Finished!

Man, Under the Dome was like a marathon in written word. And I loved it!

This 1,074 monstrosity really moves like you'd never believe. I don't think many, once starting the behemoth that is, would have a problem finishing it in less time than they imagine. It took me 5 days start to finish (about 4 days of dedicated reading -- I took Monday off to read my sister's Christmas present, but don't tell her).

In scope, the story probably goes in the categories with The Stand (for story heft) and Needful Things (for sheer size of cast, although I think UTD has more characters than Needful Things). There are some other similarities with those other two, and that's the human element. Something King does well, but all three of these stories share the aspect that pits townspeople/community against one another in a desperate situation.

As usual, I highly recommend the latest King. It didn't not disappoint, not that I expected it to. I'm thinking if the story hadn't moved so fast, I would have liked a little more time to savor it. Not sure when King will have a new book out, but happily, his website states that he has an idea for a new Dark Tower book. Sweetness! Either way, you might want to make Under the Dome last, but I really dare you to try.

And I'm off to the next read. What it will be, I haven't decided yet. This enforced vacation has been really nice in knocking out books, though. Since Friday, I've finished 4 and that's counting Under the Dome. Total page count of all the books, that's an average of 354 pages a day. Not too shabby, but I can do better!

A week and a few days to go before I begin work. We'll see what I can get read in that time, shall we? Off to catch up on some movies first, though.

Past Halfway

So after my day off from reading on Monday, I did make up yesterday. Honestly, if I hadn't taken that day off, you might be reading "DONE!" right here. Barring anything strange or tragic, I should finish Under the Dome today.

I was thinking, and I had prepared a blog that I trashed due to sensitive nature. I wanted to tell you my From a Buick 8 story, but it's hard to do ignoring the total circumstances.

See, being from Louisiana, unfortunately hurricane season and hurricane evacuations become a semi-normal part of your life. Post Katrina and Rita, I feel that there was a lot of assumption that the big one would never happen. That each warning was just an overreaction. And it was backed up by the fact that everyone would pick up and go and the storm that hit would not be as bad as predicted.

It made life really tough, and I'm not trying at all to downplay the effects any of these storms had on people in their paths. Folks lost their homes, their lives, their towns... But the attitude changed a bit after Katrina and Rita hit.

Back in '02, there was still a prevailing sense of ambivalence. Sadly, as a college student working in retail, there was the honest to goodness fear that I would be fired because corporate NY didn't care that my dad wanted me out of the track of a potentially life-threatening hurricane, or that I would lose at least a semester of school because the college felt the same way. And not to sound snotty, but I worked hard to have to worry that they would take it away from me because I didn't stay for a possibly hurricane and attend classes.

My dad took each storm seriously. We had baskets of hurricane food each year that we would dive into at the end of hurricane season, only to refill a few months later. Ritz crackers and SPAM galore! The car had to stay gassed up during hurricane season in case we had to evacuate quickly.

In '02, Lili hit. We evacuated to north Louisiana where a church opened their doors to evacuees. I have to say, now that I'm further removed from the situation, that these were some of the nicest folks I have ever met. Not that I paid much attention as a barely 20 year old. I just wanted everything back to normal and I wanted to go back to school and back to work with no negative repercussions. And Lili hit my college town, causing damage and making people a little more alert to the possibility of a bad one.

I spoke to a friend of mine who sat out the storm and I was glad that I was safe in my temporary home with my cat, reading Stephen King. Which made everything go away, at least while I was buried in its pages.

From a Buick 8 landed on my doorstep just before the storm. I was still in the Stephen King book club, so it took a little longer for my copy to arrive than had I purchased it at the bookstore itself. But I was a broke college kid and it saved me some moula being in the club.

And this is what books do for me. They take me away. They let me experience things that I would never experience otherwise. They keep me turning pages late into the night, desperate to see what will happen next. They let me forget when the world could be literally coming down around me. They are total therapy for a worry-wort like me who imagines the absolute worst case scenario in each situation.

My mom and my sisters, when they had to leave the house for weeks during Rita, hit the bookstore. During snowstorms, much as I hated it as one who had to drive to work in the mess, the bookstore still had customers sitting in the comfy chairs and browsing the shelves. When I was in college and had a tough day, my mom would tell me to go buy a book on her. As an even broker teenager, just getting her drivers license, one of the two places I was allowed to drive was the library, where I would bring home a stack of books each week, returning to trade them in days later. My mom bribed me with books when my sisters were newborn and she didn't want the babysitter to be overwhelmed. I wasn't old enough to watch them on my own, but if I helped out, there would be a new book in it for me.

Anyway, I won't delete this one. I'll let it go as is. Everyone has their escape. I choose for mine to be in the form of the written word and bound pages of other people's imaginations.

