There was a time, years ago, when I was practically never home alone.  Ted was working on his dissertation, Maya was in pre-school, and I was working across the street from her school.  I would get up and go to work in the morning, leaving Ted with Maya.  He would get her up and ready for school, and I would pick her up in the afternoon.  If I were home, either Ted or Maya were also here, usually both of them.  I remember once in awhile, envying Ted his quiet time at home, time alone to spend however he chose, though of course that wasn’t the reality of it…he was…

While we don’t believe in paying our child for getting good grades, we have been known to celebrate our successes in life. So when Maya came home on Friday with a report card that showed how hard she’s been working, Ted said we would celebrate, and she could pick what we have for dinner. Anywhere she wanted to go, or we could cook at home. Being an intelligent child, as it is the height of Dungeness Crab season, she said she wanted crab, at home. Yay! It just so happens that I had been eyeballing the crab at a local grocery a day or two before, and had decided that…

It’s probably a good thing that we have given up selling our little condo, because it looks like we live in a construction zone right about now. Some of what is going on is improvements, and some of it is repair type work, and some is just plain mud and mess due to rain, but gosh, if I were a prospective buyer, I wouldn’t even walk through the front door. Heck, even the front door is a mess. We live in a condo complex that is almost 30 years old, and the exterior is shingles, for that lovely ‘Tahoe look”, as they call it. 30 year old shingles start to…

* Yesterday was pretty awesome, because Ted had the opportunity to fill in on his favorite radio show, Forum, on KQED. I’ve gotta say, he kicked ass, and totally rocked that joint! I am SO proud and impressed. Check it out on his blog, where you can click over to a link and listen to him interview folks on the very different issues of ‘the geography of happiness’, and the destruction of CIA videos showing interrogation techniques. Awesome. *Funny the images you can find, just by searching images for ‘Ted’. 🙂

This morning I woke up and contemplated not getting dressed. Just staying in my jammies all day, watching tv maybe, reading my book, taking it easy. Then I got out of bed, jumped in the shower, and got dressed. I’m just not the ‘all day jammies’ type of person. Even when I’m sick, I like to have my shower and get dressed. Even if I’m not planning on leaving the house, I really like to feel like I could leave if I wanted to, and I just don’t feel that way without a shower and clothes. How about you? How often do you stay in your jammies and lounge around…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aikg6OP3jwU[/youtube] Ted brought this tasty morsel home from work today…his coworker sent it to him, and he showed me, and it’s pretty funny. Perfect solution to a girl with nothing much to say today, but still wants to post on her blog…

Have you ever cried the make-up off of your face for someone you don’t know well, have only met once or twice?  Sadly, I did exactly that today.  An ex-coworker of mine, who I liked very much, lost her daughter to suicide last week, and the funeral was today.  All I could think of was what a sad, tragic waste.  What a beautiful, loving person she was, 22 years old with her whole life ahead of her.  Surrounded by family and friends who loved her very much.  Her mother’s sobs ripped my heart out of my chest and stamped it into the ground. I cannot imagine anything worse. (No picture…

I assume you’ve all seen that some folks have decided that Santa is too fat. He should provide a better example to children, they say, by exercising and eating more fruits and veggies, fewer cookies and cheese sandwiches. (Maya tells me she learned that in Europe, kids leave cheese sandwiches for Santa, rather than cookies and milk…I have no idea if this is true or if someone pulled her leg.) Then I read on my mom’s blog that there’s a group called “Keep Santa Fat“, and you can go to their website, sign a petition to keep Santa from going on Atkins (watch out, Rudolph!), and a pound of food…

Today is my brother Richard’s birthday, and even though he doesn’t read blogs (I don’t think), and certainly doesn’t read mine (he’s too busy making groovy cg art on his computer), I’ll wish him a wonderful birthday here. The sucky part of living so far away from your family is that you can’t be with them on special days.  Like today.  If they hadn’t all deserted me by moving to Alaska, we could all go out to dinner tonight, and he and I could tease our poor mom mercilessly, or, perhaps, his lovely wife, Kathy, my mom, and I, could all gang up on Richard and tease him mercilessly.  Ted…

This picture is of a Christmas Stollen, which is supposed to look like the swaddled baby Jesus, and which you enjoy for St. Nicholas Day, December 5th or 6th.  (The 6th is St. Nicholas Day, but the eve is when you maybe eat the stollen?  Not completely clear, though I do know it’s yummy.) Not much to write about today, but I thought I’d say hi to let you know I’m still here.  Last night was nice, went to dinner with my friend Neva, whom I’ve known since 6th grade.  It’s funny to be two women in your 40s when you’ve known each other since you were in your early teens, because you…