More recent reading

Have I mentioned my mad love for Kelley Armstrong’s Nadia Stafford series? I like some of the Otherworld books (the Magic ones never did it for me) but I ADORE these books. There are only two so far and I am wicked hooked. Short version: if you wanted to hang out with someone who was a hitman (and you didn’t know), it would be Nadia. Chock full of creepy and/or paranoid serial-killers-with-a-mission. Cross between Buffy (albeit no vampires or monsters- at least not the otherworldly sort) and Dexter.

Also read: Paranoia by Joseph Finder. Free on the kindle and MAN this was a grabber. Corporate espionage thriller that was miles better than The Firm. It jumps in hard and if you hang on for the ride, the ending is total payoff. Dug it and I will totally check out more of his work.

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Reading material

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately and I’ve got to say my latest guilty pleasure is the Magic series by Ilona Andrews. Just finished the latest book and they are well- written, fast-paced, kick ass protag, and have interesting world building. Two thumbs up, highly recommended. Reminds me of what Anita Blake could have been before she became a magic-induced nymphomaniac without principles.

The Year of Magical Thinking is pretty fantastic. I thought about picking it up for ages and finally did. Didion’s memoir of the year after her husband’s death will resonate with anyone who’s lost a loved one. This bit especially:

Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shck. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes. In the version of grief we imagine, the model will be “healing.” A certain forward movement will prevail. The worst days will be the earliest days. We imagine that the moment to most severely test us will be the funeral, after which this hypothetical healing will take place. When we anticipate the funeral we wonder about failing to “get through it,” rise to the occasion, exhibit the “strength” that invariably gets mentioned as the correct response to death. We anticipate needing to steel ourselves for the moment: will I be able to greet people, will I be able to leave the scene, will I be able to even get dressed that day? We have no way of knowing that this will not be the issue. We have no way of knowing that the funeral itself will be anodyne, a kind of narcotic regression in which we are wrapped in the care of others and the gravity and the meaning of the occasion. Nor can we know ahead of the fact (and here lies the heart of the difference between grief as we imagine it and grief as it is) the unending absecne that follows the void, the very opposite of meaning, the relentless succession of moments during which we will confront the experience of meaninglessness.

I also finished the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is precisely as good as you’ve heard it is.

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman is a recent release and it’s beautiful and touching and wrenching and honest. Love her work.

All the recipes I’ve been making lately come from Dana Jacobi’s The Essential Best Foods Cookbook. Unlike Rachael Ray, they don’t promise you’ll be done in 30 minutes but I haven’t run into anything that takes much longer. The food HAS been fantastic, including the Salmon with Coconut Curry Chutney that I served for dinner on Friday. P.S. Cookbooks on the kindle are THE WHIP.  Easiest way to ever shop for groceries. I’ve also discovered that the rice which cooks perfectly at 10,000 feet is Basmati, properly soaked.

I also read the latest Mercy Thompson book by Patricia Briggs – she’s a consistently good storyteller, period.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it previously but I THOROUGHLY enjoyed Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s one of those books whose cover design grabbed me but I didn’t pick it up. Finally got it on the kindle and it’s great. An interesting mystery with compelling characters, and a dose of social commentary thrown in. I’m very much looking forward to the next one.

I keep finding free books for the kindle, so I’ve got a mess of things in the TBR list. Probably I will not do much reading while Mom is in town and I’ve been keeping track of the books as I finish them on my facebook page. I believe I’m in the high 30s so far, which means hitting 50 by year’s end shouldn’t be tough.

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Days off

Today I spent a perfectly lovely afternoon reclined on a picnic table bench, reading a book. The dog stretched out next to me and alternated between napping and rolling in the grass. I started and finished The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman.

I think the first Hoffman book I read was Practical Magic, which I adored. It’s one of the few novel-to-film adaptations I also enjoy – the movie keeps to the sentiment of the novel, if not the letter, though the book is to be preferred.

When I had to describe Hoffman’s work to a friend last night I said it wasn’t fantasy, it’s more like fantastic fiction. It has every quality of ‘literary’ fiction but each work contains something magical or otherworldly that’s thoroughly woven into the narrative in such a way that it almost stops being fantastic and simply another element in a great story. It bridges genres and never fails to surprise and delight me. There’s never the sense of a re-tread or staleness, no matter how many novels I’ve read (and re-read). She’s one of the few authors whose work I can reliably buy in hardcover or, in this case, kindle.

