From PC to MAC

My old Dell is dying. Various family members have been bullying me to get a MAC, and I have finally consented. Today is the last day on the old Dell, although I will be doing Money on it until I figure out which financial program to use. Of course I have an old Money (2002) and you can't convert Money to the new Quicken with a Money version earlier than 2004, and Money 2004 costs $40.00, which is just another amount to add to the total. A devious idea came to me, and we'll see if it works.

Apple is going to do the conversion and I bought Office Suite for MAC, and cleaned up the computer, did some backups--more to do, and have my list of questions and concerns. Called Verison to make sure this was plug and play, known in my circle as plug and pray. Well, you know. The project manager in me insists on making a plan and raising issues. Once a geek, always a closet geek. Murphy's law and never assume.

So, we'll see how it goes. There will be pain, the only question is how much. And of course I don't know MAC software f rom sh__, but I'm willing to learn. As an early adapter to word processing, spread sheets, project, powerpoint, email, and PC's in general, I am anxious, to say the least. Because my life is pretty much on my computer: email, writing, blogging, finances, address books, Christmas card lists, recipes.

So, again, we'll see how it goes. Big into leftover turkey this week. Lots of desserts still in fridge. Tonight we're having turkey crepes with mushrooms and a yummy sauce. Tomorrow, too. We're been too full of leftover stuffing the last two nights to eat the desserts.

The green bean casserole from scratch was to die for. God, it was good. And the little mini-Halloween cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting were also wunderbar.

Churning through Promiscuous Mode to give it another round. Woke up in the middle of the night thinking of World of Mirrors, but I can't get my arms around a "frame," unless I make it a romance. Seems a bit dicey. Festival Madness needs a total rewrite, a lot of work involved there, and In Flight is presently driving a motor home across Wyoming. Thinking of the plot. Always happens to me before the big denouement. Makes it better. Many literary irons in the fire. Want to write a story about becoming a school teacher in Kansas in the 20's.

And Christmas is coming up like a fast-moving freight train. Baking. Presents. Etc. I have another stalled project, a web site. All my support people have evaporated. Don't know what to do.

Finished reading The Watchman by Robert Crais. He is such a good writer. Enjoyed every page. Lots of good tension. Twists and turns.

Friday used to be cat blog day, and I haven't blogged the cats for a while. Both have health issues and they don't do much except sleep, although Annie was sitting on top of the car when last seen. This photo is of Thisbe, and a kid took it, a kid that has spent 5 years trying to relate to Thisbe. Finally happened.

Onward,

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Report from the Trenches

So, I'm prepping to convert from PC to MAC, and yesterday I took a gander at some old Zip drives to find out what was on them, because the new computer won't have a Zip port, and well, you know. At one point I made the HUGE mistake of clicking on a MONEY backup and the PC asked did I want to Restore to this Version and I said, no, cancel, get the hell out of there.

Hours later, when I got into MONEY, eeek! You guessed it. A fresh clean copy asking for me to input my data. O.K., this happened once before and I just restored the latest copy, except somehow I had backed up the Null copy, so the backup was no good. I had to go back into all the ZIP drives, and sure enough I found a 4 day old backup. Except the system wouldn't get it. It found it, but wouldn't restore. So I jumped through hoops (all this while I am cooking two new dishes for dinner) and moved (finally) the backup to a new folder on my hard drive, because I had saved ALL the old Money backups, many of them archives, and the folder was too confusing.

This damn PC always knows when I in a hurry and it's slowly dying, hence the haste to get off. Stress to the max. My restore worked, and I only had to rekey a few items, and I fished the receipts out of the trash next to my desk.

We let the produce man at Roche Brothers talk us into buying some unfamiliar squash varieties, and yesterday was "let's cook 'em up" day. I had a good sounding recipe with prunes, walnuts, brown sugar and bourbon, and yes, it was delicious, but kind of time consuming. Then the chicken which was supposed to last for 2 days turned out to be 3 pieces, which meant a quick trip to the store today. I used the opportunity to buy a wreath, more about that later, some bone-in pork chops (hard to find in this era of shortcuts) and 2 sweet potatoes, the memorial alas-no-more-Mrs.-Pauls potatoes. RIP.

Lots of buzz today about Amazon vs. Walmart, and I shopped in both today. A coffee maker for a Christmas present on Amazon, and a trip to sundries at Walmart. Well, the trip was mostly for Thisbe's diabetes syringes, except we got the wrong ones. Bought a bunch of other stuff. Not the zoo I expected today, but the bus had dropped the seniors off, with wheel chairs, etc. Nice that they get to shop there too. And Save! I found Barkeeper's Friend. Mine was so old that I feared it wasn't even made anymore. The scrubbing POWDERS are becoming fewer and fewer. Remember when that's all there was to clean a sink. Since, like 6th grade, I had to clean the bathroom sink every morning at home and it had to pass my Mom's white glove test. I did all the ironing except my Dad's shirts, too. Can you imagine? Poor me! A child slave.

