art by mockery I’m discouraged that we haven’t had any good offers on our home yet. There was one offer a couple of weeks ago, but it was insulting. To those who would say that all you have to do is lower your price to sell, I would counter that there are quite a few places almost as nice as ours that have lowered their price a few times, and still not sold. It’s a slow market. Part of me says, don’t worry, if you have to accept less on this side of the deal, you’ll make it up on the purchase of your new place, which is in this…

I found this picture at MoCo Loco.com. Ginger’s post the other day about the difference between barbeque and a cook-out made me think of some other regional terms, as well as some that might just depend on the era in which one grew up. For example, a sofa has several other names: Davenport, Settee, Chesterfield, and Couch are the ones that come to my mind. My grandpa used to call it a Davenport or a Chesterfield, and he was born in Oklahoma, but came to California as a young man, so I’m not sure where that came from. I grew up saying ‘soda’ when I wanted a soda. The CEO…

Yesterday’s parenthetical about my ex-coworker (circa 1990) saying he was surprised that Ted ‘let me’ buy floral sheets got me thinking…thinking about the way that couples communicate, and how power struggles come into so many relationships. The idea that I should only buy masculine sheets, because Ted’s virility might somehow be at stake if he slept on floral sheets is insane. The idea that he should only buy floral sheets because I might defect or something on solids or stripes is also insane. It reminds me of a couple we know. I’ll call them Bill and Meg, which aren’t their real names, just in case they ever should come across…

  Anyone who has ever been shopping for new sheets knows, it can be a tricky project.  I remember once going to buy sheets, and not even knowing about thread counts and so on…I came home, put them on the bed, and that night was pure torture…it was like sleeping on sandpaper.  (We won’t even get into a discussion about my then-coworker, who was surprised that Ted “let me” buy floral sheets…I said, “Ted doesn’t ‘let me’ do anything.  I buy what I want.  If he wants more manly sheets, he can buy them.”  Really, I hadn’t considered whether Ted would like them or not…we had just moved in together,…

These last few weeks have been SO busy….the kind of weeks when you realize how much quieter your life would be without children. We had a parent appreciation potluck, which I was inclined to skip, but they were having a play about mother earth, and Maya was playing a member of the Boston Tea Party, so who can skip that? There was an end of year potluck at girl scouts, where they received their bronze award (boy, the girls worked HARD for that one…very proud). There was a talent show at school, in which Maya performed a dance number with her best friend (I have been forbidden from posting video,…

Want to know why?  In addition to getting to ‘meet’ all of you wonderful people, some of whom I feel like have become friends, all of whom I really enjoy reading and ‘knowing’ a bit, sometimes, you get cool stuff! I recently won a drawing over at Lotus Reads, and was awarded a book as a prize.  The book I won is titled, My Name Is Red, and it turns out that it won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which makes it eligible for my Book Awards Reading Challenge.  Double Plus Good!  So, I’m adding it to my list as an alternate, which is pretty handy, since most of my books…

Does anyone but me remember Koogle? According to Wikipedia, it came out in 1971, and was discontinued sometime during the 70s. Gosh, I loved this stuff. Chocolate flavored peanut butter. What’s not to love about that? I’m not sure why we were allowed to buy this stuff, since we weren’t allowed to buy ‘sugar cereal’, but why ask? Just be happy and eat your Koogle. Look at the ingredients…is partially hardened vegetable oil the same thing as partially hydroginated vegetable oil? Hmmm. My mom and I were talking the other day, and we were remembering these raisin cookies that we used to like, but which are no longer available in…

Are you a town mouse, or a country mouse? That’s the question posed today at Sunday Scribbling. I could say either…I love the city, the lights and the vibrancy and the diversity and the culture. I lived in San Francisco for 7 years, and never thought I would leave. I loved the restaurants, the shops, the odd people on the bus (though not always their smells or habits), all of it. Of course, city living has its downside…parking is an issue, hard to find a place with a washer and drier hook up, and to buy rather than rent requires the kind of income that I will never attain. Country…

It seems that a certain Miss Cherry is getting married in a few short weeks, and as her de facto maid of honor type person, I decided to have a wedding shower for her today. Yay! So, let’s see, what do we need… Guests…check! We’ve invited family and friends to come and take it easy, have some snacks and drinks, get to know each other, and shower her with lovely gifts. Gifts….check! Including several big and heavy ones sent by far away family who couldn’t be here, and I’ve been dying to tell her that they’re here, but I would prefer for her to be surprised… Food…check! It’s an afternoon…

Ms. Mamma had a post the other day, in which she was sporting some stylin’ new shades. She mentioned that she almost didn’t buy them, because they were expensive, and she’s not rich. Immediately, my mind went to a ploop type graph, in which I show WHY I don’t buy expensive sunglasses. As you can see, I have tried a couple of times to own cool, sexy sunglasses, but it’s really not a good idea. I said as much to Ms. Mamma, and she replied that she is gifted in such a way that when she buys sunglasses, she keeps them as long as she wants to, unless her mom…

(I found this odd apple image at http://princev.front.ru) Maya’s come home from Science Camp. It is SO nice to see her…to hug her and hear her stories. They took hikes, sang songs, went to the ocean, checked out tidepools, saw tons of stars, and Maya won the title of “Hard Core” by eating an entire apple, stem, seeds, and all. Atta girl. Watched “The Queen” the other day. It was good. It was interesting to see a bit of what maybe went on in the royal family at that time. I came away with a feeling of, ‘wow, I’m glad I’m not part of THAT messed up family.’ And while…

I’m stealing this one from Gina…she likes to do Friday Polls, and I’m jumping in. But I honestly want some advice here, which she sometimes does, sometimes doesn’t… I was talking to my mom last weekend, and she told me two interesting things that I have yet to test, and I’m not sure when I will be able… 1. A great cure for PMS? Chocolate covered potato chips. I wonder, does this work equally well for chocolate covered pretzels, or do you need the potato and deep fried fattiness of it to make it work? Because I don’t think I’ve ever SEEN chocolate covered potato chips. 2. A great cure…