Food and literature, can you go wrong?

Yes, of course you can wrong.  Just not in this case.

What a great book.  I was NOT expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did.  What a great read.  It will be interesting to see what they do with this one as a movie.. this makes a few that we have read pale in comparison.

This is a great story about a passion for cooking, for food, and how a young Indian boy comes a great Parisian chef.  Totally unexpected, well written, and a pleasure to read.

Food, and our stories, are such an important part of our lives.  How we cook, the meals we share, is so important.  Equally important is how we craft our own story, how we internalize it, and then retell it to our kin.  Using revisionist history, it has been a month since I read this book (and a lot of experiences it has felt like) and what I remember most is the feeling about this book - well written, very interesting, and I never lost my interest.

Went by so fast, what did I read again?

I will easily admit this - I am a fan.  I think reading this meant more since I read Chris Hatfield's book earlier this year.  This is a book about the Canadian and American space agencies working together to help increase their public awareness.  The lead characters of this book are working to move the percentage of folks that would rather go for "lunch" than watch a "launch".  You can't help but reflect about what Hatfield was able to do for space exploration with just how he was on the space station.  I think it has been since 1986 since I cared that much about what was happening (or for that matter KNEW) about CSA/NASA.

Fallis' humour is refreshing.  I really enjoy his books. I will read them as they are published and I know he will be attending one of my favourite writer's festivals this summer.  Who knows, maybe I will get on a ferry and just go for a day trip.  Crazier things have been known to happen.  It is also a week night.  As above, crazy things have been known to happen.  Hmm. Maybe I will get lucky and my Aunt will still be living on the coast…

Forty one and a day.

Maybe not quite completely accurate in terms, but this sums up the spirit of the moment.  I really want to just throw down some thoughts since it is around my birthday.  I find that one of the best parts of having had this blog for as long as I have, there is a lot of history embedded here.  Even if I have just alluded to certain events, left some out, concentrated on the books I have been reading lately, there is still a bit of my story within these pages.  Together, they amount to quite a bit.

I am enjoying my 41st way more than my 40th.  If 31 was anticlimactic and my 30th a lot of fun, it was the opposite this time around.  Last year felt so chaotic, this year feels so much more settled, or I am must less chaotic.  Almost.  I am in a better place at work. Or I am making it a better place.  I have been promoted (in a way, I will believe it truly once the job reclassification has gone through).  I am more confident than I was a year ago in my role.  I have almost completed my Child Care Society Board commitment.  A few more months, and we are good.  Our kids will be going to new elementary schools and daycares in the fall, and I think it is the best thing for them.  We don't have a lot of plans for the summer, but we do have some time off.  I am hoping that next year will have much more camping, and much more excursions, and this year to really be the one everything comes together.  We really didn't plan a lot in terms of trips since we really needed to figure out the kids, and what was happening in the fall.

We finally painted our family room, and got the fireplace fixed.  We may even get a fence put up this summer.  I  haven't been for a run for about 3 weeks, and it is bothering me a bit, but it has been a semester start up, we have been short staffed (of course), and there has been karate and baseball and work and birthdays and family events.  Oh my!

What do I hope for in the next year?  To get some kind of physical activity most days of the week. I would like to start up my jogging again and do at least another 5km run (read jog).

I really want to try stand up paddle boarding.

I want the kids to settle in and really enjoy their new settings.

I want to get out camping, continue to read good books, continue to knit, continue to encourage my kids to be active and enjoy reading as well.  I want to get Connor swimming and skating.  I want Brandon to continue with the sports he is enjoying.

I want to feel more caught up.  After putting everything back after painting our family room.. I realized it has been a year since I last sorted most of our bills.  I would like to be more on top of things - to do something with our photos, to keep on top of a few more things.

I want to see a few new places.

I hope the bulbs and seeds I just planted in our garden grow.  I am so happy we made the changes to the front yard, and for the work done in the backyard.  It feels like I am changing our space and bringing new life to it.  I find it amazing we can cart out a whole container (large one at that) of green waste every single week.

I want Ken and I to continue to get out for some dates.

A year from now, I hope we have gone on a family trip outside of the normal confines of where we have been going.  I hope to be a little fitter.  I hope to just be more excited about Summer and what is next and just to keep on building on what we have.

Forty. And One.

Forty One does not feel or look nearly as ancient as I thought it would more than twenty years ago.

My youngest. Almost five.  The weeks and months and years are flying by.

My oldest, almost eight.  I am speechless, I was I really a newlywed and 7 months pregnant this time 8 years ago?

My family.  I am blessed.

Date night!

Date nights rule.  Especially now that they seem to happen more than once a year.  I would also say, few people can appreciate date night as much as the parents of young children do.

We joined up with another couple and went out for an amazing bistro dinner.  Very small.  Very cool.  Amazing service.  It was called "The Stable House Bistro."  A lovely meal.  We had the table in the window, and everything about the experience was good.

Then we saw Spamalot.  Again.  Funny as hell.  Irreverent.  I love it.

THEN!!! We went to the Drive for coffee.  After circling a few times, we located an italian coffee shop, and talked away more time.  It was awesome.

It was so nice being out at night, without the kids, hearing night sounds, and doing adult things.

So important to try for some kind of balance…

Fair enough, the books were worth some of the hype…

Having finished this book, I am really surprised I waited so long to read the whole series.  Normally I plough my way through series.  I guess you have to be in the mood, and that mood took a few years to strike apparently.

It was a good series.  Definitely entertaining, and I look forward to watching the movies, eventually.  I think I will miss a bit of Katniss' character, she certainly does grow on you.

Catching up with fire…

Why did I wait so long to read you?  I read the first book years ago. I borrowed the series from my niece months ago.  It took me forever looking at you on the shelf before I picked you up. I can be so strange at times.

These are well crafted books.  I enjoyed this one much more than the Giver, if you are going to go in to tween/teen science fiction.. or Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy instead. I enjoyed watching the story arch, and characters evolve after the Hunger Games.