red carpet moment.

so. i got sucked into the rachel zoe project tonight. i mean sucked in. i couldn't turn it off. oh, i wanted to. but it was like watching a train wreck. i just couldn't turn it off. of course. i got my fix. i'll never turn it on again. but for one wasted hour of my life last night, i was tuned in.

besides kimora lee simmons. she has to be the second most vile person on the planet. and she has a tv show. and people pay her to dress them. seriously. pay her to dress them. who does that?

she flitted from fashion show to fashion show at NYC fashion week in the episode i caught. she berated her assistants, she was absurd to her husband, she was self-absorbed, insolent and horrid. and then she said it. "every woman should have a red carpet moment everyday." please. please. please. who does this? who even thinks this way? don't get me wrong. i love fashion. i'd love to have big-time label designer clothes. i've always been a fashion junkie. but this woman is horrid. is it really necessary to yell at people over clothing? over fedex packages not arriving? besides the fact. does she eat? she had dinner with someone, i don't remember who and she had a bottle of water while they ate. now that's poor manners.

i know. i don't like to devote space in my blog to these kinds of things. things. i say. but. she. is a stain on the human race. i had to share.

777.68

closed.

i think that today congress (both sides, quite frankly) could use a refresher lesson in kindergarten etiquette.

let's review ourselves.

"All I Ever Really Needed to Know
I Learned in Kindergarten"
Robert Fulgham

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned..

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life.

Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

at least they won.

a gorgeous fall day. sunny. light winds. not blazing hot temperatures. bright blue skies. crisp morning air. footballs flying. and flying into the end zones. at least the chefs finally were able to win a game. could be their only one all season, but a win is a win.

games in the street with our friends (we've taken to playing fun games on the weekends) and a dinner with todd. the littles were besides themselves. they adore uncle todd. i think he's a bit smitten, too.

thank goodness, part 3 (not so good).

not such a good day. a good effort, but not a good outcome. we are looking forward to next week and hooking some horns.

$12,000.

i've been busy. very busy.

getting ready for the annual designer kids resale sale. sounds like fun, right? no. not right. not fun. a bit sad (all those memories). a bit overwhelming (too much stuff) and a bit depressing (did we really need all these clothes? did we need to spend all this money? sure they looked, cute, but really?).

just as i was waxing poetic in my mind and to my friend about all the waste. all the expense, all the craziness of being a mom who likes to dress her children well, another saler stepped up. get this. i mean. seriously. get this.

me: "i spend way too much on my kid's clothing." i've got a problem."

her: "really?"

friend: "me, too. that and baby producing. those are my problems."

her: "but it's fun"

us: "sure is, but look what we end up doing with them later."

us: "reselling them out of a garage."

her: "i went into my favorite store the other day."

me: "yes?"

her: "i asked what i had spent this year in there."

me and friend: "really?"

me: "you wanted to know? i don't think i could handle that kind of pain."

friend: "what did they tell you?"

her: "$12,000."

us: "$12,000???"

friend: "on one kid? at one store?"

her: "yep and i bought more."

good god. do you know what you could do with $12,000? do you know how many people that would feed, how many kids that could clothe, how much that could help in the fight against disease, malnutrition, homelessness, the wall street debacle? $12,000. in one store. on one kid. can you imagine what the total would be if she added in all the other stores she shops at?

there is a problem in this society. and i ran smack into it today.

{!!.:'@(*)}

today is national punctuation day.

their people probably are not too impressed with me. i love to use ellipsis (my favorite punctuation), periods, shortened sentences, and lowercase letters (caps drive me crazy).

so a great big exclamation point (!) to national punctuation day.

creature.

look at this creature that i almost. almost stepped right through while i was shooting photos in my garden. eek. i had one of these hanging around. in one of my flower pots. for weeks a couple of summers ago. this guy is huge. about two inches. two. in length. intricate web. a common garden spider. harmless. interesting. creepy.

artsy fartsy.

or the plaza art fair.

made our way down to the plaza this weekend for the annual plaza art fair stroll-about.

lots and lots of great art to look at. paintings, photography, ceramics, textiles and jewelry. good food, too. friends. and people watching.

the littles had fun. we enjoyed the art. but the best part was the kids band that played a rockin' version of pink floyd's another brick in the wall. seriously. the picture is them.

all in the name of art.

creepy crawly.

hanging out in our tree this am. intricate web. scared of people. he ran as soon as he saw us snapping pics. he must have worked on his web. all. night. long. it was huge.

arrgh.

ahoy mateys!  it's talk like a pirate day.  who has the cool job of thinking these things up?  because whoever does, i want your job.

we talk pirate in our house all the time.  especially since we have a pirate living with us.  

so go on. talk like a pirate. today.

thank goodness, part 2 and the john denver bowl.

another good week. a bit of a nail-biter, but a good week. and. it was the "john denver bowl" how cool is that?

17-14 over #21 west virginia.

lecture.

why do the baristas at starbucks feel the need to lecture their customers?   a friend and i went to starbucks today on our way out to shop.  we both ordered shaken green iced teas with one splenda.  through the black box we got the lecture of what was in a green tea and why did we want a splenda, too?  

confusion.  why the questions?  why the lecture? we've ordered these all summer.  why the sudden conflict over our drinks?

leave it alone.  we ordered what we ordered.  we paid.  give it to us without the attitude!

false. false. false.

i love jcrew. i love their look. i love their over priced clothes. i love their store (even if they have the most horrible sales clerks in town). but i hate their emails. i get gobs of them. at least one a day. i know. you say unsubscribe. but once in awhile a good one comes across the wire. but most of the time they are like this:

and they are all about free shipping. which in my mind. isn't free. at all. free is free. free when you spend $100 is $100. not free. stop with the free. free. free. or make it truly free.


clever little marketers they think they are. those jcrew people.

melt.

this is how our day started. i knew it was going to be one of those days.

at first i thought there was a broken egg on the counter. dripping onto the floor.

the culprit was hiding under the desk. sticky and gooey.

upon closer inspection it was a melted orange and vanilla ice cream bar. such a good breakfast.

neccessity.

really. just what everyone needs. our new friend, the butter boy. a handy little friend that holds butter. perfect for buttered corn and he looks cute looking back at you in the fridge. thanks to todd. he nows how to pick 'em.