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Friday Fun! (Unathletic Me)
I have always wanted to be athletic. The version of me that tends to populate fantasy land is essentially the female version of 007. This is so not realistic though, and I’m not just saying that I can’t do backflips. My lack of athleticism is so strong that one of my most frequent memories of schoolyard sports is getting hit in the face by basketballs. This pretty much happened any time I was anywhere near a basketball court. I didn’t even have to be playing. I also have asthma and have this tendency to have to stop running to wheeze. God help me if there’s ever a zombie uprising.
In spite of all this, I still, inexplicably, delude myself into thinking that this time it will be different and sublimely attempt various athletic to semi-athletic endeavor. Last weekend this endeavor was ice skating. I remembered ice skating when I was a kid on the beaver ponds near our house. I was definitely good at it. I’d play hockey with my brother and his friends. Why did it take me so long to remember my awesomeness? I wondered. I discovered a free skating rink in the North End with $5 skate rentals. I asked a friend to meet me there, and it was on like Donkey Kong.
I got the skates in the biggest size they had, because I have inexplicably large feet for my short stature. I laced myself up and fought my way through the 2 foot tall terrors to get onto the ice. I stepped on and almost fell flat on my face. Hmm, this is not the me on ice that I remember. I desperately grabbed for the wall and glared at the children flying around using stacked up plastic crates to keep from falling down. That is so cheating, and no wonder kids are growing up to be such wimps these days, but I digress. Whilst holding onto the wall and taking tentative skating steps, I realized there was growing pain in my feet. The skates were way way too narrow. I also suddenly remembered that I used hockey skates, not figure skates growing up which explained why I couldn’t seem to handle the ice. You use movements more like roller blading for hockey skates, whereas figure skates are more like roller skates. I am not a roller skating girl. I got halfway around the rink, thinking my feet would go numb or something, but they suddenly were in excruciating agony, and I am not exaggerating. Realizing that I would probably be that woman crying on the rink if I didn’t get off the ice asap, I changed my course and headed down the middle of the rink, abandoning the wall and hoping I wouldn’t land on my ass. I managed to make it to the door safe and sound and hastily ripped off the skates. Every step I took still hurt. It turns out I somehow pulled most of the muscles and tendons on top of my right foot, and I’ve been limping most of the week.
I’d say in the future I won’t attempt athletic things again, but I know myself. I can just see me taking skiing lessons at some point in the near future. I’m bound to tell myself If you can snowshoe, you can totally ski, Amanda. I guess it’s just lucky for me that I don’t live in a climate with more dangerous recreational sports.
Happy weekend everyone!
5 Questions About Books
I stumbled on this fun meme over at Readers and Reference, and I really liked the questions it asks, so I bookmarked it for future use. I tweaked it a little bit to be in question format and to be a bit clearer. If you decide to do the meme yourself, please post a link in the comments here so we can all check it out and get to know you better too!
What’s a book you most want to read again for the first time?:
Hmmm, there’s a lot of books that have meant so much to me in my life, but I think I’d have to say The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I had seen the movie and absolutely hated it. My nerdier friends at university told me over and over again to read the “trilogy,” and I would love it. I refused to for years, but then one day I decided to take a whack at it. I can’t remember why. Anyway, I was cracking up reading it, which hadn’t happened to me in years at the time. It really reminded me why I love to read.
What was one of your favorite childhood books?:
Absolutely no doubt On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I loved the whole series growing up, but this was my favorite entry. In it Laura lives next to a creek, and I lived next to three beaver ponds, so I felt a bit of camaraderie. I also was completely obsessed with the sod house for some reason. I wanted to live underground just like Laura in a house that plants grew out of and, best of all, that I could walk on. I also enjoyed their problems with cows, since I was frequently sent out to chase cows back into their pastures. Plus, Laura’s relationship with her father, Pa, I identified with as it reminded me of mine with my father. Also, not gonna lie, I wished repeatedly that I had a mother like Ma.
