The Week Begins

Just in the nick of time!  My Monday post for late Monday night.  

We had another wonderful, unscheduled weekend.  Long walks in the sunny cold for cups of coffee.  Mushroom barley soup simmering in my green soup pot.  A late night movie with my man.  And, unexpectedly, a long conversation about our future that involved a 9-year plan and a online search of dreamy properties!  It made me kind of excited in ways I did not anticipate.  

"Dinosaur Bones," Charlottesville, VA, January 15, 2012.

Instagram.

Here are a few other points of interest:

-- Last Monday night my sister came over to watch the Bachelor with me.  We don't watch much tv around here (except Downton Abbey, 60 Minutes, Jeopardy, and random episodes of whatever might be on HGTV or the Cooking Channel---but still, not a lot of regular programming, sitcoms, dramas, etc).  But I do have a habit of watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette series.  I find this television show to be so mindless and entertaining.  My husband is no fan, however, so when I say things like, "Oh my gosh, these woman need to stop saying, 'I'm actually more like  a guy than a girl...'" he doesn't even look up from his laptop to see what I'm fussing about.  Which is why it's really wonderful to have a sister in town who will come over and get sucked into mindless television with you.  Because watching these ridiculous shows (seriously, who would agree to share 1 man with 24 other woman???  It's sick.) is far more fun with a couchmate who cares.  Or kind of cares.  Anyway, all of this is to say that last week I made chicken and dumplings for our tv dinner, following this recipe, and I thought you might like it for cold nights in front of the tube.  Ellie and I agreed that next time we would add some veggies to the final pot in order to up the nutritional ante, but overall it was quite tasty and comforting.  

-- For Thanksgiving 2010 Todd and I drove to Austin, TX and back, which was perhaps one of my most memorable vacations ever (because I was blissfully pregnant and we ate good food and went somewhere new every day, not because of the food poisoning, which was also memorable).  We just happened to arrive in Dallas on the evening of the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, and that prompted a great study (mostly via the passenger's seat and a hand-held Blackberry) of historical evidence, conspiracy theories, and various Wikipedia entries.  On November 21st of this year we watched this short video on the New York Times website.  It made my heart pound at first.  Watch it to the end.

-- This past week I have seen quite a bit of Twitter discussion about proper crediting for photographers (and anyone who deserves credit for the creation of an image/scene).  Between blogs and Pinterest, there is an awful lot of un-credited imagery floating around out there on the web, and it certainly is a pet peeve of mine.  This handy diagram is a useful tool for anyone who thinks about posting images online that they did not actually create themselves.  You can do it, of course, but do it well!

-- Nothing But Bonfires published a comprehensive list of the books she read in 2011, complete with short reviews of each title, and her list has inspired me to get to the library and pick up some new books (or books on tape)!  I only read Bossypants of her picks from the last year (actually, I listened to it in my car at the end of the summer), though I've read and loved other books by several of the authors she lists, so I'm pretty sure I will enjoy most of her selection.  How about you?  What are you reading and recommending?

Okay, that's only four points of interest... but it's my bedtime.  

Tomorrow--a wedding on the blog!  Late summer loveliness.

Comments

[Belle]

"On a scale from 1 to 10, I think I'm going to throw up." We did get an appropriate reaction from Todd for that little reality comment tonight!

P.s. Mer makes the BEST cookies which we got to enjoy after thai takeout for tonight's episode!

[anniefannie]

I think it should be clarified that Todd throwing up has to do with The Bachelor tv episode last night, and NOT this fun and enjoyable post!