Elkit in Wonderland

Science Fiction ... Double Feature

NPR has a reader-voted list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels. Like so many other people, I love checking these out and checking them off. Let's see the tally of the ones I've read:

1. The Lord Of The Rings
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
3. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series (I read the first and part of the second, but not the whole series yet. Am mightily looking forward to the second season of Game of Thrones on HBO)
4. 1984
5. Fahrenheit 451 (I've probably read everything by Ray Bradbury)
6. The Foundation Trilogy (I've probably also read everything by Isaac Asimov)
7. Brave New World
8. American Gods (I *think* I've read this.)
9. The Princess Bride
10. Animal Farm
11. Neuromancer (and Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero, and almost all his other novels)
12. I, Robot
13. Stranger In A Strange Land
14. Slaughterhouse-Five
15. Frankenstein
16. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
17. The Handmaid's Tale
18. 2001: A Space Odyssey
19. The Stand
20. Snow Crash
21. The Martian Chronicles
22. Watership Down
23. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
24. The Time Machine
25. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (probably also read everything by Jules Verne when I was a teenager)
26. Flowers For Algernon
27. The War Of The Worlds
28. The Mists Of Avalon
29. The Left Hand Of Darkness
30. I Am Legend
31. The Time Traveler's Wife
32. Journey To The Center Of The Earth
33. The Dispossessed
34. Something Wicked This Way Comes
35. Wicked
36. The Eyre Affair
37. The Illustrated Man
38. Doomsday Book

Seen the movie, haven't read the book:

1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Starship Troopers (for the record, I think it's a really good movie)
3. Contact
4. The Road (I keep trying and failing to read Cormac McCarthy. It's not that I don't like him, but there's so. Much. STUFF. in there that I can't slow down enough in order to really get it. It's just too dense.)

Of all of the listed books, my personal favorites are (in no particular order):

• The Handmaid's Tale
• The Time Traveler's Wife
• The Left Hand Of Darkness
• The Dispossessed
• Fahrenheit 451
• Doomsday Book
• Flowers for Algernon
• Wicked

And other personal sci-fi and fantasy novel favorites that I would add to my list:

• Kindred, Fledgling, and Bloodchild, all by Octavia Butler
• Passage, my favorite Connie Willis
• Engine Summer, by John Crowley
• Little, Big - also by John Crowley. I just got the audiobook read by the author.
• The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner
• The Stone That Never Came Down, by John Brunner
• The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson
• Moderan (Festung Zehn, in German), by David R. Bunch
• Das Jesus-Video, by Andreas Eschbach ... and ooooh! German Kindle books!!!
• His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass trilogy), by Phillip Pullman

If a zombie romantic comedy and vampire noir count in this category, then I would also add:

• S.G. Browne's Breathers: A Zombie's Lament
• Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series

Eggy

I've been eating egg sandwiches for breakfast all week, and today's version was the best one yet. I started with smitten kitchen's best egg sandwich recipe, using one egg and a pile of shaved gruyère from the block of cheese that needed killing before it turns into spongebob squarepants. And then, instead of another English muffin from my stash, I toasted two slices of the delicious caraway rye from Companion Bake Shop that I got with my CSA delivery.

I predict another go tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll even add a little bacon for a Sunday treat.

And speaking of CSAs, I am switching. I've really enjoyed being part of Live Earth Farms, but even with their smallest box, I still couldn't keep up, since I don't cook dinner every day. The winter season has just ended, and I've signed up for a trial membership with Eating with the Seasons, who have an even smaller share size and will even let me pick just the items I would like from their offerings. They also offer similar add-ons, and use the same convenient online store system (Farmigo). 

Ahead

Possibilities for the week ahead:

Green cabbage
• Sauteed cabbage with apples and walnuts
• creamy baked cabbage with fresh thyme
• pureed cauliflower and cabbage

Chard
• lasagna based on Kalyn's Kale Lasagna recipe

Cauliflower
• as above, pureed cauliflower and cabbage
• roasted cauliflower

Red Cabbage
• almost certainly the Red Cabbage And Chicken Asian Salad Recipe With Tangy Cilantro Dressing, one of my favorites

Sweet Potatoes
• oven baked sweet potato fries
• Duchess potatoes

And what to do with the Japanese turnips?
• pickle them?
• honey-roast them?
• add them to a salad?

