Today is the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and I wish them every happiness. After the unhappy marriage of William’s parents, it feels like a happy ending to see a couple with a chance of happiness, even under the ugly microscope that follows the Royal family. I’m sure we’re all tired of seeing stories on the news, magazines, etc.  And by now if you’re in the least bit interested in this story, you’ve seen the wedding, you’ve seen the dress, and they’re partying like it’s 1999 at Buckingham Palace. So, what do I have to say about it all?  I wish them well.  I think about the ugly…

Maya had Spring Break last week, and I took a few days off to spend with her.  Originally, she wanted to paint her room, but when I told her how much work that is (moving furniture and cleaning being most of it), she decided she didn’t really want to do that anymore, and could live with the sage green color that she has previously described as ‘mucus’.  Undaunted, I insisted that we clean her room anyway.  Which didn’t involve moving any furniture, but it did involve getting mounds of dust off of her toys, pulling 2 years worth of backpacks and paperwork out of the closet, going through her books…

(you can click the picture of Marilee and Me, if you’d like to see us with the tops of our heads intact…) Last week, on a stormy, windy, rainy Thursday afternoon, my friend Marilee called me and asked, “Would you like to go to a high society fundraiser at a billionaire’s house tonight?” Her +1 had been forced to cancel at the last minute, due to a child with croup, and she thought we might have a great time. My first reaction was, um, no, it’s RAINING! It’s WINDY! I want to stay home and have a cozy dinner here. But by the time she finished telling me about the…

The pictures from Japan are so horrifying, they boggle the mind. I mean, when it was Haiti a few years ago, the pictures were unimaginable and tragic, but Haiti is such a poor, destitute country, that somehow it gave me a false impression of security. But Japan, Japan is a wealthy industrialized country, one where large earthquakes are expected and planned for. But an 8.9…that’s impossible to plan for. By comparison, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was 6.9, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was 7.9. (To read more about the Richter magnitude scale, and learn the difference between a 6.9, a 7.9, and an 8.9, click here) And of…

Last weekend was Ted’s brother’s birthday, and we celebrated with a steak and potato dinner. Ted’s mom brought this delicious broccoli, ala’ Barefoot Contessa, that was SO GOOD I had to make it again on Tuesday, and actually, I think I’m going to make some more tonight, to go with ‘leftover Friday’. I think I ate about twice as much broccoli as I normally do. So I went online to get the recipe, and I decided to make the meal that she made on the episode. It was a mustard roasted fish, dill fingerling potatoes, and of course, broccoli. Results? The broccoli was kick-ass. The potatoes were yummy, and maybe…

Don’t you sometimes find that some days are just too much? I mean, personally, my own life is fine. My family is healthy, we have jobs, no real problems for us. But leave that circle just slightly, and it gets so much worse that it’s hard to bear. In our own little town, two students at Maya’s high school died this weekend when they decided to take a raft trip down a raging waterway. Such things should be safe, shouldn’t they? People go whitewater rafting all of the time. But in our local city, these waterways, this creek is not natural, it’s man-made. Back in the 60s there were floods…

Winter has finally returned. While most of you lovely people were suffering mightily with huge snowfall and bitter cold weather, we were enjoying temperatures closing in on 80 degrees. One should not complain of such things, 80 degrees in January, but still, here in California, land of the drought, there is always a bit of worry that accompanies such weather. Drought. We had a very wet December, so our snow pack (our source of water) is pretty high, so we’re not too worried. But still, we’re somewhat worried at such a dry and warm January. Enter February, and thankfully, things have cooled off a bit, and we’re having some rain…

A few weeks ago, several of my Facebook friends mentioned a great LivingSocial deal, where you could get a $20 Amazon gift card, for only $10. These friends weren’t the type to get suckered into fake deals, so even though I wasn’t familiar with LivingSocial, I decided to give it a try. Everything worked out perfectly, I got my $20 gift card, and spent it on a cookbook I had been eying. Which I haven’t used yet, but am looking forward to checking out. A few days later, after receiving and redeeming my Amazon card, LivingSocial had a deal that sounded pretty darned good…a home tooth whitening kit, valued at…

So here I am with my new hair color…pretty brunette, isn’t it? It’s about halfway down on the blonde spectrum, believe it or not, but gosh, that’s a dark blonde. I’m one of those blonde’s who had white blonde hair as a young child, dirty blonde hair in high school, and started coloring it for fun not long after. Fast forward 20+ years, and I don’t even know what my real hair color might be anymore. I mean, you can look at your roots, but the sun and the environment sure seem to affect that. At least a bit. So I’ve been coloring my hair for these last many many…

I know that 2010 was a very difficult year for some of you. Some of my friends had a horrible year, full of divorce or death or almost death or loss of jobs, or several of these things all at once. I do not in any way want to discount their pain. Some years truly suck. But some of my friends had a joyous years of birth and babies and marriage and engagements and health. I want to recognize that as well. That while some people are suffering mightily, others are celebrating and living a life of happiness and joy. And when you’re in the midst of despair, it somehow…