december: 33 & 34

to round out 2013, i read:

tell the wolves i'm home, by carol rifka brunt (my new school has an annual book fair and parents sometimes buy gift certificates for teachers to use at the book fair, and one of my new students bought me a gift certificate (!), so i bought this book and the orchardist, which you will see here eventually.  i had heard a lot of good things about this book, and it didn't disappoint.  it's 1987 and the main character (she's 14)'s uncle dies of AIDS and then she finds out he had a long time partner that her mother forbid her uncle to tell her about.  the story is about her discovery of her uncle's secret life.  i flew through it and would really recommend it!)

quiet, by susan cain (i read tell the wolves i'm home in the middle of quiet.  i should say that quiet is VERY good, but i don't love reading nonfiction before i fall asleep - it requires too much concentration - and so it took me two months to finish quiet because i kept getting distracted by other, lighter, reads.  when i was in grad school last year, this was a book that everyone was talking about.  it's about the difference between introverts and extroverts, and as a person who identifies as an introvert parts of it were really fascinating.  this fall i also had a parent tell me that this book had totally changed the way they treat their introverted daughter, and i love books that can make such an impact on peoples' lives.  i'm sure i'll be referencing this book a lot in the future, and all you introverts out there will find it hits home, i think.)

knitting projects

the latest round of knitting projects, just in time for christmas!

1. adult hat.  this took a little perfecting - the first one i made wasn't quite long enough and looked slightly ridiculous, but i think i've got it down now.

no selfie is complete without a kitty.

2. baby hats.  i mean, how cute are these?  i have no idea how large a baby's head is, but the internet has some ideas, so let's hope the internet is right.

3. baby blanket, take 3.  this one is so comfy that ruby snuggled up on it.

up close so you can see the detail.  i think it turned out great, but i did get prettttty tired of knitting the pattern.

completed blanket!

Merry Christmas!

Abby and Stella got new beds for Christmas! However, they did not get the memo that the big bed is for the big dog and the little bed is for the little dog...

all the christmas music is making me sentimental

i sit here with a kitty taking a nap on my lap for the SECOND time today, which is unprecedented…normally she would like to be right. near. by. (as in, under my chair, next to me on the couch, following me around the apartment, lying on the kitchen floor while i cook dinner, cuddled up against my legs when i sleep), but not on top of me, and i'm enjoying her soft warm self very much.  oh wait - she had enough.  she is back to her spot under the chair.

what i was GOING to say still applies…which is that i feel very very lucky these days.  why did i wait so long to get a cat?  ruby is the sweetest kitty ever (and is now back in my lap).  i felt a great deal of love from my students this week, with several of them stopping by with cards or candy or little gifts for me.  i went to trivia with work friends this week - my first trivia night in over a year - and it was so much fun and sounds like it will be a semi-regular thing.  today i went to get tea and see philomena (and cry kind of a lot - what an amazing movie) with a new non-work friend.  i am healthy and happy.  i am lucky.  thank you for being part of my little life.

i've probably posted this before, but it's one of my favorites so you get it again:

a Ruby a day

Ruby would like everyone to know that Sundays are for napping on the couch.

last day of work in 2013!

two articles i found interesting:

the documented life

OED birthday word generator ("downloadable" was added to the dictionary the year i was born!)

cat lady talk

1. the first day of ruby's new diet ended at 11pm with her licking her bowl for like 5 minutes straight…getting all the yummy stuck-on bits off.  the bowl ended up on the other side of the room from all her vigorous licking…poor hungry ruby.

2. i should also mention that ruby is learning "down" - as in: get DOWN! off my damn countertops, cat.  so now she comes when she's called about 80% of the time, will wear her harness and leash but still gives me dagger eyes while it's happening, and gets down off the countertop about (let's be honest) 25% of the time.  progress!

3. she has gotten into the habit of waiting by the door if i am home later than 5pm.  surprise!  a ruby is waiting to greet you.  it's very sweet.

4. additionally, ruby can quasi tell time.  i mean, animals are good at this, i guess.  if i get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and it is before 4am, she will wait in the warm bed for me to return.  after 4?  she will come along, as if i might perhaps be confused and feed her breakfast while i'm up (her food bowl is in the bathroom).  silly ruby.