Tuesday afternoon

Man, time just rolls by! It's already after noon here and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done -- in other words, I haven't had a chance to read my book! I did get stuff done, btw. Signed up for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap a couple of weeks ago and got my gift off today. Also sent my little sisters' presents and friend-Jen's box o' books.

I would have had an Under the Dome update ready for you today, but honestly, I barely touched it yesterday. Today is Mike's 28th and his friends are headed out of town for a family reunion and to search for wedding locations. Luckily, my b-day celebration dinner was a dinner in two parts -- pork roast for Mike and me and then jambalaya with the leftovers for company. So we had the celebration yesterday and I spent a lot of my time preparing the dinner.

Got the roast in the oven early (like 10am) so that it could cook down for the rest of the day. Did a cherry pie and then had to hit the grocery story for some dirty rice fixins. After all of that, I wrapped gifts and hit up the bookstore for more possible gifts (and shame on them for not having the one copy of the one book in the middle of the series that I needed -- they had multiple copies of the others in the series so it was a little weird). Anywho. I kind of felt like a chicken with my head cut off.

I also got good news about the job. I start Dec 1 and I'm supposed to be headed to Charleston for training that week. I'm super excited and really looking forward to it. That kind of lit a fire under me for holiday stuff, though, since next week is Thanksgiving and then I'm supposed to be gone for a week. Seemed like I should get presents out and shipped today, which involved getting them packaged yesterday.

By the time I sat down and had a minute to myself with nothing else to worry about, it was pretty much time for bed. And since the King weighs in at just under 4 lbs, I did some light reading in the tub and crashed.

So, errands are done for the day and I should have plenty of time to devote to my book this afternoon before Mike makes me watch Up!

I am Under the Dome!

I'm writing this Saturday evening as I take my first break from the so far totally amazing monstrosity that is Stephen King's latest masterpiece (hopefully, and he's not upset me yet in my 14 years of reading him) Under the Dome.

I was talking to my little sister and she was making fun of me (actually, she called me pathetic, how freaking mean from a 15 year old) for being in a reading slump thanks to my anticipation of the arrival of UTD. See, I have one major issue with King: he's like crack! Anytime I start reading him, all I want to continue reading is him. And anytime I know that a new one is coming out, I start to get all antsy and realize that nothing else hits the spot until I can get my grubby little hands on the new book.

And it happened, as usual, with this one. I pre-ordered, knowing full and well that it wouldn't arrive on the release date with shipping time. But I was ok with that until this afternoon. Here it is, Saturday and my book was still not set to arrive until the end of next week. And with it right within my reach at the bookstores.

I purposely passed up the display yesterday when I hit the store for early Christmas gifts, not even pausing to look at it since I knew mine was already paid for and in transit. But today was nasty out. I mean gray and cold and snowy off and on. Nasty. I'd watched a movie, watched and immediately rejected a second movie, and settled on watching The Mist while curling up in bed with the kitties, having spent much wasted time contemplating over my TBR stacks and NOT COMING TO ANY DECISION! Why, because I stubbornly wanted to read the new Stephen King, and only the new Stephen King (oh, trust me, Sue Grafton is next!).

I told my sister of my issue, and she laughed at me and told me to get over it (in addition to the whole pathetic thing), even though she said she understood where I was coming from, too. Hmm. Little hypocrite.

Anyway, the mailman had come and gone and I was disappointed that the book was not waiting on my doorstep when he left. But, we have a walking mailman and I'm guessing the behemoth was too much for him to carry on his route. At roughly 4:30, a thump, the dog going mad, and the doorbell. Yay! It was here!

I held off long enough to finish out the final 30 min of the movie and then tore in. Now, supper eaten and a phone call to check on Mike (out snowboarding and now stuck in traffic on the way home), I'm roughly 100 pages in and LOVING IT!

I'm predicting that it will not take me my self-imposed allotment of 1 week to finish considering my whole "vacation" status right now. I may have to forgo my bathtub reading with this one, however. (Don't laugh at me too hard over that one, I am a human ice cube and have to defrost regularly.) I did manage with The Stand back in freshman year of high school, but I was little less tightly wound back then and didn't mind hefting a book of its size. I'm too nervous about potentially losing feeling in my wrist and dropping my investment in the water this time around.

Alright. I'm back to reading now. I'll keep you posted (and we'll see if I can get most of it wrapped before you read this on Monday, shall we?).

New Releases 11/17/09

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

Betrayals by Lili St. Crow -- 2nd in Saintcrow's amazing teen series and I've been waiting on the edge of my seat to see what happens next!

Shadowlands by Alyson Noel -- 3rd in the Immortals series for teens

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz -- latest in the teen Alex Rider series

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler

New on DVD:

Train -- the torture porn remake of Jaime Lee Curtis's Terror Train

Star Trek

My Sister's Keeper

Bruno

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

The Archangel Project by C. S. Graham

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington

Without Warning by Eugenia Lovett West

Just Because They Can

... doesn't always mean that they should, but I think in this case, I'm cool with it.

