More Musicness - She & Him

I'm pretty much in love with the new album Volume One by She & Him. It's a collaboration between M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. Remember the movie Elf? Remember the girl who sings Baby It's Cold Outside in the shower and blew you away? Yup, that's Zooey Deschanel. You should definitely check it out.

Music Break

Have you heard of these women? I have been listening to these British female singers for the last couple of months and I'm still not sick of them. My favorite is probaby Kate Nash. I listen to this song over and over in the car.

And then there's Adele. Amazing husky quality to her voice. Kind of jazzy but not an Amy Winehouse wanna be (she's better). Even if you don't like the song, you should watch the video just to catch the dance sequences on the sidewalk. So cool!

And then there's Duffy. This is probably her most well-known song. Enjoy it!

Hope you enjoyed your little music break.

Juicer Mania

So, lately I have been juicing a whole lot of lemons for various (mostly cake) recipes. More about that later. My mom, though, does not have a good juicer. I'm just talking about a simple hand juicer. She has the top, but the bottom container has been long lost. Due to this, juicing lemons is quite the production. Because the actual juicer doesn't fit on a container, I have to improvise by holding the juicer on the edge of a container so that it doesn't slide off while trying to juice lemons at the same time. Needless to say, there was one accident where I lost almost one cup of hard-earned lemon juice all over the kitchen counter.

This one from Anthropologie (which also comes in 2 other designs). I love the design, as well as the fact that it is designed to pour straight from the container. Sorry the picture is so small, but I always have a hard time with Anthropologie's website.

I also love this vintage juicer that I found in the June22 etsy shop for only $12. I really like the handles on the sides as well as the 70s flower motif on the sides. If you can't tell, I am really liking the ceramic juicers.

I also like this vintage cobalt blue glass juicer that I found on ebay (for only $8.90).

And then I found this awesome clown juicer on ebay. Who couldn't use this bad boy in their kitchen? You can snap it up for only $45! (ah!)

The Best of the Best

The YouTube 2007 Awards are out. Above is one of my favorites: Human Tetris. You can check out the rest of the categories here.

Anticipation

So, this Thursday, March 27th at 1pm is the big day. I hope everything goes well because I really, really need this! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, ask me after that day because I don't want to jinx anything - just pray everything goes well!)

...

Sudan rejects Darfur rape charges

Sigh.

New Resolution...

Can you add resolutions in March? Oh well, I will anyway.

New Resolution - Comment as much as I can on peoples' blogs because it is so great to get comments and I figure that it's an easy way to make someone happy!

Catch 'em on a good day

Just some cute pics that my sister sent of my niece, Avery, and nephew, Carter. Apparently, Carter is practicing to be a future Intel engineer like his Dad...

To Read: In the Country of Men

So, as some of you know, I am kind of an NPR addict. The first step is admission, right? I download the podcasts for Books, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Story of the Day (I think there's one more) and listen to them as I walk in the morning or paint (which I have been doing a lot lately - not cool artistic painting, but boring and tedious primer to top coat on the wall kind of painting). Anyway, on the NPR Books podcast (from earlier this month) there was an announcement that the Bryant Park Project from NPR News was going to start it's own book club. After the announcement, they introduced the first book (that will be discussed on March 28 - they will discuss one book a month). The book? In the Country of Men, by Hisham Matar. This book, which chronicles the life of a family in Libya in the 1960s and 1970s sounds absolutely enthralling and amazing. You can read a little bit about it here on Amazon, or here on the NPR site. Now, this may not be quite as appealing to others as it was to me with my political science background and Africa fascination in general, but I think I must add it to the LONG list of books that I plan on reading. I think it would be so interesting to read about this September revolution of General Qhadafi (there are sooooo many different spellings of his name), full of mock trials, executions, persecutions, particularly as we now view him and his administration as our allies in northern Africa. Anyway, I just wanted to bring this book to your attention. If you get to it before me, let me know how it is!

