Gearing up for November!

Some of you know that last November, I wrote a novel during National Novel Writing Month. It was a great experience and I'm so glad I did it.

You haven't heard much about my novel since then. That's because it was terrible. I say that with a lot of love. I learned so much while writing the novel, and I think the only way I could learn it was by doing, and doing badly. I got more than I could have ever hoped from the experience, even if I didn't end up with the "Great American Novel".

I'm planning to do another round of NaNoWriMo this coming November, and have continued writing on a smaller, less insanely epic scale. I don't blog much about it, because in my opinion, reading about writing is one of the most boring activities on earth. There are some rules that are immutable: any books where the main character is writing a book will be unreadable, and movies about someone making a movie will be unwatchable. Seriously. I just dare you to give me an example that disproves this. Oh, you're going to pull out The Dark Half, aren't you? Please, one of Stephen King's weakest showings. Or Adaptation, the pallid followup to the genius that was Being John Malkovich. Now a movie about writing a book, maybe. Or a book about making a movie, well I haven't read one by perhaps it wouldn't be entirely tiresome.

I'm digressing again, aren't I? There's a perfectly good reason why I don't find it overwhelming to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's because words flow out of me. They're not always coherent, or to the point, but they certainly don't get clogged up in there! Perhaps I should install a bit of a filter...

Back on topic, starting now. I promise.

So I'm currently finishing up reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. First, this book is incredibly awesome. Amazing. All of you who have read it are in deep, deep trouble for not giving me this book and demanding I read it immediately. And for anyone of you who haven't read it yet, I demand you get it and read it immediately. There, now you can't blame me for not informing you of its awesomeness. Second, I have to get everything else by Michael Chabon and read that immediately. I hope it's just as good. Or even half as good. Because then I'm in for some awesome reading material.

How does this tie into my novel writing? Well, one of my biggest difficulties in writing a novel was in transitions. I got so mired down in minutia. I never knew how to jump over time. I didn't want to write the boring stuff, and I'm sure no one would want to read the boring stuff, but I had so much trouble skipping from Activity A to Consequence B without explaining all the blah blah that happened to get them from A to B. Kavalier and Clay is like a guide book for me in how to jump between points. It is so interestingly structured. Not only does he skip over the boring parts, he skips over the exciting parts, taking you to a point in the future where stuff has already happened, and then you as a reader piece it together in bits and pieces.

I don't think I will be structuring my future novels this way, but it's just so amazing to see the facility with which he handles movement in time. It's not particularly loud; not an attention grabbing structure. Not like how, for example, Vonnegut's structure choices sometime pop right out at you (I love Vonnegut, by the way...that's not a complaint at all about his writing, in fact, that's something I love about his writing, how he takes chances and plays with structure). If I hadn't struggled so much with my novel about how to get from place to place within my own story I'm not sure I would have even noticed Chabon's choices. But I'm just finding it so incredibly well done and such a joy to read. I have to shout it from the rooftops, or from the random bits that make up my blog.

Whew. I'll leave it at that, and hope my brief foray into writing about writing didn't bore you to tears. It was mostly a love letter to Michael Chabon, wasn't it? And isn't it fun to sneak a peek at my insane writer-crushes?

Random related thought: Anyone want to join in and write for NaNoWriMo this November? It really is fun, and doesn't take as much time as you'd think (about 2 hours a day is what I wrote on average, and I finished my 50k words nearly a week early). No using NaBloPoMo as an excuse, either!

No Thank You's

I could use some parenting advice. Here goes: my boys are 2 and 3/4 years old. They are shy, in fact, they still often don't talk in front of strangers. Sometimes they hardly even talk in front of friends they don't see very often. I'm okay with that. I'm shy too, and there's nothing worse than being forced into being overly sociable.

My problem is what to do when they are given something by a stranger or acquaintance: a lollipop from the bank teller, a cup of milk from a waitress, a sticker from the librarian. N-man and B-man are fairly polite in our house: they often say "please" and "thank you" unprompted, and always do with prompting if they forget. But in public, forget it! I remind them to say "thank you" and they cower behind my leg, or hang their head and stand there mute.

