Last Thursday I watched Robots. It’s a movie Ted had netflixed and then studiously ignored for several weeks due to a blurb dubbing it “heartwarming.” Thursday Ted had gone to BLUG and I was in between books and a wee bit bored so I decided to watch the movie. It was mildly entertaining. In the movie, the older “outmode” robots are in danger of being shipped to a metal chop shop and destroyed.

For the past month, I’ve been looking for a new pair of jeans that fit me. I have grown use to never finding jeans that are short enough for me. However, within the last year I’ve also had trouble finding jeans that are tight enough in the waist and loose enough in the hip area. Today I decided to wander up to the Loveland outlets and see if perhaps something up there would work. My first stop was at a Levi’s outlet store. I wandered over to the misses area and started browsing. A store employee found me and asked if there was anything in particular I wished to buy. I told her that I wanted jeans that fit me. She glanced over me and replied that I wouldn’t be able to find anything that fit me because I had the “classic” shape. I just needed to resign myself to buying jeans too big in the waist and wearing a belt. I felt like I had just entered the Robot world and was being told by the evil Mr. Ratchet that I was beeing outmoded.

Fortunately, the sales lady was wrong. I tried a couple other stores and finally ended up at the new Foleys in Loveland. Imagine my surprise when I tried on a pair of size 10 Levi jeans that fit me perfectly including the legnth. So, after about a month of looking, I finally found a pair of jeans that fit me. Somehow it doesn’t seem like it should have been this hard.

While there are many, many recipes on the web, sometimes I just like to stick with my favorite cookbooks. Almost all of these books are for vegetarians.

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

The best all purpose cookbook I’ve ever encountered. Every recipe seems to turn out the way it should (even when one doesn’t follow the directions precisely). I tend to use the bread and dessert sections the most. It also has lovely cheat sheets for ingredient substitutions and cooking times for various grains and beans.

Better Homes and Gardens Best Bread Machine Recipes

This came bundled with my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. The recipes are good but I usually have to tinker quite a bit to make them come out right in the bread machine. It probably doesn’t help that I’m at a fairly high altitude.

The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen

Don’t like this quite as much as the Moosewood Cookbook but still quite good.

Favorite Brand Name vegetarian Cooking

In general I distrust recipe books with pretty pictures. It seems like they spend too much time on the pictures and not enough on the recipes. However, this book is an exception. It has pretty pictures and usually ends up tasting good too.

Laurel’s Kitchen

This is the book I pull out whenever I’m feeling extra healthy.

Lean and Lucious and Meatless

This book tends to be a bit healthier than many of my other recipe books. Plus they provide nutritional information for each recipe.

Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

Probably my favorite cookbook. It might take a while to make but it always turns out good.

New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant

My original Moosewood cookbook.

As most of you probably know, we went to Oklahoma for Christmas this year. For an away-from-home vacation, it was fairly relaxing. We had a good time but it was nice to get back and sleep in my own bed again. Often when I return from a trip I feel like I need another vacation to actually relax. So, it was extremely convenient I received time off for the New Years holiday.

While I enjoy vacation, it’s also nice to get back to the normal routine. Ever since Thanksgiving I haven’t been exercising as much as I should. There just seemed to be too many interruptions. However, now that the holidays are over, I’m hoping to be a bit more consistent.

The two cats are doing well. Willow finished her last batch of vaccinations last week so hopefully I can stop visiting the vet on a monthly (and sometimes weekly) basis. I really had no idea that kittens were so expensive. Willow and Five aren’t best buddies but seem to be cohabiting in relative peace. However, some of Willow’s bad habits are rubbing off on Five. Willow recently introduced Five to the mysterious world of kitchen counters. I am less than thrilled by this discovery. Squirting them with water seems fairly effective but this means one must be able to find the squirt bottle . . .

This last month I went through a reading phase. I don’t remember everything but I’ll list the ones I remember:

• Poison Study by Maria Snyder – pretty intertaining book
• The Merry Gentry series by Laurell Hamilton – I find her writing engrossing but really felt that about half of the sex scenes could have been left out and thus the series could have been condensed to two books instead of four.
• Where’s My Hero contained novellas by Lisa Kleypas, Kinley MacGregor and Julia Quinn – a nice fluffy book, perfect for vacation
• The Final Key by Catherine Asaro – Interesting writer. She writes a weird combination of romance interspersed with hard SF. I like her books but am starting to get a tad confused with how everyone is related in the Skolian Empire universe. I believe Primary Inversion is the first in the series and is also my favorite.

Hmmm . . . I’m pretty sure I read more than that but I can’t remember any of the others. I’m planning to read Rebel Ice by S.L. Viehl (one of my current favorite authors). However, I need to remember to order it. I’m debating whether or not I should ask the library to buy this. However, they don’t have any of the previous books in the series and I think they’re only available in paperback. Have I ever mentioned that I’m annoyed most libraries discriminate against fiction that is only available in mass market paperbacks? I suppose I should go ahead and ask the library to buy it. However, I always feel a little guilty if a book I requested doesn’t checkout often enough.

