Levis - Men's Cashmere Sweater (consignment) - Etienne Aigner boots - silver hoops - silver chain

Menu:
Breakfast: bowl of whole milk plain yogurt with homemade granola; banana; cafe au lait
Lunch: leftover green salad from last night with added chunks of ham and cheese, pepperoncini

 Dinner: roast chicken with potatoes, carrots, onions; wine

Film

We finished the last episode in the HBO series Rome this week. Netflix has made the winter go so much faster. Looking forward to watching the Battlestar Galactica programs and then the Rome series has been so much fun . … what next? Dexter? I’m not sure.

I also watched “In Bruges” last night.

Tonight my other bookclub meets, which is always a good time. This bookclub is also reading (on my suggestion) Sarah’s Key, which my other bookclub read last month.

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

After complaining that I didn’t have a single book to read, I scored the jackpot. I had three library books I had been on the wait list for come in. I am reading the top three books in the order in which they are due back. I absolutely am enthralled by The Hunger Games. It is one of those books that makes me want to hide in my room all day and read. It is a futuristic, apocalpytic type novel. Very well written.

Missing Mark is the second in a series by a former TV reporter. I loved Julie Kramer’s first book, Stalking Susan, so I expect this one will be equally as enjoyable.

I can’t remember where I heard of The Believers, but I think it may have been a book recommendation in the New York Times.

Sarah’s Key is a bookclub pick for this month by one of my SIL’s. It is set in Paris and deals with the holocaust. I picked it up at the thrift store and can’t wait to get to it, but I need to get the library books read first.

I’ve seen Reading Lolita in Tehran so many times at the thrift store I finally picked it up for $.60. I’m not sure when I will read it because I am patiently holding back from reading Brava Valentine as long as I can resist. I am going to feature it for my other bookclub next month because it is my turn to choose the book.

FILM

On My Nightstand

Brava Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. Regular readers  know I am reading this and what a huge fan I am of this author.

How to Have Style by Isaac Mizrahi. I actually cranked through this the first day I got it. Great ideas.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. This has been recommended and mentioned so many times in my world, including by a published author friend of mine I respect, that I feel like I must read it. I think the final straw was reading it was one of the best books of the year on NPR’s website.

The Believers by Zoe Heller. I could be wrong, but I think this was also on a year-end best books list. Maybe NPR again.

Can you see or feel my joy around the world that I have a stack of good books to read again? I was starting to get depressed about it and then Wham-O, my library list came through. I always have about 10 books I am waiting for and this week, three came through!

In my DVD Player

I’m sure all the regular readers are sick of hearing this, but I am still cranking through the Battlestar Galactica series and get sooo, soo happy everytime a new disc from Netflix comes in the mail. Ah, the simple pleasures in life in the frigid midwestern winters!

And seriously, I don’t care how poor I get, I will NEVER give up my $14 a month subscription to Netflix, it SAVES my life during the winter.

This week we watched on instant play: Food Inc. which makes me want to go buy my own cow and chickens and keep them in my backyard and Blindness, based on a book I gave away after only reading two chapters. Now I wish I would have read the book, because I really liked the movie!

Outfit :
Black tee (Rebecca Beeson)
Levis straightleg
Boots (Liz Claiborne – thrifted)
silver hoops, silver chain
Menu:
Breakfast: yogurt with granola; cafe au lait
Lunch: leftover romaine salad; chips and salsa; banana
Dinner: pizza; wine
Finances:
$10 at thrift store for sweater, shirt and book
$17 for pizza
$5 at market
$15 at post office to mail xmas packages

FILM
I watched Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antionette” last night. It didn’t “move” me emotionally or strike any chords, but it was visually beautiful. The cinematography alone was reason enough to watch this movie.

OUTFITS:

1. OK, so I put on these boys style 501 black jeans I had bought ages ago at the thrift store and decided they were too boyish and hickish looking — the leg width screams 80s!!! I still want black jeans, though, I think.