So, here's where I need the parenting advice: how far do I push it? Do I let them get away with not saying thank you? I've been trying to model good behavior by asking them to say thank you once, and if they don't, simply saying thank you myself. But they're getting older, and eventually they're going to have to put those good manners on display in public, not just in our house. But I don't want it to turn into a showdown, where I repeated ask them to say thank you, probably making the person they're supposed to be thanking feel very uncomfortable. And I'm not sure that taking the item away would be appropriate, either, given the fact that I believe their lack of thank you's is a direct result of a hopefully mild case of shyness and social anxiety, which I don't want to make worse by turning every interaction they have with a stranger into a battle of wills.

I realize it's completely normal to be shy and reserved in public at their age (although there are plenty of kids who are the exact opposite as well), but I also think it's reasonable to expect almost three year old kids to say "thank you" when they are given something. So what do you think? How would you handle this?

Random unrelated thought: I cooked with grass-fed organic beef for the first time today. Any vegetarians reading this, close your eyes: when I took the meat out to cut up (I was making stew), it smelled awesome. I'm talking about raw, bloody, uncooked meat. Usually it's all I can do not to get all skeeved out by raw meat. But this actually had a delicious aroma. That was a pretty surprising revelation to me. Maybe I'm one step closer to understanding how anyone could force themselves to eat beef tartare. Hmmm, no I'm not. Anyway, the stew came out incredible. One of the best stews I ever made, if I can be so humble. But who knows if it was due to the beef. I might have just been having a moment of culinary genius today that had nothing to do with the meat. Some day I'm going to have to cook two identical meals side by side, using organic meat in one and conventional in the other and then do a blind taste test to see if there's a real difference.

Because I don't trust my taste buds. I expect there to be a difference, so I'm tasting a difference. But I used to think I could taste the color of M&M's (okay, to be fair, I only thought I could distinguish red from all the other colors. I felt like it had a slightly more bitter taste). TK didn't believe me, but I was so sure I said I'd do a blind taste test. Yeah, it turns out I can't taste M&M colors. Who knew!

In for a yard

While we were in New Jersey for Passover, we went to my sister-in-law's brother's house for a Seder. While there, I realized something amazing: they had more furniture OUTSIDE their house than we have inside. Okay, I'm exaggerating slightly. I mean, they didn't have bedroom furniture outside. Just patio furniture. Lots and lots of it. A full couch and two chairs plus a coffee table surrounding an outdoor fireplace with full chimney. A table and chairs. Another set of couches, chairs, and tables.

Oh, and all their outdoor furniture was nicer than our real furniture. Hee! Seriously, though, my boys aren't potty trained. I know our couch is ripped and in serious ill-repair, but I don't like it enough to have it refinished and I refuse to buy a new one when I know in the next year, there is an approximately 100% chance the couch will be peed on, at least once, during the potty training endeavors. Okay, hopefully I'm overestimating that 100% chance, but if we bought a new couch, you know it definitely would get peed on. Potty training is going to be harrowing enough; I don't want to have to worry about possessions getting worried as well. So we're just fine with our old couch, thanks.

Back to this house we were at for the Seder: it was nice. A McMansion...the first I'd ever been in. Generic, cookie-cutter-ish, and a tiny bit TOO perfect, but nice. A little odd, and not my cup of tea. I guess I don't need to worry too much about it, though, as the chances of us buying a McMansion are slim. See, first we'd have to win the lottery...

So what do you think? Have you ever been in a McMansion? They're not so omni-present in the Boston area as they are in the part of New Jersey where my inlaws live. It was kind of strange to just see neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood of gigantic houses, all looking vaguely similar and brand-new.

Random unrelated thought: I was paging through the 3/30 Boston Globe Magazine (yes, I'm just reading it now. I know! It's May already! Anyway...). In their cooking section, they explain that a frittata is an egg dish that is not flipped in the pan but is finished in the oven, while a tortilla espanola is basically the same dish, except flipped in the pan using the technique Giovanna was kind enough to explain to me where you invert the eggs onto a plate, then slide it back into the pan.

So now I know. I'll happily make tortilla espanola from now on as I clearly can't be trusted with making a frittata! The article in the Globe states: "Frittatas are even easier to make [than tortilla espanola] because they don't have to be flipped in the pan." How little they know. How vastly they underestimate my ability to burn myself with hot pan handles. Bring on the flipping any day! Of course, I may be blogging next time about how my tortilla espanola slid off the plate and onto the hot burner, or onto my hand, or something equally ridiculous. Cooking is always an adventure!