On the way out of Walmart, I saw a woman with 3 boxes of Stovetop Stuffing Mix, and felt sad for her guests to have to eat over-processed stuffing out of a box. The woman in front of me, looked to be between 65 and 70. She bought $95.00 worth of stuff, including 6 big packages of tin foil baking pans, like for a small fruitcake or bread, except double, for two, and each with it's own clear plastic lid. Ye gods, she was gearing up for a LOT of cooking. Must have had over 100 pans. I'll bet no Stove Top for her, and the idea of whipping up so many fruitcakes, cranberry breads, whatever, is daunting.

While I stood in line at the drug counter, S.O. looked at Walmart for wreathe, way back in the gardening department, and he related the weaths looked kind of scraggly and behold, they were artificial and made in China. BUY A REAL WREATH, FOR GOD'S SAKE!!

So I came home and made mini-Halloween pumpkin cupcakes with a butter/cream cheese frosting, half of which I dyed orange (food coloring). They look awfully cute, and I'll take some to the neighbor's tonight and the rest to our host tomorrow, along with my dessert and the green bean casserole from scratch.

If you want to make the cupcakes, I think they'll be great right thru the holidays. I had to buy special self-rising flour, but it can be utilized for biscuits, and what could be yummier than home-made biscuits? I know! More home-made cup cakes.

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/fasteasyfresh/2009/10/mini_halloween_pumpkin_cupcakes

Breathless but productive,

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Thanksgiving "Sides"

I had issues trying to find a vegetable casserole to bring our host for Thanksgiving. All the recipes seemed to be rife with cream, cheese, and a can of mushroom soup. I love cream and cheese as much as the next person, but with mashed potatoes, gravy AND stuffing, you can go a little overboard. I want to try one of the lower-cal broccoli recipes at home first. Wasn't sure if it was take-worthy. I have a a Brussels sprouts recipe with craisins and mustard, but need to try out that one too. Many people are not fond of Brussels sprouts. My children, for example.

What I decided to cook is a made-from-scratch green bean casserole. Fresh beans, fresh mushooms, a home-made white sauce and then, well-not-quite-from scratch, the Durkee Onions. Very little cream. Hard to beat the onions. Roche Brothers had nice-looking green beans for 99 cents a pound.

For a dessert I'm taking something called a pear/cranberry butter crunch. Sounds like a winner.
At least it's got fruit.

Tonight we're experimenting with two different varieties of squash and a new recipe. Also making chicken that calls for fresh sage. I have a SAGE bush, in spite of the fact that I divided it in the spring.

I have some great holiday recipes and more to try. Used to make orange shells stuffed with sweet potatoes, but that would get a little pricey with oranges a buck apiece. The supermarket no longer carried Mrs. Paul's frozen sweet potatoes. No frozen sweet potatoes, in fact. WTF?

Well, this is New England where everyone likes center entrance colonials, flour tortillas and squash. Whatchagonna do? On Saturday, I'll pick up some squash at the prepped food counter. They do a good job on it. Butter, anyone?

I found a recipe for stuffed escarole. Sound rather intriguing. We finished up the goulash soup last night. After sitting for two days, it was perfecto-garcia. My "secret" is 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika, one of hot and one of smoked. We're a paprika friendly household. And always a teaspoon of caraway seed.

The people at the banquet last Saturday who thought the carrot soup too spicey would have howled in pain when they tasted my goulash soup. Again, spicey seems to be a condition a lot of New Englanders can't tolerate. The home of the bean and the cod, both somewhat bland. Clam chowder anyone? I love a meal where you keep the Kleenex on the table and a pitcher of water at hand. Ole!

Regional differences still abound. Someone referred to the airy spaces of a local hotel as a "fishbowl." Aha! Thought I. Another New Englander who likes small windows, chopped up dark rooms and Cape Cod style houses. We are the only house in our neighborhood who popped out the faux window dividers. Now instead of 6 panes, we have one. I love modern architecture. Living in the wrong area. Even living in the wrong century.

Enough New England bashing. After all, I have the slough, the Scottish Highland Cattle, a lot of neighborhood "burying grounds," and Old Ironsides. Whale watches. Newport. There's a lot to like. Happy Thanksgiving.

