Tag: birthday

Wine with Wendy on Wednesday, numéro onze (11)

Before September comes to a close (is it fall, already?)…

Wendy and I had lunch together at an Atlanta French restaurant recently and had a glass of wine. 😎 🍷 🇫🇷

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She told me all about her trip to Ireland, where she played golf and watched two (American) football games. In both, her team won, and in one of them (a high school game), her son played! She also visited San Francisco this month to visit one of her three daughters. I told her about my trip earlier this month to New Orleans, where I attended the mystery writers conference, Bouchercon.

Bistro Niko is one of our favorite lunch spots, with a great menu, and it’s conveniently located. Next month, who knows where we’ll meet? But since our birthdays fall within 2 1/2 weeks of each other (mine in late October, hers in early November) I think it will be fun to celebrate them together! 🍰

Bon weekend! 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Sicario

Before I get to this week’s Pizza and a Movie, I have some changes in my schedule for October:

  • I’ll be at the Book and Art Fair in Griffin GA today, Oct 17, only;
  • I won’t be at FoxTale Book Shoppe on Oct 21;
  • I’ll appear and sign books at the Marietta Queen of Hearts Antiques & Interiors on Sat Oct 24 from 11 -2; 
  • I’ll be a Panelist at the Killer Nashville International Writers Conference in Nashville.
  • My Panel is called “Women of Mystery: Female Sleuths” and will be on Sat Oct 30 at 12:30.

Now, for this weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Bacon
  • Mushrooms
  • 1/2 Jalapeños, 1/2 Pineapple 

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Movie:

Sicario

This film was a clever, well done story of revenge. I don’t always go for movies like this, but it was engaging and suspenseful. I love Emily Blunt, too, who, last I read, is married to John Krasinski, who was “Jim” in The Office on TV. (And I love Jim, and John, who has the same birthday I do, by the way, which is coming up shortly…)

Now for the pizza. My husband wanted jalapeños on half of it, and so, instead of extra cheese on mine, I went with pineapple. That made it a bit difficult to choose the other two toppings, but after a short conference while Bill was pouring my husband’s beer (he already had my wine ready), we agreed on the bacon and mushrooms.

We sat outside because it was beautiful, and talked about a variety of things: work, home, plans, and our recent trip to Raleigh for Bouchercon 2015. He’s not going with me Nashville later this month, but I loved having him with me last weekend in North Carolina. After we left the conference, we drove over to Durham where I stopped in the Duke Hospital Gift Shop and left a signed copy of ALL THE ABOVE for the book buyer.

Then we made the short journey to Chapel Hill to see where our daughter, a UNC student who’s studying in France right now, plans to live next semester. Then we went back to Durham where some friends who’ve just moved there had invited us to stay the night. After watching the Falcons win, the four of us went to a French restaurant nearby.

So far, it’s been a great “birthday month!”

 

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Germans, Chocolate, and a Birthday

A party without a cake is just a meeting.
– Julia Child
 
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To celebrate my birthday (which is today), and in honor of the German translation of my novel UNDERWATER*, my husband baked a German chocolate cake for me yesterday (pictured above).

You might think the sides don’t look right  look a little messy  don’t look the way they are supposed to, but the recipe he used said to put the (gooey, but yummy) icing on the top, and let it drizzle down the sides.

Which he did.

It tasted great, of course, just like everything he bakes and cooks.  He didn’t get the recipe from one of his Julia Child cookbooks, though. It came from another one of the many cookbooks he has either bought or been given over the years.

Before eating cake, we sat outside to enjoy the perfect October weather here in Atlanta, then enjoyed a dinner of poached salmon and salad (also prepared by my husband). Naturally, I felt very fêted…! We were missing some family members who live elsewhere, but those who could attend, did, and one had just been home for a few days’ visit.

I’m not sure if German chocolate cake is something you can find in Germany (I’ve never been there). I suspect maybe you can, but it might be a little bit different from our this version. If it does exist, I’ll bet it’s just as yummy.

In any case, with our cake, what could have been just a meeting  normal dinner was a party…

 

* The German version of UNDERWATER will be released next spring, but the English language versions (print, digital and audio) will be released on November 25, 2014! Click here to pre-order and have automatically delivered on 11-25-14!

 

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