What I Just Read: Farm City

I'm always so sad when I get to the end of a book that I've been enjoying. I slow down my pace of reading the final few pages, not wanting the book to end. It's been a while since I read a book like that, but tonight I got to experience that again as I finished Farm City by Novella Carpenter. As I said in my Facebook update, who knew that a book about squatter backyard farming in the Oakland ghetto could be so interesting? (I almost called it engaging, bit I'm not sure if it's correct to describe a book as engaging?)

Anyway, lately I seem to be reading books written by Bay Area people (last week I finished Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon), or books having to to with food (like Cleaved by Julie Powell). I liked the Chabon book, but I did not really enjoy Cleaved. I think that as a happy newlywed, I just can't relate to the story of a woman who has an extramarital affair and stays with her husband, who knows about it and starts having affairs himself. The parts about her apprenticing at a butcher shop in upstate NY were OK - there are some interesting and likeable characters at the shop - but my eyes did glaze over as she went on and on and on and on about meat and butchery. Even the latter part of the book where she travels was not that interesting. I found myself feeling the same disdain for the author that I felt when I read Eat, Pray, Love. And she was so likeable in Julie and Julia! Somehow I don't think they're going to make a movie starring Amy Adams out of this.

So back to Farm City: it does make me look at the semi-accessible backyard of our building in a new way. But shoot, I've always had a black thumb...maybe I'll have to settle for encouraging Dave to start up his window herb garden again.

Hello, Twenty-Ten!

I love a new year - I love to make resolutions! Like this one:

So, back in 2001 I bought a book called 101 Hikes in the Bay Area. I had just started hiking with OAC, and I thought it would be cool to do all 101 hikes in the book. I knocked off more than a few, both with OAC and on my own with friends. When Sweetie and I met - thank god he likes to hike! - we had a goal of completing the book together. We've done just under twenty hikes from the book - the wedding and all the planning it involved really sidetracked things. We intended to pick up where we left off, but I don't know, 101 suddenly seems like such a daunting number. And since the book was published in 2001, I wondered how much of the information was out of date. So, we picked a new book to get through: Falcon Guide's Best Hikes Near San Francisco. Forty hikes in one year? I think we can totally do it. Yay, a project! It's like my own version of Julie & Julia, only with less butter.


Yesterday we started with hike #18: The Presidio - Lovers' Lane and the Ecology Trail. I have a hard time calling this a hike because of the short distance and also because this is pretty much what I do for exercise (a.k.a. my hour-long hilly walks around my neighborhood), but whatever, it's in the book, so it counts.

Though I'm very familiar with this part of the Presidio due to said walks, Dave hadn't really ventured out here, despite the fact that the Presidio Gates are a ten-minute walk from our apartment. I had been wanting to bring him out there ever since we moved here - over ten months ago now! I didn't want us to move away from here some day and be like "Oh, we never went to the Presidio..." You have to take advantage of these things when they're right in your backyard.

Anyway, it was a lovely little hike on a gray overcast day, complete with - of course! - a kiss on Lovers Lane. A nice way to start the year.

The Most Dangerous Wedding Gift Ever

Do you know what these things are?


It's a creme brulee torch, a mortar and pestle, and a lemon reamer. AKA, our wedding gift from our friend G, given to us with the instructions that we not use them on each other in disagreements. Thanks, G!

(Side note: last Easter I came across a site where people tortured Marshmallow Peeps in a myriad of ways. Now, unlike many people, I am a fan of the Peep, but this trio of gifts could really be put to interesting uses in that little endeavor come next Spring).

We also got a surprise gift: a bundt cake pan and a box of double chocolate bundt cake mix. Now I can make a bundt cake and have something to put in my cake stand!
BONUS GIFT: more packing materials for Kitty!

Emoticon Fun

This is one of my favorite emoticons:

;P

Especially after the day Sweetie actually made that face for real, saying something to the effect of "Does anyone actually do that?". Now we do it all the time, and laugh and laugh. Try it sometime, seriously. Giggles!

Steamy!

It happened again!

Petunia investigated:


Oh, pretty wrapping!


It's the All-Clad 3 Qt Steamer Set!


Thanks, J & A & A! We can't wait to steam things.

It was not as interesting for kitty, but she still shows no sign of being tired of the Crate & Barrel packing materials that she lounges around in all day, every day.

Presents!

This wedding stuff has taken an exciting turn. On Friday, I came home to THIS:


I could barely wait to get it open. We had some fun for a minute trying to guess who the early bird was - I guessed S & D, because they had registered at Crate & Barrel for their wedding and it just seems like S. to be on top of things, like sending a gift early so you don't have to lug it with you from San Diego. But actually, it was from Sweetie's friends T & D, who sent us two sets of the Aspen dinnerware we had registered for. Now we have 8 sets of matching plates/mugs/salad plates/bowls, instead of just a mishmash of our unmatched stuff carried over from our previous lives! Nice.


Bonus!!! It turned out to be a treat for kitty, as well. She spent the better part of the weekend ensconced in packing materials. We're leaving it out until she tires of it.

Movie Round-Up

We saw several movies recently. My thoughts:

The Ugly Truth - Ugh. A week after seeing this movie, I both can't remember it and also kind of can't stop thinking about it. I can't remember it because there was absolutely nothing memorable about it - nothing funny or touching. Yet I also can't stop thinking about how Hollywood really just cranks out a lot of pointless drivel, and this movie is a perfect example of that. I'm also not a big Katherine Heigl fan, which doesn't help (I am so not one of those girls who's all into Grey's Anatomy).

Funny People - Good movie. Seth Rogan is thinner. He's still likeable, though. I think the last Adam Sandler movie I saw was The Wedding Singer, and it's weird to see him being rather serious and morose, and kind of a jerk. I remember when he was the young cute guy on SNL, so I felt a little old seeing him depicted as a middle-aged guy. Leslie Mann? Well, she certainly married well. She's guaranteed a role in every Apatow movie made. Though that's not such a great thing - I didn't like any of the women in this movie - all two of them. The female characters were just so flat and unsympathetic. Jason Schwartzman was in the movie - an interesting addition to the Apatow gang. Is he looking to branch out beyond the Wes Anderson circle, especially since the last couple of movies weren't so good? Final thought: I am just not very interested in watching home movies of the Apatow children.

Up - Finally saw it - this is the first movie I've taken the kids to. I thought it was sweet, touching, and a little sad. It was kind of intense in some parts -- this is really supposed to be a children's movie? I kept looking at Ben (8) & Bridge (6) to make sure they were OK. They were.

One of the best parts of Up for me: the picture that Ben drew of it afterwards. I really liked his carefully depicted balloons, and I LOVED how he included 4:15, the showtime we went to (we didn't see it in 3D though, so I'm not sure why he included that).