Heck yeah.

An evening with Alton Brown.

In a word: Fabulous

What a Weekend!

This has been one of those weekends you don't usually have when you leave college... We were up till 2am Friday and Saturday, catching cat naps, non stop parties, sightseeing, and company that has left me completely unable to give a crap about returning to my workaday life this morning.

Friday night we had our Pirates of the Caribbean party. We had 2 last minute cancellations, sadly, but it was a blast nonetheless. We all dressed up as pirates, and Joe and I sponsored a little treasure hunt. We also had a pinata pirate ship which everyone took a crack at. As we were outside with that, people driving by were yelling "AHOY MATEY!" and "AARGH!" out their car windows as they drove past.

We went to the theater in costume and people yelled more as we got there... I was surprised, only one person made a joke about what movie we were going to see, and several expressed envy at not a) dressing up themselves or b) knowing us so they could have been invited.

I will post pictures when they get sent around. Per usual, I didn't have time to take any. I was busy cooking!!! Our menu was Caribbean jerk chicken, rice, Caribbean jerk roasted veggies, and steamed shrimp.

The movie itself was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. It was a good bit more serious than the first one, but there were lighter moments, and it was flat out action-packed. I was disappointed with the ending, which was little more than the set up for #3, which will be out next year. But it's something to look forward to.

Saturday morning we were up early and did a MyPC event to Montpelier, James Madison's home, which is a little less than an hour away from here. The home was left to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, or some such thing, by the Dupont Family, and is in full restoration back to the way it was when the Madisons lived there. It was a riveting little tour, since once it's complete, no one will ever see the bare bones of the structure and get that look at it again (for instance, the door we used to enter the house is going to be converted back into a window!). I didn't know much about James Madison or about the house, so it was a really interesting day.

When we got back home, we tried the new Greek restaurant in town that everyone's been raving about. It really was quite fantastic. Melissa left, and I fell asleep and took a 3 hour nap.

Joe had come back with us Friday night, and we had planned to go see the Pirates again, but the General vetoed that idea, and we decided to go over to Central Park to see if the arcade over there had Skeeball. It did, but it also had a $22 cover and so we decided to check out Chuckie Cheese instead, and for the price of the other place's cover, we were able to play Skeeball for hours. We played a lot of other games as well, and have started our collection of tickets to turn in for a prize eventually.

After that, we went to McDonald's for Pirates of the Caribbean happy meals (I haven't had a Happy Meal in ages, but I must say, they don't make a bad little meal), moved all the bunnies up to the bunny room and then drove Joe back to Alexandria, as I had forgotten Michael had invited company over to lunch on Sunday.

We got home around 2:30 and I cleaned up a bit, as I wasn't too tired due to my nap. Yesterday, I got up, did the grocery shopping, cleaned up the house, and we had Ken over for the better part of the day. He was such a great guy--I'm glad Michael works with him. He asked me what he could bring, and I couldn't think of anything, so I told him to bring something purple. He brought me a purple light up yo yo. It is the greatest present... I'm loving playing with it.

I finished off the evening with the final installment of my guilty pleasure, My Fair Brady... The wedding special premiered last night, and I was impressed at the amount of drama they still managed to pack into such a happy time. Hopefully they'll live a long and happy married life, we'll see :)

So now I must conclude here, lock Rambo back in his cage and head to work. Tonight is the big night--I'm meeting Alton Brown from the Food Network, who is giving a presentation at the Smithsonian. I'm so excited!!!! Hopefully he'll pose for pictures and I'll have something to post.

Till next time...

Barry Blogged

I think we're becoming Dave Barry groupies. He's been to DC three times in the past two years, and we haven't missed an appearance.

Plus, I regularly read his blog and leave comments if I feel like it--I'm not much of a "joiner" on these things.

At any rate, I've been Barry blogged twice in the past week, and that probably means it's official... I'm definitely beyond your average reader, at any rate.

Not only did he post a link that I sent him last week, but this week, he posted my picture, as some other Barry Bloggers and I met last night at his latest book signing and took a group picture with him.

