Category Archives: me!

Books read in 2007 (year in review)

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Below, you’ll find the complete (mostly) list of what I’ve been reading this year. (sorry, titles and authors only…but you can check out my profile on goodreads, where I’ve at least given most of the things I’ve finished a rating.)

As has been the trend since a certain comic book nerd entered my life, you’ll see a bunch of comics and graphic novels on the list. This is the year that I’ve discovered Brian K. Vaughn. Some other things that I’ve found notable this year:

  • YA author Cecil Castellucci. I first encountered her through her Minx offering, The Plain Janes. I’ve since read several of her YA novels, my favorite of which I think was Beige.
  • The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Breathtaking.
  • A satisfying ending to the Harry Potter series. I loved Deathly Hallows. Loved. Yes, there were problems with it. Don’t care.
  • Fantastic unpublished novels by friends. I am so lucky to know such talented people.
  • Continued love for Meg Cabot, Stephen King and Laurie Halse Anderson.

There were also a couple of disappointments, most notably Hey, Nostradamus, which I didn’t think lived up to Douglas Coupland’s earlier work, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Of course, my reading slowed quite a bit from September until the end of the year because of my employment situation, but I can’t complain. 😉

Click below for the full list!

Continue reading →

Friday photos (soon)

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I do have photos to post, but some of them are still on my camera. Here are a couple of videos I took last weekend at Madame Mocha’s.

Go to Bed:

Hockey Monkey:

(Hockey Monkey does not start at the beginning of the song. Sorry!)

Reading, watching, listening (Christmas eve edition)

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It’s been a very busy few days, and will continue to be busy. I expect posting will be sparse this week. In the meantime, here’s the reading, watching, listening post I actually started on Friday.

Reading: Starman (ongoing). Just Listen, by Sara Dessen. I love, love, loved this book. I may write an extended review for my book blog, where I have not posted in months.

Watching: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original TV special, NOT the movie), Elf (with my kids at school, so I essentially watched it four times. I had never seen it before. Really, really funny…), more Season 5 Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Rand and I have begun watching the DVDs. I’ve seen most of them. He has not…), Mystery Men.

Listening: Greg Klyma and Ookla the Mok (the show at Madame Mocha’s was tons of fun, really.); Christmas music; Hawksley Workman; Larry Miller: Spoiled Rotten America.

And that’s all I have time for right now…enjoy your day!

Weekend wrap-up

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Grades are done! Whew!

Apart from the grading, this past weekend was fairly mellow. Friday night, Rand and I went out for dinner at Danny’s on Genesee Street. We like Danny’s. It’s comfortable and homey and they make really good food. I had an excellent fish fry.

Saturday, we met up with Dave Huth and another friend from Houghton–they had come to Buffalo to do some errands and we met them for a long lunch at taste of India. They all had the buffet, but I went with the Chicken Muglai. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got what I ordered. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t taste right.

When I wasn’t grading, I was working on various crafty projects (some of them are Christmas presents–shhh!) and even doing a tiny bit of baking:

toffee bar cookies

I went in search of a recipe using Heath bits, which I bought last time I went shopping. I found this. I thought, that sounds good, but I think it needs some chocolate. So I melted chocolate chips and spread them over the top while they were still hot. (drizzling proved to be unproductive.) I have to say, they’re quite tasty, and really easy!

HEATH BIT BARS

Recipe By : RADIS BGMB90B
Serving Size : 48 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bar cookies

1 cup Butter
1 cup Brown sugar
1 Egg yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1 package Heath bits — (6 oz) divided
1/2 cup Pecans — finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With mixer, cream butter well; blend in sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. By hand mix in flour, 2/3 cup Heath bits and nuts. Press into ungreased 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 ” jelly roll pan. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle remaining Heath Bits over top. Cool slightly but cut while still warm.

