FUNPLEX!

New album from the B-52's coming just in time for the big 4-0...

Title track is available on iTunes...

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

HT to Stephanie (a.k.a. Digi) and Obscure Music Friday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx0RsbE7Qds

Great groovy-time song. Enjoy!

Potomac Primaries

Slight rant. I have spoken and emailed with five friends and family members in the last day or two - some far more conservative than I am, others not, who all claim to be conservatives (whether Republican, Libertarian, or Independent). ALL FIVE are vowing to stay home on election day because they "just can't support McCain."

Is he really a worse prospect than Hillary or Obama?

By not voting at all (self-disenfranchising, I call it), they may as well be voting for the Democrats whose views they despise even more than what shortcomings McCain has.

Am I missing something? Does no one remember the hanging chads and recounts from 8 years ago?

Don't let it happen! VOTE for what you believe in.

I saved these emails, and oh yeah, the minute I get a whiny complain-mail from any of them if/when the Democratic candidate is elected, I'm sending it back to them.

Middle Name meme...

...OK, AA & Mother (ANN! A is for Amateur! LOL!!!) here you go:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name.
(If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter
of your middle name.



M adly in love with my husband. Even though he snores. Loudly. A lot.

A lways available - for friends, colleagues, family who need a friendly ear to listen to tragedies and triumphs, who want (mostly) solicited advice, or who want to share a good laugh. Especially the last part.

R elentless - one of my best and worst traits, depending on the situation and who you ask.

G regarious - imagine that!

A mbivalent - about a number of things, mostly to do with juggling the mom, lawyer, and teaching gigs. The first one will always be my top priority, but the other two are about to present a crossroads and I can't decide which path to take. (Maybe a future post on this one...)

R eserved - I am actually rather shy in large/unfamiliar groups. But that's only until you get to know me. Then...look out.

E asy going - most of the time (see below)

T emperamental - I say this in the interests of full disclosure, justice and fairness, and only if you hit the RED ZONE

I tag the first 8 people on my blogroll who have not already done this one. You know who you are....

"We are sinners"

Well, the first Sunday of Lent and already I am falling short of my own expectations...

However, I do find encouragement with the Little Professor, age 10. As we were rushing out for the late Mass today, she stopped dead in her tracks and said "I forgot something...don't leave!!!" She came down with a few crumpled-up dollars in her fist and we asked what it was for. "Oh, it's just some of my money. I don't need it." Exactly $2.50. Her .$50/day ice cream or cookie lunch snack habit that we 1) did not know she had, and 2) gave up without saying a word about it. When I suggested we grab dinner on the way home, she was horrified, because I'd suggested that dining out might be one of the things we forego as a family. Bad Mommy!

Meanwhile, the eldest was kicking herself for eating a hamburger on her ski trip on Friday, the beloved was smirking in shame for having his "girly" flavored creamer in his coffee and work, and I....have managed to do one or the other of my 40 minute exercises, but not both. And I ate some verboten stuff because I just flat-out forgot myself.

Like I always tell myself, it's all about practicing. The 10 year old is my own little Therese in so many ways.

Top Ten Signs John McCain is Getting Too Cocky

(From the David Letterman Show, of course...)

10. Canceled tomorrow's campaign appearances so he doesn't miss "Lost"

9. Spent the afternoon roughing up Romney supporters

8. Last night, he blew half campaign war chest playing internet poker

7. Already working on his 2012 re-election strategy

6. Plans to campaign for the next three days in "Vodkachusetts"

5. Recently told voter "Keep that ugly ass baby away from me"

4. Now refers to Mike Huckabee as "Mike Suckabee"

3. Has started yelling, "Bingo!" when he doesn't even have bingo (come on, folks, he's old!)

2. Renamed his campaign bus the "Bite Me Express"

1. Went to Mexico with Jessica Simpson

Lenten meme

1. What's been your best Lenten-effort-idea ever?

40 days, 40 minutes of prayer each day, and 40 minutes of exercise each day. Body & Soul

2. And your worst?

Avoiding Sugar.