Check it out:

http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/

Yeah, OK, I'm all about myself today.

I SURVIVED!

Client situation has been diffused.

That is all :)

One of those Days

I had one of those days last Friday, and it's been haunting me ever since... Now, granted, EVERYONE (including my boss) told me not to worry about it, it was nothing I should get upset about, and I could just get on with my life.

To me, however, it was the meteorological event of the century. I checked my voice mail all weekend, and tomorrow is D-Day, the day I come face to face with this client who I hope I'm going to be able to help and who I hope to have a good rapport with, in spite of what was a gawd-awful beginning. All I can do at the moment is remember the sound of her screaming and crying at me--a sound that really continues to get my dander up.

Why is it so easy to dwell on this stuff? When something amazing happens, I'm happy for a day or two, and then I move on. But this happened darn near a week ago, and here I am still sweating it.

A couple of years ago, my dad and his then-girlfriend Barb went and took a trip across country. It was the adventure my father was always dreaming of taking, and Barb has a good eye for travelling cheap, so off they went.

When they were coming back after hitting California, they went to Colorado and started climbing a big peak in the Rockies.

To hear my dad tell it, he knew he was running low on gas, but didn't want to waste time seeing the amazing panorama, so up they went, and, you guessed it, the "low fuel" indicator came on.

When they got up there, they asked about gas, and were told they'd have to go back down the mountain when they were done and get it. Dad was told not to worry, just put the car in neutral and glide down the hill.

To hear my dad tell the story, it was the greatest adventure of the whole entire trip. He described the scenery, the people, the car, and gliding quietly down a big mountain road...

All Barb talked about was how pissed off she was that he put them through "that"...

I want to be more like my dad in that regard. I've made great strides in finding the positive and letting most people's issues glide off my back (particularly after reading The Four Agreements chapter on not taking anything personally). But when I can't, man can't I!!!

So my struggle for the week is getting through about 4 hours tomorrow morning and then moving forward. I know once it's over, I'll wonder what I ever got so worked up about.

Kris Radish Rocks!

The Lit Chicks had another evening with Kris Radish last night, and it was absolutely spectacular. She talked to us for the better part of 2 hours, and answered everyone's questions. This time, we read Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral, which was a complete tearjerker, if I hadn't mentioned it already. I really did prefer The Elegant Gathering of White Snows more than I did Annie Freeman, but still in all, I thoroughly loved it and the discussion more than made up for what the book may have lacked.

It's funny, when the club meets in these small groups (there were only 5 of us), the small groups draw closer and closer together and we really get to know each other so well and I really, really love that. The club is becoming everything I envisioned when I started it.

I was looking at jobs to apply for on line the other night, and found a great one at the library at UMW, for which I was eminently qualified. The hours were 3-11, however, and my first thought was, "Not gonna happen, it'd mess up my Lit Chicks night."

So I guess even my job search will be hampered by these girls... But there are far, far worse things, and they're 100% worth it.

Please Mom, Don't Make Me!

I don't wanna go to work tomorrow!

I am absolutely dreading it. It's gotten to the point that I can't stand the thought of going in to deal with my:

A) Mostly insane, needy, neurotic, sick, unhappy, incapacitated clients

B) The ineffective muckety-mucks

C) Insane, needy, neurotic, unhappy co-workers.

We are looking into refinancing our house and then hopefully I can quit.

The thought of going in this week, when I look at what's on my plate, is enough to make me want to hang my head down and cry. I spent no time at home this weekend, and got about 1/10th of what I wanted to do actually accomplished. This week is also the week of our Pirates of the Caribbean party, another Dave Barry book signing, I have to work late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, book club tomorrow, and Charlottesville on Friday.

All this and trying to figure out my future as well?? YIKES!!!

I'm not sure what the future holds, but one thing I'm sure of: It cannot continue to hold my current position with my current employer beyond the next 4-6 months. I truly would lose my mind.

