Do YOU have a Dyson?

If I didn't already have access to a Dyson Vacuum, god I'd have to run out and buy one after this hysterical commercial!

just saying...

A Week in Winter

My heart broke over the summer when one of my favorite authors, who I deem my most favorite storyteller, Maeve Binchy, died at the early age of seventy-two.

I was so sad to think that I would never again experience a new book of hers, and I would have to just be content with what she had left behind.

I got my routine Barnes &Nobles newsletter this morning and low and behold... 1 final Maeve Binchy novel, something she finished writing right before her passing!!!!

Thanks Maeve, I knew I could count on you!

A Week in Winter will be released February 12, 2013.

Overview - from BN.Com

Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms. John, the American movie star, thinks he has arrived incognito; Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a holiday together; Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by seeing too much death practicing medicine; Anders hates his father’s business, but has a real talent for music; Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher, criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone’s relief; the Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where first prize was Paris; and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic visions.

Sinks Stink!

Nothing says "Happy New Year!" like a clogged and backed up sink (which also backs up to the dishwasher).

It wouldn't be so terrible if a) I haven't been dealing with this issue for over 3 years now and b) the landlord wasn't such an incompetent ahole (and I'm being as nice as I can!)

 

Each time this happens, it takes a few days to get the right people here, and a few times to work out the kinks, only for a few months later to have the same thing happen again. Sigh.....

The universe is already testing me and just under 36 hours of the new year :)

Happy New Year's 2013

This photo is from Christmas, but it is the feeling that was conveyed the last 24 hours.

We feasted. We shouted and cheered and blew horns and popped poppers, and after the dust all settled, we all chilled out and hung out on the couch this new year.

I love doing almost absolutely nothing on January 1. Which FEELS wrong when my whole life seems to be about moving onward and upward!  But just for today, I eat and hug and eat and watch til its time to call it a night, and the 2013 work life officially begins tomorrow.

First experience of the new year... I cooked bacon in the oven! Just like Ina Garten does on her Barefoot Contessa show.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/maple-roasted-bacon-recipe/index.html

I did NOT add the maple syrup, but the bacon was crispy and all the fat dropped to the bottom of the cookie sheet.

I will probably never make bacon in a pan again!

Yeah... Just saying

Hungry For Change

I happened on a new food documentary today called "Hungry For Change"... I was watching it while soaking in the tub... a new favorite pastime of mine.

I found it amazing. As I do with most of these food documentaries that I have watched.  I was so pumped up after watching it that a) I ran, (not walked) ... err, I actually drove) to my nearest Organic Food joint and got a superfood smoothie b) couldn't wait to tell you all 3 readers about it!

Before doing that though, I read the reviews from various Netflix subscribers and just had to shake my head.  So many non-believers that white sugar and processed foods are the devil... and that a upstanding company like Coca Cola and General Mills would never put anything in their products that are bad for us.

After 2 years not eating refined sugar and flours, barely being sick, not to mention losing a bunch of weight, I am a true believer in what these people are talking about.

I think what ultimately make my heart race while watching this documentary, is that its what I've been practicing for 2 years, the "diet" the visualizations and the self love.

Give it all a try!

 

You can also watch the whole film on youtube too!

Just saying...

me and george Clooney ... i mean my husband

me and george Clooney ... i mean my husband, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.