Other Blogs

My blog commitment is still lacking considerably. I actually have had quite a few thoughts about good blog entries. Of course, they always come while driving or during meetings at work and are fleeting when I have time in from of the computer at home.

Tonight, however, I did have an epiphany while looking at another blog (shh, don't tell Zeena!) One Sentence is a blog that I have been visiting for a few months. In particular this entry 'spoke' to me.

My sophomore year in college I live in a suite with 5 other girls. My friend Guddi and I brought most of the tableware and silverware that was in the suite. We used it occaisionally for mac and cheese or cereal in the morning before organic chemistry class, but we still ate most of our meals in un iversity food establishments. Our roommates decided that food purchased for exorbitant prices at Bearmart and then prepared in our hot pot, microwave and toaster over would be the bulk of the menu for the year. Unfortunately, they did not include dishwashing into their meal plan. Every few weeks Guddi and I would gather all of our plates and pots, forks and spoons and plastic event cups and would wash them in our bathroom sink. We would scrub caked on pasta sauce and rinse out sour milk from all of the dishes and complain about what slobs our roommates were. At the time the task was utterly annoying, but now it serves as a fond memory shared with a dear friend and apparently the experience is not uncommon!

Reading

My short book blog got a few comments so I feel the need to reply with an actual posting.

I mentioned that Phillipa Gregory was one of my favorite authors. She writes historical fiction books that are long but extremely easy to read (good beach books!). The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool and the Virgin's Lover are some that I have read. Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson are starring in a screen production of The Other Boleyn Girl due out sometime next year. The are truly enjoyable reads.

My friend Amanda recommended Freakonomics, which I have also read. I like it a lot but found myself wanting deeper information that the book had to provide. The author's now have a blog on the NYT website.

I would also like to add The Time Traveler's Wife to my list of potential all time favorites (I cannot commit yet because I still need to process it a bit). I read it when I was on vacation and it was AMAZING! I highly recommended it. I also read the Girl with the Pearl Earring on vacation - a very simple but good read as well. And the week BEFORE vacation I read Stargirl - a book that everyone over the age of 13 should read.

Finally, my friend Amy recommended the author Zadie Smith. I will be looking up some of her books on Book Mooch. This is a book swap website and worth a look if you hate to pay $15 for a paperback and keep getting fines at the library.

12 of 12: Straight out of Charleston

Chuck and I vacationed in Charleston, SC this week. Here are some highlights from Thursday, the 12th of October.


The local library was having a book sale. We are suckers for this sort of thing. We got hundreds of dollars worth of books for under $20 including some piano music for Chuck and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales!





One of Charleston's nicknames is The Holy City because so many church steeples are prominent in it's skyline. We visited St. Michael's German Lutheran Church this morning.





In addition to churches, Charleston boasts many other examples of fine architecture. This is a federal Custom House one of Charleston's many Classic Greek style buildings.




We grabbed Subway for lunch and headed to Waterfront Park to enjoy the amazing weather. The pavilions you see have small tables for picnics as well as several porch swings!




Waterfront park gave us a great view of the Ravenel Bridge - the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. We rented bicycles and biked across the Cooper River to Patriot's Point on Wednesday.





Charleston's other nickname is The Palmetto City because there are so many of these.







The boat I would like to own someday does not need to be much bigger than this one. We were standing on the pier next to relative of the people eon the boat. A little girl was calling to her dad to be sure to hold tight to her little brother so that we would not fall in!







There are tons of beautiful iron gates in Charleston. There are difficult to photograph so I hope to draw a few to frame and put up in out apartment.







This is one of the fountains in Waterfront Park.
We took turns wading in it!






Chuck makes a new friend. He was a human sized frog sculpture at one of the many art galleries we ducked into during our walk around the city.





St. Philip's Episcopal Church. Beautiful. Lot's of the churches, including St. Philip's in Charleston have their own cemeteries right on the premises.







Charleston was a great choice for a vacation. I would love to go again and encourage you all to visit it. Plus I got a bit of a tan!

Books

Ugh. I really stink at blogging but I refuse to quit! I am waiting for my bookclub to arrive for dinner and discussion. In the spirit of the evening I am going to list (in no particular order) my favorite books, book series and authors. Consider this a work in progress...