5. obligatory cute ruby picture.  she will wear the ribbon, but she doesn't have to like it.

this weekend was fun

on friday i went to dinner and movie with some friends from work - we saw dallas buyers club at an independent theater near my house that sells beer.  the beer was delish and the movie was really good.  hard to watch at points, but so well acted and a really compelling story line.

on saturday i lazed around, baking and cleaning and doing laundry and snuggling a cat and watching christmas movies, then went to yoga, then to a christmas party with some friends from work.  i made brown butter sea salt rice krispy treats from the smitten kitchen cookbook, and they were hands down the best rice krispy treats ever and were consumed quickly and with happiness by my friends at the party.  i heart smitten kitchen.

today ruby started her diet (i can't deny that she's got some extra belly fat…but she is unamused by the change from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup of food in the mornings), then i went to lunch and the symphony with some friends to see their holiday pops concert - my atlanta friends and i did this two years in a row when i lived there, and i was excited that some of my new houston friends wanted to go.  tonight is dinner and the homeland finale at josh and holly's house.

it was a weekend full of friends, none of whom i had six months ago, all of whom i enjoy spending time with and feel increasingly close to.  a great weekend!  houston feels more and more like home.

can it just be winter break already?  nope, one more week of work to go...

saturday morning in december

home alone on tv, doing laundry, baking cookies…the perfect saturday morning in my house!

a ruby a day

ruby's newest trick.  who needs opposable thumbs?

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.”
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

thanksgiving

my grandma's fruit cobbler recipe is DELISH.  blueberry cobbler is the best kind of cobbler (do not argue with me), and becky's boyfriend really likes cobbler, so we made some for thanksgiving alongside a pecan pie.  the dish was scraped clean, but thankfully not before i woke up from my nap (whew).  do yourself a favor and make this ASAP!

action shot on thanksgiving day: becky's making mashed potatoes (her specialty - secret ingredient: cream cheese) and i'm assembling the cobbler!  (thanks to laura for this great sisters picture.)

what i'm listening to right now

thank you again, shazam.

"human," by christina perri - i love her voice.

a ruby a day

ruby when she was 2 months old

ruby at 6 months old

once a comfy napping place, always a comfy napping place.

a photo a day

My cousin Kate, the ballerina! I saw her perform in The Nutcracker yesterday - she's a new corps member at the San Antonio ballet. I'd never seen The Nutcracker live before, but it was fantastic and she's such a beautiful dancer.

I also got a chance to have lunch and see the Alamo with my aunt and uncle before the performance.  (It was my first trip to San Antonio.)  Such a fun day!

The drive home was a little nuts…it was sprinkling rain and then the temperature dropped from 35 to 29 degrees…and there were no fewer than 6 accidents (caused by ice, i guess) that I passed, including two (one in both directions) that SHUT DOWN I-10 FOR MILES.  I called Becky to tell her that the zombie apocalypse was happening…it's bizarre to be on a highway with no traffic at all coming towards you.

What have we learned?  When it gets below freezing all hell breaks loose in Texas.

a kitten (who are we kidding - she's a cat) a day

Christmas kitty!

two great NPR stories to listen to

a cool concept, and beautifully done: lincoln's 272 words, a model of brevity for modern times

i cried when listening to this - it's incredible, but perhaps you shouldn't listen to it while on a walk in a public place (rookie mistake): moved by kennedy's death, the boston symphony played on

a photo a day

i'm sorry to every other sandwich i've ever eaten: this one is my lifetime favorite.  truffled egg salad on a pretzel bun from local foods - INCREDIBLE.  how did i live in houston for six months before going here?  and when can i go back?

what i'm listening to right now

"compass," by lady antebellum - another shazamed find!

a kitten a day

ruby explores.

