As seen at Phantom Scribbler's - UPDATED!

UPDATE: I just finished reading A Day No Pigs Would Die. A three-hanky read if ever there were one. Woof. If you haven't read it, do so. It's short and moves quickly. I do see why some squeamish, prudish people might want to ban it, but phooey on them.

The Banned Books Meme.

Bold the ones you've read. Did you all know that Judy Blume is the most banned author?

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel (yes, even the newest one. And like PS, my mom gave me the first three after she'd read them and yes, I was too young for the first two.)
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (and I read it to my son often)
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) (well, one of them anyway.)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney (no, but I saw the tv movie.)
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (how does this one get banned? betting? what?)
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Seeing BigSister!

BigSister is flying in today on business. I'm picking her up at the airport and whisking her off to lunch at Sweetwater's. After, I'll drop her back at the airport so she can catch a cab to her hotel in time to meet Important People for drinks. She'll be here until Thursday and this lunch is the only time she has free.

I'm so looking forward to seeing her! The next time I get to see her will probably be Thanksgiving.

This weekend...

I probably won't be posting much due to:

SingsLullabyes and MakesBooksForGrandkids are coming for a visit. They'll be here tonight and will leave Sunday. I'm looking forward to a good visit.

While they're here to look after Muffin Man, we're having a yard sale tomorrow. For sale are Muffin Man's stroller, booster seat & Pack-n-Play (with bassinet and changing table accessories), lots of clothes, kitchen items, lawn items, and books. Also a chair with ottoman that my better half brought into the marriage. I can't wait to get this stuff out of our garage. We would sell the three plastic potties, but MM is currently using them as stools to reach the sinks in our bathrooms. (Note to self: buy better step-stools)

So I'll catch you all Sunday night or Monday. Have a lovely weekend!

Clarification

Numbers 37 and 38 below indicate that I've been sad and angry lately. I want to let you all know that I am sad about Katrina and all the people who are homeless and angry at our dear President. I hope that Rita spares everything and everyone in Texas except for his ranch in Crawford.

100 things (as seen EVERYWHERE)

