Under the Tuscan Yum

So I've been reading Under the Tuscan Sun recently. I never managed to watch th movie - it seemed like a mediocre vehicle for Diane Lane (who, suprise suprise, doesn't seem to resemble the author and main character of the book at all) coming off of her success in Unfaithful. But the book came with good recommendations, and I've mostly enjoyed it.

Much of it describes all the backbreaking, frustrating, and sometimes hilarious work that Frances Mayes, the author, and her husband/boyfriend/? (also suspiciously absent in the movie, from what I gather) had to do to get the old farmhouse liveable again. As a homeowner who enjoys house projects, this was particularly inyeresting to me.

The descriptions of the food (many of the vegetables grown on her property) and wine that Mayes encounters and prepares are also sumptuous. The spousal unit and I went to Italy 2 years ago, and found the cuisine of the region to be quite delectable, much more so than that in Rome. Mayes even includes some recipes in the text that I assume she created in an impromptu fashion. I'll be trying one of these recipes this week - Chicken with chickpeas, tomatoes, garlic, and thyme. Care to join me for dinner?

What I do find rather tedious is the descriptions of the towns and Etruscan historical sites that Mayes gives. If she had tried to edit herself more I believe she would have done this spectacular region more justice.

Suprise suprise...

No cease fire today.

Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity.

Lance Bass is gay.

I'm not more imaginative today.

I'm a humanist

So I found this quiz that apparently assesses which faith (or lack thereof) you jive most with. For my part, I'd say the results are pretty accurate. I've never considered myself spiritual, but not quite atheist either. I always thought I was agnostic. But I like this better, I think. There's a link to the quiz below. Check it out and share your faith with me in the comments!

You fit in with: Humanism Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations. 0% scientific. 60% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

What did he think he could get away with

It just blows my mind that Richard Hatch is being sent to prison for tax evasion. You remember him - the winner of the first Survivor? He didn't pay taxes on his million bucks. Did he really think nobody would notice? Now he's sentenced to over 4 years in prison. Stupid fuck.

Entourage just cracks me up. A friend of a friend calls it Sex and the City for guys. I think that's a great analogy. Wonder if they're gonna try and keep pushing Eric's threesome plot. Personally, I think he should stick with Sloan. A little munchkin like him needs a petite gal like her, not an Amazonian hottie like Tory (and like myself, I might add :-).

No wonder

I see this photograph and it leaves little doubt as to how the spousal unit ended up the way he is...

The gathering storm

I'm seeing headlines today that a cease-fire could happen between Hezbollah and Israel if the kidnapped Israeli soldiers are returned unharmed. I really hope that happens. This whole turn of events does not bode well if it cannot be resolved quickly.

Of course, President Bush thinks that Israel needs to just get Syria to make Hezbollah stop doing this shit. Sure. Israel and Syria have a terrific rapport.

Sorry. The spousal unit often criticizes my use of sarcasm as "the lowest form of wit". My bad.

Watched Munich on Friday night with the spousal unit and a friend. It felt especially significant given what was going on in Lebanon that very day. I really admire the message of that film. An eye for an eye truly does leave the world blind. Somebody just has to have the courage to refrain from retaliation. That's the difficult part.

Yowch! But boy can he sing....

How many Italian men do you think are happy this doesn't happen anymore?

As big as we're growing the women these days, seems like the procudure may be rendered obsolete even if it weren't horribly cruel.

I do!

The 5 year anniversary of my marriage to the spousal unit is quickly approaching. We've had a rough couple of years - gone through some hard times and losses of close family members. Well, it's finally started to feel like I'm getting the marriage I wanted back. And I'd suspected the spousal unit felt the same way. Well, to my delight those suspicions were confirmed yesterday. We were talking about getting away somewhere for that weekend to celebrate. The spousal unit suggested Vegas, to which I was not overly enthusiastic since we will be there for a Halloween wedding as well. He came back to Vegas though, and said he'd like it if it could be just the two of us there because....Will you marry me?

Yippee! Yesiree, spousal unit. I would marry you again a hundred times.

So I think the plan is to write some personal vows and exchange them with each other at some special place that anniversary weekend. Some folks seem to think a ceremony would be a good idea. But I'm not having another unless I can wear this dress.

New Kermonikers

My brain works in goofy ways, truly. It seems to always be churning in the background, trying to make new nicknames for the kerpupples out of words that I hear.

For example, while on vacation recently in Mexico the television was turned to a Stargate rerun (I think the dialog was still in English, with subtitles en espanol). From a reference to Anubis, I came up with the jewels Aroobis and Apoobis. And collectively, they can be called the Atwobis! Now, these are actually pretty clever given Anubis' jackal head. I think they'll stick.

Last night, the spousal unit and I finally got around to watching Hotel Rwanda. We've had it in stock from Netflix since December or so, but have held back I think due to the extremely depressing subject matter. The issues in Rwanda were between the Tutsi, a lighter-skinned, more caucasian-looking group of Rwandans, and the Hutu, whose appearance was more classically African (the darker ones were actually killing the lighter ones in this scenario). Working as it does, my brain associated the black dog Ripley, aka Poo, with the Hutu, and came up with Pootu. Likewise, blonde Roscoe became Rootsi. The spousal unit quickly convinced me that transforming this horrible genocidal blight in history into cute puppy names is, er, somewhat insensitive. He's right, and these names won't be sticking. But I still just have to marvel at the way my brain works. An odd duck am I.

Yo Franco

My friend Sean was supposed to have a look-see at my blog. Give me a shout out in the comments if you've been here, buddy.

All these nasty (well, in one case, allegedly nasty) folks keep dying. Al-Zarqawi. Patsy Ramsey. Ken Lay. Who's next? My money's on this guy.