Yay Laura Ingalls Wilder, Grapefruit, Mud Baths, Cozy Corners and Boo Flying

Hi there.

So one of the unblogged about intentions is to blog less frequently but with more substance. Blogging daily for two years (!!) has been a good exercise but to accomplish it, I often resort to less than enthralling and helpful posts. Because doing this, working and having a life is hard, ya'll.

So I'm thinking it will go something like this: Monday-personal, etc., Wednesday-yays and boos, Friday-food. So, yay for 2011, as well as:

Grapefruit! After being Florida and drinking ridiculously fresh juice from Sun Harvest, citrus is on my mind. And grapefruit has to be one of the best tastes and smells after the holiday insanity. Photo from here.

Yes, yes, yes. Everything about this pictures says do this, Amanda! Picture from here.

Can't wait for this book to come out. Here's the excerpt from Amazon.

For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book, here is a pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession.

Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she's never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She retraces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family- looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House, and explores the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura's hometowns. Whether she's churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West.

The Wilder Life is a loving, irreverent, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened.

Seriously I still think about the sod house on the banks of Plum Creek, the locusts and eating salted pork. I hope my love deepens as well.

Here's my number one rule for kickstart to the new year: plan a vacation as soon as possible. In all honesty, this trip has been in the planning stages for awhile but now tickets are purchased. Napa Valley, including a stop at one of the places I've long wanted to visit, Calistoga hot springs and mud baths. Photo from here.

Lastly, I think airline travel may be the MOST uncivilized mode of transportation. I remember flying as a kid and thinking it was such a big deal. Getting dressed up, eating hot meals and the anticipation of the beverage cart. I remember flying on a 747 a long time ago and thinking the two levels were about the coolest thing ever.

Its is honestly the worst now (if you can even get off the ground.) People suck, the airlines suck, layovers suck, cancelled flights suck. Flying certainly does not make you feel like a golden god. Photo from here.