2. Then I decided to re-evaluate my Free People top and while I sort of liked it in person (it is sooo unique with buttons up the back, lace and ribbons on the front) but when I see this picture I see again why I don’t like it. (Any opinions? My problems with it? The color, the length and I think it is so breezy, it needs to be worn with light colored shoes or sandals …)

3. The outfit I decided to wear for the day: Levis, teal jCrew top, navy cashmere cardigan*, turquoise/pink/multicolor scarf; boots

Outfit 1

Outfit 2

Outfit 3

*The problem with a small wardrobe is when it comes to cashmere sweaters, I tend to wear them so much they quickly look ratty, even when I buy the brands that are supposed to hold up the best (ie Ann Taylors have great reviews)

Menu:

Breakfast: one pancake; cafe au lait
Lunch: cheese and crackers
Snack: small popcorn at the theater; water
Dinner: leftover pasta; wine

Finances:
$8 shoe creme
$7 movie

I went to the second Twilight movie yesterday. Although I’m not wild about the sparkling of Edward and his acting is not that great, I loved the rest of the movie. I love Kristen Stewart as an actress and as Bella. I only wish I had her aplomb and quiet self confidence when I was a teenager.

I know she is about 12 and has the body of a 12-year-old boy, but I really like this look (straight leg jeans, green button up cargo style blouse and sneakers) Fiona — I could use converse …. opinions on whether this would work for a woman in her 40s ????

I actually have been eyeing a navy blue shirt just like this at Target (think it is the converse brand) and have tried it on a few times already. Which would be a better color for me.

I want this shirt, despite my previous bad luck with green

My rather large Italian butt would look much different in jeans like these, but I adore jeans!

Then last night I watched another four episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I am hoooked!

Outfit:

Navy JCrew top
Navy cashmere cardigan
pink and turquoise scarf
Levis
rain boots

Menu:
breakfast: banana; cafe au lait
lunch: cheese sandwich
dinner: tacos: wine

Finances:
$35 at Target

On my nightstand

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (not shown, it is now on my dh’s nightstand!): I finished this book on the place last weekend. We are discussing it at my bookclub meeting tonight

The Road by Cormac McCarthy — I started this in Sedona and it has completely captured my imagination, but I have set it aside because I just had a bunch of library books I ordered come in.

Dreaming in French by Megan Mcandrew — I began this last night. I can’t wait to get back to it. It is about an American couple transplanted in Paris told from their daughter’s viewpoint (so far that’s what it is about!)

The Likeness by Tana French — I think I heard about this by The Evening Reader’s  blog (see righthandside). Looking forward to starting this, as well.

The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio  by Terry Ryan — my OTHER book club picked this last week for this month. Will have to get going on it. I have either already read it or tried to read it in the past. I’m sure I will remember which when I get started on it.

Slam by Nick Hornby — once again set aside until my library books are read.

FILM/MOVIES/TV

We just finished the last episode in Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica last night. (on netflix). Now on to season 2!

I will be hitting the movie theater sometime this weekend for the second Twilight movie, even if I don’t know what is called off the top of my head, I’ll be there!

BLOG FOR PAY UPDATE

So far, I’ve been offered two opportunities to post on here for pay and turned them both down. The first was a while back and was about plastic surgery. The second came yesterday and they wanted me to write about — get this — crotchless panties. No thank you. I will, however, post something for pay in the future if I think it will be relevant or interesting or at least nonoffensive, to you, my readers. Thanks for understanding.

Outfit:

Turquoise tee (gap)

Levis

Boots

Vintage mexican silver choker

Menu:

Breakfast: oatmeal with banana

Lunch: wheat thins with cream cheese; salad

Dinner; breaded chicken cutlets; brussel sprouts, rice; wine

Finances:

$20 at the market

FILM

I’m not sure if I mentioned but I watched District B13, a sci-fi last weekend.

Then we started renting (through Netflix) the Battlestar Galactica tv series, season 1. We are HOOKED. I love it. I also love Edward James Olmos. I had an opportunity to meet him once and I still am thrilled about it. I was in awe. I whipped out my Spanish and flirted a tiny bit (even though I am so happily married) by saying “El gusto es mio” (the pleasure is MINE!) when I met him. He rocks.

On My Nightstand

The lovely Stephanie at Bonjour Madame sent me Mireille’s new book, so I am looking forward to digging into it.

Also, Mama Gena’s latest, Owners and Operators Guide to Men.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (you might recall I received this recommendation from reading The Daily Connosseiur.)

Slam by Nick Hornby is the last book out of the box my friend sent me that I think I will like.

