I read this quote the other day from Lady Gaga:

Lady Gaga has responded to a series inflammatory comments thrown her way by Christina Aguilera with a dose of ice-cold dismissal.

In a recent interview the singer was asked about the bitchy comments made by Christina Aguilera, who said in an interview she didn’t “know if [Lady Gaga] is a man or a woman”.

“I don’t take offense to it. I’m inspired by androgyny and David Bowie and Grace Jones,” said Lady Gaga.

“I don’t have a ‘look’. I dress like this all the time. I have no enemies.”

———-

I am not a huge Lady Gaga fan, I don’t know much about her other than the song she out right now “Just Dance”, which I like.  But I love her attitude in this quote.  She could have been malicious or mean or snarky, but instead she said “I have no enemies.”  What a beautiful statement.  She completely defused the situation with Christina and frankly is an example to other celebrities everywhere on how to respond to rumours etc…  She even inspired me to think about that statement and adopt it as my own. I am going to try to go forward with that thought in mind – I have no enemies.  If even half the population did that it would be a much nicer world wouldn’t it?  Good for you Lady Gaga!

I had yogurt with granola on top of it yesterday and it just really hit the spot and I was wondering why I have never tried to make it myself.  I just did a quick recipe search, and the recipes I found all seem to have nuts in them.  So I am asking you readers out there – if anyone has a recipe for homemade granola that is nut-free, egg-free and preferably with no coconut either, please send it along – I will be most grateful!

I am having a bad day – and yes it is only 10:22am but it doesn’t look like it is going to get any better as it progresses.  I wish my bad day included a piano serenade from tuque-wearing Powter himself, but alas, it is just a regular lousy morning.  I didn’t sleep well at all so am incredibly tired today.  It is very snowy and this made for a particularly mushy 6am walk with the dog.  I got out of the house about 10 minutes later than usual as I am just slow today, which meant that I was stuck in traffic and it took me 20 minutes longer to get into the office.  As I parked my little car I heard the telltale scrape against the cement pillar in the parking garage – sigh.  My second scrape in 3.5 years – I am never going to live it down with my husband.  I went to buy a tea biscuit to go with some yummy jam a friend brought me from London (Tipsy Strawberry and Champagne Jam by Forest Products ) and got back to my desk and it is a cheese tea biscuit, not a plain one.  Sigh.  I am eating it with the jam anyway because frankly, I just wanted the damn jam.  I can feel a cold coming on now…Bigger sigh.  Til tomorrow…

Okay when I was a kid the only food I vividly remember hating was Brussels Sprouts.  I remember that every time my Mom would cook them my brother and I would fight about eating them and measure our sprouts to ensure we both had to eat the exact same amount.  I am sure we drove her crazy.  I have never cooked a brussels sprout in my home.  Never.  Turns out my husband hates them too.  We really are the perfect match.
Last week, in the GOOP newsletter, Gwyneth posted a recipe for caramelized brussels sprouts.  In the recipe she said she has converted many a brussels sprout hater.  So I thought, why not?  I would try it.  I made it last night, and after my husband complained about having to try brussels sprouts, a funny thing happened.  We LOVED them. Seriously.  I had a whole bunch and so did my husband and son.  My daughter was still not convinced, but three out of four is pretty good right?

Here is the recipe – thank you Gwyneth!

I am a big loser!  Every blogger does something fabulous and witty for their 100th post, and I completely forgot and missed it.  I was in my post-Twilight glow/fog and just wrote about that instead of all the things I had been thinking about doing for the last few months.  I can’t believe I have already posted 100 entries on this little blog.  Pretty cool, really!  The tradition is that you post 100 things about yourself so your readers can get to know you better…100 seems like an awful lot, so how about 10 things you might not know about me?

1. I had straight hair until I turned 14, got a 1980’s poodle perm and my hair has been very curly ever since.

2. I have this weird obsession with teen tv-shows, like The OC, OTH, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl and Supernatural.  I just love these shows…guess that is where my maturity level is at.

3. I love love love war novels by authors like W.E.B Griffin.  I am fascinated by the details of what goes on during war, including all the strategizing.

4. My favourite food is probably turkey. I love it. I could eat it every day. There is never a time where I say, too much turkey.

5. The first single I ever bought was Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor.

6. My favourite author is Yvonne Kalman, and the first book I ever read by her was called Greenstone, part of a trilogy.  I have read that trilogy many many times.

