Oops!

Well, 2011 didn't start exactly as I had wanted. New Year's Eve, Eric fell down the stairs (so help me, if he wears his Crocs outside again in winter I'm going to kill him) and injured his left "backside." So we had to spend New Year's Eve day in bed and going to the Take Care Clinic at Walgreen's to see if there was anything more we could do besides ice and ibuprofen. (There wasn't). I cooked a nice dinner which worked out, but Eric hurt just sitting eating dinner, so we retired to the bedroom early and he was out and asleep before 10pm. I watched the ball drop on my own and feel asleep before Midnight central time. Gunfire in our neighborhood to celebrate 2011 woke me up and I heard a loud clunking as a bullet shell bounced off the roof of Eric's car. Made a dent but no other damage so we're ok and the car is ok.

Now, for Christmas, Eric got me a set of Guy Fieri Knives. They are awesome. The first nice knives I have ever owned. I was excited to get up New Year's morning and make a

bacon/mushroom/goat cheese frittata. While I was cutting fresh basil with my new, wonderful, and very sharp knives, I almo

st sliced off the tip of my left index finger. Luckily I just cut through the nail. I figured that was my error for the meal. I had been roasting grape tomatoes in the oven to make a sauce to go along with the frittata and when I took it out of the oven, I used a potholder since the handle was hot. I poured the tomatoes and garlic into a bowl and put the skillet back on top of the stove, I was going to wipe it out and then cook the frittata in it. Well, after I grabbed another bowl in which to mix the eggs, I went back and grabbed the skillet. This time without the potholder. OUCH! I dropped the pan, (luckily not on a cat), and yelled some sort of obscenity. Eric came out and asked if I was OK and I very calmly said "No." My right hand felt like I was being stung by 100 bees and I started to cry. Eric asked if I could take a break and I said "No." Hell, I had seen the chef's on Top Chef suck it up all the time and keep going, so that's what I did. Crying the entire time and running my hand under cold water when I had a chance. Luckily the frittata worked out and was delicious!

We managed to make it through the rest of the day without falling or burning ourselves or cutting off any limbs. When I asked Eric what he wanted for dinner last night he said "Anything that doesn't involve you cooking or me going out." I was able to slice an onion without

problems and dinner was successful.

So it wasn't exactly the way I had planned to start the year. My hand hurt too much to start learning a new song on the guitar. It was very cold outside so I didn't take poor Harley for a walk for some exercise (and Eric's in no shape right now to join the Y with me). Someone had blocked our driveway New Year's Eve so we couldn't even get our cars out to go anywhere. I figure it can only get better from here!

Let The Wild Rumpus Start!

2010 arrived today, not with a wild rumpus, but with a kiss and a hug and falling asleep before midnight. Eric and I watched the ball drop in Times Square though, so that usually means it's officially the new year, no matter where you are in the US. It was quiet in our neighborhood at the stroke of midnight. I could hear distant fireworks but no one was shooting off guns or yelling wildly or honking car horns. I like it that way. In my younger days I used to love to wait up and have a champagne toast, wear a silly hat, or as I did in Florida, jump into a pool sans clothing. Now I appreciate the quiet evenings at home, watching a movie or a football game or playing a game of Scrabble. I also appreciate not having to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade with a hangover.

So on this first day of 2010, I awoke with the sun. Usually I am up before the sun, so it was nice that we got up together today. Then I went grocery shopping, came home, watched the parade, watched some football, made some homemade chicken noodle soup, and began my resolution of reading the first of those 100 books I plan on getting through.

I had two choices. My fiction choice was "Amateur Barbarians" by Robert Cohen and my non-fiction choice was "The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn" by Louisa Gilder. I chose the non-fiction book because I figure you should always start the new year out with the truth. Plus, I was never big on physics, quantum or otherwise, so I knew I would struggle with this book and figured it would be a good challenge. I was a little concerned that the end of the book contained 100 pages worth of glossary terms and notes, but got over that after looking at the glossary and realizing that I knew more about physics and scientific terms than I had remembered. Living with my mathematician step-father for all those years probably had something to do with it.

I am two chapters into the book and am finding it interesting but also realize that I still am not big on physics. The book contains excerpts from letters, interviews and conversations between all sorts of scientists including Einstein and Bohr. It has charts and footnotes and the author is doing her best to keep it an "easy" read rather than making the reader have to stop and look up every other word in the dictionary. But for me, this is a book where I am only going to be able to read a chapter and then will have to put the book down, think on it a bit and then pick it up again. I don't think this is like "Harry Potter" where I can read it in one sitting, nor do I want it to be. Part of this resolution is to introduce myself to new experiences, new authors, new ideas, and to maybe learn something or a lot of somethings in the process.

So even though the "entanglement" is sort of a "wild rumpus" in the quantum world, I'm going to take it in quietly, like my New Year's Eve celebrations.