What I'm Reading Now

Testimony, by Anita Shreve.

Actually, I just finished it today. I really, really like Anita Shreve. She has an understated writing style that uses very few words to say a whole lot.

Testimony is her latest. It opens with a prep school headmaster viewing a tape of what will become a huge sex scandal that greatly damages the school and many of the students. Rather than relay the events in chronological order, Shreve gives voice to many, many narrators, all of whom are touched by the scandal in some way.

What I found most thought-provoking are the voices of those who are pulled into the aftermath not because of anything they did, but simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have four kids who did one really, colossal, stupid thing, but the impact of that one thing was bigger than anyone anticipated.

The male students involved were all star basketball players. Because of their association to the crime, the coach is fired and the rest of the season is cancelled. Because the season is cancelled, many of the players who counted on being scouted for college scholarships will not have that chance. Does anyone ever think that their selfish acts will affect other people in that way? I wondered more than once if Shreve wasn't at least partially inspired by the Duke scandal from a few years back.

And then you have the parents' perspective: watching your child make a life-altering mistake, and knowing you can't do anything to fix it.

I didn't think I would like this one at first. Based on the description, I expected a little sensationalism. But it turned out to be quite good -more about the characters and less about the plot.

Two thumbs up.

The Hotel Indigo

Hotel Indigo

The place we stayed this weekend

Was unique for sure.

All Guest Services

Information was displayed

In Haiku poem form.

I took some pictures

But they capture just a few.

Dude. Seriously.

Wicked

Back in the summer, my mom and I got tickets to see Wicked in Atlanta this weekend. Then, three weeks ago, mom broke her arm in a bar fight. (Actually, she fell down at work and broke her arm, but the bar fight makes a better story.) Anyway, she had to cancel, so Ben stepped in and my mother-daughter trip to Atlanta turned into a mother-son trip instead.

We went to the Saturday matinee, and had really good seats. I had been to the Fox before, but I guess I never went up into the balcony. This was the first time I really saw the ceiling in that place - awesome!!! The show was pretty amazing too - I heartily recommend it. It didn't have that immediate "WOW!" factor that The Lion King had with the staging, but it had some really cool effects (the witch flying was awesome), and the story and music were fantastic. Really, really good story.

Afterward, we ate at the Broadway Diner, where Ben consumed the largest piece of chocolate cake I'd ever seen, and spent the night right across from the theater at the Hotel Indigo.

All things considered, it was a lovely trip. We even stopped off to see Paul, Natalie and Sam on our return trip.

What's For Dinner?

WINGS!

I love me some wings, especially the Buffalo variety. I have several different ways that I make them, but I'm always looking for new ideas.

Last weekend, I got a new idea from Robin Miller on Food Network. She was making Halloween foods, and she called her wings "Bat Wings" (because she kept the tips on and spread them, and they allegedly looked like bats - I think they still looked like chicken, but I digress.)

Take your wings and toss them in a mixture of soy sauce, minced garlic, grated ginger, Asian five spice, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Roast them in a 450 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Not at all like Buffalo wings, but tasty none the less. We ate them with roasted corn on the cob and a baby spinach/hazelnut salad. I also made Robin's dipping sauce (sour cream, coarse ground mustard, and parsley) but I forgot to eat it. Newman.

NOTE: While typing this post, it came to my attention that we get the Food Network in high def. Oh my gosh. I might not leave the house again.

Presidential Press Conference

The Fourth Grade classes at Daniel's school did the COOLEST thing for their election studies this year. There are four classes, and each class pulled one of the four players out of a hat (McCain, Palin, Obama, and Biden). Daniel's class got Palin. So the girls got to audition to portray Sarah Palin during a press conference, and the boys got to audition to be Todd. Everyone else was either a member of the press, a supporter, or a secret service agent. The major players arrived in a motorcade, then went to the auditorium, where each candidate and spouse gave a speech. They all did a really, really good job (McCain promised to lower taxes and homework). Then the two presidential candidates took questions from the "press".

It was far cooler than anything I ever did in elementary school. Daniel got to be in the Secret Service. He arrived in a black Escalade, and guarded the door to the auditorium. There were no security threats, so I guess he did a good job.

Enjoy the pics!

The crowd gathers.

The motorcade arrives.

Agent D is in there somewhere.

The candidates wave to the crowd.

Don't mess with Agent D.

