Thanksgiving!

My first vegetarian Thanksgiving was great. My friends and I ate tofurky and something called "Celebration Loaf" along with all these other Thanksgiving goodies. Yes, we had gravy, too, but I took the picture before I put the gravy on. Then we watched the "Stephen Colbert Christmas Special" and Every Little Step, a documentary about auditions for the Broadway musical A Chorus Line, which is, itself, a musical about auditions for a musical. Here are some pictures of the food!

Tofurky and Celebration Loaf

The Table

I made this: Pumpkin Sweet-Potato Coconut Soup

Mashed potatoes

Two kinds of pie!

The most amazing appetizer - Pear Brie Toast!

This is the recipe. It calls for apples, but trust me, pears are the way to go.

My plate (before I put the gravy on) The stuffing was good!

Cranberry sauce from a can is a must!

I made these green beans with almonds and "facon" bacon bits.

Tattoo

For my previous post on this topic, see here.

So, here is my idea. I was thinking of putting it on the back of my shoulder.

The trouble is now that I keep thinking of things like what about when I'm wearing a wedding dress? I mean, at weddings people stare at your back during the ceremony. How many wedding dresses cover the back of your shoulder?

Yes, I just made that.

I'm still undecided.

Update: Today is my birthday. I was talking to a friend of mine about my tattoo idea. She has a couple of tattoos, including one on the upper center of her back. It's a tattoo of her dogs. I asked her what she would do about her wedding dress if she gets married - I mean, to cover up the tattoo. She said, quite rightly, that she wouldn't want to cover it up because it is beautiful and it is a part of her. I realized that I wanted to hide my tattoo because I think tattoos are ugly. If that's how I feel, then I shouldn't be getting one at all.

So, I won't be getting a tattoo for my birthday. I might get a small one someday, but not today.

Pumpkin Coconut Sweet Potato Soup

This will be my first real vegetarian Thanksgiving! I'm going to my friends' house and bringing two dishes. One is green beans with onions and fake bacon bits. The other is pumpkin coconut sweet potato soup! I found three recipes on about.com and tried to combine the best of all three into one soup. Here are the links:

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Coconut Soup

Pumpkin Sweet Potato Soup

And here is a picture of how mine turned out:

Yum! All of the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, but even meat-eaters will love them. The best part? They are so easy to make! It only takes about 15 minutes of prep and another 15 to cook. They keep well for a few days in a sealed container in the fridge, and you can heat them up on the stove or in the microwave. Also makes for great leftovers - spinkle a few pumpkin seeds on top and you're ready to go!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Literary Tattoo

So, my birthday is in two weeks and I was trying to decide between going skydiving and getting a tattoo - two things I've never done before. I think I'm going to go with the tattoo.

A cool site is Literary Tattoos. I am thinking of getting something from John Keats. I haven't found the perfect line yet. If I don't, I may need to go skydiving.

Probably my favorite poem is "La Belle Dame Sans Merci", but most of the lines from that poem are from a guy talking about a lady, which would be kind of weird to have tatooed on me. The last line is "And no birds sing" which is OK, but it sounds a bit depressing. I don't want people to think I'm emo or something.

As for font, a lot of literary tattoos are done in that typewriter font - it looks cool, like your body is a piece of typing paper. I included a picture of one such tat at the top of this post. Also, there are some well-known examples of Keats' handwriting - I could get a line in his own hand. That would be cool. Here is an example.

When I decide what to do I'll let you know!

This Week in Pop

I've written about Pop Candy before. It is the one blog I read every day (aside from this one).

Every Friday Whitney does a "This Week in Pop" entry where she talks about her favorite TV shows, movies, books, and music of the week. Here's mine:

Best TV show I saw: Mad Men! That finale was the best and the scene where Don and Betty fought after he found out about Henry was the most intense thing I've seen in a long time! I love Jon Hamm. And, JOAN IS BACK. If they could just get Sal to join Sterling Copper Draper Price, I would be a happy woman.

I also enjoyed: South Park. It was about Smurfs and student council and some conservative talk show guy who is, I don't know, Glenn Beck or something.

I wasn't into: Tosh.O. That show is stupid. Some woman was singing a song called "Sittin' on the Toilet" for example. The guy is smarmy, and not in a funny way.

Best movie I saw: The last movie I saw in the theatres was Where the Wild Things Are. It was MESSED UP! Spoiler alert - they rip a guy's freakin' arm off and put a stick in his empty arm hole!!!! AHHHH!!! Nightmares!

I also saw: I didn't see anything else. I still have The Libertine from Netflix. This lady in my film club told me to watch it because Johnny Depp is "unrecognizable" but then she wasn't at the last meeting, which is good because I hadn't watched it yet.

I plan to see: That alien movie with Mila Jovovich - The Fourth Kind, I think it's called. When I went to see Paranormal Activity, the trailer for The Fourth Kind was the scariest thing about that whole experience. (There was also a trailer for that fallen angel movie Legion starring Paul Bettany which looked cool).

Best music I heard: I have been obsessed with two Paul McCartney songs lately - "So Bad" and "Old Siam, Sir". They are both featured in the Paul McCartney 1973-2001 song book for guitar, piano, and voice. Love those two songs!

I'm also listening to: Songs I'm supposed to practice for my last guitar class tomorrow. These include:

• Knocking on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan
• Let it Be, Hey Jude, & Daytripper - The Beatles
• Don't Panic - Coldplay
• Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
• Man on the Moon - REM
• Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
• For What it's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Ode to Joy - Beethoven

Best thing I read: Check out my book club post on Jose Saramago's Death with Interruptions.