All in all, a wonderful and relaxing afternoon.

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An actual yoga post- sort of!

I frequently get asked if there are DVDs and/or books that I’d recommend for new students (or even experienced students). I just got an email from Yoga Journal offering a discount on the DVDs I like best.

The Step By Step series is a great introduction to yoga or even as a way to fine-tune your asana and breath practice. The coupon is 20% an individual DVD or something like 45% off for all three.  Enter coupon code SBS2 at checkout and click “Redeem Coupon” to receive your discount or call 1-800-I-DO-YOGA (436-9642).

I don’t plug a lot of yoga ‘stuff’ here, just the things I use and love myself. I highly recommend getting all three discs.

In related news, my recommendating for practicing with a DVD (whether you’ve practiced yoga previously or not) is to watch the DVD at LEAST once to make sure you’re familiar with the positions. If there’s anything that sounds confusing, make notes on a sheet of paper that you can keep next to your mat during practice. You should NOT be looking up at the DVD while you’re practicing – it’s bad for your body and negates all the good work you’re trying to do!

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Sharing the wealth

Or how to deal with the lack thereof. ;)

If you’re in need of winter outerwear, get yourself to The Sports Authority. They are having CRAZY MAD SALES right now. More than 50% off on products by The North Face, Columbia, Burton, and other major brands. If you need to prepare for the next snowpocalypse, this is the time to do it. The sale prices are so good that the employees don’t get a discount on them.

Spouse is a big guy and needs 2XL jackets. When I was back in Michigan, they were like black gold. I walked into the SA in Silverthorne and found two fantastic jackets for about $100 each (one Columbia, one North Face). We’ll end up returning one, but it’s awesome to have options for a change. In case you’re wondering about the ‘stock up’ here, it’s because we get snow for a good month or two after everyone stops. Winter is at least half the year here, unlike where we’d been living for the last 8, and we came out unprepared.

In other bargain news, if you haven’t discovered Sierra Trading Post you should check it out. Their prices are great and on top of that, they will send you coupons for additonal deals a couple times a week. I frequently get discount codes for 25% off your entire order. That makes a pretty big discount when you’re already buying clearance shoes/boots.

If you are a lipstick junkie – I am – Benefit has great deals on their close out stuff (check out Buh Buys). Their lip gloss is the best I’ve ever found and I adore both Who Does Your Work and Next Question Please.

Both of those sites are guilty pleasures for me. If I can spare the cash and need something, I check STP first and I’ve sworn off non-Benefit lipsticks. Their prices aren’t fantastic but I’ve found their products worth the money I’ve spent (few and far between).

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Homemade Indian feast

I don’t have any photos because during the cleaning/straightening on Saturday, my camera cord has gone AWOL. While some of our food on Saturday was premade (tikka masala and korma), I made the samosas and chutney myself.

The chutney recipe has been difficult because the recipes I’ve found online aren’t that similar to the fantastic chutney they had at our local restaurant in Michigan. So I tweak.

I started with this recipe. Rather than precise measures, I used an entire  package of mint (the small plastic container from the grocery store) and roughly twice as much cilantro. My pepper of choice is serrano, but a jalepeno might be milder. I left out the onion, garlic, and cumin. I added two small containers of Greek yogurt and about a half a cup of skim milk. I used a drizzle of oil and then added sugar to taste. The result was tangy, sweet, and a little hot. Pretty close to perfect. It even approximated the consistency of the Kabob and Curry House chutney.

The site also has a really good recipe for samosas, if you want to try your own. Again, I tweaked it a little but it’s a really good place to start. Your mileage may vary, but I find it easier to boil the potatoes whole, let them cool, and then skin and chop them. It makes it easier for me to control the consistency of the potato (not too hard, not too soft).

Next batch of samosas will get homemade dough, so I’ll update with how that works out.

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Life is a great TV show

Not only is it a good crime drama with great characters and actors, it’s got fantastic music. I’m not the only one who thinks so.

This link is mostly for my reference.

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PSA

For those of you who haven’t had to use it yet, Amazon.com has great customer service. They stay on the phone with you while they find answers (if they don’t already have them) and don’t jerk you around with redirects and transfers. If they DO transfer you, it’s to a real live person and not 1) automation or 2) hold music. I’ve had nothing but great help from them.

