Alyssa Goodnight's Blog, page 20
May 23, 2011
Launch!
Welcome to my shiny new website! I will endeavor to keep the content fun and fresh. I will talk books, movies, and life in general (i.e. whatever strikes my fancy). So please, visit often!
Stumbled over these quotes on Pinterest this morning, and I think they're perfect.
May 22, 2011
I'm Moving! (Virtually speaking)
Finally! At long last, I have a brand new website & blog, so I hope you'll come visit me at the new digs: http://alyssagoodnight.com/
If you want to subscribe to my new blog feed, click here.
If you want to subscribe to my new blog feed, click here.
May 20, 2011
Highlight Reel
1. Hello Dollys in the oven right now. (That one had to come first because the smell of melting chocolate is distracting me.)
2. Houston Museum of Fine Arts yesterday with my mom to see the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings on loan from the National Gallery. (Followed up with a Chicago Dog.) Lovely!
[via]
3. Lunching with my new niece. Baby cuddles and baby smiles.
4. Shopping at Walmart at 11:00 p.m...for fedoras for the Phineas and Ferb dance number. It's a whole different place late at night...
5. Spending the afternoons at the high school pool while my boys took a water polo clinic put on by the varsity team. With teeny tiny Speedos there is occasionally a wardrobe malfunction. Just sayin.
6. Brainstorming a new book (or two...)
7. Website redesign is coming along...hoping to launch in the next week or two! (Still no cover though.)
8. An afternoon of non-healthy snacks and giggly games with the girls.
9. Re-reading Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart as part of Jenny Crusie's Gothic Book Club.
10. Dance practice. I've almost got it down now!
2. Houston Museum of Fine Arts yesterday with my mom to see the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings on loan from the National Gallery. (Followed up with a Chicago Dog.) Lovely!
[via]3. Lunching with my new niece. Baby cuddles and baby smiles.
4. Shopping at Walmart at 11:00 p.m...for fedoras for the Phineas and Ferb dance number. It's a whole different place late at night...
5. Spending the afternoons at the high school pool while my boys took a water polo clinic put on by the varsity team. With teeny tiny Speedos there is occasionally a wardrobe malfunction. Just sayin.
6. Brainstorming a new book (or two...)
7. Website redesign is coming along...hoping to launch in the next week or two! (Still no cover though.)
8. An afternoon of non-healthy snacks and giggly games with the girls.
9. Re-reading Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart as part of Jenny Crusie's Gothic Book Club.
10. Dance practice. I've almost got it down now!
May 17, 2011
Weigh In!
The days are getting away from me, summer is almost upon us, and I've started making my Bucket List, which includes all the things I want to get done before I have two boys tagging along with me everywhere I go, wondering if we can get a drink, and when we're going to be done, and whether we can do all this tomorrow... The list includes shopping, errands, lunches, movies, you name it. It's a veritable free-for-all with a two and half week time frame. Shortened by the amount of time required to plan all my boys' end-of-year parties, etc. It's a crazy whirlwind around here!
This morning I had dinner for breakfast (not on the list), eating some leftover steak, mashed potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob, and topping it off with a brownie. It was an excellent start to the day, and while I was eating I was paging through the latest Redbook magazine. The article that caught my eye was "Hottest Fantasy (i.e. Celebrity) Husbands"
I will tell you the five guys featured...you tell me the order.
Mr. Darcy (as played by Colin Firth)Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey on Grey's Anatomy)Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson in Twilight)Uncle Jesse (John Stamos from Full House...could not be-lieve he was on here!)Jim Halpert (John Krasinski on The Office)
Who would you add? I want to know why Gilbert Blythe is not on this list!
This morning I had dinner for breakfast (not on the list), eating some leftover steak, mashed potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob, and topping it off with a brownie. It was an excellent start to the day, and while I was eating I was paging through the latest Redbook magazine. The article that caught my eye was "Hottest Fantasy (i.e. Celebrity) Husbands"
I will tell you the five guys featured...you tell me the order.
