by gina | No. 03
Issue No. 03
Happy Thanksgiving and merry upcoming holidays to everyone! After two straight weeks of traveling for work, I rounded out November with a short visit to California where I ate food, complained about the sub-45 degree temps and rain, and played with a cute monster of a beagle. I have a puncture-wound scar to prove the monster-factor of said dog.
Although the weather wasn’t quite “SoCal,” the short break away from work was a welcome one. I made pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin-cheesecake quickbread with the remaining batter. Mom successfully made dulce-de-leche by baking sweetened condensed milk in the oven for about an hour. Who knew. On Thanksgiving day, we sat at the table to a beautiful spread: smoked spatchcock turkey, pan-fried brussel sprouts with bacon bits, homemade cranberry sauce, and the aforementioned dessert. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.
How was your Thanksgiving holiday?
Be the Best Host With Awesome Decor
Looking to spruce up your wall decor before your guests arrive for your holiday shindigs? How about some photo prints by yours truly? There’s a small selection available on my site, and even more here. Your support is much appreciated.
Coming Soon: Best of Lists for 2019
Get excited. I’ll be creating my second annual “Best of” lists. I made a serious attempt to create a year-end list last year when I had a lot going on but also having expanded my literary and cinema appreciation. I had a lot of fun with those lists, and it seems a few people enjoyed reading them, too, so look out! A list for 2019 will grace your inbox at some point in the near future.
Watched & Read
- 🎬 The Favourite (2018): Finally watched this the other day and it’s spectacular. Between the cinematography, the acting, and the underlying story, it’s a shame I didn’t see this on the big screen when it came out.
- 📚 Normal People by Sarah Rooney: it’s a novel that’s been making rounds on “top” lists recently and after weeks of library waitlist purgatory I checked this out. I ate it in five days. What immediately caught my eye was the lack of quote marks to indicate, well, acts of conversation. The absence of “standard writing structures” we learn in grade school doesn’t, in any way, take away from story. In fact, I find that it elevated it, and made the relationship between the main protagonists appear stronger and more inviting.
Around the Web
- As humans with a level of sentience, pregnancy and the creating of life is viewed as a miracle with awe. But just like most things human-connected, we, as a society and culturally, erase the complexities and the violence that occurs throughout the process. This read from aeon about the tug-o-war is a great one.
‘Til next time.
🚲✌️