1. I am 36.
2. I learned to drive when I was 27.
3. The NYT interviewed me for an article about people who learn to drive as adults.
4. I still can't drive stick.
5. I will try to make time to learn.
6. Our other car is a Jeep. Manual transmission. I'm an idiot for not having taken the time to learn how to drive our other car.
7. I admit that I planned ahead last week so that I could fill up my gas-guzzling mini-van at the cheapest place. I was near empty the day before and got 3 gallons at the expensive place to tide me over.
8. If anyone comes out with a hybrid mini-van whose pedals I can reach without having to turn off the airbag, I'm gonna buy it the next day.
9. In Brooklyn, garbage disposals are rare. After 7 years, I still get a kick out of using ours.
10. If I'm channel surfing and I come across "When Harry Met Sally" I'll stop and watch the whole thing.
11. Even if it's cut with commercials.
12. Even though I own the DVD.
13. It's changed for me since 9/11, though. I get choked up when they part ways for the first time in Washington Square, because you can see the Towers framed in the arch.
14. I refuse to watch any new series on the Sci-Fi channel.
15. Especially if they look like I'll get hooked on them.
16. Ask me why. Go ahead. Ask me.
17. Favorite shows that have been prematurely axed (not just by the Sci-Fi channel): Far Scape, Invisible Man, Joan of Arcadia, The Tick (animated), Samurai Jack, Nero Wolfe...the list goes on and on.
18. Everything I know about racing, I learned from Dick Francis.
19. Everything I know about Alaska, I learned from Dana Stabenow.
20. Everything I know about the French and Indian War, I learned from Lois Lenski.
21. Everything I know about London during the Blitz, I learned from Noel Streatfeild.
22. I have a complete set of Howard the Duck comics (issues 1 through 33 inclusive.)
23. I'd rather see the OB/GYN than the dentist.
24. I'd rather see the dentist than watch another episode of The Doodlebops.
25. I have lots of favorite foods.
26. Two of my favorites are liver and sushi.
27. The only foods I really don't like are cilantro and green peppers.
28. I do like roasted red peppers.
29. I loved IHOP's potato pancakes. They just recently took them off the menu. Sigh.
30. On the other hand, they're really not on my diet.
31. Just last week I got down to my marriage weight.
32. My goal is to get down to my still-working-at-the-bookstore weight.
33. I'm not sure if that's realistic.
34. But I'm sure as hell gonna try.
35. Even if I don't get there, I'll have reached other goals (Eating better: more veggies, more water. Getting more exercise). And they are good on their own.
36. I've been really motivated to get healthier this year because, when he was my age, MakesBooksForGrandkids had a heart attack. I'm completely grateful that he is so healthy now.
37. When I'm feeling sad or angry, I bury my nose in Muffin Man's hair and take a good sniff. It always has the power to make me feel better.
38. I've been sniffing his hair quite a bit the last few weeks.
39. My Amazon wish list is 3 pages long.
40. I feel guilty about that.
41. It was longer, but I made a new wish list just for things I want for Muffin Man.
42. All my parents are great about buying stuff for me off the wish list.
43. I feel guilty about that too.
44. Three of my four parents had birthdays in the last month.
45. Two of them on the same day.
46. I was going to blog about the simultaneous birthdays, but I hadn't blogged about the other birthday and so I didn't.
47. Because I felt guilty.
48. This is obviously something I need to work on.
49. I actually feel guilty less often than I used to.
50. I used to be on the radio in college at two different radio stations. 16 years later, I can still recite their phone numbers.
51. Those were truly my all-time-favorite jobs.
52. But they didn't pay. Anything.
53. My all-time-favorite paying job was working at the bookstore.
54. But it didn't pay. Much.
55. One of my best friends from high school died in a fire 9 years ago.
56. I miss him.
57. I can still recite his parents phone number. I should give them a call.
58. I can tell you the address of every house I've lived in since I was 5.
59. And most of their phone numbers.
60. Without looking them up.
61. But I don't remember names all that well.
62. Including step-cousins and step-step-cousins, I have 27 first cousins.
63. The oldest is 50 something, the youngest is 3. The newest is 8. (Adopted from Russia)
64. I share a birthday with the newest one.
65. All the cousins on my mom's side of the family were born on the 18th of their birth month. Me, my sister, my cousin in France and my new cousin.
66. I love the smell of the city after a summer rain
67. But the smell of the country after a summer rain is even better.
68. My favorite diet-breaking food is a Big Mac. Mmmmmmm....
69. All my favorite breakfasts include eggs.
70. I invented a breakfast sandwich I call the Jewish Egg McMuffin. Take an english muffin or a bialy if you've got one. Toast it. Fry up an egg. Schmear the toasted muffin or bialy with chive cheese, add some smoked white fish, pop on the egg and top with the other half of muffin or bialy. Have lots of napkins handy. So delicious. But not at all kosher.
71. I love to cook, but I haven't done much of it lately.
72. I think Alton Brown is terrific.
73. Rachel Ray annoys me. Keep your hands still for a minute! But I like her $40 A Day show.
74. All my favorite tv shows have a considerable amount of snark.
75. Chef! is a great example of the kind of show I like.
76. If you haven't seen Chef!, all I can say is, I pity you.
77. I haven't seen a movie in a theatre since the first X-Men. I think. Was that after the first Harry Potter?
78. It's not the ticket prices, or even the concession prices, it's the commercials and the talking.
79. That said, the Coke commercial with Dave Chappelle was pretty good.
80. I do the NYT crossword puzzle on-line most days. I spend $20/year for the privilege.
81. I play way too much Spider Solitaire.
82. My husband and I are pretty evenly matched at Scrabble.
83. We play all our games strictly "Top of the Box".
84. Except "Man Bites Dog", we added a few poker variations to that.
85. Hearing my son laugh can make me giddy with happiness.
86. I love watching him become an independent boy, but I miss my little baby.
87. He made his own toast the other day, butter and all. I wanted to cry.
88. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
89. Yes, I'm Jewish. You wanna make something of it?
90. Both my sets of parents were totally into Christmas. Trees, carols, the works.
91. Thanksgiving's good too.
92. But, let's face it, Christmas wins because of the fabulous music, the pretty lights, and the whole idea of it. Peace. Good will. Love your neighbor.
93. We could use a bit more of that.
94. I bite my fingers, not my fingernails.
95. I hate that I do this and have often tried to stop.
96. I used to bite my fingernails too, but I finally stopped that. So there's hope.
98. I sucked my thumb until I was nine. At nine, I finally lost my last lovey (I called it a "Silkie") and stopped the thumb-sucking cold-turkey.
99. My teeth look great. Never had braces.
100. My favorite shopping experiences are Wegman's, Nordstrom's, and Amazon.com/co.uk/ca. Pretty much in that order.

