Whatcha readin'? and things I miss about Houston

So I have not been posting much lately, and what I have posted has been, well, just boring. . .my intent for today was to go out into the neighborhood and snap some pictures of various things but it's REALLY cold today and I just wanted to relax.
You know what they say about excuses. .. everybody's got one. I'm going to use the two-week cold I have been dealing with as mine. Yes, I am breathing through both nostrils at this point, but I'm still full of snot. (and you thought I was going to type something else! ;-)

Just a recap if you were reading last week: John's eye is getting more normal. He was diagnosed with uveitis. The docs tested him for everything and there was no cause for the inflammation. We go back to the hospital Friday for a check-up.

We had our coldest day here yet: it got down to -3 degrees Celsius as I drove John into work this morning. That's somewhere in the 20s Fahrenheit. Brr! No crazy reports of The BLACK ICE on the radio this morning. I was disappointed.

So here's what I have on my nightstand (and the coffee table, side table, next to the toilet, etc.). I would love some recommendations about what you all are reading, too.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I picked it up because the author has a cool Eastern-European-sounding name and I tend to like authors with names like that. It's an unusual tale narrated by. . .Death. Sounds morbid, but it's an interesting concept. It spans even more bleak topics like Nazi Germany, orphans, poverty, Reeally uplifting.. .but interesting.

The Sewing Circle by various authors. This is one of my 4-books-in-one Christian romances. Very good and uplifting. This, of course, balances out the morbidity of The Book Thief.

Healthy Body, Better Birthing by Francesca Naish & Janette Roberts. A nice, natural-friendly book written by two Aussie moms. My new pregnancy-masseuse friend loaned it to me for the section on exercises/weightlifting/stretching during pregnancy.

Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes. She's an Irish author and this seems like a "fluff" book somewhere along the lines of the Shopaholic books (love those--I see there's a new Shopaholic and Baby one that I can't wait to read.) I figured I should familiarize myself with the popular local authors.

And here's what I miss about Houston:

Stigg's Oscar's Fest/Feast: Every year she thinks up some clever food item for each of the Best Picture Nominees ("Cup"ote Cakes for Capote, etc.) and brings them to school/work. There's a whole week's worth of trivia, a prize at the end. All in all, loads of fun. And, Stiggs, I promise I have been trying to come up with some ideas for this year but I get stuck on Babel-Fish.com. . .

Don Pico's red sauce. Papasitos tortillas and mantequilla sauce. Mely's in Clear Lake. The chile relleno with pomegranate seeds from now-closed Jicama's in Pearland. I am just a few weekends away from getting desperate enough to pay $20+ for flautas and store-bought tortillas at Cafe Mexicana here in Cork. Fortunately, I have Tami's mom's homemade flour tortilla recipe (corn is just too hard--tried to make that in Costa Rica and never again!) that she road-tested while living in Prague, so I guess I can survive a few more weeks with no Mexican food!

And sushi! (I guess I would miss that wherever I am. . .just not going to subject KidZilla to raw fish these days. . .)

And American TV programming. . .things get here at weird times. (Including movies: Gridiron Gang opened THIS WEEKEND at theatres; it's on DVD in the States. .) American Idol auditions were on for the last two weekends (couldn't find it this weekend???) and LOST is coming back next week but we are only on SEASON TWO of Grey's Anatomy. Would someone please make the depressing Denney Duquette crying jags go away!! I just can't take it! Thank goodness for the Chron.com blogger Tubular who is getting me through the Grey's withdrawal. .. or could someone just explain why things hit here at such strange intervals??

The MFAH : There's always an eye-catching exhibit here. I missed the one about the dog portraits, and now I'm missing a huge French collection. Please, get your fanny over there and check it out!

Well, I guess that's about all of my ranting for now. I'm going to kick back and relax while enjoying listening to my neighbor do some crooning with the guitar through the wall. . . They really do practice the singing/strumming all the time! Gearing up for the next party, I guess!

Okay, so I promise some more interesting stuff later! But drop me a comment and share what you are reading!