3. What good Lenten advice would you share?

Be an example not by showing the suffering on your face, but by relishing the challenges and following through on what you set yourself to accomplish.

4. And what will feature this year?

I am going to try my 40-40-40 regimen again this year. (See #1)

Tagging anyone who did not succeed in their Lenten regimen last year!

Saint meme

1. First Saint you "met"? St. Bernadette, via "Song of Bernadette" on the weekly "Family Classics" movie program hosted by Frazier Thomas, WGN-Chicago.
2. Favorite Saint(s)? Maria Goretti, Gianna Molla, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, Margaret Clitherow, Catherine of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, Therese of Lisieux, Bl. Andre Bessette, Thomas More, John Fisher (all the English martyrs, really), Jude (thank you for favors granted!), Francis of Assissi
3. Patron saint for the year? St. John of Avila
4. Favorite book by a saint? Story of a Soul
5. Saint book you are reading now? Well...not quite a saint book, but Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
6. Favorite movie of a saint? Song of Bernadette was my first and is still is a sentimental favorite, sappy or no.
7. Favorite Autobiography/Biography of a saint? Story of a Soul
8. Favorite novel/book of a saint? I enjoyed "Pillars of the Earth" which touched on Thomas a Becket but was a novel.
9. Saint (besides your favorites) you'd want to meet? Mary Magdalene? That's a tough one because there are so many.
10. Saint you look to for help? Jude. He is going to run in the other direction if/when I get to heaven.
11.Favorite saint quote?
“Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks with compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
- St. Teresa of Avila
12. Favorite Holy Card? Gianna and Therese are tied.
13. Favorite story of a saint? Margaret Clitherow's good naturedness even as she awaited death by pressing, conversion of St. Augustine
14. If you could go anywhere on a pilgrimage to a saint's homeland, where would it be? Poland (Krakow and the Jagellonian for JPII and also for St. Faustina)
15. Any Blesseds or Venerables that you would like to become canonized? SoG's Fulton Sheen and John Paul II - both have converted so many hearts and minds, and Bl. Andre Bessette, who is on par with Therese for his beautiful humility and simplicity

I tag anyone who has a saint image on their blog! (Except dear Angela M., who tagged me with this one)

Ash Wednesday

Hope you all have an enriching, purposeful Lent!

Please remember to say a quick prayer for all the poor souls killed (nearly 50 at last count)overnight in the tornadoes in the South....

Super-Duper Tuesday

Oh my. I am not sure what to think. Not one candidate meets my personal standards - or even comes close - this time around. I feel vaguely ill at the thought of any of the current Republicans being in charge, and downright terrified for our country with ANY of the Dems winning.

Of course, it matters little in the final analysis. Upstate is actually quite conservative in many areas, but we get generally get sucked into the liberal morass at the state level due to the population center (NYC) and its liberal demographic (except with the mayor - at least NYC'ers get that the law and order thing is good for running the city If we could get them on the right page with their Assemblymen....). There are always exceptions to the liberal trends in NY, but I see none this time around.

Blech. I see no light at the end of the tunnel today.

However, I am dining with my dear friend who is the county election commissioner this evening, and whose husband is our local Assemblyman. (She is stressing out about the new machines she had to purchase, hoping they don't break down....like me, she is a mom-lawyer with more than her fair share of smarts but zero technical or mechanical expertise, and she has to personally inspect these new electronic machines if any problems are reported - "What the he** am I gonna do if they break?!? Will their little microchips back to life?") Anyway, always an interesting chatfest, and a good way to get some grass-roots ideas into the hopper in Albany.

Despite all the chaos and paucity of the field, don't forget to VOTE!

