Soup Reviews II: Minestrone

365 (Whole Foods Brand) -- not the most flavorful minestrone in the world, but good, and very spicy, sinus cleansing. Fresh-tasting, buoyant carrots, white beans, tomatoes, onions, spinach, pasta, peas in tomato broth. A

Imagine -- Pretty flavorful broth but a little strange, like too sweet or something and confusing in flavor-- not quite tomato-y? The vegetables were fine but not memorable. B

Soup Reviews I: Butternut Squash

Wolfgang Puck -- rich and creamy, good taste. A

Organics -- thin, almost like just broth with a little bit of squash, but presence of actual onions? a little bland, I added Tony Chachere's. C+

Imagine -- Not quite as rich and creamy or tangy as WP, but similar and a little squashier; the squashiest one so far. A-

Someone Knows How To Treat a Lady

The someone is me. I am the someone and I am the lady. I am someone's industrious lady. I treated myself to these these roses, which I myself grew. I also presented myself with a lovely mushroom three-cheese pizza, for which I made tomato sauce and tomato pizza dough.

Conquered Lands, Lands Yet to Conquer

In 2010 I …

1) Earned my MFA, completing a thesis-length novel

2) Held a teaching job at a private nursing college over the summer and was offered employment there for fall.

3) Was offered and accepted a full-time postdoctoral teaching fellowship at LSU

4) At LSU Press helped in the editorial process for several books, such as Ledgers of History, Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren: Backward Glances and New Visions, 1969-1979,and Abbot Awaits.

4) Gained the interest of an agent in my fiction

5) Completed a semester of full-time college teaching

6) Maintained friendships with a large circle of people

7) Kept two cats healthy and happy

8) Practiced making pizza, chicken kiev, and a few other things

9) Prepared house for sale

10 Won the graduate playwriting award

11) Planted pansies

12) Made a lot of pies and cheesecakes

13) Continued helping judge the book contests at Carolina Wren Press

2011 Goals

1) Revise my novel to the point that I want to resubmit it to the agent

2) Write several first drafts of plays

3) Continue revising and submitting poems to magazines

4) Submit plays to contests

5) Sell house

6) Continue the gainful employment at LSU

7) Seek gainful employment in North Carolina upon relocating

8) Learn to make bistro-style lamb and pork dishes

9) Pursue exercise I enjoy

above cartoon from http://www.nataliedee.com/

La Belle Chaise, Le Beaux Chat

October

Really Good Costumes

The lovely and so talented Jenn Nunes