Magical Places #4 - Musee National du Moyen Age

Musee National du Moyen Age (Cluny) - Unicorn Tapestries

One of my favorite experiences while I was in Paris was a visit to the Musee National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages). Anna (sorry there's no link, she's gone private) and I rushed to get here on a rainy day toward the end of our week in Paris. It would be impossible for me to articulate the impact that these tapestries had on me and my views of artistic expression in the Middle Ages (which Anna will definitely appreciate). The Unicorn Tapestries are a six tapestries representing the 5 senses, and a 6th mystery tapestry. The viewing room (show in the bad picture above) makes the whole experience very intimate. There was also a sense of isolation added to the experience as the whole museum had scarcely any visitors that day. If you are in Paris, I would definitely say that this is a museum you should make time to visit. It's hard to see the magnificence of the colors and textures of these tapestries through pictures. Suffice it to say that I was immensely touched and impressed after 2-3 months of viewing countless tapestries across Britain in various museums and on sundry estates. Below is a picture of the 6th tapestry (the meaning of which is still unknown).
Although the Unicorn Tapestries were the most amazing part of that experience for me, and I walked through much of the rest of the museum in a daze, there were still so many other pieces of art that caught my attention. Here are two pictures of some other artifacts from the museum:

You can visit the museum's website here where you can browse through more of the collections or read in more detail about the tapestries themselves. Oh, and if I failed to mention it before, I hope you picked up that they are called the Unicorn Tapestries because there is a unicorn in each of them!

Wowzer

So, I just wanted to let you all know that gas today is $3.64. Sigh. I guess some things are better in Utah...maybe. ;)

(oh, and apparently no one knows where to get Meyer lemons in Orange County. Oh well.)

Lemon Frenzy

Does anyone know where to find Meyer lemons? Hopefully somewhere in Orange County? Due to my New Year's Resolution to try new recipes, I have a couple that I would love to try but I need the elusive Meyer lemon. Am I looking at the wrong place? I did find a couple of "sweet lemons" at the local Stater Bros (after doing a grocery store search in the area). They didn't look so hot, though. I might just give in and go get them so I can try some recipes. For all that I am generally really happy to be back in CA due to immensely larger and more diverse produce sections (sorry, UT), I am wondering if I am just blind. Any suggestions short of growing them myself? (You can read more about Meyer lemons here if you are in the dark as I was).

In the Year 1943

My grandma was the ultimate correspondant. And she kept a running journal - I really mean that. You could probably look through her numerous journals and find the cost of bread for every year of her life. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away while I was on my mission in Brazil (having lived 20 minutes away my whole life, we were pretty close). A little while ago, my grandpa gave my dad some of my grandma's earliest journals. Each of the grandaughters (my sisters and me) got to choose one journal to keep. I chose her journal from 1943.

This journal covers her student teaching and graduation year in Ogden, Utah (where she grew up). It also covers the first time (yes, there was more than one) that she got engaged to my grandpa while he was stationed in Florida. And, as you may have suspected, it has a lot of details about her life during the war.

Although her actual entries are fairly brief (and always have the weather report), there are tons of cards, dance cards, letters, notes, and newspaper clippings. The majority of those clippings are notifications of deaths or missing in action reports of the young men. It is really hard to see how prevalent those are. I have also noticed that people in Ogden in 1943 were constantly going to get malts and shakes.

This year I have decided that I will read my grandma's entry for the day before I go to bed. It has been really interesting. Here are a few of my favorite entries:

Monday, January 18, 1943: (clear, but terribly cold) "I received my airmail registered letter from George today. It's supremely beautiful. I'm going to accept him. I believe that I love him. Marilynn and I ate lunch today. I saw M.M. she treated me to a sundae. I stayed home all evening. I received this poem from Vi. The letter contained the most beautiful proposal of marriage from George. I'm engaged now."

Monday, March 1, 1943: (cloudy most of day, cold) "The school hours have been changed, so I get through at noon. I ate lunch with M.M. (a good girlfriend) Harvey Turpin is in love now. Gosh, it seems to be contagious. M.M. came for me. We walked downtown. I never saw so many friendly soldiers in my life. It would have been easy to be picked up. We ate a sundae at Keeley's. We walked home."

She also includes the items that have been recently rationed. Anyway, it has truly been fascinating to read about her life day by day as she is in her early 20s.

Stuff White People Like

If you haven't heard about the blog Stuff White People Like, you should definitely check it out. I was listening to an interview with one of the authors and I find the whole idea hilarious and enlightening. The idea came about because of all of the stereotypes that people have about various marginalized groups of our society. The purpose is to aim a little self-effacing humor at the "default" group - the white person. Really, you should read it. The first post was about coffee, Obama was mentioned in #8, Oscar parties are in there as well as bicycles. Really, you just need to check it out...

Scottish Fold

Ok, so I am DEFINITELY a dog person. Cats? Not my thing - at all. A couple of weeks ago, though, my sister came home from work (at an animal hospital) and said that she saw a Scottish Fold cat (their ears fold forward). We looked it up on the internet, and I have to agree that if any cat would make me switch to the other side, it would definitely be this: