Does anyone else have this problem?  It’s a wonderful problem to have, but still a problem.  You feel like you’re too busy with work and other stuff (you know, working out, taking pictures of your cat) to meet up with your friends, and when you do, you have a great time, and you say, gosh, we should do this more often! and then weeks go by again.

(FYI: I’m going to intersperse random photos I’ve saved to share with you into my blog post today.  I’m feeling super random, so you’ll have to spare me and you know, get over it.)

I’ve been overwhelmed this week.  It’s the last week of teaching before “vacation” (which officially isn’t until about the 29th for me as next week is chock-full of gigs) and that’s fine, but then I have been packing all kinds of extra stuff in and I don’t even know where the week went!

Let’s see, I’ve been teaching, practicing, figuring out last minute Christmas presents, trying to hang out with friends who are going out of town, figuring out our anniversary trip (Chicago! Need more restaurants suggestions and don’t say “The Girl and the Goat” because it is booked up), working out, acting as virtual virtual coach for Rose, baking, eating, and reading a bunch.  Basically nothing really important and just procrastinating a lot–I’m only “busy” in that normally I don’t do anything 3 pm and this week has been different 😉

(You can read Rose’s blog post on my virtual virtual coaching of her.  Nutshell:  she owes me $1.99.  Longer story:  we’re failing pretty hard at her training plan and we keep rationalizing it.  I blame her for accepting running advice from me.)

Oh, and this morning I played assistant to Sarah Crowder for a video shoot.  It was great fun and I will share the video with you when it comes out!

Oh wait, that picture is related…shoot.

I just found this on facebook.  I’m very delighted by it.

This is either me really excited about the Hobbit, OR somebody just tried to take the one ring from me and my eyes bugged out and I went crazy.  No seriously, I’ve been chugging coffee all day in order to be awake and alert for the midnight showing of the Hobbit tonight.  Yeah.  I’m old…midnight is really late these days.

We have Red Bull in the fridge.

I do believe the last midnight movie I went to was Return of the King.  So it’s been awhile.  That was a great show…but I recall being SO tired by the end.  Then again, didn’t the movie last approximately five hours and fade to black countless times?  I presume tonight’s show will be less cheesy and shorter? (There’s probably a way to find out how long, but I’d rather be surprised.) (I’m pretty sure we went to the show after an Akron Symphony rehearsal.  Anybody able to back me up on that? I don’t have my calendar from 2003 handy…

Last night we met up with our Canadian friends Vanessa and Russell at Sasha’s on Demun.  Russell is a great jazz trumpeter and he sat in with the band there a bit.  I may be biased AND know nothing about jazz trumpet, but he sounded great.  Chris knows much more about jazz and he also thought Russell was awesome, so there’s that.

Chris and Russell.  One of the greatest pictures ever!

I look like I have lazy eye here.  Vanessa got a great haircut!

We tried to make our own flower photo, but failed in a variety of ways.  I blamed the photographer, but he didn’t think that was fair…it may be more than I had too much wine before the photo taking sessions happened? 😉

One of my students brought me this yesterday.  She said it was a gift, but she also said I needed to hang it on the cabinet in my room.

I found this at Target today.  Chris was thrilled when I showed him.  It’s a Bobble head “Holiday Darth Vader”. I misspelled Vader on instagram today and I think he is considering leaving me.  Or making me watch all the Star Wars movies again.  I’m not sure. He was definitely embarrassed to be married to me.

Look, I’m foam rolling.  And yeah.  Grey.  Also my thigh looks weird and gigantic.  Hmm.  But there’s the proof (#proof?) that I’m continuing to foam roll, so I’m leaving it up there.  It’s hard to take a self foam rolling portrait.

Okay, other blog happenings, if you are behind:

Two book giveaways (seriously, enter if you like to read, I don’t sell your email or anything, and there’s no obligation):

The Painted Bridge

Hot Chocolate

And, if you haven’t checked out my sister Carrie’s kickstarter campaign to help fund her quartet’s trip to Norway to study and increase their exposure, please do!  I wrote a blog post about it, or you can click here to go directly to it.  She’s pretty awesome.  (In fact, she is the best thing that ever happened to us!)

Anyway else going to see the Hobbit tonight?  I’d bold this question, but I saw Rose do that earlier today and I figured I’d be different than the rest of the internet.  You’re smart enough to figure it out right? ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS PLEASE! OR COMMENT ON MY PICTURES.

(It’s a fine line between mocking other bloggers and being exactly like them.  I try to walk that line, but I know I err on the side of generic narcissist rather than being unique.)

If you don’t like book reviews, I apologize.  Like I said previously, I absolutely LOVE reading and my new blog project is to do a bunch of book reviews and giveaways.  Check back soon if you are BORED—I’ll be posting about something different, like food, running, my cat, or you know, my favorite subject, ME!

Quick plug: please look at my previous blog entry about my sister Carrie’s kickstarter project!

Attention book lovers: Today’s is a particular favorite of mine.  Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down!  I may have mentioned I’m a fast reader?  I think I finished this one in about 3 or 4 hours.  It’s a page turner…or whatever it’s called when you hit that “forward” button on your kindle 😉

“Hot Chocolate” by Dawn Greenfield Ireland

Hot Chocolate is the story of the wealthy Alcott family.  They live in Houston and have a chocolate empire.  The three middle-aged sisters are the main characters:  Lila Mae, Madge, and Dorothea.

