Yum & Yuk

Loved this: "I've Started Telling My Daughters I'm Beautiful"

I've seen variations on the "run every day" project, but particularly liked this one committing to running every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It can be a stressful time of the year, and a chilly one, so it seems like a good time to push yourself to get moving. Maybe I'll give it a try, as long as I keep it reasonable and only commit to a minimum of a mile every day - doable, right? (Famous last words...)

More from Anne Lamott, I'm looking forward to reading her new book (although I just saw it in the bookstore and it's so short!)

Image: source.

Media intake update: just saw Argo and was really impressed! It didn't look particularly interesting to me beforehand but I heard so many rave reviews that I finally went (with my dad when he was in town this weekend - hi Dad!) and I'm glad I did. It was excellently cast, acted, and paced - and very suspenseful. On the podcast front, I've started listening to Slate's Culture Gabfest (thanks to the insistence of my media-saavy girlfriend), which has quickly joined the ranks of Pop Culture Happy Hour in my "listening to nerds talk about pop culture" line up. Books wise, I'm currently reading The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris, a mystery that was on the "staff recommendations" shelf at my local bookstore. It reminds me of some other first novels by young male mystery writers like Josh Bazell's Beat The Reaper (although The Hollow Man is less gory, so far). It's been pretty immediately engrossing, which is the main thing I ask of a book these days. On tv, we are fully engrossed in Season 2 of Homeland. The SNL spoof wasn't amazing, but if you're even a casual Homeland watcher (is there such a thing??) you'll get a few laughs.

I made (and proceeded to chow down on) this sweet potato and spinach mac and cheese recently, and loved it - recommended if you need an addition to your Thanksgiving line up (or general autumnal comfort food). Also, these double chocolate peppermint cookies that Amy made look amazing....

“Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.” - Anne Lamott

"We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4am of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget." Joan Didion