One of their shippers, CEVA, on the other hand – not so much. We had purchased a plasma TV before we found out that they don’t like the sort of altitude where we’re living. I couldn’t cancel the order but was told by Amazon to refuse the delivery and we ordered an LCD. CEVA is supposed to schedule their deliveries with customers (at least in this case). Before I arrived in Colorado, they called Spouse, left him a message, and without speaking to him directly attempted to deliver our TV. Then they left him a message about how they’d tried and failed, yadda yadda. Spouse was understandably annoyed.

I contacted CEVA (while I was in Michigan) and explained the situation. The CEVA rep told me she could refuse the plasma right then and just schedule our LCD delivery. Well, not quite yet because they didn’t have a driver making our route – which I totally understand because we’re in BFE mountains. So I think that’s all squared away and she’s supposed to call me when they’re setting up their next route. But I don’t hear anything. For a week. I call back and can’t get any info on when they’ll be in the area.

I leave for Colorado. I’m here for several days and STILL don’t hear anything. I call back AGAIN. I tell them “these are the days I’ll be in town and you can deliver on any of them, just let me know when”. I hear nothing back. I end up calling EVERY SINGLE ONE of those days because I need to make sure they’re not showing up while I run to the Safeway. They finally give me an estimated delivery time on a specific date.

The delivery guys were late – no fault of their own, they got stuck in a ditch in Breck and it’s totally cool. They do a great job bringing in our set and getting it taken care of. And then they try to bring me another TV. WTF.

I explain that I already refused it and tell them who I spoke to. They need me to sign the receipt refusing it again. Whatevs. This is the week or so before Christmas, by the way.

So I wait to get my refund from Amazon because that’s what they (and CEVA) told me would happen. And this week rolls around and I’m thinking, Dude, Where’s my cash? So I called Amazon. CEVA JUST delivered the TV back to them FRIDAY.

The very awesome Amazon lady puts an expedite on my refund because “this whole thing’s been kind of a hassle.” Totally amazing and one of the reasons I keep giving them my business.

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This morning I had a plan.

 

I was going to get up, drive to Avon, pick up scotch, go to Edwards, mail the Dish Network receiver, get my hair cut, and do a little grocery shopping. The thing that did not get done was mailing the DN receiver. Whoops. It was the foot of snow on my car that threw everything off – that and Spouse leaving his phone at home so I ended up detouring to deliver it.

That said, I conquered Battle Mountain! It’s a stunning (and sometimes stomach-churning, if you’re afraid of heights) drive as a passenger. As a driver, I was so worried about the road I didn’t pay very much attention to the scenery. The scenery IS amazing but I was focused on hairpin turns.

I got my hair done at Salon Axis which was fantastic. The closest salon to my house in Michigan was also an Aveda salon (ask for Amanda or Markesa) and that’s how I developed a bias. I started going to the salon when I decided I wanted a hairstyle and not a haircut, and let me tell you it made all the difference. Why do you care?

First, I am an internet snob. I googled to exhaustion attempting to find a place here in town (or close) and didn’t find a single website. Not even a FrontPage website. That’s disappointing for me, especially in a city with free wireless. As silly as it may sound, I find the internet to be more reliable than the phone book. Online I can find photos, pricing, or at least get a sense of how a business sees itself (or doesn’t). A good website will bring me to your business.

[example: great website vs. not my thing. Guess where I bought my scotch?]

Second, Aveda. I like Aveda products. I don’t find the scents to be overwhelming and – to a one – I have always found their salon stylists/designers to not only be talented, but HELPFUL. As in “Backcombing, let me show you it!” It can be pricy, but they do an excellent job with their client consults and I have never been disappointed when leaving. Today was no exception.

Third, I am challenging. I am lazy. I am not going to use much product. My hair is fine but there is a lot of it. Curling is out of the question but I’m willing to flat iron as needed. On top of that, I’ve been coloring my hair for the last six years – everything from all shades of red and brown, to a brief flirtation back to blonde, and then red and brown again THIS SUMMER. On my last stop at Shapers, Markesa knocked down the red and colored me a tone similar to my natural shade, but darker.

Salon Axis is located in the Riverwalk area in Edwards, which is a charming faux-town shopping area. Lots of restaurants and stores, but in the best possible imagination of a strip mall. It’s small, only five or six stations (if I recall correctly) but nicely appointed and with lovely wood floors. The waiting area is a bit narrow, but I always bring a book- today’s was Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book – or an mp3 player and pretty quickly don’t notice where I’m at regardless.

