COOKING AND LIFE LESSONS

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

Julie and Julia, August 2009

I have been looking forward to this movie since I read the books, and especially since I learned that Meryl Streep would appear as Julia Child. I knew that Meryl would somehow become Julia, and she did not disappoint. How does she do it? I sometimes forgot that it was Meryl--she just was Julia. I loved that about the movie. And, Stanley Tucci was Paul. How fun to see love, lust, and romance in that unlikely pairing.

Sweet and fun movie--we laughed a lot--and we were hungry when we left the theater, whether from the exposure to all that haute cookery or because it was almost 8:00pm and the tuna sandwich from Panera was hours and hours ago. We headed to the closest decent restaurant--fast food just wouldn't do. We couldn't find French cooking in Kalamazoo, so we opted for red meat.

I will never again mention the upholstery fiasco. We hauled our chair and ottoman to Battle Creek, Michigan thinking we would get a better deal than locally, and my sister secured a solid recommendation. We both ended up dissatisfied and trying not to be mad. The upholsterer lady was unrepentant.

My ottoman is hideous and the chair is marginal. Really. The ottoman goes out with the trash next Friday and I cannot bear to even take a photo to illustrate. The chair appears to have been done by an amateur, but if you squint it can pass muster. It goes into our bedroom and will suffice until I recover (no pun intended) enough to decide whether to have another go at it (and it's un-reupholstered twin). Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and I guess it was just my turn to lose a round. An expensive round.

The highlights of our 2-1/2 days in Michigan were: lake views, good food, some exercise, and the opportunity to tour the newest house on the lake. The weather was warm, sunny, and breezy. We didn't get the drastic temperature, and we headed home Saturday morning in a steady rainfall.