Mundane Monday

OK, I am recovered from my Red Zone rage of Friday. And - bonus - no friggin' snow day today. We had 2 last week, plus the MLK holiday. 8 days out of 10 at home with girls who had not quite enough to keep them occupied. Normally, I love being home with the kids, but there are only so many days of nonstop pajama wearing, cookie baking, and couch potato-ing a body can handle. So here I sit on my usual Monday-off, with Prince Cinquedente (5th tooth appeared over the weekend, hence he is no longer Prince Monofang) snuggled in for a nap beside me, wondering which old movie to watch. I just got "Fire Over England," "Captain Blood," "The Black Swan" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips" over the weekend in my latest Amazon order. Yay!

Welcome to the Red Zone

And not because it's February, the month of red hearts and Valentines.

Those who know me well will tell you I am one of the most easy-going individuals you'll ever meet. But there is a point past which one does not want to go with me. I have postulated, and gotten confirmation, that the proportionate share of "nice" to "filled with rage and hate" is 95%: 5%. It's not easy to get to the 5%, and it's best not to try. I call it my Red Zone. As a defense attorney once told me after a particularly contentious deposition, "You're like a rabid golden retriever...you look pretty and seem so nice, and then you turn on people and you bite 'em." (Yeah. You're welcome. They call that my JOB, numb-nuggets!) Yes, he got me to the Red Zone. Happens when your physically and mentally disabled client gets raped by his male caregiver, and your opposition is so morally vacant that he asks if he didn't "like it."

Anyway, here's one of today's news stories that has me over the edge and into the 'Zone:

BERKELEY, Calif. — [<-- Ha! Go figure...] Local officials in this liberal city say it's time for the U.S. Marines to move out.

The City Council has voted to tell the Marines their downtown recruiting station is not welcome and "if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome guests."
The measure passed this week by a vote of 8-1.

The council also voted to explore enforcing a city anti-discrimination law, focusing on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

In a separate item, the council voted, also 8-1, to give protest group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week.*

Marine Capt. Richard Lund of the recruiting office declined comment on the council action.
The recruiting office opened in Berkeley about a year ago, operating quietly until about four months ago when Code Pink began regular sidewalk protests.

"I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don't belong here, they shouldn't have come here, and they should leave," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.

Code Pink is circulating petitions to get a measure on the ballot in November making it more difficult to open military recruiting offices in Berkeley if they are near homes, parks, schools, churches, libraries or health clinics. [Just don't try to put those same restrictions on sex offenders, 'kay? - Ed.]

Some employees and business owners aren't happy with the weekly protests.
"My husband's business is right upstairs, and this (protesting) is bordering on harassment," Dori Schmidt told the council. "I hope this stops." [because it hurts your business or because it offends your patriotic sensibilities, ma'am? - Ed.]

*Interesting. I wonder if the ACLU will spend millions to put a stop to the free parking space, like they did a few years back in San Diego to stop the city from leasing land to the Boy Scouts for a dollar a year, and forcing the cross on Mt. Helix at the Veteran's Cemetery to be removed after the County attempted to privatize that piece of land in order to preserve the cross. Same principle, isn't it? A governmental/municipal entity giving land at below-market value to a private organization? It is not to be borne! (And don't pull the free speech shibboleth out on me...)

Note to all terrorists: Invade San Francisco! They don't want the Marines there....yet.

Then there's this one:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Female suicide bombers blew themselves up Friday at two markets in Baghdad, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 100, authorities said. [...]*

In both bombings, the attackers were wearing suicide vests, according to Qasim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan. [...]

Atta told state TV that both women were mentally disabled and their explosives were remotely detonated.

