martinimade

snow, finally.

Snow day today, which means that I won't get much of anything done because the Diva is in the house and demanding snacks and movies and hot cocoa. Because that's what you do when you are seven and have a snow day.

And, so, a video about Pringle of Scotland, which missed the first time around and just stole from Ann and Kay at Mason-Dixon. Speaking of, you have got to see Grey Garments. Thank me later.

many things make a post

* Driven students are more likely to be bipolar.

* I frequently have what-was-I-thinking craft projects. Glad to see Make is coming out of the closet with theirs.

* Popular Mechanics reviews the products As Seen On TV. And every day I move one step closer to a Popular Mechanics subscription.

* A cool infographic about Federal deficits.

* Daria is coming! Hooray!

* Awesome armored snail of awesome awesomeness. (via Anj.)

* Want.

* I was planning to read Get Me Out anyway but this short interview with Randi Hutter Epstein makes me want to get it right now.

* I finally got around to reading the New Yorker piece on Roman Polanski. Which brings up two things: Thing One - if I ever find myself in a position to meet Polanski I'm not sure I could stop myself from punching him as hard as I possibly can and Thing Two - does anyone take quaaludes anymore?

* To wash the taste of statutory rape out of your brain -- It's rare that Cute Overload makes me LOL. I nearly wet myself with this. Prepare accordingly.

shameless self-promotion, 329 in a series + a picture

This winter, the vermin in my office have grown bolder and more thirsty.

 

Should I call OSHA?

Two from the local almost-daily: why the Superbowl should be like Thanksgiving* and why I hate the dang phone.

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* I wound up not making ribs due to supermarket fail. I did, however, make these most excellent slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches. Yum. And Yum.

qotd, ah, romance

"My husband and I have been married for 18 years and a couple for 24. I feel I know a thing or two about long(ish) marriage. I know that if you are lucky, you argue less over time, because you grow wise enough (or maybe just tired enough) to stop trying to change each other. Over time, trust triumphs passion; understanding becomes more important than discovery. The term 'true partnership' -- once so dry and adult and boring, boring, boring -- turns into a kind of ideal. You wake up every day, look at the pillow next to you, and think, Oh jeez, you're still here? And then you think, Thank God."

-- Kristin Van Ogtrop in her editor's note in February's Real Simple.

for purposes of stalking

Typepad lists and I don't seem to be getting along right now, as evidenced by the fact that it refuses to bend to my will.  And, so, a new plan.

There will be signings and readings and whatnot coming up in the next couple of months. I'll keep updating this post when new info leaks in. I would love to see you and/or deface your books (any books, really, not just those written by me) if you'll be in the area. Also, if you have any can't miss stops I should make while in these areas, please tell me.

* Sunday, March 21 from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Capital Region Knit-in in Troy, NY.

* Saturday, March 27 at  1 p.m. at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH.

* Tuesday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at the Green Toad Bookstore in Oneonta, NY. (Also, should you want a signed Sweater Quest but won't be in the area, email the Toad. I can drop in and personalize them, too, before they are mailed.)

* Thursday, April 1 at some time in the evening at Om Yoga in NYC. (Knitting. Yoga. Can't go wrong, no?)

* Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA.

If more are added -- and I hope more will be because this is the fun part -- I'll update this post.

And, Anna, if the offer of 20 folding chairs still good...

biting the heads off of kittens since 2010

In almost every movie about the theater that has ever been made, there's a scene where the cast stays up on opening night to get the morning papers so that they can check the overnight review. If the review's a good one, the show lives. If it isn't, well, they just keep drinking while they pack*

In publishing, that iconic scene is also played out, only with Publisher's Weekly and significantly less ballyhoo. If you get a good review there, everyone breathes a little bit easier. If not, well, there's a reason you always have a bottle of gin nearby.**

The PW review for Sweater Quest is in:

A writer, professor, and mother with a penchant for “obsessively knitting,” Martini has spent plenty of time putting needles to yarn. In fact, she explains, knitting was central to her emergence from the postpartum depression she chronicled in 2006's Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood. Several years and a second child later, she's looking for a new level of knitting challenge, not to mention fodder for this second memoir. Her trademark humor and honesty make for an engaging read (for example, she writes, “Both kids and craft have taught me how to deal with frustration so acute that I'd want to bite the head off a kitten”). Despite that, her grand knitting/writing project for 2008 was an Alice Starmore Fair Isle sweater, for its complexity of pattern, colors, and knitting technique. Martini casts on and explores the history of knitting, details visits and calls to fellow knitters near and far, and describes Starmore's determination to protect her brand and copyright. It's a lively, interesting blend of personal quest, knitting history and Starmore biography certain to appeal to knitters—and to readers who enjoy taking on (or reading about) a worthy personal challenge. (Mar.)

Hereafter, I would prefer to be referred to as "she who bites heads off of kittens." Update your address books.

And, lo, we are all breathing a little bit easier.

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* It doesn't really work like this anymore. Not sure that it ever did. Still, makes for a nice dramatic moment.

** For bad reviews and wicked gnarly papercuts.

many things make a post

* Choose Your Own Adventure: Planet of the Helicopter Parents.

* Yoga and Dinner? (I think if I tried to eat right after a yoga class, I'd simply throw up. Your milage may vary.)

* For the Firefly fans: Kinetic Typography. Man, I miss that show.

* From Fish to Infinity: the column that might help me get over my mental block about math.

* I was a girl journalist, which is why all of the movies with girl journalists falling in love with their subjects tick me off mightily. Frankly, I was never all that tempted by the people I talked to. Not that they weren't all lovable in their own ways but because I was just doing my dang job. 

* Alien planets in your spice rack. This is not a euphemism.

* Katie Granju's Elizabeth Edwards post kicks serious ass.

* John Oliver thinks the future should hold rocket boots.

* If you click through no other links in this post, click through this one: Allison Silverman's award speech.

* Stolen from Gwenda: Justine L explains Mansplaining, which I've come across more than I can even begin to enumerate, and Things Dorothy Parker Might Have Said, Had She Been A Mother.

seriously yum

Before the cookie porn, two quick SF/F links from the weekend:

* John Scalzi on the Amazon/Macmillan debacle. He nails pretty much all of the salient details here and does so with exceptional panache.

* Writer Kage Baker died on Sunday, far too young. To quote Jeff VanderMeer, from this excellent remembrance, "I would like to think that this is not the end, that [Kage has] merely been assigned by The Company to some new mission." She will be missed.

In happier news, the Diva and I made macarons this weekend. I was inspired by Bakerella's recent post about a visit from Tartelette and couldn't help myself. 

My results weren't nearly as pretty --

 

 

but were pretty dang tasty. And gluten free, so the Diva can eat as many as we'll allow.

Some notes:

-- I did the basic cookie, without any food coloring or flavors, a choice I made because I didn't have anything appropriate in the house. The filling is a simple ganache, from Ruhlman's Ratio. Rather than equal parts chocolate and cream, however, I went lighter on the cream because I wanted the filling to set up a bit more. 

-- I don't own the right size pastry bag tip so just cut a disposable pastry bag to a size that looked right. It worked well enough.

-- For next time -- and there will be a next time* -- I need to grind the almonds even finer and cook the cookies a smidge longer. This will help with the texture. It's not bad, just not right yet.

-- These couldn't be easier, really, as long as you know just a little bit about what egg whites can do. Really. give it a try.

* insert maniacal laughter here.