I was terribly sad to hear of Ray Bradbury’s passing on Tuesday. Although the man was 91 and lived a rich and full life (presumably), I’m still sad to hear of a great author’s passing. As with most the passing of other famous folk, I always seem to learn something new about the person post-modem.
After watching this video, I felt such a kinship to Mr. Bradbury. We both love libraries and books and cats and life. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
Rest in peace, Mr. Bradbury. You will live forever in the pages of your novels.
Tell me a book is about young adults dappling in magic and I’ll read it. Tell me it’s about borderline alcoholic, young adults dappling in magic and I’m grabbing the book out of your hand and running for the door.
The book I just gracefully snatched out of your clutches is The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
The Magicians is easy to compare to the Harry Potter series. Both are about young magicians attending a school for magic. Both feature a young man as a protagonist and are written from a third-person perspective. But that is where the similarities end.
The Magicians was surprisingly fast-paced and modern unlike the Harry Potter series, which is timeless, but can be a bit slow. The Magicians was also very adult, so I wouldn’t recommend this one to the kiddos.
Quentin, the protagonist, is an unhappy young guy who stumbles through a garden in Brooklyn and ends up at a school for magic. Quentin, always dissatisfied with life, thinks this new school may be the key to happiness. He makes friends, he meets a girl, he studies diligently, but he still isn’t happy.He graduates and soon after, his childhood fantasy comes true, but will it lead him to happiness? Dun. Dun. Dun! You’ll have to read it to find out! (How very Reading Rainbow of me!)
My favorite part of the book? The reality of it all. Magic, if real, would exist in the world of Grossman’s novel.The characters have major flaws. They drink, they do drugs, they have sex with the wrong people. They don’t wave wands or wear capes. They truly seemed like real people with a talent.
I also enjoyed the peach-Schnapps-drinking bear. Just read it, you’ll understand.
I talk a big game when it comes to budgets. I make lists and spreadsheets. I even use math! But I’m not great at actually carrying out a budget. On Fridays I really want to go out for a dinner and a couple of drinks. A $4.00 coffee sounds totally reasonable when I’ve been up since 6 am and I have to work late. And somehow a trip to the drug store for a $5.00 bottle of lotion always turns into a $40 affair.
I’m a impulsive spender. It’s bad, I know. But since George and I are primarily paying for the wedding, I’ve been trying so, so hard to save money. The following tips are inspired by Adrienne who has some awesome ideas for saving dough! Totally jealous that she can ride her bike to work!
Here is what George and I have been doing:
Attempting to eat everything out of the pantry and fridge before we go to the grocery store. (I particularly hate this one. I have an aversion to left-overs and weird food combos.)
Attempting to make cheaper recipes. As someone who needs to eat gluten-free, I’m not loving this one either. We’ve mostly just been eating a lot of eggs…
I negotiated to have our rent lowered until our oven is fixed. (It’s been broken for 2 months!) I’d rather have a working oven, but hey, it saves me a few bucks.
George has been selling art.
I sold a couple of gift cards I had lying around to Plastic Jungle, which I highly recommend if you ever get a gift card you don’t want.
And this summer I plan to sell some clothes that I no longer wear on Copius. (Update: I went ahead and put a few items up.)
All of these little things help, but I feel like it’s nearly impossible to save a significant amount of money before the wedding in December. Things keep coming up! (An $80 doctor appointment! Yikes!)
We’ve talked about delaying the honeymoon until the summer, which will save some money, but after all this, I need a break!
Do you have any budgeting tips? I’d love to hear ’em and make a big ol’ list for everyone!
Infused vodka is one of those things that seems really difficult and maybe a little snobby, but it’s actually stupid-easy. Making grilled cheese is harder than making infused vodka, I swear. For this recipe, the hardest part is waiting a week for the fruit to mingle with the vodka.
Infused Vodka Ingredients
Enough fruit of your choice to loosely fill a mason jar (approximately 2 cups)
Approximately 12 oz. of vodka (I recommend at least triple-distilled)
A cool, dark place and patience
To make infused vodka all you have to do is wash and cut your favorite fruit, put it in a mason jar, and then fill the jar with vodka. Screw the top on the jar and leave in a cool, dark place for a week. Shake everyday, if possible. One week later, drain out the fruit and voila, you’ve got infused vodka!
I tried several different fruit-infusions: blueberry, lemon and strawberry. By far, the strawberry was the best. Below is the recipe I made with the infused strawberry vodka. I actually don’t usually enjoy vodka, one too many bad college nights, but this recipe made me a believer in the magic of the clear spirit.
Infused Strawberry Vodka Lemonade
Two shots of infused strawberry vodka (recipe above)
6 lemons
A handful of ice
2 tablespoons of sugar
Squeeze the juice from six lemons. Add the sugar and vodka to the lemon juice. Pour or shake over ice.
Tip: I like to put my drinks in mason jars with lids, so I can easily shake the drink. James Bond style.
This recipe will make 2 small-ish drinks or one large-ish. 😉
Did you have any special spirits over the holiday weekend?
This past weekend, George and I headed up to Philadelphia. George had drawn the poster for the Ride to Skate event and he wanted to sell a few prints. We were technically there on business, but we had plenty of time for pleasure too. Here’s a couple of snapshots from our weekend.
I had to take a picture at Love Park.
We ran… ok, walked… up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rocky was seriously fit.
