Best of the Bookfair

The YMCA's annual bookfair was this week, and I went on half price day. Although I was primarily volunteering, I also did a little shopping. While browsing, er, I mean working in the romance section, I came across a couple of wonders. I'm sorry I passed on the one with the plotline that included a 21st Century Scandal Magazine editor going back in time to marry a Plantagenet Prince (that tricky time space continuum always sends people back in time to England no matter where they were on the globe). She has to "invent" celebrity journalism centuries earlier to save his life (as if scandal on the nobility wasn't a huge source of news/entertainment in late medieval/early Renaissance Europe). Yes, that was the description on the back of the cover and somehow I passed it up. When I tried to find it later, I couldn't remember the title. However, I did find this amazing gem:

Sorry it's not turned around, but I'm in a hurry, and I think you can appreciate it just as well from this position.
The cover alone was so terrifically bad I had to have it. It wasn't until I got it home that I realized how incredibly bad this really is. Our cover boy is an actual person. From the inside flap:
"The Powerful Zebra Hero on the cover of this book is David Alan Johnson, winner in the "Under 40" division at the first annual Romance Cover Model Pageant, held at the Romantic Times Magazine in 1993 Booklovers Convention in San Diego...When asked why he wanted to appear on the cover of a book, David's reply was "to represent a man of honor and character." His debut appearance was painted by acclaimed romance illustrator Sharon Spiak, one of the judges of the contest."

This description goes on, but I gave you the highlights. A couple of questions spring to mind: 1. Is there and "Over 40" division? (Well, given the constant sub genres of the Romance Market, I'm sure there is.) 2. 1993? REALLY? Not 1983? Or 1979? 3. Who wakes up and says to himself "I should be on the cover of a romance book. I'm entering that contest!"?

I have no idea of the character was indeed a man of honor and character, because this is probably one of the few romance novels I was not able to finish. Usually, the bad ones are so very bad that they are very funny and most romances are really light reads so it's only a couple of hours of time at most. This one was so very bad, it was unreadable. But there was one additional tidbit, the author must have a St. Louis connection since it was dedicated to: "Charles Brennan, Kevin Horrigan, and Paul Grundhauser of the Mighty Mox KMOX Radio, St. Louis. They are the true heroes who would look great on the cover of any romance!". Of course nothing says sexy to me like KMOX Radio - and no I've never heard it called the Mighty Mox before, but anyway. Additionally the book does partly take place in St. Louis (as well as Egypt, England, and Boston) but that was too far in for me to stomach, so I have no idea if our fair city was well represented. Oh, and yeah, he's supposed to be a priest. Well, not actually a priest, because that would hamper the romance department, but he's posing as a priest. All the priests I know dress just like that.

In all, it was so worth the $0.25 I paid, but if anyone else is interested in reading "Heaven", I'd be happy to pass it on to you.

City Walks: City Garden

City Garden opened up this summer to a great deal of praise. Despite it being a few short blocks from my office, today was the first day I actually wandered down there. It measured up to the hype. Some of the things I loved about it:

White Bunnies

The prairie running through the middle of the two block park - this grass is about waist high.


These river fountains (and the squirty fountains in the other half) are for playing in



The plantings give walkers the feeling like they might start taking over concrete (from down the block it sort of looks like the beds are in the middle of the street).

And best of all it's smack in the middle of downtown. Great location for tourists, locals, and office workers. The new parking garage Schnucks is just down the street, so it's easy to pick up your lunch and picnic here.

These photos don't show the massive number of statues that are in the park, many of which seem very climber friendly, and the many places to sit that aren't art. One of the other things that make it great is that while there is a security presence, they don't seem to be there to make sure you don't touch the art or stay out of the water. All ages are lounging, playing and soaking up the sun. It's nice to know our city gets it right sometimes.

Projects in progress

Well, actually I completed one of them. Here's the ottoman before & after:





The baskets actually have been more challenging. I've only gotten one done, although I did cut out another one, so hopefully, I'll have it finished before I head to Carol's this weekend. I decided to re-purpose the hook and loop on the inside tabs of the baskets, which is taking longer than I wanted to remove it from the old ones. But they really were getting manky (see the green ones below) and now that N is finally out of diapers, I'm looking forward to re-doing this changing table. Maybe we'll even get a place for all her hair bands and things too, so they aren't scattered all over the house.

