55/365 Thursday, 02/24/2011

Brussel sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables. And this is probably my favorite way to eat them: oven roasted in a cast-iron pan with plenty of salt and pepper and a bit of olive-oil--and for the last 5-10 minutes with about a quarter cup of shredded parmesan cheese on top. Yum!

54/365 Wednesday, 02/23/2011

This is my "recreational" reading at the moment. It is going very slowly--usually only a few pages before I go to sleep. Das Glasperlenspiel/The Glass Bead Game or Magister Ludi  was Herman Hesse's last novel--he worked on it from 1931 to 1943. It was published in Switzerland. It is a strange book and I have already started but not finished it once---which is something I do not like doing. The only other two books I have started but not finished in recent memory are Musil's Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften/The Man without Qualities and W.G.Sebald's Austerlitz, both of which I hope to go back and reread and finish in the not too distant future. I'm getting more into it the second time and I do find it interesting. I read Hesse mainly for the ideas, I do not find his writing style as compelling as that of either Thomas Mann or Franz Kafka, but his oeuvre is still interesting. And also quite teachable. I've taught "Narcissus & Goldmund" numerous times in translation as part of a Freshman Seminar centered on "Concepts of Friendship in German Literature". I've also taught Siddhartha once to a small class at Wabash College. (Many moons ago it must be said!).
Since Hesse wrote The Glass Bead Game from 1931-43, he must have had the Third Reich in mind as the kind of society the book is disdainful of. And Hesse being Hesse means his vision of a future utopia (so far at least) is rather medieval and ascetic. I am intrigued as to how he is going to write a whole novel about this one expert game player. That's kind of what is keeping me reading. I may report back on how it is going at a later point.

53/365 Tuesday, 02/22/2011

I added this particular picture instead of some of the others from that morning's "shoot" because it will remind me of the beautiful sparkly, pink light that emanated from the branches of the tree. The picture does not really do the actual phenomenon justice, but it will remind me of it when I see it. I was very tempted to put on my boots and go outside and I sort of still regret not doing so. On the other hand it was a VERY cold morning and so I was reluctant to head out in my pj's -even with a coat and boots. We simply have the best sunrises around here. (I remember seeing spectacular sunsets in Indiana...)

52/365 Monday, 02/21/2011

I was going to post a postcard of a painting I like by a 19th century German artist, but I just couldn't resist this cute close-up of Georgie's ears. When he sits on my lap I admit I take a lot of pictures of him--most of them not good at all. But this one, this one I liked. And if I really wantd to, this being my blog and all, there is nothing to stop me (except not wanting to waste too much time blogging) from posting the other picture as a "two-for-one" now is there? We'll see.

51/365 Sunday, 02/20/2011

Yesterday was a snowy (and later on icy) day that prompted us to stay indoors and enjoy our Trader Joe goodies. This was my lunch--and it probably one of my favorite lunches/meals: smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted bagel. The TJ bagels are only so-so, but they do always have good smoked salmon. As I recall you could get a smallish pack for $3.99 or sometimes even $2.99. There were none of those there yesterday so I had to go with a bigger more expensive packet--it is very good!! Because it was a wintry Sunday And I knew I wasn't going anywhere I decided to have a Mimosa with my Salmon bagel--yum!!

50/365 Saturday, 02/19/2011

Yesterday was a fun day! We drove to Ann Arbor, which is about 50 minutes east of Albion, right along I-94. I got my haircut (I don't like any of the hairdressers in Albion). and after that we met up with our friends from Toledo (which is about the same distance Ann Arbor in the other direction). We had a very nice lunch. It was good to catch up. After that we of course had to hit our favorite supermarket: Trader Joe's. It was packed!!! I think maybe due to the dire weather predictions for today (which are proving to be somewhat true so far--it is snowing fairly heavily and later on there might be some ice-precip...) I don't think I have ever seen Trader Joe's that busy. We got a lot of stuff including a nice selection of wines. We also like their coffee. And after that it was time to head back home to Albion.

49/365 Friday, 02/18/2011

For some reason our two girl cats Sophie and Mieze both love to sit in boxes. I think Sophie is the biggest box lover, both in terms of her size and how much she loves them. And she especially loves to show how she can fit into boxes that I am always convinced will be too small for her-like this one - a shallow box from Amazon that I thought would be perfect for little Mieze. But the minute I put it down Sophie jumped right and and made herself comfortable in it...It is a bit of a tight fit - but I don't think that bothers Sophie! In the meantime I have also seen Mieze sit in this one and she does have more room to maneuver...

48/365 Thursday, 02/17/2011

I spent a lot of time at my desk today and Mieze came and kept me company! she likes hanging out on my desk.

47/365 Wednesday, 02/16/2011

I have enjoyed re-watching The West Wing--especially the first Aaron Sorkin scripted seasons 1-4. The last seasons are still watchable but just not as fun as the first ones. Part of it is that it is the end of the Bartlett era and so the focus has to shift away from Sheen/Bartlett.

Today I didn't spend a lot of time with my camera so this is the shot that made it in!

46/365 Tuesday, 02/15/2011

Another sunny and slightly warmer day. I didn't go outside much, since I'm working on my book-review (which involves reading the book..) I took this from the bedroom window of a long freight-train that was pasing through. There was a mini-traffic jam behind it, but that didn't last long. No such thing as "heavy traffic" in our little town...