(no subject)

I am going off hiatus as a book reviewer for curledup.com. I decided that since I have some extra time right now, I might as well keep my writing fresh. And getting some new books is always good, too. ;)

The titles I selected:

- The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street (Charles Nicholl)

- The Triumph of Deborah (Eva Etzioni-Halevy) (I have reviewed two of her books previously, and both reviews were excerpted on her website)

- All For Love: The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson (Amanda Elyot)

- Loss of Innocence: A Novel of the French Revolution (Anne Newton Walther)

- A Choice of Shakespeare's Verse (Ted Hughes)

- Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of my Father's German Village (Mimi Schwartz) (and my obsession with Holocaust literature continues)

YAY! So excited! I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately, except that I picked up Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool the other day and started reading that. So this will get me back into the books again.

And I still haven't broken in my library card! Been meaning to do that!

***

Oh, and while I'm at it...last night's dinner, which was much tastier than I was expecting. Adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe.

Slow Cooker Mexican Beef Stew
1.5 pounds beef stew meat
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 tsp. chili powder
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 TBSP. onion powder
11 oz. can mexicorn, drained
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

Mix first 3 ingredients in a 3-4 quart slow cooker. Cook on low 9-11 hours.

Mix in remaining ingredients and cook on high for 15-30 minutes, or until stew reaches desired thickness.

Serve with sour cream and cheese. Yummy yum. The meat was just falling apart when I took it out.

I would actually consider this more of a chili variation than beef stew, but who cares? It's delicious!

(no subject)

I find myself at a loss about what to do for Valentine's Day, which, for those not paying attention, is one mere week from today.

Lance already bought me a little something. A pretty crackled glass thing I saw at AAFES a couple of weeks ago. Because it was sold in limited quantity, he figured he better not wait to pick it up. It was sitting on the fireplace mantle, before I took it down to begin the next stage of our redecorating project.

As to whether or not he's getting me anything else, I really can't say. And I'm at a total loss (both in money and ideas) when it comes to getting him something.

I think for dinner, however, I'll pick up a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. Lance was pointing it out to me the other day, telling me that they're only available on Feb. 14th. So I think he's trying to tell me that he wouldn't mind pizza. Then I can pick up a heart-shaped cheesecake at Top. And we can eat it by candlelight and then play Yahtzee or Uno or Trivial Pursuit or something.

Wow...that's romantic. :P But what matters to me is spending quality time with him, and neither of us cares that much about V-Day anyway. I spent most of my life hating the holiday and cursing its existence.

Anyway...speaking of pizza, I am meeting Farlis for lunch here in a bit. We have a 1 pm date. It was rescheduled from yesterday, since she got a call at the last minute to take care of some business for a friend who was sick. We are going to Pizzeria Fondi...even though I was just there the other day. I don't think I'll be getting pizza. I want to try their homemade flatbread with their house-made mozzarella cheese and maybe get a salad.

It's really windy and a nasty day to be out, but the only thing that has gotten me out of the house recently was the horrid temp job.

Lance just came home for lunch.

A Happy Afternoon

Farlis and I met for lunch at 1...she was running a little late because she had a job interview. She showed up in her business suit, while I was casually dressed.

No matter. We had fun.

We split a plate of homemade flatbread and mozzarella slices and each had our own salad. I had the Insalata di Mele, which was greens with apple chunks, walnuts and gargonzola...so so so good. Everything was fantastic. But I was stuffed. I still am. I don't think I'll be able to eat dinner.

While we were eating lunch, she suggested that we go see a movie. We had discussed seeing 27 Dresses before. So we went to the cinema afterwards, which was 2 doors down, and found that the matinee show started in 15 minutes. Perfect. So we got our tickets and enjoyed the movie.

It was nice to spend an afternoon not thinking about my job search problems.

Tomorrow, because it's cheap, we're meeting up to take a walk at the trail on the golf course. Plus we get some exercise, so bonus. But I think it also depends on the weather.