Zoo!!! Now with Blogger Meetup!

Went to the petting zoo with Muffin Man, Angry Pregnant Lawyer, and Angry Boy (who's not so much with the angry, by the way. She really needs to think of changing his pseudonym to Angelic Boy)

Much fun was had feeding and petting the goats and donkeys and singing to the ring-tailed lemurs ("I like to move it, move it..."). Beautiful day for it.

Then we came back here for lunch. And now APL and AB are off back home and MM is having quiet time.

Stop the Presses!!!

Muffin Man woke up. Went to the potty and made a poop! Without waking us up! (he woke us up to wipe his butt)

He's so proud of himself.

Unbeknownst to him I had a special prize waiting for just such an occasion. He's playing with it now.

Freaky Friday - Now with Blogger Meetup!

1. Communications class cancelled. I didn't find out about it until I got there and saw the note on the door. Couldn't leave to go to blogger meetup early because of...

2. Study session scheduled for after Communications class. But I should have left anyway because both study partners stood me up.

3. The printer system at school wasn't working until the very last minute for me to print out directions to get to Dupont Circle to meet up with...

4. Profgrrrrl! Who is even funnier and nicer than she is on her blog, and was very kind about me being late. Oh, AND she's gorgeous, which she never says on her blog. And we attracted a flock of sparrows who coveted our food. She rescued my day....seriously. I hope I didn't make her think I'm always as flaky as I must have seemed today.

Glad you got home safely, Profgrrrrl!

5. And then I had to get home, dress up in my finest toggery (I looked mahvelous, as did Mr. Spock), go pick up Muffin Man (oohs and ahhs on the toggery), drop him off at my SIL's, and go with Mr. Spock to a local political shindig. Mingled. Sat with a former co-worker and car-pool partner and his lovely and intelligent wife. Left as early as we could after the last of the speeches. Retreived a sleeping Muffin Man. Got home. Tore a hole in floor-length skirt. Thank goodness, it can be rescued with a bit of judicious hemming.

At pick-up today...

Muffin Man comes running to me shouting, "Mommy, Mommy! SweetPrettyGirl and I got married today!"
SweetPrettyGirl (whose mom is standing right beside me) says, "Yeah! He's my prince and I'm his princess!"
Muffin Man: "She's my bride."

Every letter makes a sound...

ABC meme

Most recently seen at Jo(e)'s, I've also caught sight of it at Phantom's and Raising WEG.

Accent: My linguistics professor at First College couldn't place my accent closer than "somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic States." He got everybody else within about 10 miles.
Booze: Allergic. Sigh....
Chore I Hate: Cleaning the bathroom. I hate scrubbing and I never get it as clean as I want it to be.
Dog or Cat: Both.
Essential Electronics: Hmmmm....probably this laptop. Otherwise how would I catch up with you all?
Favorite Cologne: None. Ugh.
Gold or Silver: Gold jewelry, silver hair.
Hometown: BROOKLYN!
Insomnia: Rarely. Unless I've got some big deadline the next day.
Job Title: Mommy. And Full-time Student.
Kids: One.
Living arrangements: Single family house 10 miles west of Dulles airport, with Mr. Spock and Muffin Man.
Most admirable traits: Smart-alecky, Good Hugs.
Number of sexual partners: My parents read this, so I will just say "More than Mother Theresa, Fewer than Messalina."
Overnight hospital stays: One. Muffin Man's birth.
Phobias: Small high spaces.
Quote: "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Religion: I put the "ish" in Jewish.
Siblings: One sister.
Time I wake up: Generally whenever my alarm clock awakens me.
Unusual talent or skill: I can read while walking.
Vegetable I love: Artichokes served with breadcrumbs sauted with garlic.
Worst habit: Chewing on or picking at my cuticles.
X-rays: Teeth, chest (whooping cough), nose (broken at camp), foot (broke small bone walking dog while wearing high heels), neck (car accident), wrist (stupid mistake).
Yummy foods I make: Osso Bucco, Ham, Prime Rib.
Zodiac sign: Pisces.

Spoiled Rotten

As seen at Purple Kangaroo's:

Tick the ones that are true. If you tick 40 or more, you're spoiled. And I am.