Well, I think that’s enough babbling for one night. Good night.

I just finished reading It Happened One Autumn. Technically it’s the second book in the Wallflowers series by Lisa Kleypas. However, the books within this series are only loosely related and can be read independent of each other.

Lillian Bowman’s father, a rich American soap manufacturer, has decreed that Lillian must find an English aristocrat to marry and raise the family’s social status. Unfortunately, society finds Lillian too independent and ill-bred. As a result, Lillian has spent the London season sitting on the sidelines with the other wallflowers. However, Lillian is determined to catch herself a husband, as long as it isn’t the insufferable and priggish Lord Westcliff.

Okay, I admit the book’s description sounds like every other historical romance. However, It Happened One Autumn is well written. It’s one of those books that make me wish I had a fireplace where I could curl up with a relaxing book and a glass of hot chocolate and ignore the rest of the world. Naturally I can ignore the world without a fireplace but a fireplace creates so much more atmosphere

Disclaimer: the two main characters do have graphic premarital sex (though thankfully not within the first couple of pages). The plot doesn’t revolve around sex but it does exist. Please don’t read this book expecting a traditional Jane Austen read-a-like.

Apparently one post isn’t enough for today. Maybe I’m trying to make up for lost time

Even though I was complaining in the last post that I couldn’t find any books to read, there are a lot of interesting websites devoted to books.

AllReaders.com
Yes, the interface is awful. However, their advanced search for books is interesting. To skip the pain of trying to find their advanced search (which they call “Detailed booksearch”), choose one of the genres listed:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Thriller/Action
Literature
Romance
Biography
History

whichbook.net
This site helps you find books based on “mood and style” or “plot, character and setting.”

Internet Book List
Very new to me. I just discovered this site today. Aims to provide “comprehensive and easily accesible database of books.” While it currently only has around 35,000 book entries, every book I’ve tried searching for has been found. Information can be found on authors, individual titles and series. In addition, users can browse by genre and subgenre. This site is a little unusal in that it clearly states the order a particular book comes in a series (why is this so rare?). After registering, users have the ability to rate books and write comments. If one decides to buy the book, instead of linking to the ubiquitous amazon.com, users can click to visit Powells (the best real life book store located in Portland, OR) or Abe Books.

Amazon.com
Why am I listing Amazon? Certainly not for the “Customers who bought this book also bought” feature. However, Amazon allows its users to create “Listmanias” and “Guides” for their favorite books. Search Amazon for a favorite book and then scroll down to the very bottom and try out one of the Listmanias or Guides. Some are awful but occasionally I’ve found a new book this way.

Novelist
Novelist is a Reader’s Advisory Database. It is probably available through your local public library (find their website and look for links to databases, reference, or reader’s advisory). You can search for books by title, author, series, and plot. In addition, Novelist sometimes has “Read-A-Like” lists for famous authors and users can browse book suggestions by genre. The main disadvantage of this service is sometimes I’ll find the perfect book and then discover my library doesn’t have it. However, most libraries have an intralibrary loan program where you can borrow from other libraries through them. Unfortunately, this takes time.

Enough links for now. I think I should go be useful

Nothing much has changed in my life since last writing. So in order to post some sort of content, no matter how boring, I’m going to discuss my current reading tastes.

I’m currently in a bit of a slump when it comes to reading material. It’s kind of ironic that I, the former Reference Librarian, am having trouble finding something to read. Don’t get me wrong, I still bring at least five books home a week. It’s just been too long since I found a book that really caught me. I don’t know if it’s just a phase I’m in or if there really aren’t enough books out there to catch my attention.

I think one problem is I generally only like books with a female protagonist. Jaeger’s and my “favorites” bookshelf clearly illustrate this. Of the books on the favorites bookshelf, 100 (exactly, oddly enough) are books that either I bought or would have bought without Jaeger’s intervention. 73% of these books have a female as the main character and a good share of the remaining precentage contain strong secondary female characters.

I’m a re-reader. I almost never buy a book unless I’ve read the book several times or the book belongs to a series I own. On my favorites shelf, 83% of the books could be classified as either Science Fiction or Fantasy.

Favorite Series:

• Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series (the ones he actually wrote)
• The Kushiel series by Jaqueline Carey
• The Mageworlds by Debra Boyle and James D. MacDonald
• The Belgariad by David Eddings
• The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
• Robin McKinley’s retold fairy tales
• The Liaden novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
• The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
• The Heris Serrano and Esmay books by Elizabeth Moon
• The Emily of New Moon books by L. M. Montgomery
• The Stardoc Novels by S.L. Viehl
• The Honor Harrington novels by David Weber

What do most of these books have in common?

1. Mostly female protagonists
2. Mostly SF or Fantasy
3. Strong themes of adventure and quests
4. Often are Space Operas
5. Romantic elements (though sometimes only obliquely hinted)
6. Individual books (if part of a series) can usually be finished in a day or two (300-600 pages or so)
7. Decent character exporation

Hmmm . . . I’m not sure if this list helps me at all.

