What I'm reading:"Restless" by William Boyd

I just finished rereading this terrific novel – I rushed through it so eagerly the first time (just a couple of months ago) that I wanted to go back and savor some of the nuances I probably missed.

"Restless" is the story of a woman who was recruited to be a British spy during World War II, intertwined with the story of her adult daughter's discovery of that secret past. It's a well-told tale that propels you forward in spite of what would normally (for me) be irritating switching between timelines and narrators. It's also a story that can appeal to readers of varied tastes, men or women. It's got cloak-and-dagger elements, cliff-hanging, sex and sexual tension, psychological conundrums, questions about identity and musings on mortality.

I highly recommend it.

All is revealed

While winter and snow bury many things and send others into hiding or hibernation, they also lay some secrets bare.

Snow fort!

The errors of my ways

It would be nice if life came with the occasional error message or warning.

I would have benefited greatly from a well-timed "Are you sure you want to [insert regrettable action here]? Yes/No"

Hotel hijinks

The Adam's Mark is generally considered upscale. (I've always called it the "squashed Gumby" hotel, after its logo.) Certainly, the mojitos are fine, especially with the backdrop of a snowblower. And fun when one's co-workers are all staying there too.

Ring ring. "Hello?" "Hey Kitt, can you bring your camera up to J's room?" "Um, OK. Why?" "You'll see when you get here. J has a story to tell."

I leave the bar, go up to J's room, where I see a small crowd is gathered. J is being moved to another room. Why? Because J has just spent three hours trapped in the bathroom. She closed the door and it locked her in. She pounded and pounded and tried to get the hinges out and yelled. She could hear a co-worker laughing, oblivious to her plight, in the next room.

It was finally another hotel guest who called the front desk, after standing outside the door and listening for a while.

It took them an hour to free her ... just in time for last call.

Pretty snow

Winter wonderland

As much as a hassle as snowstorms can be, they sure are pretty. Even footprints look all delicate and graceful. That's my Merrill moc on the right. An unknown (tall) stranger's sneaker on the left.

Every dog has her day

First a walk in the snow, then a bone!

Déjà vu

We haven't recovered from the last one yet, but here we go again.

They're saying 10 to 18 inches. I hope they're wrong.

Another view from the night shift

Merry mountains!

What better day to hit the slopes? Easy drive, no traffic, everyone's happy. Moonbeam's Mom and I had a blast. We had to leave early (I had to get back to town for another holiday dinner), but that was good: We're now inspired to get out and ski more, more, more! (Sometimes it's just so hard to get out of bed early for it. But then I'm glad I did.)

Merry Christmas!

A lovely Christmas tree shone upon the stockings hung with care, and upon the most delicious feast of roast beast and bûche de noël.

Happy holidays to one and all!

Hot slaw on a cold day

Hot Indian slaw from Once Upon a Feast, which I found through Kalyn's Kitchen, which I found through all the bloggers taking part in Menu for Hope, which raised money (more than $58,000!) for the World Food Program.

This slaw is pretty tasty. The first batch came out too salty for me, so I made another batch without salt and mixed them together. (I use so little salt in my cooking now that I really notice it.) I used a couple Thai bird chiles, since that's what I had handy. I'm taking it to a potluck Christmas Day after skiing, so I wanted something I could make ahead and serve cold or at room temp.

This my first attempt at fancy close-up food photography. I can see why there's a need for food stylists. It's tricky!

Oh, and guess what? It's snowing again.

No trucks, no produce

An experiment in HTML table-building in Blogger:

Safeway's good for parking during a snowstorm. Not so good for shopping after. The produce manager was unhappy. Apparently a lot of people have been upset at not being able to get Everything They Need Right This Minute.

I was just happy to get something I could fix and take to Christmas dinner. And also milk and eggs. (They were out of pretty much all dairy two days ago.)

Not crumb-y

One thing I love about the Macbook: the integrated keyboard. I feel much less guilty eating cheese and crackers while computing.