Banned Books

I thought it would be a good idea to post a little more often. Sadly, my day-to-day is such a standard routine; I'm sure if someone was stalking me, I would be an easy target.  In fact, I may be such an easy target that the challenge would be gone for the stalker and the stalker would give up from pure boredom due to a lack of pursuit. Hmm...maybe not a bad thing.

Anywho, there was big literary news yesterday. J.D. Salinger died. Shockingly (? or not) I have not read anything he has written and have decided to change this. Since I already had an amazon order in the hopper, I decided to throw in Catcher and Franny and Zooey (the latter came as a recommendation of my well-read new co-worker).  Have y'all read any of these?

I also saw in the news that a Virginia public school system has decided to not teach from an unabridged (of sorts) version of The Diary of a Young Girl - the Anne Frank diary (the version in question is the "Definitive Edition"). This particular version was published on the 50th anniversary of Anne's death and apparently includes Anne's diary entries that discuss her entrance into puberty, so to speak.  So a parent complained. One parent. Now, apparently the kiddos are still reading the book, but only the edited version Anne's dad, Otto, originally released. But, uh, really? Really? Given what all those kids see on TV, movies, internet, magazines and hear on the radio...and this helicopter parent is taking down Anne Frank? A girl who died at 16 and was essentially cloistered starting at 13? Man alive, people.

Happy last weekend of January.



"I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect."

"It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to do."

-Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Heat Wave

In a bizarre turn of events, Chicagoland has had a bit of a heat wave move through the last few days. Blissfully in the upper 30s and low 40s. Yesterday it was a shocking 44 degrees. I think last year around this time, we were facing sub-zeros temps. Bizarre. Maybe all those people really meant it last year when they said it was abnormally cold.

Nonetheless, 44 degrees, overcast, fog (can't see the top of the skyline out our window), rainy, melty snow. What does this remind me of? Why, every 8K I have ever run in this city! So after lazing around for 2 hours, I went out for a run. In shorts. That was really the only big accomplishment of the run. I am horribly out of shape - legs were fine, lungs and heart were acting like I aged in the last few weeks.

The rest of the day is not as fun filled.  I have more billing to do (all the entry into the system....this is in the top 5 list of Thing I Hate About Public Accounting) so I am avoiding that by blogging. I have plans to cook tonight too. I had frozen chicken for something else but asked RJB to get the ingredients (he was heading out anyways) for the yummy recipe Y emailed this morning (plus the water chestnuts and mushrooms per her suggestion). Good thing I did. Just looked at the chicken that has been thawing. It looks like 90% of it is cooked. And it is raw chicken. I guess the container from the grocery had too much air in it for the freezer. I think it needs to be trashed to avoid the likely storm that would be a-brewin' later tonight if we ate it. Oh, and RJB got me some wine too. What a husband!

Finally, RJB commented that the hyperlinks in the blog are a little hard to read. And I can't figure out the unfortunate font issue. I guess it is time to try out a new blog format. This fills me with anxiety re: losing everything but change is good, right?

Can't Make A Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear

Well, 2010 is off with a bang.  Sorta. Work is already busy (generally busy season starts in February, though it is already picking up.), new leadership of the firm, Fiscal Responsibility is taking a whole new high, and I am back on the trolley with running.  I know, I know. I have lamented about running as long as I have had this blog. But honestly, one of the ladies in Dallas has inspired me by posting her Nike+ runs on Facebook. So over the holidays I bought a Nike+ sportsband and a pouch for non-Nike shoes (for the foot sensor). So. Back on the trolley with fun gadgetrey. Granted I am hitting it on the TM for several months, but so it is. Already signed up for the Shuffle.


About a week ago, I went to visit a new client. He asked me what was different about people in Chicago verses Dallas. Oddly, I had a hard time coming up with something that sounded intelligent even though I do often notice little nuances. Here are the two that I butt heads with on almost a daily (work day) basis:

• Tweaking. Yes, tweaking. Everyone here 'tweaks' things. Not, 'hey I'll have such and such to you after I make a few changes'. Rather, 'this will be ready after a tweak such and such'. Or, 'this letter needs to be tweaked.'  Somehow it sounds very slick willie and under the table to me.  I decided to look up the meaning of tweak and found tweak and tweak. I pulled these two sites in order and I feel very satisfied that in proper language circles (aka not urban speak), its the second meaning that ties back to my colleagues favorite word.  Also upon finding the urban dictionary finding, I said, 'oh maybe this explains the under the table feeling'. RJB very politely said my colleagues are not thinking that tweak = meth and tweaker = meth addict. I however was a little surprised by RJB's quick reference to a tweaker. Indeed.