What’s a book that you were assigned in school that you were expecting to be bad, but that turned out to be really good?:
I was a US History major in undergrad (my other major was English and American Literature). We were required to take two courses that gave you an overview of all of US history. I was dreading the Civil War portion, because I just don’t like that war. Every historian has a time period within their specialty they don’t like. Anywho, so this professor assigned us Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe to read, as it was one of the big stimuli for the Civil War. She wanted us to see beyond the modern controversy and read it with historian’s eyes to see why it had such a big impact on the abolition movement. I was expecting it to be fingernails-on-chalkboard bad, but, you guys, it is so good. It really demonstrates how abolitionists saw African-Americans as equally human, just downtrodden as the victims of slavery. It also shows the high expectations placed on Christian women at the time. It’s a heart-wrenching book, and I encourage you to read it and judge it for what it is and not for the racist movies and plays that followed it.
What’s your “guilty pleasure” read?:
This is a tough question for me, because I don’t tend to feel guilty about anything that I read. I’d have to say though that British chicklit books like Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella probably count. The cheesey, romcom storylines annoy the heck out of me, but for some reason, I still read them periodically. I guess it’s kind of like watching Teen Mom on MTV. I can’t look away from the train wreck.
What’s a book you feel you should read, but haven’t yet?:
I’m not sure it quite counts as a book, but Beowulf. I took this AMAZING class in undergrad on ancient mythology, and we mentioned it umpteen times, but didn’t have time to read it. I absolutely love ancient myths, like The Odyssey is one of my favorite books of all time, so really there’s not much of an excuse for the fact that I have yet to read Beowulf. Hm, except maybe that I’m not sure which translation is the best, and we all know how much translation matters in the ancient myths.
*waves* Hope you enjoyed the meme!
Friday Fun! (Featuring My Niece and Swaptree)
My lovely loyal readers and friends, so sorry there’s been no book reviews this week! The book I’m currently reading is really long, and I’m not enjoying it that much so the pace of my reading is a bit below average. I definitely should ring in next week with a review though, as it’s almost done!
This week I played pub trivia for the first time and discovered that I am not good at trivia. This is funny and ironic cause I know lots of random facts, but apparently I don’t know trivia type facts. I mean, really, who’s a tall athletic actor who guest starred in 1970s tv shows? Jeez, I dunno. I also didn’t enjoy that the music to keep teams from overhearing each other meant that I had to yell all night. That’s only worth it for a concert. Ah well. Lesson learned. I guess I should stick to arcade games, pool tables, and dart boards when we go out.
Some of you are aware that I welcomed my first niece into the world on December 23rd. My brother and my sister-in-law made the choice to have her, even though she has Down Syndrome. I know they have plenty of love in their hearts for a special baby, and they are just wonderful with her. Unfortunately, one of the elements of Down Syndrome is that the babies almost all have heart problems. They usually operate on the babies at 6 months (I have no idea why at that particular point, but I’m sure there’s a reason). Anyway, due to the heart condition, my niece is not very strong. She struggled to learn how to eat. I guess that takes a lot of energy she didn’t have at first. Finally she gained enough weight and was eating well enough to come home. I was going to go meet her and visit my brother and father this weekend, but unfortunately she had to get readmitted to the hospital. She wasn’t gaining weight, which babies are supposed to do. This is of course difficult for my brother and sister-in-law who also have an almost 3 year old little boy to take care of and a small farm to run. Thankfully, most of my family lives near them so they have lots of help. I wish there was something I could do from a distance to help my brother, but there’s not much beyond being an ear to listen when he needs to talk.
