Fredericksburg, Texas?

I'm having the hardest time getting anything done today. It probably mostly has to do with the rain and cold weather, but I have a new excuse this afternoon. My husband called with the fantastic idea of going to Fredericksburg, Texas for our anniversary this spring.

Fredericksburg was started by German immigrants in the 1840s. We hear about it often in October when they have their Octoberfest. We have also been drooling over catalogs from a giant flower farm in Fredericksburg. (By "we", I mean myself and my mother, not so much my husband. He's ok with me planting some flowers, but not really up to the drooling level!) I also want to find out from the lavender growers if the flowers really keep away scorpions -- because if they do, lavender will feature heavily in my flowerbeds, along with anything that keeps away rattlesnakes.)

So, we've had a pretty unproductive day here in West Texas. The prairie dog has been sleeping in his cage for the last 5 hours and I've been looking up Fredericksburg B&Bs. Maybe it'll snow tomorrow and I'll get more work done!

Texas Style Popcorn

I'm learning many new things living in Texas. Like how popcorn should be prepared:

Who knew? I didn't even know hot sauce came in a liter bottle!

Check out more WW at: Wordless Wednesday.

Teaser Tuesday - Nibble and Kuhn by David Schmahmann

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today from Nibble & Kuhn, by David Schmahmann:

We danced together at Nibble's Christmas party. Afterwards Lioce remarked that to all but the blind we had danced one dance too many and one inch too close.

"Anyone can see you've been sleeping together," he said.

"I've told you a dozen times we're not," I insisted.

The Art of Meaningful Living by Christopher Brown

The Art of Meaningful Living is a beautiful coffee-table book that combines the modern art of John Palmer with discussions of what makes a meaningful life by psychotherapist Christopher Brown.

This book is only 113 pages long, but it's not a quick read. This is much more of a nibble and ponder style book. It's also perfect for a January read (since I usually do lots of self-evaluation at the beginning of a new calendar year).

Christopher has designed this book to challenge his readers to move beyond trying to make it through the day and into a life where we pursue our passions and "act in ways that [we] value." He walks readers step-by-step through an analysis of how we are living our current life, what mental attitudes we may need to change, and how we define our passions and success. It's like a self-help book based on Christopher's training and experience in the field.

Interspersed in these challenging topics are 75 paintings by John that were inspired by the text. Some of these paintings are more abstract than I would normally choose, but I love his color combinations and am still thinking about the interplay between the designs and Christopher's challenges. My favorite of John's paintings in this books is the one he's titled as "A meaningful life along with traumatic experiences." The combination of the intense colors with the dark sections remind me of a sunset and underscores Christopher's discussions of how a meaningful life is not devoid of suffering or problems, but we can choose how to respond to these challenges.

Bottom Line: This book will be sitting on my coffee table for a long time while I think about Christopher's lessons and admire John's art.

(Thank you to Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists for my review copy of this book.)

Navigating the Land of IF by Melissa Ford

For someone who usually tries to stick to fiction, I've been reading lots of non-fiction lately. I first met Melissa Ford at the 2009 BlogHer conference in Chicago. Mel was one of the bloggers asked to read a post at the conference's keynote speech.

I loved her sarcastic sense of humor! Mel writes an infertility blog called Stirrup Queens. I don't usually think of humor in connection with such a serious subject, but Mel managed to make us all laugh at her experiences, while expanding our sensitivity to the issues she was discussing.

She does the same thing in her book, Navigating the Land of IF (Understanding Infertility and Exploring Your Options). The book is laid out like a travel guide. Mel takes on the role of the tour guide for readers who have somehow landed on an island they never wanted to see -- The Land of If. She uses this same analogy to break down several of the different groups that can be found in this Land (Primary vs. Secondary Infertility, Biological vs. Situational Infertility, Infertility vs. Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, Female-Factor vs. Male-Factor Infertility, Unexplained Infertility, and Age-Related Infertility). From there, she discusses decisions that "residents" of the Land need to make (including whether or not to tell their friends and families), pregnancy loss, treatments, adoption options, third-party reproduction and living child-free after infertility.

Throughout all of these difficult subjects, Mel brings her own experiences, experiences of others collected through her online community, and medical information verified by doctors. With all of the medical information available from professionals and the all-knowing Internet, probably the most helpful part of this book is the first-person advice from people dealing with infertility. How do you deal with "helpful" advice from people you don't really know? Do you need to go to baby showers for others while grappling with these issues? What injections hurt less when given quickly versus slowly?

Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend this book as an excellent one for anyone dealing with infertility or with close family or friends dealing with infertility. Hopefully some humor from a writer who has been in the trenches can make you smile (even if it's only imagining what you'd like to say to Aunt Jane and her e-mail advice). Underneath the humor, the first person advice and resources are priceless!

Prairie Dog Cabinet

What? You don't have a prairie dog hiding under your bathroom cabinet? You can share mine. (I can't decide if my favorite part is his little paw reaching out or how startled he looks when he steps on the lid to his ball.)

Check out the latest progress on my tree skirt here: TexasRed Quilts. Click here for more Wordless Wednesday!

Teaser Tuesday -- Muse and Reverie by Charles de Lint

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today from Muse and Reverie, by Charles de Lint (one of my top five favorite authors of all time):

One moment there's this beautiful dark-haired woman standing there, then she vanishes and there's only the heap of her clothes left lying on the carpet. I'm still staring slack-jawed when the clothing moves and a sleek black cat wriggles out from under the overalls and darts into the room where Luisa said her cat was.

Muse and Reverie is a collection of short stories that are all set in (or related to) the made-up Newford town where Charles has set many of his books. Although each story is a stand-alone, they also let people who are familiar with his other books get a quick peek at what other favorite characters (like Jilly Coppercorn) are up to.

Spring Has Sprung?

Remember how I was worried about my front yard garden coming up during the middle of winter? Even though we've had several snows, they haven't (all) died. This paperwhite has even decided it's ready for spring.

Hope everyone in the US is enjoying Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and finding ways to engage in more community service.

DC in Texas -- Five Guys!

I had a day at the doctors yesterday, which is in another town. One of the benefits of driving to a new place (that happens to be a college town) -- new restaurants! Or, in this case, old favorites!

Five Guys is one of my favorite burger joints that started in the DC metro area. It is now spreading across the country & there are two locations in Lubbock, Texas. Here's the one we got to enjoy yesterday!

I will be walking about 10 miles this morning to work off those awesome cajun fries, but totally worth it! (Not a paid advertisement, just another addiction I needed to share with y'all.)

Bread Results

Monday I baked bread for the first time from a recipe I found in Mother Earth News. I told you I'd report back on how the experiment went and I am pleased to report: Success!

Looked like bread from the outside...


and the inside...


and the husband called it "a home run"! Doesn't get much better than that folks!

If You Give a Prairie Dog a Cookie...

If you give a prairie dog an oatmeal cookie...

...then, next, he'll expect a belly rub:


Spoiled Rotten! Click here for more Wordless Wednesday!

How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill

About this time last year I was reading Michael Gates Gill's first book, How Starbucks Saved My Life, which was sent to me by a friend. This January, I have the honor of participating in a TLC online tour for his follow up, How to Save Your Own Life.

Michael spends the introduction to this book summarizing his journey from high-powered advertising executive to Starbucks barista, the process he talked about in detail in his first book. The rest of How to Save breaks down Michael's experience into lessons applicable to his readers.

None of the lessons in How to Save are revolutionary, but this book does provide reminders of some of the values we often overlook in the busyness of our daily lives. The 15 chapters take general statements, such as "Listen to Others who Have Suffered and Survived," and show how they relate to Michael's story, as well as the life stories of other people he has met.

In general, I think this book is a great motivator to inspire readers to look at their own lives based on internal measures of happiness and success, rather than one-size-fits-all external measurements. This is a perfect book for January when so many people are making resolutions and re-evaluating where their lives are going. I'm passing on my copy to the friend who loaned me Michael's first book!

Check the TLC website for other participants in the book tour and their opinions on this book!

New Year's Resolution Bread

Last year I had one New Year's Resolution. I told everyone I met, to help me be accountable and stay on track. I made it about 7 months (give or take a weekend). I blame this on Diet Coke being the nectar of the gods that has magnetic, addictive powers. No one should really try to give it up for an entire year.

This year, I'm going with the opposite strategy. I have New Year's Resolutions in a bunch of areas of my life and I'm not telling you about any of them until I have successfully completed (or taken serious steps towards) them. Ta da! You will only hear of my successes and I'll have plausible deniability for all other resolutions.

My first (partial) success for 2010 is taking actual steps toward baking bread. I saw the recipe for 5-minute-a-day bread in the Mother Earth News magazine. Last night, I made the giant bowl of dough with whole wheat flour:

This morning, I've shaped the loaf and am waiting another hour or so before putting it in the oven and seeing what comes out.

So far, it's been a really easy process. Of course, I had a great kitchen helper this morning (last night's helper was my husband, who's much less likely to roll over my foot & more likely to actually be able to reach the counter):


Hopefully, I'll post about how great the final product was soon. In the meantime, we're reveling in the success of our first canning project -- jalapeno jelly! (Doesn't get more Texas than that, y'all.)

Practice Week

We traveled to visit my husband's family the week before Christmas, then hosted my family for a second Christmas over New Year's week. Since then, I've been trying to get used to being back on a semi-normal schedule. I've made coffee every day this week (I know -- lofty goal, huh). I've also made it to the gym to walk every morning.

This is not a normal week, though. On a normal week, I do not have bins full of Christmas decorations that need to find new homes. Nor do I usually have a de-decorated, but still lit tree in my living room during normal weeks, staring at me like it's wondering when I'll find time to take it apart. Of course, a normal week also doesn't have a new Wii console begging me to perfect my ravin' rabbid skills, so I guess it's a fair trade-off.

All that is the long way to say, next week, I'll be a much better blogger. Because, of course, next week will be a "real" week, not a practice week like this one :) In fact, I'll be part of a book tour for How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill (author of How Starbucks Saved My Life) next week! Very excited about that!

So, I'll continue practicing remembering how to do blog posts (and dishes, and laundry, and paid work, etc.) this week and be back a full strength next week. Hope all your starts to 2010 are going as well!

Happy New Year Prairie Dog

Still trying to get caught up with the New Year over here. Maybe the best way to start is with some picture updates of the prairie dog's holiday season.

He wore himself out checking out the houses we traveled to in December:

He even got his own Christmas presents (a book about prairie dogs and art tributes):


Now, like most of us, he's wondering what comes next:

You can check out more WW pics here: Wordless Wednesday.