Jul 19, 2013

Happy Ever After, Vogue and Nora's way

“Everything about the day has been designed to make you happy, to celebrate that love. Correct?”


Happy Ever After



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Vogue offers its stylish wedding guide

 

Vogue.com put together a wedding guide just in time for all those summer nuptials. The Associated Press asked editor Jessica Sailer Van Lith to put together a list of signs that the affair will be one to remember:



AP


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“People planning a wedding, or a big event like an important anniversary, it becomes their world for a while. Every idea or problem or decision can take on enormous magnitude.”

Happy Ever After

Jul 4, 2013

Deviled Eggs





The filling for Southern-style basic deviled eggs is nothing more than egg yolks, mayonnaise, mustard and sweet pickle relish. These deviled eggs are perfect for potlucks, tailgates, and summer suppers. 




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Obediently Sydney followed instructions, scrubbing fruit, fetching ingredients, stirring the occasional pot. 

But she knew very well that three efficient women were working around her.

"You can make deviled eggs," Nadia said kindly when she noted Sydney was at a loss. "They will be cool soon."

"I, ah…" She stared, marginally horrified, at the shiny white orbs she'd rinsed in the sink. "I don't know how."

"Your mama didn't teach you to cook?" It wasn't annoyance in Nadia's voice, just disbelief. 
Nadia had considered it her duty to teach every one of her children—whether they'd wanted to learn or not.

As far as Sydney knew, Margerite had never boiled an egg much less deviled one. 

Sydney offered a weak smile. "No, she taught me how to order in restaurants."

Nadia patted her cheek. "When they cool, I show you how to make them the way Mikhail likes best."


Luring a Lady

Jul 3, 2013

Chasing Fire



  It screamed, Rowan thought as she tore the protective case off her fire shelter, shook it out. Or Matt screamed, but a madman with a gun had become the least of their problems.

  She stepped on the bottom corners of the foil, grabbed the tops to stretch it over her back. Mirroring her moves, Gull sent her a last look and shot her a grin that seared straight into her heart.

  “See you later,” he said.

  “See you later.”

  They flopped forward, cocooned.

  Working quickly, Rowan dug a hole for her face, down to the cooler air. Eyes shut, she took short, shallow breaths into the bandanna. Even one breath of the super-heated gases that blew outside her shelter would scorch her lungs, poison her.
  The fire hit, a freight train of sound, a tidal wave of heat. Wind tore at the shelter, tried to lift and launch it like a sail. Sparks shimmered around her, but she kept her eyes closed.

Chasing Fire

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Firefighter owes life to fire shelter

 

Although the shelters saved his life twice, Rodriguez said he well knows the uncertain protection they provide.


"You don't want to rely on your fire shelter to get you through something," Rodriguez said. "It is a last resort. It's when all else has failed."


How well such shelters work depends on factors such as the terrain where they're used and how long the fires burn on top of them, Rodriguez said. His fallen colleagues were never able to reach an appropriate surface where they could deploy their shelters.


"They're designed to deflect radiant heat," Rodriguez said. "You do absorb some on the inside. But it all depends on where you're at, where you deploy them. You have to wait it out."


Getting through the fire also depends on staying calm as the heat and smoke rage outside, he said.




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Dizzy, she realized, sick. Too much heat. Can’t pass out. Won’t pass out. As she regulated her breathing again, she realized something else.
  Quiet.
  She heard the fire, but the distant snarl and song. The ground held steady under her body, and the jet-plane thunder had passed. 

  She was alive. Still alive. 

  She reached out, laid a hand on her shelter. Still hot to the touch, she thought. But she could wait. She could be patient. 

And if she lived, he’d damn well better live, too. 

Chasing Fire