Still playing catch up

Not recovered yet from The New England Crimebake, but at least I'm not waking up feeling like I've been tasered.

On the writing front: Last week I took the first pages of the novel my writer's group liked (loved is much too strong a word) best, a novel that one agent really liked, but he didn't represent that sort of book, and passed it on to his colleague and "it didn't really work" for her. Another agent liked, but was only selling cozies, and this ain't your Aunt Agatha's knitting mystery. Nope.

One publisher said the beginning was rushed (I was following the current "wisdom" to drop a body in Chapter one and had slashed the first 40 pages to get there), and also that the character wasn't believable, yet they asked for any future novels. Go figure.

So, after heard from an agent that the East German book (because of old technology, not the writing) is pretty well unpublishable, and not being able to figure out a way to bring new technology into the picture, that book will either be retired to the backup drive or brought into the world via POD. Haven't decided. Too bad the wait was so long the technology is historical. Yup, that's right. Remember CD-ROM's? No? Thought not.

So, I dusted off the "Wisconsin Book," Promiscuous Mode and took the first 6 pages to the writing group and with the years gone by, they thought it pretty much sucked,. Not of course, what I wanted to hear, and some of the writing did seem a little kludgey because in the meantime I've knocked off another 200,000 words writing this and that. More experience and all.

So . . . wondering what to do. Don't really want to sh__can 3 novels, nosirreee. Nobody wants to do that. So there I was last Thursday, driving to Toastmasters, only 6 minutes from the house, and barely time to think of anything, but a new beginning popped into my bed, practically fully-formed.

So I wrote it. Anyone reading these 6 pages gets the whole setup, and should fully understand what the book is "about." And the body drops later, but we get a chance to "meet" the body. How this is going to work out is anybody's guess.

Made a fab Vietnamese shrimp recipe last night. Lots of good veggies and seasonings. Tonight is goulash soup again. All holiday shopping done, and now the pears have to ripen and we're good to go. Grocery crowded. Everybody's cooking up a storm.

I enjoyed Jane Kramer's article on cooking Thanksgiving in foreign countries, having done that once myself.


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C is for Crimebake

So, I mut be the only person at the the entire New England Crimebake who did not get her photo taken with Sue Grafton this weekend. The shy little skinny kid who hung back from the swings in first grade is still someone who does not feel comfortable intruding herself into photos, conversations and stalking literary agents thru the hotel trying to pitch her novels to them. Nope! Would rather bathe in hot pitch. You can give countless Toastmaster's speeches, stand up in crowds, yada-yada but the shy person always remains, at heart, a shy person.

I remember a conversation with my mom in the early days of high school. I had a girls get-together at our house, and afterward, my mom analyzed the girls and their behaviors. C was too forward, and J was just about right. In my mom's book, a "too forward" woman was not a good thing. Since my mom was always a forward person, this was sort of interesting. She obviously did not consider herself so. Hanging back (like moi) was not good either. Striking a balance was right. Hey, how does one do that? I am still hanging back. Not that a photo with Sue actually means anything. But it would have been sort of nice. Because Sue is very nice and I try to be nice, too. Nicely nicely, thank you.

The conference was great, and there were a few little SNAFUs that went unnoticed and of course always undercurrents of competition and "stuff" that we writer's like to write about.

Once I sort through the last pile of paperwork and get food in the house, we're good to go. I can think about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Is one permitted to hide until the holidays are ove? Please? It's too late to start Nanowrimo. Best get on the stick and make a little plan, and keep writing. Keep things sane. Keep things simple. Make soup.

I missed all my HBO programs and Mad Men last night to watch the blankety-blank Pats game. The horror!

For a good overview of the Crimebake, read this blog: http://patremick.blogspot.com/

Significant Other did the moody, atmospheric cover of the 2009 Crimebake program. Cool, yes?

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King and Kingsolver

The first thing I do on Sunday morning besides drink coffee is read the New York Times Book Review. This week I got Stephen King's On Writing from the library and began reading it last night. A real mashup of happy and sad and poigant and pithy. I laughed out loud at his hijinx with the high school newspaper, because it reminded me so much of my younger self.

The book review featured King's new novel, a 1000+ page behemoth that sounded intriguing and readable. (Under the Dome). The Times' also reviewed a new novel by Barbara Kingsolver. (The Lacuna). I discovered Kingsolver when she was writing about Arizona and what a great writer she has become! The Poisonwood Bible was just terrific. So I can't wait to read the new book, much of which takes place in Mexico with Kahlo, Trotsky and Diego Rivera. We saw the movie recently and enjoyed it immensely. They were all larger than life characters.