Mr. Darcy (as played by Colin Firth)Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey on Grey's Anatomy)Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson in Twilight)Uncle Jesse (John Stamos from Full House...could not be-lieve he was on here!)Jim Halpert (John Krasinski on The Office)
Who would you add? I want to know why Gilbert Blythe is not on this list!
May 12, 2011
My Crazy Life
Check out this Harry Potter sky I snapped a shot of at 5th grade Field Day yesterday. I probably should have been looking for the Death Eater symbol to appear to send the kids screaming. Honestly I think they'd probably scream for any reason, judging by the uproar that ensued when one of them saw a wasp.
In other news, I finished reading Hotel No Tell , sequel to Super in the City (which I loved). I really enjoyed this one too, although I suspect I was a little too distracted to really give this one the attention it deserved. I'll have to read it again in a few months (which is all it takes for me to almost completely forget the plot of a book). Last night I started reading Charles and Emma, The Darwins' Leap of Faith , and despite only being on the second chapter, I have to admit I'm already fascinated.
In other news, I'm waiting for rain, and have even committed to participate in a little dance number the PTA is doing as part of this year's teacher talent show. Here's the song...picture it if you will...me as a Ferbette.
In other news, I finished reading Hotel No Tell , sequel to Super in the City (which I loved). I really enjoyed this one too, although I suspect I was a little too distracted to really give this one the attention it deserved. I'll have to read it again in a few months (which is all it takes for me to almost completely forget the plot of a book). Last night I started reading Charles and Emma, The Darwins' Leap of Faith , and despite only being on the second chapter, I have to admit I'm already fascinated.
In other news, I'm waiting for rain, and have even committed to participate in a little dance number the PTA is doing as part of this year's teacher talent show. Here's the song...picture it if you will...me as a Ferbette.
My Crazy Life
Check out this Harry Potter sky I snapped a shot of at 5th grade Field Day yesterday. I probably should have been looking for the Death Eater symbol to appear to send the kids screaming. Honestly I think they'd probably scream for any reason, judging by the uproar that ensued when one of them saw a wasp.
In other news, I finished reading Hotel No Tell: A Novel">Hotel No Tell, sequel to Super in the City (which I loved). I really enjoyed this one too, although I suspect I was a little too distracted to really give this one the attention it deserved. I'll have to read it again in a few months (which is all it takes for me to almost completely forget the plot of a book). Last night I started reading Charles and Emma, The Darwins' Leap of Faith, and despite only being on the second chapter, I have to admit I'm already fascinated.
In other news, I'm waiting for rain, and have even committed to participate in a little dance number the PTA is doing as part of this year's teacher talent show. Here's the song…picture it if you will…me as a Ferbette.
May 8, 2011
Weekend Update
Friday afternoon, we headed down to Galveston and visited our favorite pizza spot for the first time since before the celiac diagnosis. It was soooo good. We have tried quite a few varieties of gluten free pizza, but the crusts just aren't the same: chewy and crispy at the same time. We savored.
GFB didn't have pizza. We stopped at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, his favorite restaurant and picked him up a burger + cheese slice to eat on a gluten free bun with all the greasy fries he could handle. Then he played Angry Birds while we ate...all in perfect harmony.
Then we hit the beach, which was breezy, a little chilly, and littered with sea weed. I didn't even dip my feet in the water but PFB went all in and then shivered himself dry. Then we buried him in the sand (naturally at his request), redipped him, and he shivered all over again.
Saturday was full to bursting with laundry, vacuuming, and baking with GFB. And then we watched The Incredible Mr. Limpet, which we all found to be preposterously funny.
Mother's Day kicked off with a muffin-in-bed and a nearly toppled glass of orange juice (not my fault). Then I opened my gifts from my boys. A school made, framed poem and photo from PFB (9) and a bird feeder and seed from GFB (11...they are apparently too 'busy' to make anything for Mom in the 5th grade).
