The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

I finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. It was a trial to say the least. When I first saw this book at the local Barnes and Noble, I was instantly drawn to the cover and title.

As is pretty evident by my other blog posts, I love food. I love cooking, I love baking, I love eating, and I love reading about any of those things. I still hold Julie & Julia high in my list of favorite books and movies. So when I first saw this book and read the brief blurb on the back, I thought the book would be entrenched in delicious descriptions of food.

It wasn't.



I was really expecting something more lighthearted and appetite inducing, but instead, what i got was something confusing, and depressing. I have to be careful as to what I read and watch. I get extremely invested in stories, to the point where I have to fight off tears in movie previews and even commercials for banks. It's really quite ridiculous. Subsequently, I've learned to steer clear of the notoriously sad books. While it's great to have a good cry, and one of my favorite ways of inducing such a thing is through the media of books and movies, I still need that happy ending to put be back to right.

This book, it really didn't have it. The characters were incredibly static throughout the novel. In fact, the only person who seemed to change was the main character, and she only changed marginally. I was constantly looking forward to her own story lines, the ones involving her brother and her mother were frustrating at best. Her father was so absent until the end that he didn't even register. But because the mother and brother figure never grew and developed, and had the same problems throughout the entire novel, they were really quite boring.

In short, this books was a disappointment, mostly because I didn't know enough about the book beforehand. If I had gone in, expecting a depressing and meaningful book, I would have been a lot happier with it. Instead, the lack of frivolity just frustrated me. In the end, I'm glad I just checked this out from the library, rather than investing any actual money. I'm sure the book would be more appealing to someone who can handle the seriousness of the novel as a whole, unfortunately, that person just isn't me.

(1/5 stars)

Delay

This entry regarding Make Something Monday has been hereby postponed in favor of an urgent matter.

Namely, my schedule of doom for tomorrow. I tried to write it out, in attempts to make myself feel better. While I am a bit more amused, I'm absolutely terrified about tomorrow. (I'm moving at 6AM Wednesday moving. Predictably, I'm so not ready).

The schedule:

0800-0830 Tear self from bed. Shower. Attempt to not look like a sleep deprived zombie.
0830-0900 Eat breakfast for fear of turning into a ravaging monster. Resist the urge to bake muffins and pancakes to avoid the certain doom
0900-1000 CLEAN ALL THE THINGS from the last minute baking of the evening before.
1000-1130 Pack. Yuck.
1130-1430 Run in terror of the packing, straight to the arms of an LYS. Squish more yarn.
1430-1500 Pick up prescription on the way home
1500-1520 Scarf down lunch. Most likely leftovers and a smoothie, since our fridge is exploding.
1520-1700 Go the the eye doctor. Enjoy the brief moments of relaxation via knitting in the waiting room. Resist the urge to buy neon square framed glasses.
1700-1900 Pack more. Procrastinate slightly by eating a light snack since dinner will be late.
1900-2000 Fall into a pit of despair about the state of packing. Go across the street and mush the kittens there and try to sneak one home.
2000-2130 Make dinner. Crash hot potatoes + something. Do potatoes really need a side dish?
2130-2230 Last ditch efforts to squeeze things in boxes while my father shoves them in our cars.
2230-2330 Give up. Get ready for bed/doom. Sync up my iPod for the trip and try, most likely unsuccessfully to sleep.



This is the aforementioned kitchen.

My To Pack list is ridiculous. I'm so doomed.

Not my original intent.

First off, let me preface this by saying I'm really proud of myself for the continuous posting. That being said, today almost didn't happen because I'm a bonehead.

I originally intended to introduce the theme for Sundays: Start Something Sundays, except for one major problem. I didn't take any photos of anything I started. I strive to provide as many pictures as possible on this blog because that is what I really enjoy seeing on other blogs. Clearly, I'm really shallow. So when I don't take photos, I don't post.

Which quickly because an excuse until I don't post for several months. Uh. Yeah, not good.

So, I'm going to distract from the fact that I don't really have a relevant photo by including a picture of a really handsome cat:

Root Beer Floats

You know what? You know what day it is? And you know what I have photos of?

Nyan nyan nyan

Guess what day it is?

It's Friday! And that means a new theme!

Audio what?

I've got another theme to announce! This time not only am I announcing it the day of, but I also actually have something to write about. So, without further ado...

Monday Monday

What?

Wait, what that?

Oh really, another announcement?! I can't believe it.

If you could imagine a drum roll, that would be great right now.



It's another day in my day of the week planner thing! I love it. I already have my first photos lined up. I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but I will say it involves this girl:



That, and it was delicious. I'm not going to have an event every day of the week, that would be insane, right? Instead, I'm shooting for every day but Tuesday. Why not Tuesday? Because twice a month it's knit night, plus I couldn't think of anything for it. So far you've seen Saturday and Monday, and I gave a hint about another day. I don't want to follow these themes every day, but I figured it would be fun to do when I have the ideas. Plus, it would be a fun way to motivate myself to keep up the creativity.

On another note, guess what I'm still knitting!

If you guessed my shawl-of-death-and-destruction, you were right. Sigh. I'm seriously testing my limits when it comes to resisting startitis.

Announcing a Thing

I'm announcing a new thing.

Yes, a thing. I know, it's so descriptive, but, what else am I going to call it? Anyways, I've always been intrigued by those day of the week tasks. I think it hearkens back to when I used to read Little House on the Prairie and they had washing on Monday, mending on Tuesday, etc. Then it progressed to Finished Objects Friday and WIP Wednesday. I'm just scheduling obsessed. Not that I follow schedules, mind you, but whatever. At any rate, here's the thing:



Okay, I know this is Sunday, but a photo just wasn't going to happen yesterday- I was way too exhausted from standing on my feet for virtually two days straight. Why? Because I was baking these:



Plus about ten million more. You don't even want to know... But you definitely do want to taste!

Falling Leaves Bag

This was my main source of relief from The-Shawl-That-Never-Ends while on vacation. Really, it wasn't that much relief- it was equally boring.

After sampling three different types of market/beach bags, I've come to the conclusion that really, they're all really the same.



The worst part is that I don't actually *use* them. My mom barely uses the one I gifted to her, and my sister took off with the yellow one I made for myself. I'm thinking I'll probably make a few more- not with the pattern for this particular bag, but rather, another everlasting bagstopper. I like the square bottom considerably more.

In other news, I went on a cupcake binge today. Not eating, thankfully (though I did gorge on frosting), but baking. My parents are having their last volleyball that I'll be able to attend this summer, and I wanted to go out with a bang.

That, and I was excited about my recipes. When my mother came home and saw the damage (four different types), she banned me from the kitchen. I'll probably sneak in and make some lemon cookies despite the ban.

I also made a ridiculously delicious dinner on Wednesday. I think I'll probably cook it again some time this week and take a few photos. I need to stop cooking without my camera. Or start leaving my camera in the kitchen. Either way, at least I get fed (too well, unfortunately, by the looks of some of those vacation photos- back to the gym for me...)

We're back!

We're back! And I feel utterly hideous after seeing some of the photos of me in a bathing suit. It's amazing how confident you can feel until you see photographic evidence of weight gain. (Thankfully, it apparently my weight seems to like to hide under clothes)

Ugh. It probably doesn't help my mood that I've been working on the same darn shawl for like a month. I want to be done!