Suffice to say that this year has been somewhat of a rough and tumble, challenging year for chez moi. Many trips to the hospital for various family members, all of whom are okay now thankfully and our family bond is closer and stronger because of it (see I'm looking at the silver lining here). You know me, I like to stress out mightily over all things...and since money was a bit of an issue this year, I could not indulge in as much retail therapy (evil etsy!!!!) as I would've liked. Soooooo I must say that the one saver of my sanity this year was books. Books pass the time whilst in the hospital waiting room, or simply to escape one evening because the trials and tribulations of the world are too much. Books are invaluable. Books are like mana from heaven...you get the idea...so I'm gonna blog about some of the ones that really stood out for me.

Fantasy

I rediscovered the high fantasy genre this year, which are stories set in LOTR like worlds. Rediscovering high school favorite fantasy author Rhondi Vilott (and her numerous pen names, thank god for the internets) was like meeting an old boyfriend from high school (whom one has never quite gotten over). I know, it was like that!!! But the true treasure trove lay in heretofore undiscovered, most excellent author Dennis L. McKiernan! I srsly bought all his books (new and used) from amazon. His stories have everything...romance, pirates, sword fights, monsters, humor, and love conquers all (to quote The Princess Bride). When a character tragically died...I was in tears...I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOO...surely the priest has a resurrection spell...my priest in World of Warcraft could do it...why isn't he/she alive?????? Bloody hell!!! I'd have to say so far "The Dragonstone" by Mr. McKiernan is by far my favorite. He's written a crapload of books, I'd just pick one and jump right in. I guess you'd have to read it for yourself to understand what I'm talking about.

Romance

While Lisa Kleypas remains my all time favorite romance author, it was a pleasant surprise to find that Julia Quinn's "What Happens in London" was actually quite good. Despite my bitching earlier this year about her, I did enjoy this book. It has an Austen-esque quality to the writing to it and it further endeared me to it when I happened to have it in my purse when I took Daughter to the ER when she had a concussion...they'd just given her a very painful shot and she was crying uncontrollably...the only thing I could think of was to read to her from this book (though I did "skip" the love scenes) and it did distract her from the traumas of staying in the ER for hours on end. So Julia Quinn, thank you for this gem, it quite literally was indispensable in my time of need.

Another unexpected find was romance author Teresa Medeiros. Yes, I bought her entire backlist too and passed many a night in the sweetly written, happy, knight in shining armor happily ever after type books she writes. Some were a little corny, but hey, thoroughly enjoyable!

More on this later! Time to cook dinner!

Halloo dear readers, was it not the most excellent Leo McGarry (of West Wing fame, played by late actor John Spencer) who said "There are two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make 'em: laws and sausages." (referencing a quote from Otto von Bismark, why am I telling you this because I'm nerdy). On the heels of her bestselling book, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (it was also turned into a movie didn't you know), author Julie Powell's next book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession which I finished last night, was in my opinion, a good read. Ms. Powell gets a book deal and after channeling Julia Child for a year, it seems she has it made, right? It seems she still has issues to work out, she gets involved in an affair, but she still loves her husband and considers him a permanent fixture in her life, so they don't really break up. She searches for an apprenticeship as a butcher and finds a shop two hours away in Jersey, where she spends 6 months learning how to be a butcher. The book is part recipe book, part detailing of where the clean little pieces of meat wrapped sterilely in the meat department really come from (quite gory)...how to dismember and cut up a cow, pig etc...and a post-mortem on her own life is very well written. I think Julie appeals to the mid 20's and beyond woman who graduates from college (esp. with a liberal arts degree and considered quite clever in college but the real world whomps them on the head with reality), God knows I've been there...

The affair guy and her break up, and much of the book details her coming to grips with that, as well as how her and her husband Eric handle this whole situation (he knows about the affair and Julie seems to spend much time away from him, but they still stay together). She finds a measure of peace in the camaraderie of the butcher shop, then she travels to various countries to experience the state of meat (meat processing plants, sausage factories, etc etc)...and quickly realizes that living in America, she has it pretty good (women have it pretty crappy in Africa, the men are completely in charge). The cultural exchanges are quite humorous, and somewhat disturbing.

