Amberella’s Neighborhood

I'm still trying to catch up.

  Ok Musicophilia was just plain fascinating.  It's by Oliver Sachs, the author of Awakenings .  The book explored the unique relationship of the Brain and Music. As an amateur musician myself I enjoyed traversing the journey with sever tic's that calm when music is played.  Those who have lost all capacity to remember, until music is involved.  The miracle of perfect pitch and all it's connections.  I even did some tests myself.  After reading an encounter with a composer/musician who had lost perfect pitch after a stroke, he discovered he could remember the pitch of a song and then pull the perfect pitch out of it.  I tried it myself and in 90% of all songs I can do the same.  Think it, sing it, and then play the recording and be Right On!  The exceptions are songs that I've played/heard in multiple keys. I think I'm going to have to get this for my mum for Christmas.
  Julie and Julia was rude delight.  I completely understood Julies need to do something that made her stand out. And what an undertaking, trying to cook every recipe in Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Julie struggles, and has issues, and loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She swears, hates aspic (meat flavored cold Jello). Cooks a mean Crepe, and tries an egg for the first time.  You salivate at some of the descriptions, feel tremendously sorry for her husband on occasion, and root for her to succeed.  A great read, Highly recommend for all who struggle with mattering.
  Then I embarked on a couple of Austen fan fiction.  Austenland is the story of a Pride and Prejudice obsessed single woman who's wealthy relative bequeaths her a holiday living the story and time period.  She struggles along, trying to find her footing in reproduction Regency England.  She makes out with a 'servant', predictably hates the Darcy stand-in, and along the way learns about herself. It wasn't horrible, just fluff, and not the best fluff at that. 
  Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is the story of a Regency girl, obsessed with (you guessed it) Pride and Prejudice, and as the result of a gypsy fortune teller, and horrid horse riding accident, ends up in the body of a girl in LA who's just caught her Fiancee cheating on her.  Well mayhem ensues, and her friends don't really understand her lack of memory and weird fascination with all things technological.  Eventually she learns about herself, and manages to snag the right man.  I felt a bit at sea in this book at first, and the technological discovery became ridiculously redundant before long.  I did find, however that this is meant to be book two of two, and I imagine that would have helped.
  And here would be the naughty book of the bunch.  April told me I should read it, and I got it on CD and read it in my car.  I kept having to turn it off at the bank drive through, and  Taco Bell because it was beyond racy.  It was interesting having a different cultural view, as the three protagonists in the book were three strong African American women.  That was about the best part of the book.  I was blushing far to many times.  Yeah, this is not for the faint of heart. And Definitely NSFW!
  Catching Fire.  What can I say?  An excellent follow up to the fabulous Hunger Games. If you haven't read these books, mark them in your schedule, buy them now, but for your sanity's sake...wait until the third and final installment comes out next year to read them.
Good Lord I love these books.  I'll recommend them to anyone.  They are gripping, philosophical, post-apocalyptic, and with gritty and engaging characters.  Katniss and her family and friends face the latest challenges with the government, and life will never be the same.  This book is full of twists and turns, and meaty encounters.  You will eat this book up.  READ IT!  (Next year)
  Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant was just one more occasion for her to showcase her remarkable talent to spin a tale that enthralls and engrosses you.  The book is lyrical, beautiful, haunting, and hopeful all in one.  In this story an orphan visits a fortune teller to see if his sister is still alive.  She tells him that he should follow an elephant and that elephant will lead him to his sister. At the same time a Magician is performing and decides that today he want's to really DO magic, and summons an Elephant, much to everyone's surprise. I cried 4 times.  I'm not gonna lie.  I finished the book mourning the fact that I had no one to read it to.  I even called my dad and told him that.  It is beautiful.
  The World According to Bertie is the latest in the 44 Scotland Street novel series by Alexander McCall Smith.  This book, like all the ones before it in the series, are written serially and published in a Scottish Newspaper.  It is really fun visiting these characters again.  Seeing Matthew meet his soul mate, following Angus Laudy as he tries to get Cyrill acquitted, and hearing Bertie tell more than one person that he thinks his new brother Ulysses looks just like his psychotherapist.  A delightful addition to the series. Great character study, and almost like a visit home, via Big Lou's coffee shop.

The vast total of my August Reads can be found here. Enjoy

I have 8 people around me who are pregnant.
Two of which are related to me.

I'm happy for them, REALLY I am.

That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

I got stuff put in my hair.  More color than is there naturally.
Here are the Highlights :) Enjoy

In my ongoing attempt to catch up.  Here's the next installment.