Don't mess with these guys either.

Obama gives his speech.

Mrs. Calhoun - the greatest fourth grade teacher of all time.

Todd and Sarah watch the crowd.

A not-so-flattering campaign poster.

Vote Republican. Because they rock, apparently.

Happy Anniversary!

Mark and I are celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary today! Apparently, 14 is the ivory anniversary, traditionally, but has become the gold jewelry anniversary in modern times. So to celebrate, we're going on an elephant hunt, and then getting our front teeth capped with some gold bling.

Not really. Actually, we're taking the day off, going to Starbuck's, going to an election program at Daniel's school, lunching at Olive Garden, and then taking in Quarantine. Good Times.

Happy Anniversary, Mark! Thank you for 14 wonderful years, and here's to 14 more!

Galaxy Loss

The Galaxy lost the semi-final game 2-0. They played HARD the whole game, and kept the other team from scoring for the entire first half. But they let two goals get past them, and that was that. The third place game is tomorrow night, so we get to play again, but it's not the same. It was a good season though - we enjoyed every minute.

I'm attaching a couple of pics one of the moms took on Saturday. I forgot my camera tonight, but it wouldn't have mattered - it was way too cold to take my hands out of my gloves.

Meet the Next Food Network Stars!

Two Guys Cooking promises to break new ground in the world of culinary entertainment! Ferdlings and Kyle (not their real names - yeah, they're using code names) specialize in alcohol and pork, with a little madness on the side. Throw in a kickin' soundtrack by Ronnie James Dio, and you've got fun for the whole family! Tune in tonight when Kyle stirs up a pot of something, and Ferdlings chops something else.

Sponsored by the Duke Sandwich Company.

Soccer Tourney - Game One

After a weird schedule, and a rain cancellation, Daniel finally had his first tournament game today. The Galaxy won 2-1 in a very close, very intense game. We play again in the semi-final game on Monday against the first-place team (a team that we played to a tie in the regular season).

I'm including a highlight reel for your enjoyment. Apparently, about five teams in our league went with the blue shirts/black shorts combo, so our team had to wear the red and yellow pennies. Daniel is #2, but with the penny, it's hard to tell. He's wearing a red one, if that helps. (And I didn't exactly get all the action - I'm just an amateur videographer, you know - I get easily distracted.)

Movie Quotes, Big Ferdlings Style

OK, so I've just about exhausted all my movie quote game ideas. The only quotes I keep coming back to are so obscure, I don't think any of you will get them. Except Ferdlings. He should get every one of these.

1. "Red, green, scarlet, pink - doesn't matter!!"
2. "Love that chicken pepperoni!"
3. "The T-Bones....."
4. "Do you have a dime? Do you have fifteen cents?"
5. "I'll handle Baron." (pronounced "Bawon")
6. "Why aren't you popular with the Chicago police department?"
7. "I would very much like to see you in it." (pronounced "vurry")
8. "Do you think he wants some cheese?"

Enjoy!

Thomas

At the urgent behest of one of my friends and my brother, I now have a Facebook account. And I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I have found lots of friends, and a few alumni groups.

One of the alumni groups that I joined last night is the Bethelwoods Camp and Conference Center alumni group. PC alums may remember Bethelwoods as the locale of Winter Conference every year. I worked as a counselor at Camp Bethelwoods during the summer of 1990. After joining the Facebook group, I was very pleased to get an email from one of my good friends from that summer, who also happens to be the admin of the group. He brought me up to speed on some of the people we worked with.

One of those people was a counselor named Thomas. Thomas was one of those people you noticed right away. He weighed a buck twenty soaking wet. He was balding, and the hair he did have was always flying in all directions. He also had the tiniest little mustache, but he was oh so proud of it. You could say he was wiry, and he got more energy into and out of that scrawny frame of his than anyone else on staff. He was very much like a squirrel.

Thomas was a little older than the rest of us. He worked in the school system during the year, and was a counselor at Bethelwoods for many summers. He loved working with the kids. LOVED it. He used to say his dream job was working at Disney World, being in the parades and making all the kids smile. One week, he organized a pageant for our last night festivities- all the kids made their own costumes (using little more than construction paper and cotton balls) and danced around the lodge singing Under the Sea. (The Little Mermaid was the only movie the camp had a copy of and we watched it every time it rained.) Thomas played Sebastian, and was the perfect master of ceremonies.

