Kylie

Shows how much I know! But the avatars are pretty small, so I think it's an understandable mistake.

Ah, I always thought it was Augusten Burroughs! I guess I didn't look closely enough, because I should have recognised Martin Clunes.

Yay, another book box/jar! It appears that it's being kind to you so far. Long may it continue. Have you put all of your TBR books in there, or just some?

It looks magical! I would definitely buy lots of fresh pineapple if I could use this! It looks great. I'll definitely have a look around for one here. Thanks! And thanks for the coconut advice. I've seen it mentioned in a few recipes but didn't want to use any if there was any chance I could use my desiccated coconut. The Pina Colada recipe mentioned soaking the coconut in water first, although I don't think I should really have to do that? It's probably just as well that I didn't add it if it's a thickening agent, as my smoothie is already quick thick (probably because I didn't add enough water ). Frankie is an expert on scales. As I recall, it was she who told me that you should use the scales on a hard surface (like tiles) to get a more accurate reading. Thanks! Do you think it's OK to leave the leftover smoothie in the fridge for a day or two? I've covered it with glad-wrap just in case, but will it be OK?

Aw, so warm and snuggly! Jasper has taken to sleeping in his pink tunnel lately. I've tried to get a couple of cute photos of him sleeping there, but of course he keeps waking up and walking out. I love the first photo but it drives me a bit nuts because Jasper has crusty stuff in the corners of his eyes. I'm forever prodding at his eyes getting that stuff out. I love doing it (weird, I know! ), but he doesn't mind. It's the only thing he sits still for. I've also included a classic pic of catching Jasper in the act of being naughty. I also took a photo of my friend's beautiful maremma dog named Pip. I thought Frankie might like it.

I want it back, too! I don't remember it feeling off towards the end, though. I started re-watching it recently, but then stopped for no particular reason. I need to get back it, and this time I'll analyse it more carefully.

Looks very interesting. Thanks for posting! I'm going to bookmark it to read a bit later.

Wow, strange weather, Chesil! Abby, I've been meaning to re-watch Groundhog Day for a while now. Maybe I should try to watch it tomorrow then! I'm so jealous of everyone's snow. We've been a lovely, mild summer here for the past couple of weeks. We had plenty of rain last week, and there were a few rumbles of thunder before, but very little rain. I'm enjoying the overcast skies and cool temperatures while they last.

Oh, oops. I'll just stick with my pancakes then. ( <-- Wow, I haven't used that little fella in ages!) You and your coffee! Crazy woman.

I love avocado too. I recently bought a salad that had chicken strips, lettuce-y stuff and/or spinach and avocado. It was so nice that I've since made my own, but with roast chicken and no dressing. I prefer my salads without dressing, which probably saves me a few calories here and there. I finally made my first smoothie tonight! I followed a recipe from the book I received with the blender. I thought I'd post the recipe (for this and future smoothies) and a small 'review' to remind myself in the future which ones I like and which ones I should never try again! The one I made tonight was called a Pina Colada Smoothie. The recipe called for 2 bananas, 1 orange, 2 cups of fresh pineapple, 3 tbs dried coconut, 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of ice and sweetener as required. It's only in reading back the recipe that I've realised I didn't add any water. But I added one cup of ice instead of 1/2 cup (unintentionally—it appears that I suck at reading recipes), so perhaps that made up for it a bit. I also left out the coconut because I only had desiccated coconut and wasn't sure what the difference was (does anyone know?) I didn't want to risk messing it up and I figured I could do without it. I also didn't add sweetener. So basically I just added bananas, orange, pineapple and ice. I guess it's a pretty basic one to start with, but it makes use of several of the ingredients I had delivered the other day. I've never bought a fresh pineapple before. In my family we always had tinned pineapple. So now I know that it's a bit of a nuisance to prepare because of the 'eyes', which will rather put me off having this smoothie too often! Anyway, my blender worked beautifully. The book said to blend for 35 seconds, but it all seemed to be thoroughly blended in a much shorter time. The blender is relatively quiet and smooth, and there was virtually no splatter around the sides (not that it matters because you obviously have to wash the entire thing anyway). I was really impressed at how good it was. Verdict: Yummy. I could definitely add this to my 'favourites' list, but only if I work out a better way to de-eye the pineapple! Also, I need to remember to pour the drink into smaller glasses, because it's really filling. This will definitely make it a great and healthy snack for when I get peckish during the day. I actually bought smaller glasses—jam jars in fact, and one of which I used as my original book jar —but I haven't cleaned them since buying them, so I just used my larger glasses. I won't always post so many pics, but I wanted to document my first usage.