 

november: 32

for the first time in a LONG time, i only read one book this month.  i have no excuses, other than it is hard to read when a certain kitty willingly snuggles like this.

this month i read:

interpreter of maladies, by jhumpa lahiri (this is a set of short stories, all of them great - particularly the last one in the bunch.  my only complaint is that almost all of her stories are about indian immigrants in boston…and there's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it really was EVERY story and i sort of got tired of that.  she's a fantastic writer, though, and i'd recommend you read one of her books if you aren't familiar with her!)

11/22/13

on friday i watched the live feed of the ceremony in dallas honoring the anniversary of JFK's assassination.  NPR told me that david mccullough's speech was not to be missed; they were spot on.  i thought it was incredibly moving.  JFK's words so powerful, so relevant, even 50 years later.

(i am VERY annoyed that i can't link to a video of the whole speech - i can't find one!  but this is the transcript, and this is part of mccullough's reading.  i also can't find a good link to the navy glee club singing the battle hymn of the republic, which was fantastic.  the internet is really failing me.)

cookbooks

when my grandma died last year, among her belongings that were passed down were a bunch of cookbooks.  i love to cook, as this blog can attest, and i have a lot of food memories of my grandma: being forced to eat this gross ground beef/potato/apple (is this memory even correct?) casserole as a child, making cookies with her in the kitchen on many occasions, being taught to make the fruit cake recipe for my dad.

both before and after she passed away i got some of her cookbooks.  today you get a tour of them.

cookbook 1: the new york times cookbook from 1961

for about the last 10 years of her life, my grandma kept trying to give away some of her belongings.  "look through the bookshelf and take some books!"  "would you have any use for…?"  her belongings had already been condensed to fit into a tiny apartment and were being reduced even more to fit into her room when she moved into the skilled nursing facility.  this is a book that i took during my last visit to see her before she died, when it was clear that, yes, there wasn't room for all her books anymore.

cookbook 2: staples' treasure of personal recipes from 1952

grandma grew up in staples, minnesota, and this is a cookbook that the women in her parents' church put together.  she gave me this book even earlier - maybe 7 or 8 years ago when i went to visit.  inside - and shown below - is mrs. kenneth kingsley's recipe for fruit cake, which must be made around the holidays.  grandma showed my sister and i how to make it - measuring crisco from a can into a measuring cup because that's what the recipe said - and then gave me the book.  (don't worry, when i remember to make this for dad, who loves it, we use margarine instead of crisco.)  i love that this recipe says to cook the fruit cake "in lower oven in 3 coffee cans."  below my grandma has translated this: 325 degrees.

cookbook 3: betty crocker's picture cookbook from 1950

this is a book i was incredibly touched to receive.  after my grandma died, we held a memorial service for her at my parents' farm.  we set up a little exhibition of her things in one of the rooms of our house, and family members took things as the weekend ended.  this cookbook was left behind, i thought accidentally, but my aunt monica wanted me to have it.  this was grandma's daily cookbook, and it is so well-loved...stained from years of cooking with it open on the counter...with handwritten notes...duct-taped back together...extra recipes shoved between pages.

ruby likes the illustrations.

the cookies page was definitely the most well-used.

cookbook 4: gold medal flour cookbook from 1910

this little paper cookbook was my great-grandmother's and is 103 years old.  i was baking this morning (peach muffins to bring to a meeting that i'm leading tomorrow), and thought this was a fitting picture.  i should be in an ad.  gold medal flour people: call me.

i think this cookbook must have been one you sent away for after buying so many bags of flour; it's personalized with my great-grandmother's name (lilah poore) on the cover.  this cookbook, too, is well-loved: stained and taped together and a little crumbly at the corners from its age.

it's one big advertisement for the flour, but has tons of recipes, too.  gold medal people: i will even stand in this pose for our TV ad if you want me to.

this thanksgiving we'll have my grandma's green bean casserole and blueberry cobbler on the table.  we'll keep eating the same things that have been eaten in our family for years and years…and years and years to come.

texas is sort of its own country, part 1

since i've moved to texas i've observed many things that i've never seen before.  thus i begin an ongoing series where i will chronicle the things i observe in texas that, pieced together, give you a picture of what life is like in my corner of this state.

1. armadillo road kill.  enough said.

