Photo of the Week--4/12/10

Another day in Spain, another pigeon to be chased! It's a little hard to pick it out in this picture, but there's a white pigeon that has taken flight because of Boy's persistent efforts to bring fitness to Europe's pigeon population. If you look to the right of the big blue box, you'll see someone who looks like they're wearing a white hat; look half an inch above the hat, and you can just make out the wings in motion. This one was in Seville, and even though it was February, you can see the trees in bloom and the bright sun reflected off the windows. I'm glad spring has come here, or I'd be tempted to jump on a plane to the Mediterranean right now.

The Quilt Files, Episode 18

I've been quilting for almost ten years now, and for most of that time I've been receiving the Keepsake Quilting catalog. I've bought quite a few patterns from them, and a few fabrics, although many of those patterns remain on my "to-do" shelf. I'd always eyed their KQ Challenges with interest, and a few years ago decided to try one for myself. The idea of the KQ Challenge is that you get six fat quarters, and you have to create a 30" x 30" quilt using at least four of them, with the addition of no more than two extra fabrics. I'd been hesitant before because you don't get to see the fabrics ahead of time, but finally I saw a challenge that sounded promising. I can't remember the exact title, but two things stood out: it was to contain no applique, just piecing, and the fabrics were described with something along the lines of "bright." Since I love bright colors, I thought I could stand working with that. Imagine my disappointment when my package of fabrics arrived and contained the following:

Now, the pink, turquoise, and purple fabrics were fine. The stripe, however, didn't really match the same cool palette, and the barf-green plaid was just plain hideous. I don't have a scrap of the sixth fabric, as I used it all on the back, but it was a bali-type that was mainly brownish-black, with spots of turquoise, peach, and a pink that was plummy-brown—a much warmer tone than the pink confetti fabric. I really wasn't sure what to do. Then I looked a little more closely at the pink fabric (which was actually a slightly different pattern than the sample above from the same manufacturer's line). I saw lots of what looked like ones and zeros. My little nerd mind immediately thought digitally, I bought some golden-orange fabric to pick up on the gold in the purple and pink patterns, ... and this is what I ended up with:

It was tricky, as I couldn't use applique to make the ones and zeros (and besides, I hadn't really done any applique to that point). Instead, I used the little trick with triangles: if you use them in the right proportion, you can approximate the look of curves. Take a closer look:

So you can see I managed to get four fabrics in there: the turquoise for the ones, the purple for the zeroes, the stripe for a small inside border (judiciously cut to avoid the ugly colors), and the digital pink print for the large border. If you look closely at the above photo, you'll also see that I quilted all in "1s" and "0s," using a metallic ombre thread by machine. To complete my
Digital Delight," as I called it, I translated "Keepsake Quilting Challenge," my name, and the date into binary numbers (A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, except in this case A=1, B=10, C=11, D=100. Yes, I know I'm a total nerd.*) and quilted it into the big border. The challenge judges didn't award it any prizes, but I liked the result, especially considering the sad prospects of what I started with. I'm not sure what to do with it, so it sits in my closet until I find some place or some person (maybe a computer programmer?) who can appreciate my weird mix of fabric and math.

*It reminds me of the old joke: There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

The Word Nerd Sez: R is for ...

rambunctious

There's no deep meaning behind my picking this "r" word, except that it's one of my favorite words and it was time to get back to my Word Nerd feature. Okay, I'll admit that maybe some of my tae kwon do students fall into the category of "rambunctious," and it's a much nicer word to use to describe them than "squirrelly" or "obnoxious" or "Lord, doesn't that kid ever stop?" It's also a word that aroused my curiosity, because there are no obvious clues to it's origin—no prefixes or word stubs or anything. So I headed over to my friendly Merriam-Webster site:

rambunctious: marked by uncontrollable exuberance; unruly.

Well, "uncontrollable exuberance" sure describes one of my regular students, although he's so good-natured I couldn't really describe him as unruly. "Rambunctious" is a great word to describe a lot of kids, though. (Especially since most of them don't understand what you mean when you say it, heheheh.) Anyway, let's get to the interesting part, the etymology.

rambunctious—Date: 1830; probably alteration of rumbustious (Oh, goody! An etymological scavenger hunt!)

rumbustious—Date: 1778; alteration of robustious (yippee! more definitions to chase!)

robustious—Date: c. 1548: robust; vigorous in a rough or unrefined way; boisterous (Aha! Now we come to the point!)

robust—having or showing vigor or strength, from the Latin robustus, oaken or strong, taken from the Latin robur, oak.