Fortunately, everything on the home front is great. I feel like I'm back on track with my personal life and making progress on meeting people in Fredericksburg as well. I'm enjoying the house, enjoying the neighbors, enjoying my time with my husband, and time with friends as well. I'm learning to set limits that I can live with in terms of my time and travel. I'm finally settling in :)

Zzzzzzzz

We are back from our big trip to NY and RI. We spent 10 days visiting my dad and Michael's family, and it worked out quite nicely. We were able to split the week evenly and not overstay our welcome in either location.

After driving back Sunday, I immediately had to go to the Fairfax office on Monday. And then was book club Monday night. I got to bed at 1:30am. Last night, I couldn't sleep.

I am so totally wiped out right now, I want to cry. And of course, there's so much to do now at home, I don't know where to start.

But a nap sounds like a great place!

More Superman Launch Party Photos

My Latest Cakes

I have been using my friends and coworkers as guinea pigs lately, as I look at getting into the cake decorating arena.

These range from the fairly easy (the star cake with fruit was for a work party) to the fairly challenging (the cake depicting Superman himself)...

The only thing really is that my hand absolutely kills after a session of piping out ten thousand stars and shells. But the results speak for themselves :) And I'm starting to get requests for cakes, which is cool.

Pictures from Last Night's Superman Returns Party

Superman Returns!

Last night was the evening of our great "Superman Returns" bash... Joe and I had been discussing and planning this shindig for months, and I have to say, it was one of the more fun parties I've thrown (or is it co-thrown? Is that even a word!?)

Anyway.

Joe made these wonderful danglies for the ceiling made out of various sizes of Superman's shield, and he hung movie posters and promotional newspapers everywhere. We decided not to cook ourselves, and instead thought about what a big midwestern dinner would look like. We zeroed in on a fried chicken feast and let the Colonel do the cookin'. We got a good bucket of chicken and some biscuits and cole slaw, and then got our own potato salad, garden salad, and pasta salad.

I made 2 Superman cakes--one of Superman himself and the other of just the shield against a yellow background. Joe perfected his recipe for "Rice Kryptonite"--rice krispy treats topped with PopRocks. We also got 2 bags of M&Ms and sorted through and put all the red, blue, and yellow ones in one bowl, and all the greens in another. The browns and oranges will be saved for our next event.

As a surprise for Joe, I organized everyone into a costume/dress up theme. It was so fun to see what everyone came up with. Heather was probably the most creative, coming as "Kryptonite" in a green suit with green glow bracelets. Trent looked fantastic in a suit as Lex Luthor, Judy made her own press badge as Lois Lane, we lent Alfie a camera to do his best Jimmy Olson, Nancy tarted herself up as Kitty Kowalski, Tim yelled at Joe all night as Perry White (and sounded sufficiently authoritative I might add!), and Steve was a very dashing Richard White in his best urbanwear. My own modest contribution was to put on some overalls and let Judy powder my hair white so I could be Ma Kent. Joe of course was Clark Kent/Superman, and put on a Superman T-shirt under his best work clothes and tie. He wandered around all night with the tie askew and shirt somewhat unbuttoned, his supershield poking out. After the movie, he pulled off the work shirt to reveal his cape.

We played a Superman trivia game, and took about 600 pictures of everyone, sadly not on my camera, but when I get the files, I will upload them for all to see! the big trivia winner was Heather, followed by Steve, followed by Judy.

Around 8:45, we called the theater and found out there were still tickets left so we could have the folks who hadn't managed to buy tickets get some. We caravaned out, only to lose Heather's car and Alfie's car, and then Trent called to say we were going the wrong way and we should follow him. Tim thus directed him to the wrong movie theater, and we all got lost and turned around. We arrived at 9:30, after the theater said not to come after that, and still got tickets. Joe reserved a whole row for us and all 9 of us were able to sit together, which was great.

The movie... Ahhh, the movie...

Well, I went in with extremely low expectations, I must confess. I didn't think I would enjoy it, as a) I had mixed emotions about a Superman other than Christopher Reeve; b) I can't stand Kevin Spacey; and c) I didn't know a thing about the plot--Joe had filled me full of pictures and effects news, but not much on plot.