I broke the Liberty Bell!
George skating at Ride to Skate.
And he sold a couple of prints…
It’s been hard to come down from the travel high. I didn’t have to cook, or clean, or do boring chores for 3 days. I had some amazing food and hung out at (gasp!) an actual bar. The trip definitely made me miss living in a bigger city. But que sera, sera. I had fun, had some new experiences and saw some new things. I’ll move back to a big city soon.
One of my favorite ways to use up leftover rice is by making rice pudding. My mom used to make this for us when we were kids and it always reminds me of home. What’s nice about rice pudding is you can eat it hot or cold and it’s a super budget-friendly recipe.
Last weekend, George and I went on a motorcycle ride to the Great Dismal Swamp. Although the swamp isn’t far from our house, it was quite the adventure. Prior to the trip, I had only rode on George’s bike at about 45 mph. I’m not afraid to admit that at 70 mph, I was holding on for dear life. George is terribly ticklish and he said I had to stop holding him in a death grip because he might die from laughter. I managed to get a few snapshots on the bike after I got my courage up.
The swamp has a man-made canal! Next time, I want to take my canoe down the canal.
We had a picnic and watched boats sail down the canal.
We made jokes about this guy’s “dingy” hanging out.
And on the way back home, I got up my nerve enough to take a couple of pictures from the bike.
What kind of adventures do you have planned this weekend?
I’m on a Young Adult literature kick right now. I guess I’m making up for reading almost no YA lit. as a “young adult.” (I still consider myself young adult, although I’m technically out of the bracket.)
I have to admit, I picked Please Ignore Vera Dietz because of the cover art. I’m terrible about judging books by the cover, but I can’t think of one instance where a book I love has a crappy cover. This book was no different. Great cover, great story.
Vera, a high-school senior, is haunted by her dead-ex-best-friend, Charlie. Charlie wants Vera to tell the truth surrounding the circumstances of his death. But Vera is conflicted. She loved Charlie and she hated Charlie. She loved him because he was charming, dangerous and her childhood best friend. And she hated him because he spread her ugly family secret around their high school.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an easy, but edgy read. The book has a storyline that jumps through time and through characters to keep it interesting. I’d recommend this book to any and all wallflowers with a free afternoon.
Has anyone else read this book? What did you think about it?
The Kentucky Derby is pretty big deal in my family. In fact, my mom used to serve mint juleps at the derby! Most of my extended family still lives in Louisville, so horse racing is right up there with basketball on the important sports scale. There isn’t really an important sports scale, I was just being facetious.
Anyway, the derby is a great excuse to bring out your inner Gatsby– wear a large hat, make bets, and drink the classic derby drink, a mint julep.
But I have to tell ya’ll a secret. I am a southern lady, but I’m not the biggest mint julep fan. The drink always seems too sweet or too boozy. So, I put a little spin on the classic with the addition of peaches. I adapted the recipe from the following two recipes: Stonefruit and Mint Julep and Frozen Mint Julep.
This recipe will make four small drinks or two large drinks. I don’t judge.
Peach Mint Julep Recipe
Ingredients for a Peach Mint Julep:
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of mint leaves
1 cup of Kentucky Bourbon
2 cups of frozen peaches
1 handful of ice
Step 1:
Make a mint-flavored simple syrup by boiling the sugar, water and torn mint leaves together. Use a whisk to help the sugar dissolve in the water.
Step 2:
After sugar has dissolved, take the syrup off the heat and let it cool. As the syrup is cooling, blend the whiskey, peaches and ice in a blender until it is the consistency of a smoothie.
Step 3:
Once syrup has cooled to the touch, strain the mint out of syrup. Add the syrup to the blender and give it one last whir to ensure the mixture is completely blended.
Step 4:
Wet the rim of your glass with water or fruit and dip the glass rim in sugar. Pour in your drink and garnish with a sprig of mint.
Step 5:
Bet on the prettiest horse (which is usually my strategy) and enjoy your julep!
Note: Traditionally a mint julep is served in a silver goblet! Crazy, huh? Since I didn’t have any silver goblets lying around, I served the drinks in plain ‘ol chilled mason jars.
One of my goals for this next year of my life is to take Sundays completely off. So that means no computers, no cooking, no cleaning– just relaxing. But I’ll be the first to admit, it is going to be hard. We modern ladies are busy, right?!
And as a modern, busy lady, I am always on the lookout for new ways to help me to get things done. In March, I tried The Seinfeld Method aka Don’t Break the Chain. This tool has you making calendars for each of your tasks. Then, you have to do a task from each calendar each day in order to “not break the chain.” But understandably, I was exhausted from this method.
I had a blogging calendar taped to my fridge too, but I quickly saw doing something blogging related everyday was just too much for me.
This month I’m trying something new. I’ve read that it helps some people to schedule all their time, so I’m trying that this month. I really don’t want to schedule my Saturday too. But I might start if it looks like I’m not doing chores, like going grocery shopping, which I usually do on Sunday.
Here’s a glimpse at the schedule I made via Google Docs:
Now, this may look crazy to some of you. Hell, it looks a little crazy to me. But I’m already seeing cracks where I’m probably taking a bit to long at one task. And I really want a full day to lay around, hang out with George and relax.
Have you all ever gone to extreme measures to protect your free time? Do you use productivity tools? Which tools have worked for you and which didn’t work?! Let me know in the comments.
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