From the monthly archives:

February 2012

My sordid past

by Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck
Julie as an extra in "Future Kill"

I’ve been doing a lot of rearranging in my garage these days, and in the process, I came across the picture to the left. That’s me back during my freshman year in college. Lest you jump to the same conclusion as my poor, put upon father, let me explain: I started out as a journalism [...]

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Academy Awards 2012

by Sherri Browning Erwin

Billy Crystal came back to host and give us a presumably good show (mediocre in reality, not bad but not exciting). The Artist won. Jean Dujardin won. Meryl won. Christopher Plummer won. Octavia won. What else do we need to know? Who wore what! Of course. The gowns! The glam! The gah, what was she [...]

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And the Diagram Prize goes to……

by Kathleen O'Reilly

Okay, so, I’m not blogging the Oscars.  I figure that Sherri will give us the fashion deets, and I have to say, I thought the whole slate of nominees was sort of a yawner.  There were no big scandals, no big surprises, no “WTF?” when the nominees were read.  It was all very boring.  So [...]

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Talking flooring…

by Kathleen O'Reilly

I’ve been in Texas for a few days, helping out around the house, doing the chaffeur thing and getting new carpet installed in my parent’s house, and whew, I was sweating the color.  We had ordered the carpet last week, but the sales guy didn’t leave a sample, so the color was only stuck in [...]

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Historical vs. Contemporary: Which is Harder to Write?

by Julia London

I get asked this question all the time:  which is harder to write, historical or contemporary?  People assume the historicals are harder because of “all that research involved.”  Not true.  The historical research I’ve relied on for the last fifteen years has been confined to one twenty year period in British history.  I know exactly [...]

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ADVENTURES IN DINING

by Jacquie D'Alessandro

Over the past two weeks I’ve experienced some very interesting eating adventures.  The first came about when I learned–much to my surprise–that a number of people in my neighborhood enjoy going to lunch at…gas stations.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Gas stations.  I listened in amazement as several folks extolled the wonders of the hot [...]

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Merry Mardi Gras!

by Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck

Even though I worked for years in New Orleans, I never did the Mardi Gras thing. (Fabulous times–I worked for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and would go with the judge I worked for and stay for about a week several times a year.) Why not? Because crowds make me antsy, and Bourbon Street [...]

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Schinken Feckerlin

by Dee Davis
ham noodle

So on Friday I was discussing Heurigers and among other things the great food they serve.  So today, I decided to share another of my Austrian recipes.  This one for Schinken Feckerlin (Ham Noodles).   It’s great for a winter night, served with a salad and crusty bread, and of course some good wine. Schinken Feckerlin [...]

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The Revenge of Lord Eberlin by Julia London(on sale 2/21)

by Julia London
revengesmallest

Who doesn’t like a good revenge story?  Especially when the revenge takes a couple of unexpected turns? At long last, the Revenge of Lord Eberlin, the second book in the Secrets of Hadley Green series (following The Year of Living Scandalously), is available.  Here is a brief description: Returning to Hadley Green after fifteen years, [...]

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A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and…spring cheese!

by Dee Davis
Alt Haus Grinzing (1993)

So, as many of you know, I love wine.  And I also lived in Austria for a time.  Which, and this may come as a surprise to some of you, was the perfect combination.  Girl meets her idea of the perfect way to spend an evening. The heuriger is an institution in certain parts of [...]

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Siri-ously

by Kathleen O'Reilly

Today, I’m bloggin on all things Siri.  It all started with Sirius XM, that happens to be installed on the rental car I’m driving ((I’m in Dallas at the moment).  So, one of the stations is called “Siriously Sinatra” and it’s all Sinatra, all the time.  Dee, I thought of you.  I think Sirius XM [...]

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Uphill Battles

by Julia London
hillrunning

We all face them.  Some people fall down as they are going uphill and never get back up.  Some people surge right to the top as if there was no hill at all.  I root for the  first group to get up and keep going.  The second group just pisses me off with their ability, [...]

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Our Valentine! The Kindle Fire Winner is…

by Sherri Browning Erwin

In honor of Valentine’s Day, and to show our love and appreciation to our readers and commenters, we decided to hold a contest to give a Kindle Fire to one commenter selected at random. And bonus, I made a Super Bowl bet with that tricky Giants fan Kathleen O’Reilly to buy a $10 gift card [...]

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Grammys/Whitney Houston 1963-2012

by Sherri Browning Erwin

I was going to blog about fashion week today, and fashion is fun! But the Grammy awards were last night, and the show sadly had to become a tribute to Whitney Houston, who passed away unexpectedly on Saturday afternoon. I’m writing on Sunday, so my guess is that the big news, besides Whitney, is Adele’s [...]

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Downton Abbey Stars: Then or Now?

by Sherri Browning Erwin

Part of the fun of watching Downton Abbey, if you happen to be hooked like I am, is seeing the glorious Edwardian fashions. I’ve enjoyed the era so much that I’ve been watching other Edwardian pieces, like Room with a View (God, I love that movie! Maggie Smith! Young Helena B-C’s hair! Naked Bathing Scene!). [...]

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I want to be cool, but I’m very afraid

by Dee Davis
PC vs Mac

So when the Mac vs. PC commercials first aired ages ago, I fell in love with Justin Long.  I mean who wouldn’t want to be geeky cool.   But I am a die-hard PC fan, and to be honest, far more resemble Jon Hodgeman’s character.  Stodgy comes to mind.   But I am surrounded by uber cool [...]

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Valentine’s Days Dos and Don’ts — a List of How-To’s for the VD challenged

by Kathleen O'Reilly

As much as I would like to blog about the Superbowl, I feel like I cannot without being a super obnoxious whiner.  And then I thought about blogging about the Superbowl commercials, but I didn’t think they were that awesome (see: favorite Superbowl commercials here and    and this ). So in the spirit of not [...]

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I Give Madonna Props

by Julia London

There are a lot of people talking about Madonna’s half time performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday.  Was it the best show ever?  No.  But I thought it was pretty good as those things go.  Is she the best half-time performer ever?  I don’t think so, but I couldn’t tell you who’s done better.  [...]

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I Need A Magic Mommy Wand

by Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck

I’m annoyed at some neighborhood boys, and at myself for not knowing how to handle the moment in the moment (it’s really too late now and, to be honest, I wasn’t around “in the moment” but heard about it later). But I fear that this won’t be the last time… Sigh. It sucks being Mom [...]

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Skype and Facetime…I just don’t know

by Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck

I have a cool new MacBook Air, and in playing with it, I discovered FaceTime. Okay, full disclosure: actually, it doesn’t work…gripe, gripe…The one thing on my nice little computing device that isn’t functioning as advertised. But I do have it on my phone, and it works fine there. The thing is, I’m not sure [...]

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Very Pinteresting Attire

by Sherri Browning Erwin

Pinterest! Have you heard of it? It’s the new thing. You take things that interest you online and you pin the pictures to boards and basically have a whole bunch of “Boards” (pinboards, bulletin boards, what have you) in different interests, like travel, food and wine, fashion. I have one on Proper Victorian Vampyre Slaying, [...]

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