As seen at ProfGrrrrl's

Rules:
1. Go into your archive. (Blogger dashboard)
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). Got it.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). Got it.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Got it.

It's the shortest (non-dialog) sentence in the whole piece. The one just before it is a doozy.

It had.

Behold! The power of stickers.

Muffin Man woke up dry this morning but wanted a diaper on to go pee. "Go in the potty", say I.
"Diaper!"
"Well, alright. I'll go and get you a diaper, but you know, you don't get stickers for staying dry all night if you pee in a diaper. It just doesn't count unless you go in the potty."
"Diaper!"
"Okay, I'm going to get one. It's too bad you won't be getting any stickers this morning."

By the time I got back, he'd gone running to the bathroom and went in the toilet.

Stickers. Where would we be without them?

My Fair Baby (With lyrics writing help from Genevieve)

My son was dry all night
Yes, he was dry all night
Although he woke at four

We went to pee
And then he asked me
To sleep upon his floor

I told him, "No."
And as I rose to go
He kissed me and hugged me tight.

I only know, when he,
said "OK, good night, mommy",
I got to sleep sleep sleeeep
ALLL NIIIIIGHT*

* Thanks Genevieve!! I was stuck for this last verse and you wrote it for me.

And I still owe you a prize from before. Two prizes now. Thanks again!!!

And then he slept through until 7:30. That's my boy.

Well, two out of three....

I neglected to tell you folks that Muffin Man went diaperless to bed the last three nights. The first two nights he was DRY ALL NIGHT. Last night, not so much. He was so upset when he woke himself up in a wet bed a little before 7:00 this morning (please note, 7:00!!! No 4:00 visits two nights running! Can I hear a "Hallelujah!"?) I got him out of his wet pjs and stripped the bed and popped everything in the wash and told him all the while that it's okay, everybody wets the bed sometimes.

He wasn't buying it.

Oh well.

"Gee, I'm sorry if you think we didn't do a good enough job"

Washington Post: Bush on Failed Rescue: 'I Take Responsibility'

Some housekeeping notes

Every so often I find a new blog, or a new blogger finds me and I wait until I have a bunch of new ones and then I add them to my list at the right.

At the same time, I go through the list and I grit my teeth and I remove links to blogs that haven't updated in a while.

This is one of those times. I've added several new friends and said sad goodbyes to others. If you are a blogger that I've removed, start posting again and let me know!!!! (And if I've over-looked adding anybody, please let me know.)

Yet...I am also feeling smug.

Scrivener is talking about carpooling which makes me ask, did I or did I not pick a great time to cut my commute by two-thirds?

I am a weinie.

