Reading List: June 2011

JUNE

37.  Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #1)
36.  *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3)
35.  *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2)
34.  *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter #1)
33.  Ptolemy's Gate, by Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book 3)
32.  The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book 2)
31.  *The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud (The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book 1)

MAY

30.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (I've read Pride and Prejudice before, but sans zombies)

29.  I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (pseudonym for James Frey and Jobie Hughes) (Lorien Legacies #1)

28.  *Anne of the Island, by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables Series #3)

27.  *Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables Series #2)

26.  *Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables Series #1)

25.  The Red Queen, by Philippa Gregory (Cousins' War #2) 

24.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nests, by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy #3)

APRIL

23.  The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy #2)

22.  Disappearing Ingenue Stories, by Melissa Pritchard

21.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy #1)

20.  Resident Evil: Code: Veronica, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #6)

MARCH

19.  Resident Evil: Nemesis, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #5)

18.  Resident Evil: Underworld, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #4)

17.  Resident Evil: City of the Dead, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #3)

16.  Resident Evil: Caliban Cove, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #2)

15.  Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy, by S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novelizations #1)

14.  Nation, by Terry Pratchett (NOT a Discworld novel)

FEBRUARY

13.  *King of Shadows, by Susan Cooper

12.  Zombie Apocalypse!, created by Stephen Jones (compiled)

11.  The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory (Cousins' War #1)

JANUARY

10. * Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, by Dorothy Gilman (Mrs. Pollifax Series #8)

 9.  The Other Side of Dawn, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #7)

 8.  The Night is for Hunting, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #6)

 7.  Burning for Revenge, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #5)

 6.  Darkness, be My Friend, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #4)

 5.  The Third Day, The Frost (aka The Killing Frost), by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #3)

 4.  The Dead of Night, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #2)

 3.  Skin Trade, by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #17)

 2.  *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #7)

 1.  Tomorrow, When the War Began, by John Marsden (The Tomorrow Series #1)

2011 Rapture

So I'm up to two posts in a row that aren't original me, but this one definitely deserves a shout-out.  I actually meant to post/link it ages ago, but other things kept coming up.

Due to copyright concerns (and space/size) I'm just linking to it.  Do check it out though.  It is hi-lar-i-ous. (or sinful--you'll probably go to hell for laughing, but God looks at porn, so . . . )

How God is Managing the 2011 Rapture (from The Oatmeal)

Nice marmot, dude

I don't think there's anything I can add that will top this.

Man with dead weasel accused of assault

– Wed Jun 8, 3:25 pm ET

HOQUIAM, Wash. – Police say a man was carrying a dead weasel when he burst into an apartment and assaulted a man in Washington state.

The victim asked, "Why are you carrying a weasel?" Police said the attacker answered, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

The attacker was apparently looking for his girlfriend and had gone to her former boyfriend's apartment Monday where the victim was a guest.

KXRO reports he left the carcass behind.

Police later found the 33-year-old Hoquiam man arguing with his girlfriend at another location and arrested him after a fight.

He said he had found the marten dead near Hoquiam, but police don't know why he carried it with him.

A marten is a member of the weasel family.

From here.

What's in a name? Frustration.

So I didn't change my name when I got married.  This has been a fairly constant battle with all sorts of entities, including governmental and various family members (generally not close ones).  Somehow, however, when we moved to Lewisham Road, it got sorted out with the various agencies we owe money to on a regular basis (water, electric, council tax, etc.).  I'm guessing this is mostly because I did all the work with the letting agent, so they used my name, and dumped Adam's on there as an afterthought.  They also handled most of the initial paperwork (including trying to change the energy provider without our--or our landlords'--permission, which really pissed me off), so it got sent off correctly to said agencies (Yorkshire Water managed to royally screw up both our names, but they were nice and fixed them promptly).  Miracle of miracles, something went right.

I find the whole thing ironic, of course, because prior to getting married, I was known everywhere by my maiden name.  Thus, it should be easier to not change it than change it, but whatever.  And while I know my friends' married names (those who changed their names), I still think of them--and often refer to them out of convenience--by their maiden names as well.  I guess we'll see what happens in the States, where I more truly existed than I did here, at least prior to March 2010, when I arrived with my marriage visa in hand.  In the States, not only did I not legally change my name, which is--at least in the State of Oregon--easy to do on a marriage license, since it provides a list of choices for each party (Weidmann, Barrett, Weidmann-Barrett, Barrett-Weidmann), but I effectively confirmed my maiden name.  A sidenote: if you don't want one of the choices that the computer provides for you, you must go before a judge to legally change your name, even if you're changing it because you're getting married, which is the only way to legally change your name if it's not via marriage (friends who wanted to combine their last names--Merriam and Foxsomething--to Merrifoxes had to do this).

