saw the first osprey of the 2010 season!

this morning i went to the gym and had quite a workout and after that, i decided to go for a drive around the area where i live. i was hoping to see an osprey. i went to the nest that i always saw a few of ospreys on it last summer. i stopped to take a look at the nest and unfortunately it was empty. but i told myself that it might be a little too early and they will come very soon. then i drove like 20 feet or so and on the other side of the road, there it was...sitting on the utility pole! i was so thrilled so i pulled over again and stared at it for a long time, ha ha! i took a picture of it with my blackberry. of course the picture quality stinks but hey, it's better than nothing.

osprey!!

oh my gosh! i just found out that blackwater national wildlife refuge in cambrdige, maryland had their first osprey sighting of the 2010 season today at 5:05 pm! yay! so that means ospreys are starting to come here. i looked for them this morning on the way to work and this evening on the way to home but nothing. last summer there were 3 ospreys nests on route 50. i saw the ospreys almost everyday last summer and i really enjoyed looking at them. the nests are still there so hopefully all of them will be in use again!

gotta love the dark mask across the eyes!

check out the osprey cam if you're interested!

"my life in france"

hi all!

i finished reading "time was soft there" last sunday night and that was an awesome book! i really enjoyed reading about the author's experience working at shakespeare & comapny. when i went to this bookstore last fall, i had no idea that it was like until the author talked about it. i must have overlooked several things and one of them was the folding beds. there were authors, poets, etc. that stayed there for a limited time because they could not afford a place in paris. they needed a place to write and it was the perfect place!

anyway, for my next reading, i had several titles that i wanted to read but wasn't sure which one to choose from. hmm? until holly mentioned that she just bought "my life in france" by julia child and i thought it was the perfect choice for me so she and i could talk about it!! thanks holly! :) i just downloaded the book to my kindle last night. i started reading it last night at starbucks while enjoying my chai tea latte and it made me miss paris so much! i was able to recognize some places because i had visited them. the way julia described the french food at the restaurants she and her husband, paul went, it made me so hungry while reading! i just finished chapter one last night and am very excited to read chapter two, hopefully tonight if i'm awake enough, lol! one of the neat features with kindle is you can highlight a word or a sentence or even a paragraph. with chapter one, i already highlighted 14 different items because it was for the two reasons: my favorite parts of the book and i wanted to check them out online. one of my favorite parts is:

As we sat down, i heard two businessmen in gray suits at the next table asking questions of their waiter, an older, dignified man who gesticulated with a menu and answered them at length.

"what are they talking about?" I whispered to Paul.

"The waiter is telling them about chicken they ordered," he whispered back. "How it was raised, how it will be cooked, what side dishes they can have with it, and which wines would go with it best."

"Wine?" I said. "At lunch?"

oh my!! i laughed at this part! but this was when they were in paris in 1948 so i guess not a lot of people knew this about french people? anyway, that's it for now-bon appetit!*

*at the end of the introduction part of her book, julia child said this so i'm doing the same thing, heh!

my first dutch oven! & julia child cookbook

i had been wanting a le creuset dutch oven for a while now. when i saw "julie & julia" i was tempted to get one so i checked around for the best price. i'm sure you know that they're expensive! anyway, i found out that williams-sonoma was selling a 3.5-quart oval dutch oven for $129.95! a saving of $125! i thought about getting one right away but for some reason this idea was put on the back burner.

when i went to whole foods last thursday to do some grocery shopping, my meat guy (heh! he knows me and my husband) suggested that i sample the corned beef that they had cooked for the customers. i tasted it and, wow, it was very delicious! i asked him several questions about it and ended up buying a package of corned beef. the recipe stated to cook it in a large heavy pot or a dutch oven. i knew it was the right time to get a dutch oven. i was really hoping that williams-sonoma still had the special on a le creuset dutch oven. good enough they were! peter and i went to the store yesterday and bought a red one! i have always wanted a red one. a very traditional color, you know? i'm very excited to use the new dutch oven tomorrow when i cook the corned beef for dinner!



after i saw the movie, "julie & julia", i went out and bought julia child's cookbook, "mastering the art of french cooking". it's an incredible cookbook and there are plenty of recipes that require a lot of butter, yum!!!

the recipes in this cookbook were used in the movie, "julie & julia". there was this recipe that julie made and i'd love to do it soon now that i have the dutch oven, yay!! the recipe i'm talking about is boeuf bourguignon! a beef stew in red wine with bacon, onions and mushrooms. it's going to be a great learning experience so we'll see what happens!

notice the name, simone beck? i wonder if i'm related to her in any way? that would have been so cool, ha ha!

spring's definitely around the corner and cats!

can you see the green grass growing?!?

love this picture--the leaves are green and dead
stalks are tan, good contrast!

enjoying the warmth of the sun!

it's too frickin' bright!

practicing his pose for the playcat magaine, heh.
i'm mean, i know, but you have to admit that it's funny!

awesome movie!!! the holiday

before we watched "the da vinci code" on the dvd, we saw the preview of "the holiday". i was puzzled as to why i never saw it because i really wanted to see it. it wasn't captioned but i could tell that i would love this movie. immediately i added it to the netflix queue and it arrived on wednesday. my thoughtful husband said we could watch it that night.

i'm a sucker for romantic films!! and i don't write a summery of a movie or book very well so i have copied and pasted the plot from www.imdb.com. the red words are my comments.

Two beautiful women, Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) and Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) both find themselves at the end of failed relationships just before Christmas. Amanda decides to take a two week vacation and surfs the internet. She meets Iris online, and they agree to swap their homes for the holidays. swap homes, what a fantastic idea!! only if my house is on the water then i'd be traveling all the times. Amanda lives in Los Angeles and Iris lives in the countryside of Surrey, England. wow, what a gorgeous cottage!! i'd LOVEEEE to stay there but unfortunately it's not real. :( Even though they now have a change of scenery and want no contact with men, they are both still depressed and lonely. But things are about to change when Iris' brother Graham (Jude Law-sigh...drop dead handsome!!) drops by Iris' house and meets Amanda. On the other side of the world, Iris meets Miles (Jack Black-a funny guy!! loved the part of him in the videostore--don't want to ruin by saying what he did) a film composer. Romance is in the air and sparks are about to fly.

i so love this movie! my heart melted when amanda discovered something about graham that he didn't share with her on their first few dates. he had a good reason why and it was one of my favorite parts! i still have the movie and didn't want to mail it in case i want to see it again. i definitely will buy the dvd and add it to the collection of my favorite movies.