Here Be Dragons

Went to see this and liked most of it, except a few nitpickers.

Absolutely loved the opening credits, and might go to see it again just for these.

Mara and Craig were fantastic.

And I really liked the Fincher color palette.

Moving Pictures

Wow, I went to the movies 4 times this month! My record for this year. Actually, I don't think I'd seen four films at the theatre this entire year before December.

I saw:

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in San Francisco at the Kabuki Theatre, on its opening weekend
• Young Adult the very next day. 2 films in 24 hours! Wheeeeee!!
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy AGAIN on Christmas. Oh, and I re-read the book as well. What can I say, I was in a Smiley mood.
• A Dangerous Method at my "home theatre", the Camera Cinemas

Cucumber Smoothie-ish

I bastardized Elise Bauer's recipe for Cucumber Lime Agua Fresca, and mine didn't look anything like this gorgeous photo which is hers, but if I showed you a picture of the pale concoction that I spooned out of a bowl, you would already be on your way to the next blog. Ha! Caught you! Reeled you in and kept you here. Mwahahaahhaaaa!!!

I peeled and seeded the two cucumbers I had, picked and tore a fistful of mint leaves, juiced two lemons (since I have a lemon and not a lime tree), poured a liberal splash of maple syrup on top and blended it all. Did not bother to strain it, and like I said, I just spooned it all out of a bowl. Not really sure if it qualifies as a smoothie or a gazpachoish soup or as anything at all, but do I care? No. It was refreshing and tasty, and definitely the easiest way to dispose of the cukes.

D'you want to go to the seaside? I'm not trying to say that everybody wants to go

This is SUCH a nice weekend!

I got up earlyish because I needed to put in a 5 mile run. Thought to myself that maybe I should go in to work first, and run on the treadmill afterwards, with our gym being open from 1-5 on Sundays. And then I thought to myself that I was full of shit and if I didn’t go now, it probably wouldn’t happen. So I got off my duff and went out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. I put on my new trail running shoes, which are comfy enough on a paved trail, but I felt my shins much more (and went more slowly as a result), so I’ll probably only use them for shorter runs in the near future.

On the last mile, coming back down Willow Street, I wanted to take a picture of the vanishing point between the trees lining the sidewalk, but it froze my phone. Alright fine, I’ll know better next time than to take pictures while the Nike+ GPS app is running in the background. I ended up underreporting my miles on Nike+, but only by 3/4 of a mile or so. I can make that up next time.

Speaking of Nike+, how many more friggin times do I have to tell that site to remember me? It never does, amnesiac dork that it is!

But whatever. Back at home, abs!!! For the Fit Abs challenge. I did two sets of basics (see stats below). Let me tell you, I felt them much more than even just yesterday. Sure am working it! Shut up abs!

Post-abs, more eggs and veggies for breakfast. I’ve been getting eggs from Surfside Chickens with my farmshare veggies, and whenever I can, I pick a carton that includes green eggs. I don’t know what breed lays the green eggs, but they are so pretty! They always make me smile. Crack a smile when you crack an egg! I think that’s a good rule to live by.

Off to work for 4 hours where I knocked out as much stuff as I usually do on a regular 8 hour day. I like coming in on the weekend when it’s all quiet.

My friend Bill called me to find out when I was heading out to Santa Cruz for a get-together at my best friends’ house, and warned me that the traffic on Highway 17 was backed up for miles, and I decided just to go later. Thank you Google maps for displaying traffic info! That was very useful. I just went home after work and watched some Tour de Francing, and didn’t head out until traffic woes had eased.

It is so nice to live within a half hour of the ocean! And so extra super turbo nice to be with friends for a mellow evening of eating and drinking and just hanging out.

My (Health Month) stats for Sunday:

Abs exercises for the Fit Abs Challenge:
• 10 straight crunches
• 20 alternating oblique crunches
• 20 bike crunches
• repeat above set

Things I am grateful for:
• Living close to Santa Cruz.
• Traffic info on Google maps.
• Friends who do not mind if I head out and show up later to avoid traffic.
• And I am more than grateful to have a friend like Holly who saw my favorite French sea salt in a store in Boston and bought some for me.