Now that's a path I never would have imagined for this word. It started with Latin, but altered its sound to become a word that sounds more uncontrollably exuberant than the original. Robustious sounds all Latin and stuffy (maybe one of those made-up names from Life of Brian); rambunctious sounds stubborn (like a ram) and hard to chase. Kind of like its definition. It's much more fun chasing rambunctious word origins, however, and making interesting discoveries like this one.

Photo of the Week--4/5/10

The Alhambra in Granada, Spain, is widely considered one of the world's most beautiful architectural sites, and so we thought we shouldn't let any pigeons, nay, not even one single white one, mar the nearby streets with its presence. Along comes Boy, to rid this UNESCO World Heritage Site of unsightly skyrats! Okay, maybe the one in this photo looks more like a white dove, but it's still a pigeon. It still needs to be terrorized, and we obliged.

Janespotting: North by Northanger by Carrie Bebris

This is the third in the series of "Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries" that Carrie Bebris has written, inspired by various Austen novels. I thought the first, Pride and Prescience, handled the characters and the mystery quite well, while the second, Suspense and Sensibility, was less successful as a mystery, although it made good use of a couple of minor characters from Sense and Sensibility. I'm happy to say that North by Northanger (another clever title!) is my favorite in the series so far.

The novel opens with Elizabeth settling in at Pemberley, awaiting the birth of her first child and trying to figure out how make her new role as mistress of Pemberley her own. She is constantly reminded of her husband's late mother, Lady Anne, by both the house itself and the servants, and worries how to measure up. When she moves an old writing desk and discovers a letter written from Lady Anne to her future successor, it is the beginning of a mystery involving a missing family heirloom.

First, however, the Darcys head to Bath to interview a doctor who will attend the baby's birth. This gives us some good Bath scenes—filled with lots of repartee between the spouses—as well as chance to introduce Capt. Frederick Tilney into the story. Tilney sees Darcy's name in the Pump Room book and invites him to Northanger Abbey, claiming that their mothers were friends and wanting to renew the connection. The Darcys agree, but upon arriving at the Abbey find conditions very strange. There is a lack of servants—and their own attendants mysteriously disappear, and are later discovered to have been drugged—their host doesn't show up for their substandard supper; when they do meet Tilney, they find him severely injured but in good spirits, asking strange questions about their mothers and hinting at the search for a family secret.

Tilney's behavior seems especially peculiar, considering that when the Darcys mention they have found personal belongings in the late Mrs. Tilney's rooms where they have been lodged—a set of diamond jewelry, to be exact—Capt. Tilney doesn't seem interested. The reason seems clear when the Darcys cut their visit short, and within hours are accused of stealing the Tilney diamonds. The jewels are found in a clever replica of Darcy's walking stick, and Darcy is charged with the crime by an overzealous magistrate who won't consider the possibility he has been framed. He is especially disinclined to release Fitzwilliam after Henry Tilney shows up and says that Capt. Tilney died some time ago, and he never heard of the housekeeper the Darcys met.

The Darcys are forced to call on Lady Catherine de Bourgh to get him released, and she returns with them to Pemberley. Elizabeth must deal with her constant disapproval and interference, even as she goes through Lady Anne's old letters to see if there really was a friendship between her and Mrs. Tilney, and thus find some clue as to why their visit to Northanger Abbey went awry. She finds the friendship was real, and is somehow connected to Lady Anne's missing family heirloom, and she and Darcy manage to unravel all the mysteries (and thwart Lady Catherine) whilst preparing for the new baby as well.

I thought this was the best mystery of the series so far; there were no supernatural elements to cloud the mystery (Elizabeth thinking she feels Lady Anne's spirit had little to do with the mystery plot), and the connections between the Darcy family and Tilney family seemed logical. I thought Henry Tilney's character was different than how Austen portrayed him in NA—he showed none of the quirky wit that made him interesting—but then, he's introduced in a very tense situation. Other Austen characters are involved in the mystery in a very organic way, and the Darcys' relationship continues to show affection and witty banter, so that's a minor quibble. The scenes in Bath and at Northanger Abbey have much the same feel as the original Austen, as well. So I'd give this sequel—one of the very few to NA—an unqualified thumbs up.

Next up: Mansfield Park. (And yes, I meant not to use an exclamation point. Sigh.)

2010 Book Report: First Quarter

I'm determined to do better this year at wading through my reading list; I want to hit the magic 100-book mark, an average of two books a week. Let's see how much progress I made during the first quarter.

Key: C: Children's; F: Fantasy; H: Historical; Hr: Horror; M: Mystery; MG: Middle Grade (ages 8-12); NF: Nonfiction; P: Poetry; SF: Science Fiction; SS: Short Stories; V: Verse novel; YA: Young Adult (age 13+); *not in the last ten years at least; ^read for work.