In Your Dreams is the next in the 'Portable Door' series.  Again following Paul as he begins to learn more of his heritage.  Poor Paul.  He tries so hard, but keeps bumbling through.  Sadly that's not very safe in his world.  His uncle has left him an unusual legacy, he's learning the methodology and paperwork of monster slaying, and tangling with Grendel's Aunt, all while coping with a girlfriend who has left him for good.  Paul has the weirdest dreams, a car that is spirited, literally, and a reputation that is accidentally quite good.  He does figure it out in the end, and all' well that end's at J.W. Wells and Co. 
Stargirl was an unexpected gem to find.  It is the story of Leo, a high school student in Arizona who's world is turned upside down by the arrival of a decidedly different girl, who calls herself Stargirl.  Stargirl marches to her own drum and (well actually Ukulele) and, surprisingly, captivates the imagination of the entire High School.  Leo is smitten, and Stargirl returns the affection, but then it goes awry.  She takes too much attention away from those who actually seek it, creating enemies, and even goes so far as to cheer for opposing teams, which tips the scales of public opinion against her.  Leo has to choose, to be the best kind of man, or bow to the pressure of popularity.  A GREAT read.  I cannot recommend this, and it's sequel (to be reviewed later).
The Perilous Journey is a sequel to the first Mysterious Benedict Society book.  I enjoyed it almost as much.  You met up with old friends, and made new ones, as the Benedict Society heads overseas to find their dear compadres, Mr. Benedict and Number 2.  LaDroptha Curtain has kidnapped them, and the MBS has to combine their strengths in order to solve the clues and save the day.  One of the most poignant moments for me was when Mr Benedict had to manipulate S.Q. Pidallion, and wound his honest heart.  It was very good to see a book show the consequences and remorse that surround such actions. I liked this book, and how it uses my mind in the process of the story.  I'm looking forward to the sequel.
When in the course of human events it has been more than a year since I have read the Harry Potter books I begin to get, well, Itchy.  Of course the anticipated arrival of another in the movie installments is always a good reason to venture forth into Rowling's world once again.  Hey, lets be real.  I don't need an excuse to go back to Hogwarts! This time around two things struck me.  One, how much fun it is to read this series as one of your close friends is reading it for the first time. Two, how much what you are going through affects the way you read them.  I was expecting to feel like I was coming home.  Enjoying old friends and remembering good times. Instead I began to read from a perspective I've never seen before.  A couple of close friends have been going through some rough times with trust issues.  I have been so intrigued to see Dumbledore from this perspective.  He really bore the brunt of Voldemort's choices, and was the carrier of that history. Then here comes Harry, he starts doing some of the same things. Keeping Secrets.  Speaking Parsletongue.  Not telling the whole story.  Thinking, sometimes, that he's above the rules.  Can you imagine the faith and trust Dumbledore must have had in order to believe that Harry was going to turn out different?  Especially as it becomes clear that the Scar and connection between He Who Must Not Be Named and Harry becomes more significant.  If you haven't read this series yet....What are you waiting for?  They are brilliant!

I finished up baking the wedding cake… in a range that now has a (temporary I hope) wooden handle, that’s right ladies and gents, my kitchen range is sporting a 2x4 where the handle should be.  One side of the handle came off yesterday as I was putting the first cake in the oven.  Later, the other side came off as well, right in my hand.  With the new chunk of wood, I can get in stuff in and out of the oven much easier.  And that was all that mattered while I was baking the wedding cake.  Tomorrow I will ice the wedding cake, Saturday morning I will deliver it and then enjoy my cousin’s big plain Mennonite wedding.

Just about the time I was headed off for a nice leetle nap, I saw that the USPS had delivered my box of broken NASA glass… which sent me downstairs to the kiln.  I played with the pretty bits of dichroic glass and put a round in the kiln to fire up.  I spent some quality time with the whammer, making broken glass into more broken glass, managed to wham my own finger like the genius I am.  Owie!  I just finally pulled that batch of glass out of the kiln just now, they were still 102 degrees, but that’s better than 1500 that they were earlier.  I think they turned out beautifully in spite of the fact that three of the six have crack marks in the center.  I’ll ask a glass friend what that was about but I’m pretty sure it’s because I opened the kiln door to peak at the wrong temp and the glass just couldn’t contain it’s joy at seeing me and it's heart just burst right there in the middle.  Or something like that.  Temperamental stuff, peaking in the kiln at the wrong time is a bad idea.