Yesterday morning: 4:18. I am awakened by the sound of Muffin Man's bedroom door opening. I wait. He appears next to me. "Mommy? Can I sleep with you?" I was tired. I didn't want to wake up enough to take him back to bed. I let him crawl in with us.

This morning: 4:25. I am awakened by the sound of Muffin Man's bedroom door opening. I wait. He appears next to me. "Mommy? Can I sleep with you?". This time, I am slightly more alert. I do not want this to be a nightly occurance. I say no.
"But I want you to sleep with me!" I bring him back to bed. He asks me again to sleep with him. I am too tired to get into a big thing with him. I bring blankets and pillows into his room and sleep on the floor next to his bed. He is in his own bed. A slight improvement, but still, not what I am aiming for. He cries in his sleep around 5:30, an obvious nightmare. I shush him and he seems comforted, he stops calling out. I am glad at that moment that I'm in his room, but still, it's not what I am aiming for.

What am I aiming for? I want what we had before our trip to Tampa. Him in his bed, me in mine and everybody sleeping all the way through the night. If there is another 4 AM visit tomorrow morning, I hope I will be able to wake up enough to move toward my goal.

Blame it on Andrea this time.

Andrea has a post about a song which reminded me of this song, though I've been reminded of this song for the last couple of weeks anyway. I first heard it at a Four Bitchin' Babes concert (Christine Lavin, Sally Fingerett, Megon McDonough, and Patty Larkin) and I wept along with everyone else. Here are the lyrics, and as Andrea says, have a hanky handy.

Home Is Where The Heart Is
© 1990 Sally Fingerett
On our corner, there's this nice man, his name is Mark, he's always smiling
He's got this mom who comes on Wed. in the evening with soup so steaming
He shares his house with his friend Martin, They're not brothers, they're not cousins
My little girl wonders all about these men, I take hold of her hand, I begin.

CHORUS:
Home is where the heart is
No matter how the heart lives
Inside your heart where love is
That's where you've got to make yourself
At home.

Through the yard live Deb and Tricia, with their drills and ladders and their room addition
My kid yells over are you having a baby, they wink and smile and say, "Someday maybe"
Through their doors go kids and mommies, funny how you don't see the daddies go in.
My little girl wonders 'bout the house with no men, I take hold of her hand, I begin

Home is where the heart is......CHORUS

'Round the corner, here comes Martin, he's alone now, he tries smilin'
He roams around his well-stocked kitchen, he knows that fate will soon be comin'
My little girl wonders where will he live,
I take hold of her hand and I begin

Home is where the heart is.....CHORUS

Martin sits and waits with his window open, his house is empty his heart is broken
We bring him toys and water colors, he loves to hear my little baby's stories.
She's the gift I share, she's his companion, she's the string on the kite
She guides him up into the wind.....into the wind
My little girl wonders who will care for him, We take hold of his hand, we begin, let's begin now

Home is where the heart is.....CHORUS

Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken

It's from Cooking Light. If any of you folks have qualms about registering (it's free to register, say you're a newstand buyer and fill out the form), I'll e-mail the recipe to you.

Absolutely delicious.

Missing you.

wtc
Originally uploaded by Mystery Mommy.

Jury Duty

Jury duty in Brooklyn, NY is a biannual three day marathon of bench-sitting. We sit in an auditorium the size of a high school gymnasium, about four hundred people sitting on rows and rows of benches. These are no ordinary benches. They are pews with hard wooden seats, eight inches wide. Just wide enough to cut the circulation to your knees by the time you’ve sat in them for an hour.

Despite the discomfort of sitting on the benches of doom for 8 hours a day, three days in a row, I always enjoyed serving jury duty. I would bring a few books and my knitting and would luxuriate in getting re-acquainted with my old friends Josephine Tey, Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Reginald Hill. Nothing like reading a good, old-fashioned mystery when waiting to be empanelled for a jury in Brooklyn.

