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Friday Morning Book Club

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The Road: Heartbreaking. Gorgeous. The scariest thing I’ve ever read. I cried and cried. I’ve always kind of stayed away from Cormac McCarthy because I felt like he wrote boy books, but Oprah said I should read this and she was right. You should read it, too. 

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A People’s History of the United States, The Twentieth Century: I mean…it’s pretty much about how we should all be Communist. I like Communism more than the average bear, and still by the end I was all, “So…we’re just going to hate on Jimmy Carter (not just peanuts) and never talk about all those people Stalin killed?” But Howard Zinn is all about giving a voice to the voiceless, and he had some really interesting stuff to say about the sixties, and especially Vietnam. Jennie P, I think you’d like it a lot. 

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The Stone Diaries: Meh. Fine. It had one of the best-executed epistolary chapters I’ve ever read, and does a really nice job of covering a lot of time in not a lot of pages. But mostly a snooze. 

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The Audacity of Hope: OH HI PRESIDENT OBAMA I LIKE YOU.

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I thought about calling this post “Danny Zuke-o”

Wokka wokka wokka. But I decided that was too lame even for me. You’re welcome.

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ANYWAY. One giant zucchini plus flour plus egg wash plus Italian bread crumbs plus ten minutes in the oven at five hundred.

Better, I daresay, than the fried kind. And I don’t know if you know this, but I REALLY LIKE FRIED THINGS.

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Attention

I unclogged a toilet this morning all by myself. With a PLUNGER.

 

If you need me, I will be sitting over here at my desk quietly singing “Independent Women.”

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Why Yes, I Did Go See The Jonas Brothers

…aaaaand they were completely delightful. 

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There was fire! And rain inside in SHAPES! And three stages and  laser lights and a trampoline and a white grand piano that came out of the floor and Jordin Sparks being fierce and the littlest Jonas talking about living his dreams despite his diabetes in a Serious Way and twenty thousand twelve year old girls who were happier, probably, than they’ve been all summer. All year. They screamed like their hearts would break. The dopamine was pretty intense, I am not going to lie. 

I like Joe Jonas because he is the Taylor Hanson of the Jonas Brothers, but I suspect Nick is the real talent. 

ANYWAY. Twenty-seven dollars well-spent, is the point I am making here.

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Five Good Things: Hello, New England Edition

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1. A really amazing mini-vacation to Rockport complete with a walk on the beach, dinner by the ocean, turtle ice cream in a cookie cone, and a floating piano. Pictures to come. 

2. Tom’s gone for two weeks riding ice floes (can you even ride an ice floe? I don’t even know what an ice floe IS) in Alaska, so I’m a single lady until the beginning of August. On the agenda: trips to Ohio and New York to see sisters both biological and not, dinner out three nights in a row (!), and some quality time with Howard Zinn. 

3. I’m teaching myself iMovie, and it turns out I’m not a total idiot. Just mostly. Anyway, it’s really time-consuming and nitpicky in a way that really appeals to my OCD. 

4. Long walks to Castle Island justifying the consumption of generous handfuls of candied walnuts. What are you talking about? IT TOTALLY JUSTIFIES IT. 

5. I saw the Jonas Brothers last night, and they were DELIGHTFUL. I’ll show you pictures of that, too, if you’re nice. 

Happy Sunday. Be good.

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Notes in the Margins

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Photo: Stone Soup Farm

 

Last week we got cucumber and dill, so I made pickles, which are crunchy and salty and delicious and ALSO are sitting prettily in my fridge in clear brine instead of questionable electric green pickle juice. You can find the recipe I used here. 

This week there was cabbage and carrots, so I shredded it all up and made some coleslaw with mayo, mustard, balsamic vinegar, lime juice, and a smidge of sugar. I don’t even LIKE coleslaw (on account of it being generally disgusting and mayo-y), but this was PRETTY GOOD, friends. 

Also: mojitos! Thanks Tom. He even muddled the mint.

I remixed Ina’s PBJ Bars, swapping out the jelly for (dun dun dun) chocolate chips. I also used one less egg, on account of I was out of eggs. HOLY COW. They’re good. They’re amazing, actually. They’re just…really, really buttery. Were I to make ’em again I’d cut the butter back by like a third. Maybe half, although being a nitwit I’m not sure what that would do to the texture. Something to experiment with.

Cinnamon Pecan Special K: DELICIOUS. And two bucks at Stop and Shop this week. 

I think that’s it.  Tonight we’re off to Rockport (it’s our anniversary…wokka wokka wokka) so I’ll be back this weekend with pictures. I wanna find a carnival.

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Six Foot Seven Foot

One time my friend J had to go to some Harry Belafonte  event for our college paper and she was the ONLY PERSON who showed up. 

 

She had to talk to Harry Belafonte for ONE HOUR.

 

I have no idea what they discussed

 

but that is like,  my second all-time favorite story about Jennie.

 

Anyway, the bottom line is that every time I hear Banana Boat I grin and feel like summer.

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Things What To Do In The Summer

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Grow your hair real long

Sneak green veg into your dinners

Drink ice water out of Dunkin Donuts cups

Read out loud to your boyfriend

Watch artsy fartsy movies from Netflix

Even though you really want to be watching Lost

Sit on the lounge chair until it gets too hot

Count freckles

Write newsy letters

Eat on the porch

Contemplate becoming the kind of woman who wears silk scarves

Get a lot of pedicures

Smell (and smell and smell) the rain

Plan imaginary vacations

Check your garden to see if anything’s blooming yet

Practice your high school Spanish

Sleep

Wake up

Live here

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