I got my grades done and entered yesterday, so yay. I also got all but one last batch of Christmas cards out…the rest will go out tomorrow. I ran out of stamps. 😉

Happy 6-days-till-Christmas everyone!

Friday Photo

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Plus Weekend Wrap-up, Part 2…

low show

That is, sadly enough, the best photo I got at the Lowest of the Low concert last weekend. Rand, John and I got to Club Infinity early (before the doors opened) so that we could secure a spot at one of the “tables” along the walls. Unfortunately for us, the stools had been removed so as to pack more people into the space. Sigh.

I decided to stand behind Rand and John–between the “tables” and the wall–because the floor was about six inches higher there. That didn’t last. As more and more people began to crowd into the club, I felt more uncomfortable where I was standing. “Concert” and “Personal space” are not words that seem to go together.

There were two opening acts. The first was a local band that didn’t impress me all that much. The second was the Marble Index, a three-piece from Hamilton, Ontario, whom I’ve seen open for the Low before. I enjoyed them more last Saturday than I have in the past. They did a great job of setting the crowd up for the main act, and didn’t overstay their welcome.

As the concert began, this became my view:

my view

Sigh. Soon after, I decided to sit up on the wood half-countertop thing that edged the “table” area. I figured there were too many people there for anyone to come and yell at me.

They opened with “A Casual Overdose” from Sordid Fiction, which I thought was an odd choice. A little while later in the set, they played “The Last Recidivist,” which I thought would have been a better opener.

I really don’t have the set list memorized, but I can say they played many favorites from Shakespeare My Butt. In addition to other songs from Hallucigenia and Sordid Fiction, they played several songs from Stephen Stanley’s upcoming solo album, and several from Ron Hawkins’ current solo album (which was NOT being sold at the show. Grr.).

For their second encore, the guys played “Letter from Bilbao” and then finished up with “Rosy and Grey,” both of which brought a little tear to my eye. (People were yelling for “Rosy and Grey” WAY too early on in the evening. I wanted to shout, “People, you don’t really think they’ll leave without playing it, do you? DO YOU?”)

I feel like I’ve sort of come full-circle with my Lowest of the Low experience…I was there for their reunion show at the Tralf (with Jen, Rachel, and another friend with whom we’ve sadly lost touch) in 2000, and there for their farewell show. It was strange being there without Jen…as many times as I’ve seen the Low over the years (I’ve lost count), I think this is the first one I went to without her. (she couldn’t be there because of other commitments…) Jen, I missed you!

And while this will be the last we see of Lowest of the Low (forever? who knows…), I’m sure it won’t be the last we see of Ron Hawkins, Stephen Stanley, Lawrence Nichols, David Alexander, and Dylan Parker. At any rate, I’ll bid a fond farewell to the band that’s been the source of many happy memories for me over the past seven years–the good times with friends, the road trips to Hamilton and Toronto and Fredonia, meeting the band at Spot Coffee, the great music, and at least in a small way, bringing Rand and me together.

Thanks for everything guys.

“And I’ll say, “goodbye, I love you.
‘Cause it’s time that I should go…”

Crunch time

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My apologies to anyone I’ve been neglecting lately. I haven’t forgotten you…I’m just getting buried by typical end-of-semester stuff plus holiday stuff, and I don’t have as much time as I’d like for all of the little things I’d like to be doing. My load will lighten considerably after next week, and possibly even more considerably at the end of January (unless another work opportunity presents itself before then…)

I’m just keeping my head above water with the grading now–and I’ll be doing a whole bunch of grading over the weekend. The college class will be over next week. Next Friday is the start of winter break from school, and then I’ll just have a few more weeks left in my current position. Most of that time will be devoted to reviewing for the January ELA exam. Woohoo!

So anyway, if you’re wondering what I’m up to…that’s about it. 😉

Weekend wrap-up (part 1)

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It was once again a busy weekend, but in a good way!

