mojosmom

(snitched from madame_urushiol)

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100.
Bold those you have read.
(Added: Italicize the ones TBR)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (Only partly bolded because I've read only part of the series!)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

( the rest of them )

Copy and paste the first few sentences of the first real entry (no quizzes, memes, etc.) for each month of 2009. (I'm not using PhotoFriday posts, either.)

January: "I'm Still Here!"

Gosh, I haven't posted anything since last year! I guess that's what comes of a) having one's sisters in town, and b) coaching, as usual, at the Appellate Defender's Trial Advocacy program. Cathy, Stacey and I did a fair bit of running around.

February: "Weekend"

My best-laid plans of sleeping late this weekend went agley on Friday. I was having lunch with one of the guys at the offce. He'd been sick lately (pneumonia), and, being a guy, came back to work too soon, relapsed, and still was feeling a bit punk.

March: "Horton Foote"

Exactly one year ago, I wrote: But another old man is still going strong. Last night I went to the Goodman theatre for "A Conversation with Horton Foote", and cake and champagne in honor of his 92nd birthday (coming up next week). I hope I'm in such good shape when I'm ninety-two!

April: "I'm off!"

I'm off to Cleveland for a few days. I may or may not hop onto my sister's computer to say, "Hi". In any case, I'll see you all when I get back!

May: "A sad loss"

Every criminal defense lawyer who gets the chance goes to the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia. As a baby adolescent public defender, I was lucky enough to be sent there by my office. And lucky enough to have, as one of my instructors, Bill Moffitt.

June: "A memorial service, some jazz, and odds and ends"

On Sunday, I went to the memorial service for Leon Despres (I wrote about his passing here. It was held at KAM Isaiah Israel, which I had forgotten was designed by Despres' father-in-law, the well-known Chicago architect, Alfred S. Alschuler.

July: "Two giants pass"

Yesterday, I woke, as usual, to WFMT's Morning Program. Shortly after the regular newscast and a bit of music, the host, Carl Grapentine, announced that they had just been told of the death of Norm Pellegrini. Who, you ask, is Norm Pellegrini?

August: "I'm off!"

Tomorrow I head to Boston. I'm going to see the Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese exhibit at the MFA (among other things), attend a conference with a bunch of lawyers, and hang out with some Bookcrossers.

September: "Art & Music"


In January, 1904, the Chicago Public Library's first branch library opened. The T.B. Blackstone branch was built from funds donated by his widow for that purpose, and was designed by Solon Beman. (This was something of a family tradition, as Blackstone himself had had a library built in Branford, Connecticut, in his father's memory. In that case, too, Beman was the architect.)

October: "Celebrity Farmers' Market"

I wandered over to 61st St. Farmers' Market today, because I wanted to see the chef demo (seared flank steak with a Dijon/caper/white wine sauce). There was a vaguely familiar-looking young woman watching the demo, and I realized that it was Stephanie Izard, winner of the fourth season of Top Chef. Later, a former United States Senator showed up (she lives in the neighborhood).

November: "Various kinds of music"

Friday night at the opera, first. None of the various people I go with could make it. Jamie was teaching at a seminar in Springfield, and wouldn't get back in time. Beth & Duncan's son was in a soccer tournament.

December: "Close Encounters"

Last night, I went to hear Chuck Thurow, one of the curators, talk about the Hyde Park Art Center exhibit, "Close Encounters", a collaborative project involving artists from the U.S. and New Zealand. I'd have likely gone anyway, but the fact that I've made Kiwi friends here and on BookCrossing gave the project an immediacy and interest for me that it might not otherwise have had.

(Criminy! A lot of deaths recorded.)

Snitched from alives


Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test ...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

Take the test yourself!

( Snitched from a bunch of folks )

52 1/2.

This took a while! Because, of course, I had to read over a bunch of old journal entries, and comb through old photos, and you can't do all that in a twinkling! So here you go . . .

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:

Cooking aromas.

I went to the supermarket today, and they had some lovely beef stew meat on sale. So I made beef stew. I love to make slow-cooking, good-smelling things in cold weather. I reconstituted some dried wild mushrooms, and used a mix of that and beef broth, along with aromatic veggies. It tasted as good as it smelled.

This evening, I made chocolate chip cookies to take to a holiday party tomorrow. Those tasted good, too. (What, you think I wouldn't sample?)

There's a cute little furry thing purring in my lap!

Oh, the silly thing! My keyboard is on a ledge that slides under the desk. She just rolled over, hit the ledge, and was extremely startled when it moved. Except she's pretending that she meant to roll over and fall onto the floor.

I got home safely! That makes me very happy, as it was a long and snowy drive.

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing and even if it's just a one-line post.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail.
3. Tag 8 of your friends to do the same.

I went to Advent Vespers at Rockefeller Chapel. Beautiful music in a beautiful setting, followed by carols (accompanied by the newly-restored carillon) and hot cider on the lawn. I fully confess that I did not stay long for the caroling, as I'd forgotten my earmuffs and it was cold!

Nabbed from a couple of folks.

100 foods you should eat. Bold what you've eaten, italicize what you've eaten and hated, strikethrough those you're not willing ever to try. Underline ones you have no idea what they are.

( Behind a cut to save space )