I'm still here!

Although it may have seemed that I invented anti-gravity shoes and subsequently fell off the earth, this is not the case.  The truth is much more mundane: it was a busy end-of-semester, then I was traveling, then I was home with my family.  None of those activities inspired me to write a blog post.  But never fear!  I am hopping back on the blogwagon (heh, heh) here in the new year.  Look for updates about running, knitting socks, cooking food, and other enticingly exciting topics.

Book review: The Maze Runner Trilogy

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

In this first book of the trilogy, we meet Thomas as he wakes up with no specific memories of his past, on the way to what we learn is The Glade.  Thomas and some other boys are apparently being kept here, surrounded by an impenetrable maze filled with deadly monster-machines.  None of them have any memories.  Suddenly, the first girl ever arrives in The Glade, and triggers catastrophic events.

Seemingly the love-child of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, this book is fast-paced and interesting, if not very deep.  It's mostly the desire to solve the multiple mysteries that keeps one reading.  Unfortunately, if that is your main motivation (as it was mine), you'll have to finish the series to really answer everything.

 The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

A direct sequel to #1, picking up pretty much exactly where we left off.  Thomas and the gang have escaped the Maze, but find themselves thrust into yet another life-threatening experiment where many will die.  Thomas might even be one of them.

Somewhat satisfying in that as Thomas slowly gains back some memories, we can start to piece together what has happened.  Since we, the readers, are not faced with death (and near-constant exhaustion, as Thomas does), we have more leisure to go back and fit his sketchy memories together.  We won't have all the information, though, until book 3.

The Death Cure (Maze Runner #3)
by James Dashner

In the final installment, Thomas and his friends try to figure out how to deal with the organization that has stolen their memories, made them distrust everything and everyone, and killed their friends.

Questions are answered, mysteries solved, and the human race goes on.  Hooray!

Final verdict: a fun, quick read.  Much more cheerful ending than Hunger Games.  Gotta read the whole series to be happy, but don't really have to reread ever, in my opinion.

[This is post #95.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

African Violets

This is a photo of my African Violets back in June of this year:

 

And these are pictures of them now:

My question: why are the flowers so very white, with hardly any "violet" left on them at all?

[This is post #94.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

FLYING!!!

My good friend N got me a flying lesson for my birthday, back in September.  We couldn't get it scheduled until this past Sunday due to weather and conflicts, but we finally did it, and it was AMAZINGLY AWESOME.  N took some great photos, to which I will now subject you.

It was pretty cold outside on the ground.  Nice and warm in the plane, though.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Today, I used some Thanksgiving leftovers to make a casserole.

Ingredients:
Leftover cooked white-meat turkey
Leftover roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon & walnuts
Sliced mushrooms
1/2 an onion, diced
Egg noodles
Olive oil
Heavy cream
Flour and turkey gravy seasoning

Directions:
Heat the oil in a pan, and stir in the chopped onions.  Cook until translucent, then add the flour/gravy mixture.  Brown for a couple minutes, then add the heavy cream and some hot water.  Heat through, then add more flour or more water until you have the consistency of cream of mushroom soup.  Alternatively, use a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Add in the chopped turkey and heat through.  Add salt and/or pepper to taste.

At the same time, cook the egg noodles according to the package directions.  Heat some butter in a separate pan, add the mushrooms, and cook until browned.  Then add in the Brussels sprouts and heat through.

When everything is heated, mix it together in a casserole dish.  Sprinkle crushed cracker bits, dried cranberries, and Parmesan cheese on top.  Put it in a 350 degree oven until the top is slightly browned, about 10-15 minutes.

Sorry for the poor picture quality; one of these days I will get a real camera.

MEAT!

I just purchased 25 pounds of local beef from Rising Moon Farm.  I was a little worried that it wouldn't all fit in my freezer along with the three chickens I have left and all my frozen soups and stocks.  But it all fit perfectly.