Thomas was also the creator of such Bethelwoods hits as The Ooga Booga Mud Tribe, and the Coon Family (he was Crazy Coon). He was always coming up with zany ideas that made no sense, but they just worked. He was very sassy, in a southern way, and would pretend to be really worked up about something, but would almost always crack himself up mid-tirade. It was his cracking himself up that made me laugh the hardest.

So my email brought the news that Thomas finally did fulfill his dream and worked at Disney World for a few years, making people smile. Then he got liver cancer, and passed away about five years ago.

I haven't seen Thomas in 18 years, but the world seems a little dimmer tonight.

Goodbye, my friend. Thank you for making me smile.

What I'm Reading Now

Islands, by Anne Rivers Siddons.

Siddons used to be one of my favorite authors. Colony, Peachtree Road, and The Outerbanks were fantastic books. I would read her books as soon as they hit the shelf. But after a while, she started to get a little "samey" - woman is trapped in a middle-aged rut, woman is taken out of her comfort zone, woman has extreme extra-marital affair, woman returns liberated and affirmed. (Sorry, I just don't see the extra-marital affair as the true road to wellville.) So I took a break, and haven't read one of her books in ages.

But this was on the sale rack, and I decided to give it a try. And I'm liking it. In fact, I did little else but read all afternoon, so I guess that's an endorsement of some kind. Mark and Ben went on a hike with the Scout Troop, and Daniel and I stayed in and read (he finished the second Harry Potter book and started the third.)

Islands is more for the sixty-something set, but I'm enjoying the Charleston/Sullivan's Island/Edisto Island setting. And I've got a hankering for seafood something awful.

I finished Becky - it was really good at times, really ho-hum at times. Becky was your classic, headstrong, southern heroine. She was borderline unlikeable, as she was in Tom Sawyer, and frankly, a bit of a tramp.

Saturday Baking

The King Arthur Flour Baker's Banter Blog has some pretty neat looking stuff. I've had the best of intentions to try some of their recipes for a while now, and today I finally did. They posted a recipe this week for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe adds canned pumpkin, spices, and walnuts to chocolate chip cookies to give them an autumn-spicy kind of feel. It reminded me of a Harvest Loaf Cake my mom makes (and I love), so I spent the afternoon giving them a whirl.

I did some substituting - I used white whole wheat flour (because I like it) instead of regular all-purpose, and I subbed cardamom and nutmeg for ginger (because I didn't have any ginger). Otherwise I followed the recipe.

My cookies didn't spread at all, nor did they get the yummy color they were in the picture. And they were a might bit dry. They were more cake-like than cookie-like - no crunch when you bite them. And without the icing, they aren't sweet at all. But with the icing, they are tasty, just not what I had in mind. I think I'll just stick with the Harvest Loaf Cake next time.

Daniel helped me ice them. (He didn't need to stand on the stool!)

The finished product. Compare to the picture on the King Arthur blog and you'll see why I was disappointed. :(

Hooray for Dollywood!

The boys are on Fall Break this week, so Mark and I took the day off and we spent the day at Dollywood. The weather was awesome, and the park wasn't crowded. (Well, actually there were quite a lot of old people there, but they weren't riding the rides, so it was all good.) Enjoy the pics of our day! And if you really want a good laugh, go over to Daniel's blog and check out his video of his first real roller coaster ride - it's hilarious!

There is something uniquely satisfying....

...about getting in a good day's work, spending a quiet evening with the fam, enjoying a warm bath followed by clean jammies and clean sheets, and then turning on the TV for a final send-off to your day, only to discover that the Red Sox are losing 11 - 1 to the Rays at Fenway Park in the ALCS. The RAYS! At Fenway! Ahhh....

Ben came in to watch a few innings with me, and maybe it was just the tired talking, but we got really giggly about the Red Sox folly. Big Papi squeezed a double into a triple and we said "Here it comes! Here comes the rally!" Then we looked at each other and cackled. When the much-hated Mike Timlin came in and gave up two more runs (for a total of 13, at this point) Ben said "You know, that just never gets old."

Now that it's coming down to the wire, and it looks like Joe Torre will be out of it, I have to say "Go Rays!" It would be really good for baseball for the Rays to win it all, proving once again, you really can't buy a world series title. The Rays have that intangible something that makes them play as a team, not a conglomeration of all-stars.

Go Rays indeed.