• Couple. Simple word. This one doesn't bother me too much but am often astonished by the literal meaning Chicagoans take. I always would think of a couple as being something more than 1 but less than say, 5. Clearly I know that a Couple is two people, etc. But when saying a couple of years, it was like saying a few. Not so much here. Couple = two no matter what context it is used. 

As a side note, you may remember the posting on our Rothko. RJB just admitted that he is happy we have the big daddy as it is in the essence of what Rothko was intending - big canvas (or print in our case). We carefully didn't revisit the transportation methodology, however. 

Ok, off to watch a DVD about my fav artist, Mr. Jackson Pollock. 

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year! RJB and I had a quiet one on purpose. Something about loud, overexcited, over indulgent, drunk people falling all over us didn't sound like a good time. Shocking I'm sure.

Christmas this year flew by.  Sadly, my brother and his wife were unable to make it up to FdL. We were able to open gifts with them by way of skype so that was fun. Mom and I did a lot of cooking and mom has decided that next year we are getting a ham and doing a just few sides (we redo Thanksgiving at Christmas so this would be quite the change). I'm all for that because it means we can do some baking.  We ended up attending Mass on Christmas day partly because of the weather and partly because the Christmas Eve Mass is so popular, getting there an hour early still puts us standing in the vestibule.  So Christmas Day was good though Mass was long even by Catholic standards.

We had an epic gift exchange filled with all things wonderful - books, DVDs, homeware, and jewelry.  RJB was especially good to me though I think he got a little jealous of le Creuset!  Check out my new sassy red shoes; I can't wait to start wearing them. I have been lusting after these guys for quite some time.

More holiday photos:

Ice on the windows Christmas Eve morning

Oh Tannenbaum...

                                            (mom & dad's tree)          (our tree - thanks aunt janice)

 

 our official first-Christmas-as-a-married-couple shot

We have had this week off of work - each day we have had some sort of 'task' to do. None of these seem  too time consuming, but when you consider taking public transpo and/or general mania traffic, tourists in the city, the snow/wind...it took some time. Monday, we took RJB's money clip in for engraving and ran a few other errands in the city. Tuesday, I hit the Apple store to get my laptop fixed (new battery, discussed new RAM and software upgrade) and did a massive clothes clean out.  Wednesday, headed out to Algonquin to see RJB's parents. Yesterday we fought the herds of people at Whole Foods to get last minute items for New Year's Eve dinner and then I cooked cooked cooked. Whew!

Bags for me to eat?! Just don't take me to charity too!

As many of you know, RJB is a HUGE fan of Italian food. In fact, for the past two New Year's Eves, I have made lasagna. For 2009, we almost agreed on Cajun shepherd's pie, but alas, lasagna won out again (not that I am complaining, there's nothing like a baked pasta...mmm...)  This year we did lasagna rolls from the cookbook Linda got us at the Illinois shower.  I also threw in some antipasti and apple pie (made from mom's homemade apple pie filler).

Somehow I didn't get a baked shot of the pie - it did look marvelous though!

Antipasti and the lasagna rolls

        

       

       

                    

I have to the honest - this is the first time I've successfully handled lasagna noodles. These guys have been my Italian cooking nemesis. They cook up fine but then stick together and are a mess. Joy of Cooking and an ice bath helped me this year. Whew!

Now we are off to a semi-lazy New Year's Day. I made a yummy breakfast, we tried to go see the Diamonds at the Field (now are going tomorrow due to lack of timed tickets), RJB just got back from a run, and this post has taken me about an hour to do (arranging these pictures have been an uber challenge for me - not so tech savvy). And partly because of this:

 

Alright, time to jump start 2010!

PS - I'm now only emailing the link to the blog going forward. Sending the auto email doesn't allow me to make updates (grammar, etc) that are seen in the auto email.

Also, blogger made some updates and I can't figure out the font. It is either small like this or huge like this, which is a horror on formatting. Until I can figure out a fix, reading glasses are a requirement...sorry!

PS - With the new blog layout, the pretty arrangement of this photos when to heck. Boo.