That's 12 pounds of ground beef, a couple roasts, short ribs, and several different cuts of steak, all on the bottom shelf with my three chickens.  Everything up top is pre-cooked.

[This is post #91, by the way.  Leave a comment with the day and time you predict I will post my 100th post, and you will win a TBD prize!

Next Year's Garden (and a CONTEST!)

Last week I ordered some seeds from Seed Savers Exchange at 50% off.  From left to right, starting in the top row, I have beans (dry), beans (snap), beets, blue corn, pickling cucumbers, purple basil, Greek oregano, leeks, lettuce, peas, peppers, pumpkins, and tomatoes.  So I'm very excited to grow things next spring.

Also, this is my 90th post on this blog!  I am holding another contest: whoever most correctly predicts when I will post my 100th post will win a chance to guest post here at WWWW.  Or I will guest post on your blog.  Or I'll write you a limerick.  Basically, the prize is negotiable.  Start guessing the day and time I will post the 100th entry on this blog!  I don't even know myself (I don't have it planned out or anything), so we'll all be surprised.

Book review: Coop

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting
by Michael Perry

What a fun book!  Perry has a great way of making his writing funny by using much more complicated vocabulary and sentence structure than is warranted by the situation.  He is also very skilled at bringing out the emotional complexities of starting a small farm: in his relationships with his family, his neighbors, his livestock, and in his ambivalent attitude about "work" that pays the bills versus "work" that feeds the family.

A quote for Susan:

"I wrote the word reverence into our vows in honor of the way my father has always treated my mother.  Dad taught me that reverence wasn't fawning, nor was it always delivered in hushed tones.  I saw it in the goofy way he doffed his fur-lined Boris Yeltsin hat when he opened the van door for her on Sunday mornings; the way he quietly abstained when we kids teased her for not getting our jokes; the way he never failed to leave the dinner table without thanking her.  And there was the reverence between them: lest we be deceived, on many occasions-- together and separately-- Mom and Dad made sure we understood that their marriage had rough patches and disagreements, but that they had long ago promised to work it out quietly behind closed doors.  It didn't hurt that they sometimes made sure to let us catch them kissing.  Nothing off-putting, just a hug and peck in the kitchen or in the sheep barn during lambing.  In this I believe they were extending their reverence to the children-- letting us know that when we went to sleep it was in a house headed by parents joined at hip and heart."

Wednesday Pizza

I made pizza yesterday.

First, I mixed up and kneaded the dough.  Then, while it was rising in the microwave (it was off, of course), I went for a walk/jog.  After I returned and took a shower, it was time to punch it down, preheat the oven and pizza stone, and start making the toppings.  Here's how it went down:

Abby, the Cat

This is Abby.

She does not technically belong to me, but to the owner of the house I live in, who has been away on vacation for the past month.  Thus, I have been her primary source of food, water, love, and non-autonomous grooming.

She likes to walk on me, knead me, and lie on my chest.

This sometimes makes it hard to breathe, as she is (and I say this with the love of Christ) something of a fat cat.

She also likes to bring me presents.  Last night, I woke up to the sound of crunching.  At first I thought, "Oh, that's Abby eating her crunchy food."  Then I thought, "Wait, I didn't give her crunchy food tonight..."  And then I realized that she was eating a mouse.

I figured I probably didn't want to witness that process, so I stayed in bed and tried to go back to sleep.  No dice.  After the crunching stopped, and Abby apparently left the room, I finally had to turn on the light, get out of bed (very carefully, so as not to step on the corpse), put on my glasses, and remove the head and tail and other remains of her midnight snack into the garbage.  (Be glad that I did not have the presence of mind to take a photo.)  Then I went downstairs to get the Resolve carpet cleaner (to clean up the blood).  Sprayed that on the carpet, waited the requisite five minutes, then blotted and wiped it clean.  I washed my hands, then firmly shut the door (to keep any further snacks out of my room) and went back to bed.