Happy Holidays!

Hope you’re having a lovely Christmas. I have so much in store tomorrow I can barely stand it. Fancy breakfast with meats, cheeses, coffee (with that lovely liquid vanilla. mmm) cookies and so on. Then opening some presents – Santa sure has sent a lot of packages from Montreal. weeeeee! The rest of the day will be spent skiing at Sunshine and later on cooking a turkey. So far our first Christmas in Banff is getting a big high-five.

Here’s hoping your Christmas is tasty and delicious, too!

xo Sarah

Where has the time gone?

Could it be that there hasn’t been anything happening here since April? That’s terrible! The last few months have been spent moving in and out of new apartments (three), learning the ropes at a new job, camping, concerts, hiking, skiing, skating, watching blockbuster movies, and spying on elk and mountain sheep out of my living room window.

But it’s also been a bit restless. Books and movies started and not finished. Cell phones in limbo. Projects started and put aside. (Well, that’s not really that out of the ordinary I guess.)

I think it’s time to get the ball rolling again. I’ll need to wade through about eight months of spam and dust off the ‘ol html, however.

While I’m cleaning up, why not take a peak at one of my favourite sites: Orangette. So many good recipes and pictures.  The author even has a book coming out soon,  A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table.

Check in again soon, won’t you?

Busybodies and Killjoys

Most times I’ll buy a book after having someone recommend it, or after reading a review. Maynard and Jennica,  by Rudolph Delson, however, was one of the first books that was a total mystery to me when I came across it, yet I knew instantly that I had to go out and buy it. I actually threw on pants and ran (kay, walked briskly. the sidewalks were icy.) down to Chapters to look for it.

Here are some of the reasons I risked broken ankles.

1. I stumbled across Rudolph online mentioning that he loved Andrew Bird. Who also loves Andrew bird? Me. What’s not to love about warbles and whistling?

2. He delivers excellently goofy book readings – at Google headquarters (!). You can watch the reading of Maynard and Jennica, along with question and answers, online right…… here.

3. Not only does he give goofy lectures, he also poses for a good goofy picture.

4. He lived in Germany, earning a living selling personal letters to strangers.

5. Last, I think Rudolph perfectly sums up both the story and my feelings about the book in an interview from Powell’s Books:

“… at least in literature, the misanthrope and the romantic are opposites. In the misanthropic comedy, we laugh at the follies of a man who loathes the misery of the people he sees around him; in the romantic comedy, we laugh at the fancies of a woman who longs to be happy like the people she sees around her. Similarly, there are two things you can do with blackberries: plant them along your fence to keep the world out, or pick them from the roadside for pancakes.”

Well,  if I can’t convince you, maybe New York’s literati can!

Easter – I like you, I really do!

One of the best tips I ever got from my Mum was to hide my dirty dishes in the oven when unexpected guests come over. Genius!

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris has lots of little caramel nuggets of ideas, just like my Mum’s. It’s a big hunker of a book, filled with lots of recipe ideas and hosting ideas (like hiding marbles in your bathroom cabinet to trick nosy guests.) I wish Amy was the next door neighbor who would invite me over for fancy themed dinners and stop by with cupcakes and homemade lemonade on Sunday afternoons. In Montreal we had Mr. Piedlourds as a neighbour, and in Alberta most of our neighbours are strangers. Would you take cupcakes from a stranger?

Actually, I might. But they’d need to have a LOT of colourful icing.

If I can’t sway you to buy the book  (for yourself, a friend… your grandmother), maybe Amy can. Here she is in her own deliciously wacky promotional video.

Amy talks about two things a lot in her book: cheese balls and her rabbit. Maybe you have some time this weekend to make a cheese ball for your family. You can follow along as she makes them on Martha Stewart right here. I wish I had both these things, except I am poor and can’t afford cheese at the moment, and Chris is allergic to every conceivable animal. So, in honour of Easter, let’s take a peak into the world of Amy’s Easter Bunny-ish cupcake store. If I lived nearby I would visit every single day.

However, since I do not live nearby I decided to celebrate Easter another way. I visited every single candy store in town, and bought something gooey from every stop.Wooo! There are pics from the Sugar World Tour right here (and to your right if you click that little Flickr image.)

Hope you all have a great Easter weekend eating hams, perogies, cakes and cookies with your Mums!

xo Sarah

Westward, Ho!

Chris and I are officially headed out to Banff! Well, as soon as we are on the plane and have passed the rigors of snowy tarmacs and bulging suitcase approval… then we will be in Banff! (I’m still a little nervous about the bulging suitcase phase…)

When my brother was in Australia I used to find it a delicious torment to know what the weather was like in Sydney. It was nice to know that someone might be on the beach while I was making bank drafts and trudging home through slush at night. If you have similar tendencies, you can check out the weather out west while we are away. The Weather Network (.com) has amazing live cameras that let you take a peak at cities, parks, and ski hills across the country.

This picture was of Banff Tuesday morning. It makes me think of the opening to an Indiana Jones movie. The view is of Sulfur Mountain, and a quick click here will let you pretend you are watching us in a movie. Also, there’s a link to Flickr, over to your right, that will have lots of pictures of our trip. It will be just like traveling with us.. minus the dorky jokes and constant breaks for snacks along the way. Although, I really think those are the best parts.

Dusty nights

Chris and I are getting ready to move.. and doing a lot of (much needed) cleaning. I woke up today, did some packing, and decided to move some furniture in the bedroom. Not a very exciting Monday – until – I found 20 dollars hidden in a “little” pile of dust. Woooo!

And I realised suddenly: my Mum was wrong! Dust is fantastic! Artist Maria Adelaida Lopez makes cute little houses from vacuum cleaner lint that you can take a peak at here.

American artist Scott Wade hangs on to his dust and grime, too. He “paints” mini works of art in the dust that piles up on his car. Take a look-see.

Sure, Martha would not approve. If you’re still feeling guilty, she might have some good tips for your bedroom.

Now, I’m off to the store to spend that 20 dollars on candy and allergy pills.

JPod

“On the way home yesterday I stopped by Ricky’s Pancake Hut for a cheeseburger, fries and Coke. It’s not what I usually order, but for a short while I wanted to pretend I was living inside an Archie comic – don’t we all feel like that at some time or other?”

Now, this quote really doesn’t say anything about the story, themes, or plots… But it might be one of the passages I loved most in JPod, the latest book by Douglas Coupland. Then again, food, and pretending I’m in a movie while eating food, are two of my favourite things.

On the menu: wacky co-workers, a dull work environment made enjoyable with the help of Google-based games and office hijinks , murder and drugs. A perfect book for when you’ve hit a “I’d rather be doing anything than working” slump.

Sharks…and a shortage of puns.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I love short stories in the summer. Maybe it’s my lack of attention span when the weather is so lovely. When you’re inside you’re itching to be out. When you’re outside (maybe reading in the park) there are bikes, dogs, sword fights, and beachy boys to distract you. What’s a girl to do?

The Man Who Scared A Shark To Death and Other True Tales of Drunken Debauchery by Noel Boivin and Christopher Lombardo has flown into my radar today. This quick description sure does intrigue:

“Next time you find yourself hunched over the kitchen table, head in hands, giant thermos of coffee in front of you, throbbing with remorse, this would be the book to have nearby. In it are all kinds of people who are more stupid and ashamed than you.” (North Shore News, December 17, 2006)

It’s still summer – War and Peace can wait.