Do you have...

X☑ your own cell phone
☐ a television in your bedroom
☐ an iPod
☐ a photo printer
☐ your own phone line
X☐ TiVo or a generic digital video recorder
X☑ high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup)
☐ a surround sound system in bedroom
☐ DVD player in bedroom
☐ at least a hundred DVDs
☑ a childfree bathroom (Mostly)
X ☑ your own in-house office (does a corner of the bedroom count?)
X ☐ a pool (It's an inflatable one, does that count?)
☐ a guest house
☐ a game room
X ☑ a queen-size bed (we actually have two of these, one in our room that we made and one in the guest room.)
☑ a stocked bar
X☑ a working dishwasher
X☐ an icemaker
X☐ a working washer and dryer
☐ more than 20 pairs of shoes
X☐ at least ten things from a designer store (if Nordstrom's counts.)
☐ expensive sunglasses
X☐ framed original art (not lithographs or prints) (Both my father and step-father are artists)☐ Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
X☑ a multi-speed bike
☑ a gym membership
X☑ large exercise equipment at home (an exercycle in the bedroom, which I often hang clothes on.
☐ your own set of golf clubs
☐ a pool table
☐ a tennis court
☐ local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea (lots of water within an hour's drive of here)
☑ your own pair of skis
☑ enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
☐ a boat
☐ a jet ski
X☐ a neighborhood committee membership
☐ a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
X☐ wealthy family members
X☐ two or more family cars
X☐ a walk-in closet or pantry (closets)
X☐ a yard
☑ a hammock
☐ a personal trainer
X☑ good credit
X☐ expensive jewelry (5 nice things)
☐ a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
X☑ at least $100 cash in your possession right now
X☐ more than two credit cards bearing your name (not counting gas cards or debit cards)
X☑ a stock portfolio (small, but we do have a few shares of mutual funds)
X☑ a passport
☐ a horse
☐ a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
X☐ private medical insurance
☑ a college degree, and no outstanding student loans

Do you:
☐ shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week X☐ do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
X☐ pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry-cleaning) (if hiring a teenager for a few hours every now and then counts)
X☐ go on weekend mini-vacations
☐ send dinners back with every flaw
☐ wear perfume or cologne (not body spray)
☐ regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
☐ have a job but don't need the money OR
X☐ stay at home with little financial sacrifice (my husband is carrying the freight while I go to school)
☐ pay someone else to cook your meals
X☐ pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs (Posh New Place)
☐ regularly pay someone else to drive you
☐ expect a gift after you fight with your partner

Are you:
☐ an only child
☐ married/partnered to a wealthy person
☐ baffled/surprised when you don't get your way

Have you:
☐ been on a cruise
X☑ traveled out of the country (France)
X☑ met a celebrity (Dude! Native New Yorker!)
☐ been to the Caribbean
X☑ been to Europe
☑ BEEN TO HONG KONG
X☐ been to Hawaii
X☐ been to New York (Dude! BORN in New York!)
☐ eaten at the space needle in Seattle
☐ been to the Mall of America
☐ been on the Eiffel tower in Paris (Too tall, too small)
X☐ been on the Statue of Liberty in New York (This is why I didn't go up the Eiffel Tower)
☐ moved more than three times because you wanted to
X☑ dined with local political figures
X☑ been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast

Did you:
☐ go to another country for your honeymoon (We honeymooned at my mom's house.)
X☐ hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
X☐ take riding or swimming lessons as a child (swimming)
X☐ attend private school (elementary school)
X☐ have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you (I had about 10 friends over for a Roaring Twenties party)

A conversation...

With a friend from grade school. She's in Florida now...a musician. She sounds mellow and happy.

It's hard to believe that I haven't seen her in over 15 years.........

Stolen from Overread

Who I've just added to my blogroll over here-->
Hi Overread!!!

