The One Where She Saw the Wolf

Last night about 6:00 p.m. I got a call from DK. He had asked a few weeks ago if I would cater a luncheon at his office. I didn’t think about it again… until last night when he mentioned that the luncheon was today. Surprise catering! It was like a Food Network challenge. You have eight dollars per person, and seventy people, and you are feeding them at 11:45 tomorrow morning. Oh, yeah... and don’t forget: you have one hand, and one witch claw. At least that is what one of my kids told me my left hand looks like. Nice.

So here is the menu:

Mixed Baby Greens with Raspberries and Sugared Pecans
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad
Homemade Butter Rolls
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Fruit
Chocolate Ganache Cake
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

I mapped out what I had to do before I went to bed... making the homemade croutons for the Caesar, making the rolls and the bread, cooking the pasta and making the cakes. Tasks that left a lot of down time, waiting for things to bake or rise. But yesterday a package arrived in the mail. It was the book Shiver, which I won in a blog giveaway from Debbie at Cranberry Fries. (Thanks Debbie, you made my week!) So in between cooking, baking and doing dishes, I rewarded myself with chapters of the book.

The book was even yummier than the food… I consumed all 390 pages before the last cake was out of the oven at about 2:30 a.m. And that was when it happened. It was steamy in the house, and so I took a five-minute break on the backyard swing while I waited for croutons to toast. I came in to turn out lights in the living room, and there, crouched right in front of my white slipcovered chair, was a wolf. I am not kidding you, here... it scared me so bad my knees went weak and my heart skipped a beat. I almost fell on the ground in full arrest, but then suddenly my heart kicked back in, beating about four times faster than it should have.

Funny thing. Turns out it was not a wolf, but actually a fairly innocent-looking guitar, just hanging out, leaning casually against the chair. Why, for a split-second, was it a feral wolf? Read Shiver after midnight sometime, and you will see.

And by the way, the Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad was so good that they ate almost ten pounds of it... and then they used the homemade bread to sop up the last of the dressing left in the bowl. This salad is a thing of beauty. One guy told me he loved it so much he wanted to marry it. So, naturally, I figured you would want the recipe:

Lick-the-bowl
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

The One With No More Sticky Notes

I am a list-maker. It is genetic. Got it from my mom. She used to present each family member with a to-do list on a Saturday morning, when all I really wanted to do was watch cartoons. I think we had three television stations that we could receive, and those Saturday morning cartoons were what we lived for. I still like me a good cartoon. But now I make my own to-do lists. I like to put them on sticky notes on my computer desktop. Virtual sticky notes, not real ones. Then I delete the items as I complete them. I have to admit that those lists actually helped me when I was a kid. I work better when I have a clear idea of what has to be done, and some way of marking progress.

But I have found as an adult, that anything I have to write on a sticky note is probably something that I really don’t want to do. Otherwise I would have just done it, rather than sitting down at the computer to compose a sticky note. For example, in the amount of time it took to sit down and type up a sticky note that says to call the insurance agent back, I could actually have called the insurance agent back. But that would require me doing the thing I don’t want to do. Creating a sticky note is a much more pleasant alternative. But I will admit, I weary of moving Monday’s jobs to Tuesday, and Tuesday’s list to Wednesday, as I have quite a collection of chores that I am studiously avoiding.

But this morning was different. It is not noon yet, and I have checked everything off my notes, and actually closed them... No sticky notes on the desktop! It makes me feel very accomplished. I must have been crazy busy, you are thinking. But no. My strategy involved something I will call simplification. I didn’t work harder; I just lowered my standards. Yes, I still have breakfast dishes in the sink. Bed made? No. But they weren’t on the list. Do you see where I’m going with this? Genius! My list consisted of, Get up. Get Skippy off to his first day of First Grade. Go for bagels with Kathie. Check my e-mails. Find a good book to read. Write a new blog post. Check.

And look at me… not even noon, and my whole To-Do List… wiped out and put away. Just wanted you to know I’m on a roll, over here… and I am just tingling with anticipation to see what is on the list for tomorrow. Maybe I will watch cartoons.

The One About Nobody

A post a day. Why did I say I would do that? Crazy talk. Dillon registered for school today. Do you realize I have a child in elementary school, one in middle school, one in high school, one in Marines music school, one on a mission, one at BYU, and one at UCLA law school? Holy Hannah Montana… do you think I missed anything? But that is not what I wanted to post about today.

I wanted to mention that I finally caught up my photography blog a bit, and put in some samples of some of the photos I have taken this summer. You can click on the link on the left side of the blog to check them out. You will have to tell me which ones you like. But that is not really my post today either.

I actually wanted to talk about reading today. I haven’t read much this whole year. I have been focusing on music, and have mostly deprived myself of my usual entertainment. Yes, I can’t lie. I love TV. But the books… I have been avoiding them, because I know I neglect other things when I indulge. I have decided to change that, and I am looking forward to it.

I read a book by Neil Gaiman this summer called The Graveyard Book. I don’t always love his books, although I really enjoyed Stardust. My only problem with his books is that I don’t always connect with the characters. My favorite books are those where I love the characters, and feel like I know them. For instance, Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, writes characters that become part of my family, practically. Now, I am not a huge fan of sad books. But there is this one book Card wrote, called Lost Boys. You read along, falling deeper and deeper into the story, and all of a sudden a couple of chapters from the end, there is a twist. Suddenly, everything you thought you knew has changed, and your heart breaks into jagged shards and you sit in the bathroom with a big wad of Kleenex for an hour. And then when you have stopped sniffling, he very carefully patches you back together so that you can finish the book and find out how it all turns out. An author who can do that… well, it is a gift.

Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book really worked for me. It is a story of a boy named Nobody who is adopted by ghosts, and I admit I shed a few tears over him as well.

Next up, there is a new Shannon Hale book I want to read. Question: If you could pick just one book for me to read, what would it be?