*For the entire story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/iraq.main/index.html

Look. I am a huge military supporter - I have family and friends who are THERE. NOW. So for both selfish and philosophical reasons, I hate the fact that we are at war. I hate the evil that people are capable of in doing the things that precipitated and have prolonged this particular war. But these are not always necessarily Red Zone issues. However, NO ONE here at home better mess with our ALL VOLUNTEER members of the armed forces. The maxium period of military enlistment is 6 years. It has been over 6 years since 9/11/01. So these people are serving by choice in a time of war, knowing all to well what they risk by serving. Anyone who denigrates their service - their FREE SPEECH rights to express their patriotism by offering their very lives to serve - gets no quarter from me. Especially when 1) they use the intellectual chicanery of crying "Free Speech" and wrap themselves in the flag (which flag they'd just as soon burn) to do it, AND 2) are aided and abetted by local leftist governmental authorities as in the case of the Berkeley recruiters. And when the weak and vulnerable are used in this way (as weapons of mass destruction), when babies are cooked in microwaves, when you mess with the innocence of kids...you have hit the 5%!!!

UPDATE: Forgot to link this one (baby in microwave), in my red-haze frenzy this morning...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327385,00.html

And now there's this (headline only):

Exxon Posts Record Profit on Oil Prices
HOUSTON (Feb. 1) - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company - $40.6 billion - as the world's largest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at year's end. [Wow...2 "rape" references in one post. Sorry! - Ed.]

Oh, all RIGHT!!!

More fun with avatars...the girls wanted to make a daddy avatar. He has been awarded a spot on the sidebar. Out of privacy concerns for the family - especially when one has adolescent females to protect - I don't use their names or put their "real "pictures up. Similarly, while I use my real nickname (Kit), my last name on the blog is a derivation (translated from its European origin) of my real maiden name. If I ever write a cheap, trashy romance novel...well, you'll know it's me!

Ok. Part III (the rest of the story)*

...moving right along.

So, we were married, bought a nice little house in Scottsdale, and now all I wanted was a baby to make the picture complete. Wanted one real bad. I'd met my soulmate, I knew I was in a very safe, secure place, and I wanted a new life and a new family of my own - mostly to make up for the craziness I grew up with.

One thing my husband told me early on in our engagement was that before he met me, he'd pretty much decided he was going to remain a bachelor (some bad hurt feelings in his past), or if he did stumble and get married, he certainly did not want children because of the "bad state" of things in the world. (Being from a big family also played into it, but he is reluctant to admit it.) But then, he said, he looked me in the eye on one of our nearly-non-verbal, excruciatingly uncomfortable early dates, as I was trying desperately to entertain him with some amusing story, and it struck him, full force, that he wanted to see his - our - children looking back at him through those same big brown, laughing eyes (awwww!). [Aside: Incidentally, he has yet to attain that...we have two - and likely a third - hazel-eyed little beasts. The boy is still changing from baby blue-grey to his big boy color, but his shade's just like the older two as babies.]

So I thought it was a sure thing. Time to get to work. And then he said no. He wanted to wait, enjoy being a newlywed couple for a year or two, and then get to work. But, as I pointed out, I had taken the semester off from the Masters program to get married, and wanted to go to law school. If we waited for all of that, I'd be close to 30, and too OLD to be a mom (snort!). He stood firm, and wanted to know which contraceptive method I thought would be best. Our first serious philosophical difference. Not that I had any problem (then) with contraception, but it did not fit in to my plans for marriage, at least not at that point. I had clear ideas of having 4 properly spaced, adorable children. (More than that, well, ya gotta figure one's always running free, because the parents have no more hands!). We argued, I was crushed and turned inward and away, wondering if I was being selfish. After about a month of impasse, I got a puppy - my first golden retard - to love instead. I refused to use any birth control, or to have him do so (more out of sheer stubbornness than any particular moral or religious conviction), so we decided to try NFP. It didn't work. I got the puppy and probably got pregnant the same day. :)