The list is Ebert's 101 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Bold the ones you've seen.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) Stanley Kubrick
"The 400 Blows" (1959) Francois Truffaut
"8 1/2" (1963) Federico Fellini
"Aguirre, the Wrath of God" (1972) Werner Herzog
"Alien" (1979) Ridley Scott. (Ick, ick, ick. )
"All About Eve" (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz (still on my DVD shelf. I'll watch it after finals are over)
"Annie Hall" (1977) Woody Allen
"Bambi" (1942) Disney
"Battleship Potemkin" (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) William Wyler
"The Big Red One" (1980) Samuel Fuller
"The Bicycle Thief" (1949) Vittorio De Sica
"The Big Sleep" (1946) Howard Hawks
"Blade Runner" (1982) Ridley Scott
"Blowup" (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
"Blue Velvet" (1986) David Lynch (also ick)
"Bonnie and Clyde"(1967) Arthur Penn
"Breathless" (1959 Jean-Luc Godard
"Bringing Up Baby" (1938) Howard Hawks
"Carrie" (1975) Brian DePalma
"Casablanca"(1942) Michael Curtiz (God, I love this movie.)
"Un Chien Andalou" (1928) Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali
"Children of Paradise"/ "Les Enfants du Paradis" (1945) Marcel Carne
"Chinatown"(1974) Roman Polanski
"Citizen Kane" (1941) Orson Welles
"A Clockwork Orange"(1971) StanleyKubrick (icky, icky)
"The Crying Game" (1992) Neil Jordan (Jaye sat next to me on the subway once. I saw him reflected in the window opposite. I nodded at him. He nodded back. I went back to my book.)
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) Robert Wise (soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann)
"Days of Heaven" (1978) Terence Malick
"Dirty Harry" (1971) Don Siegel
"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) Luis Bunuel
"Do the Right Thing" (1989) Spike Lee
"La Dolce Vita" (1960) Federico Fellini
"Double Indemnity" (1944) Billy Wilder
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying andLove the Bomb" (1964) StanleyKubrick ("What is the good of a Doomsday device if you don't tell anyone about it?")
"Duck Soup" (1933) Leo McCarey
"E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) StevenSpielberg
"Easy Rider" (1969) Dennis Hopper
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) Irvin Kershner
"The Exorcist" (1973) William Friedkin
"Fargo"(1995) Joel & Ethan Coen
"Fight Club" (1999) David Fincher
"Frankenstein" (1931) James Whale
"The General" (1927) Buster Keaton & ClydeBruckman
"The Godfather," "The Godfather, PartII" (1972, 1974) Francis Ford Coppola
"Gone With the Wind" (1939) Victor Fleming
"GoodFellas" (1990) Martin Scorsese
"The Graduate" (1967) Mike Nichols
"Halloween" (1978) John Carpenter
"A Hard Day's Night" (1964) Richard Lester
"Intolerance" (1916) D.W. Griffith
"It's A Gift" (1934) Norman Z. McLeod
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) Frank Capra ("Hotdog!")
"Jaws" (1975) Steven Spielberg
"The Lady Eve" (1941) PrestonSturges
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) David Lean
"M" (1931) Fritz Lang
"Mad Max 2" / "The Road Warrior" (1981)George Miller
"The Maltese Falcon" (1941) John Huston
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) JohnFrankenheimer
"Metropolis" (1926) Fritz Lang
"Modern Times" (1936) Charles Chaplin
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) TerryJones & Terry Gilliam ("Help! Help! I'm being repressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!")
"Nashville"(1975) Robert Altman
"The Night of the Hunter" (1955) Charles Laughton
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968) George Romero
"North by Northwest" (1959) Alfred Hitchcock (sigh)
"Nosferatu" (1922) F.W. Murnau
"On the Waterfront" (1954) Elia Kazan
"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) Sergio Leone
"Out of the Past" (1947) Jacques Tournier
"Persona" (1966) Ingmar Bergman
"Pink Flamingos" (1972) John Waters
"Psycho" (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) Quentin Tarantino
"Rashomon" (1950) Akira Kurosawa
"Rear Window" (1954) Alfred Hitchcock (sigh)
"Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) Nicholas Ray (Is there anyone out there who didn't cry at the end?)
"Red River" (1948) Howard Hawks
"Repulsion" (1965) Roman Polanski
"Rules of the Game" (1939) Jean Renoir
"Scarface" (1932) Howard Hawks
"The Scarlet Empress" (1934) Josef von Sternberg
"Schindler's List" (1993) Steven Spielberg
"The Searchers" (1956) John Ford
"The Seven Samurai" (1954) Akira Kurosawa
"Singin' in the Rain" (1952) Stanley Donen &Gene Kelly
"Some Like It Hot" (1959) Billy Wilder ("I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop")
"A Star Is Born" (1954) George Cukor
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) Elia Kazan
"Sunset Boulevard" (1950) Billy Wilder
"Taxi Driver" (1976) Martin Scorsese
"The Third Man" (1949) Carol Reed
"Tokyo Story" (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
"Touch of Evil" (1958) Orson Welles
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) JohnHuston
"Trouble in Paradise" (1932) Ernst Lubitsch
"Vertigo" (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
"West Side Story" (1961) Jerome Robbins/RobertWise
"The Wild Bunch" (1969) Sam Peckinpah
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) Victor Fleming

On my way...

...to becoming a Psychology major. I've got my sign-off from the Psych. Dept., now I need to get one from English Lit. then I hand the change form in to the Registrar's office.

I'm feeling...odd...about this. My self-conception for years - heck my blog's name! - is that of a reader, a Lit. major. Even for those two decades when I was between schools, I never questioned that if I ever graduated, it would be with a degree in English Lit.

But I'm feeling really excited about the decision. It feels right. It feels good.

I knew I had to change when I was looking at the Fall catalog and most of the classes that really interested me were psychology classes. Many more of them grabbed my attention than the English classes (though I am taking one that really got me - Historical Criticism of Children's Literature. Doesn't that sound yummy?). And I admitted to myself that the same thing had happened for the Summer schedule as well.

And another plus is it won't take me any longer to graduate.

I can't wait for the Summer session to start! Developmental Psychology, here I come!

Odd coincidence

My driving instructor (I'm taking a refresher course, because I'm somewhat of a distracted driver) was born the same day as me. The exact same day. And she didn't learn to drive until she was 27 - exactly the same as me. How weird is that? That we both were born at the same time and were learning to drive at the same time and that we met because of driving????

I am...

This is an exercise from my communications class. Write 20 sentences that start "I am..."

1. I am a mother.
2. I am a wife.
3. I am a daughter.
4. I am a sister.
5. I am a (good) student.
6. I am an avid reader.
7. I am a blogger.
8. I am a good friend.
9. I am better at math and science than I thought.
10. I am a good cook.
11. I am short.
12. I am Jewish.
13. I am easily distracted.
14. I am taking refresher driving lessons.
15. I am a pretty good navigator (navigatrix?)
16. I am a sports jinx.
17. I am having a hard time giving up foods I shouldn't eat.
18. I am often disorganized.
19. I am a procrastinator.
20. I am sometimes very silly.

Holy Guacamole, Phantom!

Phantom Scribbler is a goddess.


Go congratulate her, if you haven't already.

Yipes! I've been gone a while!

Busy, busy, busy...doing end of term crap. Almost finished with a paper for one class (need feedback from Prof.), then need to adapt it for another class. I've been researching for another paper in another class - due next Friday with a presentation. Good news? It's on how leadership roles are shown to good effect in Casablanca. Bad news? Reading scholarly articles on leadership.

Bought a book today for a class I'm going to test out of. Good news? I could probably pass the test today without reading the book. Bad news? The book cost $100!

Lots of other homework and reading assignments...yadda, yadda, yadda.

But I'll leave you with this thought.
My opinion: Casablanca has the highest number of best lines of any movie ever made.
"Play it, Sam"
"I'm shocked, shocked! to find gambling going on here!"
"Here's looking at you, Kid."
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine."
"Round up the usual suspects."
"This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"I'm only a poor corrupt official."
"We'll always have Paris"
"The problems of three little people doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

Discuss.

D'oh!!!

This blog is one year and 2 days old. I can't believe I missed its birthday.

I've gotten an enormous amount of enjoyment from being here and knowing you all. Last year had a lot of changes, I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Recurring Nightmare

When I was little I had a recurring nightmare. I would be in the house in Truro standing in front of that window looking out toward Fisher Beach. And I could see a wave coming, taller than the hill the house was on, rolling over the sand, up the hill and crashing through the window.

I would wake up panicking, unable to breathe.

I didn't even know then that there were such things as tsunamis. The wave that destroyed everything in my dream as a child was a product of my own imagination, my own anxieties.

I don't know where I was going with this. I was going to say something deep and meaningful, but it keeps coming out trite and self-centered.

The Words Meme UPDATED

As seen at Bookworm

Words that always look misspelled to me:
Definite
Independent

Words that look nicer in italics:
Serving size: 1

Words I enjoy saying:
Douchebag
popover

Words I enjoy hearing:
I love you
Mommy

Abbreviations I dislike:
OMG

Proper nouns I enjoy:
Hackensack
Mashpee

Words I associate with happiness:
Book
Casablanca
Cozy
Comfy

Words I always misspell:
See above (words that always look misspelled to me)

Words I enjoy spelling correctly, every time:
Schedule (long story involving piano lessons. Perhaps I'll tell it one day.)
Arctic (I enjoy saying it correctly, too.)

Words that, though I love their meaning, I'm too embarrassed to say out loud: I can't think of any. Not much for word embarrassment.

Edited to Add:
Words I can't spell out loud without getting a song stuck in my head:
Mickey
Mouse
Saturday

As seen at Phantom Scribbler's - the Women Writers Meme

Instructions: Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've been wanting/might like to read. ??Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of?? Plus I'm adding this, as Turtlebella noted that the choice of books by each author is a mite idiosyncratic: put an asterisk if you've read something else by the same author.

Allcott, Louisa May–Little Women (Have any of you read "Work"? Waaaay ahead of its time.)
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
*Atwood, Margaret–Cat's Eye
Austen, Jane–Emma (and everything else she ever wrote)
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters??
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwoodde ??
Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It's Me Margaret (I don't think they should have taken out the belts, either.)
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden (And everything else I could get my hands on. I agree with PS, those potatoes sounded delish.)
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
Chopin, Kate–The Awakening
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express (and everything else she wrote.)
*Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South??
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory??
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day??
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems (a few of them anyway.)
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca ("I dreamed last night I went to Manderly again...")
*Eliot, George–Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen??
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl (and it still haunts me)
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper
Gordimer, Nadine–July's People
*Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence (why this one and not the best of the series, "G is for Gumshoe"?)
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
*Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley (I think she either ties or wins for most books or stories made into a movie by Hitchcock. I think she has 3, DuMaurier had 2)
hooks, bell–Bone Black
*Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl??
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona??
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying
*Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees
*Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
Larsen, Nella–Passing??
L'Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
*Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
*Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger??
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals??
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series (any of them)
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
*McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve??
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy Maud–Anne of Green Gables (and, once again, all her other books and stories that I could get my hands on.)
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost??
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji??
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller's Wife
*Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
*O'Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
*Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister's Keeper?
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats (Again, agreeing with PS here. Rombauer yes, Ray no.)
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping??
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci??
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein (Kind of. I got 3 chapters in and had to give it up. Dull. Dull. Dull.)
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth??
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle??
*Steel, Danielle–The House
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah–You're Wearing That
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife's Tale (Mark me down as another fan)
Urquhart, Jane–Away??
*Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
*Welty, Eudora–One Writer's Beginnings
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence (parts of the movie were filmed at my mom and stepdad's friend's house)
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods (and the rest and the cookbook. I even cooked the goose for Christmas the year I was 10)
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
*Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One's Own

There are an awful lot of authors that could be on this list, and aren't. Such as Georgette Heyer, Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey...and those are just the 1930's British Mystery Writers!

Who do you think is the most glaring admission?

Laughing until my face hurt.

Red-haired Friend and I went out for dinner. We haven't seen much of each other lately due to work (her) and school (both of us) and what not.

We ate at an Italian restaurant while she vented about her employer (where I used to work) and I told her about my score on my latest Statistics test (cough, 97, cough) and we both bitched about things we bitch to each other about and then we went for dessert and talked some more and then we went to DSW.

Have y'all ever been to DSW?

Rows upon rows upon rows of shoes. Sneakers, sandals, boots, pumps, slingbacks, slippers, and everything in between. And while they do have some really nice shoes they also have some doozies.

Like the pump that was made of a horsehair upper, dyed in a leopard print that someone went a little too crazy with the Bedazzler on. And the bronze lame loafer. And the rose tapestry print number that had a pink snake skin toe and heel and was finished off with a lavender suede bow in back. Ooooh! And the VERY high top sneaker that was frayed along the edges and had an embroidered dragon up the side. And let's not forget the sandal that had a monkey climbing a palmtree on it. And the pumps made of orange gum-boot rubber. I only wish that DSW had an on-line store so that I could show you how truly hideous these shoes were.

And then there was the selection of purses. There was one that looked pretty good. Black. Basic. But....then we turned it around. It was covered on the other side with loosely sewn on pieces of abalone. HIDEOUS!

We couldn't stop laughing. "Here!" we'd say. "THIS is the shoe you've been looking for!" We'd discuss the shoes that almost worked and what would have made them not atrocious. Like the linen sandal that was nice and normal looking from the front and had this truly abominable 4" high narrow cork wedge.

I love Red-haired Friend. I especially love that she appreciates the power of an amazingly ugly shoe.

Mr. Potato-head comes to our house

After months and months of stubborn refusal, Muffin Man made a poop in the potty. At school. With witnesses.

This deserves praise and a prize.

I've stocked up on other prizes in the hopes that this isn't a one-off.

I'm hoping this is the end of diapers for the Mystery household...keep your fingers crossed for us!

And, I'm going out for dinner tonight with Red-Haired Friend. Could this day be any better?

Oh well...

...it was fun while it lasted.

Apropos of nothing...

Can someone please explain to me why Muffin Man was up four times last night?

Last Night's Dinner and a Muffin Man Update

Yesterday, after my Statistics study group was over, I drove to our nearby Wegman's. Inside, I bought:

• Fruit (strawberries and bananas, both of which Muffin Man will eat greedily)
• Spinach (intended for last night's dinner, but in the end not used)
• A package of sliced miniture portabello mushrooms
• A package of coiled sweet italian sausage (I wanted to buy bulk, but they didn't have any) and
• A small container of ricotta cheese (Mr. Spock is not a fan)

When I got home, I rummaged through the 'fridge and took out 2 tennis-ball-sized onions. I opened up our little clay jar and got out two cloves of garlic. I went down into our cellar and found a small can of tomato paste and a large can of crushed tomatoes. From the freezer, I took a small ziplock bag of shredded mozzarella (this is a good tip, btw. If you do your shopping at a place like Costco, you can buy their monster-sized bag of shredded mozzarella and divvy it up and freeze the cheese)

I diced the garlic and the onions and cut the mushrooms smaller.

In our Calphelon chef's pan (a wedding gift and, after our cast iron skillets, the most-used pot in the house), I sauted the onions in olive oil until they were translucent and starting to turn gold, then I added the garlic and when they were also translucent and starting to turn gold, I added the mushrooms and sauted them until they started giving up their liquid.

Then I took the coil of sausage and squeezed the sausage out of its skin into the pan. As it browned, I salted it and dumped in some dried oregano and basil. I stirred it and broke it up, I'm not going for meatballs here.

When the sausage was completely browned, I added the cans of tomato glop and kept stirring. I tasted--a bit acidic, so I added some sugar. Tasted again...added some chili powder (just a touch, for a little zing). Tasted again...pretty good. I made sure the coast was clear and added a secret ingredient. Tasted again. Delicious.

Mr. Spock tasted. Agreed it was delicious.

I started some water boiling. And preheated the oven to 350.

At this point, I went on a search for ziti. I absolutely knew we had some in the house. Nope. So I used small shells. Cooked 'em, drained 'em, added them to a cassarole dish my mother gave me recently.

Poured on the sauce, mixed thoroughly, topped with cheese. Put the whole mess in the oven for a half-hour. Where upon we went to pick up Muffin Man.

Got home.

Served the baked shells.

Ate out on the new screened-in porch.

Delicious.

-----------------

Mr. Spock just finished reading all of Winnie-the-Pooh to Muffin Man. Now they're starting on The Little Prince. Can Farmer Boy be far behind?