tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67944221635684430472024-03-12T21:00:06.146-05:00saltycrunchybitterfreshKathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.comBlogger202125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-74706132456254646942018-06-21T14:22:00.000-05:002018-06-21T14:22:26.033-05:00Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm having trouble writing lately, or rather I'm writing things and not publishing them. I suspect many of my blogging friends are in the same boat, and that boat is full of elephants, and do we talk about those? Do we distract ourselves? What is the Right Thing?<br />
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I wrote about suicide a couple of weeks ago, in part to let people know I'm okay since I've come out of the suicidal ideation closet (I'M OKAY!), but what the whole thing boiled down to was "love is an active verb, not a commodity to be given, received, earned or deserved" and "what if all that REALLY matters in the end, when your heart is weighed against a feather or Saint Peter consults his heavenly Moleskine or whatever it is that happens, is <i>how you treated other people</i>?" *<br />
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It pretty much sounded like your stoned friend yammering at you somewhere between the bong and the biscuits, and so forever shall it remain unpublished, alas.<br />
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I also tried writing about one of those other elephants but THAT kept turning into a story about how my privileged, white, US-citizen daughter H was (and still is) completely and utterly fearless and how every time we took her to the emergency room, which was A LOT OF TIMES, I was terrified Child Protective Services would be called in to take her away from us, and how my very first thought when I woke up on the morning of her 18th birthday was, "Now no one can take her." And about the unbelievable relief I felt over that. Which had nothing at all to do with the horror of what is happening in this country and my state right now and, in fact, bordered on appropriation. So yeah.<br />
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Since last we spoke, C isn't doing so great, or rather he IS doing REALLY great but only because he currently has zero demands placed on him, WHICH ISN'T GREAT. I've stepped back my involvement with the food pantry to deal with this situation, also not great, and my dealing with it isn't going great because life keeps getting in the way, and I'm spending a lot of time feeling like I'm failing all the people I most definitely do not want to fail and then beating myself up over the fact that I'm beating myself up over that. This is what it's like to live in my brain. Now you know how surprised and delighted I was <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2016/10/and-i-like-to-kick-streeeeetch-and-kick.html">to make it to 50</a>! (Fifty-one now!)<br />
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H moved out of our house again and I think/hope she's doing okay but I don't get to see or talk to her nearly as much as I would like (I would like EVERY DAY please). I miss her more this time than I did last time, what's up with that? I think I just want all my chicks in the nest.<br />
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P and I aren't traveling anywhere by plane this year as far as we know, and I am both relieved and disappointed. But mostly relieved. We're taking a couple of car trips this summer and fall, one to visit family and one to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and I don't know where we're going other than "west". For the second one, I mean. That first one is "east" until we hit beach.<br />
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I'm knitting a sweater, which is kind of a milestone for someone who up to now has knitted only shawls, scarves, cowls, socks, a few baby items and one ill-fitting hat. It's not at all appropriate for the current season but I've bought the yarn to knit another sweater that WILL BE appropriate for the current season except we're likely to be firmly into the NEXT season by the time I start it, but whatever, I knit sweaters now and I'm kind of excited about it.<br />
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I don't know what else to say. I hope you're all doing well. I'm surprisingly good in spite of it all. I'll try to write more often even if it's stupid.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">* I'm pretty sure it IS the only thing that matters, and that I have a lot of work to do.</span></i>Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-50664506222502919142018-03-08T14:01:00.000-06:002018-03-08T14:01:02.195-06:00Kicking your can all over the place<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I promised my family that in the first quarter of 2018 I would get my medical shit under control, by which I mean I actually would go to a doctor. I don't go to the doctor very often because -- and I am totally going to jinx it by saying this, I just know it -- I don't get sick very often. And also I look like death in a paper gown, man. And I don't like sitting in rooms full of sick people unless I'm doing it specifically to support a sick person who isn't me. So yeah.<br />
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Thanks to my newfound medical vigilance, however, I now know things about myself that I'd rather not know. Like the fact that I have the beginnings of glaucoma in my left eye, and my corneal dystrophy is getting worse in my right eye, and my diastolic is above 80 now, and my LDL is above 100 now, and all the calcium in my bones is migrating into my boobs, like HOW IS THAT EVEN A THING.<br />
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In 2017 I stopped wearing normal bras and started wearing sports bras everywhere, and I bought a pair of cute red single-vision glasses and a million pairs of cute multicolored reading glasses, and I removed color from my wardrobe and started wearing only shades of black and white and grey because ... I have no idea why I did that actually, and I bought a cheap refurbished Kindle Fire tablet when my phone screen suddenly became too small for Neflix, and I started eating a lot of gluten-free cookies which seemed like a good idea at the time but what was I thinking, honestly?<br />
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So far in 2018 I've bought TWO bras that hoist my calcified boobages back up where they belong, and I've gotten Progressives in severe black frames and surprised myself by LOVING THEM SO MUCH, and I've knitted a bunch of socks and a bunch of colorful cowls and shawls and I don't even know what, and I've ditched almost all of my print subscriptions in favor of digital publications, and I'm still eating a lot of cookies but now they're paleo instead of just gluten-free so that's better, maybe?<br />
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And today I chopped off all my hair. Well, not all of it. And I HAD it chopped off, I didn't do it myself (this time). The new 'do detracts slightly from my increasing resemblance to Fred Gwynne, so I like it. I've doubled down on the yoga this week, and I've been eating a lot of beets, and I've got three knitting projects and two crochet projects on the go, and this is the most boring midlife crisis ever, you guys.<br />
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Still to come: cardio workup! Cervical cancer screening! Colon cancer screening! More sock knitting! Binge-watching the second season of <i>Jessica Jones</i>! Tattoos! Dusseldorf! Daylight saving! Maybe some retinol or something! This is fifty (+1.5)!Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-56783274757949517652017-12-31T14:22:00.000-06:002017-12-31T14:22:06.258-06:00The close and holy darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Right, were'd we leave off? End of October?<br />
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In November H moved back home and we had Thanksgiving and H turned 20 and I had a bit of a moment over that what with her being my youngest and all. In December it snowed and we had Christmas and we didn't travel anywhere and it was nice.<br />
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And now you're all caught up.<br />
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Traditionally at the end of December I'd talk about all the books I'd read the previous year, but the truth is that in 2017 I didn't read a whole lot of new-to-me books. I DID re-read a whole lot of books I'd read before, I think because I needed the comfort of familiar words this year: all the Harry Potters, all of His Dark Materials, <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> (not comforting, that last one, but I hadn't read it in decades and was due for a refresh).<br />
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I did manage to read a few new-ish ones, though, and these were my favorites in fiction: <i>Underground Airlines</i> by Ben H. Winters, <i>The Book of Speculation</i> by Erika Swyler, <i>The Poisonwood Bible</i> by Barbara Kingsolver, <i>News of the World</i> by Paulette Jiles, <i>The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy</i> by Rachel Joyce, <i>Code Name Verity</i> by Elizabeth Wein, <i>The Wonder</i> by Emma Donoghue, <i>Horrorst<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">รถ</span>r </i>by Grady Hendrix, and <i>The Good People</i> by Hannah Kent.<br />
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Excellent nonfiction I read this year: <i>Twelve Years a Slave</i> by Solomon Northup, <i>Dark Money</i> by Jane Meyer, <i>Just Mercy</i> by Bryan Stevenson, <i>Washington's Nightmare</i> by Scott B. Christmas, <i>Lion </i>by Saroo Brierley, <i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</i> by Rebecca Skloot, and <i>I'm Just a Person</i> by Tig Notaro.<br />
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Huh. I guess when you throw in all the three- and four-star books I read (only fives for you people, ONLY FIVES FOR YOU) and the re-reads, that DOES add up to kind of a lot of books for 2017. Well, hell. Go me! (That last photo is of some recent purchases. So far 2018 is looking pretty good, book-wise.)<br />
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Honestly I feel like I spent most of this year knitting. I made a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/reyna-2">little green scarf</a>, a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/vine">much bigger scarf</a> in fall colors, my <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/mabon-medley-socks">first completed pair of socks</a>, a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/socks-for-my-lil-bean">pair of socks for H</a>, another <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/nutkin">pair for me</a>, a very <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/pipsa">fun-to-knit hat</a>, a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/sanibel-cowl">cowl for my mom</a>, and half of a mosaic shawl that I had to frog due to it being part of a poorly curated kit. Currently on the needles: a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/laurelie-2">second attempt at said mosaic shawl</a> (but this time with MUCH more suitable yarn), the second of <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/i-smell-snow">my first-ever pair of toes-up socks</a>, and a <a href="https://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/taproot-cowl">cowl </a>I'll probably never finish if I'm being honest because the pattern is kind of boring and I'm not loving the yarn, oof.<br />
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I'm not making resolutions for the new year, but I do have two hopes. Just two. First, I hope I can be a vessel for and an instrument of Grace, and by Grace I mean Love and Compassion and Kindness. (My concept of the Divine is pretty broad and as a result it's unlikely that I believe in and revere your specific god, but I do believe in and revere these things.) Second, I hope I can see and recognize Grace in other people. That's all. If I can do that, at least most of the time, I think I'll be doing okay.<br />
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Happy New Year to you, my friends! Here's to the resisters and the fighters, the peacekeepers and the healers, the carers and the thinkers and the dreamers and the hopers. Here's to the innovators and the implementers. Here's to us.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-85442900811173264042017-10-27T13:40:00.000-05:002017-10-27T13:40:03.616-05:00We are all of us in the gutter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello, friends. Apart from my UK travelogue we haven't really talked about life and stuff and things since July, have we? Well, plenty of life and stuff and things have been happening since then, boy howdy!<br />
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Amazon had 23andMe kits half-off on Prime Day over the summer, so P and I bought a couple and mailed our spit off to the lab, and my results came in the day before we left for the UK. I already knew about my British Isles and German and Southern European ancestry, so those were no surprise. But I did NOT know about my Japanese, Ashkenazi and Sub-Saharan African ancestry, and those were the most bizarre and delightful surprises ever. I am still processing what this all might mean, but I'm pretty sure it means I'm at least 5% cooler and more interesting than I already thought I was, har har.<br />
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I turned 51 in September and now it's October and that means that I'm exactly the same age my mother was when my daughter was born (one month past her 51st birthday) and my daughter is exactly the same age that my mother was when I was born (one month shy of her 20th birthday). That's a pretty nifty little bit of matrilineal mathematics, eh? I've been thinking a lot about that, too. I cannot imagine my H having been married for two years and giving birth to her first child right now. And I cannot imagine being the mother of a 31-year-old and a grandmother of two right now. Holy cannoli. Quit trying to freak me out, Time.<br />