Tortillas! Tortillas!

So, if you've been reading you probably know that I like to cook. And since my kids don't eat, I figure cooking with them can't make things any worse...it can only make them more interested in food as it's impossible to become any less interested. Oh shoot, I'm off track again, thinking about the fact that my children subside on air and kisses. Anyway.

I decided today I'd make some homemade tortillas with the boys. There was a recipe in a recent Highlights High Five magazine (great magazine, by the way, for toddlers), so I thought I'd give it a try. We had a lot of fun, it wasn't too messy and didn't take too long, and the quesadillas we made were surprisingly good. I'm not going to lie to you...these tortillas weren't any better than store bought. Maybe not even quite as good as my favorite tortillas from Trader Joes. But we all ate them and enjoyed it! Here's what they looked like...not too bad, huh?


Here's the recipe, adapted slightly from the recipe in High Five:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon, but I found the tortillas to be salty so I'll cut back in the future)
1/2 cup hot water (not boiling, just hot tap water)
1 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

Mix together flour and salt, then add hot water and vegetable oil. Stir until combined and mixture forms a ball (I had to use my hands, and let the boys knead it a bit, too).

Divide into 6 balls of dough.

Flatten slightly with your hand, then roll until flat and thin (my 2 3/4 year old boys could roll it out a bit, but then I had to finish rolling them thin). The dough should be fairly dry...mine didn't need any extra flour to keep it from sticking.

Coat a nonstick skillet with a small amount of vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Add a tortilla and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the underside is slightly browned in places. Flip, and if you're making quesadillas, top with some cheese or other toppings and let melt with the other side cooks for approx. 1-2 mintues. Fold in half and enjoy. Or you could skip the cheese, just cook the other side, then use these to make tacos, burritos, whatever.

Random Unrelated Thought: Why does Massachusetts have such a stick up its butt about billboards off the highway? What, do they have to preserve ALL that view? Puh-lease! Connecticut is so much more fun to drive through. I mean, I feel like a trip isn't complete unless I see at least 10 billboards for some skanky porn related establishments. And you can count on Connecticut to deliver in the first twenty miles. I heart the Connecticut DOT, or whoever it is who lets them put up so many awesome billboards.

Red Carrots??

I was at a specialty food store the other day that had tons and tons of interesting vegetables. One especially intriguing section had a big pile of baby vegetables. No further descriptions were given, just "baby vegetables".

How could I resist REAL baby carrots, not just those ground down regular carrots that pass as baby carrots these days (which I also love, but it seems like a big cheat to call them baby carrots. Wouldn't whittled carrots be more accurate?)

But while I was searching through the bin, there were some baby veggies that looked like red carrots. Hmm, I've never heard of red carrots! I got a bunch even though I had no idea what they were.

I'm still not sure, but I googled around and discovered that as I suspected, red carrots do in fact exist. In fact, I guess carrots come in a far wider array of hues than the traditional orange carried in our grocery stores.

So here they are, our orange and red carrots. I washed, chopped, and steamed them briefly, then sauteed them in butter with some rosemary out of the garden. Yum, rosemary. I'm going to have to be careful or I'll eat all of the rosemary and there will be none left in the garden to grow! Anyway, they came out delightfully...a little earthier than the carrots I get at the supermarket but that gave the flavor a little more depth and character than what I normally expect from carrots. So if you happen to run across red carrots (or carrots of any unusual color), I'd highly recommend giving them a try!

Random related thought: While we're talking food, I think I've found a great answer to my "but coffee isn't local" issue. I mean, I doubt I'd ever be committed enough to go on a 100 mile diet or anything...I like chocolate too much for one thing! But here's a good compromise for me about coffee: Wicked Joe. It's made in Maine, and the company is wicked crazy about all the pro-earth stuff they do...certainly they're a lifestyle choice rather than just a drink choice. But most importantly, it's wicked good! We got Jamaican Me Crazy...a coffee flavored with Kahlua, caramel, and vanilla. Insanely delightful. Even walking past the bag of coffee is a terrific experience. We actually don't make much coffee at home, maybe two pots a week, so this is one area where I certainly don't mind paying extra. Especially for something that's super mega awesome wicked cool.