7. Silver makes me look like death.  Really.

8. I love to cook and read – but if you have been reading this you already know that

9. I am a San Francisco 49ers football fan – specifically the Joe Montana era.

10. I have written 1/3 of my first novel, and wonder if I will ever finish it?

The midnight showing was…wonderful.  When we got there it was packed full of screaming teenage girls…which was kind of fun actually.  I think we were the only crazy Moms who went to see it at our local theatre.  They had two theatres set up for the showing, so we got great seats.  First off – they showed a preview of the new Harry Potter movie and it looked amazing…so that was a great start!

Then the movie started.  Bella is cast brilliantly – she looks just like I imagined her in the book and she acts the part really well.  Charlie is I think the best cast role in the whole movie – he is fantastic!  I look forward to seeing him develop in the future movies.  When my beloved Edward entered the scene the entire theatre cheered, and he was just perfect.  The surrounding cast were good and fun to watch.  It was really fun to watch all the scenes in the book come to life. 

They left out some really fun scenes, like all three boys asking Bella to the dance, and the dance in general.  I think if you had not read the book then the movie might not make a lot of sense.  Which I think explains all the so-so reviews.  If you have read the book I don’t see how you couldn’t like it – it is a very good adaptation.

Basically watching Edward and Bella fall in love on screen is unbelievably sweet and romantic.  Their kiss is really hot and awesome and I wanted to rewind it and watch it over and over.  If you like Twilight, just go see it…

I am so excited to be going to see the Twilight movie tonight!!  We have tickets to the 12:01am showing and I am hoping it is worth it as you know I will be crabby and tired tomorrow.  I am old now for this kind of late night shenanigan!  Very excited though – almost counting down the minutes at this point.  I truly hope it is a good movie – like the Harry Potter movies.  Not like Eragon or The Golden Compass which were both pretty disappointing, Eragon winning the award for worst movie adaptation ever…I plan to wear my “Get your own vampire, Edward Cullen is mine” sweatshirt.    I will blog tomorrow and let you know how it was…

Twilight Movie

Ahhhh…Brisingr.  This book is my latest obsession.  I read the first two books, Eragon and The Eldest. when they came out and loved them, so immediately ran out to pick this one up in September.  It was so big, that I wanted to make sure I had time to read it, so I waited a bit before starting it.  I finally got to it this weekend and am just about done.  I am really loving it.  It is a really fast paced read, and Christopher Paolini is really maturing as a writer.  I find his storylines are becoming even stronger the further into the series that he gets.  It starts off brilliantly with a summary of the first two books.  This was so helpful, as usually I feel I have to re-read the first part of a series or just stumble through the first part of a book until I remember who everyone is and what exactly happened in the earlier books.  This summary took all of the guess work out of it.  It was a really great addition and all authors should do this!  Another thing that surprised me was that usually I only really care about the main character, but in this book I am getting increasingly engrossed in Roran’s character – I actually skipped past a chapter about Eragon to find out what happened with Roran…then of course went back to keep reading about Eragon.  I don’t think I have ever done that before.  All in all, this is a great series and I can’t wait to see how it all concludes in the fourth book.

On our trip to Niagara-on-the-lake in August, we visited the 13th Street Winery.  My sister-in-law had discovered it on their most recent trip to the region.  I love sparkling wine and my sister-in-law told me to try this one out.

On the 4th day of our trip, I rounded up my three fellow travellers and made everyone come with me to check it out.  The winery is not on the main strip with most of the other wineries, and doesn’t really look like much.  It is basically a small building surrounded by grapes

We went in and asked to try out the sparkling wine.  They make other wines as well but I was very single-minded about this visit.  It was fantastic!  Dry, but with no yucky after taste.  Tasted like real champagne.  I loved it. I bought a few bottles, and just opened one a few weeks ago and it was just as good as I had remembered.  It is one of the best sparkling wines I have tried, and very reasonably priced as well.  You can find out more about the winery and the sparkling wine here.

I am a very avid reader.  I read all the time and when the book is good I become completely consumed.  It is really like a drug for me, I can never get enough reading.  When I am not reading my current book I feel restless and uneasy…I can feel it pulling me towards it.  My son is just like me.  He reads non-stop.  My husband told me this story the other day and I thought it was hysterical.

When the kids were little, if my husband was reading to them and didn’t think they were paying attention he would start adding in silly sentences to make them giggle and see if they were still listening.  They both thought it was great, especially my son.  The other night he was reading to him and threw in a silly sentence for old time’s sake.  My son said, “please stop Daddy”.  But being a Daddy, of course he did it again.  And got asked again politely to “please stop Daddy.”  My husband laughed and of course did it again on the next page at which point my son looked at him and said, “Daddy, you are ruining the story.  Please stop adding the silly sentences.”

He is sooooooooooooo like me… 

PS – Speaking of great books, my girlfriend and I bought tickets yesterday to go see Twilight at midnight on Thursday!!