Five weeks into the pregnancy, I got up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain, feeling like my abdomen was being torn apart from the inside. My husband was snoring away. I crawled to the bathroom, sure that I was going to find myself in the midst of a miscarriage, but needing to know for sure before I called for him. Incredibly, no signs of it. But the pain got worse and worse, until I couldn't stop shaking, and sweat was exuding from every pore on my body - from my scalp to my fingertips and even the tops of my toes. I was going into shock, and finally, I realized I was crying. Then my husband was there, white-faced and terrified. As a military firefighter, he had been a certified EMT for years and immediately knew I was in trouble. He assessed me as best he could, picked me up out of the pool I was laying in (it was like a crime scene outline of me, but drawn in my own sweat! Eeew!), wrapped me in a blanket, put me in the car, and we flew to the hospital - no time for an ambulance. I was on the verge of passing out...until the ER docs introduced me to my first Foley catheter...and then all I remember is that there was a blur of tests, tubes, wires and electrodes sticking out of every limb, several docs and nurses chattering on the other side of the curtain about potential diagnoses, and then a bossy, foul mouthed specialist of some sort coming in and asking if anyone had bothered to do an ultrasound yet to check on the baby. "No, there's a 2-hour wait to get her up to radiology." She started yelling at everyone - "WTF are you doing with this patient, looking for a 4th to play bridge? She needs answers!" - and no, they were NOT sending me off to radiology when you can find out what you need to know from here. Just like that, she ordered the ER's ultrasound machine brought to the bedside. (I'm lolling about, hovering on the edge of consciousness, in horrible pain but thinking "Yeah! DUH! What she said!").

Then the "virago" from the other side of the curtain swept in...a tiny, delicate, beautiful little lady with a long curly ponytail, smiling a sweet and calming smile... and she started patting my hand and arm, wiping my face and neck with cool cloths to make sure I was alert, all the while talking gently and quietly to me about the pregnancy, how she was sure it was fine, and that the debate was about my appendix, kidney stones, a ruptured ovarian cyst, or - highly doubtful - an ectopic pregnancy. So she wanted to do the ultrasound right then and there. Within a minute, I saw my first miracle. At 5 weeks, there was just a tiny little white strand on the screen, fluttering madly. I looked at the ekg monitor and saw my own heartbeat. Then I looked at the screen again and saw a much faster little ekg racing along and knew that it was the "flutter" that belonged to that tiny little white creature who, while attached to me, was running a separate little operation of [her] own. I looked at the doc, she grinned and said "Well, looks like you've got a perfect little 5-weeker in there! God is great!" and she left. The tears just slid down my face. And despite not knowing whatever else was going on with me, I felt this great, overwhelming calm wash over me. The ferociously cussing - yet cherubic - doc was right. God is great. I was not losing this baby. I saw that little life, it was part of me, and [she] was alive. Not an embryo, not a fetus, but a tiny, mighty little heart was beating ferociously deep inside and a foot or so beneath mine.

This was it - my final conversion. I lay there, crying without a sound for awhile, thinking back on my wild years, my liberal arts education and resultant liberal political thinking, my sliding-scale morality ("I'd never have an abortion, but I'd never tell anyone else they can't, it's their body, it's an embryo, not a person," etc.), my anger at a God, who I'd been told all my life I was not good enough for by a number of really awful people, and all of the contrariness in my thinking that sprang from that - poor priests who misled me and likely so many others, my wretched post-Catholic upbringing with divorced parents who'd acted like alley cats in heat all through the 70's to the exclusion of providing any moral guidance to 4 adrift kids, my nasty new holier-than-the-pope-let-alone thou inlaw(s)...and yet in that moment, I managed to forgive most of what I'd been raised on, and determined to make my own life better through studying all of these issues of faith, culture, and morality as I waited for this new life to come into the world. A nurse came in to check on me and slipped something into the IV to make me sleep. Later on that day, still no diagnosis other than a strange amount of fluid in the abdomen, I was sent home. On to my new life. Waiting to meet the life who very likely saved my eternal life.

About 8 months later, just before our first anniversary, little miss 13-going-on-35 arrived - as beautiful and well-mannered a baby as I'd ever dreamed she'd be. I looked at my beloved a few days after we brought her home and asked him if he was glad that we'd been surprised with this little one despite his wishes...and he asked me if I minded being married to the stupidest man alive. We're coming up on 15 years this spring.