Outfit:

Black Tunic (thrifted)

Levis

Black sandals (lauren by ralph lauren) thrifted

Leopard print hoop dangly earrings (garage sale)

Menu:

Breakfast: hard boiled egg; slice toast with apricot preserves

Lunch: banana and peanut butter sandwich; water

Dinner: pasta salad (penne with cherry tomatoes, sliced olives and vinaigrette); wine; one scoop Haagen Daz vanilla

Finances:

$0

On my nightstand this week

Happiness is a big stack of books by my bedside!

While waiting for a book from the library to come in I began this book:

When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson — so far I love it, but because I own it, I set it aside for a library book that came in:

The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. Those of you in the FC group might be interested in how I came across it. Please forgive my sloppy attribution (and you can be sure if I were publishing a book I would track this fact down) but it was possibly in Entre Nous or French Women Don’t Sleep Alone (or maybe even another book — if you know which one let me know) that it mentioned this French author. So I tracked him down online and then ordered this book from my library. So far it is fantastic. I am concentrating on this exclusively since it it borrowed and has a due date. I have the dictionary by my bed to look up words in this book I am not familiar with. So far I have looked up  the word “hirstute.”

After I run out of library books I am going to start on two books that came in a big box of books from a friend:

Loop Group by Larry McMurtry (the author of Terms of Endearment)

and

Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire

FILMS

Pretty much the only thing I like better than a good book is a good movie!

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago I saw Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino’s new flick and loved it so much I’m going to mention it again!

I also rented Munich last week – an intense film that really illustrates a feeling of ongoing hopelessness surrounding the situation in the middle east and just how sad it really is. It is easy for people who live in the United States to tune it out and not realize how dramatically it impacts so many people.

I also borrowed Breathless from the library yesterday. I has previously rented it on Netflix, but had to return it because the disc was scratched. I’m looking forward to watching this classic. I think I may try to watch it tonight.

Sunday

Outfit:

Turquoise top (SO) garage sale

Black skirt (Target)

Black sandals (lauren by ralph lauren) thrifted

Vintage Mexican Opal bracelet, silver hoop earrings

Menu:

Breakfast: small dish whole milk plain yogurt; banana; coffee (out of milK!)

Lunch: pepper jack cheese slices; summer sausage slices; crackers; water

Dinner: Roasted chicken with roasted red onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes and carrots; green salad with red wine vinaigrette; slice fresh baked bread; pinot grigio

Finances:

$0

SATURDAY

Outfit:

Navy scoopneck tee (Jcrew)

Levis

Black sandals (Lauren by Ralph Lauren) thrifted

Vintage Mexican silver choker

Menu:

Breakfast: one banana pancake; cafe au lait

Lunch: Costco polish dog*; lemonade

Dinner: Yummy Italian food* … lasagne; several bruschettas with basil, cherry tomatoes, parmesan; something that looked and tasted like a mushroom lasagne, but my Italian was so limited all I could understand was that it was raddichio, which still has me baffled as I was convinced it was mushroom!; prosecco; pinot grigio; san pellegrino

Finances:

$38 for a new tire*

$10 for a school book for child

$8 for lunch at Costco

Saturday/Italian Birthday!

My husband was gone for the weekend and so shortly after he left, as fate would have it, I was stranded about 10 miles from my house with a flat tire and two kids. I have 6 brothers-in-law and so I gave one of them a call. He was nice enough to come rescue us, putting on the dinky, mini, child-like spare and then I immediately headed to Costco to have the tire fixed, driving about 40 mph on the freeway!

So I was stuck at Costco for about 2 hours, trying to keep my kids occupied while they fixed my car. They needed to replace the tire, but because I bought it there they only charged me $38. I love Costco! But I did get stuck eating more for lunch than I intended. I had wanted to eat a light lunch, maybe just salad because I was invited to my Italian friend’s house to celebrate her daughter’s 1st birthday. Let’s just say I had an inkling there would be some good food there ; )

That afternoon we walked to my friend’s house. She is from Verona, Italy. Her husband’s parents from Verona were visiting and had spent the ENTIRE day cooking a feast for the party: several plates of bruschetta’s in various incarnations; several platters of some other pastry with meat appetizers; a giant pan of lasagne to die for and this fabulous pan of mushroom or radicchio or whatever it was. I didn’t ask my friend because I forgot and she was so busy and frankly, at the time I didnt’ care what it was made of I just wanted to eat more of it! Her inlaws didn’t speak a lick of English except yes and no and my Italian is severely limited, so I never quite figured out what it was. I’ll ask my friend next time I speak to her.