I don't think I'll be giving away anything, but this COULD be considered a spoiler, I suppose, if you know absolutely nothing about the movie. I'm going to reveal the BASIC plot.

So here goes...

The basic story line is that Superman has disappeared for 5 years to figure out where he's from (Krypton) and learn what he can about his pre-Earth past. In that time, Lois Lane has moved on and is in a serious long term relationship with Perry White's nephew, Richard, and she has given birth to a son, Jason. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, is doing his level best to enact a new scheme, in part aided by Kryptonian technology, which will allow him to rule the entire world via geographic restructuring.

Apparently the guy who directed this one intends for it to be inserted in after the second Christopher Reeve movie. He was disappointed with/disgusted by the third and fourth offerings in the series and decided to create his own.

The movie runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, so you'd better be prepared to sit there a while, but honestly, no one felt like they had been there that long. The movie moves along at a real good clip and has only a couple of slow moments.

I would have to say that on a scale of 1-10, this movie, for me, was a 10. I expected boredom, and instead, at the end, I was cheering and clapping with everyone else at the cinema. I truly enjoyed it, and loathe though I may be to admit it, I am going to say that a) I will probably see it again and b) I am looking forward to the next one in 2 years. You can definitely find worse ways to kill an afternoon.

Oh, and I thought Kevin Spacey was not half bad.

So, there you have it. Superman has returned, and I am 100% into it again, as I was as a kid. I'll look forward to hearing other people's opinions as they see it!

Bookish Meme (Borrowed from Lesley & High and Hidden Place)

Reading Memories

20 Years Ago: (I was 10) I was in the 5th grade/6th grade this year, the year we started switching classrooms between periods and sharing desks with the other section of the class. It was the year I discovered Barthe DeClements and I was avidly working my way through all those books like Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade and How Do You Lose Those Ninth Grade Blues? I was sharing a desk with Danny R. from the other section, and inadvertantly left the Ninth Grade Blues in the desk. When we switched classes, he came up to me and said, "So tell me, Kate, how did you lose those ninth grade blues?!" Yeah, a real pithy guy.


10 Years Ago: (age 20) My junior year of college. I remember very distinctly I was taking my required English literature class with a Professor Preilieu (can't remember the exact spelling). Joe had her the semester before me, and recommended I take her class because she wore red cowboy boots and huge hoop earrings--completely out of sync with most of our NYC professors. She offered extra points to anyone in the class who would read Voltaire's Candide in French instead of English, and I took her up on that offer. Later, during the final exam, I used The Awakening by Kate Chopin to answer an essay question on the test, even though we had not read it in class. She was mightly impressed. I got an A for the semester.

5 Years Ago: (age 25) I went through a bit of a reading drought back then. I was living in Boston, had moved in with Michael and we had been living together for a bit, and were planning our wedding. I fell out of favor with the book, which had been heretofore one of my favorite things to enjoy. I was into television more than anything. Probably the most profound reading I did was People magazine.

Last Year: (age 29) Heavily into reading, at times I was completing 3 and 4 books a week. What stands out most notably was that it was the first time I'd been reading for a book club, and it was my book club's first year. I was in two separate book clubs at that time and really struggling to sit through the other one, as I didn't find the discussions to be particularly deep. What broke me on that one, and caused me to quit, was a particularly rotten discussion of Joanne Harris's Five Quarters of the Orange, which to this day I maintain could be a fantastic book club read, but really wasn't done justice by that group. I was also particularly cheesed at the poor reception given to my 3 book choices for that group last year, The Jane Austen Book Club (while I didn't even like it all that well, I do think it deserved more discussion than criticism); One Thousand White Women (which I loved and was gravely disappointed at its reception); and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank (a great historical novel, which I also greatly enjoyed, but apparently was the only one to do so).