In much happier news, allow me to tell you guys about Swaptree. Swaptree allows you to list books you have but don’t want and books you want, and then it sets up 1:1 trades for you (or you can browse and request trades yourself). This works extra well since they set up 3 way trades, which helps you find a lot more books. The matches they make are in no particular order on your want list, so it’s a bit of a surprise what you get, particularly if your want list is as long as mine. Since part of ringing in the new year was weeding my personal library, I excitedly decided to try this out. It’s so awesome! So far I’ve gotten rid of 8 books for books on my tbr list. For those wondering, my weeded books were mainly textbooks I will never ever read again, some romance novels that came to my library for free that my boss gave me, and books from a point in my deconversion when I was wondering if maybe I should be pagan. For the record, I’m not pagan. I guess I’m deist. Anywho, so the books I’ve received in exchange so far are:
- Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
Do not mock me. I have a thing for memoirs. - Living the Simple Life by Elaine St. James
I’m a big fan of minimalism, and this was highly recommended on minimalist blogs. - The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox
Yes, another paranormal romance. However, it’s supposed to be a comical one which will change things up a bit. - Life, The Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
I’ve already read this, but I love love LOVE the Hitchhiker series, and didn’t (still don’t actually) own them all, so I’m fleshing out the “trilogy.” - Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
This memoir is by a woman whose fundamentalist Christian parents sent her to the same reform school in the Dominican Republic that my cousin’s parents sent her to, so I was intrigued. - Wild Swans by Jung Chang
I realized I haven’t read much non-western lit lately, and I enjoyed the nonwestern lit I read in college. This memoir is about three generations of Chinese women, and I think it looks really good! - Neuromancer by William Gibson
A classic scifi book that my nerdy friends have been berating me for not having read. ;-) - Feed by M. T. Anderson
A dystopian book about our heads being plugged into computers. Right up my alley.
All those books and my personal library size hasn’t increased at all! I encourage you guys to check Swaptree out. The only costs associated are shipping, and you can print labels directly from the website for extra ease. Each book costs around $2.46 to ship.
Have a nice long weekend, everyone! Rock on Martin Luther King Jr!
Friday Fun! (Happy 2010!)
Sorry for the hiatus last week, guys. I was recovering from my New Year’s Eve fun. For New Year’s Eve I acquired First Night buttons so I could go see the Kaiju Big Battel (sic) taking place in Boston. (Side-note: I cannot for the life of me understand why it’s called First Night and not Last Night. It’s the last night of 2009, not the first night of 2010! Ideas?!) I happened to catch some crazy Middle Eastern dancing that was occurring on a stage nearby while I was waiting. I have no idea what kind of dancing it was. It wasn’t bellydancing, and they hopped around waving their arms and fake swords a lot. Anyway, so Kaiju Big Battel is essentially WWE only the wrestlers are wearing monster costumes ala Godzilla and the stage has miniature buildings set up that they also smash. Two of my favorite characters of the night were Plantain and Dusto Bunny. Dusto Bunny was actually dusty! (Sorry I have no pictures of Kaiju to show you. I have yet to upload them from my camera). Anyway, then I met up with friends in the Common to see the ice sculptures and rang in the new decade on the Esplanade. It was definitely a fun night!
This week has been busy busy busy at work. They’re renovating my library (again). Currently all of us are crammed in one room while they work on the rest of it, but the exciting part, you guys, is I’m going to go from having a cubicle to an almost office! It’s pretty much an office minus a door, but I’ll have a divider up in lieu of a door. Plus they’re building me bookshelves, and I’m getting a brand new wood desk! I’m excited to move into my new office. It’s going to make me feel much more part of the team, since currently I’m the only one without an office.
In cooking this week, I tried out making gnocchi from scratch for the first time using sweet potatoes. It’s pretty simple, actually. You just cook the potatoes, pass them through a sieve, then combine it with spices, egg, and flour. The tricky part, I discovered, is adding just the right amount of flour. The consensus upon eating it was that it was neither good nor bad. A bit too floury. However, on reheating the leftovers, it went to good. I’m thinking maybe I just didn’t cook them long enough? I’ll definitely try it again. I think it’s one of those recipes you improve with over time. Kind of like pizza dough.
