What to Read?

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Quandry:

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, my reading habit has been sadly set aside.  Most of my Christmas chores are done so now I'm ready to curl up again with a good book.  The problem is that I can't seem to find one that I want to read.

I've tried a few...Elegance of the Hedgehog, Run, So Cold the River...no, no, no.  Apparently I'm in a picky mood.

So, should I try classic adventure and finish the Narnia Chronicles?  (I've only read the first two.)
Should I try some dysfunctional family drama and read The Corrections?  (Maybe not such a good idea at Christmastime.)
Should I just choose a straight-on classic like A Tale of Two Cities?  (This one is back on my radar thanks to Oprah.)

I feel a little lost without a book in my hand.

Check This Out

Mom gave me this cool gift pack from Starbucks. Inside was this cute mug with a rubbery drinking lid. It has already become a new fave. I think every beverage I drink this Christmas will be in this cool cup. Coffee, tea, juice, wine...
Right now my bev of choice is hot chocolate. Ghirardelli double chocolate. I was always a Swiss Miss girl growing up and that continued into my frugal singlehood. G introduced me to Ghirardelli in our early dating days and I've never looked back.

Braised Red Cabbage

From today's dinner...

Christmas Celebration #1

We celebrated Christmas with my Mom and Pseudo Pop today.  G shoveled and salted the sidewalks and driveway.  "No broken hips today!"

Today's menu included roast duck (for Pseudo Pop), beef tenderloin (for the rest of us), wild rice, noodles Romanoff, and braised red cabbage.  Oh, and we started with crab cakes.  Whole Foods Market advertised fresh Dungeness crab, cleaned and cracked, between 12-4 yesterday.  We arrived at the store at 1:30 to find...no more fresh crab.  Grrrr.  G found a can of crab on sale, but I was crushed that I wasn't able to see the fishmonger cracking the crabs.  Though once I tasted a crab cake today, I forgot all about it.

After dinner?  Coffee, tea, and presents!  I'm so grateful for my family.  And for my presents.

This recipe has become a Christmas tradition at our house:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/roast-beef-tenderloin-with-mushroom-ragout-recipe/index.html

Movie Season

I keep renting DVDs from the library, but during the summertime the DVDs just sit there. Now that fall is around the corner, I feel the urge to just dive in and swim in a sea of celluloid.

G is a big fan Entourage, I'm a big fan of In Treatment, and there's a Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm this season. Plus, we're both Real Time with Bill Maher junkies. However, we are not subscribers of HBO. We've been talking it over and mostly decided to order it. I think G was waiting for me to call our cable service and order it. Unfortunately, I am completely burned out by speaking with customer service (and I use that term loosely) reps and phone trees.

So Sunday I made an executive decision. As I was sitting on the couch watching Tiger try to come back for a win, I pulled up the cable service web site just to see if I could lazily click a button and order HBO that way. And it worked. Within two minutes, I had HBO.

I can't decide which I love more. Movies or technology to help me watch more of them.