Julie and Julia

Last night I went to see Julie Powell, the author of Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of French Cooking. The book is now out in paperback and she's out touring to sell it.

Of course, being from Boston, I love Julia Child. I can see how some people feel she exploited Julia's fame. She addressed some of that in her talk. It's clear she developed a connection to Julia and she expressed her homage to her.

I enjoyed Julie's book and recommended it to friends. In fact, I sent my copy of the book to a foodie friend. Scroll down to January 22. She has over 100 cookbooks!

Julie Powell is much younger than I am, and I was surprised at her disclosure. For example, I would never write about selling my eggs if I had the ovaries or cojones to do it.

I went to the talk with a knitting buddy. I was late due to kids, getting a bit lost, and no parking. So, I missed some of the reading. The Q&A was good. Of course, I would have wanted to ask more questions.

Julie Powell is clearly smart and good with an audience. She's a clever writer, and sure had a lot of time on her hands to cook and blog. Given her intellect and her under-employment, she was bound to be an author at some point. She was very lucky in that her blog was picked up by the media and she got an audience and a book deal. I'm not clear how she got her audience.

Overall, I wonder how you get traffic to your blog. I guess you have to have a unique project or a special hook. Of course, it helps if you are a good writer.

Afterwards, we went out to a Mexican joint full of college kids. It was good to be out but it's a young crowd in this college town. I drank a Negra Modelo and had a steak burrito. Negra Modelo is my favorite Mexican beer. Just tasting one brings back memories of a Mexican vacation with my sisters long ago, but that's something I'd never blog about....

Toy Heaven

 
Above my front door, there is a pretty palladian window and above it there is a large shelf. For the longest time, I didn't know what on earth to put up there. Now, I use it for toy heaven.

Toy heaven is the time-out place for toys. If my kids don't listen or don't put away a toy, I put it up there. When they squabble over toys, I take them away and toss them up there. 

Simple Pleasures of Childhood

  

Owen is mousing on the computer

  

  

I lost 4 points someplace in Chapel Hill.

Dude! You're 96% from Massachusetts!

Dude! Me and Sully and Fitzie and Sean are gonna hit Landsdowne tonight after the game, hang out at the Beerworks. I'll pick you up at the Coop at 6.

How Massachusetts are you?

Start 'em early

 
Here's Owen playing a computer game for toddlers. He has picked up the mouse action and clicking pretty quickly. This is not bad for 2 1/2 year old. He's starting to say his numbers and letters. When we count things he says numbers out of order, but it's pretty remarkable since he only started talking three to four months ago. 

9/11 and the World Trade Center

The memories I have of 9/11 are still fresh. I took the train to work because it was a beautiful day. I was scheduled to hold a weekly staff meeting at 10:00. I was preparing for the meeting in my office, when we heard the news of the plane hitting the World Trade Center building.

It still affects me emotionally, deeply, no viscerally.

Ten years before this, I actually worked on the 43rd floor of the World Trade Center. I only worked there a few months doing a freelance job. I thought it was so cool being on the 43rd floor, but remembered there were over 60 floors above me. The views were amazing.

It was a heady time for me living in New York, being happy about our upcoming wedding plans. We were young and struggling. Bob was in law school; I was trying to find good work.

I think about the people I worked with and wonder if they are all alive. I can't imagine what I would have done if I were in their shoes.

It's just a tiny snippit of my life.

Improving health and school starting

I was surprised this morning when my wedding band just fell off my hand. It's gotten looser. I guess I've lost a few pounds. That's a good thing.

My skin problems are almost cleared up. I'm still on some drugs and a bit itchy and spotted. My dermatologist doesn't want to see me for two weeks. I am very sick of going to the doctor. My primary care doctor was sorry for all I'd been through. She should be since she didn't manage my case very well.

Today I'm appreciating all the free time I have. I was spending at least an hour a day putting on ointments and creams, taking pills, bandaging, cleaning and soaking. I have a bit more time to blog.

Other important events: Miss Z. is back at school. She's excited and already loves her teacher. There are only 18 kids in her class. We went to meet her teacher and feel good about everything.

We had a busy Labor Day weekend. We had a rain storm and power failure on Thursday. Owen was very freaked out about the lights going on and off for a couple minutes. He kept asking, "What happened?" We had a meeting with Zoe's teacher Friday afternoon, a visitor from Boston came over for dinner on Friday night. We did a bunch of errands and house clean up on Saturday. I made three batches of brownies, and 36 deviled eggs for two parties on Sunday. We had our annual block party in the afternoon and a knitting group get together on Sunday night at my house. My knitting buddies came over to watch the Spike Lee HBO movie, When the Levees Broke. Then on Monday, we had a day-long play date with two kids and their mom stayed for dinner. Whew! I'm a bit tired.

On Labor Day, Zoe woke up early and came into our room. She wanted to know what Labor Day was. After my coffee, I explained to her the significance of the day with a bit of pinko, commie, lefty, May-Day spin on it all. I guess my Marxist Economics class was useful for something.