Just reading the reviews I had a couple ideas for my WIP, In Flight, and even my California book, not yet written. I'm wondering if that is the book I should plow into and not stop until finished, writing in a fine but unburnished passion, permitting myself to write the "shitty first draft."

It was so heartening to see King leave poverty behind with the paperback sale of Carrie. I hope he made another bundle on the movie. And what a loyal wife who is herself a find poet and writer.

Did I mention Kingsolver's non-fiction? Also great.

Hat's off and raise your glass to Stephen King and Barbara Kingsolver. Let fiction reign.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html

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Whammo!

So there I am last night, looking around at intermission to see what the female Handel & Haydn attendees are wearing. It was there I discovered the tailored jacket was passe, although there are still a few of them about. The black and white jacket seemed to be in ascendancy, but of course, this being Boston and a sort of old crowd, maybe the black and white jacket was big two years ago. Who knows?

The lights dimmed and the Haydn symphony began, and right in the middle of everything-- whammo! I had the idea that Festival Madness should begin when my character lands in Reno. This is like on page 100, of the book, and would be a huge rewrite.

The thing is, nobody likes the beginning except moi, nobody has said one good thing about it. When you get turned down sometime like 50 times it is time to take heed. I had thought of this before, and decided it was too crazy, and besides the beginning is good. But it ain't good if nobody likes it.

Of couse, the current WIP is almost 80,000 (count [em) words along, and my heroine is heading for Nevada, where the denoument (we like big words sometimes) will occur. I hope to finish the first draft sometime this winter. Then I was going to get back to the California book. But now, Festival Madness calls again. With a huge rewrite. Damn. I've never written a book that wasn't chronological. Maybe it's time. What think you?

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Putting the Garden to Bed for the Winter

By Sept-Oct, the passion for gardening has been subsumed. Just take what's left of the harvest and get on with it. Parsley? Sure. Mint? You betcha. Sage? Perfect for the holidays. Oregano? Still going strong. Tomatoes? Pick for the windowsill.

All well and good. But there's all the "stuff" in pots that must be dealt with, because to leave a nice pot outside in a New England winter is asking for trouble. Freeze, expand, break. Can't do it. Have to take the thyme out of the pot and put in the ground. Planted 24 bulbs of garlic for next summer. Starts to seem like, well, work.

Today I pulled up the rest of the tomato vines, but I don't know what to do with the dirt, because they everything is suspect after the great tomato blight of 2009. Have to figure that out. Also ripped up the nasturtiums and African daisy and other assorted dead annuals. Still some stuff blooming and even budding in one of the pots, and I can't bring myself to rip it out until it's frozen solid.

Already brought in the geraniums and the rosemary. Scrubbed out some pots. The chores are boring and endless. Spring is better with choosing and planting and optimism. Fall?

Homer wrote: As is the generation of leaves, so is that of men. Kind of a downer, as I watch the leaves fall. We have a bumper crop of acorns. Ye gods, you can't walk a step outside without them crunching underfoot. Also lots of pine cones, which make great firestarters if you are old-fashioned enough to have a wood-burning fireplace. Long live real logs!

Yesterday I made a pot of chili. We had an unexpected guest, and everyone ate two (small) bowls, and now there is enough left for tonight but not Monday. No big deal. The recipe is from the New York Times, and I've been making it since I was a young bride. Once we fed hordes of people after an art show, and a man named Joe Witek ate five bowls. Joe sure could eat. A hostess' dream and a hostess' nightmare.

We had a lot of trick and treaters and ran out of candy early, shame on me for getting in there and decimating the Reese's Peanut Butter cups. I have no control about peanut butter. My heroin. Yup. That bad.

Below is the chili recipe. I chopped up a roast and soaked my own pinto beans. Tasted good. I use Penzeys (www.penzeys.com) hot chili powder, and only used 1 and 1/2 T. Otherwise you have to eat it with a box of tissues on the table.

Made the cheddar biscuits again, and something is the matter with the recipe, but they do taste good, so what the hell? They spread all over the baking sheet and the batter is too moist. I had a hell of a time kneading them. WTF?


Chili Con Carne


SERVES: 4

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 large onion, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seed, crushed
1 pound chopped beef
1 small bay leaf
3 cups water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/3 cups canned tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon basil
1 green pepper, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1.
Heat the butter in a skillet, add the onion and garlic and sauté until golden brown. Add the meat and brown.
2.
Transfer the meat mixture to a large saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce is as thick as desired, or about three hours. If desired, add one can of kidney beans just before serving.


Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK © 1961 by Craig Claiborne

I made half again as much. This recipe will never win a contest, but it is a good hearty chili.