Reading, writing, forget nesting

Hi, Barb.

Well, so much for carving out time to write today. I ended up doing PTA stuff this morning, followed by grocery shopping and miscellaneous, tedious errands, and didn't get back home until noon. I decided I was going to make some chicken corn chowder, but this plan has got a bit awry on me. I went on line to get a good recipe, found one, read it, then thought to myself 'Oh how hard can this be? I can figure this out.' So I didn't print, nor follow, the recipe. Mistake numero uno. I have no idea which of the several random ingredients I put in there makes it taste terrible, so I'm also not sure how to fix it. CC came over and tasted it; she said it was fine. Well, that's like Giada herself saying it's fine (it's all relative) and plus, she's not going to tell me it sucks. I haven't added the cream/milk combo yet so I'm hoping that helps. Otherwise I've got about two gallons of soup to pawn off on the duty crews at the station. Thank God for firefighters. They'll eat anything.

I haven't got my house cleaning done; in fact, I haven't even started that. I have my neice and nephew this afternoon/evening, so really, what's the point in cleaning the floor? That's my theory anyway. I've just been dinking around my kitchen, fretting over my soup, wishing I had this gift. I so want to be a good cook; I want to spend all day in the kitchen, preparing and creating, but the whole thing is very elusive to me. Most of the time, I just end up frustrated and tired, with a monumental mess on my hands. Maybe it's not my niche. I wonder if I should give up and move on?

The book we read - The Kabul Beauty School - was written by a hairdresser from Michigan who opened a beauty school in Afghanistan to help women become self-supporting. It's all very noble and trendy, but in the end, she is a very poor writer and her co-author didn't step up to the plate for her. Tons of important details are either misplaced or missing altogether; stories occur randomly and without cross-reference. There is no gift of language to love (a la Love Walked In) no plot twists or turns (a la Alice Hoffman). This is mostly why I don't care for biographies much; I'd rather read good writing than a good story, if I must choose between the two. Everyone in my book club felt the same way, which was nice. I didn't have to spout off about quality writing in my usual snobbish way, like when I vote no on reading yet another cheesy Nicholas Sparks trauma drama. Everyone wanted to read something lighter after the holidays, and since I can't do another Marly and Me or whatever latest Christmas-themed novel is out there, I suggested de los Santos. I don't mind reading it again (or skimming) and usually, someone in the group has already read the month's selection.

To answer your question, did I buy Belong To Me, no, I did not. I bought And Then She Found Me and Happiness Sold Separately, both on discount. I started Happiness, but it wasn't calling to me. I'm going to try the other one now. I have so many books on the shelves that I haven't ever read, I really should stop purchasing and get caught up. Ha ha! Just kidding! My Christmas list of books is two pages long.

Speaking of the holidays, my parents will only be here for six days. And that's a comparatively long visit, for them. They stay in a local hotel, which works out well for everyone involved. They will spend the majority of their time going back and forth between our house and J's, then probably head up north to stay a couple of days with friends who live on Whidby Island. We all do so much better with a short visit, and over the years we've all come to the unspoken conclusion that the visit happens at Thanksgiving, not Christmas. There's still this little part of me that wishes they were the doting grandparent types, hanging around for six weeks through the entire holiday season. But then I remember, oh yeah, they're my parents. Good God! Six days is plenty.

We have a football game tonight and J just walked in from work. So I'm off now to get my soup fixed up ... M loved it, so who am I to criticize?

Hope you had a good day too,
Love,
A