Digressions aside, right now my decision is biting me in the butt (note Adam's laughter. Jackass).  This is because I'm applying for some open positions at his work, and nepotism being what it is, it would probably help to have Adam's last name.  Alternately, having a section on the application form* that asks "do you know anyone who is or has been employed by ____" would also be useful.  But I can't work it into the cover letter, nor anywhere on the application form.  So instead--and to be fair, I would have asked him to do this anyway--my dear hubby is whoring my name around as best he can, in the hopes that perhaps I'll actually land an interview.

So apparently I can't win for losing.  Or lose for winning.  Either way.  Oh well, here's hoping for the best.

*I hate application forms.  Just accept a CV and a cover letter.  Being unable to determine suitable candidates from a CV and page of text but somehow able to pick them out via an application form shows a distinct lack of initiative and intelligence in my mind.

Pie!

So I know it's been a bit since I've posted (excepting the reading list--Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by the way, is a great read, and makes good ol' Jane Austen much more interesting--sorry Levi, I know that's blasphemy, but . . . ), and I wasn't sure if I was going to post about my recent triumph in the workplace--no, it's not a job yet--which I should probably not blog about (even though I was and am totally in the right).

Wow.  That's a terrible sentence.

So instead I decided to blog about pie.  Not the infamous Stevie/Natalie incident (which actually isn't that interesting, other than it more or less confirmed what I've always thought about Natalie), and not the number pi (which also isn't that interesting if you're not into math and stuff, but I know it starts 3.14159) but the actual, edible pie.  Savoury or sweet, that's what I'm talking about.

Most of you know that I love food and like to cook.  Some of you may even know that my maternal grandmother used to make the best pie crust in the land.  Adam argues that his mother does, but he's never had Grandma Mary's, who has sadly retired from cooking.  Pam's pie crust is also good.  Mom makes pretty good pie crust.  But I make angry.  Or it makes me angry, rather.  Only once have I been able to get a pie crust to hold together, and it was so tough that it wasn't really worth the effort.  Pie crust also nearly ended my marriage in divorce about 3.5 months after we got married.  Adam got angry at the pie crust he was making, I made suggestions, and it went downhill from there.

So about 14 months on from the near divorce, we were jonesing so bad for a pie that we could no longer ignore the urges.  We split the duties up, since Adam wanted corned beef pie, and well, I'm American and can't bring myself to boil meat.  Ever.  I don't care what the final result tastes like.  So Adam made the filling, and I nutted up and attempted a pie crust.

Mom swears by her food processor.  She knows it makes the crust a little tougher, but it also means that she no longer swears for 3 straight hours the day before Thanksgiving (3-4 pies: apple, berry, pumpkin, and sometimes pecan).  The crust is only minimally tougher, so the trade-off is well worth it.

I, on the other hand, do not own a food processor.  Or a blender.  Or a stand mixer (I have a fake one, but it's mostly a really awesome hand mixer--thanks Pam and Tony!).  Or a stick blender.*  Basically, I own most of these things in the states (scratch that, I own all of them), and we're not planning on staying here in England for too much longer, so it's hard to justify the cost of these things when they're just going to go to friends or a charity shop.  That means I had to make pie crust the Grandma Mary way: by hand.

So I pulled my recipe out (that's not the Grandma Mary way, but I've only made pie crust about half a dozen times, so I couldn't remember proportions), and very carefully ignored the wholemeal flour when I went to get my ingredients.  I was not about to push my luck.  So two cups of white flour, 152 grams of margarine and butter (2/3 cup), and about 5 tablespoons of cold water later, I had a ball of dough.  The butter/marg mix was because I didn't have nearly enough marg in the house, and I don't even know if you can get Crisco or the equivalent here.  I cut the ball in half, weighed the halves, and then actually made them equal (I was only off by about 50 grams . . . sheesh).  I stuck them in bags, then shoved them in the fridge.  And prayed.

But low and behold, when the time came to roll them out, it was lovely and beautiful and easy.  Both crusts held together perfectly, and they were fairly thin.  Remembering something Kristan said she does (but she makes oil crusts, so I'm not sure she can be trusted!), I greased my pie pan lightly with some vegetable oil.  Probably unnecessary, but since the crusts worked so well, I didn't want to ruin it by them not coming out for some reason.  I even had excess crust, which I rolled back into a ball and put in the fridge, and made cheese tartlets the next day (enh.  Don't use mild cheddar, use sharp.  Sadly, we didn't have any.).

In short, the pie was tasty and delicious, even if Adam forgot to season the filling (the gravy made up for it though, because I loves me the Worcestershire sauce).  The pie crust was fairly tender, and very buttery tasting, which was nice.  It went well enough that I'm willing to nut up again, this time for a hamburger pie.  Mmm . . . white-trash food.

It's sad that I'm nearly 31 years old, and am still unsure of having mastered the pie crust.  At least I've mastered pizza dough!

*I made soup the other day that looked like sick after a night at the pub and a post-drinking curry, but it tasted fine--a stick blender would have solved the visual, however.