I have told this story several times over the years to people who ask me why I am so adamantly against abortion. If just one other person, hearing it, could understand, and maybe even experience that moment as I did - that absolute truth and the peace that came along with it - and pass it along to another...and if it changed just one heart and mind, saved one life, I'd feel like my life's work was done. Whatever my professional life has been or holds in store, it is nothing compared to the possibility of persuading just one person that life is beautiful, that each life is precious and has dignity, that yes, tiny little strands on a screen are persons developing, growing, adn waiting to meet you with their sassy attitudes and hazel eyes....I will never, ever give up the fight. And if you are reading this, I hope you feel the same.


(*There could be a "Part IV" one of these days, but this is the pivotal point that I wanted to share.)

Awww....thanks!

To WhiteStoneNameSeeker and Mother's Pride for the "Excellent" award! It has been so fun getting to know everyone these past few months. I still have much to learn (like how to link within posts, for one thing...) but in the meantime, I shall bestow my 10 awards as follows (links are at the sidebar!)

1. Digital Hairshirt - my soul sister on the SoCal lawyer scene, who has such a great sense of humor and excellent taste in obscure music

2. That Gem of a Karen at Gem of the Ocean - for introducing me to so many of you, and for pretty much all of her stated personal convictions, which I share

3. Ma Beck - shares the baby road and lives in the Homeland (Chicagoland). Is it Portillo's or the original Billy Goat?

4. Dymphna at Dymphna's Road - always interesting, her depth and soulfulness exude from the
screen (and I love the thought of her at Mass in her red veil!)

5. A Thorn in the Pew - her intentions are in my prayers

6. Fr. R. at Orthometer - funny, in that 40 days in the [Utah] desert kind of dry way that is rare and AWESOME

7. Fr. F. at Bonfire of the Vanities - I wish he and his homilies were closer than Piqua...

8. Adrienne's Catholic Corner - for her work in RCIA, her educational and insightful posts are great, and she's nice as heck! (Italy WILL be on the itinerary, I promise!)

9. Kelly at Answering the Call - she is in RCIA and on her way home. She is really working hard and deserves this - and as much prayer and encouragement support as you can send her way

10. The heavenly Angela Messenger - so loving and kind and thoughtful to all.

11. (OK, had to run over) The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree with all you see, but you will laugh. Besides, I have a tender spot for my Marines, especially the naughty ones who nevertheless lead upright lives. Semper Fi, Cavey!

"HOW ARE YOU NOT GETTING THIS?!?"

Shamelessly borrowed from the highly entertaining Catholic Cavemen...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kAgCYbcMYk

Goofy stuff

UPDATE: The girls wanted in on it, too...enjoy!
My oldest and I had fun over the weekend making up avatars for the family on yahoo.com and meez.com - I made one for each aspect of my everyday life (see sidebar). It's so like me...if I ever get around to adding some collagen in the lips and regaining my formerly visible waistline. Oh well. Silly but fun.

Mille Grazie!

Thanks to St. Anthony for finding what I never knew I lost!

Another cold, grey day here, kids (and thus I) home from school for some sort of teacher's in-service day to grade recent NYS math and English tests, and I am supremely annoyed with the older two because my linen closet is ALWAYS in disarray, empty, jumbled, or a combination thereof. We have 22 towels for 5 people (one of whom is quite small). Each bed has 2-3 sets of sheets, which are folded neatly by me, but somehow end up crammed on shelves, separated, pillow cases mismatched...maddening. I have tried everything - color coding, stacking by family member, rationing, death threats - to no avail. So I feel my Irish rising and start tearing everything out...to discover, nestled behind some nice flannel wads of sheets, one of my most favorite girlie things. My last (and I'd thought used) bar of Santa Maria Novella "Garofano" (Carnation-scented) milk soap. Oh joy! Oh rapture! I bought it in Italy (Firenze, near the basilica and piazza of the same name) a few years ago when we took a family trip to Italy. The scent is so....lush and feminine, I guess, without being too flowery. It made my day, and a fabulous hot soak to soothe my hot temper.