Why would you still want to read the book after all this disturbing information is revealed you ask? Because Julie Powell knows how to write, that's why. She ruthlessly lays out her life in I'm-doing-an-autopsy like detail, deftly drawing parallels between it and butchery. Some will be turned off by the tmi, but I was fine with it. Overall, I'd recommend this book, and though I'm not sure the book will be made into a Nora Ephron movie anytime soon, it's worth it.

Internets, if you haven't read a book by Dennis McKiernan yet GO DO IT NOW. BEST HIGH FANTASY AUTHOR EVAR.

Well as lovely as twitter is, it is hard to fit all of my thoughts into a single 140 character spam, so some blogging will commence from here on out. What's going on these days? Fitness crap. Losing weight. I am so sick of being slightly overweight (though you couldn't really tell, my slim wrists make me seem more slender then I am, a gift from my mom's genes). I'd mention I'd tried Weight Watchers Online a few years back and did have success with it losing the 20-ish lbs (a girl must always be vague about these things), I got sick of entering ABSOLUTELY everything I ate blah blah and when I reached a milestone weight loss, you know how I was rewarded by WW? The online thingy said I had to EAT LESS to lose more weight!!! I was so frustrated by that, so I only intermittently used the WW online site from then on, and because of some meds I take, I have a tendency to gain weight easily. THAT'S RIGHT TMI I'M LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT BABY.

Well, I kinda gained some of it back and looking at my slightly poochy belly, I got sick and tired of it. I want to lose the weight and look GOOD. For who besides Hubby and the kids, since I am at home by myself all day, let's just say for my doctor then, who won't nicely bitch me out the next time I see him for a yearly physical.

Soooooo, since my favorite workout DVD is 30 Day Shred, I figured I'd use the Jillian Michaels online system to see what happens. WW seems to focus more on the food portion of the diet, and I wanted something that focused more on fitness too. So...since JM is the fitness guru on tv, etc etc etc.

Now of course I have to make comments about the differences between the user interfaces of WW v. JM. WW online is flash based, very user friendly and elegant to use. The tracker is a standalone window with tabs for activity, food, etc. JM is a lot of link clinking, and though it takes some time to figure out (and less user friendly, interface is a bit clunkier), but so far, JM has me more excited because her videos are easy to integrate into the whole experience (circuit training, circuit training and more circuit training), there is a fitness diary where you can record your thoughts, menu suggestions based on your oxidation body type etc etc etc. JM has the fitness emphasis that I'm looking for, so it's pretty cool so far.

I set a goal for myself...to lose 10 lbs by Thanksgiving (so I can gain it all back on T-day of course!!), heh we'll see how that goes. I stopped playing WoW, so now my "thing" is working out and counting calories. I just bought a food scale and luckily I had the heart rate monitor already to help speed things along.

***Moment of Bitching

God I hate losing weight it's a whole bloody lifestyle change, I can't eat what I want...I mean seriously see the previous post...DOESN'T INA GARTNER LOOK HAPPY???? and JM looks...smug...BECAUSE SHE HAS A DAMN FINE BOD....would I rather be happy and smug? Depends on the time of the month I guess

***End moment of bitching

So dear readers, you are taking this journey with me and I will let you know how things go...so I have this, work is slow, kids who are growing up too fast on me (and learning to deal with them, did you know they don't consider themselves babies anymore) and a husband with a hernia who will need surgery soon.

So...fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

It's come down this ladies and gentlemen. I have two little angels/devils (depending on how you look at them) perched on my shoulder. Both whispering into my ear, telling me contrary things...how can this be???? Yes, that's right I'm talking about these two:





That's right, it is Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, whispering softly to use just a bit more butter in that dish. She will be the guiding light of my Thanksgiving menu this year, so she's quite the contender.

On the other hand, I JUST JOINED Jillian Michaels online losey weight thingy because I love her DVDs and even though she is screaming and yelling at me, it's probably because she wants me to lose the pregnancy fat that I've had for 9 years now fat ass.

WHO WILL WIN THIS HOLIDAY SEASON?????

Stay tuned, folks.