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C got his driver's license in September which was a HUGE deal. As most of you know, my boy C has some challenges. He took and passed driver's ed when he was 15 like most kids in the US do, but he found driving so stressful that he opted out of getting a driver's license. For a few years he made do with a bicycle, then an electric bike, for getting around town without parental involvement. But we live way out in the 'burbs with no real public transportation, so that wasn't a great solution. Last year he had progressed to the point that he felt comfortable taking a motorcycle safety course, and he was able to get his Class M license. We bought him a scooter that <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2016/09/im-worth-million-in-prizes.html">looked a LOT more like a motorcycle than I was expecting</a>, and he was able to get a bit further from home under his own power, but scooters and motorcycles definitely aren't weatherproof, you guys. Even though he was still super nervous about it, he indicated earlier this year that he might maybe perhaps someday be interested in possibly getting a license to drive a car, and P seized on that and basically did all the legwork to make it happen. He bought C a used convertible (because C was worried he'd feel claustrophobic in a car) and got a learner's permit added to his Class M license and practiced practiced practiced with C every week until C was feeling confident enough and comfortable enough to test for his Class C license. And he did and he got it! So now he can drive a car, something that I honestly never thought would happen given his anxiety around it. We are SO SO PROUD of him!<br />
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I've read some more good books since last we spoke. Really enjoyed William R. Anderson's <i>The Ice Diaries</i>, even though his descriptions of piloting a nuclear submarine between massive chunks of polar ice and the ocean floor freaked me RIGHT OUT. Loved Emma Donoghue's <i>The Wonder</i>. Had complicated feelings about <i>Hillbilly Elegy</i> but it's absolutely worth reading. LOVED Grady Hendrix's <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Horrorstรถr</i></span>. I liked Ben Aaronovitch's first Peter Grant book, <i>Midnight Riot</i>, very much but I felt it wanted some editing and it took me forever to finish, by which point I was glad to be done with it. Thumbs up on Louise Penny's <i>Glass Houses</i>, the most recent Chief Inspector Gamache. Loved Hannah Kent's <i>The Good People</i>. I was delighted to discover Karen MacInerney's Dewberry Farm series of cozy mysteries earlier this fall when my brain just couldn't focus on books for whatever reason. Fluffy but well-written and with a local-to-me setting. Right now I'm re-reading the whole His Dark Materials series because I totally forgot I'd pre-ordered Philip Pullman's latest, <i>The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage</i> until it showed up on my Kindle.<br />
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P and I have been dithering back and forth on cutting the cable TV cord this fall. We have and love Netflix and Amazon Prime Video but we need a good option for live TV. Hulu has too many commercials, YouTube TV doesn't have TBS, we're still looking at Playstation Vue and Sling TV. Oof. Anyone have a streaming service they love that isn't Apple? Requirements: commercial-free option (we're happy to pay extra for it), cloud DVR, must have TBS, must work with both Roku and Android. Go!<br />
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I've actually weaned myself off TV quite a bit, to the point that <i>Game of Thrones</i> really is my only must-see, and that's only because it's moved beyond the books (like WAY beyond). But I've been enjoying some other stuff on the tee-vee, y'all! If you didn't see the first season of <i>Claws</i>, find a way to do that. The cast is fantastic and the writing is bananas and I found it completely unpredictable and awesome. <i>Episodes </i>is over now and <i>Broadchurch </i>is over now and <i>Orphan Black</i> is over now and I loved all of them. There's not nearly enough Thandie Newton in my life right now so I can't wait for <i>Westworld </i>to come back. The new Doctor Who is a woman and I am SO EXCITED! <i>People of Earth</i> is so great, <i>The Detour</i> is so great, <i>Wrecked </i>is SO GREAT, and that right there is why any streaming service we use has to have TBS. (Also: <i>The Guestbook</i>. Because Garrett Dillahunt.) I love <i>The Good Place</i> and I like <i>Ghosted </i>and I have warm feelings toward <i>The Orville</i>. And that's pretty much all I'm watching these days. I gave up on <i>American Horror Story</i> and <i>The Walking Dead</i> and <i>The Strain</i> ages ago. I feel like life already is horrifying enough these days without watching horror on TV, but maybe that's just me. I'm pretty sure it's just me.<br />
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Other stuff going on: I've been knitting ALL THE THINGS. Well okay, socks and scarves and cowls, mostly. But I've been doing so much knitting that I invested in a cheap swift and winder and sure, they tangle the center-pull strands all to hell, but they make awfully attractive yarn cakes, and pulling from the outside works just fine. So yay for that. I've started volunteering every week at a local food pantry and I am here to tell you that the very best antidote to feeling helpless that I've found is to help someone else. And if you're looking for a great way to put your own shit into perspective, maybe try helping a resident of a domestic violence shelter sort through shelves of donated food trying to find something that she can keep down when the chemo makes her nauseated. I'm just saying. It's hard to have bad days anymore since I've been doing this, you know? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO COMPLAIN ABOUT NOW?!<br />
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Anyway. Hi. Sorry this was so long. How are you doing? I've missed you.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-14130992026763473392017-09-16T12:26:00.000-05:002017-09-16T12:26:26.797-05:00Quocunque jeceris stabit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since last we spoke I have been some places and seen some shit, man, and by "shit" I mean horse plops. You are so excited to read this update now.<br />
<br />
P and I flew out of Austin at the tail end of Harvey, leaving our adult children here with the wind and the rain and the panic-induced gas shortage (there are a few things I've done as a parent for which I may never completely forgive myself and I've tucked this trip away into a tiny little corner of that space). We were in Dublin for five days and the only touristy thing I did that I'd done before was Trinity College and the long room in the old library because come on, if I'm in Dublin I'm going there, you can bet money on that. I am going to sit in that room for an entire hour, and during that hour there may come a point at which you wonder if I am okay, and the truth is that I'm SO VERY OK that I appear not at all okay, and it's fine. Just leave me to it. I'm inhaling the aroma and soaking in the filtered light and trying to pretend I'm alone in there, just me and the books and the busts and that incredible ceiling.<br />
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Apart from also visiting the National Museum of Archaeology (which is FANTASTIC) and getting lost in Temple Bar (WHO DESIGNED THESE STREETS?) I mostly stayed south of the canal this trip, stomping around Rathmines and Ballsbridge and Ranelagh, visiting little shops and parks and gardens and admiring the gorgeous ironwork fences and the view of the Wicklow Mountains and the chimneys of Upper Leeson from our hotel room window.<br />
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Just like last year, we were in Dublin this time for an industry conference that P attends (he was presenting this year), and we learned this trip that next year the conference will move to Dusseldorf, and I am sad because that likely means this was our last trip to Dublin for a very long while, and I LIKE DUBLIN. I like all of Ireland, actually. I understand Ireland, nothing there feels strange to me. If I have a home away from the US, Ireland is it. South Dublin is it. I will miss it so much.<br />
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After Dublin we hopped a little propeller plane for the Isle of Man and OH YOU GUYS. If you ever get the chance to visit the Isle of Man. DO IT. Do not hesitate, not even for a second. It's 30 minutes by air from Dublin or Manchester. It is by far the most beautiful place I've ever been, ever ever ever, with by far the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life. We stayed right on the Central Promenade in Douglas and only saw a fraction of the island, from Port Erin up the southeast coast and then north to Laxey and Snaefell, but holy criminy was it amazing and gorgeous and just ... wow. Just wow. Go there. You will not regret it.<br />
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The weather was gorgeous our first day on the island but the second day there, which was at the halfway point of our entire trip, it turned wet and grey and chilly and windy and I kind of hit a wall that day from which I never recovered. I have about seven days in me, vacation-wise. Ten if sun and sand and slushy drinks are involved. But this was a fifteen-day trip, you guys. That is too long for me. I am a delicate fucking flower; I can't go that long without my food and my kids and my bed and my Texas weather.<br />
<br />
After three days of Manx shenanigans we headed to England, specifically to Cheshire, more specifically to a little town called Lymm that lies on the Bridgewater Canal between Manchester and Liverpool. We were there for a week and the weather stayed awful and my mood stayed awful but holy shit was it gorgeous there. We were there specifically to do some genealogical research on P's side but I did not expect to fall in love with this little town, with its footpaths and deep dark woods and gorgeous meadows (full of horse plops, but also flowers! and berry bushes! and apple trees! and chestnuts! it was so pretty!).<br />
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We were in England for another five days and then we flew home sweet home just as Irma was roaring through Florida. Whatever else happens, I am home now. I have my kids and my dog and my bed and my house and my warm sunshine. It's so good to be home.<br />
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But you know what? The UK is fabulous. We didn't have a bad meal the whole time we were there, not one. The people we met were without exception friendly and kind and incredibly patient with us, even the old sexist, racist anti-Semites (that was all one guy; his name was George). Everywhere we went was gorgeous. EVERYWHERE. So green, so many trees and flowers, so many dog owners, such beautiful waterways. Dublin is super fucking expensive but the Isle of Man and Cheshire are dirt cheap in comparison re: meals and lodging and transportation. They have Strongbow Dark Fruit cider on tap everywhere, which we can't even GET here in the US, so unfair.<br />
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It was an amazing trip and I'm glad it's over and yeah. Let's do fall now. I'm super ready for fall.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-32480965211430108862017-07-20T15:52:00.000-05:002017-07-20T15:52:36.318-05:00OMG IT'S A RECIPE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqFVBrgRaKSZkjaHKnVHmg5g_6K0j2gyrlvzh_DoiN4H5keacrqxPFIuEN8rM4dCh896k0_vLzZDg8Gu_L1-MwIlVfZDvME3iAu1xMW-6BYO0yIFECpi7lRNmLdRrmui6abwRcoKP_NpV/s1600/stuffedpeppercasserole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqFVBrgRaKSZkjaHKnVHmg5g_6K0j2gyrlvzh_DoiN4H5keacrqxPFIuEN8rM4dCh896k0_vLzZDg8Gu_L1-MwIlVfZDvME3iAu1xMW-6BYO0yIFECpi7lRNmLdRrmui6abwRcoKP_NpV/s400/stuffedpeppercasserole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>It tastes better than it looks, sweartoGod.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Okay so here is the thing: when bell peppers first came into season here a couple of months ago, I started craving old-school stuffed peppers like MAD. You know, the ones your mom used to make back in the '70s, with the meat and the rice and the tomato sauce? OMG SO GOOD. Pure comfort food.<br />
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So I made them and P and C loved them and then they started wanting them every week and then I realized that these things are kind of a pain in the ass, what with parboiling the peppers and then stuffing them and arranging them in the baking dish and yeah. No wonder my mom didn't make them very often.<br />
<br />
SO! I got lazy and came up with a casserole version. Basically it involves chopping the peppers and adding them to the filling instead of stuffing them. I probably didn't invent this, but whatever, my version only has five ingredients and it's super easy and you can customize the hell out of it based on how you and your family like to eat. And it makes a ton and is great for potlucks! And it freezes really well in case you're pregnant or have surgery coming up or whatever! Yay!<br />
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The recipe below is exactly how I make it, but scroll down for some ideas re: making it vegan or paleo/low-carb or whatever, if you're into that.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5-Ingredient Stuffed Pepper Casserole</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
2 lbs. ground meat (we like half ground pastured pork, half bulk pastured pork sausage)<br />
4-6 large green bell peppers, chopped into large-ish pieces<br />
2-4 garlic cloves, minced<br />
3 cups cooked jasmine rice (made from 1 cup uncooked rice)<br />
2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce (we like Muir Glen Organic)<br />
<br />
Cook meat in a giant skillet over medium-high heat just until
no longer pink, then add chopped green peppers and minced garlic cloves and
continue cooking, stirring frequently. Once the peppers are crisp-tender and the meat
has browned a bit, remove from heat and mix in cooked rice and 1.5 cans of tomato
sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a large casserole dish or 9x13" pan and spread the rest of the tomato sauce on top. Bake covered
for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F, then uncover and continue baking for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from oven and serve.<br />
<br />
<b>NOTES: </b><br />
<br />
You can use whatever ground meat you want in this. Chicken, beef, turkey, lamb, venison, elk, pork, sausage, whatever, it'll all work. You just might need to add a little extra olive oil to the pan if you're using a really lean meat.<br />
<br />
Not into meat? I haven't tried it, but I would imagine you could substitute 3-4 cups of cooked or canned legumes (lentils, black beans, etc.). Just saute the peppers and garlic in a little olive oil, remove from heat, and add the beans at the same time as the rice and tomato sauce. I don't think tofu would work, but maybe TVP? Seitan? Those Morningstar Farms crumbles? I don't know, man. Try it and report back.<br />
<br />
I haven't tried this either but I'm 98% sure that you could substitute riced cauliflower or riced sweet potatoes for the actual rice. If you're using raw, I'd add it to the pan with the peppers and garlic so it gets a little pre-cook in. If you're using already cooked riced veggies (like those Green Giant frozen ones), I'd drain them really well, squeeze out as much moisture as you can, and add them when you'd normally add the rice.<br />
<br />
