Amanda over at First Milk is a girl blessed with inspiration. She came up with Boyfriend's new name, He-Mouse. She's off to France to gallivant and flaneur for awhile, and pretty soon. And last week she posted about Maurice Sendak's "Chicken Soup with Rice," which Mouse loves. She set off an awful craving over at our house. So I went snooping for an easy Chicken Soup with Rice that still tasted like the classic. I did this recipe, which is excellent, and substituted beef broth for that whole cooking-chicken-bones part. I didn't bother with fresh parsley, but used the fresh herbs we had on hand and whatever was in the spice cabinet. I added lots more carrots, and served it with a hunk of buttery Jarlsberg cheese.

I believe that proper Chicken Soup with Rice ought to cook for at least two hours, bubbling away while tummies growl in anticipation. Here is some soup for you. (Especially for Amanda.)

Found while trolling for invitations. I love this. So much more realistic than Keep Calm and Carry On. By the lovely Earmark Gatherings.

Have you heard about the naming of a new kind of cloud? They're calling it asperatus, which means rough or agitated waves. It's the first new cloud since, like, 1951. What a moment, huh?
Mouse herself has never been a namer of clouds, although I like to watch them streaking and rolling and roiling. Someone I lost knew all their names and intentions, knew them intimately and loved to tell me about them. He would be very excited to meet asperatus. Welcome, asperatus, on his behalf.
(Photos, from top: The Guardian, Tras el Cristal, and Speak Your Mind News. More information at Fresh Pics: New Cloud Type Discovered.)

It's officially fall in Chicago--the sun is out, but it's cold enough in Mouse's home office that she is actually considering going down into the basement to get the space heater. Or asking He-Mouse to do it.* It's the time of year when all the leaves fall off the trees at the same time, when I suddenly wonder where I stored my hats and scarves and gloves (which I have been blissfully unaware of these last months). And at yoga, people start talking about "heat-building practice." I don't totally understand this. I'm usually 98.6, right?** However, I do understand the idea of inner warmth, of stoking an inner flame for the dark days coming. And since we in Chicago have dark and cold to beat the band, Mouse has become an expert in inner heat. Here are my favorite tricks. 1: Liquid warmth--lots of tea. Many varieties of tea. Above: Trader Joe's Green Tea (bitter but plenty of caffeine), Republic of Tea Ginger Peach White Tea (smells but does not taste like peach; enough caffeine for an afternoon perk but not enough to keep you up all night), and Yogi Tea Egyptian Licorice (sweet without sugar, soothes sore throats and tummies, and Mouse loves the little bits of wisdom on the tea tags).
2: Hearty--Smitten Kitchen's Red Bean Chili and Mouse's mom's cornbread. Or chicken soup. Or carrot soup. Or grilled cheese and tomato. We are supposed to put on a layer of insulation for winter, pop culture abs be damned.
3: Spicy--Trader Joe's Wasabi Peas. Or Herdez Salsa Cesara. Or garbanzos roasted in olive oil and cayenne pepper. Or anything with jalapeño.*** The capasin in chili increases your metabolism, and I swear my hands are less cold after a spicy meal.

Wishing you warmth.

*In the end I just let Boyfriend choose his new name, and he picked He-Mouse. This is probably a patch fix, because I have every intention of calling him Huz as soon as possible.
**I'm actually usually 97.4. Weird.
***Extra points for combining spicy and hearty. I put jalapeño flakes in the chili.

Yeah, you know what happened? You got all excited with me about the Ampershirt, and now I know you guys like punctuation, and it's just one step from there to the awesomeness of these phonetically spelled wine labels. Obviously this one is the best. Although I quite like "SOH VIN YOHN BLOHNK," too. By Caroline Gilroy via The Dieline.

Pe noh ne-waaaaaahhhhhhh...

Good morning, nice mice! I have made a decision regarding the large amount of wedding-planning stuff I will inevitably want to write about during the next year or so. I believe that weddings are joyful but should be shared, rather than inflicted. Therefore, Good Mouse, Bad Mouse will go on the way it has been, perhaps with occasional wedding updates. But the minutiae (and I admit, I am personally excited about every single one of the seven million tiny decisions that apparently need to be made RIGHT NOW) will be housed at Souris Mariage.*

So, if you'd like to avoid Mouse's dilemmas along the lines of what the eff are escort cards? and do they make dresses that don't make me feel silly?: head on over to Souris Mariage. If you'd prefer to hang out over here, I promise material updates once in awhile, amidst the sort of content we're all already comfy with. Hooray!

*Name is explained over there. URL is www.mousegetshitched.blogspot.com
Tee hee hee!

Boo and hiss to the crumbling of the print media world. Mouse will especially miss Gourmet.

Drop whatever you're doing, because this is AWESOME: a blog called Terrible Yellow Eyes is collecting and posting art inspired by Where the Wild Things Are. The pieces over there are coooool...This one is "Terrible Yellow Eyes" by Robert van Raffe.

Spotted over at Twig & Thistle.

Mouse is a huge fan of punctuation and an amateur fan of typography. So what better than this "Ampershirt" by Chicago's own Plural Design, which showcases a lovely ampersand in Akzidenz Grotesk letterform? It's printed on a nice soft American Apparel tee. Mouse scored one last week and loves it. You can walk around in it prepared for when people give you small talk, or incomplete answers...next time I hear somebody say "I really liked that book," I'm going to point at my Ampershirt...

Plural is giving one away, woohoo. Leave a comment below and visit Plural to be eligible; I'll choose someone by the end of the week. Be sure to check out Plural's store--they have many more posters sure to knock the socks off of punctuation and type people, and a really cool silkscreen poster of moon cycles.

(Thanks for the interest, everybody! Mouse is thrilled you like punctuation, too. This giveaway is U.S. only, for shipping reasons.)