The Farmacia Santa Maria Novella dates back to the early 1200's, when the Dominicans began their own distillery and formulated herbal remedies, and then came under the patronage and exclusive control of the Medicis in the 1600's. They make all kinds of good stuff - perfumes, soaps, skin and body care, candles, potpourri, all from recipes and formulas that are hundreds of years old. You can buy a few items online through sites like eluxury.com, some of the tonier department stores, and they have satellite stores in major cities in Europe (I hit the one in London (Chelsea) in 2003) as well as NYC and (I think) LA. The latte per il corpo (body milk) is wonderful, smells like fresh roses, as is the men's version - soft and spicy. The baby soap and lotion is one of a kind. I use it on me more than on the baby! Mmmmmm.....

My ideal dream-job retirement fantasy would be to run a SMN store in LaJolla, or maybe on Maui...

The Basilica Santa Maria Novella The Sales Room at the Farmacia

The Spice Room (Compounding/Distillery)
It's gorgeous, and well worth a stop if you are in Florence...or anywhere you can find a shop!

Oh yeah. The linen closet still looks like hell. :)

Vacation Poll

UPDATE: The poll is acting up...and I have no clue how to fix it! Feel free to respond via combox. And to reassure those who wonder, I have indeed forded the Tiber several times and would love to again. However, 3-4 days in Italy is NOT ENOUGH!!! So no slight intended to bella Italia. I just love it too much for this trip!

As many know, I turn 40 on Easter - all sorts of fun symbolism there, resurrection, life begins at 40, etc. I was all set to run off to Mexico for a week, leaving on the big night, with one of my dear friends/godmother to the boy, a beloved male friend of ours, who was also set to celebrate his 40th, and a group of 5 other grown-ups to an all-inclusive resort to bake my hide, pickle my liver, get massaged and facialed...and then my birthday buddy had to drop out for financial reasons, and the spirit of fun kinda fell out the bottom and we all decided to cancel. But my beloved knows I need to get away, and we are trying to decide how and where. As a family? Just the two of us? Cheap Europe trip? Islands? Or suck it up, get over it, stay home and save the money? Hard to know, and with the season approaching, I must make up my mind. I am open to suggestion!

Fiber is fun!

Okay, sometimes it's the little things...

I'm sitting here under the SEB (sweet electric blanket) because it is a cold, cruddy, gray day. It needs to snow or get off the pot. Then, I hear the side door thunking shut and the roar of a departing truck, which means some sort of parcel is here. No idea what it might be, Christmas is way over, and I have ordered nothing since well before. So I dragged myself away from my novel to see what might be here and....my gray day is immediately brightened!

Yay! It's one of my strange favorite things....Scott's Porage Oats, which I have to get online through British specialty stores. I picked some up at a British shop[pe] over the summer when I was back in Chicagoland, and became an addict. But there's nothing close to that kind of shop here in the middle of nowhere. So after we ran out, I found it online and ordered 2 big boxes. I reordered about a month ago and it was backordered. Totally forgot about it with the holidays, travel, etc.

Anyway...I LOVE THIS STUFF!!! (It's not the guy in the kilt, honest.) For some reason, despite all the Quaker, Silver Palate, Bushmill, steel cut, hand rolled by blind midgets at a Croatian orphanage varieties of oatmeal you can find out there these days, Scott's, cooked with more milk than water with a bit of salt and brown sugar tossed in, is THE BEST. Now, to our British and Scots friends, this is probably as bland and bourgeois as it gets -- maybe Scott's is the Quaker Instant of the UK -- but I tell you, nothing comes close. My beloved is making beady eyes at the boxes and asking if it's wrong to have oatmeal for lunch, so I know it's not just me.