This Month: (age 30) This month I've been Lit Chicks book-less, as I read the book a while ago. I am working my way through Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. Michael and I have joined a "Should Have Read It [aka SHRIT]" book club and we are reading Animal Farm, which both of us have already read, but need a refresher on. My Fredericksburg.com book club is reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and I started reading that today. Also today, Michael and I finished the final of Jan Karon's Mitford novels, A Light From Heaven. And in my spare time, I am reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Oh, and I can't forget Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish, which I read for a special session of Lit Chicks. So maybe that makes my previous statement a lie!

Booking some more

3 Favorite Reading Locations:

• Downstairs on the couch
• Upstairs in bed
• In a comfy lawn chair on the porch

3 Reading habits:

• I cannot go to sleep without reading for a little while first. I think this stems from my father's strict bed times, which were always on the early side compared to many of my classmates, but once we were in bed, we were given an extra half hour to devote strictly to reading.
• I am never reading just one book. Typically I've got 4 or 5 books going on at once. This allows me to read according to how I feel on a particular day or at a particular time.
• When I go to the store, I'm an impulse book buyer. I look for an interesting cover, check out the jacket notes or back cover, read the first page, and if it all clicks, I buy it. Doesn't matter if I have never heard of the author before. I've discovered all of my new favorite authors that way.

3 Things that distract me:

• My husband. Once he comes in, I put my books down.
• The bunnies. There are four of them and one of me. I'm outnumbered.
• The ocean. I can't read well on the beach. My mind just kind of shuts off and I go into a totally relaxed mode and can't concentrate or focus on anything other than the waves, the sounds, and the sunshine.

3 Characters I’d love to be:

• Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler of E.L. Konigsberg's From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Professor McGonagall from all the Harry Potter novels
• The computer guy in Litte Green Men who went renegade and caused all the problems

3 Characters I Despise:

• The deranged psychopath in James Patterson's Kiss the Girls (I'm glad I don't remember his name--that book just totally grossed me out [I sound like a teenager again!])
• That crazy boxer guy in the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich
• Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

Favorite Book Beverages:

• Chai Creme Frappucino from Starbucks
• Otherwise, I don't really drink while I'm reading... I'm always wigged out about getting water or moisture on the pages of my books, so I tend to leave food and drink to themselves. I also get so engrossed in what I'm doing that I forget to sip if I'm reading anyway.

3 Favorite bookmarks:

• Old receipts
• Money (it makes me look affluent, right? LOL)
• My memory--I don't usually use a bookmark, I just remember what page I'm on as best I can by chanting the page number over and over in my head

3 Dead Writers I’d love to meet:

• Paula Danziger
• Jane Austen
• John Kennedy Toole

3 Alive Writers I’d love to meet:

• J.K. Rowling
• Philip Gulley
• Lemony Snicket

So…now…what about YOU?

On Cooking and Books

I have lately been experimenting more in the kitchen when Joe is around to eat whatever I cook that no one else will eat. After some good successes, I thought it would be neat to start a cookbook collection.

I already have the grandmother of them all, The Joy of Cooking, as well as a number of other cookbooks that I've been given or have salvaged. I bought a new cookbook, the Rachel Ray "365 Meals Per Year" or whatever the heck it is, after trying a few recipes and finding the Michael really enjoyed them (I had stolen them from other people's websites and Brian made one of the recipes in NC while we were down there)...

I am thinking of taking some cooking classes--I would love to experiment with flavors and ingredients I've never tried before, but don't really know where to start. So I'm looking around town and trying to find something that interests me. I'm hopeful to get some friends involved--while I appreciate that Michael is not the type who is going to stand in the kitchen and chop up vegetables while I stir something on the stove, and we sip wine together, nonetheless I have that image of myself as I grow older--me, a good friend, lots of fresh ingredients, cooking and enjoying ourselves together. Joe is a pretty good cooking partner, and I have a couple of other friends who enjoy cooking, so I think it shouldn't be a problem in the long run, once I've done my research.

