Not exactly La Push...

     Politics, casinos, baking, reading, and writing. Yah, that's been my world for the last few weeks. Or else I might've had nothing to update my blog with, and it all would've been very blah in here.


    And here I am about to light a match of pissed-offness in you, depending on your political P.O.V.; come November, I'm voting for "four more years," because I don't believe our president was given enough time to clean up the mess he was left with. (Burn!) Also, NO non-tribal casinos. And I've got a charismatic governor to back me up. : D

     We knew the good weather wouldn't hold here for much longer, and Mah was really wanting sand and surf, in lieu of not being able to indulge in her Daytona time-share this year. So, she and I road-tripped to the coast recently. I once said that we were good road-trip partners, and I was right. Talking, listening to music, reading, snacking, gambling, pointing out beautiful northwest wine country scenery along the way...that's a road-trip! Especially when you know she knows how to have a picnic on the beach; crackers, fruit, cheese, wine, and chocolates. Only thing missing was the cast of Downton Abbey. : D

     As for the reading, I've been Googling more local writers, getting a feel for which authors would interest me. And one of my favorite genres is mystery. So, with a recent trek to my local library, I now have enough reading material to last me many rainy days. I'm a book-foodie, as you know, and I'll be feasting on the mystery novels of Kate Wilhelm. The first one I broke into has already got my love; the story spans from Oregon, to my 'second home' of New Orleans. Sigh! I'm definitely savoring that one. :)


     Baking: I helped make Mah more aware that there are expiration dates on box-mixes; they aren't to be bought and stored away high up in a cabinet, forgotten. Because when someone else actually gets around to baking them, they're not quite as good as you hoped. Of course, it also helped me to understand the concept of 'tester recipes'. And my 'testers' of box-mix sugar-cookies (and later, brownies) weren't sampled and then thrown out. No, when I make 'sweets', the people around me eat them. I.O.W., I don't bake crap.


     And, I've found that I really enjoy it. I'm no Nigella Lawson, mind you. I just enjoy a task where the result is going to be decadent, and fattening, and totally bad for me. And, would you believe it actually helps with my writing?? Without revealing too much, one of the characters I write of has a desire to be a business-owner, but somehow, she picked up the mad skills for baking.

     Anywoo, I have near-future plans to try more complicated scratch-baking recipes. However--and for those of you whom are familiar with my past posts--I'll wait until Marie Barone is visiting her little brother in Brokeback country.

A Million Little Pages

     Tabloids/tabloid t.v. shows can have such fun bullshit to read/watch sometimes! For one, Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at the paparazzi on her show yesterday for taking pictures of she and Portia in matching outfits and calling it a 'fashion-showdown'. It was basically nothing, but tabloids always love to remove the 'no,' and turn it into a 'thing.' 

     The job-searching continues, but hopefully, I'm getting closer to resolving it. The [nameless] work-search facility I've been going to has been helping me figure out what I need to do to better my chances at employment. It looks like a handful of workshops are in my future. But then, I never met a workshop I didn't like. :)


     I'm almost finished consuming the fourth Chelsea Cain 'Archie/Gretchen' book. (I put it down for a short time while I read the Kathy Reichs book--the same autographed copy I sent to my SIL for her birthday) As soon as I finish the fifth 'A/G' book, I'll switch back to April Henry. Cain and Henry are proving to be my favorite local writers. I am a mild junkie for crime-novels. (And proud of it. I like reading about the bad guys getting what they deserve.)

     I love to read, but sometimes I'd feel bad that I wasn't reading the kinds of authors we're told by the more learned folks that we should be reading. So, with a little help from Wikipedia, I'd go and read the synopses of a well-known author's works; ones that either made a bestseller's list, or were listed as a 'prolific read'. It doesn't ruin the story for me, as it only goes into mild detail, leaving me enough room to decide if I'm interested in reading it.

     Now, I'll likely get some haters on this, but I've concluded that I'm no real fan of Graham Greene. I only like a few stories of Ursula K. Le Guin's, and William Faulkner has been a little difficult for me to analyze. (Can you tell I was my English Lit professor's favorite??)

     However, this doesn't mean that I won't ever read these authors. History has shown me that I likely will; I barely got through 'The Scarlet Letter', or 'Brave New World' in high school. But I picked them up again in my mid-30's, and liked them better, then.

     I'm also not a fan of non-fiction. I don't read 'bullshit memoirs', so you'll never spot James Frey on MY bookshelf. But there are exceptions; I'd like to get my hands on Rosalind Russell's autobiography, 'Life Is A Banquet'.

     In the meantime, here's your moment of Zen.

                      "So many books, so little time." ~ Frank Zappa