I really like is having a baby, and we're having shower for her in a few weeks. I love baby knits, they're so quick and so cute, so I'm taking the opportunity to make Knitty's Anouk. I stopped by my local Michael's and picked up Bernat Softee Baby in soft red and fresh green, and Naturally Caron Country in claret and deep purple. I plan to knit this as a dress, not a pinafore, as I've seen a lot of other knitters do. I think its a great design and really fits the cool, slightly quirky personality of the almost-new mom.


And here's a better picture of the tray that the yarn is on above. It was only $1.50, and I really like the retro design. Now I can carry drinks and food onto the patio in one trip! Happy Labor Day weekend!

Another Year

Last week marked a second Veggieversary for me - two years meet-free now! I quit eating meat (though I do eat eggs and cheese) and have not once looked back. The funny thing is that I cook meat better now than I ever have before, since I cook for Chris. I think the quality of meat I buy for him has a lot to do with that.

Chris surprised me on my Veggieversary by taking me out to dinner and a movie, and even giving me a present. This isn't as weird as it sounds - we tend to not celebrate the usual holidays and birthdays, but like random celebrations instead and because we enjoy being contrary. We went out to Chili's for dinner, where you can sub a bean patty in any burger. We had the molten chocolate cake for dessert, which is so good. And then we went to the theater and saw "Inglorious Basterds." The best part was my gift: a really great card, and a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, in red. I've been talking about getting a good small camera that I can have with me pretty much wherever I go (our G5 is nice, but large, and the iPhone camera is crappy). I love it so much! So, most of the shots on this blog from now on will likely be taken on Little Red.

Over the weekend we celebrated my work's 50th anniversary, and I racked up a ton of overtime working at the celebration. I am also very exhausted now since I worked 27 hours over Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Saturday night we had a banquet with an important speaker, and the highlight for me was this wine:


The Naughty Boy Chardonnay was really good. I decided on this wine over the others by my usual scientific process of choosing a wine: the label. The cork has the boxer pup on it too, so I asked for one to take home with me. I think I'll try to get up to the vineyard sometime and try their other wines... the Dolcetto is calling me.

I've starting knitting again, but I'm going to let the cardigan I was working on marinate for a while. I started Knitty's Seascape Stole instead, in Frog Tree alpaca, fingering weight, colorway #64. It is soooo soft. I'm only a few inches in, and can't wait to get past the fringe and into the rolling pattern.


Chris and I took the dogs to the dog park today, and I brought Little Red with me. A woman there lovingly called Mac the ugliest thing she'd seen in a long time.


Ayla played ball with us for a while, and then just walked around with the ball and looked pretty. She's always been crazy shiny.


Mac amused people with the way he drinks at the fountain, by flopping a lip over the spout and gulping the water down.


I'm looking forward to posting more often now that I have my camera always with me. It has some pretty cool functions too that I'll be playing around with. For now, I'm off to dinner...

How Easily We Adapt

Cherry tomato starting to ripen - look at the fuzz!

Who boy, almost a month between posts! I have a semi-decent excuse. But first, check out my grape vine:

April August

It has grown leaps and bounds since I brought it home from Picnic Day. You're supposed to let it be the first year and then trellis-train it, but it was trying to climb the wall on its own so I had to use the trellis. Maybe I'll have grapes in a year or two!

So, about a month ago we out-of-the blue decided to completely flip our living room arrangement, and we really like it. A lot of work went into moving the furniture, a whole day spent shopping for the perfect cabinet for our TV components (we ended up getting it at Target, at the very end of the day, which is just down the street - doh!), another weekend spent rerouting cables and covers all around the room for the surround sound, and more time spent selling and otherwise getting rid of now-extraneous furniture and things. In the end, we are pretty close to Chris' dream of a beautiful TV on the wall, with nothing else.


Chris will probably kill me for posting this picture, but here he's enjoying the new living room and playing the above-shown Gears of War 2. :)


By the way, this room is very hard to photograph! Mac liked to keep an eye on Chris as he went out to the patio closet for supplies.

Bully cheeks!

We also replaced our old bed. Our experience at Sleep Train was great - the salesman was very nice and not hard-selling, the delivery was next-day and free, and they put the new bed together and took away our old frame. The delivery guys seemed a little shocked when I gave them a tip too - aren't you supposed to tip? In any case, they deserved it.


The new bed is a little taller than the old one, without having to use bed lifts like we were before, which is great. It keeps make from going all ninja and climbing up when he's motivated enough. That always worries me that he's going to hurt himself, and he hasn't tried to climb it at all. I'm planning on getting a new comforter, and leaning toward this one, but also think I'd like another color rather than gray again. Moving everything around and getting rid of some stuff led us to go through the closets and get rid of even more. Its amazing what gets amassed over time!

The new furniture set up feels very right in our place, and like we've had it like this forever. The only question now is the dining room area behind the living room. We don't have, nor do we want, a dining table. Right now all that is back there is Gretel's cat tree, a standing fan, and Chris' bike. I thought of setting this up there, which would double as a bed for guests, but don't know that we'd really use it. Until we figure out what the space should be for it will remain empty I suppose, and we'll keep referring to it as Gretel's Room.

In the meantime, I've been working hard with Ayla on fetch and she's doing really well, provided you have treats with you. Otherwise, she's completely uninterested in giving up the ball. *** Crappy iPhone pic alert ***

Ayla and a souvenir she found on our latest walk - she's very content

In other news, I finally changed my name, to take Chris' last name. I like it a lot, though the first time someone called me Mrs. W. was quite a shock. I took the day off yesterday for a doctor's appointment, and then to spend about two hours at the DMV to change my license, then go to the banks. I got home in the early afternoon so I took the dogs to the dog park, since we don't go very often any more.

It seems one day was enough to make them expect a new routine. We did our usual today - Chris gets home, takes Ayla out, then takes Mac out for a while to play fetch. About an hour later I get home and take Ayla out to walk or play fetch, and when I did Mac was quite upset! He spent the entire time Ayla and I were out he pouted in the bedroom, in his bed, in the dark, all by himself, instead of hanging out with Chris in the living room. I got back and he still didn't want to come out until I told him I'd take him for a mosey around. Then he seemed happy. Mac must have thought I was taking Ayla to the park without him!

Being left behind makes Mac a sad panda

Look at those rolls!