We went to my mom's house for lunch/early dinner and I opened a couple more gifts there, including a breadmaker, which my MIL told me she bought to 'make my life easier.' I'm hoping I can easily adapt some of the bread machine recipes to gluten-free versions and hit on a winning sandwich/toast bread. So far we've been unlucky. Also received the BabyCakes cookbook from my Mom, which is full of interesting gluten-free recipes (many of which feature the questionable garbanzo bean/fava bean flour). Things just might start to get interesting around here...
A very nice Mother's Day, all in all, and I didn't have to make any of the meals! Hurray!
I hope all you moms had a great day!
GFB didn't have pizza. We stopped at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, his favorite restaurant and picked him up a burger + cheese slice to eat on a gluten free bun with all the greasy fries he could handle. Then he played Angry Birds while we ate...all in perfect harmony.
Then we hit the beach, which was breezy, a little chilly, and littered with sea weed. I didn't even dip my feet in the water but PFB went all in and then shivered himself dry. Then we buried him in the sand (naturally at his request), redipped him, and he shivered all over again.
Saturday was full to bursting with laundry, vacuuming, and baking with GFB. And then we watched The Incredible Mr. Limpet, which we all found to be preposterously funny.Mother's Day kicked off with a muffin-in-bed and a nearly toppled glass of orange juice (not my fault). Then I opened my gifts from my boys. A school made, framed poem and photo from PFB (9) and a bird feeder and seed from GFB (11...they are apparently too 'busy' to make anything for Mom in the 5th grade).
We went to my mom's house for lunch/early dinner and I opened a couple more gifts there, including a breadmaker, which my MIL told me she bought to 'make my life easier.' I'm hoping I can easily adapt some of the bread machine recipes to gluten-free versions and hit on a winning sandwich/toast bread. So far we've been unlucky. Also received the BabyCakes cookbook from my Mom, which is full of interesting gluten-free recipes (many of which feature the questionable garbanzo bean/fava bean flour). Things just might start to get interesting around here...
A very nice Mother's Day, all in all, and I didn't have to make any of the meals! Hurray!
I hope all you moms had a great day!
May 4, 2011
Book Review Club ~ May
Barrie Summy's Book Review Club is back with another slate of reviews today, and I am reviewing Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. I will tell you going in that I picked up this book because I have read all the Spellman novels that Lisa Lutz wrote solo, and LOVED them all. I truly appreciate her wacky sense of humor, her kooky characters, and her twisted, tangled writing method.
So naturally I was curious about the book she co-wrote with an old boyfriend...a writer of poetry.
Evidently they made a deal that specified that they'd write alternate chapters and that neither of them could 'undo' what the other had written. They just had to roll with it. Naturally there was some back and forth between the authors during the writing process, and the editor made the excellent decision to include it in the book. So, between the chapters there are notes exchanged that spell out suggestions, frustrations, or general commentary. These are seriously some of the funniest parts of the whole book.
Quick summary:
Lacey and Paul are brother and sister, living together in the family house and making money off the marijuana they're growing in their basement. One night, someone leaves a headless dead body on their lawn, and rather than call the cops (who they don't want snooping around their property), they decide to move the body and do a little sleuthing of their own. Well, Lacey decides to sleuth. Paul mostly just gets high and watches TV (a point of contention between both characters and authors). When the body shows up back on their lawn and a couple more bodies join the mix, things start to escalate pretty quickly.
I think I laughed out loud while reading this book more than I have ever laughed while reading any other book. It was hilarious and entertaining. However...despite the storyline being quite creative and the characters being well-developed, I have to admit that the plot could maybe have used a couple of tweaks. It wasn't as clean as I would have liked it to be, but what it lost in stellar storytelling, it made up for in humor. Definitely recommended. If you're in the mood for funny and crazy and inventive. If you're a stickler for form and elegantly crafted mystery, maybe not.
Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy
So naturally I was curious about the book she co-wrote with an old boyfriend...a writer of poetry.Evidently they made a deal that specified that they'd write alternate chapters and that neither of them could 'undo' what the other had written. They just had to roll with it. Naturally there was some back and forth between the authors during the writing process, and the editor made the excellent decision to include it in the book. So, between the chapters there are notes exchanged that spell out suggestions, frustrations, or general commentary. These are seriously some of the funniest parts of the whole book.