A couple of months ago Ted and I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica called “Valley of Darkness” (link contains spoilers). In it was featured a piano solo composed by Philip Glass titled Metamorphosis One. It caught Jaeger’s and my attention. The melody is fairly simple and it’s repetitious. It is probably because of these characteristics that I find it very soothing to listen to. Jaeger tracked down where the song came from and then I started looking for it online. I was excited when I discovered that there was sheet music available for this song. However, the only place I could find selling the book was Amazon. I went ahead and ordered both the sheet music and the accompanying CD. I was a little distressed when they said the sheet music wouldn’t be available till the end of October (it was either late August or early September when I ordered) but figured late music is better than no music.

A couple of days ago I recieved an email from Amazon informing me that so far they have been unable to track down a copy of the sheet music and so they would go ahead and send the CD (I’m cheap so chose to ship the two items together). Today I received the CD annd immediately started listening to it. It provides a very nice calming atmosphere perfect for relaxing after work.

Speaking of work, today while I was searching the catalog, I ran across a fascinating book called So You Want to Be President written by Judith St. George and illustrated by David Small. It’s a very amusing yet educational picture book that won the Caldecott Medal in 2001. I learned quite a bit about our past presidents such as:

Today started out fairly normal. I dragged myself out of bed, got ready for work and met Sue at the park n ride. We got to work and I headed toward my office. Right before I got to my office I ran into our associate director holding two kittens. She informed me that someone had dumped four kittens at our library. One black kitten, one grey, and two white. They had managed to catch three of the kittens. However, the fourth one was extremely wiley and managed to avoid capture. Well, the associate director couldn’t spend all day trying to catch the fourth cat so she decided to head to the humane society with the three she had already caught but encouraged us to keep trying to grab the 2nd white kitty.

It took us a while but eventually our ILL lady managed to catch the white one. She boxed it up and intended to put it in our associate director’s office. About the time we finally managed to catch the white cat, our associate director returned from the humane society and informed us that they really didn’t want to accept anymore cats (due to a distemper outbreak). However, they would make a special exception for us since we’re a library and the cats were strays. I’ve heard from a couple people that the humane society in that area isn’t very good because they are chronically overcrowded. So, a bad idea formed in my head.

I’ve had a couple of people suggest that Five might be happier if she had some companionship while Jaeger and I are at work. However, I’ve been hestitant to get a 2nd cat for a couple of reasons:
1) Jaeger’s allergic. What would the result of 2nd kitty be on his health?
2) What if Cat5 doesn’t want a cat companion?
3) Do we really want 2 cats?
4) Do we want to pay the humane society for another cat?
It occurred to me that this kitten could be used as a test case. I could take her (I don’t know the gender yet, “she” is being used in a generic sense) home for a couple of days, see how she does and if it doesn’t work out I could take her the humane society where she would end up anyway.

I emailed Jaeger (who is currently in Boston) to see what he thought. He seemed dubious about the idea but willing to give it a shot (at least while he’s gone ).

I brought her home and put her in the main level bathroom where she will remain in quarantine until tomorrow after I have the vet check her out. After that, we’ll see how well Five adjusts to having a second cat. Right now, I’m dubious. Five did not appear happy to discover there was another cat in the bathroom. She hissed at it a couple of times until I coaxed her away.

It’ll will be fascinating to see how this experience turns out.

One of the genres I explored last year was Chick lit. One of the books I started (and actually finished) was Confessions of a Shopaholic. I’m not exactly sure what emotions Chick Lit is suppose to engender but the female in this book is so utterly idiotic when it comes to finances/self-control that it left me feeling paniced. In the various chick lit books I’ve sampled, all the heroines are obsessed with clothing.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking up information about one of my current favorite authors, Sheila Viehl*, and discovered that she has a blog. Today I read this post. In it she discusses fashion and chick lit shoes. It’s hilarious.

* My favorites are the books she writes under the name S.L. Viehl.

Thursday Jaeger bought an expansion set to “Settlers of Catan” called “Cities and Knights of Catan”. Saturday night Jaeger, Neal and I tried it out. It took us a while to go through the new rules and once we started I was still a bit confused. However, overall I really liked the game. It required me to completely rethink the strategy I tend to use for “Settlers of Catan”.

“Cities and Knights of Catan” is much more complex than standard Catan. Among other things, Catan now has 3 dice that get rolled on every turn. If the event die rolls a black ship the “barbarian hordes” advance on the island. Once they reach the island various cities are sacked and the barbarians go straight back to their homeland. When we first started playing the game, I figured the hordes would only attack once or twice during the game. However, this was incorrect. The hordes attacked at least 6 times, probably more throughout the 2 1/2 hr game. To defend Catan against the invaders not only do you have to have a knight (preferably more than one), you also have to have the knight “activated.” I was continually forgetting to activate my knight in time. I’d start concentrating on a different part of the game and the barbarians would sneak up unnoticed until it was too late.

I don’t know why, but I think I prefer this expansion to “Seafarers of Catan”. Maybe I just haven’t played “Knights and Cities” enough to understand how horribly I can lose In any case, I’m looking forward to the Fest where hopefully others can be recruited to try out Cities and Knights.