Feel free to throw some chopped onion in there. C is allergic to onions so I leave them out. Also, you could throw some corn in there. Or some fancier peppers. Or meat AND beans. Or some raisins and cinnamon. I mean, however you like your stuffed peppers, just make that but chop and saute the peppers instead of stuffing them. You know? IT'S EASY.<br />
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I'm thinking there's got to be a way to adapt this for the slow-cooker, too. Just haven't quite figured it out yet.<br />
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Anyway, enjoy! If you try it and like it, let me know! If you try it and hate it, keep that shit to yourself. (Kidding! I'm kidding!)<br />
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Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-60423321931280127812017-07-19T17:05:00.000-05:002017-07-20T10:13:05.223-05:00In Prague I knew I'd been a witch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Oh, hi. Remember <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2017/05/nolite-te-bastardes-carborundorum.html">back in May</a> when I said I wasn't doing Facebook much anymore and I hoped it would lead to more writing over here? Those were more innocent times, weren't they?<br />
<br />
Yeah. Hello. I have no idea what I've been doing for the past couple of months. But the photographic evidence suggests I've been hanging out in hospital emergency rooms (I wasn't the patient, and everything is fine, and that's all I'm gonna say about that), and I've been buying flowers at the farmer's market, and cooking some stuff, and buying a new chair for my office, and killing yet more plants, and knitting a whole hell of a lot.<br />
<br />
AND ... planning another trip to Dublin, with additional stops on the Isle of Man and in Cheshire, UK. I know! Exciting! That's all happening at the end of August/beginning of September and I'm super freaking out over it.<br />
<br />
See, my people aren't really travelers. Growing up, I think I got the idea that, much like sleep-away camp, it wasn't something on which working-class people spent their money. I didn't know a single kid growing up who went to sleep-away camp, not until we moved to Texas. The kids I knew all spent their summers the same way I did: <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2012/07/summer-1978-day-in-life.html">running around our blue-collar suburban neighborhood engaging in casual misdemeanors</a>. And I never knew anyone who traveled internationally unless it was across the border by car into Canada or Mexico, or unless it was a military thing.<br />
<br />
It's so weird to me that this is a thing I get to do now, that my kids are adults and my parents are still in relatively good health and I can just do this, leave the country for a couple of weeks. Go to a completely other country. I know for some of you this is a typical Thursday or whatever, but for me it's just SO weird. I'm like a little kid with this. Wow! I get to go to Dublin AGAIN! And I get to go to the Isle of Man, who's done that?! (Wait, have any of you done that? Tell me everything!) I get to go to England, where I've never been, and stay in a little inn near Manchester and stomp up and down the canals and drink cider. CAN. NOT. WAIT!<br />
<br />
So yeah. Wow. What a summer, eh? H moved into an apartment with friends and got a promotion at work and is doing so great with the adulting, I am SO SUPER PROUD of that kid. C is thisclose to getting his driver's license and did great in his summer class and has been making tons of new amazing music and has a new job, maybe? (I feel very first-trimester about the whole job thing right now, so please just keep your fingers crossed, okay?) So super proud of that kid, too. P is busy getting ready for the conference that is the whole reason we get to go to Dublin again in the first place. And I'm just obsessively googling "minimalist travel wardrobe" and drinking matcha lattes and stress-eating way too much guacamole. Oy.<br />
<br />
Actually, that's a lie. I've been reading books! I know! I only have good books to recommend to you anymore, because if a book isn't good within the first couple of chapters I just delete it from my Kindle and move on with my life (and eat more guacamole). This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I have upwards of 500 books loaded onto my Kindle and that <a href="http://lithub.com/how-many-books-will-you-read-before-you-die/?linkId=35737545">I'll likely only live long enough to read 426 of them</a>. You know, if I'm lucky. And don't get ritually sacrificed to <a href="http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/manannan-mac-lir-god-sea-and-guardian-afterlife-006314">Manannan</a> for trying to use euro in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas,_Isle_of_Man">Douglas</a> in a couple of months.<br />
<br />
But yeah! <i>The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy</i>: excellent. Required reading if you read and liked <i>Harold Fry</i>. Daniel O'Malley's <i>Stiletto</i>, the sequel to <i>The Rook</i>: excellent. Tig Notaro's <i>I'm Just a Person</i>: excellent. <i>Code Name Verity</i>: excellent! I liked Maria Semple's <i>Today Will Be Different</i> VERY much, apparently much more than a lot of other people did.<br />
<br />
Right now I'm reading Captain William R. Anderson's <i>The Ice Diaries</i>, about the first nuclear submarine and its Cold War mission to explore the Arctic Ocean while completely submerged under polar ice (all covert-like). You wouldn't think that would be my kind of thing, but (a) I love true stories about Arctic and Antarctic exploration for some damn reason, and (b) my father-in-law was a career Navy officer and navigator and both of P's brothers served in the Navy aboard nuclear subs. Mostly this book is making me miss my father-in-law because I think he would have LOVED it and I'm sad that I can't buy him a copy.<br />
<br />
Anyway. That's what's going on around here. We'll have to talk about TV another time (OMG GAME OF THRONES BROADCHURCH CLAWS WRECKED YAY).Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-73422692553440836842017-05-27T08:00:00.000-05:002017-05-27T08:00:21.883-05:00It was 20 years ago todayThis is a true story.<br />
<br />
May 27, 1997. I am standing in my house with my dog, looking out the back window, watching the low, heavy clouds over my backyard coalesce into a swirl. A shaggy funnel dips down and back up, down and back up, over and over. My hand is on the dog's collar. We have no basement.<br />
<br />
I stare out the window for a full five minutes after the last funnel sign, then I call my mother, who is watching my one-year-old son at her house ten miles away. We are moving to an interior room, she tells me. We'll get into the bathtub.<br />
<br />
I walk out the front door of my house, locking it behind me with the dog inside. I worry whether she and it will be here when I get back. On my way to the car I meet a neighbor coming home who tells me I'm crazy. She tells me to get back inside. I tell her I can't. I tell her I have an appointment.<br />
<br />
As I'm driving east, I look to the north and see a fully formed funnel cloud skipping over the horizon. I can't tell how far away it is. It doesn't look real. It looks like a cartoon. It's early afternoon but the sky is black as night. My hands tighten on the wheel.<br />
<br />
I pull into the parking lot of a building that is made entirely of glass. Every wall is a black window, three stories up. Black windows against a black sky. The air is still as I get out of my car. There is no birdsong, but there's a distant howl. A sound of rushing.<br />
<br />
I walk inside. I make my way down a glass-fronted hallway in this building made of glass and turn a handle, but the door is locked. I can see there are people inside, so I knock. A woman hurries over.<br />
<br />
What are you doing here, she says. We're all going home, she says. Have you looked outside, she says.<br />
<br />
I say No.<br />
I say Listen.<br />
<br />
I have been bleeding through my entire first trimester. I have hyperemesis so severe that I have to take Phenergan suppositories just to keep down water, much less food or prenatal vitamins. I have read the books and I'm pretty sure this is a molar pregnancy, an ectopic pregnancy, twins, dead twins. I have an appointment today, right now, to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I'm going to hear that heartbeat.<br />
<br />
The truth is I only said some of those things. The truth is that being taken out in a shower of glass and rebar was the least of my concerns right then.<br />
<br />
I say Please.<br />
<br />
She takes me back to a room. The exterior wall is glass. I lay on the paper-lined table and turn my head to the right. I watch the still air outside give way to shrieking gusts as I pull my top up to my bra and slide my pants below my hipbones. She tucks paper into my waistband and squirts cold jelly just above my pubic bone. Stunted trees whip in a frenzy outside the wall-window as she slides the wand across my abdomen and after an eternity during which I'm sure my house and dog and son and mother are obliterated by an angry or worse apathetic god I hear it: <i>lublublublublublub</i>. Faster than fast. A herd of frothing horses.<br />
<br />
That's a good, strong heartbeat, she says.<br />
Be careful out there, she says.<br />
<br />
I say Thank You.<br />
I say You Too.<br />
<br />
I rush to my car. I drive home in a downpour so thick I can't see beyond my windshield. If there are funnel clouds to my north, <i>ich kenn ihnen nicht</i>. If there are funnel clouds to my north, I can't worry about them now. I am carrying a baby with a good, strong heartbeat. I am carrying an alive baby.<br />
<br />
The 3.4 miles between the hospital and my house take thirty minutes.<br />
My house, which is still standing.<br />
My house, with my alive dog inside.<br />
<br />
I call my alive mother. Later, she will bring my alive son home. Later, I will insert a Phenergan suppository and take a prenatal vitamin and try very hard keep them both inside.<br />
<br />
Six months and two days later, I will look into the face of my beautiful alive H for the very first time.<br />
<br />Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-36336401629350454362017-05-22T12:08:00.000-05:002017-05-22T12:08:21.839-05:00Nolite te bastardes carborundorum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We are on the downhill slope of my second-least-favorite season and the weather has been damp and ooky and my mold allergies are killing me and apparently this happens every year in May, which probably means I've complained about it every year in May, so let this be a lesson to you: don't live in the past, you guys. It deprives you of the pleasure of complaining in the present.<br />
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Things that have been happening around these parts:<br />
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<ul>
<li>In February I replaced my ancient clock radio with a clock that is not a radio, so I bought a cheap battery radio and I'm a little embarrassed by how much I've been enjoying it. I have satellite radio in my car and I've been listening to streaming playlists pretty exclusively when NOT in my car for a number of years now and hey, radio is a thing that still exists and that makes me happy. Also there are no Tejano stations in my XM subscription, but there are like 47 of them just on the FM band alone. So yay.</li>
<li>In March we stripped C's room down to the studs and completely re-did it in a fit of "you're an adult now and your outer environment reflects your inner environment and vice-versa" and I'm not sure it changed anything for him in any substantial way, but it was a badly needed clearout so we're counting it a win.</li>
<li>In April C turned 21 and P turned 52 and I did something weird to my foot that required (inconclusive) x-rays and crutches but got completely better on its own after a couple of weeks, so April was kind of exhausting. Also in April my hair finally became long enough for a ponytail, and I cast on for <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/saltycrunchy/vine">a Berroco Vine in Madelinetosh</a>.</li>
<li>So far in May: I got a new grill for Mother's Day (yay!), I removed the Facebook app from my phone (best decision EVER), and daughter H moved out of my house and into an apartment with some friends (OMG). She's only about five minutes away, so close and yet so far. Also in May son C got his learner's permit for driving a car (he already has a full-blown motorcycle license) and I don't have a photo of the used car P bought him earlier this year (2010 convertible VW bug because he needs to feel the wind in his hair, man) but yeah, he's learning to drive a car now. So that's happening. Maybe the room remodel DID work.</li>
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I have been reading lots of really good books and I have accomplished this by discarding books that aren't excellent within the first 100 pages or so. In the fiction realm I can recommend without reservation Erika Swyler's <i>The Book of Speculation</i> (especially if you liked <i>The Night Circus</i>), Barbara Kingsolver's <i>The Poisonwood Bible</i> (can you believe I'd never read it?), Paulette Jiles's <i>News of the World</i> (excellent), Emily Bitto's <i>The Strays</i> (fascinating), and Rachel Joyce's <i>The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</i> (which was not at all what I was expecting, in a good way). </div>
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In the non-fiction genre, I loved Mychal Denzel Smith's <i>Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching</i>, Bryan Stevenson's <i>Just Mercy</i>, Scott B. Christmas's <i>Washington's Nightmare: A Brief History of American Political Parties</i>, Saroo Brierley's <i>Lion</i>, and Rebecca Skloot's <i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</i>.</div>
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Right now I'm re-reading <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> for the first time in decades (I don't have a Hulu subscription so I'm not watching it, but the movie with Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway is seared into my mind). Next up? Probably Joyce's <i>The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy</i>. Which normally I wouldn't go near based on the title alone because I'm such a fucking elitist, but it's a companion volume to <i>Harold Fry</i> and now I kind of need to know.</div>
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Pursuant to the article above re: Facebook, I'm hoping my abandonment of that medium will encourage me to write more often in this particular medium, so we'll see what happens. Meanwhile I most definitely am not abandoning Twitter or Instagram; you can find me there at @saltycrunchy for my personal accounts (my personal Instagram is private so if I don't know who you are, I'm afraid you're out of luck there) or @kmshealthcoach for my professional accounts (which are public AF, as the kids say). </div>
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Any and all food blogging type stuff is now happening on my professional Instagram account, if that tempts you at all. If foul-mouthed liberal rantings are more your thing, I recommend my personal Twitter (which is public). Or, you know, check back here occasionally. There's bound to be all SORTS of foul-mouthed liberal ranting in the weeks and months to come.</div>
Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-18874205154000239892017-02-14T13:14:00.000-06:002017-02-14T13:14:45.483-06:00Now get in the pit and try to love someone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2013/02/im-all-out-of-grandparents.html">My Grandpa R</a> would have been 97 years old today, and four years ago today <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2013/02/things-i-learned-while-traveling-to-and.html">I returned home</a> from attending his funeral. I'm pretty sure that was the last time I saw all my cousins and aunts and uncles and snow, and maybe also my sister-in-law if you don't count Skype, and that was the first AND last time I ate for-real-honest-to-God Cincinnati chili IN CINCINNATI because we're from Canton, yo.<br />
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I don't know what else to say about today except that for most of the world it's St. Valentine's Day, but for me and mine today is, was and always will be Grandpa's Birthday.<br />
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Speaking of saints, did y'all watch <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120894/">The Young Pope</a></i> and if so, did you like it? Because I did. I watched it and I liked it. Yep. I've enjoyed most of Jude Law's work (whatever with those Sherlock movies) since I saw him years ago in a weird little vampire flick called <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120894/">The Wisdom of Crocodiles</a> </i>and I don't care what anyone says, he killed it in this. So there.<br />
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Also liking, on the tee-vee: <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5137338/">Victoria</a></i>. Turns out I DON'T hate Jenna Coleman, I just hate <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0382970/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4">Clara Oswald</a>! So ... glad we got that worked out. I very much hope they're eventually going to cover all the attempts made on Queen Victoria's life because I have a whole book about that which I haven't yet read.<br />
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I'm still re-reading the Harry Potter books for pure escapism, and reading other stuff for the opposite of that. Like Jane Meyer's <i>Dark Money</i> (terrifying/infuriating), Eckhart Tolle's <i>The Power of Now</i> (look, I was trying something, okay?), Christiane Northrup's <i>The Wisdom of Menopause</i> (stop making that face) and Mychal Denzel Smith's <i>Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching</i> (so far fantastic). Next up: Bryan Stevenson's <i>Just Mercy</i>. And the rest of <i>The Order of the Phoenix</i>.<br />
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After taking half a year off of health coaching, trying to come up with a way to do that and get the work/life balance I originally wanted, giving up and considering myself retired, a deregulation-inspired light bulb finally went off and I have now shifted my focus from direct coaching back to advocacy/activism/education around food. Pretty excited about it. Still in the process of rolling it out via social media and whatnot.<br />
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So yeah. Life goes on. We endure. Resistance and persistence, y'all. Resistance and persistence. Now go hug your grandpa, if you've still got one. And your grandma, too.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-33360062122720111082017-01-19T12:59:00.000-06:002017-01-19T12:59:15.828-06:00We can be heroes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Well hey, there. We haven't spoken since early November. That's because since November 8th, 2016, a date which will live in infamy, my inner monologue has sounded a little something like this:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/77QyiCn9IJc" width="560"></iframe>
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It's not really conducive to blogging. Or to anything else requiring any concentration whatsoever.<br />
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In December I lost the ability to read books. Like, I still knew HOW to read, but books just weren't happening. I'm happy to say that went away after Christmas and I've since read and LOVED Alfred Lansing's <i>Endurance</i>, Ben H. Winters's <i>Underground Airlines</i> and Solomon Northup's <i>Twelve Years a Slave</i> (this assumes the word "loved" can be applied to engaging, well-written books with horrific subject matter, in which case it would be accurate to say I'm currently loving Jane Miller's <i>Dark Money</i>).<br />
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Interspersed with the above, I've also been re-reading all the Harry Potter books because my privilege allows me not to think about horrible things every single second of every single day and my suicidal ideation requires that I occasionally indulge that privilege. I'd forgotten how different the books are from the movies, which I also love, but Peeves really got the shaft, eh? <i>Whither Peeves?</i><br />
<br />
This week is really really hard for more than half of us, if the numbers are correct, and I don't really know how to cope beyond donating money to the ground troops in the war for peace and equality and decency and science-based everything. And reading about wizards.<br />
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I'm trying to avoid social media but I crave connection but I don't want to leave my house. I want to say everything will be okay but I don't believe that's true but I don't want to bum everybody out.<br />
<br />
Here's what I know:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The sun is out today for the first time in more than a week (of rain and gloom and damp) and I intend to enjoy it.</li>
<li>Homemade soup is the bees knees.</li>
<li>I can and will lose all the weight I put on over the holidays. So can you.</li>
<li>I can feel all the bad feelings and still put more love and kindness out into the world. So can you.</li>
</ul>
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<br />Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-6922393920486057452016-11-04T08:24:00.000-05:002016-11-04T08:24:47.052-05:00Triangle man hates particle man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I am doing this thing now where I wake up at like 3 or 4 in the morning to pee and then I can't back to sleep and it is not fun, let me tell you. My head is full of words at that time of day and I compose lengthy, eloquent blog posts for you all, but they evaporate right out of my head -- <i>poof </i>-- in the conversion from horizontal to vertical. So lucky for you, I don't have a lot to say today except to tell you about some things I am super duper loving right now.<br />
<br />
1. Knitting! I still get it! I don't know why this foreign language suddenly started making sense to me at the ripe old age of 49, but it did and I am glad. I'm still working on <a href="http://www.knittingdaily.com/knitting-patterns/parallelogram-wrap/">the parallelogram wrap</a> and also I made <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/selkie-hat-and-mitts">the Selkie Hat</a> from issue #17 of <i>Taproot Magazine</i> (pictured up there just after I started decreasing and just before I had to rip out said decreasing because I lost a stitch somewhere along the way)(hey, I said I understood it, I didn't say I was good at it)(I did finish the hat, though)(and if it ever stops being in the 90s, I may even get to wear it). If you're on Ravelry and got a friend request from <b>saltycrunchy</b>, that's me! Hello! Please be my friend. Don't make me beg.<br />
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2. Those pants up there are the <a href="http://www.earthboundtrading.com/grey-barcelona-pants">Barcelona Pants</a> from Earthbound Trading and I have three pairs in three different colors and I love them so so much, the end.<br />
<br />
3. Claire Robertson of <a href="http://loobylu.com/">Loobylu </a>fame has a new email newsletter, <a href="http://loobylu.us6.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=5d52da5b0cba796b1bdd8cea6&id=51744eea97">the Small Batch List</a>, and it's one of the highlights of my week.<br />
<br />
4. Alice Bradley of <a href="http://www.alicebradley.net/">finslippy </a>fame ALSO has <a href="http://tinyletter.com/finslippy">a new email newsletter</a> and it's one of the OTHER highlights of my week. (Seriously, I have been unsubbing newsletters willy-nilly the past couple of months but these two are keepers. You will love them.)<br />
<br />
5. Yesterday C and I were talking about how we both need math refreshers (calculus for him, um ... long division for me, shut up) and long story short, we re-discovered <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/welcome">Khan Academy</a> and holy cats is free education ever super cool. (I know that for some of you revisiting high school -- or elementary school, in my case -- math is your idea of hell and I get that but they have LOADS of other stuff, too. Art history! Computer animation! Macroeconomics AND microeconomics! Astronomy! This is good shit!)<br />
<br />
6. I haven't managed to read many books since last we talked, but I did like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trespasser-Novel-Tana-French/dp/0670026336/">the new Tana French</a> and I'm currently reading and biting my fingernails through <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Forgetting-Time-Novel-Sharon-Guskin/dp/1250076420/">The Forgetting Time</a></i> which is so so good. Just today I bought the Kindle version of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Girls-Revolt-Newsweek-Workplace/dp/1610397460/">The Good Girls Revolt</a></i> because I tried watching <a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-Folo/dp/B017AOY4WS">the show</a> but it gave me an anxiety attack and I had to turn it off halfway through the first episode just like with <i>Mad Men</i>, argh. (Have we talked about how I used to be a journalist and how my actual degree is in advertising and what the job market was like in Texas in the late '80s and early '90s and about Good Old Boy culture? Well, let's not. I've expended rather a lot of effort in the direction of drinking away those memories.)<br />
<br />
7. Mostly because of the knitting I've been listening to audiobooks and other audio-type media products. Amazon has some kind of deal going now with Audible (because the former owns the latter, from my understanding) such that Prime members have access to Audible Channels and I can't figure out how to link to it for the life of me but Nick Offerman has this Bedtime Stories for Cynics channel and it's so great. Just don't play it with your kids in the room. Unless they're already jaded adults like mine are.<br />
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8. My state has early voting and it's pretty much the best thing ever. Enough said.<br />
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Okey-doke. Off to take a nap. Happy Friday, everyone!Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-37506818401282679052016-10-06T11:47:00.000-05:002016-10-06T11:48:52.275-05:00And I like to kick, streeeeetch, and KICK!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I turned fifty years old last month, holy shit. There was a time when I didn't think I would make it.<br />
<br />
I have suffered from depression with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicidal_ideation">suicidal ideation</a> off and on for pretty much my entire life. Certainly all/most of my adult life. It was particularly bad in my 20s and 40s for some reason, and for real, I thought it would kill me. I really did. I never was able to picture myself at fifty and I just couldn't conceive of it ever happening. But it did!<br />
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I don't know whether my diet, yoga, meditation, etc. are the cause -- all of that certainly helped with my depression and anxiety -- but Death no longer is my seductive imaginary lover. Death and I are more like an old married couple now. The fascination/obsession stage is over and now we're just comfortable companions, Death and I. We've learned each other's habits. We have boundaries. Every now and then, Death says, "Now?" And I say, "Nope, not today."<br />
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We're all going to die someday, but I can say with 98% certainty that in my case, it won't be on purpose. Or at least not on purpose by me. I could be murdered, I suppose. So yeah. I'm FIFTY!<br />
<br />
I'm fifty years old and I have learned a few things, you guys:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Some people believe it is their God-given right to drive in the left lane and there is nothing you can do about that.</li>
<li>Pursuant to Article 1, some people are going to drive 10 m.p.h. below the posted speed limit even in perfect weather/road conditions and there's nothing you can do about that, either.</li>
<li>Sometimes #1 and #2 are the same person. Just breathe through it, you guys. Breathe <strike>the fuck</strike> through it while you putt-putt along behind these <strike>fucking assholes</strike> fellow citizens of the planet.</li>
<li>Hollywood doesn't have any new ideas. They're just going to keep re-making shit and adapting books from now until the zombie apocalypse. You can't do anything about that, unless you (a) come up with a new idea and manage to sell it, or (b) figure out a way to hasten the zombie apocalypse.</li>
<li>It's okay to stop reading a book you don't like, stop watching a TV series that has become terrible, leave food on your plate, throw away leftovers, quit a job that sucks your soul right out of you, leave a relationship that isn't working, and block, unfriend or deny friend requests from people on Facebook. Really. It's okay.</li>
<li>Molding yourself into something you think a specific person or group of people will like is fun for about a month. After that it sucks and is terrible and you will come to hate that person/persons and to blame them for your own disingenuous bullshit. So just be yourself and make peace with the fact that only a VERY few people may get what you're about and like you. Each of those people is worth, like, a HUNDRED people who just sort of tolerate you.</li>
<li>Never buy sushi from a gas station, a hamburger from a seafood restaurant, or pre-made chia pudding from anywhere at all.</li>
<li>Fifty absolutely is not the new thirty and THANK GOD FOR THAT. Fifty is its own thing, and for real, you guys, it's pretty damn great. I'm not sure anyone in the history of turning fifty has been as happy about it as I am. I made it! I'm fifty. Holy shit.</li>
</ol>
Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-29672657738628221562016-09-14T17:27:00.000-05:002016-09-14T17:27:21.248-05:00I'm worth a million in prizes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Look at me, I don't blog at you for ages and then I only pop in to tell you about my trip to Ireland, like an asshole. Well, Ireland only took up a week, you guys. Plenty of other stuff has been going on!<br />
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You may remember that we had to pull H out of school just before the end of her senior year for reasons that are too complicated to go into, but I am happy to tell you that she worked her ass off and completed all of her graduation requirements over the summer, and one evening last month we got to see her cross the stage in her cap and gown to receive her high school diploma. Proud doesn't even begin to cover it, y'all. She's taking a semester off from school to work full-time and will be starting college in January if all goes according to plan.<br />
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C decided that getting around town via an electric bike and whatever crappy excuse for public transportation exists out here in the 'burbs wasn't really cutting it anymore, but he still felt that driving an actual car would be way too anxiety-inducing, so long story short, he's now the proud owner of a Class M driving license and a new street-legal scooter.<br />
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When he and P first discussed doing this, I was picturing, you know, a little moped scooter. Like this:<br />
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But what he actually got was one of these:<br />
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I know, right? Did you know that a scooter is just a motorcycle with automatic transmission? Because I did not know that. But I do now.<br />
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I finally found some books I like! When did we last talk about books? Holy shit, I think it was in December? When I did <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2015/12/december-catchup-and-2015-books.html">my yearly wrap-up</a>? That's just wrong. Here are the books I've loved so far in 2016:<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>Wolf Hall</i> and <i>Bring Up the Bodies</i> by Hilary Mantel - LOVED LOVED these books. Thomas Cromwell, who knew?</li>
<li><i>The Snow Child</i> and <i>To The Bright Edge of the World</i> by Eowyn Ivey - not series/sequel type books; they are unrelated apart from both taking place in Alaska and having the same author, but they are so, so good. Gorgeous storytelling.</li>
<li><i>Career of Evil</i> by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling - the third Cormoran Strike book. My husband doesn't love these as much as I do, but I do, oh I do.</li>
<li><i>In the Sounds and Seas</i> by Marnie Galloway - incandescently beautiful graphic novel that explores the nature of myth and humanity and community and creativity and all sorts of big topics but in such a beautiful and approachable way.</li>
<li><i>The Rook</i> by Daniel O'Malley - it's like a grown-up Harry Potter, y'all! So great. He writes female characters so well, it's nuts.</li>
</ul>
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Right now I'm re-reading all of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books because (a) I've actually been to Dublin now! It's not at all how I pictured it. And (b) there's a new one coming out in October.</div>
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After trying to knit in fits and starts for approximately the past decade and a half, I had some weird cosmic knitting breakthrough a few months ago and yeah, I knit now. I am a knitter type person. Really what I am is a pedantic pattern-follower, and when the patterns actually work out it gives me an inflated sense of my own competency, but whatever, it counts. I spent late winter and early spring of this year knitting a layette for my cousin's new baby girl and it was BANANAS; at one point I was holding stitches for this teensy little cardigan on two different sets/sizes of circular needles while knitting another bit on straight needles and I had NO idea how it was all going to come together, but it did and I felt like a superhero. So yeah. Knitting!</div>
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While knitting that layette I managed to watch 10 seasons of <i>Bones </i>on Netflix, heh. Now I'm knitting another thing, <a href="http://www.knittingdaily.com/knitting-patterns/parallelogram-wrap/">this weird parallelogram wrap</a> with double moss stitch and chevron stitches and stairsteps and all kinds of weirdness, and I had thought I might watch all the seasons of <i>Gilmore Girls</i> (which I never saw when it was on TV) while knitting it but about halfway through the first season I decided I REALLY hated Lorelei and toward the end of the second season I started hating Rory too, so I had to stop. And I've still got like a million pattern repeats left on the wrap. What should I watch, you guys? I've already seen <i>Stranger Things</i> and didn't love it as much as the rest of you did, so ... yeah.</div>
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In other news, my most recent pedicure (pictured up there somewhere) left me with a nasty case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onycholysis">onycholysis</a> in both big toes, so now my knitting will smell like tea tree oil (antibacterial) and coconut oil (antifungal) because I knit with my feet. (Not really. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.)</div>
Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-34526918490155670802016-08-10T16:33:00.000-05:002016-08-10T16:33:46.267-05:00We found the craic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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They say it's the same sky the world over but it isn't, not really. I'd never been so far north and east of home before and my body was in shock for one full day of the seven that we spent in Ireland this summer, husband P and me, half a world away from everything we knew and everyone we loved.<br />
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Nearly seventeen hours of daylight per day but temperatures like our winter back home. The softest rain I've ever felt against my skin. Everything in Texas wants to kill you; the sun cracks you open and the rain leaves welts and the insects sting and the reptiles drip venom and the scrubby vegetation holds no sustenance or comfort. But Ireland seduces. It promises soft rain and succulent grasses, hot whisky and peat fires, a woolen blanket of heartstring-thrummed music. It catches your eye and then glances away, brushes against you then shows you its shoulder, caresses and then draws back with a sharp slap.<br />
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We arrived in Dublin on a Sunday morning, brilliant and crisp, church bells pealing, giddy with lack of sleep. P had told me we would fly over land almost the entire way, right up the Eastern Seaboard and across Canada to Greenland, up and over, hardly any water at all, but that was a lie. We flew up the Eastern Seaboard and Canada until we ran out of Canada and then we shot straight across the Atlantic. I have a phobia of heights and depths and the shock of having done that left me feeling completely reckless and outside of myself. I didn't even think about punching the cab driver at the airport when he called me "sweetheart".<br />
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I was left to my own devices in Dublin as P was attending a conference, the whole reason for our trip. The furthest I walked on any one day was from <a href="http://christchurchcathedral.ie/">Christ Church Cathedral</a> all the way back to our hotel near Upper Leeson with stops at <a href="http://www.dublincastle.ie/">Dublin Castle</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Stephen%27s_Green">St. Stephen's Green</a> on the way. I sat in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College_Library#The_Long_Room">Long Room</a> in the Old Library at Trinity College for an hour with its soft light through the vellum-covered windows, perfume of old books and comfortable rustling of faded ghosts while French tourists whispered to one another over my shoulder and tried not to get in the way of my photos. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Nice_attack">Nice</a> happened three days later.<br />
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I wandered across the stunning tilework at Christ Church Cathedral, gawping at the beauty of it all, and snorted down the ancient stone smell of the crypt like a line of coke, trying to draw every last particle of it into my body to keep it a part of me forever.<br />
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I wandered the grounds and gardens at Dublin Castle, home of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tana_French">Tana French</a>'s fictional Dublin Murder Squad. I inhaled my way through St. Stephen's Green, startling tiny ruffled birds in the undergrowth. I stomped my <a href="http://www.zappos.com/keen-rivington-ii-criss-cross-canvas-black">Keens</a> up and down <a href="http://graftonstreet.ie/">Grafton Street</a> until tourists started asking me for directions.<br />
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I spent an entire day in bed in our hotel sure that I was dying, lifting the "Do Not Disturb" sign just long enough to accept cups of rooibos tea and bowls of beef and Guinness stew from room service.<br />
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I ate rashers of that odd hammy bacon that only exists outside the US, I ate black and white pudding and the most delicious little crisp-skinned pork sausages, I ate salmon and hake and smoked mackerel at <a href="http://thefarmfood.ie/farm-leeson-st/">Farm</a> and <a href="http://www.hatchandsons.co/">Hatch and Sons</a> and <a href="http://thesussex.ie/">The Sussex</a>. I ate the most gorgeous flourless cakes with clouds of whipped cream. I forgave Ireland everything all over again -- the spitting rain and wind and sentient, malevolent gloom -- every single time I put a fork in my mouth.<br />
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And just like that, P's conference was over and we were on a train to <a href="https://www.limerick.ie/">Limerick</a>.<br />
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We stayed in the Medieval Quarter on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Island,_Limerick">King's Island</a>, within walking distance of <a href="https://www.limerick.ie/St-Marys-Cathedral">St. Mary's Cathedral</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_John%27s_Castle_(Limerick)">King John's Castle</a> and the <a href="http://www.milkmarketlimerick.ie/">Milk Market</a>. All of which were absolutely spectacular.<br />
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And then one day we piled into a van with another American named Arthur, a lovely English lady named Carol and four nameless-to-us Italians while an Irishman named Frank drove us around County Clare, through <a href="http://www.burren.ie/">The Burren</a>, up to <a href="http://www.irishlights.ie/tourism/our-lighthouses/black-head-(clare).aspx">Black Head</a> and around to the <a href="http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/">Cliffs of Moher</a> and it was quite possibly the best day of my life.<br />
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I can't explain quite what it was about County Clare that burrowed deep inside me and has stayed there ever since. A good many of my ancestors came from Ireland and I have no idea whether any of them ever even set foot in County Clare, but walking through The Burren and wandering <a href="http://caherconnell.com/">Caherconnell</a> and <a href="http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/06/poulnabrone-tomb-life-and-death-in-the-burren/">Poulnabrone</a>, driving through Ballyvaughan and Lisdoonvarna, seeing those <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64093642">karst domes</a> razed down to bumps in the last ice age and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_erratic">erratics</a> left scattered around Galway Bay by the glaciers -- something about that felt familiar. Not in a past life sort of way or anything woo-woo like that. It felt like something I didn't even know was missing had been returned. It mended something in me that I hadn't realized was broken. I don't have any other words to describe it.<br />
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I don't sleep when I travel. It doesn't matter whether I'm in the same time zone as home or six time zones away. In Dublin the view out our hotel window looked like this:<br />
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And so in Dublin I spent long hours staring toward the ceiling in the pitch dark, listening to Hindu devotional music through my earbuds, conjugating German verbs and otherwise trying not to wake P before his long days of conferencing.<br />
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In Limerick, though, we were right on the River Abbey.<br />
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And so every morning when I inevitably woke before sunrise, I'd carefully insert myself between the curtains and the glass and just sit in the window for the hour or so before P woke up, watching the eastern sky for signs of light and the water for signs of life. And then the final morning we were there, just a few hours before we hopped a cab for Shannon Airport and home, this:<br />
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Two swans somehow made their way up the Shannon to the Abbey to just below my window in the paper-thin morning. And as corny as it sounds, it felt like Something. Like a gift. Like a promise.<br />
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Oh, and if you're looking for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craic">craic</a>? It's at <a href="http://lockebar.com/">the Locke</a>. You're welcome.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-84178939396731887412016-06-10T13:45:00.000-05:002016-06-10T13:45:36.599-05:00I'll fake it through the day with some helpRandom thoughts in my head this week:<br />
<br />