The before on the changing table (with one new basket)


And that basket close up. Clearly, this one is not perfect, I'm hoping I'll improve as I go through this. The corners are a lot more tricky than on the ottoman, due to the sloped sides. But I really love this fabric, it's Country Fair from Denyse Schmidt and it's on clearance over here through today, as is the above fabric which is Coreopsis from Amy Butler's August Fields line.

Bad Cats

I'm a judge in a children's book contest and I just finished my entries and I want you to shoot me now. Why do people think children's books have to be opportunities to hit the child over the head with a moral or lesson? I'm sick of books that feature sickeningly sweet protagonists. In light of this, I give you a double header cat book of the day: Mr Pusskins: A Love Story and Rotten Ralph. Mr Pusskins was first brought to my attention by Daniel Pinkwater on NPR, and his reading with Scott Simon is too much fun. Rotten Ralph existed for me first on some valentines we had donated to the office, and when I found him later in book form, I realized he was the literary version of our Archie. While Mr. Pusskins does get his comeuppance and learns a lesson, I love that Rotten Ralph never does.

Book Cat of the Day

Ginger by Charlotte Voake. - Ginger loves his food, his basket, and the little girl that loves him.  But then he has to learn to share. 

 

Osage

My co-worker coerced me into abandoning my packed lunch yesterday and going to Osage, a local restaurant that is in a nursery, Bowood Farms, in the CWE. I was really, really happy with my Mediterranean plate, but then she gave me a bite of her Brie BLT and he heavens opened up, angels sang and I was bathed in a soft blue light. Yes it was that good. While the bacon was awesome, what really made this sandwich was the tomato marmalade. Bacon aside, this place is great for vegetarians, with multiple veggie options. It is very small though, and I'd recommend getting there early or late - we got there at 11:30am and couldn't get a table, we ate at the bar. But I'm going back for that sandwich.

Recipe testings

I don't have any pictures, unfortunately, but this past weekend, Todd and Natascha served as willing guinea pigs for some more recipe tests from the Veginomican. Saturday I made the Green Pumpkin Seed Mole, Chili-Lime crusted tofu, and the corn pudding. This was one of Isa's suggested menus in the back of the book. We had tomatoes & avocados as a side (it is August!) and Isa's Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake for dessert. I like all of these recipes quite a bit, but was most impressed with the mole. Possibly because it came together in a snap despite having a ton of ingredients, and I can see it working with a variety of dishes. I liked the corn pudding, but it was a pain cutting the corn off the cob, I might make it again using frozen corn, but I'm not sure it would taste as good. The chili-lime tofu was yummy, but again, it's a lot of work and a lot of frying and really I think I like the hot glazed tempeh marinade on tofu better and it's much less time consuming. It would also have worked well in this menu. I've made the Coconut-Lemon bundt cake previously, and this time was no different - this is a keeper of a recipe. I love this cake. Interestingly, Dad also loves this cake, and he's not really a big coconut fan, so I think it might go into heavier rotation. Mom got leftovers of the corn pudding and has now decided that it needs to be made more often too, which is surprising because I didn't think she'd go for it (it has coconut milk in it). Nora loved the mole, but she ate it with pretzels. I don't think tofu is her thing, even when fried. I kept trying to convince her that it was a sort of french fry, but it was a no-go. Anyone have any requests about what to make next?

Book Cat of the Day

Sampson from the Church Mice series. My favorite of this group is The Church Mice Adrift by Graham Oakley. Why this series has gone out of print, I'll never know because the story is terrific and the illustrations are delightful. In The Church Mice Adrift, progress has come to Waterthorpe and the rats have been evicted from the waterfront. Searching new digs, they evict the church mice and Sampson from the Vestry. It's up to Sampson to get them home again. Sampson is the best of book cats, smart, courageous, and charitable to the sometimes undeserving mice in his care.


These stories were favorites of mine as a child, and now Nora thinks they are they cat's meow too.

Running Rings Around The Empire

So, thanks to Twitter, I've been following that world citizen, Eddie Izzard's run around England, Wales, Scotland and No. Ireland. He's marathons 6 days a week fundraising for sportsrelief, and I'm pretty amazed that he's still standing. But he's a pretty amazing guy. Check it out.

Double the Grandparents, Double the Fun

From the Arkansas Trip:


Nora's first fish

Under the waterfall at Garvin Gardens

On the boat
Driving the boat