Books
To Kill a Mockingbird
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Goodnight Moon
Interpretor of Maladies
The Mists of Avalon

Series
Harry Potter
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Twilight

Authors
Phillipa Gregory
Khaled Housseini

Tell me YOUR favorites!

12 of 12

Welcome to my first attempt at 12 of 12!

I woke up at about 6:15 and went to the gym. I was pretty sore from my Monday skating practice, but my time on the elliptical machine really worked out the lactic acid!






This is a shot of our bedroom before I am about to leave for work. Yes, I make my bed every day. Someday we will outgrown the star quilt, but right now it is the perfect warm weather bed dressing!






Hmmm. Whose keys are these? Chuck's! I hope that he enjoys toting around my cute star keychain today!







This is our apartment building. Our living room window is the one 'bathed' in sunshine. It is a beautiful day, but it smells like skunk in the courtyard.






Today the traffic on the way to work was bad. [Note: I was stopped during the taking of this picture.]






This is my desk at work. It is pretty under control because school just started so Boston Public Schools has not had much time to violate the legal rights of my clients yet!







I am on the retreat planning committee at work. This morning I put together a packet for all staff members including this flier! Our retreat is in a month and will based on the Meyer's Briggs personality test.







Most of our offices at work do not have windows. We have the lovely 'Alcove' where a critical mass of staffers gather for lunch most days. Sometime generous staff members leave baked treats in the Alcove also. But not today.










Marlies, my co-worker, felt that only her shoes were fit for picture taking today. They are pretty cute.







For dinner Chuck ate left over pork loin. Apparently he thinks that it is finger food.








I have been cleaning out our files and this is one of about 5 bags of shredded paper that resulted from the purging.









This is a terrible picture, but it is of the amazing CUBS game! It brought them back to sharing first place with the Brewers. Go Cubbies!

Bored

I am experiencing a momentary period boredom with blogging. I hope that it will not last long enough to require a name - like the 'Boredom Era'. I am counting on time to be the antidote so please be patient. Also, more comments might inspire me.

hint

Hint

HINT

Juxtaposition

Although it is totally inappropriate to blog about things you might see in the locker room in the gym I can think of a few situations that would merit narrowly broadcast (is that an oxymoron?) dissemination. One of this situations (theoretically speaking) may play as follows:

Short of breath and sweaty, our heroine climbs up the stairs of the gym to the locker room after her usual cardio, crunch and stretch session.

Can we talk about the stairs going to the locker room for just a sec? Our heroine works hard to lower her heart rate during the crunch and stretch portion of her workout only to have it raise again going up the stairs.....does that seem right?

As the heroine enters the locker room she braces herself for the compulsory visual assault of the token woman drying her hair in front of the tree way mirror TOTALLY NAKED. Instead her eye is immediately caught by a striking lower back tattoo on one of the gym patrons.

You know the type (see above): a black and white design that does not mean much of anything. That is, unless you ask the Wedding Crashers. They viewed the lower back tattoo as an indication of a girl's willingness to acquiesce to their wanton suggestions.

The tattoo that our heroine came across was, in itself, a run-of-the-mill back tatoo. It appeard to be well done in a opaque true black ink (as opposed to a off black/blue) with very clean edges (no whiskery outlines). Overall not anything to blog about - if a person would be so bold as to blog about what she had seen in the gym loker room.

What makes this tattoo notable is that it was paired with a very stirdy pair of white cotton brief underpants. What would the Wedding Crashers think of that?

Namesake

This morning I arrived at work to find a package on my desk from "Zee Parents". I am delighted to inform you all that the namesake of this blog, Zeena Porcelina, has arrived in Boston to serve as my muse. Zeena Porcelina is a doll that my Grandma Salem gave me when I was little. As her name might sigguest, she is an exotic thing and as soon as I can make arrangements, I will take picture and post it for all to admire! In case you were wondering: Yes, I did name her myself and No, I have no idea how I cam up with that name.

Missed Opportunity

My friend Amanda tuned me onto 12 on 12 wherein a person (just like you or me) takes twelve pictures over the course of the 12th day of the month. (last Sunday) This person then posts the twelve pictures with clever explanations on a blog. (like this one) It would have been nice for me to do that on Sunday, huh? (especially since I 'played' tennis with Chuck) Unfortunately, I did not. Look for that fun next month. In the meantime, I am starting a "100 things about Bryna" post the be revealed at a later date. Suggestions welcome.

