Really? Do y'all agree with this?

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Mojitos and Spring

My neighbor Pete and I were making mojitos the other day to celebrate the coming spring (and fresh mint at the winter farmer's market). Pete and I disagree a bit on the making of the yummy rum drinks. I like to have full mint springs, a bit crushed, floating around in my drink. It should look like you dipped your glass into a pretty pond and added ice. Pete likes to crush the mint into an almost paste making the drinks a shocking all over green. Either way they are tasty.

Since making these drinks properly takes a little bit of time, and we are planning a party where we would like to serve them, we wondered if we could infuse the rum with mint ahead of time and then just garnish the drinks with a sprig or two.
Since we disagree on the mint crushing, we have tried both ways in our infusions.

These bottles have been sitting for almost a week now and will be strained tonight and tested by our panel of experts. We'll be watching Sweeney Todd from Netflix, so it will be an evening of bloody, musical, rummy, mintyness with a little Johnny Depp thrown in for good measure.

Speaking of spring and time with friends, I had lunch with Melissa yesterday at the Green Bean. We sat OUTSIDE. It was in the 70s and they have set up two small tables just outside the door. I think that if I lived somewhere in the South where the seasons are not so extreme I would not value so much that first really warm day where you can sit outside, without a coat on, and enjoy a BLT (with Avocado), an iced coffee and good conversation.

Today is cooler and rainy, but there are more signs of spring in the yard.
My apologies to my family members in Vermont (where yesterday my dad shoveled 3 feet of snow off the deck in a patch big enough for mom to sit in a chair in the sun) and in Maine (where they may not see bare ground until sometime in July from the sounds of things).
Just in time for spring I finished this wool and alpaca sweater....

Boomerangs & Seesaws

My old friend Jamie was in town last night. His girlfriend - Shannon Curtis - was supposed to play at the Iron Horse. I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but there was a mix-up and she didn't get to play in the end. Despite that disappointment, it was fabulous to see Jamie, catch up and share some gossip about our other high school friends.

Shannon is absolutely charming and talented. I'm listening to her CD "Boomerangs & Seesaws" as I type this. She has a new CD coming out today "Paris Can't Have You". You can hear the title track on her MySpace page. It's the loveliest thing I've heard in a long time. Also check out the tour schedule on the MySpace page. Those of you who read this who live in Burlington, Chicago, Boulder, Portland, etc. should go out and see her.

In knitting news I finished this:

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Feburary Baby Sweater in

Berroco Pure Merino Nuance.
(sidewalk artwork by Audrey)
Nora Noodle watch your mailbox.....

And started this:

Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty in
Great Adirondack Bamboo Cotton.

Finally, there was evidence this morning that spring may have finally come to the Pioneer Valley. I love how tulips look like hungry baby birds when they first come up.

Roar Your Terrible Roars!

I've just been reading, in Publisher's Weekly, about the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are due out (according to IMDB) in October 2009. Apparently Maurice Sendak has been in talks with studios for 15 years about making a movie and the end result is that he started his own production company and hired Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers of McSweeney's fame (and you know how I feel about McSweeney's....) to write the screenplay (Jonze will also direct). Jim Henson's Creature Shop is making the monster suits.

I love Dave Eggers! The best part of it (in my mind) is that Eggers is also writing a novel version of Sendak's story to be titled Wild Things. This is being done with Sendak's blessing and I suspect this might be HUGE. Who doesn't love the Wild Things? My 6th Grade class turned it into a play ourselves and put it on for the rest of the school (I played the dog...don't ask...). Every adult who grew up loving the story of Max taking off to a magic world full of monsters in the night is going to jump all over this novel.

According to IMDB the movie has some pretty big names in it, including Forest Whitaker as the voice of one of the beasts.

Unfortunately, there are some stories out there that say that the studio is not happy with the film and may be reshooting the entire thing and possibly firing Spike Jonze. This could explain the 2009 release date (apparently it was previously set for fall 2008). The PW article says the screenplay focuses largely on Max's relationship with the Wild Things and his journey back home.

I just wonder who's playing the dog?

Stuff White People Like

My cousin Caitlin is to blame for bringing this blog to my attention this morning and, thereby, causing me to waste a large amount of company time reading (and stifling giggles with tears of mirth running out the corners of my eyes).

You're not in New England anymore.

Just around the corner from my hotel is the Buckhorn Saloon. The signs claim they have the world's largest collection of antlers.The Texas Ranger museum is also part of the saloon. I decided I needed to have lunch there and a friend who is also at this conference agreed to come. We did not pay the extra $16 to go into the museum (much as I would have liked to see the reconstructed Bonny and Clyde car...), but the restaurant was something in and of itself.


The whole room is full of dead stuffed animals and the walls are lined with heads. It's a bit disturbing - all of them watching you while you eat your cheeseburger. The mountain goats freaked me out the most. All of them had the front half of the goat mounted on a plaque to look like they are standing on a cliff. So strange.

There is a real, authentic, looking cowboy singing traditional songs ('Yippie Ky Yi Yea' and so on...). And not long after we arrived the reenacters from the Alamo started streaming in the door. It hurt my head a bit to see cowboys sharing tables with Santa Ana's soldiers. All of them wandering around with food trays and working the soda machines and lined up for the mens room was really surreal. I did manage to introduce myself to a certain Mr. Crockett who was sitting just behind us.

But, there's no basement....

I'm in San Antonio on a work trip. During a slow period this morning I went for a walk. My hotel is just a couple of blocks from the Alamo. I've been to the Alamo before and wasn't overly impressed with the exhibit. But I needed to get a gift for Ragamuffin who is feeding the beasties while I'm away. Turns out Thursday was the anniversary of the battle of the Alamo and this weekend there are big festivities going on. The plaza was swamped with cowboys and Santa Ana's troops getting ready to do a big reenactment.