2. spicy food.  i am a person who likes a little spice - i will order thai or indian food with medium spice, not mild.  but here the options to make your food spicier are everywhere, and people make use of them.  my coworkers put jalapeños on MANY things.  at the burrito place across the street from my apartment you have TWO jalapeño options: fresh or pickled.  two jalapeño options.  i will let that soak in.

3. people drive big trucks and big SUVs.  like, a noticeably larger number of people than anywhere else i've lived.

4. breakfast burritos everywhere.  whole restaurants devoted to breakfast burritos.  my school serves breakfast, and breakfast burritos are an option every day.

5. it is hot here.  until a cold front came through (highs this week: in the 50s - woo!), it was still getting into the 80s a couple times a week.  yes, in november.  the thing is: i kind of don't mind.  i might be getting used to it.

a kitten a day

Someone "helping" me with my knitting...

And yes, I am aware that I knit and I have a cat, both arguably old lady things. If I promise not to knit my cat anything, do I retain my young person status?  And by "young person," I obviously mean 31 year old.

a kitten a day

ruby is six months old today!  (or, approximately six months old…i'm going by the birth date the SPCA gave me, which perhaps they made up.)

two month old, newly adopted ruby:

six month old ruby:

someone gained some weight.  and a big old spot in my heart.

songs i've shazamed recently

"let her go," by passenger (i love this guy's voice):



"unconditionally," by katy perry (try NOT to belt this out when you hear it in the car):

“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
--Roald Dahl

a kitten a day

Someone is pretty pleased that I came back from my 36 hour trip to Fort Worth.

i'm not going to lie: i was a little nervous about my first birthday in a new city.  would new friends want to take the time to celebrate with me?  i debated not planning a dinner because i worried everyone would say no and then i would be REALLY SAD.

and then i woke up today and it was fall - 50 degrees when i went to my car, high of 70 - the perfect fall day.  one of my coworkers found my sister's email address online (she knew where becky worked) and asked her what my favorite dessert is, then made cheesecake swirl brownies for me.  six people from work joined me for happy hour drinks.  the three non-work friends that i texted about dinner all could come, and ALL brought me cards or little presents while we ate some delish indian food.  i talked to my family.  i got texts and facebook posts from so many people.  i came home to a sweet purring cat.

i choke up thinking about the love in my life because of my friends and family spread far and wide.  i hope each of you know how much you mean to me.


additionally: sing it, joni.  happy birthday to you, too!


"love is touching souls.  surely you touched mine."

two awesome things to distract you at work today

kurt vonnegut's advice to high school students

sesame street parodies homeland

a photo a day

more pictures from our time in DC for my cousin sara's wedding!

the washington monument is undergoing restoration, but that did not stop us from taking a mini group picture in front of it.

sisters at the wedding!

family picture before the wedding - loving the fall colors in the background!  it was a gorgeous weekend in DC and it was so fun to spend time with all 28 members of my dad's side of the family who made the trip - everyone was there!

An introvert's worst nightmare? I was just the only person in a yoga class. The. Only. Person. This means the instructor's entire attention was focused on me the whole time. Eeeeeek. 

My yoga studio has added a second location half a mile from where I work - awesome! Buuuut apparently the first week since it opened has been very slow. So I was the only person in this class, but the instructor was great, and I got a lot of personalized attention - in what turned out to be a good way. However, when you are the only person in a class your instructor knows when you can hold a pose longer. Damn it. I will be sore tomorrow. 

Bonus: he told me I have "one of the nicest chairs poses I've seen in a while."  People, I will take any compliments you would like to aim my direction. 