What am I talking about? Hollywood's penchant for remakes these days. Sure, I wish that they would release more original work, or at least there are plenty of adaptations that can be made that aren't remakes of something else.

I'm not happy at all about Nightmare on Elm Street, although I will be seeing it. I don't think it warranted a remake since the original is still pretty cool. Other recent remakes in the horror genre have not been my cup of tea -- My Bloody Valentine (not made cooler by 3-d folks) and Friday the 13th (which just as easily could have been # infinity in the franchise). And don't get me started on Rob Zombie's Halloween movies. I love the originals.

But there are a couple of remakes coming out that I am pretty psyched about. One of them is the upcoming Wolfman starring Anthony Hopkins and Benecio del Toro. It looks fantastic. I am super stoked about this one because I really don't think that werewolves are getting enough respect these days. And how much more respect can you give them than to have Sir Anthony Hopkins and yummy Benecio del Toro?

The other remake that I'm kind of excited about (I have fond childhood memories of the original but even I have to admit that new special effects are going to be a great benefit to the tale) is Clash of the Titans. You can compare them yourselves, here's a link to the 1981 trailer for the film starring Harry Hamlin as Perseus, and here is the admittedly super cool trailer for the 2010 adaptation starring *sigh* Sam Worthington as Perseus. I mean, how can a girl argue with a remake starring Sam Worthington? It's just not possible to complain about that.

Jobless, Hopefully Temporarily

Yep, it's now official. Sad thing is, I don't think I can really go that long without income considering Mike's current job status -- working but not earning just yet. I'm kind of ping-ponging between really down and sort of ok. I have some meditative cds a friend sent me to help and I think I may have a project ahead of me putting together happy Itunes playlists.

I've gotten some reading done in the past few, though. Which is not unusual for me. It's the best way to take my mind off of stuff. I'm cooking, too. Again not unusual, but I'm trying to make better use of fridge items rather than hit the store very often. And I'm sort of trying to act as a test kitchen for mom, finding some dishes that she can easily make with little effort for the whole family. I had hoped to be able to try out Thanksgiving recipes in preparation for a holiday feast, but not sure that'll work out.

So far my kitchen exploits have been as follows (and all successful, I might add): Chicken with Orange Butter, Beets, and Greens (beet greens that is. I don't usually use them, but they worked out really well in this recipe so I'll be saving them from now on.), traditional English beef roast with roasted veggies, gravy, and Yorkshire puddings -- those were semi-successful since I had them on the top rack of the oven and the puffed up so big that they were sticking to the top oven coils. Disaster was averted, but only half of them cooked up correctly. The other half were still good, just not as pretty.

Leftover roast became a really great beef stew that I did in the slow cooker. Topped it off with some horseradish sour cream and watched some Dexter. For tonight, I've got Vegetable Lentil Soup started in the slow cooker -- that thing's super easy to use when you don't actually have to be anywhere!

I also have a ton of pecans that I'm trying to find creative ways to use, so if you have some pecan recipes, send them along. Last weekend, I baked Pecan Sandies while watching Australia (great flick, btw, and the first Baz Luhrmann film without any real musical scenes).

Book post coming, but if you want to try out the sandies recipe, I'm including it here. I actually combined two recipes -- one ages old and from my grandmother, and the other from I'm not sure where. They turned out great, though.

Pecan Sandies

1 cup pecans

2 cups a-p flour

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Raw sugar for dusting

Toast the pecans at 350 for about 10 minutes (watch them to make sure they don't burn). Cool.

Grind the nuts together with 1/4 cup of the flour to make a fine sandy texture.

In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar (until creamy). Add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to the sugar mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in the pecan/flour mixture, just until combined. Press the dough into a ball, cover, and chill.*

Preheat oven to 325 F. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place about 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press the cookies with the back of a spoon to flatten a bit. Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake, about 20 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool a bit on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks.

*My instructions, both recipes, say to chill at least 3 hours. I found the dough to be very hard after that amount of time. In fact, I HAD to roll them in my hands order to get the dough loose enough to form into balls. One set of instructions actually said to roll out with a rolling pin, but the dough was way to hard so I reverted to the other recipes' instructions. I would suggest letting the dough chill at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour. You'll want the dough firm enough to form into cookies, but not so hard that you hurt your hands rolling them!

The raw sugar was my other variation. It gave it a nice little crunchy bite on the tops of the cookies. You can actually roll the cookies in powdered sugar if you prefer, as that's what they did with my grandmother's recipe.

So, enjoy! I still have two boxes of pecans left, so I'm sure I'll be making these again soon.