JK Rowling has announced the title for the final Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What does that even mean, really?

I’ve had a hankering for macaroni-and-cheese for a couple weeks now, so last night the Snook and I decided to try out Delia’s recipe for Souffleed Macaroni Cheese. She describes it as the “best ever,” which sounded pretty good to us. It’s a rather involved process though, and sometimes Delia’s instructions can sound a bit condescending. (For example, she specifies how much water to boil your noodles in.) Our only real problem was that the baking dish we’d heated up was much too small for the volume of pasta we’d prepared. So 2/3 of it went into a nice heated Pyrex baking dish, and the rest went into a cold casserole. If any of you are thinking of trying it out, I’d suggest you go for the biggest, flattest dish you have. You want as much surface area as possible, because the crust is the absolute best part of this dish. The macaroni itself was okay; I’m not a huge fan of Gruyère. But the puffy, crispy, salty (thanks to the Parmigiano) crust is really what makes this special. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture – we dug into it as soon as it came out of the oven! (Another tip: When Delia says “generous” portions, she means it. I doubled the recipe thinking I’d freeze the extra two servings, but really it made like six. And those are six Kristy servings, which really are generous.) So overall I’d probably give this recipe a 7 out of 10. Next time I might try a different cheese and see if that makes a difference…

Knit From Your Stash 2007. I find this idea both intriguing and SCARY-ASS. Only knitting from my stash? For nine months? But… but… what if we get some beautiful new wool in the shop? What if Knitty has a pattern that I simply must make? Truth be told, I do have a massive yarn collection. (I’m onto my fourth large storage box.) And I’ve actually got the yarn for lots of projects I’ve been meaning to do. Can I do it? Do any of you DARE to take the challenge with me?

Behold: The Nativity of the Awesome!

My husband e-mailed me a link today to the “Cats ‘n’ Racks” section of CuteOverload.com. I told him I’m not stuffing Dr. Amy Jones down my shirt. No way, no how.

People Suck
If you see somebody in Sydney carrying a pink tweed Jordana Paige messenger bag, do me a favor and ask them how much they paid for it. If they hesitate, punch them. Somebody just stole one out of the friggin’ shop today. How can people be such jerks?

Survivor Finale. I was very happy, to say the least.DUDE! HOORAY FOR YUL! That’s more Korean people that I’ve seen on TV in my ENTIRE LIFE! When they showed his cheering section back home, I was like, “KIMCHI FOR ALL!”

And then I’ll admit to looking over at the Snook with a sigh. “There’s a six-foot tall single Korean millionaire Ivy League lawyer with washboard abs…. and I’m already married.” The Snook replied, “Yep, your Grandma Harter’s kickin’ herself right now.”

I was so worried he wasn’t going to win it. I actually predicted it’d go to Ozzy 7-2 or 6-3. “Americans, much like Australians, don’t like smart people.” I was happy to be wrong! I was also relieved that the jury portion was relatively snot-free (with the exception of dickhead Adam). Most of them seemed pretty gracious about it, and a few of them – Jonathan, mostly – even came up with really good questions. I also LOOOOOVED Jonathan’s reply to Probst’s stupid “villain” question at the reunion show: “There’s no villain in Monopoly!” Damn straight. I’ll take intelligence and piercing blue eyes (and Alan Alda’s voice) over pecs and a tan any day.

Other random observations: Having three people in the final was actually a great twist. It really screwed up the accepted strategy of the past 12 seasons, of picking an obvious loser to go through with you. Ozzy, much like Boston Rob, looked way better on the island. I thought it was a bit disingenuous for him to play the “poor Mexican with no Dad” card at the final tribal, though, given that at the reunion show he admitted that he did have a father and a swimming pool when growing up. Candace looked awful, really bloaty and soccer-Mom. Sundra’s hair was out of control, but she looked super gorgeous. Rebecca’s new hair aged her about ten years though. (I was like, “Why the hell is Patti LaBelle there?”) When Sekou started singing, the Snook and I were like, “This isn’t a real song! You just changed the words to Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’!” Billy only has one T-shirt, but at least he can laugh at himself. Man, Jeff Probst sucks. He had such an obvious man-crush on Ozzy, and he soooo wanted him to win.

Bring on Amazing Race All-Stars!

Amy and Penn
Wow. How great does my sister look? Not only did she dress Penn in the argyle vest I made him for his first ever visit to church, but she also color-coordinated her own top! That’s some A+ mommying right there. The only downer is that Penn’s growing so fast he’ll be too big for all the stuff I knit him really soon.

Happy Mac face cross stitch. Cute!

How did I manage to never read The Handmaid’s Tale? That is just astounding. Amy actually recommended it to me ages ago and I dutifully picked it up at the bookstore, but I’ll admit I was dragging my feet on actually reading it. You know how when one of your friends really urges you to try something, and somehow that makes you not want to? Like, what if it sucks and you have to reevaluate your opinion of their opinion; or it’s really weird and you wonder why they ever thought you would like it? Happily, as soon as I opened the cover I was SUCKED IN. (And I don’t mean in the bad way.) I just couldn’t put it down. At first it was just the insane curiosity of trying to figure out how someone who lived a life that doesn’t sound too unfamiliar to me could end up in a world so very, very wrong. And then once I did figure it out… I just couldn’t escape. Dear god, where would I fit in in this world? How could I survive? Every time I turned a page, I thought to myself, “I’d kill myself. I’d absolutely kill myself.” By the end there was just so much sadness. I’d have preferred it to finish without the little futuristic coda though. I don’t think it added much to the story for me, and there was just such a “Basil Exposition” whiff about the way the speaker talked about Gilead. I resented that it all had to be spelled out like that. Regardless, I closed the book thinking that it was really excellent.

Aaaaaand then I had to go and look it up on the Internet, and find out that it’s one of the books a lot of people get shoved down their throats in school, so there’s a lot of negative stuff about it out there. There’s nothing that kills a buzz faster than knowing that a lot of people think something you enjoyed was really, really lame. (See also: Silas Marner, which I also liked.) Ptooooey.