As the book begins the sisters are deciding whether or not to move their 92 year old father Bernie into a home as he has become too much to handle.  They ultimately decide it is for the best but they are worried about how to deal with letting go of his full-time nurse Bambi (her actual name!).  As they expect, her husband Jimmy Ray ends up suing the family for wrongful termination even though Bambi was given a generous severance package.

Luckily and unsurprisingly, the Alcotts have a great lawyer and he is able to get the lawsuit dismissed, much to the chagrin of Jimmy Ray and his lawyer.

Then things take an even worse turn for Jimmy Ray and he ends up being murdered in his own bowling alley!  That’s where the mystery really begins–who killed Jimmy Ray?  Why? And you won’t believe what the murder weapon is!

I obviously don’t want to give anything more away.  The rest of the story is a fun read—there are great twists and turns, lots of great detail in the writing, wonderful character development, and of course, lots of chocolate and other recipes.

The author admits to being inspired by Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series (which I really enjoy) and her writing made me think of some of my favorite food mystery writers like Joanne Fluke and Dianne Mott Davidson.  If you like those authors, you’ll probably love this book as well.  The author assured me that all the recipes she included are tried, true, and dear to her!

The book, Hot Chocolate, is only $3.99 for Kindle, so even if you don’t win the giveaway, it’s VERY affordable.

Oh, and the sequel, “Bitter Chocolate” will be coming out in mid to late Springtime.  I personally can’t wait to read it.

One lucky reader can win a copy of the book, “Hot Chocolate” in digital OR paperback form (US and Canada only for paperback form), plus the author will autograph and mail a postcard to the winner.  US or Canada residents only for the paperback, but anyone can win the postcard and book in digital format!  Contest runs until 10 pm CST Tuesday, December 18. (contest is now closed, winner will be notified by email shortly!)

This is going to be one of those contests with multiple ways to enter—you can get up to five entries, and please leave a separate comment below for each one.  As usual, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner, who will be notified by email (so make sure the email address you use is valid!)

1.  Leave a comment on this post: write something about chocolate!

2.  Follow the author, Dawn Ireland, on twitter.

3.  Follow the author on Facebook

4.  Like “Hannahviolin” on Facebook.

5.  Like the book “Hot Chocolate” on Amazon.com

I was not compensated for my review other than the free book.  All opinions are my own.

My cookie exchange party last night was a huge success.  Everybody brought great stuff—from chocolate chip cookies, to molasses cookies, to lemon bars, toffee, and fancy cookies with apricots or rosemary or tequila in them!  My friends are pretty awesome.

Today I’m going to share the recipe I used, which makes a cookie I call Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies.  They are unique and delicious!

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies (From My Baking Addiction):

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one large lime, finely minced
3 tbsp lime juice
½ cup unsweetened toasted coconut (I used sweetened coconut as that’s all I could find.)
1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.

4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lime juice and lime zest.

5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and the coconut.

6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. (I also added some coconut on top)

7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. (I found it took 12 to 13 minutes, so pay attention to the first batch to figure it out!  I imagine it depends on the actual size of your cookies.  Mine always seem to take longer than recipes say.)

8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I doubled the batch and made about six dozen.  Make these.  They are easy and delicious.

Today is one of those days that isn’t going as planned.  Poor Chris has been a little sick and that threw a lot of things off, and I haven’t felt great…I may have eaten too many cookies last night.  Note to readers:  running after eating a ton of cookies, artichoke spinach dip, cheese, and eggnog the night before…is not great.  Another note to readers:  Caramel vodka with apple cider IS great.  Not for running no, but very tasty.  I’ll tell you more about the party later, but I’ve got to get ready for work!

Yesterday I played on the “Holiday Magic Train” with Jen as part of Chamber Project St Louis. 

We were to meet the train at one end of the line (Fairview Heights, Illinois) and we would ride to Shrewsbury (the other end) and back. 

We met up with a variety of Metrolink employees and the Marketing Director (I think) who was also the sound guy.

When the train arrived, we got on and then the train pulled off to a track that was off to the side so that we could get set up.   We needed to set up our music stands, but they were also setting up microphones, speakers, and all kinds of signs advertising the concert.

After everything was set up, we got ready to move, and we were off!  It was very strange at first playing on a moving train, but we got used to it.  We played Christmas tunes and light classical music. 

Some of our friends got on to ride and listen for a bit.  It was a nice to see friendly faces, and to get people to take some pictures.

In Shrewsbury we had a 15 minute break and then the train headed back.  I had been riding backwards so I was then riding forwards.  It took a little adjustment again, but I was able to use my core strength to really stay upright 😉

Even though it was one of the oddest shows I’ve ever played, it was one of the most fun.  Some people got on the train knowing there was a concert—others were surprised, but most, if not all, seemed pleasantly surprised. 

I hope we can play again next year!

And a teaser photo:  I’m baking cookies right now for the party…

They are turning out great and I’ll share the recipe soon!