2 Things @ Once

Sick Day

Wee-J was has come down with a cold, so no outings for us today. Since she knew it was Tuesday and Tuesday = Wiggleworms, she repeated some variation of, "Today is Wiggleworms," a number of times and I had to keep saying, "We'll see."

After about twenty minutes of this, as I was sitting on the bedroom floor getting her dressed and she was leaning on me while stepping into her pants, she brightly said, "We will go to Wiggleworms today," and I rotely said, "We'll see." Then she leaned over so her face was even with mine and said, "We can think about."

Well, we thought about it, for about as long as it took to go through a half a box of kleenex (30 minutes) and then decided to stay home. I spent the majority of my day wiping a runny nose and singing Wee-J's new favorite song, "Clementine." Even with a head cold, she can belt out "Oh mah-darling!" with unflagging enthusiasm.

My poor hands are dry and chapped from the number of times I washed them today, so fearful of catching the cold before I head out of town. I came home and fired up a batch of cold-busting. Sriracha-Ginger-Garlic butter and put it on pasta with sauted veggies. And I plan to turn in early, after watching the season premier episode of my favorite guilty pleasure TV show, My Boys.

Saturday 3 p.m. ~ The BVI Crew Gets Down to the Nitty Gritty

We got a jump-start on our sailing adventure (T-minus two weeks and counting!) by sanding down the all the wood on the boat.

Yeah, can you believe it? The charter company requires that you sand down the boat, slap another coat of varnish on it, and step the mast (that means raise the mast) yourself before they'll let you sail off into the Caribbean blue!

Just kidding. Saturday did involve some boat-related manual labor and elbow grease. Two-thirds of our crew gathered in a warehouse along the south branch of the Chicago River to begin the spring ritual of preparing the boat for another summer on the Lake Michigan. The first task was sanding down the wood.

This was the first year the boat was in this particular warehouse and they really had the boats packed in there. Most of them are power boats and even the smallest of them looks hulking when it's pulled up out of the water and hoisted up on blocks and wooden cradles. Up until a year ago, the boat I sail on wintered wrapped in plastic at an outdoor shipyard in Waukegan. That meant any pre-season work was subject to weather and there were many days when the wind made clean up a mighty chilly task.

This year, though the warehouse was a tad cold, it wasn't bad once you started moving around and working hard. Plus, we were out of the wind and pending rain/sleet/snow storm that descended on Chicago later that night. It was fairly dark, so we had lots of work lights hanging about. Next time, I'll remember to bring my head lamp.

This was the first year I wasn't too freaked out about scrambling around on the deck of a boat suspended on a frame of metal, wood and cinder blocks twelve feet off the concrete. It takes some getting used to feeling that by standing on the boat, it won't come tumbling down. And getting on and off by climbing up a tall metal ladder to hoist yourself over the lines running along the deck is not for the faint of heights.

Look Marie! I Made the Sugared Puffs and Yes, They're THAT Good!

I knew when I saw this recipe for Sugared Puffs in The New York Times a few weeks ago, it was only a matter of days before I was makin' 'em. This morning, I fired up the coffee pot and fired up the blender to whip up a batch of puffy, sugary goodness.

It's a really quick and easy recipe. Too quick and easy, if you know what I mean. The worst part is the mess you make painting each baked popover with melted butter and flipping them around in cinnamon sugar. A real hardship.

The recipe comes from David Lebovitz. He has an attractive blog filled with decadent treats, great photography and Paris! Karen, do not look at his post about maple candy and whatever you do, DO NOT look at the recipe for maple creams!!! Don't do it!!! (And when you do, please save me some.)

Celebrating Earth Hour

I happened to be out to dinner at Uncommon Ground during Earth Hour and was glad to see the restaurant chose to participate. Though I wasn't really surprised. UC is a pretty progressive restaurant. They focus on local ingredients, have a green garden on their rooftop, and are in the process of stocking their bar with only non-imported liquors, beer and wine. Last but not least, the food is really great. Comfort food with a tasty twist.

On the way home, I took a spin over to Northwestern's campus for a good view of a darkened downtown Chicago. Here are some cool pix of Earth Hour around the globe.

Randomness on a Friday Afternoon

• I twittered about seeing the Jimmy John's golden jaguar yesterday. I wasn't seeing things. Apparently the Tribune found it newsworthy. Typical.
• Also in the Tribune, Col. Sanders is filling potholes. Personally, I'm okay with corporations slapping their ads on the asphalt if it will help eliminate the craters covering our city streets. City workers sure can't keep up. It seems for every one they fill, two more appear. Driving around Chicago takes defensive driving to a whole new level.
• I'm not a big Maurice Sendak fan and I don't recall ever reading Where the Wild Things Are, but judging from the trailer I'm looking forward to the movie. (Directed by Spike Jonze, with a script by Jonze and Dave Eggers!) Great use of an Arcade Fire song on the trailer.
• And while we're at it, I could sit through another Jack Black movie if it means I can laugh along with Michael Cera.
• Finally, 'tis the season. Yeah Peeps!