Oh, also, I’m all caught up in Lost now, so I’m totally ready for the new season. Bring. It. On!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Best Discoveries of 2009–Boston Places, Web Clips, and Recipes
Yesterday you got to see my best discoveries–aka I encountered them for the first time–of 2009 in movies, tv shows, and websites. The day before in my reading stats for 2009 you saw my favorite books I discovered. Today I’ll be finishing up my discoveries lists with Boston places, web clips, and recipes!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hinagiku/ / CC BY-ND 2.0
- The Friendly Toast (1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA)
Known as a hipster joint, this restaurant serves breakfast/brunch foods all day long. It’s decorated with fun vintage posters, many of which are scifi themed. The portion sizes are huge! You really get the bang for your buck here, and vegetarian options are numerous. You even can get vegetarian sausage! The servers are also super-friendly. This is currently my favorite breakfast place in Boston. - Berk’s Store (50 JFK St, Cambridge, MA)
I was hunting everywhere for waterproof knee-high boots without a heel, when I wandered into this store. Crowded into a small space is the best shoe store I’ve found in Boston. The styles reflect the needs of Bostonians–good for walking and the weather without sacrificing style. The employees are friendly and–get this!–you can put a deposit on shoes and have them hold them for you to pick up later without paying anything extra. This is great for if you find a great pair of shoes/boots but don’t want to drag them on your commute with you. - Boston Bed Company (1113 Comm Ave, Boston, MA)
More than just mattresses, they offer bed frames, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, sofas, and chairs. This business is locally-owned, and they understand Bostonian’s needs. Everything is reasonably priced, the sales associates are friendly but also understand giving you space to wander about the store on your own, and you get free delivery (over a certain price point, which I forget right now, but I easily reached it when buying my mattress and box spring). Definitely check them out for any furniture needs. - Hootenanny (36 JFK St aka The Garage, Cambridge, MA)
The clothing off-shoot of Newbury Comics, this store is great for funky clothing, shoes, and bags. I got my Glomits there, as well as a steampunk skirt and dress. They also offer vegan shoes for my vegan friends. The prices can be a bit steep on some items, but they have continuous sales which knocks them right down to reasonable. - Jacob Realty (279 Newbury St, Boston, MA)
I had to apartment hunt this year, and after many phone calls that ended with me mad at an agent who couldn’t accept my price limit as a real price limit, I finally landed on Jacob Realty. My realtor actually listened to me and treated me with respect, and she helped me land a great apartment! Definitely check them out if you’re on the apartment hunt.
Web Clips (yes I know there’s a lot of cats on this list)
- Surprised Kitty
Holy fucking squee is all I have to say about this one. - Protecting and Maintaining Your Heterosexual House of Cards
Hilarious look at the lengths straight guys go to in order to not appear gay. - The Mean Kitty Song
A guy wrote a tongue-in-cheek song about his new kitten’s activities in his apartment and managed to make a music video for it too. 
Know Your Meme–O RLY? Owl
I love all of the Know Your Meme episodes, but the O RLY? YA RLY! NO WAI! Owls are my favorite meme, so that’s why you’re getting this episode.- Keyboard Cat
I love this video. I now have my kitty “play piano” sometimes. - Jingle Cats–What Child Is This with Hava Nagila
It’s a kitty cat Chrismukkah!
Recipes
- Emeril’s Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Confession. I have a deep fryer, and for my housewarming party I wanted to use it. I’d made egg rolls with my dad when I was a kid, but those were meat-filled (this was before I went veg). Anyway, I was shocked to discover Emeril has a vegetarian recipe. They require a bit of work what with making up the filling and wrapping them, but they came out very good. Even my friends who don’t like egg rolls liked these. 