I'm also reading: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and "Oleanna" the David Mamet play. It's been a long time since I've read a play!

Feel Free to leave your own "Week in Pop" in the comments!

Book Club #2: Death with Interruptions

This is the second in a series of book club posts. For the first post on Erased, go here.

I didn't realize this cover had a skull on it until just now...

Jose Saramago's Death with Interrutions is the story of death (with a lowercase d) who is female. Well, after a few hundred pages it is. This book is actually written in two very different halves. Some people like the first half better, some like the second. But, for me, neither half works without the other and together they work.

This post contains spoilers, so don't read if you don't want to know some of the plot points of this novel.

************Spoilers Follow************

Almost everyone at my book club (except for me) didn't like this book. I would say that made for an unusual meeting for me, but it seemed like last month I was the only one who liked the book, too. That time to book was so weird that we all just had fun talking about it.

The first half of the book deals with the social, political, etc. effects of a country where, after New Year's Eve, no one dies for seven months. What would happen to funeral directors, for example, or homes for the elderly. After this half, we get the story of death who, as I said before, is female. She decides to start giving everyone a week's notice before offing them. She sends those who have a week left a purple letter in the mail. One letter keeps coming back, however, so she puts herself in human form to find that person and deliver the letter personally. I liked how she checked into a hotel after buying tickets for two nights at the symphony, and when they asked if she had any luggage, she said she was in town for a week to shop. That sounds like kind of a fun vacation to me.

Anyway, here are the questions. Feel free to leave your answers in the comments.

What was your favorite scene?

Again, I liked her vacation.

Who was your favorite character?

This book did not really have a lot of characters, but I loved when the Scythe started talking.

What were you most surprised at?

The sudden change half-way through the book. Also, the fact that so many people thought no one dying would be a good thing.

What was your least favorite part?

Long passages describing semi-boring political events.

Will you read it again? Sell your book? Keep it? Recommend it to friends?

If I read it again, I will probably just read the last half. I might recommend it to friends, depending on the friends. I will keep it on the shelf I have dedicated to books I have read for book clubs (so far there are three books up there).

Film Club #2: An Education

This is the second in a series of posts about foreign and independent films. For the 1st post on Bright Star, go here.

An Education is a British film directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby. The film is based on the coming-of-age story of British Journalist Lynn Barber. This post contains spoilers, so don't read if you don't want to know what happens in some parts of the film.

************Spoilers Follow************

This film is basically about an older man who seduces a sixteen (later seventeen) year old school girl. As such, I have a little problem with some people who call in "romantic." The man, played by Peter Sarsgaard, is pretty creepy most of the time. The male members of my film club said they didn't think he was creepy at all and that he was actually pretty suave and that they could identify with him. A note to sixteen year old girls - stay away from the male members of my film club.

That being said, this is an interesting film. I thought it was good, but I don't think I'll see it again. Carey Mulligan who plays the girl - her parents want her to go to Oxford - is lovely and some say this will be a big boost to her career. I already knew her from Northanger Abbey and Bleak House, though. She is really good in this.

According the Wikipedia, there is an alternate ending to the film where Jenny and her boyfriend at Oxford are walking when the Bristol drives up and David tells her that he plans to divorce his wife. Jenny walks away and David stares longingly after her.

Did you see it? What did you think of the film? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Eat No Animal

I bought this shirt (here).

This ad says, "Many years ago, I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realized, 'I am killing him - all for the passing pleasure it brings me.' And something inside me clicked. I realized as I watched him fight for breath, that his life was as important to him as mine is to me."

Update 11/15/09: My shirt came in the mail and it is VERY large. I just noticed on the site that it says this particular shirt runs one size too large for women, but it is about two or three sizes too large. I'm going to keep it to sleep in and order another to wear.

Neapolitan Dynamite

I don't eat much ice cream, but I sometimes feel like picking up a pint. Today I discovered the BEST flavor from Ben and Jerry's: Neapolitan Dynamite - it's half Cherry Garcia and half Chocolate Fudge Brownie! My friend from high school and I could have shared a pint! Not only are those the two best flavors, but they taste great mixed together.

On a related note, here is a T-shirt you can buy if you like people staring at your chest trying to figure out what is on your T-shirt.

Here's a print you can buy from Etsy entitled Neapolitan Dynamite.

And here is a recipe for Neapolitan Dynamite cupcakes with yummy pictures!

iXpenseIt

iXpenseIt is an iPhone app (available in both a free "lite" version and a $4.99 pay version which allows more than 200 expense records and no ads) that helps you keep track of your monthly budget.

Since today is November 1st, I've decided to start today and keep track of all of my spending so I can make a budget. It's a bit sad to see that almost exactly 3/4 of my paycheck is gone after the first day (I pay all of my bills except my phone, gas, and electricity bill - plus I put money in savings and pay much more than the minimum on my credit card and car payment).

The cool thing about this app is that it is on your phone, so you take it with you wherever you go. No more saving receipts and trying to add them all up at the end of the day when you get home to your computer. Plus, you can add notes on the things you bought and even take pictures! I'm especially interested to see how much I end up spending on food and entertainment.

Instead of waiting for 2010 to make a New Year's resolution to keep better track of your finances, why not start now so you have all the data to make an educated decision about your budget for next year? Let's get out of debt and take the recession into our own hands!

Halloween 2009

So, I ended up ditching all of my costume ideas here and went as Joan from Mad Men!

Which one is me??

I got this cute sixties-inspired dress at Target. They have a lot of cute dresses this season. And, of course, Joan isn't Joan without a gold pen necklace!

What did you do for Halloween? Leave your memories in the comments!