Passive-Aggressive Maps

My upstairs neighbors helpfully left me a map of where I should park my car when it snows, or when it isn't snowy. They also printed a huge sign that said "DO NOT BLOCK DOOR" (My car was not, in fact, blocking the door), put it in a sheet protector, and taped it to the door. Then tried to pass it all off on the landlord (it wasn't-among other things, the landlord knows that there are supposed to be six parking spaces, not five).

My neighbors are assholes.

Birthday Weekend

I turned the big 2-8 on sunday, and had a wonderful weekend celebrating the oncoming rush of middle age. I usually do pretty low-key birthdays, and expected it to be more low-key than usual as I am in a new city and can count the number of people I know on two hands. But it was lovely, My lab surprised me on friday with ice cream cake at lab meeting, and some of us went out after work. On Sunday, I went to see The King's Speech and to dinner with a few people, and talked on the phone until I was hoarse.

In the meantime, I filled the weekend with the things I like to do-cooking, of course, reading, and curling up with the simple cat and the helper cat for some quality time

When I cook, I like trying things I've never done before, so this week I tackled two: ricotta cheese and croissants. The cheese was very simple, and way better than store bought. I used it to make lasagna for dinner:

Croissants were harder and very time consuming, but not as bad as I expected them to be. They turned out great, delicious and buttery. And now I have 6 regular croissants and 15 pains au chocolate (pains aux chocolate? I don't remember french grammar) wrapped in foil in the freezer to be toasted on those mornings when I need a treat just for getting out of bed! Happy birthday to me indeed

100 books in 2011

As a goal for 2011, I want to read 100 books. This should not be very hard for me, as I read pretty fast. So to make it more of a challenge I am not counting books I have read before (unless they are for PSBC, as we read deeply and in depth) or books written for teenagers.

My progress so far, with my notes:

1. The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova.
2.Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood. This one is so, so, so good. The Sequel/companion to Oryx and Crake, which I read in December. Margaret Atwood is maybe my favorite author.
3. Faithful Place, Tana French. Sort of sequel to The Likeness and In The Woods, which were beautifully written but bleak as hell. This one is cheerier (although still dark) and a better story, with the same lovely words.
4. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read them, Elif Batuman. Funny! Not sure how enjoyable it would be to someone who doesn't read russian books, but I loved it.
5. Purgatorio, Dante Alighieri. I read half of this in december, but it was hard so it counts.
6. The Scarpetta Factor, Patricia Cornwell.
7. Bite Me, Christopher Moore. Also very funny.
8. Devil in the White CityEric Larson.