Saturday, Saturday

[copying my Health Month daily report over here.]

What a gorgeous Saturday that was! Temperatures in the mid-eighties, sunny and balmy.
I got up earlyish because my employer said that I could go to a free screening of Cars 2, the new Pixar movie. I’d seen the first one and had really liked it, and I really enjoyed this one as well.

Decided not to stop at work, and to do that tomorrow instead. (It’s not a hardship – I volunteered for a few extra hours for this weekend.) Did some shopping on the way home – nothing exciting, just cleaning products and kitty litter.

Fixed myself a nice lunch when I got home – man oh man, I sure got my recommended daily servings of vegetables, and then some! I actually had veggies even in my breakfast (made scrambled eggs with spinach, onion, and cheese), and I think this might be the key in “beating the box”, using up all the veggies this week before I pick up the next box on Friday. Anyway, lunch was a big bowl of arugula, bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, basil, avocado, and that delicious tomato walnut vinaigrette that had winked at me at the farmers market a few weeks ago. Oh, and some walnuts on top, to match the vinaigrette.

After this late lunch, it was high time for the first stage of the Tour de France. It’s my favorite sporting event to watch – first of all, it’s such a great athletic feat, to ride a bike for 5-7 hours every day for 3 weeks. And not just toodling along, but making serious time up big mountains in the Pyrenees and Alps! There are all these specialists – climbers and sprinters, and supporting riders for the team captains and main contenders, and leadout men to get the sprinters in perfect position for a win at the end of the sprint stages.
And then there’s all the team tactics! Lance Armstrong has said it’s “high speed chess”, and I agree. I find it just fascinating. And the commentary on Versus is just excellent; they explain all these things really well. I recommend it highly.

It was an exciting first stage, made even better by the fact that I managed to stay away from the results on Twitter and Facebook, so I didn’t know who was going to win. I was riveted.

Whew. I was all spent after that. Needed a nice dinner, which of course was more vegetables – I used some of the mizuna and tatsoi for a stir-fry, and loaded up good on some of the onions and garlic that have been piling up for the last few weeks.

After dinner, I sat outside on my kitchen steps for a while … I’ve been contemplating surprising side effects lately. There’s this stray cat who’s been coming around – I think my (indoor) cats encourage him; they’re social little butterflies. The stray (I call him Catman) is a scrawny little thing, so I started feeding him, so of course now he sticks around. I won’t let him in the house because one of my indoors is REALLY territorial – she pretty much turns into Clint Eastwood, snarling at him to git off her lawn. So I feed him outside. I stay while he eats because the Scrub Jays were taunting him very rudely. So, to make a long story … not any shorter, really … I sit there at night and look at the stars, a nice new habit that is all credit to Catman. He eats his dinner, and then he curls up on my lap and purrs and drools and scratches my arms because he is not very careful with his claws when he “makes biscuits”. Oh well, I don’t mind much.

Back into the house and onto the mat at last to do my abs exercises

Been thinking that maybe my Health Month middle name this month should be “Shut Up Abs”, in honor of the Fit Abs Challenge, and even more so one in honor of one of my favorite cyclists, Jens “Shut Up Legs” Voigt.

Oh, aaaand ten minutes of meditating, and about a half hour of reading, which concludes The Game of Thrones. I do not think I will be able to wait for the next season on HBO. I might take another week or two to think about what I think could happen next, and then I'll dive into Book Number Two. 

Abs, Abs, Abs, Abs, Abs, Lobster Thermidor, and Abs

On tonight's menu for abs exercises:

• 10 straight up crunches
• 20 alternating bike crunches
• 20 side leg lifts
• 1 minute plank pose
• 10 straight up crunches with legs in table-top position
• 20 alternating bike crunches
• 20 side leg lifts
• 2 (TWO!) minute plank pose, just to show off

Makes for 100 real crunches and 3 minutes of planking, which counts for 30 more reps. Total of 130, more than enough for the Fit Abs challenge. 

Let's See How Ready You Are

Tour de France, Tour de France ...