Little House Apple Pie (The Little House Cookbook: Fronteir Food from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker)
I’d gone apple picking with two of my best buddies, and I wanted to make apple pie. The problem was that I’d never gotten the family recipe from my mother who I disowned, so I needed to find a good new recipe. Omg, people, you should ditch family recipes more often. This pie is so good! Side-note, I always use Emeril’s Basic Sweet Pie Crust with my pies.- Vegan Sweet Potato Latkes (current issue of Vegetarian Times, apparently isn’t on their website yet)
I wanted to make latkes for my Chrismukkah gathering, but wanted a healthier version than the traditional one. I love sweet potatoes and already had a stash of them, so this seemed like it’d be cool to try. Instead of eggs, the recipe has you boil some sweet potatoes and mash them to use for binding the shredded potato together. I was skeptical as to whether this would work, but it totally did. These were a big hit.
That’s it for my best-of lists! Hopefully next year I’ll have more recipes to share with you guys. I hope you all made some fun discoveries of your own in 2009.
2009 Reading Stats!
At some point (oh, about two or three weeks in), this blog that started out as a purely opinions blog (with a focus on libraries) turned into an about 50% book blog. This really shouldn’t have surprised me. I mean a librarian with a blog about opinions is going to *gasp* review books? Say it ain’t so.
Being the reading freak that I am, I keep track of the books that I read over on LibraryThing. I just finished a book, and I doubt I’ll finish another one in 2009, so without further ado, here are my reading stats for 2009.
Total Books Read: 52
Average Books Per Month: 4.33
Month Most Read: August with 10 (The only month I didn’t have school? Surprise, surprise).
Month Least Read: January with 1 (I was really sick).
Fiction: 47
Nonfiction: 5
Genres (some books counted as multiple genres):
–Scifi: 12
–Romance: 12 (This really surprised me!)
–Dystopian: 10
–Horror: 8
–YA: 8
–Classics: 5 (Pleasantly surprised by this).
–Historical: 4
–Memoir: 3
–Contemporary: 3
5 Star Reads:
–The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, review
–Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
–The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Honorable Mention with 4.5 Stars:
–Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Read and Reviewed on This Blog: 27
I’m not the type to set goals for myself with reading, since I do it for fun. However, I will try to work in a few more nonfiction books as I’m a big believer in life-long learning. I do think this is a bit skewed since a lot of my nonfiction reading is in the form of current scholarly journals as opposed to books. I also think a book a week is a good pace for reading to still be enjoyable, but also not a neglected hobby. We’ll see if I naturally speed up or slow down next year. If you guys have any suggestions as far as specific books or genres for me to try in 2010, I welcome them!
Friday Fun! (Merry Christmas!)
Ayla playing in wrapping paper. You can just see her ear sticking out.
I know, I know. I’m posting on Christmas! The thing is, I have time, so I may as well, eh?
I really did have a lovely week. I was home sick Monday, and I spent the day destressing and recentering myself.
Tuesday night I went out for dinner with my friend and her boyfriend. My friend is moving to California on Sunday, so this was our goodbye dinner. It was sad, but also lots of fun. My friend chose the restaurant, so I had Peruvian food for the first time ever. It wasn’t bad, but it was a bit bland for my taste.
On the 23rd, my sister-in-law went into labor and gave birth to my niece via a C-section. Welcome to the world, Clara! She’s just over 5 pounds, and I’m excited to get to meet her next month.
Yesterday I was the only librarian in my library, something I actually enjoy. This may be a sign that I’m suited to small hospital libraries, hehe.
Today I’m actually just chilling at home. I’ve already been to see my family, since we knew my sister-in-law was due right around Christmas, and we thought it’d be best to visit prior to the baby being born and after sometime in January. Since everyone else is obviously with their families, as they should be, I’m enjoying a day of watching Lost, snuggling my kitty, baking cookies to mail to my librarian friends, and reading obviously! Tomorrow one of my best friends is coming over to hang out for the day, which will be our last chance before she goes to Israel for two months. I should go get some of that reading and baking done. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and happy day off to those who don’t!
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Opinions of a Wolf 