Quick summary:
Lacey and Paul are brother and sister, living together in the family house and making money off the marijuana they're growing in their basement. One night, someone leaves a headless dead body on their lawn, and rather than call the cops (who they don't want snooping around their property), they decide to move the body and do a little sleuthing of their own. Well, Lacey decides to sleuth. Paul mostly just gets high and watches TV (a point of contention between both characters and authors). When the body shows up back on their lawn and a couple more bodies join the mix, things start to escalate pretty quickly.
I think I laughed out loud while reading this book more than I have ever laughed while reading any other book. It was hilarious and entertaining. However...despite the storyline being quite creative and the characters being well-developed, I have to admit that the plot could maybe have used a couple of tweaks. It wasn't as clean as I would have liked it to be, but what it lost in stellar storytelling, it made up for in humor. Definitely recommended. If you're in the mood for funny and crazy and inventive. If you're a stickler for form and elegantly crafted mystery, maybe not.
Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy
May 2, 2011
Called out by The Pioneer Woman (she doesn't know it)
If any of you have not yet popped over to The Pioneer Woman's website, you should. Just because it's something to see. It's a phenomenon. She has a huge number of followers, a cookbook, a memoir (of sorts), and now a children's book. Plus, she's funny, a great photographer, an awesome cook (if you can get past all the butter), and she homeschools...on a ranch. Let's just say she's got a lot going on.
I don't visit her site too often, mostly because it's a time suck for me. I want to look at all the pretty pictures, check out all the new recipes, debate whether I'm willing to make them and my family's willing to eat them, etc. But when I do visit, I'm always pleased. Well I visited on Saturday and learned a little bit about cinnamon toast.
The Pioneer Woman will tell you there are several schools of thought regarding cinnamon toast. And there is one that is the best, a couple that are pretty good, and one that it 'gross.' You can probably guess where I'm going with this. That's right, I'm owning up. I make the gross cinnamon toast....and I like it. I would have said it was delicious up until yesterday when I took TPW's advice, and tried THE WAY to make cinnamon toast. Such a difference, I cannot even tell you. Then again, I probably don't even have to, because you all probably don't make the gross version of cinnamon toast. You may not even need TPW's advice, but obviously I do. And did. (And probably still do.)
Before: I toasted, buttered, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar
After (a la The Pioneer Woman): I mashed up a mixture of butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, spread it on the bread, and toasted that. Crunchy, caramelized deliciousness!
So here's what I want to know...why hasn't someone tapped The Pioneer Woman for a cooking show?? I would sooooo watch her! And take notes. And learn how to bring back the butter.
Go make yourself some cinnamon toast--the good stuff.
I don't visit her site too often, mostly because it's a time suck for me. I want to look at all the pretty pictures, check out all the new recipes, debate whether I'm willing to make them and my family's willing to eat them, etc. But when I do visit, I'm always pleased. Well I visited on Saturday and learned a little bit about cinnamon toast.
The Pioneer Woman will tell you there are several schools of thought regarding cinnamon toast. And there is one that is the best, a couple that are pretty good, and one that it 'gross.' You can probably guess where I'm going with this. That's right, I'm owning up. I make the gross cinnamon toast....and I like it. I would have said it was delicious up until yesterday when I took TPW's advice, and tried THE WAY to make cinnamon toast. Such a difference, I cannot even tell you. Then again, I probably don't even have to, because you all probably don't make the gross version of cinnamon toast. You may not even need TPW's advice, but obviously I do. And did. (And probably still do.)
Before: I toasted, buttered, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar
After (a la The Pioneer Woman): I mashed up a mixture of butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, spread it on the bread, and toasted that. Crunchy, caramelized deliciousness!
So here's what I want to know...why hasn't someone tapped The Pioneer Woman for a cooking show?? I would sooooo watch her! And take notes. And learn how to bring back the butter.
Go make yourself some cinnamon toast--the good stuff.
April 29, 2011
Wish List (just a sample)
January 2012
September 2011
June 2011
October 2011
May 2011Happy Weekend!May it be filled with books!