Now: a muggy 80 degree commute home. 

a photo a day

halloween: the deans were the seven dwarfs!  at our school the pre-K and kindergarten kids go on a parade around school in their costumes.  we found a mini snow white to complete our look!!

a photo a day

from my cousin sara's wedding on friday night - my dad and uncle loved on baby molly for much of the night while molly's parents danced.  this may have been from the portion of the night where my dad covered one of molly's ears because he decided the music was too loud for her.  love it!

me: there is nothing my dad and uncle matt love more than a baby to hang out with.

my cousin laura: they are also eating cake!

me: okay, this could not be more perfect.

october: 30 & 31

this month i read these two books at the same time - one night, a couple chapters of one…the next night, a couple chapters of the other.  somehow it worked out like that…maybe because some nights the idea of reading columbine was too sad, while other nights i pored over it and didn't mind that i occasionally got teary-eyed.

all creatures great and small, by james herriot (though my parents own all of james herriot's books [this is what happens when you grow up on a farm], i had only read occasional stories, and it was so fun to pick up this book from the library and read it front to back.  he is an amazing storyteller, and having miss ruby around made me appreciate some of these stories more than i might have otherwise.  sprinkled throughout the book is the story of meeting his wife, which was so sweet and so funny.  i had thought of herriot as a writer of animal stories, but this book is really a memoir of his first years of being a vet - much more than a collection of stories.  i would highly recommend this book!  short chapters, too - perfect reading while you're traveling.)

columbine, by dave cullen (i cannot recommend this book highly enough…i found it FASCINATING.  it's the story of the shooting at columbine high school, and it's not the story you remember from watching the news.  the story i remember: two misfit boys who played first-person violent video games and wore black trench coats all the time decided to kill the popular kids at their high school.  that's what the media reported…and most of that is not true.  the reality is a lot more complex.  cullen also tells the story of how the police and FBI responded, and they made some crucial mistakes; post-columbine, "active shooter" protocols have been developed in response to the critique that the police didn't move in fast enough, costing some people their lives.  fact: the shooters killed themselves 20 minutes after entering the school.  the police didn't enter for 4 more hours. woah.  read this book.)

a kitten a day

I see that you're packing for a weekend away. Can I come? There's room!

people, you are not guessing about my halloween costume.  this is a guessing game!  get on it.

in other news…

it is almost (well, not really, but let's pretend) the weekend and that means it is almost time for my cousin sara's wedding in DC!  huzzah!  family and visiting monuments and good food and celebration and lots and lots of hugs and brunch with some DC friends before i leave.  i can't wait!  work is going well - i'm not behind on anything at the moment, and the mid semester meetings i'm having with my students about their grades are going well (i love talking to them!) - but nothing beats a weekend away with family/friends.  and there will be four baby girls born this year who will be there who i can't wait to meet!  so let us just say that i am excited.

come on weekend.  get here.

Halloween

Guess what I'm dressing up as for Halloween...hint: I am part of a group with work colleagues. (Yay - my new work colleagues like to dress up for Halloween just like my old work colleagues did!)

I am incredibly proud (perhaps embarrassingly so) of this beard that I made. Ruby is terrified of the beard and ran away from me while I wore it. It was pretty hilarious. Try not to laugh at the terror in her eyes in this photo. 

new city

in the interest of full disclosure, on friday i had my first "i am sad and wish i had close friends who lived in houston" moment.  not loneliness, but a dull ache and a desire to spend the night laughing and talking with people who know me well, who i don't have to explain myself to or be "on" for.  i've been in houston for five months now, and this day was sure to come eventually.  it's not that i don't have people to hang out with - i spent friday night at our high school football game, sitting with a dozen colleagues, and last night at a fundraiser/social at the home of another new friend...i have brunch plans today and plans to watch homeland with friends tonight.  this would be called an active social life by anyone's standards, i'm sure, and i'm so happy to be making connections and building friendships.  but the ease of spending time with close friends is something i'm missing.  so: sigh.  that's the update from the homefront.

in other news, ruby says good morning.  she is quite the snuggly kitty between the hours of 7 and 9am.

Ruby's favorite toy is called Da Bird, and it was sent to her by two cats in Atlanta who want to be her friends. It is a feather contraption that gets attached to a string which is attached to a plastic stick. I wave around the plastic stick and this feather thing goes through the air in a way that is irresistible to Ruby. It's her daily workout. (It can also be used to distract her when I want to eat dinner without her help.)

Buuuuut I have to buy replacement birdies because a certain cute cat plays with them so hard that they fall apart. Birdie lifespan: 3 weeks. I just got some replacements, so I can show you a picture of a birdie before Ruby gets her teeth on it...and then what the aftermath looks like.

