Reading

I've recently finished two great books. They receive my highest recommendation. The first is a pretty standard novel, that I found out was also read by a fellow blogger, FSP (female science professor). The books is A Gate at the Stairs. It's set in a college town but the story largely revolves around a student who becomes a nanny for a couple adopting a child. It was quite good and did really pull me in. I think the ending could have been done better, but it was okay.

The other book is A Homemade Life. My friend, Jill, gave me this book for Christmas after she mentioned it during a phone conversation and I thought it sounded wonderful. This is not your typical novel. Molly Wizenberg writes a blog that is in someways the basis for the book. The blog links her life to recipes. The book does the same. I have now made two of the recipes from the book. The ginger lemon scones are awesome. D and I ate some this morning from a batch I made more than a week ago. And I also made a dish that involved poaching salmon in apple cider. It was also delicious, though I wasn't quite patient enough to wait for the sauce to reduce as it should have.

Something new

Last weekend, I went on a New England adventure. D had planned the trip and we stayed in an adorable inn. The inn had amazing breakfasts, despite some mixed reviews online. We both had omelets the first morning (mine had a bunch of veggies in it and D had assorted veggies, spinach and mushrooms if I remember correctly, along with cheddar cheese). The second morning I had delicious whole grain pancakes with blueberries and D had a breakfast burrito. There was also a fun buffet with good pastries and fruit... yes, we ate a lot, but it's a good thing since the skiing was exhausting. The town where the inn is located is home to one of the infamous Winter Olympians (can you guess who?) so there was much signage cheering him on. We hit one local store and when we were paying, some of the staff was checking the scores for women's skiing. We didn't partake in the downhill events, but rather spent the better part of two days cross country skiing. Those of you who know me, might know that I learned to down hill ski in high school but haven't done much of it since. (I did go with friends once in 2007. And had fun, but it's just not my favorite sport.) I had never cross country skied. I had a bad NordicTrack experience in the distant past. Those things are only for super coordinated people. This adventure went well. It took a bit for me to get the hang of it and I think that was at least partly influenced by the bad conditions the first day. Things improved on the second. We woke up to light and lovely snow. And we also overhead some folks talking about different trails than what we had originally tried. So, even though I had trouble with the down hills (too narrow, sometimes too many uncovered rocks and branches, possibly somewhat unkept equipment), it was a lot of fun overall. I was very sore on Sunday night. But have recovered nicely. And I am also now back to my gym routine and Pilates - it was a rough month including being sick and having some weird rib injuries (did you know you can basically pop a rib out of place... yes, it's as painful as it sounds.) . Things are looking up. But I'm still very busy at work.

Don't you wish...

you were taking my friend's science course. He has crafted an entire exam based on the Olympics! I was proud to help him craft a question for a concept that he wasn't quite sure how to test. How fun. Watched the opening ceremony with friends on Friday. Had to leave before it was over, too tired. So I missed the snafu with the lighting of the flame. Have watched the updates but not time to see much else.