Mmm, blini look yummy. Did you put any type of topping on them? I love jam and cream on pancakes, or maple syrup and ice cream. It looks like those toppings would go nicely with blini. Yay for receiving an Augusten Burroughs book! What a lovely surprise. Would you mind popping over to my reading thread when you have a minute, please? You'll see why when you see my last post.

Great review! I wasn't sure if I had this on my TBR pile, but I do (yay!) Can't wait to read it now.

Yes, he studied it a lot. I wonder why he didn't try to travel there earlier in life given that he loves the country so much?

Yes, Neil Gaiman posted a link to the article on FB yesterday. I think it's disgusting.

I'm jealous! Sounds like so much fun. I've had a quiet weekend of sleeping and working. A friend (one of the ones whose lecture to 'get out more' led me to start the Introversion thread) dropped by yesterday and we took her dog for a walk. Tomorrow I'm going to visit Mum in her new place and hopefully we'll manage to sort out her phone line and get her Internet connected.

I just finished the first book and will definitely be seeking out the rest of the series at some point. Great stuff! I was surprised to read in the end pages of my edition that Alan Bradley is actually Canadian and hadn't ever set foot in England until after this book was published (at age 69!). He certainly conjures up England very well for someone who hadn't been there before!

I finished reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in the wee hours of the morning, but I'm counting it as a January book. It was very good indeed. I've started on my first book jar selection, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. At around 480 pages of small print, it's going to take me quite a while to read, so I've picked up The Martian by Andy Weir again to read alongside it.

I finally finished reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Excellent book, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I'd love to go to the upcoming book fair to try to find the sequels, but I've sworn off going to the book fairs this year. What makes it worse is that the book fair starts on my birthday, so it would have been an extra special trip! (It's usually on in late March or April—never as early as mid February!) I'm so torn, but I'm trying to be strong. I desperately need to actually reduce my TBR pile this year, and there's no way that will happen if I go to even one book fair. And my TBR pile would go well over 2000, and I've promised myself not to let it get to that point. *sigh* I've also finished redoing my book jar on the coloured cardboard (pic to come—I just need to finish redecorating it). I trimmed down each card so both my fiction and non-fiction selections now fit comfortably in the jar. Even though I made a selection from the jar a week or two ago, it was a non-fiction book, so I've just picked out another book (while crossing my fingers that it would be fiction!) to read alongside Guns, Germs and Steels. The book jar gave me...Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier! Awesome! I've been wanting to read this for so many years. And it's on so many of my lists, which is great. But now there's a bit of a problem. Frankie and I were going to read this together this year. What should I do, Frankie? Would you like me to choose another book to read for now, but keep Rebecca on the sidelines ready to go for when you're ready to read it?

I had a bad start to the week, and then my order of fruit and veg didn't arrive when it should have. I ended up receiving it a couple of days late, which threw my plans off track a bit. I had fresh fish (barramundi) for dinner tonight, and will have it again tomorrow night as well.

Trailer looks great. I'm planning on re-watching the previous seasons before the new one starts, but I'll start a bit closer to the season 5 premiere.

Some emotis removed. Ah yes, I should have known you were referring to the fiction aspect of it. It's a very readable book indeed. Although it took me rather a long time to read the next book in the series (Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures). Wow, fancy that! I bought some coloured cardboard the other day, and I've since written out about half of the books. I have to rest my hand after every half a dozen or so titles; like you, I'm not used to writing! Of course I now have another problem: I've made the cards too big, and I can't fit them all in the jar. I have to decide whether I should cut them down in size or just buy another jar and have one for fiction and one for non-fiction. I also have some decorative bits and bobs to attach to the jar, but I'm wary of decorating it because everything always looks better in my mind than in reality. I'm contemplating just sending the jar to Poppyshake and asking her to make it look pretty for me. Great to hear! It took me quite a few months to read The World without Us, so I'll expect the same from Countdown. Yeah, I was disappointed too. I've always loved the look of jars covered in patterned cloth with a rubber band to keep it on.

Have you been watching his reactions when you choose a book, you sly thing? Sounds like Alan needs to practice his poker face. Ooh, I like the way you think!

Finally! A nice and easy read. Good work, book jar.

I just noticed in my quoted post that I made a typo. When I wrote 'quartet', I meant 'trilogy'. But I'm sure you know what I was trying to say. I might try to join you, yes. My Malory Towers read-a-long didn't get very far, so I'll try harder with this one! At least I own copies of the books already, so reading them will actually work towards reducing my TBR pile.

Fancy putting the sticker right over the poor woman's face! Especially when there's plenty of space where the window is.