01/02/10: Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (YA, F, 4 or 5)

01/04/10: Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife (YA, F, 4 or 5)

01/10/10: Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (YA, F, 4 or 5)

01/17/10: Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (classic, 4 or 5)

01/23/10: Carrie Bebris, North by Northanger (M, 1)

01/27/10: Tanita S. Davis, Mare's War (YA, 1)

01/29/10: Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon (F, 2)

01/31/10: Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade (F, 2)

02/15/10: Ann Radcliffe, Mysteries of Udolpho (classic, 1)

02/20/10: Sara Lewis Holmes, Operation Yes (MG, 1)

02/21/10: Elizabeth M. Hemingway, Road to Tater Hill (MG, H, 1)

02/28/10: Matthew Lewis, The Monk (classic, 1)

03/03/10: C. J. Omololu, Dirty Little Secrets (YA, 1)

03/04/10: Robert Russa Moton, Finding a Way Out^ (memoir, 1)

03/04/10: Cissy Houston, How Sweet the Sound^ (memoir, 1)

03/08/10: Art Rust, Jr., Confessions of a Baseball Junkie^ (memoir, 1)

03/13/10: Naomi Novik, Black Powder War (F, 1)

03/14/10: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (classic, 1)

03/16/10: Jane Gillespie, Uninvited Guests (H, 1)

03/19/10: Madeleine George, Looks (YA, 1)

03/23/10: Naomi Novik, Empire of Ivory (F, 1)

03/27/10: Michael Lewis, The Blind Side (NF, 1)

03/31/10: Richard Schickel, Elia Kazan: A Biography^ (NF, 1)

That's 23 books for the quarter; not quite enough to keep me on pace for my yearly target of 100 books, but pretty good, considering how much time Mysteries of Udolpho sucked out of my life. (And yes, "sucked" is the appropriate word.) I also read quite a few books for work, but only listed the ones I read all the way through.

So what was my favorite new read of the quarter? Michael Lewis's The Blind Side was just as fun as the movie—with the added bonus of more football background—and Tanita Davis's Mare's War was a really fascinating historical YA about African American women serving in WWII. But I think my favorite was Naomi Novik's Empire of Ivory, the fourth volume in her "Temeraire" series. While the series presents a really fun concept—the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragon air forces—it's great when you get further into a series and the author keeps expanding the world in ways you couldn't foresee. That's what Empire of Ivory does, taking the dragon Temeraire and his crew into Africa and presenting a really interesting variation on dragon-human culture, at the same time keeping the adventure and character development coming.

Will the fifth Temeraire book be my favorite in second quarter 2010? I guess you'll have to check back in three months to find out.

Cookie of the Month: Irish Lace Cookies

Last month I initiated this new feature on my blog with the Lemon Snowflake cookie, the very tasty treat I had been given for Christmas. When it was time to come up with a recipe for this month, I thought since it was almost St. Paddy's Day, and I'm just a wee bit Irish, that I would look for an Irish cookie recipe. After searching around and discarding numerous regular-cookie-dyed-green recipes, I found this traditional recipe for Irish Lace Cookies. It's pretty simple:

½ cup butter, softened

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 T. all-purpose flour

2 T. milk

1 t. vanilla extract

1¼ cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Cream the butter with the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in the flour, the milk, and the vanilla; then stir in the oats.

As you can see, the very small amount of flour produces a very gooey dough. You drop it onto the sheet in spoonfuls, and bake 10 to 12 minutes in a preheated 350F oven. After you take them out, you end up with something that is very flat and a little bit crispy:

Now, I pulled the recipe from the internet (usually a good source of recipes) and read through the comments. Many people had observed that these cookies were really difficult to remove from the cookies sheet, but a couple said they had used wax paper and had no trouble at all. So I topped my super-big fancy cookie sheet with some wax paper and plopped the cookie dough on top. Ungreased sheet, the recipe said. Bake until golden, the recipe said. Thus I did, and I got the following:

You probably can't tell from the picture just how devilishly the cookie is sticking to the wax paper, but it was so bad it resisted all attempts to scrape the cookie off, let alone "quickly turn the cookies upside down and roll them into cylinders." I ended up with bits of paper in my cookie, so I put the sheet back into the cooling oven to keep the cookies warm, and then scraped off crumbs a bit at a time. I took the crumbs and molded them into something resembling a cookie cylinder, and you can see the pathetic results below.

Now, these ugly-looking not-quite-cookies were actually very tasty: as you might expect, they had a strong, buttery caramel flavor from the butter and the brown sugar. But they were definitely not worth all the trouble I went through. I suppose I should try again and use a stone baking sheet instead—then I could scrape away until I had every single crumb—but April is coming soon and it's time for another new cookie. I wonder what's good for Easter...?

Final rating: nom nom (two of five noms)