I hear that post-9/11, jurors are not allowed to bring their knitting anymore. I suppose the knitting needles must be considered lethal weapons. I’m saddened especially because disasters like 9/11 and Katrina are often the catalyst many people need to start knitting. Making order out of chaos. Creation out of destruction. Plus, making warm things for people to wear is so satisfying.

The last time I served jury duty was 1997. Between jobs, going to school at night, I had time free and hoped I’d be picked for a jury. I was empanelled for a case against a drug dealer. When it came to be my turn for voir dire, the conversation went like this:

Q: “Have you ever been the victim of a crime?”A: “Yes, I was home during a push-in robbery when I was 10, and held-up twice at gunpoint while working
retail”
Q: “Wow. Anyone else in your family ever been the victim of a crime?”
A: “Aside from car thefts and burglaries when no one was home, no. I’m the crime magnet in the family.” (Laughter) I could see the lawyer for the defense decide not to take me.
Q: “Are you an attorney, related to an attorney or work for an attorney?”
A: “I’m working part-time as an office manager for [insert name of Big Time Defense Lawyer].” (There went the prosecution’s vote).

After I answered a few more questions and the rest of the pool were questioned, we were sent out into the hall to wait. No benches here, just a few radiators and one chair they brought out for the ubiquitous grandmotherly lady with the high blood-pressure. We waited. And waited. And took bets on who they’d pick. Everyone but me thought they’d choose me. I knew they wouldn’t. I was right.

Here in Ashburn, my jury duty consisted of one phone call the night before I was due to serve. It was Memorial Day weekend and I was in "Group 1" on the notice they sent me. I called the number, they said "Group One is not needed. If you are in Group One, you have completed your service." Hmpfff. I was disappointed. I was looking forward to spending some quality time with Reginald.

The Skull, by popular demand

Lo these many years ago, I was working retail in a mall. I worked one of those kiosks in the main corridors of the mall and at night we had to put up these stupid awnings to cover the kiosk. One night my co-worker didn't show up to help me and, as I may have already said one or two times, I'm pretty short. The awnings attached at the top of the kiosk. The kiosk is about 7' tall.

I stood on a wobbly stool to attach the awnings.

The wobbly stool slipped out from under my feet.

I landed head-first on the concrete floor.

I took a cab home. Went to bed. Woke up the next morning needing to throw up and feeling very dizzy. Went to the doctor (in a cab). Got checked. They found I couldn't focus my eyes (not uncommon for me, I have a lazy eye) and said, "You've won an MRI!" I was fine, just a bit concussed.

So yes, VERY, VERY, VERY stupid. STUPID.

Alphabet Meme (seen everywhere, but this one copied from Pink Cupcake (see "N"))

A - Accent. I was the only person in my linguistics class in college that my teacher couldn't place. "Somewhere in the east, probably mid-atlantic." was the best he came up with. "wud it help ya if I tawkt like dis?" I asked. "BROOKLYN? How'd you manage to escape without an accent?"
Just lucky I guess.
B - Bra Size. 36 DD.
C - Chore you hate. Cleaning. Like most of you.
D - Dad's name. MakesBooksForGrandkids.
E - Essential make-up. Sunscreen.
F - Favourite Perfume. None. NONE.
G - Gold or Silver? Used to be silver, now it's gold.
H - Hometown. BROOKLYN!!!
I - Insomnia. No.
J - Job Title. Software developer.
K - Kids. MUFFIN MAN!
L - Living Arrangements. Co-habiting with husband and son in a somewhat walkable sub-division.
M - Mom's birthplace. BROOKLYN!
N - Favourite Noldo I have no idea what this is. Does anyone else know??
O - Overnight Hospital Stay. Muffin Man's birth. Arrived Friday, left Monday.
P - Phobia. Small high spaces. And tsunamis.
Q - Favourite Quote."I'm monitoring the culture!"
R - Religious affiliation. Culturally Jewish. Spiritually, somewhat Quaker, mostly agnostic.
S - Siblings. One older sister. My tooth fairy.
T - Time I get up. 6:30. My alarm consists of a door creaking open, little feet padding down the hall and a smiling face peeking in at the door.
U - Unnatural hair colours. Never.
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat. Does cilantro count?
W - Worst habit. Nail biting. Actually, cuticle biting. I'm finally leaving the nails alone, but I'm having trouble with the cuticles.
X - X-rays you've had. Teeth, wrists (only sprains), foot (small broken bone), nose (broken in summer camp), lungs (whooping cough), neck/spine (car accident), skull (I did something incredibly stupid)
Y - Yummy foods you make. Oven-fried coconut chicken, spicy ginger peanut chicken, spaghetti sauce, salmon-salad sandwiches.
Z - Zodiac sign. Pisces.

