I'll take some coffee with my milk, please.

It has been SO SLOW at work lately, so I read two books the past few days.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr came highly recommended by my father. It just recently came out, so I could only get it from the library from their "7 day only" loan shelf because all the other copies were out. This novel is set during the lead up and the final days of WWII. It follows two young people, a blind girl living in Paris and a German orphan boy. Each "chapter" is only a few pages or less and vacillates between their narratives. The writing and descriptions in this book is are so lovely even when writing about the atrocities of war. I very much enjoyed this book - highly recommended for everyone. 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is a fun one I picked up on the recommendation of someone in my book club. I liked that this book had a vaguely magical aspect without anything magical happening. The narrator is a young man who had recently graduated from college and promptly lost his job in the recession. He becomes a clerk at a 24 hour book store in San Francisco. Eventually he notices that some of his customers are acting curiously and taking out books entirely written in code and he sets out to discover what is happening. This was a very fast and interesting book! 

My dad asked me to post some pictures of the IX Building location that I have been working at lately: 

Click to keep reading!

looking up

Hello! It's rainy and gross here (but not cold like in Woods Hole where there is the possibility of anywhere from 2 - 22 inches of snow coming).

I read three books these past two weeks, but I'm only going to tell you about two because the one I read  last night/today was free on the kindle - I finally learned how to get ebooks! - and not worth talking about.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett took me about two weeks to read because it was almost 1,000 pages long. I was shocked that enjoyed it so much! Normally I am not into books that are so long and although I love love love historical fiction, the novel is about building a cathedral which sounded suspiciously boring to me. However, this really is Follett's masterpiece and I will never look at churches the same. Although the book revolves around the cathedral being built at the Kingsbridge Priory (England, early 1100s), the story jumps around and focuses on different characters who are all somehow involved: Prior Phillip, the master builder Tom and his family, Tom's step-son Jack, William and his allies who want to destroy the cathedral, the beautiful Aliena, etc. so you get architecture, fights and wars, a love story, revenge, curses. I hauled that book around with me everywhere I went, very worth it.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey focuses on a modern day police investigator who is laid up in the hospital. While there he begins an historical investigation into the disappearance of the two princes in the Tower of London, supposedly killed by Richard III. I won't spoil all the details but I am thoroughly convinced that Richard did not do it and I am very pleased because I always liked him and wished that he was less of a murderous jerk. Really clever book, lots of interesting historical facts and a very important reminder not to believe everything your history book (or history teacher!) tells you.

I've been very excited about taking photos of birds lately!

This little guy I saw while I was home over break. From my online research I think that he is a Cedar Waxwing.

click read more to see more birds!

ricotta gnocchi recipe

For 2015 I decided to try and cook more and with greater variety. This week I made gnocchi for the first time! My mom and I made a lot of pasta at the beginning of this summer, but as I do not have a pasta maker here, I decided to try a style that is easier to do by hand.

Ricotta Gnocchi

We used to eat gnocchi at "Gracious Dinner", a fancy supper put on at holidays by Mount Holyoke. Traditionally gnocchi is made with mashed potatoes, but because I am always looking for a way to eat more cheese, I decided to try an easier version with a ricotta base.

Made three servings: two large supper portions and a left-overs lunch the next day.

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups of ricotta

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup of flour

pasta sauce

olive oil

extra cheese for serving :)

where is winter?

It's 40 degrees in Charlottesville right now and we have an estimated high of 54! Where is winter?? The other day (tuesday i think) we had a thin dusting of snow and people freaked out, no one could drive, all the sorority girls broke out their uggs, it was ridiculous.

image from tumblr

I have been making non-fat chais ("do you have non fat soy?") alllll week for the girls rushing sororities. ("how many calories does this gluten free cupcake have?" "Can I get six forks so we can share this one cupcake?")