I've tried some new recipes already this year. I made Chinese pot stickers for the first time ever, and had the fun of using those little wonton wrappers. They were FANTASTIC--in fact, when I got some from a Chinese restaurant a couple of weeks later, I really didn't like them as much as I enjoyed my own. Joe and I have been growing herbs out front, and I made quesadillas with my own fresh cilantro, and a shrimp pasta with my own fresh basil. The dill and fennel are growing nicely now, so I think we'll have some new things to experiment with as well.

Because I love reading, I kind of hope to find cookbooks that have to do with literature in a way. For Christmas this year, my sister bought me Jan Karon's The Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader, a fantastic book chock-full of recipes inspired by her lovely Mitford series. So far, I've only made Esther's Orange Marmalade Cake, Father Tim's Ham and Father Tim's scalloped potatoes, but the recipes were absolutely to DIE for, and the passages from the books that were included truly did make you reminisce about your favorite parts of the books and inspire you to take your time and cook a true masterpiece. The book includes gorgeous pictures of the recipes, and for the most part, the ones I've made came out looking like the ones in the book (that orange marmalade cake is a true devil though--it cracks straight down the middle and no one except Jan's own bakers seem to have success with it coming out perfectly--but who cares, it tastes incredible)

Today I was at the Culpeper Library during my work day as I was waiting to see a client and came upon a book called "The Book Lover's Cookbook" by Shaunda Kennedy Wenger and Janet Kay Jensen. It is my next cook book purchase. Utterly fabulous. Wenger and Jensen, both chefs and avid readers, have pored over volumes from Little Women to The Importance of Being Earnest, found food-related passages and devised recipes for each. Book exerpts, quotes from authors, and book quotations from various novels are interspersed with the various recipes they helped to inspire. (One of my personal favorites was Scarlett O'Hara's Gone with the Wind vow "As God is my witness, I will never go hungry again!") In some cases, the authors have contributed the recipes (ie Jodi Picoult contributed a chicken and dumplings recipe she was given when she lived in an Amish community while researching a book).

Judy has also recommended a book to me for Lit Chicks entitled Recipe for a Book Club: A Monthly Guide for Hosting Your Own Reading Group: Menus & Recipes, Featured Authors, Suggested Readings, and Topical Questions. It has been compiles by Mary O'Hare and Rose Storey (do we think she made her name up?) This one builds menus around your chosen book (provided it's in there) and helps you run the whole meeting from start to finish. While we are doing well with all other aspects of our book club, I must confess that the dinner theme selections have been running rather dry lately. This book might also help me select a book for next year. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it!

And finally, I was thrilled to get home this afternoon and discover that Judy had bought me a ticket to go to the Smithsonian's Resident Assistant Program's evening with Alton Brown, my favorite chef on the Food Network. I can hardly wait.

So that's all for now from my kitchen and library... The latest in my projects and goals... If you have any suggestions for literary cookbooks, I'd love to hear them!

Judy made it home!

Despite all our fears that she wouldn't, my sister survived a week plus in Israel, and by the looks of her, got tons of sun. She came home looking like a lobster! Wow... She was actually cold here today, and it was in the 90's. I guess that desert living is harsh.

She brought me back a nice spa set from the Dead Sea. We had a small brunch for her and enjoyed ourselves. She even let me cut her hair some--she was tired of the old cut, the old color, and the perm. I shortened it by about 4 inches, and it looks pretty great. Joe got brave and let me cut his hair a bit too, but only by an inch. Still, he said he loved it and would only be having me cut his hair from now on...

Now that Judy's back, I guess I can go back to concentrating on getting my own stuff together. Tomorrow for work we are having a big birthday party, so I spent this evening baking a cake and debating the meaning of my life with my husband--what I wanted, where I wanted to go, what I want to do. No answers, none at all, but I got a lot off my chest, definitely.

Also this weekend was Maritza's wedding. It was a lovely affair, although sadly the General got the stomach flu and nearly barfed on the table at the reception, so we had to go home. I was bitterly disappointed, and almost pissed off--though the logical part of my brain did tell me that it's not his fault he got sick.

Hope to spend this week getting the house in order. We're taking the bunnies to be sexed next weekend so we have a better idea of what we're dealing with. And my mom is bringing up a bunch of her old furniture up here now that she's found a fully furnished house to buy. I guess I'm kind of conflicted--for a while after they died, I had a lot of my grandparents' things around me, but I found it so depressing that I got rid of it all. I'm glad to have some furniture--Lord knows we haven't got much in our living room--I just hope it doesn't make me sad to have their stuff so close. I truly miss them so much many days, and have thought of them a lot lately. I wish I had them around to share things with and talk about things with. Towards the end of her life, my grandmother and I started to have that kind of relationship, and I feel so cheated that as an adult I don't have her to turn to.

I'm looking forward to getting up to my dad's for the 4th. I think I'll be able to reconnect with some folks up there, which will be great, particularly considering I haven't been home in a year and a half. It seems like all these important things are becoming the choices I wish I didn't have to make. Only so much vacation time per year means that I can only do so much and see so many people. This year we're going to try splitting a week between my dad and Michael's parents and then spending Thanksgiving apart. Christmas remains a mystery. I wish I knew how to solve that one. We thought we had a schedule worked out, but it's so expensive to travel at the holidays... It would be nice if the kings of American Industry would just say, "It is a profitable time, but let's make it easy for people to be with their loved ones."

Utopian dreaming in Fredericksburg...

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Well, I have finished it. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral is another notch in my library card... It was written by Kris Radish of www.krisradish.com

I have mixed reactions to the book.

Number one, I cried the whole entire way through it. It was really, really moving.

The story centers around the death of one Annie G. Freeman, free spirit, mother, professor, do-gooder, and friend. She dies of cancer, but spends the weeks leading up to her death making arrangements for a traveling funeral for herself.

Some weeks after she has passed, a package arrives on the doorstep of her friend, Katherine, which contains Annie's ashes, and all the details of the funeral. The entire thing has already been paid for, plane tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, and more. All that is left is for her best friends to take time off work, away from families, away from their every day lives, and go.

The traveling funeral makes stops in New Mexico, Florida, New York, Minnesota, and Washington State. Annie's ashes are flung far and wide at each stop, and little events occur at each stop that assure the women that Annie knew what she was doing when she set this whole shindig up.

But it also gives them time to reflect back on Annie and their friendships with her.

The book is written entirely in the present tense, and has a kind of lyrical or poetic quality about it. It was extremely moving, and you felt the grief and sorrow these women were grappling with at the death of one they loved so much.

On the downside... (yes, there's usually a downside)

The author nearly crams down your throat how magical and mystical and miraculous everything is that these women touch. Everything is amazing, and you will remember that!!!! THE WOMEN this and THE WOMEN that... I did get a little tired of that after a point.

Secondly, the book went from being a wonderful story of friendship, love, and loss into something of the author's political statement of the world at large. It delved into politics, activism, gay rights, war, immigration, and just about every other cause you could think of. To me, that truly detracted from the story.

the Lit Chicks are reading this book because we read another Radish book back in April entitled "The Elegant Gathering of White Snows". Kris had called in to the book club and we all just fell in love with her during the course of our conversation. I picked up Annie Freeman, after Kris told us that the movie rights had been optioned, and we all decided we would read another book if she would call in again. I've finally arranged the second call in with the publisher. But I will be definitely interested to see what the other girls think of this particular book. I prefered "Elegant Gathering" a lot more.

Still worth a read if you want a good chick lit type book sometime!

The Final Word (Until Next Year)...

Dear Family and Friends…

Wow, it’s over. I can’t believe it!! After weeks and months of pestering and fundraising, you all came through on your part, and this weekend, I was able to come through on mine.

Michael and I headed up north Saturday morning at 10:00am, and got home this morning at 8:30. What happened in between was, in many ways, indescribable. There were moments of joy and laughter, moments of sorrow and tears, moments of magic, and everything in between.