And about Busch Gardens

I loved Busch Gardens. They have a great little kids area (all adults must be accompanied by a child, you must be UNDER this height to go on this ride). Muffin Man had a ball. A serious, grin-all-over-the-face, laughing out loud great time.

AND....ALL THE SINKS AND SOAP-DISPENSERS ARE HANDICAPPED-ACCESSIBLE!!! Which means that they are also accessible by a completely potty-trained, independence-demanding three-year-old.

AND...it's all a little less huge than Disney. No big costumed characters running around. We'll do Disney in a few years, but I'm glad we had this opportunity to do something a bit smaller.

A shout out to a local moving company

From an e-mail I received today:

J&K Moving & Storage is generously providing its trucks, facilities and manpower to collect, palletize and ship donations to the victims of Hurricane Katrina...a collection truck [will be] onsite at Capital Community Church from Wednesday through Sunday morning this week. After Sunday, everything collected will be added to a larger shipment and delivered directly to people in need ASAP.

The types of items that can be utilized by the hurricane victims include:

• Water
• Drinks (no powdered drinks)
• Non perishable food
• Blankets & Pillows
• Clothing
• Toys & games for kids
• Toiletries
• Tools, etc. (you probably have a good idea as to what people need)

If you have anything you can donate, please drop it off at Capital Community Church on 20430 Ashburn Village Blvd. When traveling toward Rt. 7 on AVB, the church is on the right after you pass the sports pavilion. If you drop off during the weekdays, you can leave donations in the church lobby. In the evenings and on the weekend, you can take your donations directly to the truck as volunteers will be helping to load.

If you have any questions, you can call...the church at 703-858-3864 ext. 200

Hooray for J&K, you can be sure we'll call them first the next time we need to move. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a web page, or I'd link to them.

Links to help

I'm linking to JenEx who has lots of links of places that will take supplies for displaced families and children.

And speaking of Katrina...

Please check out OTBKB today and yesterday for some addresses to send physical supplies to (not just money). UPS will deliver to these places, so if you want to send tangibles and not fungibles, you can send 'em to these places.

The lists of what they need are valid as of today.

As soon as I can, I'm heading over to Costco to get stuff to send and over to Inova to donate blood. And, of course, donating money.

Down in Tampa, this was all very much local news as many Katrina victims were shipped to Tampa Bay Area hospitals.

We're back!!

What'd I miss? I'll try to catch up quick!

Pictures were taken of Muffin Man and as soon as we get some of them back, I'll post 'em. He was adorable.

He did a fabulous job as ring bearer and received a watch from us and a silver train bank from SIL for a job well done. SIL looked glorious and she and her new husband were radiant.

Yesterday, we spent the day at Busch Gardens with SIL and new BIL (still radiant) and MM fed the birds and rode the dragon boat ALL BY HIMSELF. He only melted down once, when we were already on our way back to the car. Pretty impressive actually.

The whole long weekend went very well and he was a real trouper.

Very, very, very glad to be back.

Oh! And we went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time and won 5 tickets. At this rate we'll have to go back at least 75 times to actually get a toy.