Spoony Weather

I waited until June to post just to see if that March Farmer's Almanac blurb about raining in March was correct and it was!!!

In April we had a real live author, Teresa James, come to speak to us about her book (now available on Kindle for $5.99) Below Yudaha.  She was wonderful!  She answered all of our questions about writing and publishing our own books.  She laughed with us, she got deep with us, she talked about the nuances of her book with us.  She stepped right into the meeting as if she belonged there, we were immediately comfortable with her.  And she even signed our books for us!  Teresa is definitely an honorary member of the book club and invited to all future meetings. 

I would love to have more authors come to speak... or... have meetings at readings!  Send me an email as soon as you know of readings that may be of interest to the group.  I am taking my husband to a Neil Gaiman reading for his birthday: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/179279 but if I happen to see you there no harm no foul!  Speaking of...  Anyone read Moneyball by Michael Lewis?  I will do a separate post about it because it is one of my all-time favorite books although it is written around a subject I never felt passionate about, baseball. 

For me, Moneyball illustrates how we, as a human race, may observe something for decades and build theories off those observations but then some nut job comes along and scratches the surface and says "hey, did you know all those theories and observations are wrong?" And we all laugh because, of course, we know better as we have decades of observations and who-is-this-guy-to-tell-us-differently.  But the nut job, being nutty, persists in his argument, eventually wins the attention of a few important people that happen to have some influence and suddenly the whole human race, after being hit over the head by the argument for 20 or so years, realize that the nut job may have a point. 

It's kind of like the 100th monkey effect, although the 100th monkey effect was discredited it has brought forth another valid point that new methods of behavior are learned then passed down to the next generation.  It would take baseball management about 20 years to retire the employees that didn't believe in the new stats and hire guys that were raised on the new stats.  ...  Moneyball is fascinating stuff, honestly.  There is humor and some great storytelling even if you don't like baseball and you try to avoid statistics. 

Our Reliquary Build for May was reduced to a mini-build due to a family emergency and then the mini-build was cancelled due to a supply shortage, it was shortsighted of me to try to quickly schedule the mini-build without my supply cohort, Nicole, so I apologize to all that were looking forward to that meeting.  We hope to reschedule the Reliquary Build for September and will keep you posted on the location.

Our next meeting is at the Vallejo Pirate Festival on June 18th and so far we have a good turnout.  We have a few guys that RSVP'd so it looks like I have to be more mindful of FB's private event setting, especially when we have the events at private locations!   We'll synchronize our phones and figure out a good meeting spot as the date approaches.  Once there we'll be piratin', guzzlin' grog, mindin' our loot and guardin' against them yellow-bellied ninjas... Arrrrr! 

post hashed by Angela

  

A Kiss and a Good Rogering

As it rains in March so it rains in June. ~Farmer’s Almanac

Rain, sleet, fog, apprehension and motion sickness could not keep Book Club’s most dedicated members from attending the meeting this past Saturday night. One member said she was apprehensive about attending because she imagined everyone in their bondage collars, stilettos and flogging accessories and she was uncertain that she wanted to be part of that scene. Imagination aside, we were a pretty tame crowd. While we were waiting for dinner we discovered that only one of us in attendance had heard of the Citadel in SF and she amazed us by sharing her experience with touring a real life dungeon set up for BDSM play.

These steakhouse nachos are not
quite as ugly as the Pub Nachos

Maguire’s was a fun meeting location; small but cozy and warm and not crowded at all. It was one of the only Irish pubs that I’ve been too that offers fish tacos and this weird concoction they call Pub Nachos. The Pub Nacho platter had me pondering the definition of Nacho, which, according to Dictionary.com is “a snack or appetizer consisting of a small piece of tortilla topped with cheese, hot peppers, etc., and broiled.” If you go by that definition then these pub nachos were not nachos at all; they were a sinful dish consisting of a bed of bbq kettle chips, generously drizzled in buffalo sauce, sprinkled with bleu cheese, salted pork and tomato. When the dish arrived at our table it was this terrible looking sea of red and browns, with some bleu cheese muddied in on top for some extra ugliness. However one taste sent the imagination soaring. How can something as ugly and wrong as this dish taste so damn good?

Gloria and I split the Shepherd’s pie which was delicious and made us realize that, unlike pub nachos which cannot be remotely related to nachos, the tater tot casserole is the red-headed step child of the shepherd’s pie. The main differences in the tater tot casserole are tater tots instead of mashed potatoes and processed cheese instead of gravy.

Brunch Recap ~ Spoiler Alert

This brunch opens on the Valley of the Dolls conversation in the car with Jenny informing me of the heartbreaking terms that Anne resolved her life to Lyon. From Jenny, I find out Neely is 10 times worse than Old Ironsides ever was and Jennifer had a heartwrenching love-of-her-life affair that left her decimated. By the time we arrived at Nicole's in Oakland I felt heavy, slowly processing the sad conclusion of the three characters that started out in life so blissfully naive. I also felt that entering Nicole's apartment was like drawing down the closing curtain on the acts performed by the characters in Valley of the Dolls.

Only thing to do now was to indulge in the buffet lovingly laid out by Nicole and better looking than any craft service table I've encountered in my lifetime. As we were enjoying brunch and talking about our experiences with the Dolls I couldn't help but feel that we were understudies attending a wrap party celebrating the end of a month of turbulent performances.



Nicole had two heavy hitting performers in this brunch, The Wifesaver featured here to the right, and the Dolls Cupcakes (above) as a surprise, happy ending to the last act.

The Wifesaver exceeded expectations on several counts: appearance, taste and name. The savory smell of the ingredients baking in the oven greeted us as we arrived, the golden delicious appearance of a perfectly baked breakfast casserole beckoned us to dive in, and the complimenting tastes and textures of the fluffy goodness of the eggy bread kept us going back for another bite! The layer of the salty canadian bacon was wonderful and the clencher was the buttery crunchiness of the toasted cornflakes topping.


The name of the Wifesaver brought much cheerful debate and conversation. Nicole said the casserole is called the Wifesaver because it saves the wife time on otherwise busy mornings. But several of us felt that it's called the Wifesaver because it keeps the husband full, content and happy with his domestic life. Something Anne could never quite accomplish with Lyon, no matter how hard she tried. Oh, if only she had this recipe!

Toward the end of brunch we weren't quite settled on a book, we had a general direction inspired by Spring and all the lusty awakenings that comes with Spring. We left with marching orders to suggest/recommend a topic for March.

Quote of the day in the context of choosing a book for March, "I don't think the topics of sleeping around and being a feminist are such a bad thing." ~ Kim


Cocktail of the month for February
Hibiscus cocktails:
champagne flute
add one hibiscus flower in syrup
pour in champagne
bubbles from champagne will help your flower bloom

Cheers!