I was serious about getting that nap so I tried again.  This time the phone rang just after I had dozed off.  The hubby was on his way home and bringing the father-in-law with him.  He was just passing through but we managed to talk him into staying the night.  I would have cooked but he just wanted food, a shower and off to bed with him.  He’s driving some kind of big rig through the area.  We ordered a pizza and that was that.  I like to cook, and I would have loved to cook for them but they were looking for something a little more instant.  To bad, their loss. 

I managed to put some glaze on a series of wine glasses.  It seems like wine glasses were good for me this month in sales.  The second round of glazing will come tomorrow and then I’ll get a feel for whether or not I like them… so far myeh.  That's how they always look after the first round, the second round is what makes them beautiful.

While I was working on the glaze my friend Michelle called.  She was here for a few nights last weekend and I made home made hot poppers.  She was making them and trying to remember what I'd done.  Just cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and membranes.  In a microwave safe mug put half a block of cream cheese in the mic for 30 seconds.  Stir in some salt and peppa, onions, paprika, garlic and some swiss or sharp cheddar (in fine chunks) or whatever your favorite cheese is.  Stir it all together and put in a pastry bag (or a ziploc bag with the corner clipped if you don't have the other) and pipe it into the pepper halves.  Line a pan with foil, put cracker crumbs in the pan so the peppers don't stick, top the poppers with more cracker crumbs and some parsley.  I popped them in my toaster over at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, served with cold sweet n sour and duck sauce and YUM!  Michelle was trying to remember what I'd done, she'd been watching while I made them when she was here.  She'd found a recipe online from Emeril... but she said it was too complicated.  Michelle liked my recipe better than Emeril's!!  *wistful bits of happy joy and smug self approval*

I just put another round of glass in the kiln and set it off.  By morning I hope it is back down to a temperature that I can get in there and see what they look like.  I love working with glass, you never know what is going to come out of the kiln, but honestly, waiting to pull them out after they are back down under a hundred degrees is really hard.  I am curious and impatient.

It’s time for full tilt production for the holidays.  I want to get my work into a few more galleries and see if I can rock this holiday season.  I hope so.  That would be cool. 

Then maybe the first of the year I can work on transforming my kitchen.  I’m thinking a new floor – which I think means the old vinyl will have to come up.  And since it’s been down there since 1975 I don’t know how hard it will be to get up.  And everything needs a coat of paint.  The walls, the cabinets… everything.  It’s going to be a really big job but it will turn out fine, if I can ever make up my mind on the colors.  I fear that I don't really want to live with the gray I've chosen.  It would be beautiful in someone else's home, but other people can live with colors I can't handle and the opposite is true.  (I remember well my fuchsia bedroom - it rocked - but to be fair it was mostly concrete, steel, glass and hardwood... but still the one fuchsia wall ROCKED!)  Hmm... 

I still hope that we can get the adoption in by the end of the year, mainly for tax reasons but honestly, hope is waning for that.  And the possible financial repercussions of that kind of suck.  But whatcha gonna do?  There isn’t anything I can do but wait.   Well... I can blubber over it, but I've already done my share of that.  Honestly I don't know whatever possessed me to say that I'd pay thousands of dollars and wait hundreds of days for something I'm not sure I can handle when it comes.  I'm just sayin.

That's a day in the life of an artist.  Never a dull moment.

It's been a long time since I've posted my reading reviews, and I have quite the list.  I'll break it up in to different months so enjoy.

I pulled up in front of my house to park and *bump…*  uh… what was that?  Did I hit the truck?  So I parked Vincent and got out to see if there was some damage.  Yeah.  There was damage.  I ran over a turtle with Vincent Van Go.  And the shell was broken, the bits had squirted out and a puddle of blood was forming as the lil bugga looked up at me. 

I felt like a horrible human just then. 

Later when I visited the site he had tucked in his little head and died.  Sigh. 

And now there are flies. 

I have told hubby, he shall visit with a shovel to remove the remains when he gets a chance.  I told the lil bugga that I was very sorry but it didn’t help.  Hubby said some apologies are like that. 

I love turtles. 

La Sigh.    

She joined a choir. 
(That's not the astounding part)
She has this beautiful voice.
(nope not it either)
She sang this solo.
(not yet)
It was Legen....wait for it...dary.

She's the one singing the solo
Yup, at the beginning and the end.

That's her hitting that pitch perfect high A.

Sweet eh?
3 :25 of beauty to start your day.