all that's past is prologue...

London, by Beatrix:

I was excited to read The London Cookbook for two reasons: 1)  It prepared me for our Thanksgiving week trip to London, and all the top restaurants I should have on my radar, and; 2)  I could cook all the delicious foods when I got back! This is a heavy, thick book full of wonderful looking recipes and beautiful photos (plus some fun line drawings). London's food has really developed some diversity and high standards, and (even with not going to many of the high end places), I would say we ate better in London than we actually did in Paris. Back to the book, though. It's well developed, with chapters on light fare, soups, pastas, vegetarian, seafood, fowl, and meat. TWO chapters on desserts (chilled and regular), and cocktails — I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time at the back of the book... This book is written with a great deal of love and affection for London, and that's exactly what I'm in the mood for right now. It's a beautiful tribut...

2016 has been a hard year, a year that's knocked us down in so many different ways, starting with the death of David Bowie. So when I knew I might need a little therapeutic coloring, I picked up the "David Bowie Retrospective and Coloring Book." It's a little different than other adult coloring books I have worked on. Its small, square shape fits easily into a bag. The pictures are less about detailed pattern arrangement, and more about a specific look or costume. Each page has a facing page of big bubble lettering with a fact about Bowie or incident in his life. Though the costumes are effectively done, the illustrator has a hard time with his face — Bowie ends up looking more like a character in Jem and the Holograms than Ziggy Stardust — but to be fair, his very uniqueness makes him pretty hard to represent. (as usual, book provided free from  Blogging for Books  in exchange for an unbiased review)

Ok, I love arts and culture, but sometimes I am slow to come to an appreciation of other events. Case in point — I hated the Apex Fun Run when Beatrix's school started doing it. I didn't see the point, I didn't like the kids getting all worked up to get prizes, I worry about high overhead for fundraising activities, I was not crazy about school fundraisers in general — I only saw the "run," and not the fun. I was categorically wrong. Over the past 3 years, I have really come to see the value and come to appreciate Apex as an organization. Each year, they provide a leadership curriculum where they spend just a few minutes in the classroom each day with the leadership goals. They kids love it and respond to "Jazzy Jeff" and the other staff that come to their classrooms. The organization puts all this together with minimal parent involvement (well, except in the case of my awesome friend Peg who has been chairing the event and really knocking herself ou...