Some of My Hobbies and Related Links

cooking | science | gardening | anime | television
music | reading | gardening | camping | genealogy | interactive fiction

Cooking-- a great CD-ROM cookbook is MasterCook by Sierra. Version 4.0 is the latest; I definitely enjoy using it, as it is quite versatile and I have few problems with it.

A good Internet source of recipes is the archive for the rec.food.recipes Usenet newsgroup. [The rec.food link will only work if your default news server carries this newsgroup.]

My sister Patti is a great cook. I'm always phoning both her and my dad for hints. Go to Cooking With Patti (formerly BRGS kitchen) for samples of her recipe database. Here she posts recipes in categories such as Oriental and Italian. She is constantly updating her page, especially the holiday/seasonal section, which can now includes a Valentine's Day page.

A great cooking web site is the one for Food TV. We don't get the station through our cable company, but I wish we did.

Whenever Mom and Dad visit from New York, we like to go for a dim sum buffet in Chinatown in Washington, D.C. We've also found a restaurant serving delectable dim sum just around the block from us!


For pictures of these two places, look at my Dim Sum restaurant pictures.

If you also like dim sum, I recommend you pay homage at The Dim Sum Shrine.

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Science-- I love Biology. If you like Bio, Physics, or other natural sciences check out Bill Nye the Science Guy. It's a great show, and a pretty good web page, too.

If you're looking for a good environmental sciences school, check out SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. Take it from a proud alumna--you'll learn a lot at this school!

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources' site/newsletter has helpful pages about my home state's parks, streams, and other ecological features. It also has the latest information on local environmental concerns, in the form of press releases and other articles.

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Gardening-- Now that we have a house, I'm always working on my gardens. Last summer (1999) we mainly concentrated on trimming/removing trees and bushes. I did have several hot pepper and tomato plants in a small garden out back, and a nice herb garden in front. Around our mailbox I planted some snapdragons, which survived the winter and are now (2000) bigger and better than ever...'though they are NOT supposed to be perennials. In addition I maintain an herb garden (surrounded in spring by hyacinths and in summer by geraniums, miniature roses, and lamb's ear), and a flower garden in the front of the house. The flower garden includes plants such as impatiens, hostas, hens-n-chicks, and zinnias. Recently my husband and I planted several varieties of tomatoes and hot and sweet peppers, as well as eggplant, along with our June strawberries. For pictures of my gardens and the rest of the house, see my Zing.com photo album!

If you also enjoy gardening, you can get some tips at The Virtual Garden. One of their specialties is a great search engine where you can find information on various plants.

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Anime-- I really enjoy animation, particularly anime (Japanese animation). I was first introduced to anime at Balticon (the Baltimore Science Fiction Convention) in 1996, where they were showing episodes from Ranma 1/2. I enjoyed it so much that I now own the TV show tapes 1, 2, and 4.

At Worldcon (the World Science Fiction Convention) in Baltimore in 1998, I saw some Oh, My Goddess! episodes and the first 10 hours (20 episodes-- I am not kidding) of Neon Genesis Evangelion. That was tough to walk out on! I'm going to try to get some of the tapes of Neon Genesis (esp. the ones I missed) because this series was excellent. You can also visit the homepage for ADV Films to order the tapes.

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Television-- My two favorite shows are Mystery! and X-Files.

• Mystery! is shown on PBS stations at various times during the week.
  
  
• X-Files is a product of Fox network, where it is shown on Sundays at 9pm EST. Fox's associated cable station FX is currently showing episodes from seasons 1-4, in the order in which they originally aired, on weekdays at 8:00 P.M. EST.
  
  
  For more on the X-Files, please see my X-Files Links.
  
  
• Another show I enjoy is Road to Avonlea (formerly shown in the U.S. on the Disney channel; now on Odyssey Channel), based on the young adult books written by L.M. Montgomery.
  
  

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Music-- I like lots of different music, especially modern country music, with some 60s music, and 80s-90s pop. I also enjoy to play pop, classical, show tunes, and such with my flute in the Anne Arundel Community College's Concert Band. I've been playing flute since I was 7. It's fun!

Some of my favorite country artists are: Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, Clint Black, Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson (my husband took me to one of his concerts last year), and Faith Hill. Tritt was unbelievable at the Chesapeake Country Music Festival in 1997. I have never seen anyone put as much into his concerts. He just kept playing late into the night, with seemingly boundless energy and talent. Wow!

The music of the Dixie Chicks is a fairly recent interest of mine (I got their fabulous Wide Open Spaces album this past Christmas), but they have been around for a while. Check out the unofficial All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page to learn more about the group's history.

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I love to read-- especially mysteries. My favorite mystery authors are:

Edna Buchanan , Diane Mott Davidson, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, S.J. Rozan, and Kathy Hogan Trocheck . My latest finds are Leslie Glass and Barbara Seranella. Other authors I quite enjoy are Sparkle Hayter, Jill Churchill, and Laurien Berensen.

My husband and I saw Janet Evanovich at Bibelot Bookstore in Pikesville, MD in 1999 as she promoted her newest book High Five. She did a reading and answered our numerous questions. Janet also did unlimited book signings. Some people even brought copies of her old romance stories! I had such a great time. She's an intelligent, gracious woman with a great sense of humor.



Looking to discover a new mystery author? Want to check out a review or post your rating of a book you've read? Try Mystery Guide. Books are referenced by genre (classic whodunnit, private eye, suspense, etc.) and even include a list of five most similar books referenced on the site, if you wish to try other authors with similar styles.

At Snoop Sisters you can order a hard to find mystery book, read reviews of the latest mysteries, and join in a book discussion forum.

Other fiction writers I enjoy are Madeline L'Engle (my overall favorite) and Amy Tan.

• For information on L'Engle, see Bantam Doubleday Dell Online . I've also found an onofficial Madeline L'Engle home page named Bonastra, which includes a discussion group sanctioned by the author.
  
  
• If you happen to live in Anne Arundel County, MD (as I do) you probably enjoy our public libraries. Click on AACPL to look up their online index of books. You also might want to look at the American Library Association's homepage; one of its attributes is a list of links to library web resources.

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Camping is my favorite outdoor activity. For great camping supplies, check out Campmor's web site. After much comparative shopping we purchased our tent and other supplies through their printed catalog.

• A pretty good camping web site is CampNet. If anyone knows of a useful camping site, please let me know.

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Genealogy is something I am only just getting started in. The Internet contains many sites to help you with your research... Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet is a good resource for either the beginning or more experienced genealogist.


The genealogy software that I use is Family Tree Maker.

I am currently researching the following family names: DiGirolamo, Janelli (Jannelli), Mita, Mastrogianni, Saracco (Sarracco), and Simoes. If you think might be related to me, click on the tree to send me mail.


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Interactive Fiction -- For a couple of years now I have been really getting into Interactive Fiction games, especially text adventures and Sierra Online's Gabriel Knight games.

Please visit my Interactive Fiction Page for some great newsgroup, web, and FTP archive sites, as well as my ratings and reviews from the 1997 through 1999 Interactive Fiction Competitions.

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You are listening to the theme from the anime show Ranma 1/2.

This page was last updated November 9, 2000.

© 1997-2000 Christine Simoes Tilden