A fresh birdie is like ten times as fun as a well-used birdie.  I know you aren't surprised.

If you have a kitty, you need to buy her a birdie to play with!

this is easily the hardest i've laughed at an internet video in a long time, mostly because I AM EXACTLY LIKE THIS IN HAUNTED HOUSES.

ellen makes easily scared staffers visit a haunted house

this is VERY worth your time.

what i'm listening to right now

a children's choir covering "shake it out," by florence and the machine:



i can't remember who showed this to me for the first time, but i love it more every time i listen to it!

a kitten a day

you're putting clean clothes away?  can i help??

WHERE DOES THIS GO?!?

life of a cat lady

i called the boarding place to make a reservation for ruby to stay there next weekend (while i'm in DC for my cousin sara's wedding - yay!), and the lady asked me "does ruby prefer a higher or a lower crate?"  (the crates/cages are stacked two high.)

um, i have no idea?  let me go home and ask my cat which kind of crate she prefers?!?

i can totally picture other cat ladies knowing which their cat desires, but so far ruby hasn't told me.

penne with eggplant puree

last week i made smitten kitchen / giada delaurentis's rigatoni with eggplant puree (but with penne because penne is indisputably the best shape of pasta).  um, it was SO GOOD.  really flavorful, easy to make, and different from my usual "mix pasta with a bunch of steamed vegetables and cheese."  YUM.  do yourself a favor and make it soon.

what i'm listening to right now

sara bareilles covering "goodbye yellow brick road":



i love her voice!

ma'am, your burger has been paid for

i love stuff like this.

a photo from yesterday

my first texas high school football game...friday night under the lights!  it was fun until it started pouring down rain in the middle of the fourth quarter.  then it was decidedly unfun.

but we won - hooray!

a kitten a day

this is ruby, about an hour after i picked her up from the boarding place on tuesday.  i think she was happy to see me.


i texted this video to becky and she replied, "did you drug that cat?  i do not recall her being so docile."

a screenshot a day

finally, the day has arrived!  houston weather is exactly what i want it to be!

gingersnaps

last week i made some chocolate chip cookies (from the toll house recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag) and some gingersnaps from a smitten kitchen recipe.  i brought a dozen of each to school with me, but the real reason i made them was to bring two dozen of each to boston with me to contribute to the food for the weekend.  there were seven of us staying in one house, and it feels good to bring something to add to the snack food pile.  and i love nothing better than a compliment on my baking!  my coworkers and students loved the cookies, as did my boston friends.  success!  the gingersnaps recipe i linked to above is great - the cookies are soft but spicy, and eric pointed out that they would make a great pie crust, too.  so...try them!  i hear it's fall in some parts of the country.

"describe the last time you were moved to tears by something beautiful."

i am reading all creatures great and small, by james herriot, and his descriptions of animals and the love between human and animal has made me cry more than once.  he seems to be surrounded by tough old farmers who love on their animals quietly, and tough people being secretly gentle has always been something that gets me.  herriot is an amazing writer, and he writes these stories simply and tenderly.  my parents have an amazing vet, and i imagine james herriot of the 1930s and 40s as the dr. miller of my childhood.

i am back from a very fun weekend in boston with some good friends and an 11 month old.  guess what?  playing with an 11 month old will make you want your own 11 month old.  little nora took several steps on her own this weekend, including a few in a row towards me as i lured her with a cracker.  11 month olds, it turns out, like food a lot...especially when someone else is holding it.  i wish every weekend could be spent with this great group of people, but we will have to settle for what we can get - one fantastic weekend a year.

i'm back in houston, where the weather is still in the 80s, but promises me some 70s starting tomorrow. miss ruby has been picked up from the catnip inn and is currently snoozing on the table next to me.  an 11 month old is pretty awesome, but a kitten named ruby is much more manageable and pretty awesome herself.

i've been neglecting the blog recently, so i hope to be better about that going forward.  i love blogging, but it's easy to allot that time to other things.  i resolve to keep on trying to document my goings on here!

a photo a day

My littlest friend loves the chocolate chip cookies I made!

a photo a day

Ruby and her new friends :)