Unless Some Sweetness at the Bottom Lie,

Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie? - William King The Art of Cookery 1708

I just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.
Amazing.
British (I have a secret love affair for accents)
Flavia De Luce
Going to be a series.
sign

LOVED IT. So you should go read it. And if you don't like, don't tell me, I won't be able to let such harsh words fall upon my adoring ears.

It is a kind of Nancy Drew-esque/boxcar kids/three investigators type book. The main character is an 11 year old girl named Flavia De Luce. She's adorable, astute, a chemist hopeful, witty, and all of the sassiness that an 11 year old can be.

And since I'm so twitterpated with it still and wouldn't do the book justice, here is the review from amazon:

Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions—stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys respectively—Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer. In Alan Bradley's critically acclaimed debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, adult readers will be totally charmed by this fearless, funny, and unflappable kid sleuth. But don't be fooled: this carefully plotted detective novel (the first in a new series) features plenty of unexpected twists and turns and loads of tasty period detail. As the pages fly by, you'll be rooting for this curious combination of Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes. Go ahead, take a bite. --Lauren Nemroff

The one where I tell you my New Year's Resolutions

So many people are forgoing resolutions this year. Mine are kind of simple:
- Take better care of myself (eating better, exercising, saying no more often)
- Learn how to make tasty delicious creme brulee all by myself (Its getting sooo hard to find restaurants in town that make it anymore.....and by the way - flan can't hold a candle to creme brulee. Ever.)

That's it. I think I can keep them this year.
Wish me Luck!


UPDATE: 3-1-10
Inspired by someone else's resolutions I ran across last week, I'm adding one more:
- Run 100 miles (total) this year

I think that might be too easy but I thought I'd start small. Hey, if Will's mom can bike eleventy-billion miles in a year, I think I can run a hundred.

Once in a blue Moon

Did you see the moon tonight? If you can you should go look at it. I had intended on having an amazing-my-photography-teacher-would-have-been-so-proud-of-me picture of it here so as to amaze you with it. BUT, it's cloudy. Dang it. POUT.
I almost busted out the camera last night as it was crystal clear out and beautiful, but I decided that would be cheating and that somebody who knows something would totally call me on the fact that it was not quite a FULL moon yet.

Anyway. Kind of fitting and fun that a blue moon falls on New Year's Eve. Epic even. Maybe.
Or not. Seeing as how I can't see it, maybe that's a sign.

2009 was kind of a sucky year for me. I had high hopes for it to be amazing and it seemed to just spark, fizzle, and smoke; never really getting off the ground.

So - lifting my Blue Moon Shock Top to you 2010 - Here's to a better year!!

Sights of Christmas

technically I took this this picture weeks ago....I meant it to be a third Sunday/pink candle anticipation deal. But - I got busy. Apparently. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

A few days after this Will said something about how the icicle was a beautiful specimen of an icicle but that he wouldn't eat it since our roof was sooooo dirty. I gave him my 'I can't believe you just said that, that is sooo disgusting' look.

And then I got to thinking about it.

I DID eat icicles as a kid. Did I have a criteria for possible watery pops? I honestly can't remember. I know I had hard and fast rules about edible snow, but icicles?


hmmm....

Maybe He Will Grow Up to Be Pope Someday

If I could figure out how to subtitle I would do it for you.

Or maybe he's just working on his Latin translation...I have heard that we are going back to some of that in the near future.

Words you might be able to pick out:
Alleluia
Bless the Lord
about the 50 sec mark, with arms out stretch, "Lord hear our prayers"

Weird - yes.
Cute - yes.
Should I be worried yet?

HOW COLD IS IT??

It's sooooo cold outside that the eggs are freezing solid in the nests and cracking.

What to do with them?

Compost pile or eat?

I was too chicken to let one thaw and crack it open to see what it looked like and to cook it up and see if it tasted different.

And for the record.

-16

not.hot.at.all.

Bittersweet

Monday was a Snow Day - Yippee!!!!

But UNR didn't get their act together until after my children were on their way to daycare. So...I got to stay home by myself, but I was kind of sad about it.

There's nothing more enjoyable than watching your children play in the year's first big snowfall. And with mine being so young, they still are quite intrigued with snow.

I did get a ton of things done though, that I would not have been able to do with them home.

I shoveled the driveway, twice

I did six loads of laundry (yes I am that far behind)

I did two loads of dishes

I made turkey soup

I cleaned the snow out of the chickens shelter and made sure they were surviving

I caught up on some DVR programs

I wrapped presents

I sorted toys for good-will

So it was productive. But I did find myself standing at the front window watching all the children sled down our street and wish my family was all out there participating in the fun.