shamelessly stolen book meme

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the owns you own but have not read.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22 (don't ask me anything about this book cause it's lost in my highschool memories)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (does begrudgingly listening to on cd count?)
Memoirs of a Geisha (on tape)
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera (ahhh, columbian boys)
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 (again.. i know i read it, but it's lost in foggy HS memories)
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray (i got really good use of my somerville library card for books on tape)
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (this was on a book club list of possible books, i think it was trumped by that awfully boring tehran book)
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir (proudly drove straight to limerick upon arrival in ireland)
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present (i have some of these chapters on .mp3... oh how technology has changed)
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye (in the highschool abyss)
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit (book on tape)
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences (want to read this one.. esp after seeing capote. aunt jule knows this story well)
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

nicely manicured hands, cola beef and melanoma

my podiatrist has such nicely manicured hands, i was noticing today as he massaged and pressed the tendons in my ailing foot. his nails are very clean and trimmed short. rrrrrrrr.

i got the night splint.. and i asked him if driving long distances will always be a problem for me. he said no.... not if we can get the inflammation to calm down, it shouldn't be a problem.

tonight cath is making cola beef.. i have been having dreams about this dish lately.. you put a beef roast in a crock pot with chili sauce (we didn't have any, so cath used thai sweet chili sauce.. i bet it will be delicious!) and a can of soda.. then you cook the s**t out of it all day long.. by the time you eat it, its falling apart in delicious little strings that have been simmering in boiled down juices. yuuummmmm..

i don't know if anyone read this article or not from boston.com.. it's an interview with kelli pedroia (dustin pedroia's wife).. it is supposed to be anti tanning, but it's a mixed message at best.. especially when she goes on the record saying...

But her husband stands at second base for hours, often in the heat of the day. Does he wear sunscreen? "Dustin? I don't even know. That sun beats down, and I can say it to him until I'm blue in the face, but if the kid doesn't get it. . ."

wtf kind of message is that??! boston.com must have been hard up for a story.. this story pisses me off.

shopping spree

cath, KW and i saw Baby Mama today.. it was pretty funny.. last night i saw "forgetting sarah marshall", it was definitely worth seeing. afterwards we shopped a little in the mall. i got a couple new nightgowns (sorry, LK they are not see-through)then i got a few really cute colorful tops.. i can't wait to wear them! there were huge sales today!

in other crazy exciting news i got myself tickets to see equus in november. the saturday after thanksgiving actually.. i think i might spend my holiday in NYC. anyone want to go with? woot! maybe alicia will take me to a scary korean bath house again.

it's the weekend!!

wow this came up so fast. gotta love vacations.. i am *fingers crossed* seeing 'forgetting sarah marshall' tonight with KW. if she can't go i am going to have to just go by myself. i really want to see that movie. tomorrow i have to work, and then cath and i are going to see 'baby mama'. i have been seeing preliminary reports that it's good.

today i went to lunch with AMC and told her how even if i leave it in gear my car still rolls without my e-brake. so she schooled me in the delicacies of a manual transmission and how it will roll unless you release the clutch. DUH!! so that is where i have been going wrong all this time. i'm so dumb.. i will surely be using this method of parking from now on.

earlier this week when i was fantasy car shopping i kept mentioning how my next car must have certain features of my current car. so cath, half listening, says..... "if you love your car so much why don't you just get it fixed?". that really resonated with me after some defeating fantasy shopping.. my car is worth about 5K from kelleys blue book. i still owe around 6K on it over the next 2 years... all the cars that were acceptable for me to buy were in the 17-18K range.. if i wanted to have them absorb my current loan and take out a loan that would be no more than 4 years (with a 0% apr btw), i would be increasing my payments by at least $100, probably more. and... i would prob not find a car that had steering column volume control like i wanted. soooooo. i think i am going to explore getting the leaking/burning oil problem fixed, the e-brake retightened and hope that the LOUD engine noise is related to the leaking oil.. which i hope is a gasket problem, not a crack...

if those repairs won't break the bank, i could always have an auxiliary mp3 player added to my stereo (or just buy a new stereo) and be more than happy with my car for many years to come.. plus.. say in 2 years when i am done paying it off, i should still be able to get a decent amount for it trade in wise and should be able to get another car payment closer to what i have now...

so.. please say prayers that my engine problems are minor..... :) otherwise i am going to need a plan B.

omg.. it's thursday already..

wow, i'm all effed up as far as what day it is and what is on tv.. tonight is survivor and the new episode of lost already! (and the 1st day of sweeps for those of you paying attention). i have to work at the M&T. i hope my foot/leg holds out.. it's pretty wrecked still from the weekend. i hobble down the hallway to the bathroom at work as infrequently as possible.

my car is failing me lately.. besides the ongoing oil leaking/burning that i've been doctoring with frequent adding of oil (thanks Uncle Paul), my e-brake is acting up again. i seem to be able to pull up on it more and more and more, and the car is rolling when it's supposed to be parked more and more as well. ugh. makes me angry. since lunch with SF last friday i've been trying to imagine what car i would buy if i got a new one..

on a completely random note.. cath so eloquently told me this morning that my "cherry pie" lotion smells like "alcohol skin".

2 crappy cameras.

so this weekend i brought both my broken cameras with me in the event that my latest crappy camera craps out. well, ask and you shall receive... my s5 stopped working at the celtics game.. so i switched monday morning to my old broken camera the s2. well, i got about 5 pictures out on the way to the bar and the memory was full. TR saved me and brought a spare SD card, but the crap camera wouldn't recognize it.

ugh i hate those cameras. i had so many great opportunities for pictures too..

i felt like i was on a tour of massachusetts. i saw the back bay, kenmore, mashpee on the cape, chelmsford in the north, brighton, somerville, north station, and finally lexington.

before the tour of MA i had a pit stop in albany to see MK on her birthday. i met her at her dads house and didn't realize i would be joining a birthday party in progress. i arrived just in time for cake. i met MKs younger brother. i had never met any of her siblings and don't know why, but i was shocked at how damned hot he was.. be still my beating heart. after cake and singing and storytelling and list writing MK and i returned to her apt and went to bed early so we could have a birthday breakfast at a nearby diner.

then i hightailed it to newbury street to meet PMB and KB. it was so nice to catch up with them, i haven't seen either of them in years. i love meeting up with old friends and picking up right where we left off. that was definitely a theme this weekend. we ate tapas at "tapeo"... and the city was so swollen with visitors i didn't even try to find parking.. i paid to park in a lot. :(

after lunch i journeyed down to JBPs new place. to say it was as nice as an all inclusive resort would be an understatement. it's unreal how nice the place is.. i am so happy for them. luckily this was one of the places i did manage to get pics of.


the view from lees backyard.. click for a larger picture.

sunday morning HEKD and LK made us pancakes and fruit. then JBP and i drove north to L&TMs house. we had a great time catching up... a lot happens in 2 years... after hanging out we all headed into boston to watch the celtics game. our seats were pretty phenomenal.. and there were fireworks beforehand as well. a bunch of red sox players were at the game too.. we saw sitting courtside, mike lowell (rrrrr), david ortiz, dustin pedroia, kevin youklis and coco crisp. they kept showing them on the jumbotron. and the crowd would go nuts.. the crowd also went crazy for kevin garnet.. i had never heard of him, but he was a superstar! the celtics won.

sunday evening we sped over to brighton to meet up with LK and JN.. just in time to go home really.

monday we left the house at 9-930 and braved the crowds and made it down to fenway area to the bar by 1030.. after our game going friends left we crossed the street via a 4 block detour and had some lunch and drinks at "the audobon". i retold everyone the story of SHs dominican flag stealing during the fated red sox/yankees game..

after our LOOOONG day in boston we headed out to brighton to the new "beer garden" to watch the bruins game (all of bostons sports teams are en fuego.) and eat dinner. we waited an hour easily for our food. the bruins lost game 7 in a big way..

this morning JBO and i went out to breakfast and after i dropped her off at the T i headed out to my old workplace in lexington to meet an old coworker and catch up. it was great to see everyone. another instance where i wish i had my camera.. grrrr...

so to sum it up, i prob put 900 miles on my car, and need another "vacation".

here are the limited pics i snapped before my cameras forsook me.

funk n waffles, Syracuse

funk 'n waffles



This review has been moved to my ALL NEW www.CNYDigested.com blog..

http://www.cnydigested.com/2008/04/funk-n-waffles-syracuse/

please update your bookmarks!

big huge weekend!!

***UPDATE***

sunday the chance to go to game 1 of the eastern conference quarterfinals celtics vs. atlanta hawks came up, so JBP and i jumped at the chance to take in a ball game... i haven't been to a celtics game in more than 6 years... i heard they are good now.. when i have been in the past they were not that good, and the garden (fleet center at the time) didn't come close to selling out.. so i'm looking forward to it..

this weekend will be jam packed with fun! i am traveling out to MA to watch the marathon monday red sox game through the bottom of a pint glass. along the way i will have the opportunity to see many old friends that i have not seen in quite some time.

friday i am stopping to see MK, my favorite pharmacist.. it's her birthday.. she had the night wide open. ;)

saturday i am having tapas with old coworkers on newbury st, and then heading down to JBPs new apt in mashpee to check out her new pad and catch up.. maybe some hot tubbing.

sunday.. more friend seeing, north of boston this time.. then some good old fun in my old town of brighton..

monday early morning the real fun begins.. i have my fingers crossed the weather is nice. the game starts at 11 i think.. so we are planning to be down in the fenway area at 9am.. then who knows what will happen!

tuesday i enjoy a nice breakfast on my way out of town. i see that "the hammer" is playing in portland, me.. LK is trying to talk me out of going up there to see it on my way home.. we'll see..

it's going to be an exhausting weekend, and i can't wait!

tomorrow i am going to check out a new restaurant with SF.. it's called funk n waffles. they have some bizarre waffle meals on their menu.. check it out..

ugh..

my email is semi-down.

i appear to be receiving emails.. but i can't send them. it looks like it's been down since 11am or so.

so.. if you are waiting patiently by your inbox for an email from me... it might be a while. i can't even get into my webmail for that account.

grrrr. internets!

your message has been deleted...

ugh.. i just got a VM here at work from an outside number.. i knew it most likely wasn't someone i wanted to talk to, but when i heard him say, "hello becky....." and then went on to say "becky" three or four more times i just deleted the message right then and there..

i hate that..

blogger appreciation day and certified mail

darren over at problogger.com has unofficially declared today blogger appreciation day..

i wanted to thank all the bloggers that keep me entertained on a daily basis.. i can't tell you how many times i laugh out loud sitting here at my desk with some of the posts and comments that pop up.. i know that it's a personal choice by that of the blogger to keep up with posting and the content that goes up.. but it's so delightful to see the name of my favorite blogs turn bold in my feedreader indicating to me that there is new content when i'm looking for a distraction in my day. i also love being able to "keep up" so to speak with what my friends and family are doing that i don't see or talk to on a daily basis..

so wherever you fit in the blog-o-sphere, i thank you!

in other news...

i got a postcard from the mailman on saturday saying i needed to sign for a letter from "Dialog" and the name on it was Brown.. i went to the post office before work to pick it up and sure enough it wasn't there, noone could find it. i got a call about 1/2 an hour after i got to work and turns out the carrier had left it in his satchel.. so now i have to go back at lunch to sign for it.. it better be worth all these trips to the PO...

hey shoes, where ya going with that girl?

i don't know why SH didn't post this pic of teagan in her "big girl" shoes herself.. it's too hysterical not to..

feeling so inspired as of late

i feel like i just got a bunch of new toys and i'm itching to sit down and assemble and try them out!

tonight we are making pizza.. we are going to make a pizza with avocado on it, similar to the recipe i put up yesterday..

i got roasted red pepper, canned mushrooms (my favorite), avocados, artichoke hearts and black olives.. i decided to forgo the pine nuts as they cost 8.99 for a little container of them. shiiiiiit.

holy deliciousness..

i don't know what is compulsing me to post so much, i apologize... but i just read through 87 comments on GFGs post about avocados. these recipes/uses made my mouth water... i'm asking friendly's tonight if they have avocados.. otherwise i am going to have to stop at P&C on my way home.

-cold avocado soup! heavenly goodness, what silken texture. saute some onions till golden. blend with avocados and a splash of buttermilk and broth until excellent consistency is achieved. Season with cilantro, chili, or wherever your imagination takes you... Garnish with a swirl of yogurt, diced ripe tomatoes or prawns... sky's the limit.

-One of my favorite restaurants over here takes a half of avocado, adds some diced tomatoes, tops it with some fresh mozzerella, and then warms it just slightly so that the cheese melts juuuuuuust a little bit, and then tops with balsamic vinegar.

-I adore avocado on pizza. I make my pizza with pesto, stir fried red peppers and sweet onions, toasted pinenuts, sliced avocado, mozzarella and sometimes a bit of artichoke heart. OH SO GOOD!

i feel like i am obsessing over this...and i kind of am.

something that i have been thinking about since i read it.. is steve pavlina's philosophy on eating differently (in his case raw food only) in front of other people and the social stigma it creates...

Here’s how I look at this situation. If I eat a crappy diet in front of other people, I’m subtly encouraging them to do the same. That does a real disservice to people who share a meal with me. I don’t want to be the kind of person who lowers the standards of everyone I eat with (or who reinforces pre-existing low standards).

If I put myself in the position of eating a healthy diet when I’m with other people, then I subtly influence them to improve their own eating habits as well. I don’t need to discuss what I’m eating to have this effect ­ I know from experience that it happens automatically. Try it for yourself by sharing a meal with someone whose diet is much healthier than yours, and see if you don’t feel slightly more motivated to make some improvements. We’re all subtly influenced by the people we connect with.

Eating with someone who makes strange comments about my food isn’t a big deal to me. The more important issue is whether I’m serving as a positive example to others. While they might superficially disconnect from me because I eat differently, I know there’s a deeper, more important connection that’s being established beneath the surface. That’s the connection that reminds people they are in fact strong enough to make conscious food choices, even when everyone around them is doing the opposite.

my deskmate eats chips and candy from the vending machine on a daily basis, sometimes 2 and 3 times a day.. while i consciously know that there is no reason to ever eat cheetos or snickers bars, my brain justifies buying junk because i see my deskmate doing it all the time..

here is SPs entire post in case you want to read more about it..

phew!

i can cross the drawing off my todo list..

in listening to steve pavlina lately i've had a little moment of clarity... i think i might stop paying so much towards my credit cards and figure out a realistic amount of money that i can pay towards a mortgage and then start talking to someone in the mortgage industry to get the ball rolling.

then when/if i get pre-approved for a mortgage, i can start house hunting..

i am also going to take time out in the coming weeks to stop skirting the issue of setting some future life goals and get the ef started working towards crossing them off my life list. shiiiiiit!

things i learned today.

1. commercial art supply will cut mats to size for you. for a fee.
2. AC Moore has a wide frame selection.
3. purchasing a frame and buying and having a mat cut can be accomplished in a lunch hour.
4. steve pavlina is a crazy inspiring guy. king of common sense.
5. i want to buy a thing-a-ma jig that will allow me to listen to my ipod in my car.


steve pavlina...i don't remember exactly how i first started reading steve pavlina... he was probably a guest blogger on problogger.com... but since i've found him i periodically fall into expansive stretches of time where i read all i can get my eyeballs on of his articles.. he has a whole blog dedicated to personal development. he most recently did a 30 day raw food trial.. he also graduated college in 3 semesters with 2 degrees.. one in math and one in computer programming.. and 17 years ago as a 19 year old kid he was sitting in jail on a felony theft charge.... his ideas and attitude about things reminds me a lot of wfisher.. maybe my perception of wfisher is way off, but in my mind, he is very similar to this guy..

StoryPeople

back in march of 2003 i took a little trip to NYC with my former coworkers to visit a former coworker.. this was back in the KB days.. we stayed with DP at her dads house in Pelham, NY. he had 2 prints in his bathroom that i fell in love with... i later learned they were StoryPeople prints..

one was today's story of the day.



Slapping Sharks
What's that thing? I said. O, that's an oar, he said, in case we hit a calm stretch & we decide we need more excitement & also it's good for slapping sharks.

thanks DP for inadvertantly opening my eyes to the delight that is brian andreas.

it's a girl... heh heh

we had EHs baby shower this weekend. it was fun.. she got some cute things. not many diapers though. :( i am afraid she is going to have to train her baby not use diapers. oh well, it's greener anyway..

caguarna came up with E&R, she stayed aat the b&b up the street. R told her to give cath $hit about not getting invited to SHs shower. so caguarna brought it up at the shower about every 15 minutes. it was funny. hee hee..

i didn't take many pictures.. between cath and i we took 8 pictures. :( good thing CM took a whole bunch.

here are my pics...

here are CMs pics...

no rest for the weary!

the unexpected guests have gone... we can try to return to normality, but wham! tomorrow more guests show up.. then friday more guests will show up. then saturday a LOT of guests will show up. i feel like i live in a hostel, or a visitor center on the thruway.

i took as many pictures as i could.. cath got a cute video of owen eating a lemon that i will post too when i download it.

however, i *don't think* i'm going to get sick tonight.. i am feeling not as full and nauseous today. but just in case i bought something at eckerds that is to combat stomach discomfort and gas. i need to add that to my purse.

agitated would sum up my mood right now.

my mouth is all tore up from whatever is going on in my stomach right now, my fake cap is almost more irritating than the reason i got it in the first place.. figures since i am finally feeling like eating today, my tooth and gums have other ideas..

i think i am getting my period at this very moment..

i had to literally jump out of bed from a dead sleep about 5 times last night because i was choking on the 1 amstel light i consumed with my out of town guests.. finally i said F-it and threw up what i could.. then i tried to patch together a cycle of REM...

to end this brilliant day i have calling hours to attend immediately after work..

here are some pics.


dakota in the jumper


dakota and kim


kim and dakota


owen in the jumper