Afternoon Tea Party

Sunday my Honey and I had a little tea party at our house. In preparation, we dug our tea ball collection out from the drawer, bought a little wooden display case, and hung our collection on the kitchen wall. This was quite a project in itself, but we both have been admiring the result everyday since we hung it.

I made maple scones and lemon blueberry scones. I made little tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off. My Honey made a lovely chocolate macadamia nut cake. We set out our fanciest afternoon tea accessories, including a deep blue table cloth with a lemon design. We found this French tablecloth in New Orleans about 5 or 6 years ago. We love to find stuff when we travel and then use it for entertaining. We had my parents, and some friends from work. We invited the neighbors, but they were sick with colds and couldn’t make it. Ah well, maybe next time. More chocolate dipped strawberries for the rest of us!

It was really great fun. We made pots of tea, and good conversation. One of the couples is from England and Scotland, so we grilled them on tea customs, and such. They brough a lovely homemade dessert called Pavlova. Delicious. I think it must be very popular in England, although the sources on the web I found indicated it orignated in Australia.

I thoroughly enjoyed the party. I think our guests did as well (at least they said they did)! It was a nice way to add a little color to displace the grey mid winter feeling we get each year. We have already started planning for a mid winter party next year. I thought an “Open Mike Night” at the house would be a fun idea, so if you are hoping for an invitation – you had better start polishing your act!

Making My Blog a Diary

Well, I originally wanted to have a book blog, but I don't read fast enough, nor do I tend to read anything particularly intellectual. Not that the books have to be intellectual for one to talk about them. It just ain't enough for me to make a blog out of. So I have decided to try making this blog more of a diary - you know, talking about the day to day stuff. I think it might suit me a bit better. Just mentioning the trivial stuff that makes life life, each day some good, some bad, some shallow thoughts, some deep thoughts. My Honey and I do a lot of very cool and interesting things so I have plenty to talk about. As you will find out. If this blog thing works for me. It might become more of a record for me, but what the heck - I don't have any readers yet anyway...

Yesterday was Valentines Day. I think the holiday is a big scam foisted off on the public by the media and by retail establishments. Actually, you may find out in the days and weeks and months ahead I think a lot of things are scams! Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. Guilt if you ignore it. Stress if you forget about it. Fun if you remember it in advance enough and plan accordingly. Nothing serious about it.

We had a wintery mix of sleet, freezing rain and snow in my area. Bad for the restaurants who were counting on some Valentine's Day diners. I heard today that in NYC only about 50% of the people showed up for their reservations. Haven't verified that figure. Anyway my Honey and I exchanged lovely romantic cards. I gave him a cool USB hub thingy that looks like the nuclear launch code button in the beginning of the movie War Games, and a set of "Key Shaped" knife spreaders for entertaining. He gave me a set of Valentine's Day salt and pepper shakers that are red and white man and woman hugging. We collect salt and pepper shakers. I guess I should post a picture of them. (I'll add that later). Also he gave me a Rubbermaid deviled egg storage container. This is the greatest invention since Devilled eggs themselves! I don't know why I didn't think they invented something like this. Makes it a heck of a lot easier to store the finished eggs in the fridge, and to transport them to a party. I am a big fan of deviled eggs.

I am trying to finish reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have been very absorbed in it on the train (commuting to and from work), but haven't really been getting into it at home. The book is very strange. It annoyed me at first, but now I see how cool it really is. The structure is so complex, but it really works. The novel is built on a series of connected short story-fantasy versions of some imagined family history related to a Jewish town destroyed in WWII. The stories seem to me to be a spiritual interpretation of reality similar to something you might read in some Yiddish stories or perhaps something by the Bal Shem Tov. Or maybe not quite that lofty. I have only read that kind of thing in English translation so I could be way off on this. I am not a scholar of this kind of writing or story telling. The counterpoint is provided as a series of letters from a Ukrainian teenager who acted as a tour guide to the American writer who went to the Ukraine to try and find some of his family history. Comic relief is provided by the English words used in error by the teenager, as he practices his English. The story he writes is a story of the "tour" and the story of his family.

I know the book was made into a movie, so after I finish it I will watch the movie and see how it compares. I can't imagine how this book could have been captured in a movie.

More later...

2006 Reading in Review

I like books that stick with me. If the concept or the characters or the story line, or the gimmick pop up unbidden into my head days after I have finished the book it definitely makes it to the "Good Book" list. In 2006 one of the books that I found to be enthralling was "A Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier. This concept is something new. Something I have not run across before. The descriptions are beautiful. The book is written from the perspective of the Dead who live in a city much like the Living. The consensus among the characters is that they stay in existence as long as someone who is living remembers them. There is a parallel and interwoven story from the perspective of a living woman. Her life takes place in a future not all that distant from our own.
I don't want to give away too much. This is a short book. I highly recommend it.
Here is an excerpt:
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/content/articles/030908fi_fiction?030908fi_fiction

Update on From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge

I have utterly failed at my first challenge among the Book Blogging community. I do have plenty of excuses. I also learned something from this. My eyes are bigger than my stomach. Or maybe its visa versa...

I can't force myself to read what I am not in the mood for. If I don't enjoy a book I tend to get stuck about half way through. Perhaps it isn't so terrible to give up on a book altogether. Depends on why I wanted to read the book in the first place. Reading is supposed to be a pleasure, and with so much stress in the rest of life, I want to be careful not to ruin that pleasure by making unnecessary rules for myself! I am officially resigning from the challenge...

I got stuck on the first book on my list Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton. I really wanted to read this book. I even got a personalized signed copy, that my Mom had signed for me when she met with Hillary last year. I love books signed by the author.

Parts of this book are interesting, but I should have realized how much of the book would be propaganda. I like Hillary. I like Bill. I even have a signed copy of his autobiography, although it isn't personalized, I did get to shake his hand when he signed it. I don't care much about their personal relationships, and I definitely don't want to start any political arguments.

Despite being a political science major in college, I don't really like politics all that much. I am more interested in the theory and social implications behind what happens than the actual gory details.

I am disappointed in this book. I am not learning what I hoped to learn from this book. I feel that Hillary is just saying what she thinks she should say. I was hoping that she would show a side of herself that was more "like the rest of us". I was hoping for some reaction to the act of living and creating history. There are maybe one or two sections where this happens. I guess I just can't relate to her background, and I feel like her motivations are artificially described or that she is holding something back. I believe she believes in her motivations, but it sounds like the book was dictated to a public relations person, who cleaned out all the sincere emotion. As Dennis Miller says " Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong".