Another thought on the facial

One thing I keep remembering from my facial was how nice and clean and fresh my facial techician's hands smelled. She must never cut up onions or garlic because her hands would never smell that nice. I wonder who does her cooking????

the week in review

1. On Monday, we had family mani-pedi night. Mac got to go first and he really is living the life of Riley, which, according to Wikipedia, "suggests an ideal contented life, possibly living on someone else's money, time or work. Rather than a negative freeloading or golddigging aspect, it implies that someone is kept or advantaged."

"Life of Riley" in photo: tae kwon do uniform from extracurricular activities at school, hands being worked on and feet in the bucket soaking....

2. We had our friends over for a taco dinner on Tuesday night. Jimmy had an after-work commitment and her husband was traveling, so my friend and her girls came over. I love these people and am going to be devastated when they leave this summer.

3. On Wednesday night, we had a family dinner at La Biferia. We've passed this restaurant a hundred times but have never eaten there. It was de-lish. Mac had empanadas for his meal (and some of my steak) and Jimmy and I shared chorizo, baked provolone cheese, a salad, french fries (that were totally divine) and a NY strip. Very good, very reasonable for everything we ate and we will be going back.

4. On Thursday night we went to a Night of Art that was sponsored by the American Society. There was one painting out of I don't know how many that Jimmy would have bought had I encouraged him early on. By the time I encouraged him, it had already been sold. Needless to say, it did not have the price tag of $75,000 USD that was attached to one wall hanging that appeared to be gold lame to me. I'm pretty sure that one didn't sell. Afterwards, we went to a new-to-us sushi restaurant with another couple and had a great dinner with great company.

5. I got my final delivery of clothes from my tailor today. She came on Tuesday afternoon and delivered a couple jackets that she was taking in for me as well as the pants to my new suit. Today she brought a blouse that she'd worked magic on and the jacket to the suit. I cannot wait to wear the new duds to work next week. I loved everything so much that I ordered a black pantsuit (with a skirt to go with it). That should be ready in a week and a half.

6. We have a long weekend this weekend as Monday is a Colombian holiday to celebrate St. Joseph. I don't know what we really do to celebrate him but I am thankful that he has a holiday in his honor. We all needed this long weekend.

7. To celebrate St. Patrick since today is his day, I am going to a salon this afternoon and having a hydrating facial. I think St. Patrick (and St. Joseph for that matter) would approve.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you. May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

to catch you up on our life... as if you were interested

1. We went to Cartagena last weekend. Jimmy had to work a congressional delegation and Mac and I had to work the hotel pool. We had a lovely time in the hot sun and even got to hang out with a school friend of Mac's and her family on Sunday. Do you suppose Mac has any idea how great his life is???


2. The school friend and her family are Brazilian. I love, no, make that LOVE Brazilians.

3. Jimmy got to eat at the Colombian President's house in Cartagena for lunch with the congressional delegation. While we were eating french fries by the pool for our lunch, he was feasting on lobster, steak, ribs and fish and meeting Juan Valdez.


4. Mac and I flew back on Sunday afternoon and found out that there were Colombian soap opera stars on board with us. They were returning from Cartagena where they'd attended the Colombian version of the Oscars on Saturday night. We even saw one of the "Oscars" in the airport being carried around.

5. I returned with a raging sinus problem, thanks to the air conditioning in the hotel. It's been a very long week of sniffling and coughing and hacking.

6. On Tuesday, I left work around midday because I felt so bad. I came home and Ruth sprang into full clucking mother hen mode. She got me in the bed, made me a hot water bottle for my feet, and then made me drink this cure-all orange drink that really did me make feel better. I do love that woman.

7. Jimmy and I hosted a dinner party for friends last night and we hired a chef to do all the work (because we needed to test him out before using him for work entertaining). I have decided this is how I must live from now on. I literally had to do nothing but set the table. He cooked, he served, and he cleaned up afterwards. The meal? Appetizers were phyllo bags stuffed with spinach and cheese served over a fresh tomato salsa. The main course was beef tenderloin with a dill mustard sauce, potato crepes, and sauteed vegetables. Dessert was passionfruit mousse. And it was all as delicious as it sounds. I love this chef and would like to figure out a way for him to live in our apartment with us.

8. Today I had a fashion designer type lady come over to re-do some stuff in my wardrobe. I'm super-excited about what she's doing plus she's making me a suit. My first fitting is a week from Tuesday. Stay tuned.

9. Jimmy's got the sinus funk now and so I had to take Mac to football practice this afternoon. 3 hours of football practice. Watch out girls: I'm back in the running for Mother of the Year.

random musings on a Monday

1. It's an American holiday and that means I don't have to work. Mac's in school and I feel a teensy bit guilty about that, but I'll remind myself of this when he's got two weeks off for Easter break and I'm working.

2. I'm making a big pot of homemade tomato soup. Tonight we'll have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. In my mind, I can already taste it. I hope it lives up to expectations.

3. I cannot tell you how excited I was that The Amazing Race started its new season last night. I find myself in a deep state of mourning when it's not on. As you know, I really want to be on this show. But I have to tell you that jumping out of a place in Argentina from 10,000 feet does not appeal to me in the least. Jimmy would have to do that part or I'd be like that girl last night, curled up on the plane, talking to myself about not doing it.

4. We are eating Arabic today for lunch with friends and I can't wait. I think I shall load up on lunch food in case my soup and grilled cheese sandwiches don't live up to expectations.

The Fighter

Last August, I went to Boston to visit our childhood friend who was working on the film The Fighter. If you need a refresher on my trip, you can read about it here and here.

The trailer's come out for the movie's opening in December and I thought I'd share it with you here.

I feel personally vested in the movie since I saw Mark Wahlberg up close and personal and got to sit in the producer's chair while they were filming. I mean, my name might even be in the credits somewhere since I was such an important hanger-on around the set. I'm just saying...

Tuesday musings

This morning my Spanish teacher was 15 minutes late arriving because of the awful Bogotano combination of rainy weather, bad traffic and aggressive drivers. For each of those 15 minutes, I prayed fervently that she wasn't going to show. But as the priest said in the homily on Sunday (yes, we did go to a Catholic Church on Sunday and quite frankly we got more out of it in one service than we did out of the last 4 weeks at the Protestant Church), sometimes God's answer is "no" and the teacher showed up.

In addition to my praying, I was reading the latest edition of Oprah's magazine and I came across a quote in an article about the interior designer Nate Berkus that I really liked. The quote from Leonard Cohen's song "Anthem" follows:

"Ring the bells that still can ring,
forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything;
that's how the light gets in."

In other words, we don't have to be perfect because nothing is and isn't intended to be.

This concept completely freed me during my Spanish class to just do my best. My Spanish will never be perfect, my flower arranging will never be perfect, my childrearing will never be perfect, but as long as I ring the bells that still ring, the light is getting in and that's what matters.

Tuesday updates

1. I just got an email that I've been approved for Spanish one-on-one tutoring. I knew I could take lessons, but I thought they'd be group lessons, so I questioned the supervisor of the language school that works at the embassy. He confirmed that I get 156 hours of one-on-one Spanish, per Jimmy's office policy and that for 7,000 Colombian pesos (about $3.50 or so) for the tutor's transportation, I can have the classes at my house instead of the embassy. I would spend a minimum of 10,000 pesos for a one-way trip to the embassy and if I were lucky, I could catch one of the embassy shuttles back home at no charge (otherwise it would be another taxi), so there's a significant cost savings potential to learn at home. Plus, I barely have to be out of my pajamas if the lessons are at home and I save all that commuting time. How do you say "sign me up for that" in Spanish?

2. There's an OUTSIDE chance that our sea shipment may be delivered on Thurday afternoon.

Could I get lucky with such great news twice in the span of 30 minutes?

Tuesday musings

1. Mac started co-curricular activities last week. He's doing fencing on Mondays (which he actually just started yesterday, complete with getting to wield one of those sword things) and tennis on Wednesdays.

2. Mac came home on Friday afternoon with his newly-rented-from-school violin. He has developed an instant attraction to it. He lovingly takes it out of the case, rosins the bow, holds the bow correctly (using the very cool dog-biting-the-bow technique taught by his teacher), and then absolutely wails on it in his attempt to play "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". We've tried to tell him that he's probably not going to learn that song in his first year of violin lessons, so he's apparently taken the approach that he'll teach himself. I'm waiting for him to pop some strings, which is bound to happen in the near future.

3. I have tried to teach myself the violin on Mac's violin and I can now knock out the "twinkle twinkle" part of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I can't quite figure out how to get to the "little star" part but I'm working on it.

4. We find out today if our sea shipment is being delivered on Friday. I am hoping that some miracle happens and they can actually deliver it on Thursday because I have nothing planned on Thursday but I do have a ticket for Friday to watch a couple tennis matches for the Davis Cup between the US and Colombia.

5. No offense to any Sao Paulo Chapel friends who might be reading this one particular musing, but the PTA at Chapel is (or used to be) a Brazilian mafia run at the time by one woman that made it difficult for non-Brazilians to enter. I tried to participate but it was uncomfortably painful because I clearly didn't belong. So I stopped going to the meetings. Well CGB's PTA had a welcome breakfast for new families last week and I wasn't going to go because I figured it might be a Colombian mafia experience. Jimmy told me to suck it up and go because how would I know otherwise? So I went and these people are the nicest people. There are lots of Colombians involved but the president is Canadian (which meant the meeting was conducted in English with somebody translating to Spanish), the vice president is Costa Rican and the secretary is Argentine. And everybody was friendly and inclusive, which is how the whole school is.

6. On Thursday afternoon, Mac had an invitation glued in his agenda inviting Jimmy and me to the Year 4 Spanish program on Friday morning. Well I thought this was a mistake because he's in Year 3, so I blew it off. THANK GOODNESS I went to the PTA meeting on Friday morning and started talking to a mother who said she had to leave the PTA early to attend this program. I commented that Mac had had an invitation but he's Year 3 so it made no sense and I wasn't going. The head of the primary school overheard us talking and said that Mac might be getting a Spanish award so maybe I should go. Um. Does she know which child is mine? I'm fairly sure he's not getting a Spanish award, particularly after 3 weeks of school. But she checked quickly and said I needed to go. And by golly, that kid got an award (along with some other children) for enthusiasm in his Colombian social studies class. I was so proud of him.

7. Let's talk about Spanish class at CGB. Up until now, Mac had one Spanish class a week at Pinewood. I don't know that there was ever a test and we never did Spanish homework. And at Chapel they didn't start formal Portuguese classes until after kindergarten. Well let me tell you that we're making up for lost time. Mac attends Spanish as a Second Language classes everyday and he's got Spanish homework every week. Two weeks ago they worked on body parts in Spanish and last week they did family members. Last week's homework was for Mac to draw his family tree and label it with the names of the family members as well as their relationship like abuela/grandmother, tio/uncle, primo/cousin, etc. Mac had to turn it in yesterday and so last night when I checked his Spanish folder, I saw some additions to what it originally looked like. He'd added his pet fish, Pedro, from Sao Paulo and he'd made a gravesite at the bottom of the page for my dad (and he'd drawn a line from the top of the family tree where my dad was originally noted down to the gravesite). Once we get our printer (on Friday!), I'll scan and post it because it's priceless.

8. This is a call for help: we're supposed to be working on the multiplication tables because Mac has to memorize them. Any thoughts on how best to do this? If you have advice, I'd love to hear it because we don't seem to be making much progress.

9. The man is supposedly coming to hook up our Direct TV today, which means you may not hear from me for awhile. We get it out of Puerto Rico which means I can watch all the shows I came to know and love over the last year, which is going to be delightful. Hurray! I hope there are no unforeseen problems when the guy shows up.

10. Speaking of shows I know and love, The Amazing Race starts very soon. I love this show and want to go on it with Jimmy because I know we could win. But this season I'm not on it yet, so you need to watch for my hairdresser extraordinaire from Stella Nova in Summerville's daughter, Stephanie, who's on it with her boyfriend. Here's to hoping that if I can't win the big bucks on the show that Stephanie can. (And if you need a hairdresser extraordinaire in the lowcountry, go see Luanne at Stella Nova.)

11. Jimmy is hosting his first work cocktail party for 50 people in a couple weeks. I've held everybody off until we get our stuff because I'm not having a party at my house without pictures on the walls. Last night we decided on Sept 30 for the party, assuming Jimmy can schedule his work trip to Florida to get back on Sept 29. Worse than having a party without pictures on the wall would be having a party without the host present.

12. Finally - and this note is mainly for my mom because I couldn't get her on the phone yesterday and I know she'll want to know - I had my blood pressure check with the doctor yesterday and it's gone way down. When I changed my regimen a couple weeks ago, after a couple days I had to start taking the meds before bedtime because of dizziness and extreme lethargy, but one of the meds is a diuretic which meant I was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night more times than an old man. The good news is that I was sleeping like a rock even after the bathroom trips because my pressure was so low. So we're tweaking a little bit and I'm taking the diuretic in the morning and the other med at night and we'll see how that goes.

Hope you're well in your corner of the world!

www.onedayonearth.org

Thanks to my friend Lisa, I just found out about this very cool film project that I think you should know about too. You can learn all about it at www.onedayonearth.org.

One Day on Earth is a collaborative film project started a couple years ago as a way to document what's happening around the world on one particular day as filmed by thousands of videographers around the world. The day of filming, 10-10-10, is fast approaching but you still have to time to sign up to contribute your video.

The website says it best, so here goes...

Across the planet, documentary filmmakers, students, and inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period. By participating in this historic event, you will help capture the diversity of life and culture on this planet. Together we will create a document that is a gift to the world.

One Day on Earth is a documentary and new media project about the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occurs in one 24-hour period on Earth. More than a film, One Day on Earth is a multi-platform participatory media project. The flagship of this project is a 120-minute documentary to be released theatrically. Through the One Day on Earth platform we will establish a community that not only watches, but participates.

Even if you don't contribute with a video, make sure you see the film when it's released. As the website promises, I'm sure the film will change the way you see the world.

Wednesday musings

1. I got my first haircut in Bogota yesterday and I love it, even though it's a lot shorter than it's been. Mac told me it looked horrible - stab to the heart - when he got home but Jimmy said he loved it. Even if he was fibbing, I'm sticking with the big guy's opinion.

2. It's very difficult, perhaps even traumatic, to get your hair cut when you don't really speak the language. This salon is small and even though I was speaking Spanish - albeit awful Spanish - everybody thought that English would be the only thing that came out of my mouth so they assumed they couldn't understand me. I hate that.

3. Today I'm going on a field trip to a pottery factory followed by lunch with some other people from the embassy.

4. I've now heard that we might take delivery of our sea shipment by late next week. I also just found out that there is no record of our sea shipment that was sent from long-term storage in Washington. We're working on finding out more on that today. I also also found out that our car has made it to the port in Cartagena and paperwork is being processed for us to get the car. That should take awhile though.

5. Mac is attending his first Colombian birthday party Friday afternoon after school. A bus is taking the children from school to the party place and I just have to show up at 5pm to bring him home. I love these kinds of parties.

6. Ruth kept Mac last night while Jimmy and I went out for dinner. Although I've told her repeatedly not to hand wash the dirty dishes in the dishwasher (since I run it every night), she clearly believes the dishwasher is nothing more than a holding facility for dirty dishes until you have time to wash them. The dishwasher was full of dirty dishes when we left, but when we came home, they were all washed, dried and put away. That and her calling me Senora all the time when I've repeatedly told her not to are the only faults I can find, so I can live with that. But woman, let the dishwasher do its job.

7. I'm in season three of Lost. Still addicted, still loving it.

8. Mac doesn't have a regular homework schedule at his current school. He's supposed to read everyday, he had one Spanish sheet last week and there's a weekly spelling test. The big assignment every week is an assigned topic "project" in this big folder. Each student can do whatever he wants on two pages of the folder and then he presents it to the class. Last week was "who is my family?" so Mac did a word search game of different people in our family on one page and on the other, a list of the names in the word search along with out-of-order photos of those people that you had to match up. Two games for the price of one. This week is "who were the ancient Egyptians?". We've got maps, pictures of the Pyramids and a sarcophagus, and "Mac" written in hieroglyphics. I feel like we're doing a science fair project every week!!

more Monday musings

1. I went to the embassy today to get my blood pressure medicine reviewed because it's not working very effectively. BP's still up so we're changing meds to see what happens over the next couple weeks.

2. While at the embassy I talked to the woman in charge of getting our household effects here, and I got GREAT news. The shipment is in country and is waiting at the port in Cartagena for paperwork to be processed. The woman in charge said she thought we might be looking at setting up a delivery in two weeks, but definitely within a month. This will be nothing short of a miracle if we have all our stuff in the next couple weeks. And it won't be a moment too soon as we are receiving our first visitors, BBFF Gisele and her husband Flavio, in early October. Dare I dream that our apartment will be "fixed" by then?

3. Jimmy's on an overnight trip. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

4. The British School has a co-curricular program which basically works into the school week those extracurricular activities that we as Americans would normally do after school or on the weekends. Mac will do two co-curricular activities per week per term (and they use a trimester system so he'll end up doing 6 activities per year). The list of options came out today and he had to make a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice for both days. His first choice was artistic rollerskating/hockey, but I convinced him to change his mind. I'm all about broadening horizons but my kid isn't going to be in the roller derby or synchronized skating or whatever "artistic rollerskating" might be. So his Monday choices (and we're banking on getting his 1st choice for each day) are fencing, robotics and tennis and his Wednesday choices are tennis, swimming and horseback riding. I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!

5. We are off to eat dinner, which is yummy ropa vieja. Because I had the morning at home, I made the recipe halfway and Ruth finished the second half. I have to tell you that it is divine!!

Monday musings

1. We didn't go to the formal do on Saturday night. When Jimmy got home from work on Thursday (after my Carolina Herrera experience of okaying a classic black suit, immediately followed by the office assistant telling me that the classic black suit was a no-go), he asked how my day was and I told him "VERY stressful". When I told him why, he suggested we just not go to the event. Is it that easy to get out of it? So on Friday morning, I decided that I wasn't going dress shopping after the school reading program meeting and that we'd just skip the event. So the assistant changed our rsvp and that was all settled.

2. Because we'd hired a babysitter for Saturday night, we went for drinks and dinner with another new couple here in Bogota. We all love the babysitter and intend to use her services as often as possible before her family departs post next year.

3. Mac came home from school on Friday and told me that the headmaster at the school told him he wasn't wearing the right kind of black shoes with the dress uniform. Oops. I knew they weren't dressy enough but I'd hoped to fall through the cracks. Let it be said there's no falling through the cracks at the British School. So we bought a beautiful pair of little boy's dress shoes on Saturday. They have very nice shoes here for all ages.

4. The school communicates totally electronically so late Friday afternoon I was checking the website and saw that Mac had to choose what he wanted to do for his performing art in music class. The choices for his year are violin, cello, percussion, recorder, drama, stomp, choir and maybe something else that I can't remember. Guitar doesn't come as an option until next year. So he has chosen violin as his first choice, but if that's already filled, then stomp is his second choice. The school has a limited number of violins that we can rent, so hopefully we answered early enough to be among the first come first served. Rental for the year is just $40 so it's a steal of a deal to learn violin. And in true British School fashion, if Mac doesn't shown sufficient improvement in some number of months, he has to choose something else.

5. We went to church yesterday at the English-speaking church here in Bogota. They have a huge sanctuary that could probably seat 350 people. By Jimmy's count, there were some 50 people in the service with probably another 15 or so in the children's church. Now I know that lots of people don't ever go to church, but all I could think was that we're posted at one of the largest US embassies in the world - there are some 400 Americans posted here - and there were only a couple of other embassy folks there. If even 1/10 of the Americans at post came to church and if 1/2 of those 1/10 had families, we could have filled the church up.

6. We told Mac they had a children's church and asked if he wanted to go, and he said no. Before the service started, this nice preteenaged girl came over and asked if he'd like to go. He said no and then she very wisely told him they were going to be drilling stuff and making a tent. He was out of there in a flash and afterwards, said it was the best children's church he'd ever been to. There was another CGB child in the program - a little older than Mac, but he was thrilled to make the connection with somebody from his school. He even prayed for that boy and his family last night.

7. Ruth started on Friday and she's wonderful. She was supposed to arrive at 7:30am but got here at 6:45. By the time I got home from my school meeting around midday, she'd cleaned, grocery shopped for dinner stuff and fresh flowers, had dinner on the stove and was ironing. She comes back today for more fun. Last night, I decided I wanted her to make ropa vieja today but that's a lot of recipe to translate. So I found this fabulous Google Translate program online and BAM! in two seconds the whole recipe was translated. I can't wait to eat dinner tonight!

Thursday morning musings

1. The second day of school went as well as the first. Mac seemed to enjoy himself very much and he didn't complain about things in the rice. He was starving by the time he got home at 4pm, though, so I don't know how much he actually ate at school. And still no homework.

2. My friend Alisa sent out a link to this great website today. I encourage you to visit it, whether you have kids in school or whether you've always want to know or re-learn things like Newton's Third Law of Motion or how to solve a trig problem. You can read the story on Salman Khan here or visit the Khan Academy here. I've just listened to one little lecture, and I'm a huge fan. It's a great supplement to what you've learned in the classroom.

3. Jimmy and I are going to some event on Saturday night because his boss can't go. I haven't seen the invitation but he said it says "gala" on it. I'm waiting for more details, but Houston, we may have a problem. I have my little black dress (remember that one from last year that got worn everywhere?) and I have my black suit. I have nothing else that will work until our sea shipment gets here. Nary a long dress in sight. I don't even have my paint-by-numbers eye shadow kit because I figured I wouldn't need it until the Marine Ball in November and surely our sea shipment will be here by then. If I have to wear the little black dress, I don't have a pashmina - it's in the other shipment - nor do I have an evening handbag. There is no Ulta beauty store here nor do I have anyhing to fix my hair with. BUT I did line up a babysitter - there's an American teenaged girl (with the embassy) who lives practically across the street from us. She loves to babysit, so she's on board for Saturday night. Maybe she has a dress, makeup and handbag I can borrow?

4. Ruth is now starting tomorrow. She was helping her last family pack out and the packout lasted longer than expected, so she was tied up yesterday (or at least that's what I understood).

5. This embassy has what is a huge commissary for us. The only other commissary post we've been to is Brasilia and their little commissary was pretty pathetic. The store here got a huge new shipment in so I went shopping yesterday for fun things like Honey Nut Cheerios and Pop-Tarts and tortilla chips. Last night we had a nacho feast complete with Jimmy's most delicious guacamole. I could eat it by the gallon when he makes it. Tonight we're having chili with Jiffy cornbread muffins, which I also bought yesterday at the commissary. That means leftover muffins in the morning for breakfast. I can't wait!

Hope you're all having a great Thursday!

guess what landed in my mailbox today?

a little thing I like to call my new razor. I love the Razor Shoppe (wherever and whoever you are!) and I do so love my new Personal Touch!

your homework assignment for today

Dear Reader,

I love you. I really, really love you. Except that I don't know who you are.

I know I have 5, maybe 6, loyal readers, namely family, but you see, they don't live in Norwalk, CT or Los Angeles, CA or Medina, OH, or Gaithersburg, MD or Union, MS or any of these other cool places that show up on the cute map to the right over there. So I'm flummoxed as to exactly who you are. But inquiring minds do want to know.

So I have a HUGE favor to ask. You can say no, but what fun would that be? And it'll only take about 3 seconds more of your time than reading this post.

Would you be so kind as to leave me a comment when you read this post. You can leave it anonymously if you don't want to reveal your secret identity - I have a thing for secret admirers so you'll still be one of my favorites - but I'd love to know if our paths have crossed before and if not, how you came to find The Story Tales.

The ice cream making fun is starting today. I wish you were here, my good friend Reader, to enjoy it with us!

a Zaxby's run

Today I was kicked out of my rental house so the real estate agent could participate in a "progressive lunch" open house for other real estate agents to see the house. Don't even get me started on the complete annoyance of living in a rental house that's up for sale. That is best left for another post.

I ran some errands to buy some stuff we need for our Italy trip. Did I mention we're going to Italy shortly? That's also best left for another post.

I had to be out of the house between 11am and 1pm so I stopped by Zaxby's for their new Roadhouse Salad, which I can't recommend enough.

I got in line behind an older woman who was ordering for herself and her ancient mother who was waiting in the booth. Her mother wanted wings, but apparently "cannot eat even the teeniest, tiniest bit of spicy, so I need to know what is the very mildest sauce you have."

The cash register lady said "well we have "mild" which I'd say is our mildest."

That seemed entirely logical to me.

The woman didn't think so. "Are you sure there's no spice at all in that? Because I think she had that once and it might have been too spicy for her."

The very patient cash register lady then suggested that maybe her mother would like teriyaki or honey sesame on the wings as they really weren't spicy at all and had an entirely different flavor to normal "spicy" wings.

The woman decided that honey sesame wings would be a good choice.

Oh, and her mother also wanted an order of the spicy fried mushrooms.

To the cash register lady's credit, she did not point out the incongruity in the order. Or laugh. Which gave me great respect for her.

quote of the day

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." Diane Ackerman

life is precious

In March I posted about the father of a boy on Mac's baseball team who was fighting brain cancer. Sadly, Jim lost that battle on Tuesday. He was 36 and married to a fantastic, compassionate, STRONG woman for 10 years with whom he shared two young boys.

Fight everyday for healthy relationships in your life and for your own good health. Every other blessing is icing on the already sweet, rich cake.

Life is so precious and there are no guarantees.

happiness is...

...making a recipe that starts with placing ingredients "in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment" and you finally have an electric mixer that actually has a paddle attachment. I love Pinky.

one other random musing

Yesterday morning when Mac and I headed out to church, we saw this sign:

It's hard to read it, but it says "Beware of Gator".

Okay. Duly noted that there is a gator lurking around the pond right in front of my house where my child rides his scooter and bicycle and where we play baseball.

We came home from church and the sign was still up.

Today the sign was gone. Is the alligator gone? Or did somebody remove the signs because it's a bad real estate sales pitch for people first entering the neighborhood?

The geese have also mysteriously disappeared. Coincidence? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it was just time for them to move back north. But we are steering clear of the ponds in the front of our house because I don't want Mac or me to go the way of the geese.