When all was said and done, I managed to raise $1100 to fight cancer, walked 3.5 miles around the track on my healing-but-still-broken leg, braved the warm sun and the freezing cold, and I’d do it all again tomorrow if that was the only way to cure this disease!
I can’t put into words what all this event came to mean to me. I’ve set up a photo gallery at http://www.mkosior.com/gallery/rfl for each of you to look at when you feel you have the time.

Some highlights of the event:

*The opening ceremony, in which survivors took to the track to make the ceremonial first lap, and caregivers took lap 2
*Setting up the luminarias as a volunteer, and stumbling upon my grandparents’ names
*Our team captain, Trent’s, head shaving—a promised occurrence if we raised $4,000
*Watching the guys on our team dress up as “Hula Honeys” and walk the track after a great fundraising campaign to get them out there
*Finding out we broke the $5,000 mark and my sister will have to shave her head!
*Lighting luminarias and walking a track lit only by the light given off by the hundreds of candles representing someone’s loved one
*Nancy bringing us a warm meal at dinner time (thanks, Nancy!)
*Walking the track with Mike as he did a full 1.5 miles during the evening
*Walking in the evening with Trent and Joe and signing the banner which will eventually be laid out on the National Mall with all the other Relay banners from across the nation as a petition to Congress that Americans are still fully invested in cancer research
*Waking up this morning with a moving blanket wrapped around my head, thinking “Will this wretched night never end?!” only to push aside the blanket and discover it was daylight (albeit 5:30am)
*Coming home and hopping into a nice, warm, soft bed and making up for the 4 hours of sleep I got on the cold, hard ground

It was a difficult night, the temperatures dropped into the 50’s and none of us wore anything except shorts and T-shirts. We mustered up as many blankets, sleeping bags, sweatshirts, and candles as we could to keep warm. Michael stayed awake the full night, I slept roughly 4 hours in a tent, fully clothed, with my shoes on! I haven’t felt so miserable since Girl Scout camp. (I couldn’t decide which I was more: tired, hungry, grubby, cranky, emotional, or thirsty) But, truly, I think that was a great part of the experience—to come away tired, sore, cranky, and ultimately thrilled to be going home. While I can’t imagine what it must feel like to go through cancer and cancer treatments, I think the ACS succeeded in giving us a little taste, even by a pinch, of how it must feel.

I have every intention of participating again next year, should my teammates re-form to do this (if not, I’ll be forming my own team). Again, I thank you all for supporting me in this endeavor, and hope you enjoy the pictures!!! I’m heading back to bed!!

Big hugs,
Kate/Susan

We're off!!!

I'll be setting up a photo gallery once we get home. Fortunately we've got clear skies and a nice breeze.

Thanks again to all my donors!!!

Book Signing: Anderson Cooper

Tonight Michael and I went and met Anderson Cooper at our favorite book store for book signings, Olsson's Books: www.olssons.com .

I had no idea, number one, that Cooper is a Vanderbilt. I don't know why that impresses me, but it must have something to do with all the time we spend in Newport and the fact that his family's home is incredible.

Anyway, I heard him on NPR this morning while I was driving around, and thought it would be fascinating to hear him speak in person. He's been EVERYWHERE of note in the past few years, particularly the areas struck by the tsunami, by Katrina, and by war.

By command of his publisher, he was only allowed to speak for 15 minutes, and no Q&A session, which was probably good, since there were only about 600 people there, and I'm sure about half of us had questions.

Additionally, he would not stop signing to pose for pictures. However, he did shake our hands, and he talked to us for a couple of MINUTES, not just a few seconds while signing the book we bought. He was very warm, open, friendly, and you could tell he was genuinely enjoying talking with everyone and meeting all of us.

So I said THE STUPIDEST thing I could have said. "A few months ago, I broke my leg, and I was laid up on the couch in front of the TV for 3 months, and your face was everywhere."

Fortunately, he seemed to find this pretty hilarious.

The General told him, "I recognize your voice, for sure" and Cooper replied, "Well, I hope it's not too grating, I hate the sound of it myself." It was a lot of fun.

Support your local book seller! :-)