2.19.2006

Beaching is hard work



The beach was so fun ... which is amazing for reasons threefold. Eins, I hate the beach. Zwei, my brother hates the beach. Drei, we were all there. But it was really fun, and as long as the weather holds I think I'll be going back. Wow, huh? So I took my camera but only took one picture and now I can't find the plug to upload that one picture so you are instead getting this picture of crazy boys at the beach. Great, eh? I did get mildly burned, but it didn't show up until later. I wore a hat and sunglasses so my face didn't get it, but my upper back and shoulders are a pretty crimson color. Ian is a beautiful shade of scarlet, as he is never ever in the sun -- but only the bridge of his nose and his forearms, since he refuses to take off his shirt and reveal the translucence that is his chest. The dogs had a marvelous time, but I didn't realize how much of a workout I was getting toting around a 45lb and 60lb dog for 2 1/2 hours while they tried to meet every other dog on the beach and fight to get in the water and then fight to get back out of the water .... Late last night my muscles all started to tighten up and now my back and shoulders and arms are in so much pain!

I made spinach chicken manicotti last night for dinner, and for once I followed the recipe -- no good. I know better than to follow recipes exept in baking, but I figured the picture looked so good that it should be, right? The problem with recipes is that they don't allow for specific tastes. Usually I look at a recipe to get an idea of what types of things go in, but then I change it to fit our tastes -- it ends up completely different from the recipe, but by reading it first I know what kind of base to work with. This one had cayenne pepper (and I am completely anti-spicy) and a lot of lemon juice in the sauce. So we ended up with lemony spicy manicotti ... I didn't eat it, but Christen thought it was okay; he ate his and mine. He agreed that, while he thought it was good, it was not something that we would care to make again.

The reading is not going well this month. I finished From Our House, but I haven't been able to get into anything else. Any suggestions?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. The Town That Forgot How To Breathe was incredible.
2. Disgrace, another awesome one. The author is ... Koetzee or something like that.
3. Saturday, by Ian McEwan. Gorgeous, I tell you. Simply gorgeous.
4. Oryx and Crake, by Atwood. If you've never read it, or you read Alias Grace and hated it, try this one. I LOVED it.

Have fun. I'm reading all graphic novels right now - boning up for my class presentation.

L said...

sounds like a good time :)

Ryon said...

I do miss the beach. I could drive to Cal, but the traffic is just such a nightmare it is not worth it.