White Pizza
Pizza dough
12 ounces ricotta cheese
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
parsley flakes
oregano
2 cups spinach leaf, whole
(more…)

NPR is asking for the best YA books.

Unfortunately, you can only list five (but they can be a series). My five:
The Thief of Eddis series (starts with The Thief) by Megan Whalen Turner
Runaways by Brian K Vaughan (not as much the rest of the series)
Sabriel, Liriel and Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio
A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Others:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Discworld – Tiffany Aching by Terry Pratchett
A Matter of Magic by Patricia Wrede

Obvious (which I loved):
Harry Potter
Hunger Games
The Hobbit

What I’ve read recently (need more time to judge as to best):
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep
Shadow Falls series by CC Hunter
Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

This article from Wired gets to the heart of the problem I tend to have with Macs (as well as with tablet PCs in general)–they’re not easily repairable.

The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable.

I’ll admit, that I went through personal laptops at a pretty fast rate for the past couple years, primarily because I couldn’t find one that I liked. But when I upgraded, I gave my old laptops to people who could use them, so I wasn’t trashing them.

And I tend to run my desktops forever–I had one desktop that eventually had every single part replaced (some parts more than once), one part at a time; I had that computer forever. My current desktop is two years old, and still works fabulously. I’ve added more memory and another hard drive (because photo processing eats memory and hard drive space), and added Michael’s monitor after he gave up his desktop. And aside from trying to set up local networking with Windows 7 Home edition (gag) I haven’t had any issues at all.

Now I know that most people are not capable of upgrading their computers on their own. But there are tons and tons of place that will help you. And even if you have a laptop, you don’t need to be any kind of expert to replace your battery. And adding memory is doable project for all but the most timid. But you can’t do those things yourself on a Mac.

But I think I’m more disturbed by the throw-away nature of Macs. These paragraphs from the article really got to me:

When we choose a short-lived laptop over a more robust model that’s a quarter of an inch thicker, what does that say about our values?

Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last.

Why is this important? Because throwing away electronics leeches poisons into the soil and water, but in many cases, recycling is no less evil. (If you do nothing else, click on those links and just look at the pictures.)

We had a nice hike around the WV Botanic Garden.

Hey NATHAN! I had a BUNNY in my yard!

Flowers at both the WV Botanic Garden and my house.

Day lilies at my house:

WV Botanic Garden

After a large amount of badgering by me, Michael went to the doctor today for a preventive-type check-up, and to ask for a referral for a dermatologist. (He burns easily, but spent his childhood out in the sun.)

I was feeling slightly guilty about it, which then started a cycle of recrimination, that wandered off into the things he likes to do that he doesn’t do because I’ve not been in a mental state to do so.

Then I realized, “Hey, he can go to the movies BY HIMSELF. He just chooses NOT to!” Which dovetailed in with the whole doctor’s appointment thing and then it suddenly became clear! INERTIA! Objects at rest tend to stay at rest! That describes Michael perfectly! He’s simply an object at rest!

As for me? Inertia there too: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

We perfectly offset each other!

This weeks starter word is: berries

No pictures, but I have forced myself to actually cook two Mondays in a row (last week was penne alla vodka). At some point a couple years ago, in the midst of one of my (ongoing?) bouts of depression, I lost all interest in cooking. I could manage baking, mostly, but cooking? Not so much. So we’ve been going out to eat or living on prepared foods Michael could easily make.

But I want to start cooking again, so this is a small start.

Dinner was squash and spinach over spinach linguini, and dessert was cannoli cream with fresh strawberries.

Squash and Spinach Pasta

1/4 cup onion, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon regular olive oil or canola oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced fine
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon peppercorn, ground
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley, freeze-dried
1/2 medium zucchini squash, chopped
1/2 medium yellow squash, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
2 cups spinach leaf
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the past water.

Do all your mis en place, and press the garlic into the tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add table spoon oil, then saute onions. Add garlic and spices and saute briefly. Add in squash and ignore for several minutes while squash sears/cooks.

Start pasta (assuming ~12 minute cooking time).

When squash looks about halfway cooked, add tomato.

As tomato cooks, add more spices as desired. Carefully pour white wine (it may have been closer to half a cup) into pan, and carefully stir. Right before pasta is finished, add fresh spinach.

Serve over pasta with Parmesan cheese.

~450 calories including pasta and cheese.

Cannoli Cream with Fresh Fruit
15 ounces ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons whipping cream or milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
(1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest)

Put everything into the food processor.

Process until smooth.

Refrigerate for at least an hour. Serve over fresh fruit.

1/4 cup cream is 140 calories.

Lousy sense of self-preservation:

Michelle: My ankle kinda hurts when I run up the stairs.
Michael: So, don’t run up the stairs.
Michelle: You only THINK you’re helpful.

Saturday we drove to Audra State Park. I asked Michael if there was anywhere he wanted to go, so he grabbed the WV guide books and found Audra State Park.

The drive was lovely, and the park itself was a pleasant surprise.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I don’t like taking picture of people I don’t know. (Hell, I generally don’t like taking pictures of people I DO know.) The reason there are so few pictures of the river is because it was FULL of people, hanging out and enjoying the cool water and lying on the rocks sunbathing.