For some reason my conversation with her inlaws was about me explaining how much Italian I was and which members of my family had come from Italy. For some reason, they were under the impression from my friend that my father had lived in Italy. The other part of our conversation besides me complimenting the food was them explaining a joke about how being called Nonno (grandpa in Italian) sounds so old!

Anyway, the celebration was in my friend’s backyard where they had several tables strung together and covered in pink plastic tablecloths, balloons strung around the yard (I think my kids popped at least two of them — mamma mia!) and lots of San Pellegrino, Italian beer, wine and lemonade for the kiddies.

They brought out THREE, yes three, lovely cakes, with what  looked like marzipan frosting. I, however, did not sample any for two reasons: Mainly that I don’t care for cake and also because my jeans were fitting really well yesterday for the first time in weeks. That is always motivation for me.

After we sang Happy Birthday, the child’s father popped the Prosecco and we all had a smidgen of this dessert wine.

I told my friends about the American tradition of placing a huge piece of cake in front of the new 1-year-old and letting them dig their hands into and eating it with their fingers, smearing it all over their face in the process. They both said they had been told that ODD American tradition and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was that going to happen today! It was so funny. They were so adamant about it!

And frankly their darling daughter looked precious in one of the most beautiful pink child’s dresses I have ever seen.

Not to mention the fact that after most people had arrived at the party, she made a fashionably late appearance to her own celebration because she was being freshly bathed by her mother.

I love Italians. And Spaniards and French people. My friends from these countries in America have always been such examples of the good life — la bella vita, the sweet life — la dolce vita, to me.

By the way, the Mother-in-Law from Italy definitely had La Bella Figura. An absolutely beautiful woman in her 50s with gorgeous short blonde hair, impeccable makeup, slim fitting white capris; a lovely yellow top, cute leather sandals and beautiful jewelry.

Because my kids and I were a little tired, I went home before they even had the barbecue, so I have no idea what everyone else had for “dinner” yes, the above foods were just appetizers!

After I put my kids to bed I watched “He’s Just Not That Into You” which I found to be a surprisingly sweet little movie.

Oh, I also forgot, on Friday night I saw Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (sic)

I love Tarantino and loved this movie so much. It was fabulous, even though I did have to turn my head away about half a dozen times because of a few really gory, violent scenes. He’s so good, he doesn’t need to add in those gratuitious violence snippets, but I guess other people like that.

On my nightstand this week:

Books

I whipped through fellow blogger (www.fortyisthenew20.com) Phyllis Bourne Williams’ book “A Moment on the Lips”  — a very readable sweet love story.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much luck with the other books on my nightstand. I don’t know if it is my mood and I’m not in the mood for nonfiction, but I will be returning “Bella Lingua” and “The Audacity of Hope” to the library. I really, really want to read Obama’s book, but every time I picked it up, it didn’t hold my interest. It was even worse with Bella Lingua. To me,  it seemed like a text book you would read in a crash course before you moved to Italy. I just couldn’t get into it. Why can’t someone write a book about the Italians along the lines of all the fun books about the French (Entre Nous, French Women Don’t Get Fat, Two Lipsticks and a Lover)?

Happiness Sold Separately – I’m still enjoying this book. As I mentioned before, I pick it up whenever I don’t have a library book to read because I don’t have to return it to my SIL anytime soon.

The Historian — I haven’t even picked this up yet. A SIL loaned it to me. It looks too heavy to bring on the airplane when I go on vacation in a few days.

Movies

This week was not a big movie week. I watched “My House in Umbria” and that was it.

Outfit:

Black crochet bodice tee (Marshalls years ago)

Black jersey skirt (Target)

Black sandals (Lauren by Ralph Lauren at thrift store)

Dangly leopard print earrings (garage sale)

Menu:
Breakfast: slice of homemade bread toasted with peanut butter and honey: cafe au lait
Lunch: leftover pasta; wheat thins; chips and salsa; two oatmeal cookies
Dinner: scrambled eggs with salsa; homemade bread toasted (no wine tonight) I hesitate to open a new bottle since I am leaving on vacation. Plus maybe it will be small compensation for my overindulgence in food this past weekend.

Finances:

$17 for food at market

$7 for new sunscreen