Today is my day off (yay!), it was a long week back, i've worked 6 days this week and work 6 next week, although it is still not full time which baffles me. I've been doing some redecorating and organizing this morning, Keegan just got up and is watching the Arsenal game, we have to go grocery shopping at some point. Keegan's friend Dan made fun of us last night over text message for being boring. However, his night of hosting a huge party at his frat because it's rush week and having people totally trash the place does not sound fun to me in the slightest.

this is the extent my "partying" ever gets to, eating chinese food and watching someone else drink beer

hellooo 2015

it's been three weeks since I last posted because I was seeing everyone at home and therefore you all knew what I was up to!

three whole weeks and I only read ONE BOOK, that just goes to show what a difference having friends and people to hang out with does to your free time (eats it up).

My january book club book was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout. Each chapter was told from a different perspective of residents in a small Maine town who interacted with the title character Olive Kitteridge. My friend actually read it in a psych class, the book explores different metal states and ways of living and loving. Very sweet, kind of sad, but highly recommended! (Woods Hole library has a copy).

My time at home was wonderful, and it's nice to know that Keegan and I can easily make the drive back in one day.

we left at 7 am to drive back and it took us just over 10 hours with no traffic!

Here's the blue ridge mountains at sunrise. I thought I would miss the ocean more, but I really love the mountains!

It's the most wonderful tiiiime of the year!

Hey y'all I'm home! Keegan and I got in late Friday night, 11 and a half hours of driving, didn't hit a lot of traffic, ate a lot of snacks, not bad all around. 

I read two books last week:

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier is a YA book about a young woman who is thrown in prison (time period unknown, but they ride horses so... Medieval?) and gets offered a deal that she can escape if she spends the next 7 years helping anyone who asks for help instead of seeking revenge on the guy who got her thrown in jail. There's some royalty, some magic, some forests involved. The book was a nice diversion from worrying about Christmas presents or lack there of! 

I then read Trapeze by Simon Mawer which I loved and I reccomend to all. It's a fictionalized story of the real women in WWII who were sent undercover into Nazi occupied France to help with the Resistance.  I love reading and learning about the world wars, so this novel was right up my alley. 

Not a book but still awesome, Serial, a spin-off of The American Life by NPR, just ended. It's a podcast, so only online, but you can download them to your device or comp through iTunes or listen online at serialpodcast.org/

A reporter reexamines a 15 year old murder case of a teenager girl in Baltimore. Her ex-boyfriend is currently serving life. The story is compelling and exciting and really made me think about the criminal justice system in America. 

In other news, I crafted so much this week!

I painted a moon phases design onto the back of a over shirt I bought at Salvation Army last month:

First I cut out some templates and chose my colors of fabric paint. I used an old cereal box for the cardboard, draw a circle using a bowl, and then decided how many moon phases I wanted to do. Tulip is my favorite brand of fabric paint.

one week to go!

Hello all!
It's been a hectic two weeks, I worked almost 50 hours last week (thank you pregnant co-worker for the extra hours) and then got hit with a massive cold.

I have read a couple of great books while in bed the past few days:
The Circle by Dave Eggers (Keegan's literary crush) was really interesting, but I hated all the characters. The novel is about our society when social media takes over and how it affects our rights to privacy, opinion, etc. Very pop-psychology, a sort of end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novel without the zombies. Not Egger's best work, but entertaining non the less.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, another amazing book produced by my favorite author. I highly recommend this to everyone. The main character, Shadow, a man just released from prison, gets hired by Mr. Wednesday to be a glorified errand boy - driving him around, picking up and delivering packages, etc. Shadow comes to understand that everyone he is meeting and working for are gods (stay with me here) that were brought over by immigrants or explorers hundreds of years ago. It sounds kind of lame, but it so so interesting. They don't have magical powers, they're just ordinary men and women who used to have thousands of worshippers, trying to stay alive in a world of car-gods, and internet-gods. So fascinating. I read the 10th anniversary edition which is the extended manuscript but I am sure the regular edition is great too! Really read anything by Gaiman, he's a miracle.

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winters was recommended to me by my lovely mother. Each chapter is a different story but the story-line repeats itself in different settings - pirates, space explorers, a woman living in NYC. The stories examine our relationships with nature, with technology, and what defines us as humans. Similar to Cloud Atlas, which I have seen the movie version of but not read yet. I also recommend this book highly!

Isn't this picture amazing?! My friend shared it online, so I am not sure where it came from, but I love it so much.