<i>"Now that I'm drinking again, should I buy a bottle of tequila? Do we already have tequila? Do I even like tequila?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Why are all books terrible right now like you'd think a book about mysterious grizzly bear attacks would be good, right? Why can't I find a book I like? Why do I hate all the books that other people love?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Where was that Tig Notaro thing I wanted to watch, was that on Netflix or HBO?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Please oh please oh please let the weather stay sunny like this forever and ever. Please oh please. Amen and thank you."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I swear to God if they kill Arya and don't bring her back with the Lord of Light's Red Dead Redemption ... I won't stop watching but someone will get a VERY strongly worded tweet."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Do my boobs look as good as Emilia Clarke's? I think they do but I'm probably wrong."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Why am I still having the high school locker combination dream 32 years after graduation?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Lily Tomlin's character on </i>Grace & Frankie<i> is basically me in 20 years so when can I start wearing muu-muus and dashikis all the time is it now can I do it now?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I'll never be enlightened if I can't extend lovingkindness to all the smug assface jerks but they just make me want to punch them so hard their grandchildren will feel it, help."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Should I get my new passport photo taken while my hair is purple or let it grow out? Are there international statutes against purple hair? What would P!nk do? They're not going to not let P!nk on a plane, right?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"How is my tomato plant still producing fruit when it looks like something that dragged its blackened, shriveled ass up out of Mount Doom?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Given that you can literally die from stress, is it time to update my will?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"Should I burn those old journals? I should burn those old journals."</i>Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-38314952000972996762016-04-03T13:44:00.000-05:002016-05-09T19:12:16.834-05:00Low brow but I rock a little know how<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a rough start to 2016, I'll tell you what. My poor girl H, who had so many blood draws and radiology procedures in 2015 that I wouldn't be surprised if she was anemic AND glowed in the dark, rang in the new year with pneumonia and a double ear infection, which resulted in a whole lot of absences at the beginning of the spring semester of school.<br />
<br />
And then within the space of three weeks she was in TWO car accidents, neither of which were her fault, the second of which resulted in minor injuries (more absences and a couple of canceled theater productions) and her car being totaled. It all got to be a bit too much and, well, you remember when <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2012/08/typed-while-hyperventilating-into-paper.html">C's brain exploded</a> and we had to <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2013/03/im-ready-for-some-new-beginnings.html">pull him out of school</a> in the middle of his junior year? Well, it's kind of like that all over again, but without the <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2011/09/hatred-of-sound.html">misophonia</a>. All of which is to say we formally withdrew H from school this past Friday, just two months shy of what would have been her high school graduation.<br />
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Big sigh. Deep breaths.<br />
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Unfortunately the place (online) where C was able to get his high school diploma has since been shut down, so best case: she re-enrolls in the summer or fall and finishes up the 1.5 credits she needs to graduate. Worst case: GED. Yep. Meanwhile she was selected as Employee of the Week at her job last week. Life goes on.<br />
<br />
While H's car was in the shop waiting to be declared totaled we rented a car for P to drive because H isn't old enough to drive a rental car so she had to drive his truck to work and at one point the truck broke and my car broke and the only working car we had was the rental car and also our dishwasher broke. And a bird kamikaze'd itself into my window while I was doing yoga, which may or may not have been a sign from the universe, but I needed a good cry anyway.<br />
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Since last we spoke, I cut off all of my hair twice and dyed some of it purple because really, what else was I going to do? Start drinking again? Join a convent? Purple man hair seemed like the better course of action.<br />
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Given that the kids are okay and P and I are okay and everything's going to be okay, the best thing I can say about all this is that, purple hair aside, I've been handling it. I have two individual coaching clients left before I stop doing that for the remainder of the year, and I'm keeping up with yoga (whether the birds approve or not) and mindfulness and not eating too much crap. I've adopted an attitude of gratitude. I've mostly gotten over my damn self and released my expectations and my need for control. Those are pretty big deals for me, so go me, or whatever.<br />
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I don't think I set a word or a phrase or any intention (besides <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2016/01/im-gonna-kick-tomorrow.html">"less fear, more authenticity"</a>) for 2016 but so far this year I'm getting a strong message that I'm being called to love more. To meet every challenge with love. To quit grasping after my attachments and expectations and just give love.<br />
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I've been trying it and so far it's never been the wrong answer. Not once.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-89835795525580454872016-01-02T12:51:00.000-06:002016-01-02T12:51:46.401-06:00I'm gonna kick tomorrow<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">February</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbXhlOOK-x4lAhEP_Alq_C-QTHtC0iKwLg1pOFwwxboxzjqy5prpLmhssNcImhQhGzlLLm_fmSVgvENsiLlaFc9eKUxxtyQ_dOvgZoqaz4wwXRI-ysg558Th_mlGcpG5YrF-IXetXJRYG/s1600/tinymoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbXhlOOK-x4lAhEP_Alq_C-QTHtC0iKwLg1pOFwwxboxzjqy5prpLmhssNcImhQhGzlLLm_fmSVgvENsiLlaFc9eKUxxtyQ_dOvgZoqaz4wwXRI-ysg558Th_mlGcpG5YrF-IXetXJRYG/s400/tinymoon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">March</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">April</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">May</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">June</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">July</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcyrkYtd2J9fzSKiF-R_uEsAV8JUfhA8_NVhMfV-qDub5Lf0hG-vMNMGvK-xgNh8ZC34pYz0Wpt8GZ9AcLHWpytMpchswd8Xj23yQ0vbDo89gU_Dka8L8x_OrPAr1u7usxw0Tv7xPZnvP/s1600/sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcyrkYtd2J9fzSKiF-R_uEsAV8JUfhA8_NVhMfV-qDub5Lf0hG-vMNMGvK-xgNh8ZC34pYz0Wpt8GZ9AcLHWpytMpchswd8Xj23yQ0vbDo89gU_Dka8L8x_OrPAr1u7usxw0Tv7xPZnvP/s400/sunset.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">August</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTesxI85CThE_D_OIEWfI2iWrbfiHOw_VhzP5ClxOqbHCfqOxQdyluCI_v8CWJBBNe1bNFu8znAd6cAItdlA8urSI4cn2Vaag59-apA7y6TUOtKU9SxNfDZn_fRuOmLPBtr_YkHWSJGTK/s1600/hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTesxI85CThE_D_OIEWfI2iWrbfiHOw_VhzP5ClxOqbHCfqOxQdyluCI_v8CWJBBNe1bNFu8znAd6cAItdlA8urSI4cn2Vaag59-apA7y6TUOtKU9SxNfDZn_fRuOmLPBtr_YkHWSJGTK/s400/hair.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">September</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgihEXkuICSA8gSuwdpknGxFwxj1fHKYs1MotS9hWfiuZgNDwFbnG5y2tPXdHALTmnfteBkjHAR87QY7PpcwS69ON3nxayFRgroLEreIEvQ_555wo_od-zX9cmprdfLkk4flT2HWYB2UFaT/s1600/fireplace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgihEXkuICSA8gSuwdpknGxFwxj1fHKYs1MotS9hWfiuZgNDwFbnG5y2tPXdHALTmnfteBkjHAR87QY7PpcwS69ON3nxayFRgroLEreIEvQ_555wo_od-zX9cmprdfLkk4flT2HWYB2UFaT/s400/fireplace.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">December</td></tr>
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I was all set to tell you what a difficult year 2015 was, to total up all the doctor visits and bloodwork and x-rays and surgeries and endoscopy and whatnot my girl H had this past year, culminating in a December 31 diagnosis of possible pneumonia, but you know what? Let's not. The past is the past. We're moving on.<br />
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There are big changes happening in the saltycrunchy house this year. Son C has enrolled in college! Daughter H will be graduating high school and starting college! And I am cutting WAY back on individual health coaching this year in order to (a) have more flexibility in my daily schedule and (b) focus on reaching a wider audience. Will I write a book? Put together some online workshops? Start a podcast? Do something rather exciting, blog- and website-wise? (My <a href="http://kmshealthcoach.com/">other blog and website</a>, not this one.) I don't know. But I'm eager to find out!<br />
<br />
I never got around to making resolutions this year, so let's cobble some together on the fly, shall we? How about:<br />
<ul>
<li>Less fear, more authenticity.</li>
<li>Say both Yes AND No more, but to different things than usual.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I can think of a few more, but they're really all just variations on those two. And really that second one is just a variation on the first. See, this is why I don't do resolutions.</div>
<div>
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<div>
In other news, last month the library bookshop had both <i>Wolf Hall</i> and <i>Bring Up the Bodies</i> in hardback for $2 each so I snapped them up and have been reading the first one and it's so good, you guys. Husband P bought me a Roku because I was stressed out and he's the best human ever so now I'm all caught up on <i>Transparent </i>and I can't stop thinking about it. Sometime in the next 8 hours or so I FINALLY will have seen the new Star Wars movie (H was too sick to go all December). I did yoga today, I ate bacon and greens today, I haven't showered yet today but I'M GONNA I SWEAR, and it's all good. It really is.</div>
Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-80437723227417949432015-12-10T14:34:00.000-06:002015-12-10T14:35:36.409-06:00December catchup and 2015 books<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before we talk about books, I need to tell you that daughter H turned 18 a couple of weeks ago and it's freaking me out. Both of my children are legal adults now, OMG. That is just the weirdest thing I've experienced since actually being pregnant with them. I remember 18 VERY clearly; I was a freshman in college when it happened to me. That was 31 years ago. Holy shit. (Let's not talk about the fact that C is turning 20 in April, okay? I remember 20, too. It was my <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/golden-birthday">Golden Birthday</a>.) (P.S. If you're VERY clever, you might be able to deduce from one of those photos up there which college is H's first choice. Still waiting to hear. Fingers crossed.)<br />
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Okay, well, no time for an existential crisis now! Here are more or less all the books I read in 2015, grouped together by how much I liked them, though not necessarily ranked in any sort of order within those groups. Could I make this a little more complicated? Let's find out!<br />
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<u>Five Stars</u><br />
The entire <i>Song of Ice and Fire</i> series by George R. R. Martin. I read this series straight through in one big gulp, which took me nearly two months. I love the show and I love the books, too. Maybe even a little bit more, Dinklage or no Dinklage.<br />
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<i>All the Light We Cannot See</i> by Anthony Doerr. Lives up to the hype. Such a beautiful story. A must-read if you're into WWII fiction, but lovely even if you're not (I'm kind of oversaturated on it, myself).<br />
<br />
<i>The Girl on the Train</i> by Paula Hawkins. Ditto re: hype. I loved this book, could not put it down, and even though the protagonist is sort of unlikable by design, I loved her, too.<br />
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<i>Help Thanks Wow: Three Essential Prayers</i> by Anne Lamott. Classic Lamott. She speaks to my soul.<br />
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<i>House of Leaves</i> by Mark Z. Danielewski. This is a book I will never, ever forget. I've seen it billed as horror but it's not, really. I don't even know how to describe it. But I loved it and I'm so glad I read it and that it's become part of my story now.<br />
<br />
<i>Far North</i> by Marcel Theroux. Another book I'll never forget, with one of my favorite protagonists EVER. It's kind of a formulaic post-apocalyptic sort of thing, but it's just such a GOOD one. I didn't want it to end.<br />
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<i>Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail</i> by Cheryl Strayed. Yes, you've all already read this book. Well, now I have, too. I loved it so much that it led to me downloading like a dozen books about people walking the PCT and the AT and all those other trails that I'll never walk because: BEARS (see also: RAPISTS/MURDERERS). The movie pales in comparison.<br />
<br />
<i>The Martian</i> by Andy Weir. Another book that makes the movie pale in comparison. The book was so much more fraught with tension, and the protagonist was a million times more likable, and it was just SO GOOD and so much better than the movie. If you liked the movie, read the book. If you didn't want to see the movie because <a href="http://jezebel.com/matt-damon-interrupts-successful-black-woman-filmmaker-1730553152">Matt Damon is on your shitlist</a>, read the book.<br />
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<i>The Night Circus</i> by Erin Morgenstern. I am going to go ahead and suggest you read this book in the fall, because it's all wood smoke and caramel apples and mulled cider and you'll never, ever want it to end. Just like fall.<br />
<br />
<u>Four Stars</u><br />
<i>Stoner </i>by John Williams. Technically I read this at the very end of last December, but <a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-books.html">I told you it might end up on this year's list</a>. I ... don't really remember much about this book, to be honest, but I four-starred it on Goodreads so I guess I liked it.<br />
<br />
<i>The Ocean at the End of the Lane</i> by Neil Gaiman. You know, it's Gaiman. It's all mysterious and weird and children are in peril. I liked it a lot.<br />
<br />
<i>Started Early, Took My Dog</i> by Kate Atkinson. The fourth Jackson Brodie. Didn't hold my interest quite as much as the previous books, and the timeline was wonky, but still, it's Atkinson. So it was good.<br />
<br />
<i>A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail</i> by Bill Bryson. Well, it was no <i>Wild</i>, and he didn't really walk as much of the trail as I was hoping to read about, and it's really more a story of two middle-aged guys traveling than it is about a trail hike anyway, but I enjoyed it.<br />
<br />
<i>The Nature of the Beast</i> by Louise Penny. The 11th Chief Inspector Gamache book. I have loved this series with only two exceptions (see below for one of them), and this book was fabulous. Thank goodness. The previous book was so awful, I almost didn't read this one.<br />
<br />
<i>Shaman, Healer, Heretic</i> by Terry M. Green. I just read this as a fluffy little genre palate cleanser between meatier tomes, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I have several books in this series downloaded to my Kindle and I look forward to reading the rest of them. <br />
<br />
<i>Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object</i> by Laurie Colwin. I heart Colwin. I don't always find her characters super relatable, and I like her food memoirs more than her novels, but they're still really good. (Her food memoirs are EXCEPTIONAL, FYI.)<br />
<br />
<i>Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel</i> by Zachary Thomas Dodson. I actually really loved this book, which like <i>House of Leaves</i> is very strange and relies heavily on format (weird fonts/text, folding pages, holding things up to mirrors, etc.), but I was left with so many questions at the end that I had to remove a star from my review. It's really good, it just leaves a lot of loose ends and/or glosses over things that I would have liked explored/explained in more detail. Rarely do I wish a book had been longer, but with this one, I do.<br />
<br />
<i>The Road</i> by Cormac McCarthy. Jesus, this was grim. But wow, have a lot of people ripped him off since he wrote this.<br />
<br />
<i>Room </i>by Emma Donoghue. I thought this book was pretty extraordinary and I'd never read anything like it, but something about it annoyed me somehow. I spent almost the entire book thinking it took place in the UK because of the dialog and vocabulary, but then a US location was mentioned, and I don't know, something was off about it. Like with <i>Vernon God Little</i>, a book I HATED, I feel like an editor should have caught the fact that all of these supposedly American characters did not speak or act at all like Americans. Geez, now I want to take another star off my review and bump this down to three and/or attend a meeting of Anglophobics Anonymous.<br />
<br />
<i>The Girl with All the Gifts</i> by M.R. Carey. I liked this a lot; it's a very different take on the zombie genre. It's got movie adaptation written all over it, though -- like it reads as though it was specifically written to be adapted for film -- and for that I removed a star because sometimes a book should just stay a book.<br />
<br />
<i>The Magician's Assistant</i> by Anne Patchett. This was a very good book that made me fall asleep a lot. It actually reminded me a lot of that Colwin book up there in that it deals with the loss of a spouse and dealing with the whole in-law thing in the wake of that and all the complicated things that make up a marriage and a family.<br />
<br />
<u>Three Stars or Less, or the Meh Books</u><br />
<i>Divergent</i> by Veronica Roth. I'm just not a big fan of the <i>Hunger Games</i> wannabes.<br />
<br />
<i>The Same Sky</i> by Amanda Eyre Ward. I LOVE Ward and have loved nearly all of her books, but this one didn't grab me for whatever reason. I'll still buy everything she writes, though.<br />
<br />
<i>Gaudi Afternoon</i> by Barbara Wilson. I like the Cassandra Reilly series a lot and read them all out of order; this is the first one and I can tell you that they definitely get better.<br />
<br />
<i>The Long Way Home</i> by Louise Penny. The 10th Gamache. Just AWFUL. There's really only one real plot point from this book that you need to know before reading book 11, and it'll become apparent to you pretty quickly in that book, so I recommend skipping from 9 to 11 and giving this one a miss entirely.<br />
<br />
<i>Miss Buncle's Book</i> by D.E. Stevenson. Meh. I think I just wasn't in the mood for this when I read it. It's a perfectly sweet little book, but I wanted it over with much sooner than it was.<br />
<br />
<i>Hercules, My Shipmate</i> by Robert Graves. I wanted to like this so much more than I did, but I found it oddly repetitive and just kind of boring after a while.<br />
<br />
<i>The Beggar King</i> by Oliver Potzsch. (There's supposed to be an umlaut over the o in his last name but I'll be damned if I know how to get it on there.) I love the Hangman's Daughter series but I didn't love this particular installment. All the things that annoy me about some of the main characters were dialed up to 11 in this book, and I don't like it when series books move away from the principal location.<br />
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<i>Fates and Furies</i> by Lauren Groff. I heart Groff BIG TIME and I absolutely loved <i>Monsters of Templeton</i> and <i>Arcadia</i>, but this one was not my favorite. I feel like it suffers in the inevitable comparison to Gillian Flynn's <i>Gone Girl</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>Disclaimer </i>by Renee Knight. This was a weird book, y'all. It started out kind of clunky and then just got super grim and sad. If you want to be hella depressed, go ahead and read it, but don't say I didn't warn you.<br />
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<br />
And also I read a bunch of stuff for work; I won't outline all of that (mostly nutrition-related) stuff for you. However, I do highly recommend Michelle Segar's <i>No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness</i> to anyone who has negative associations with exercise but wants to get moving (in a fun way); and copies of Kate Northrup's <i>Money: A Love Story</i> paired with copies of Manisha Thakor's <i>On My Own Two Feet</i> (which I read last year) would make great gifts for any college-aged young women in your lives who want to start out on the right financial foot. I wish I had read them both 30 years ago. It's too late for me! Save yourselves! (Just kidding. It's not too late. It's NEVER too late. #coach)<br />
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Okay. Let's get through Christmas and maybe then I'll try to start blogging more but probably not.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-9501281108757999112015-10-26T11:44:00.000-05:002015-10-26T11:44:09.841-05:00Hallo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well hello there. When last we spoke it was summer and now it's autumn and the painted ponies go up and down because we're all trapped on a terrifying carousel of death. Or something. I may have gotten those lyrics wrong.<br />
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SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED, YOU GUYS!<br />
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H started her senior year of high school, OMG. Senior year is nuts. C never had one so we're new to all this. And it could not be more different than my own senior year 32 years ago. For one thing, the internet exists now, I don't know whether you're aware. The number of times I've thanked my lucky stars that Instagram and Youtube and Snapchat and whatnot were not actual things when I was in high school: 47 million, give or take. Just since August.<br />
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I finished nutrition school and got my certification so now <a href="http://kmshealthcoach.com/">I'm all bona fide</a> and shit! And I turned 49 so I'm also all old and shit! Yeah! And I cut off all my hair. Like you do.<br />
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I read a bunch of really good books somewhere in there. Marcel Theroux's <i>Far North</i>, Cheryl Strayed's <i>Wild</i>, Andy Weir's <i>The Martian</i>, Erin Morgenstern's <i>The Night Circus</i>, all excellent. Kate Atkinson's <i>Started Early, Took My Dog</i>, Spike Gillespie's <i>Sit. Stay. Heal.</i>, Bill Bryson's <i>A Walk in the Woods</i>, Louise Penny's <i>The Nature of the Beast</i>, Terry M. Green's <i>Shaman, Healer, Heretic</i>, Laurie Colwin's <i>Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object</i>, Zachary Thomas Dodson's <i>Bats of the Republic</i>, Cormac McCarthy's <i>The Road</i>, all really freaking great. Slightly disappointed with Oliver <span id="freeTextContainerauthor2783820">Pรถtzsch</span>'s <i>The Beggar King</i> and Lauren Groff's <i>Fates and Furies</i>, oh well. And I read a bunch of stuff for work that you don't care about.<br />
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I've been cooking and doing yoga and reading the tarot and coloring mandalas. And knitting this stupid Kindle cozy I've been knitting since H was in middle school. And sneezing a lot. September marked three years of staying at my goal weight and I can't remember the last time I had to pluck a long, wiry hair out of my chin so if that doesn't sell you on Balancing Your Hormones Through Real-Food Nutrition(<b>โข</b>)(just kidding, I haven't trademarked that)(YET), I don't know what will.<br />
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In other news, it's come to my attention that some towns/communities/dystopian societies actually schedule trick-or-treating and sometimes it doesn't even happen on Halloween and I'm completely traumatized by this knowledge. You guys. What. Around here the kids trick-or-treat on Halloween night no matter what, there are no do-overs or weather delays (what is this, BASEBALL?). They start around dusk and continue long into the night until everyone has turned off their porch lights and closed their curtains and hidden their pumpkins. Which is what God intended. That's in Leviticus, I'm pretty sure.<br />
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Yeah, so that's what's going on around here. Birthdays (my mom turned 69, H is about to turn 18, what is happening?) and renewing my passport so I can take another health coaching certification exam (which will make me a Certified International Health Coach, very exciting) and gearing up for Festivus and our annual pilgrimage to the ArkLaTex and whatnot. Yep. How are things with you?Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-39731139596656523212015-07-07T14:26:00.000-05:002015-07-07T14:26:40.699-05:00A mosquito, my libido<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>*tap tap*</i> Is this thing on?<br />
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Heeeyyyyyy, everyone! I'd say let's pretend it hasn't been FOUR MONTHS since last I blogged at you, but frankly I respect you too much. So here's what you missed!<br />
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I got my mid-course health coaching certification which means <a href="http://kmshealthcoach.com/">I am officially seeing clients as a health coach</a>, whee! It's going great and I am SUPER excited and this is pretty much the first time I've ever been super excited about any job I've ever had in the history of my entire life. So that's awesome. My graduation from nutrition school is two months from tomorrow, holy crap. And a couple of weeks after that I turn 49, holier crappier.<br />
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P turned 50 in April and started a new job but at the same company and now he travels a lot which is swell, I guess.<br />
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C turned 19 in April and does not have a job but, you know, he's doing really well right now. Baby steps toward adulthood and all that.<br />
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H finished her junior year of high school and got her tonsils out. She also does not have a job. Heh. She'll be a senior in August and turns 18 in November and I seriously do not know where those years went. I may have been drunk? For some of it? Maybe.<br />
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I read a bunch of books! Want to hear about them? Sure you do.<br />
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Fiction-wise, I LOVED <i>All the Light We Cannot See</i>, <i>The Girl on the Train</i> and Mark Z. Danielewski's <i>House of Leaves</i>. Was less crazy about <i>Gaudi Afternoon</i>, <i>Miss Buncle's Book</i> and <i>Hercules, My Shipmate</i>. Dern near hated the most recent Chief Inspector Gamache book by Louise Penny, <i>The Long Way Home</i>, which made me very sad. Currently reading and loving Kate Atkinson's <i>Started Early, Took My Dog</i> because Jackson Brodie is my literary boyfriend.<br />
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Mostly I have been reading stuff for work/school and can hereby recommend <i>Good Calories, Bad Calories</i> by Gary Taubes, <i>Brain Maker</i> by David Perlmutter, <i>Keto Clarity</i> and <i>Cholesterol Clarity</i>, both by Jimmy Moore, and Denise Minger's <i>Death By Food Pyramid</i> though really I liked Marion Nestle's <i>Food Politics</i> even better. So, you know. In case you're into that kind of stuff.<br />
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(Incidentally I also read Anne Lamott's <i>Help, Thanks, Wow</i> and that was awesome. So there you go.)<br />
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Let's talk about TV! <i>Game of Thrones</i> has had an entire season since last we spoke! I think I liked it. They've deviated from the books rather a lot and I fervently hope we're going to get some more House Greyjoy next season because I don't think Aaron Damphair or Euron Crow's Eye or Victarion (... just Victarion) have even been on the damn show yet, but I'm glad we got to see lots of Arya because she's pretty much the only person left alive that I can tolerate at all. (Besides Tyrion, because Peter Dinklage is magic.)<br />
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I don't remember what else was on TV. Um. <i>The Brink</i> is really funny! I haven't quite warmed up to this season of <i>True Detective</i>. Liking <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</i> despite not having read the book. <i>Penny Dreadful</i> was AWESOME. <i>Orphan Black</i> was like whaaaaat?! I liked <i>Happyish </i>but if the next season is going to be all about what I think it is then I'm not going to care. I stopped watching <i>Outlander </i>about halfway through the penultimate episode of Season One and have no intention of looking back. Was <i>Downton </i>on again? Did I like it? No idea. Oh! Second season of <i>Broadchurch</i>! Loved, loved, loved. Also <i>Better Call Saul</i>. And <i>iZombie</i>. Yeah.<br />
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I feel like I saw some movies but the only one I remember is <i>Spy</i>, which was super cute and had an awesome soundtrack and now I can't get <a href="https://youtu.be/30J7sZFnfN8">Santigold's "GO!"</a> out of my head.<br />
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Yep. That's all I've got. I really should start writing things down more so I can remember them. Like in a blog or something.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-67858486383724622152015-03-12T12:17:00.000-05:002015-03-12T12:17:34.837-05:00Spring is coming (eventually, in its own time)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey, so I finished <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> FINALLY, and now we can all move on with our lives. This whole undertaking was starting to remind me of that time I decided to read the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, which took me six months. It only took me two months to read <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> because as it turns out, George R. R. Martin is slightly less verbose than God. But only SLIGHTLY. If Mr. Martin wants to start using <i>"Infinitesimally More Concise Than the Almighty"</i> as his new tagline, he can have that for free. Consider it payback for the enjoyment I've gotten from his books and insurance against anything really bad ever happening to <a href="http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Arya_Stark">Arya </a>(don't read too far into that link if you don't want spoilers).<br />
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And also I have given up coffee. I felt you should know. I haven't done this voluntarily, and if coffee ever stops making my stomach feel like it's been gnawed upon by rabid weasels I am TOTALLY going back to my one 12 oz. cup of decaf per day, but for now I'm substituting roasted dandelion root and I don't hate it, maybe? It's not coffee, but once you throw in some grass-fed collagen powder and full-fat coconut milk (what? isn't that how EVERYONE drinks their coffee?) it's really pretty darn tasty. Yeah.<br />
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In other news, it turns out starting your own business from scratch is a whole lot of time-consuming work, WHO KNEW? I have been doing nothing* for the past couple of weeks since finishing that lengthy book series up there except working on my website and my professional Facebook page and Twitter and ordering business cards and oh yeah, still doing school, because I don't actually finish that and get my certification until September. But I start seeing clients in April. Let's pretend you care about that so I can promise to let you know when that happens, m'kay?<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* Total lie. I also read three other books, took my daughter to the doctor 4,000 times and made about 27 batches of kale chips. And one batch of <a href="http://brittanyangell.com/extra-crispy-waffles-2-versions-paleo-or-gluten-free-vegan/">paleo waffles</a>.</span><br />
<br />Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-84628363971147810952015-02-23T15:42:00.000-06:002015-02-23T16:18:38.686-06:00February (and part of January) in pictures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yeah, so February (and part of January). I guess it's been kind of busy though I can't think what I've been doing apart from reading <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> (yes, STILL, though I'm nearly done with book 5 now, huzzah!), school stuff, helping H with her theater costume(s), cooking all the things, eating all the things, drinking sazeracs, occasionally sleeping in my office because it's snoring season, loving the sunny-and-70s weather, loathing the rainy-and-30s weather (we have had nothing whatsoever between those two extremes), and wearing leggings as pants but only around the house because I'm not a savage.<br />
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If you've been socked in with mounds and mounds of snow, I wish you sunshine and green grass. If you've been broiling in the Southern Hemisphere, I wish you cool breezes and gentle rains. <br />
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I do NOT wish rainy-and-30s on ANYONE.<br />
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And I am very ready for spring. Now, please.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Cupcake recipe <a href="http://againstallgrain.com/2015/02/09/grain-free-chocolate-cupcakes/">here</a>. Sazerac recipe <a href="http://www.sazerac.com/cocktail.aspx">here</a>. Everything else is just crappe I threw together and crammed in my pie hole.</span></i>Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-71546085363427707392015-01-14T13:47:00.000-06:002015-01-14T13:47:09.373-06:00The bleak mid-winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello, I have decided that winter sucks. Or at least THIS winter does, with its unrelenting gloom and damp. I know there are much colder temperatures and snow and whatnot elsewhere, but for reals y'all, I can only take so many days of grey skies and temps barely above freezing and cold cold cold rain/drizzle/mist before I start to go all Jack Torrance on your collective asses. I guess we had ONE sunny day this month because I took a photo of it but apart from that it's been <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder">SAD</a> city up in here, and also <a href="http://pollen.utulsa.edu/cedar.html">ALLERGIES</a>. Bleh.<br />
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I am combating the cabin fever with books, specifically the series known as <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> written by one George R. R. Martin. I'm determined to read the whole thing right through and have all five (so far) books finished by the time the TV show starts back up again in April. That might sound do-able unless you know that (a) I am the world's slowest reader and (b) each book is like 48,000 pages long. But whatever, it's not like I have any other hobbies.<br />
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(I've been assured by those who know that upon finishing the fifth book I'll suddenly feel compelled to write Mr. Martin VERY strongly worded letters explaining that <a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html">he IS TOO my bitch</a> and should write faster, perhaps mailing hardcopies of pages to me one by one as he knocks out the sixth book, but that's just crazy talk. I don't even know his mailing address.)<br />
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In other January news, the Ohio State Buckeyes football team gave my dad <a href="http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2015/01/12/0112-osu-oregon-game/0112-ohio-state-game-story.html">a National Championship</a> for his birthday, so that was nice. Nutrition school is moving right along and getting more awesome by the day. I've started working out again, and meditating again, and taking photos again when I'm not reading. But I'm usually reading. Or napping. Or sneezing.<br />
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Yeah. That's about it. Wake me when the temperature is higher than my age. Or better yet, my dad's age.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6794422163568443047.post-48072964258563584342014-12-29T16:32:00.000-06:002014-12-29T16:32:59.752-06:002014: The booksHey, the holidays are mostly over and I'm cranky and ready for everyone to go back to work/school, including me, so let's talk about books, yeah? Here are all the books I read in 2014 and what I thought of them, in case you care. Don't worry, there weren't that many, and I've grouped the series stuff together for purposes of expedition.<br />
<ol>
<li><i>The Cuckoo's Calling</i> and <i>The Silkworm</i>, by Robert Galbraith, AKA J.K. Rowling. I loved both of these books and I think Ms. Rowling has a hella awesome new series on her hands. Apparently <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2869265/JK-Rowling-s-Cormoran-Strike-crime-novel-Cuckoo-s-Calling-turned-BBC-series.html">the BBC thinks so</a>, too.</li>
<li><i>The Shining</i> by Stephen King. I had never read this, can you believe it? Loved it. I find King a bit uneven but this one was pitch-perfect and MUCH scarier than the movie. Also: SPOILER! Scatman Crothers didn't have to die y'all. Screw you, Stanley Kubrick, for randomly killing off the most likeable character in the whole damn enterprise. Also, after reading the book the decision to cast Shelly Duvall is even more puzzling. WHAT WAS KUBRICK SMOKING, YOU GUYS?</li>
<li><i>Case Histories</i>, <i>One Good Turn</i> and <i>When Will There Be Good News?</i> by Kate Atkinson, the first three books of her Jackson Brodie series. I love these books, and I heart Jackson, and I have GOT to get hold of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748888/?ref_=nv_sr_1">the TV series</a> that was made from them because JASON ISAACS, Y'ALL. (You may know him as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000995/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_27">Lucius Malfoy</a>, among other roles. I just know him as yummy.)</li>
<li><i>Dust </i>by Hugh Howey, the final book in the whole Wool/Silo saga. Did not love. I have no idea what happened here because the rest of this series was fantastic, but this book was so BORING, and then I guess he wrapped things up but in a really unsatisfying way. Maybe dude was feeling the pressure of <i>Wool </i>starting out as a short story and then blowing up into a whole THING that he had to do, or something, I dunno. But meh.</li>
<li><i>The Paleo Coach</i> by Jason Seib. Freaking fantastic, one of my best books of the year or maybe ever, non-fiction-wise. If you're looking to start a fitness routine, or if you're trying to lose weight, or whatever health-related New Year's resolutions you've got going on, you need this book. Seib is all about getting your mind right before you can make outward changes, and he is spot on.</li>
<li><i>Dark Places</i> by Gillian Flynn. I love everything she does, and this book was no exception.</li>
<li><i>A Trick of the Light</i>, <i>The Beautiful Mystery</i> and <i>How the Light Gets In</i> by Louise Penny, the seventh, eighth and ninth books in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. I freaking LOVE this series, it's like coming home every time I read a new book in it, but I didn't super love <i>The Beautiful Mystery</i> because hello, they changed the setting completely and I was not down with that. Half the characters were missing and it felt claustrophobic.</li>
<li><i>The Good Earth</i> by Pearl S. Buck, another book I should have read years ago but hadn't. I loved it. Such a quiet but powerful and compelling story.</li>
<li><i>The Water's Edge</i> by Karin Fossum. This is one of the Inspector Seyer books but I can't remember which one; we get them all out of order here in the US. Norwegian police procedurals. Love this series.</li>
<li><i>A Homemade Life</i> by Molly Wizenberg. If you've read her blog then you've sort of read this book, but I love the blog and enjoyed the book very much. It reminded me of Laurie Colwin's <i>Home Cooking</i>, which is just about the highest praise I can give to a food memoir.</li>
<li><i>The Imperfectionists</i> by Tom Rachman. Little vignettes all strung together to make up the story of an English-language newspaper in Rome. I loved this while I was reading it (<a href="http://saltycrunchybitterfresh.blogspot.com/2014/07/aint-no-cure.html">on the beach</a>), but ultimately it was super depressing. So yeah.</li>
<li><i>Countdown City</i> and <i>World of Trouble</i> by Ben Winters, the last two books in the Last Policeman trilogy. Loved, loved, loved. Not QUITE as much as I loved the first book, and I didn't super love some of the decisions he made with his characters toward the end, but by then I didn't care; I was all caught up in the fact that an asteroid was about to hit the Earth, OMG!</li>
<li><i>Eat the Yolks</i> by Liz Wolfe. If you've read a lot of paleo nutrition books, you probably don't need to read this one, but you might as well. I liked it a lot, I just don't know that it added anything new to the conversation.</li>
<li><i>The Giver</i> by Lois Lowry. This is my daughter's all-time favorite book and I had never read it. I liked it just fine. Not enough to read the rest of the series, though.</li>
<li><i>Faithful Place</i>, <i>Broken Harbor</i> and <i>The Secret Place</i> by Tana French, the third, fourth and fifth Dublin Murder Squad books. Another series and author that I absolutely LOVE. Of the three I was least crazy about <i>Broken Harbor</i> and most crazy about <i>Faithful Place</i> but they're all outstanding.</li>
<li><i>How to Meditate</i> and <i>Taking the Leap</i> by Pema Chodron. Two-ought-fourteen was the year of learning to meditate; 2015 will be the year of making it a daily practice. Yep.</li>
<li><i>Wherever You Go, There You Are</i> by Jon Kabat-Zinn. See above. I am all about the mindfulness these days. It keeps me off Prozac.</li>
<li><i>Life After Life</i> by Kate Atkinson. Not part of the Jackson Brodie series above. This book was absolutely extraordinary. I loved it. It's the sort of book I might re-read from time to time.</li>
<li><i>Eleanor & Park</i> by Rainbow Rowell. Because no one would shut up about this book. I did like it. It's definitely YA fiction, which isn't HUGELY my thing, but I liked it.</li>
<li><i>On My Own Two Feet</i> by Manisha Thakor. Another absolutely fantastic must-read nonfiction book. Buy a copy for every young woman you know. I did not understand money AT ALL until I read this book, and I wish I had read it 30 years ago. My financial situation would be COMPLETELY different now if I had.</li>
<li><i>Station Eleven</i> by Emily St. John Mandel. I thought I was tired of post-apocalyptic fiction until I read this book. It's definitely a fresh take. I liked it very much.</li>
<li><i>The Dark Monk</i> by Oliver Potzsch, the second book in the Hangman's Daughter series. I loved the first book and I loved this one, too. Seventeenth century Bavaria? I'm in. These books read like role-playing games, in a way. Fantastic setting, fantastic characters, tons of action and puzzles to solve and little tidbits about archaic medical practice. So great.</li>
<li><i>The Thirteenth Tale</i> by Diane Setterfield, the only boner in the bunch. I really hated this book, so much that I was never able to finish it (after THREE attempts). <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1135004358">My review on Goodreads</a> says it all, really.</li>
</ol>
And that's it. That's all of 'em. Apart from <i>A Child's Christmas in Wales</i>, which I read every Christmas Eve, and <i>Stoner </i>by John Williams, which I'm reading now and only halfway through and may get counted as a 2015 book at this rate. <br />
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In related news, I've bought 30+ Kindle books just since Thanksgiving, OMG. Those $1.99 deals get me every time. <i>The Ocean at the End of the Lane</i>, <i>All the Light We Cannot See</i>, <i>To Rise Again at a Decent Hour</i>, <i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</i>, <i>Ten Thousand Saints</i>, every book in the <i>Song of Ice and Fire</i> series, every book in Barbara Wilson's Cassandra Reilly series, <i>The Song of Achilles</i>, <i>The Drunken Botanist</i>, plus more Atkinson and Penny and Fossum and Potzsch (and King and Howey) ... damn, y'all! It's going to be a good year for reading. I'll tell you all about it next December.Kathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09399389348876533777noreply@blogger.com1