Friday night, All Things Jennifer hosted a girls’ night get-together complete with cookies and festive drinks. She also organized donations for Literacy Volunteers–many of the people who attended brought books to donate.

party!

cookies

I brought a book, brownies, and hot chocolate fixings, including Butterscotch Schnapps–my favorite addition to cocoa! I picked up Samantha and we rode together, and that was nice.

It was fun meeting some new people and seeing others that I hadn’t seen in a while.

jen and erin

jen and samantha

(side note–does anyone have any good advice for avoiding redeye, other than “learn to use photoshop”?)

Thanks to Jen for hosting, and here’s to more friendly get-togethers in 2008!

I’ll be posting part 2–farewell to Lowest of the Low–later tonight or tomorrow.

Thursday Thoughts: Bellsnickel

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December 6 is St. Nicholas Day. In my hometown, we celebrated a similar tradition, but instead of St. Nicholas, we were visited by Belsnickel. Here’s a brief mention I found on Wikipedia:

Belsnickel (or Belschnickel) is a Pennsylvania Dutch mythical being who visits children at Christmas time. If they have not been good, they will find coal and/or switches in their stockings. The Belsnickel was a scary creature not well loved except by parents wanting to keep their children in line.

Belsnickel is also similar to Krampus in Austria and Germany.

I did grow up in a very German part of Pennsylvania, and my area of the state had adapted a version of this story. Our Belsnickel wasn’t exactly scary, though…we thought of him as a jolly elf of sorts. On the night of Dec. 5, we’d leave our shoes out, and Belsnickel would leave a small gift (candy or little toys) for you if you’d been good.

I received small gifts from Belsnickel well into my adulthood. 😉 (Here’s one previous mention on the blog…I had spelled it Bellsnickle, and I’ve been noticing a lot of google searches leading people here! Hope you find what you’re looking for…)

There’s some more information under the “Companions of St. Nicholas” entry in Wikipedia.

Wedding Wednesday–What’s in a name?

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When you get engaged, one of the first questions you hear (after “have you set a date”) from a lot of people is “are you taking his name?”

It’s a question previous generations didn’t give much thought to…the answer was always yes. That’s what was done, and it wasn’t questioned.

I’ve watched lots and lots of friends go through this process. I know some people who kept their names. I know others who hyphenated, or used their maiden name as a middle name. I know some people who agonized over the decision and ended up taking their husband’s name. And I know others who were adamantly against changing their name, and yet when the wedding came around, they did.

My answer? It is and always has been yes.

I don’t have a problem with anyone choosing not to, or hyphenating, or whatever else they decide to do…like so many other decisions women have to make, particularly those involving marriage and children, these are personal decisions that become very, very public. And public decisions mean that people have no problem offering their opinion on the matter. Not too long ago, I read an article on Feministing that made me feel shame for wanting to take my future husband’s name. Shame. 

Yes, I know that it’s not very progressive of me. I know that it’s based on a patriarchal system that treated women as property (and that there are people in this world who still do). I’ve thought about that, and I’ve weighed it out, and I’ve decided that I don’t care. I want it. I want to share his name…I want it to be our name.

At this point in my life, I’m fairly secure in my identity. My name doesn’t change who I am. I don’t have a solidly established career that would suffer from my changing my name.

And besides–I hit the jackpot in the name department. Rand’s last name is gorgeous.

One thing that does bug me, that I still see happening enough to have complained about it in the past, is when a woman essentially loses her first name as a result of getting married, being referred to as “Mrs. Brad Pitt” (or whatever). Even worse…back in my reporter days, when I had to transcribe birth announcements, I would see people being referred to as Mrs. John Smith (the former Jane Doe).

Gah. I have always hated that wording…as if that person no longer exists. But I digress.

At any rate, next July, I will jump through the necessary hoops to become Erin Bellavia…but that doesn’t mean Erin Nappe has ceased to be. I’ll just have a different name. And I think I’ll smell every bit as sweet.