Ribs

There is a broad appreciation for ribs–both pork and beef–primarily from the opposite sex, but when I find myself at a food establishment specializing in such I pour over the menu in search of a salad, fajitas or something similarly boneless.

My husband Chuck is a rib-loving guy. He is quick to suggest a a rib joint when we have plans for dinner and, despite his slender physique, can be counted on to order the "Texas-sized" platter.

Despite my practice of avoiding traditional smokehouse fare I always, upon Chuck's hearty recommendation, sample a rib or two. I endure the messy but sweet, sticky but delightfully tangy sauce to literally suck the tender meat from the bone. My regret for not ordering my own rack is immediate and deep as I unenthusiastically return to my boneless meal after wiping my fingers clean with a wet wipe.

I had an opportunity to change my ways Friday night when we went to the Village Smokehouse to have dinner with friends. Despite Chuck's reminder of how much I enjoyed sampling his previous orders, I found myself dining on fajitas and, of course, a few ribs from his "Texas-sized" order.

I have it it in mind, however, that next time given the opportunity, I will proudly order myself a rack of ribs, with coleslaw on the side and leave the boneless meals for the less adventurous diners.

Brynakkah

Yesterday I got a message from my parents telling me that my birthday is being rescheduled to July 31st this year. Normally I celebrate on July 29th being that is the date of my birth, but apparently they did not get my present in the mail in time for me to open it tomorrow so I will get it sometime on Tuesday. This is not at all a problem as it just gives me the opportunity to extend my celebration over several days.

I began my birthday celebration yesterday at work when my "Birthday Buddy" Fred (our Americorps Vista Intern/Sanity Preserver) brought in a virtual smörgåsbord of treats: cherry pie; apple pie; vanilla, coffee, and cherry chip ice creams; a cheese danish; and popcicles (inspired by the time my mom brought popcicles to all the campers and staff at my summer job one year). YUM! Since there were very few people around on a Friday afternoon we will be able to celebrate with them for a few days next week.

Finally, I think that my birthday present from Chuck is going to be a sewing machine! I have been wanting one for a while to do some simple projects. I think that I am going to order one from Sears online so that means that will arrive even later than my parents' package.

I like the concept of a birthday week and will be working on how to finagle this again next year.

Busy Weekend

I was hoping to have a delightfully empty weekend during which I could bury myself in the final saga of Harry Potter however, I had several social engagements to attend - *not complaining* - REALLY, I'm not.

Chuck and I were up and out of the house before 9am on Saturday to pick up our copy of the book which he immediately began reading because I had a baby shower to attend. Said baby shower was 'on the cape'. It took me two hours to drive 70 miles and thus I arrived too late to be fashionable but just in time for lunch. Thank goodness.

That evening, Chuck and I attended a Clambake with his co-workers. I learned when we first moved to Boston that a clambake is actually a Lobster Boil and that it is impossible to such and event hungry.

On the way home that night we made the tactical decision to pick up a spare copy of The Deathly Hallows - Chuck had decided that he could not share! We read a bit that night and then skipped church in the morning to continue our pursuit. Can we justify that by comparing the discipline of wanting to finish the book before work on Monday with the discipline of attending church regularly?

Sunday afternoon I went to see Ratatouille with my little sib. I enjoyed it. Great animation, but I like some of the other Pixar stories better. Home for more HP and then out to dinner with one of my best friends from home, Ashley and her husband Bill - awesome visit!

Home after for more HP Chuck finished before he went to sleep. I got up early and read instead of going to the gym - (see above for substituted discipline) - and finished before I went to work - late.

I am glad that I finished before I re-entered the work week - one of my non-Potter co-workers was making fake comments about the book which would have infuriated me had I not been done. Overall I am very happy with the last book but emotionally exhausted. I will miss Harry.

Work In Progress - Blog Goals

As I explained in my previous blog, I am back with the intention of being a better blogger. That being said, I am trying not to be too hard on myself initially. I am going to try and give my blog some time to find its voice. My initial goal is to regularly post. The posts may be random, but I would like to add pictures and/or words at least two times a week. After I feel comfortable with posting, I will add another goal!

Goal #1 Post 2 times a week.

Do Over

I started this blog a few years ago and did a miserable job. I am back now and intend to be a better blogger. Stay tuned!