Review: Case Histories

Kate Atkinson (2004)

In 1970, a toddler disappears from the backyard tent where she was sleeping with her big sister on a hot summer night. In 1994, a young woman takes a temp job in her father's law office where she's savagely murdered by an unknown assailant. And in 1979, a new mother with dubious maternal instincts snaps, found hours later cradling the bloody ax that killed her husband.

Such are the cold cases on the docket of Jackson Brodie, a private detective with a personal life as troubled as those of his clients. He has a contentious relationship with his ex-wife, who’s remarried to a man Brodie thinks is a jerk and suspects is worse. As a former cop, Brodie is an over-protective father to his teenage daughter. He’s also at the center of his own mystery—someone is trying to kill him—which may or may not have something to do with Binky Rain, an eccentric nonagenarian with a houseful of cats who was Brodie’s first, most frequent (and incidentally non-paying) client.

In general, Brodie has a pessimistic view of humanity and he could really stand to work on his people skills, all of which makes him a genuine and interesting character to follow. Brodie is messy and complicated. He’s human, often saying or doing the exact wrong thing, but he’s a decent guy and a good detective.

Bouncing from case to case, mixing the personal with the professional, Brodie is surrounded by an appealing collection of characters, most of whom get their say in the pages of Case Histories. Atkinson’s literary style and her character development elevate Case Histories from standard run-of-the mill crime fiction. I was sucked in after the first chapter and for subsequent nights I was up way past my bedtime so I could read just one more chapter and then another and another. And I didn't even mind when Atkinson wrapped things up just a little too neatly.

I really enjoyed Case Histories. It’s the kind of book I find myself casually recommending to anyone I know who enjoys reading, (“Hey, I’m reading a really good book right now…”) and when it was done, I had to force myself not to rush to the library to get the sequel. I’m pacing myself and waiting ‘til summer for that.

One Boat, Seven Days, Two Books

I've made the most important decision of my pre-vacation preparation: which books to bring with me on the trip. Always an important decision, especially so when you'll be in a remote paradise bobbing around on a boat for a week, far from any bookstore.

My first thought was this would be a great opportunity to finally read The Forsyte Saga but I quickly ruled it out when I pulled my copy off the shelf where it's been sitting for years. That sucker is heavy. There's no way I was going to lug it around for thousands of miles, from airplane to boat and back again.

So I pulled a much lighter 1000-page book from my shelf, perfectly suited for adventure vacation reading, The Count of Monte Cristo. I loved The Three Musketeers when I read it ten years ago and purchased The Count shortly afterward. That's how long it's been waiting on the shelf to be read.

I usually try to pair my vacation reading with my travel destinations. My second book is stretching the theme a bit but I've been wanting to read it for a long time now and I couldn't resist the humor in bringing along a book about an infamous mutiny. (And no, I don't mean The Bounty--I've already read about that.) I'll be packing Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny. I hope it doesn't give our crew any ideas.

A Room With a View and Books

While searching the web for images related to Frank Lloyd Wright (in conjunction with my reading of T.C. Boyle's The Women), I came across this article on the NYTimes website about a FLWright home I was unfamiliar with located in McLean, VA overlooking the Potomac River. I've toured enough Wright homes (and have the need for way too much storage) to ever seriously dream of living in a Wright-designed home, but they're sure cool to look at.

Somewhere Out in the Atlantic Ocean

Trip prep for the sailing adventure continues. I can't believe the amount of research and planning that has gone into this so far. The good news is that any sailing charter after this will be a breeze. In the meantime, I'm madly making lists of lists, trying to keep up on all the stuff I need to get, order, do, or pack in the next two and a half weeks.

Here's a big picture map of the Caribbean to orient you as I regale my travels. If you're like me (up until about a year ago) I had a vague notion of where the British Virgin Islands were in relation to all the other islands scattered between Florida and South America. The BVIs are teeny tiny and you really have to crank the zoom on any online map to have them show up at all.

Book Lover in Training

Last Wednesday Wee-J put me out of a job for about ten minutes while she read herself a naptime story. This was a first. She decided she was going to sit by herself in the big chair and read her own books before her afternoon nap. And she did, flipping from one page to another, for most of which she'd memorized the correct dialog. There was plenty of intense study of one page, then another and then back again. These shots capture only a few of the nearly dozen different poses she adopted in the chair over the length of time she took to "read" her book.