Books, baking, and BMWs
Jun. 15th, 2008 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheWell, only one BMW.
So I brought the children to the library on Thursday morning at 9:10 and got lots of books, and on Saturday we went to the library book sale and got even more books, mainly biographies and memoirs for the adults. I like a good biog. I seem to be having trouble identifying easy-reading light romance. I want Georgette Heyer style - funny, predictable, as little sex and violence as possible, with lovely characters. I'm afraid there is an actual (though varying) limit on how often one can read Cotillion, and my copies of Arabella and The Grand Sophy are missing in action.
On Friday I discovered that it was a friend's 10th birthday with about an hour to spare before setting out to meet up with them, so I baked some cupcakes in flat-bottomed ice-cream cones and baked them; I fed my own children lunch while they were in the oven, and the cupcakes cooled in the trike en route. I didn't have time to ice them like icecream so I put hundreds and thousands on them before baking. They were fairly successful and I'll do them again in a more leisurely fashion.
Today I baked a 2lb white-and-rye loaf and Rob and I baked a cake together, for James' visit, and since it's James' birthday tomorrow we put all the candles we could find on it, too. Rob took a photo and may put it in his own LJ later; we didn't have enough candleholders so some of the candles were bundled together and the flame was fairly impressive. Clearly I need to buy more holders - and more candles - for future birthdays.
James has a new-second-hand BMW which I admired in my usual amused cross-cultural-divide way. I really do love seeing people with very focussed enthusiasms (geeks!) and it warms the cockles of my barnacled little heart when people clearly love stuff they do, and do stuff they love, but with cars I am utterly, utterly lost. This car, however, has a feature which endears it to me: the engine stops when the car is stopped, and starts again when the car starts. So there's no sitting at traffic lights chugging out exhaust fumes. This seems to be so eminently sensible and desirable, for environmentalists and petrol-buyers alike, that I cannot imagine why everyone doesn't do it already. (I also told him about how Adrian Windisch (that's Adrian-the-Green-Party-guy, not to be confused with Adrian-the-bike-guy or Adrian-the-drummer-hat-guy or Adrian-the-ex-guy or any other Adrians you may or may not know or have known now or at any time in the past) converted his car to run on used veg oil).
So I brought the children to the library on Thursday morning at 9:10 and got lots of books, and on Saturday we went to the library book sale and got even more books, mainly biographies and memoirs for the adults. I like a good biog. I seem to be having trouble identifying easy-reading light romance. I want Georgette Heyer style - funny, predictable, as little sex and violence as possible, with lovely characters. I'm afraid there is an actual (though varying) limit on how often one can read Cotillion, and my copies of Arabella and The Grand Sophy are missing in action.
On Friday I discovered that it was a friend's 10th birthday with about an hour to spare before setting out to meet up with them, so I baked some cupcakes in flat-bottomed ice-cream cones and baked them; I fed my own children lunch while they were in the oven, and the cupcakes cooled in the trike en route. I didn't have time to ice them like icecream so I put hundreds and thousands on them before baking. They were fairly successful and I'll do them again in a more leisurely fashion.
Today I baked a 2lb white-and-rye loaf and Rob and I baked a cake together, for James' visit, and since it's James' birthday tomorrow we put all the candles we could find on it, too. Rob took a photo and may put it in his own LJ later; we didn't have enough candleholders so some of the candles were bundled together and the flame was fairly impressive. Clearly I need to buy more holders - and more candles - for future birthdays.
James has a new-second-hand BMW which I admired in my usual amused cross-cultural-divide way. I really do love seeing people with very focussed enthusiasms (geeks!) and it warms the cockles of my barnacled little heart when people clearly love stuff they do, and do stuff they love, but with cars I am utterly, utterly lost. This car, however, has a feature which endears it to me: the engine stops when the car is stopped, and starts again when the car starts. So there's no sitting at traffic lights chugging out exhaust fumes. This seems to be so eminently sensible and desirable, for environmentalists and petrol-buyers alike, that I cannot imagine why everyone doesn't do it already. (I also told him about how Adrian Windisch (that's Adrian-the-Green-Party-guy, not to be confused with Adrian-the-bike-guy or Adrian-the-drummer-hat-guy or Adrian-the-ex-guy or any other Adrians you may or may not know or have known now or at any time in the past) converted his car to run on used veg oil).
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Light romance
Date: 2008-06-15 07:03 pm (UTC)There's Jenny Crusie, though she has lots of sex. I had a bit of a binge on Rachel Gibson recently thanks to freecycle, but again, lots of sex.
Ellis Peters? I know they're marketed as mystery, but there's always gentle romance in there too, and not too much horror about the various murders.
Re: Light romance
Date: 2008-06-16 09:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-06-15 10:26 pm (UTC)Because it's hard on the battery. Each start depletes the battery charge enough to require 10 - 15 minutes' steady driving to recharge it to its previous level. Great for long country drives, not so great for city commutes.
Alternatives to Heyer
Date: 2008-06-17 03:34 pm (UTC)I've really enjoyed the books of Marian Keyes and Erica James; some of the better quality 'chick lit' .