Oh, and there's the benefit of getting to say "wicked" all the time. What can I say? That's one of my all-time favorite parts of living in the Boston area!

Cosmic payback

Or is it COMIC payback?

See, today I snuck in a little computer time while the boys were playing. I think it's important for them to develop some skills to play on their own, without constant adult intervention. It's a parenting strategy, damn it, not a desperate need to have a few minutes on my own on days when the boys don't nap. Oh geez, I need to start clearing a spot on my mantle for that June Cleaver award I'm sure is on its way...

Anyway, I used my few "free" minutes to write a reply to a friend's email where she tended, just a bit, toward over-explaining things. My reply may, perhaps, have teased her, just a little, I promise.

Well, while I'm busy thinking I'm so funny, the universe is conspiring to pay me back, courtesy of my wee little N-man. I thought he was playing with this annoying self-propelled Thomas train we have. It's kind of neat. It's battery-powered and it moves all on it's own. Sounds great, right? Well, it's surprisingly noisy and the boys both like to turn it on and let it roam all over the house until I'm on the verge of going mad from the constant sssssssss noise it makes.

So as I'm typing I hear N-man playing with the train in the bathroom. That's okay, we have the bathroom babyproofed of anything dangerous, and I'm right next door and I can hear everything. I spend my 5 minutes on the computer, then go in to see what he's doing.

And I discover that the noise the self-propelled train makes is the same as the noise of running water out of the tap. Assuming it's not hitting the sink but is instead hitting a pile of hand towels. N-man had piled all the hand towels into the sink, turned on the tap, and was making a pond. For a little plastic turtle.

Oh, and he's also managed, in those 5 minutes, to squirt out pretty much an entire bottle of hand soap into the sink, onto the counter, onto the soap bottle, and, of course, all over himself.

I just laughed...it's hard to get too mad at him when it's my own fault for not paying enough attention. It actually made me realize that they're getting big enough that we need to do a more effective job of laying down rules about things they used to be too little to do. It's only recently that they could even reach the faucets...before we didn't have to have a "no turning on the water except to wash hands or brush teeth" rule. Now I know we do.

So there you go...the universe sent me immediate punishment for a snarky email. Please let me apologize to both the universe and J. I loved your email!

Random totally related thought: The boys didn't nap again today. What's up with that? Aren't they too young to give up their nap? Do I need to start reading Healthy Sleep Habits to them again? They totally ignored all of Weissbluth's advice the first time I read it to them, but now they're older and might see the wisdom of it**.

**Totally kidding. I hated that book. Of course, my B-man is in the running for worst sleeper ever so maybe I should have taken the advice offered in the his book.

Yes, really. Just one TV.

Our cable company is switching to all digital programming shortly, and they've been inundating us with letters announcing the upcoming change. The problem is if you have an older television, you need to have a cable box attached to it or it will no longer work. Okay, no problem. Our TV is old, but we have a cable box so I keep throwing away the letters.

So, today I get a call from the cable company saying they haven't heard from us about the upcoming change and they wanted to make sure we understood that older televisions without a cable box will no longer work.

Her: How many televisions do you have in your house?

Me: One.

Her: Just one?

Me: Yes.

Her: Because you only have one cable box. Any televisions that aren't hooked up to a cable box won't work after the conversion.

Me: I understand. We just have one TV.

Her: Okay (with a tone of "are you nuts" in her voice). Well, you'll be fine for the conversion then.

Me: Thanks.

Is it so weird to only have one television? What would we do with more televisions? I guess we're lucky that for the most part, TK and I watch the same stuff. Fine, I can't handle all the Stargates and he can't stand One Tree Hill, but we just stick those on the DVR and watch when the other is doing something else. But generally, we have the same taste. He says something like, "did you hear there's a new show coming on about a guy who gets a computer downloaded into his head that stars the guy who played Jayne in Firefly?" and I say "Wow, that sounds awesome". Or I say, "Oh my gosh, there's a Terminator show on TV that stars the girl who played River on Firefly!" and he says, "When's it on?"

Yes, we pretty much revolve our television watching around actors who appeared on Firefly. Or other Joss Whedon shows. What can I say? We're both total geeks. And I guess that's why we only need one television.

So how many TVs do you have? Please tell me, is it really that odd to just have one television?