This Totally Rocks!

This is amazing! A guys' a capella group getting their Lady Gaga on! I love these guys!



I can't get it on here exactly right, but if you want to see the "widescreen" version, click here.

Meet Jonny Flynn!

This week was my favorite Timberwolves Season Ticket Holder event: Meet The Timberwolves!! Yay! And my goal was to get a pic with our rookie, Jonny Flynn. Mission Accomplished!


How cute it he? And he's a wonderfully sweet guy. If I was ten years younger . . . OK. Twenty-five years younger, but who's counting? :-)

On the reading front: Yup. I'm a Harry Potter convert. Love them! I'm almost done with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and once I finish the books I plan to watch the movies. I hear nothing but good things about them.

On the cooking front: Here was one of our meals last week that we LOVED! I've linked to the recipes on the Eating Well Magazine website, which has become my new favorite recipe browsing site.

Tofu Au Vin served with Roasted Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette



Over the last couple of weeks I have learned that anything that calls for two cups of red wine in the recipe probably tastes fabulous. ;-) I'll be back soon with some more of those kinds of priceless vegetarian cooking tips. Don't forget your corkscrew!

I Couldn't Resist Sharing This

Hi, Everyone!

I've been very busy with extremely cool cooking stuff, but when this article came to my attention I couldn't help but share. Nothing like books and the NBA combining to get my attention!

The NBA's Locker Room Nerds



As for my reading, I'm still doing plenty of that but much of it has been in the area of vegetarian/vegan health and cooking. I've been making some amazing meals that leave me believing I may well have eaten my last hamburger and having no regrets! I just may have to change the name of this blog to "Cookbooks 'N Border Collies" and share my experiences. :-)

I hope all my readers and their families have been doing wonderfully! And keep an eye out here. You just never know what could happen . . . :-)

Indefinite Hiatus

After much thought, Books 'N Border Collies had decided to go on indefinite hiatus to pursue some personal goals. I have had a great time and will still be around reading and commenting on many of the great blogs out there but not doing much posting myself. I will leave the blog up, but I'm turning off the ability to post anonymously so I don't have to keep monitoring all the silly spam that shows up.

Now I'm going to go play in the snow with the boys! My, Skye, what big teeth you have! :-)

EVIDENCE

by Jonathan Kellerman



L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis takes center stage in Evidence, the twenty-fourth in Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series, as he investigates a double murder at an abandoned construction site in a neighborhood of the uber-rich.

Milo is my favorite character in this series, and it was a wonderful surprise to have him in the leading role. Alex himself is more of a tag-along without much of a presence other than to tell the story. That is fine with me! As much as I love this series, Alex's personal life can sometimes get in the way of a good mystery. The reader doesn't get Milo's personal life instead, but just a straight-up murder mystery with some eco-terrorism for good measure.

I listened to the audiobook of Evidence and was thrilled to hear the voice of John Rubinstein. I believe he has narrated every Alex Delaware book I have listened to, and I have become so fond of his characterizations that his is the voice I hear in my head when I read a Delaware novel. I hope he continues recording the series for as long as Kellerman continues writing it.

THE AUDACITY TO WIN

by David Plouffe



"David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama's historic presidential bid, reveals the inside story behind President Obama's rise to political prominence." (From the CD container.)

If you're at all curious about what it's like to run a presidential campaign, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory is your book. David Plouffe walks the reader through the entire campaign, from the uncertain beginnings through election night. You'll hear enormous amounts of detail on political polls, funding, Obama's team's unprecedented use of "new media" in organizing and informing his supporters, the primary battles with Hillary Clinton and the final showdown with John McCain. Plouffe's book shows the best and the worst of the election process and its players. I'm not a political animal, but I was completely absorbed in this book from beginning to end. It is a fascinating behind-the-curtain look at the 2008 election from the perspective of the winner.

THE CORINTHIAN

by Georgette Heyer



"Penelope Creed will do anything to avoid marrying her repulsive cousin. Dressed in boy's clothing, she's fleeing from London when she's discovered by Sir Richard Wyndham, himself on he verge of the most momentous decision of his life. When Sir Richard encounters the lovely fugitive, he knows he can't allow her to travel the countryside all alone, so he offers himself as her protector. As it happens, at that very moment Sir Richard could use an escape of his own." (From the back of the Sourcebooks edition.)

When a reader is looking for a bit of fun and romance, she could hardly go wrong choosing just about any Georgette Heyer regency romance. The Corinthian is light, adorable and a perfect book for when you want to smile from the first page to the last.

WAITER RANT

by The Waiter, Steve Dublanica



"According to The Waiter, 80 percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining 20 percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths." (From the back cover of the Harper Perennial edition.)

Having spent plenty of my younger days as a server in different types of restaurants, I adored Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter. Everyone who has worked or eaten in a restaurant will recognize stories from this book and not always in a good way. (I hope you don't recognize yourself among those customers who snap their fingers to get a server's attention!)

Accentuating both the bohemian exhilaration and painful craziness of life in the "front of the house", Waiter Rant is great fun to read and might teach some folks a little respect for those men and women who bring them their food on a packed Saturday night. If not, believe me, spitting in the food is only the beginning of the revenge tactics a server has in the arsenal. ;-)