Kelly (my hair designer) was fantastic. Another midwest transplant, we had nice conversation about points of interest and places to visit. Most importantlyt, Kelly managed to lighten me up to practically my natural color and freshen up my style. I’m pretty fearless about my hair (which comes from having shaved my head) and was open to all-over color, corrective color, whatever needed to be done. She did the job skillfully with highlights and I love it. I also got a complimentary paraffin hand treatment which was OMG fantastic after three days of working a bar with no hand lotion.

 

Salon Axis in Edwards, CO

At any rate, I highly recommend the salon.

Before my appointment (I was a bit early) I had a raspberry croissant and hot chocolate at the French bakery a couple of doors down. Really, really good. I also stopped at the Village Market (in the same shopping area) before I drove home to pick up some extras for entertaining. They didn’t have Greek yogurt but they had Bulgarian yogurt and I was intrigued enough to buy it anyhow.

 

Main Street at Edwards, CO Riverwalk

 

I’m not sure if it’s a Wild West thing, but I have seen a LOT of these shopping areas in Colorado. They’re spectacular because they engender the feeling of being ‘in town’ in a really clever and attractive package. There is parking on the ‘street’ but also in underground parking garages. They’re structured in such a way that they can be expanded without losing that ‘hometown’ feeling (brick sidewalks, streets, et cetera) and don’t have the traffic of actually being ‘in town.’ They also mean a HUGE variety within a short walking distance, whereas ‘in town’ you’d probably have to drive a little ways for the same options.

I also took some Before photos of the living room today which will not be revealed until all (or a reasonable approximation) of the photos are hung.

Time to stop my rambling and get ready for bed.

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Now is the time on Sprockets

When I ask myself who the EFF I bought all these holiday cards for because I can’t think of 40 people who would want our  holiday greetings.

I did NOT achieve a driver’s license today because it turns out that Michigan is one of 14 states who do not require proof of citizenship/legal ability to live in the US to obtain a license (note to any illegal immigrants out there). Now, since the last time I had to provide proof of my identity to the state of Michigan for a driver’s license without (yanno) a driver’s license was when I was sixteen and a birth certificate was my only other legal form of I.D. I was unaware of this. Unfortunately, states like Colorado require proof of your legal right to live in the country and I was without my passport.

The hour-long drive wasn’t a complete waste. We stopped at what (now) I think must be the worst Borders in the history of the world. I went in with a list of 20 authors – no exaggeration – and found books I wanted by precisely ONE. Either they didn’t carry the author AT ALL or carried only one or two old titles. This, coupled with my unfruitful trip to the Driver’s License office, does not a happy camper make. Instead I got a future Bandwagon book, even though my Bandwagon will be far away, and a copy of The Watchmen. Spouse found a couple of things he liked. I also managed to get some business taken care of re: billing my last community ed class. So, not a waste but I’m not really happy about having to do it again.

As previously mentioned, our holiday cards (and man, am I glad I told everyone they were holiday cards) showed up today and I’ve been dutifully filling out addresses all evening. I also made a batch of the “Eff you, Queso!” that we love so much and it made up the entirety of my dinner. Eff you, Queso is very delicious and perfect for when you’re lazy:

yogagrrl’s Eff You, Queso!

1 package ground beef (somewhere around 1.5 lbs)

1 package taco seasoning

Brown ground beef, ignore taco seasoning directions and just add the seasoning and just enough water to soak up all the juice (usually about half a cup).

Add:

1 jar Tostitos Queso sauce (Medium)

1 jar Tostitos chunky Salsa (Mild)

1 can refried beans (12 oz or someting like that)

1 liberal spoonful of Mrs. Renfrow’s Jalepeno Green Salsa

Heat through until bubbling.

 

That last ingredient is what puts the Eff in Eff You, Queso! It’s super delicious, but HOT. Adjust the amount you put in according to how much Eff you need. ;)

It keeps for several days and is just as good (if not better) when reheated. I love it because it’s tasty and easy, and we almost always have these ingredients on hand.

And since I’m talking about Eff You, Queso! let me add this link: to a brilliant (and simultaneously not so brilliant) interview about the foreign policy dilemma with regard to Israel and Hamas. If you don’t like the Huffington Post, that’s fine, just scroll down to the video link. It’s the perfect illustration of how NOT to interview someone who PARTICIPATED in the history that you’ve READ about. Heh. Loves it.

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