My daughters swear that I can go to the store for milk and come back with milk and a new best friend. They used to be in awe of my ability to strike up a conversation nearly anywhere with anyone. I think Mr. OddP still is a little... well, not awed exactly, but perhaps bemused by it. How do I know what to say ( Read more... )

The theme for January's National Blog Posting Month is " [...] FRIENDS. Best friends, worst friends, friends of the family . . . how many do you have, how many do you need, and where are they when you need them ( Read more... )

How's this for a company dinner?

• Black Bean and Acorn Squash Empanadas
  
• Guacamole
  
• Pico de Gallo
  
• Rice, flavored in some as-of-yet-undetermined way
  
• Chopped Salad with mixed greens, tomatoes and blanched corn
  
• Bluevado Pie
  

I know that one of our guests really isn't crazy about vegetables. She eats them because she knows she should, but she's got very ( Read more... )

My office is fah-reeeezing. I don't dare complain, though. They'd send someone to turn up the heat and it would become a sauna. Better an ice box; I can put on my coat if it gets bad enough. It's just so hard to type in mittens ( Read more... )

It was a lovely mild day today at Wynderly, beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood. The garden beckoned; the crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are up and will be blooming within a week, I estimate. The Star of Bethlehem is on its way and the peonies are showing little red tips just coming up out of the soil. So I bestirred myself from my ( Read more... )

Phrase to work into conversations: "populist outrage."

Not the dairy beverage, the movie ( Read more... )

Today was the science fair. Deaf science students from middle schools and high schools all over the country descended upon us to compete for some pretty cool prizes (individual winners were posing happily with fake checks for $300. One assumes that they will go home with real checks for $300 ( Read more... )

As of this morning I am officially down 10 pounds. Of course, my weight will bungee back up three pounds tomorrow, but that's ok. It won't stay there. The trend is negative, and that's what I want. I could do with a higher absolute number on the slope, but you know what they say about gift horses and mouths ( Read more... )

Things to do, and places to go, but FIRST:

I'm reading Carlton Pearson's Gospel Of Inclusion. Pearson is a former Pentecostal preacher who had a revelation that he and other "evangelicals" were going about it all wrong, making all the wrong assumptions. He changed his message and his very dynamic, popular church fell away from him. He was ( Read more... )