Let me e'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

1. I owe my mother an apology - I was supposed to drive with her out to meet up with my sister and her kids in Tennessee on Sunday, and I didn't because I haven't been sleeping well and wanted to sleep in that morning. Turns out she had made a whole gluten-free picnic for the day, which I didn't know about until afterward. So Mutti, I'm very sorry I flaked.

2. On Saturday night I went with notgruntled  and a few other friends to see Tropic Thunder at the drive-in. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard at any movie, and the drive-in is the perfect venue for a movie that encourages a raucous audience. It was absolutely hilarious. And yes, I've regained a modicum of respect for Tom Cruise. Further, to those people who are protesting because of the fake mentally-handicapped character of "Simple Jack", you clearly have never heard of the following terms: irony, sarcasm, subtext, allegorical.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Because a movie has a sexist or racist character, it doesn't mean that the movie is therefore ALSO racist or sexist. When a movie shows a person doing an offensive portrayal of a character which is clearly MEANT to be over the top and offensive, so as to point out the obtuseness of the person portraying the character in addition to the shallow industry promoting that type of portryal and the easily-emotionally-manipulated mass audiences who often thrive on such characters, the movie is therefore mocking the aforementioned person and groups and NOT the actual offensively portrayed character. Ok?

3. We got a new couch for our upstairs media room - it is bright red and exactly what we've been looking for since we bought the house almost five years ago. Most importantly, the cats approve.

4. I broke down and signed up on Facebook. *sigh* And it's already a soul-sucking timewaster. And I intend to waste more time with after I've gotten my inbox down to 100 emails.  On the plus side, I've already - in the space of a few hours - managed to reconnect with a number of old high school friends with whom I haven't been in touch since I graduated in 1991. I'm also grinning at the number of them who also qualify as ex-boyfriends. I was such a playa.

5. Are you all sure you don't need a fabulous black desk?? Do you know anyone who might??

6. I'm looking forward The Daily Show's take on the DNC convention. Their whole "Best F*cking News Team Ever" gag has been terrific.

7. Fritos make an excellent side to roasted red pepper and tomato soup. (And all gluten-free!)

8. It's clear that McCain is going to take a page from Giuliani's old playbook and replace the overused phrase "9/11" with "POW". Yes, you were in a POW camp, you survived a horrible experience, it's admirable as hell, but it HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MOST OF THE QUESTIONS YOU ARE BEING ASKED. Now please, continue your regularly scheduled program of gaffes, hypocracy and right-wing-ass-kissing.

That's all, folks - have a lovely week!
.</lj>

 If one or more of the following applies to you, this clip MUST be watched:

1. You love Neil Patrick Harris
2. You watch How I Met My Mother
3. You love Les Miserables
4. You love to try to sing both parts of the Javert/Valjean confrontation song at once

Credit goes to dangerousdame  who posted this on the dr_horriblesing  group.

I haven't actually watched Dr. Horrible in over two weeks - deliberately - and yet I STILL can't get the entire score out of my head. Every morning I wake up with at least one of the songs in my head, and then they cycle throughout the day. It's like auditory flashbacks. It's fabulous stuff, but please, god, make it stop!
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In other news, I'm on Day 6 of the gluten-free diet, and it's not too terrible. We've been cooking at home every night, which is great, and making pretty healthy meals. There are tons of gluten-free resources on the web and I'm finding some good ideas. Still don't think it will hold up when I'm in Budapest in October, but we'll see.

Husband and I went to see my parents in Cape Cod last week and had a wonderful time with them - although it's pretty clear that Massachusetts weather hates my husband, because every time he's up there with me it's cold and rainy, but if I'm there without him it's beautiful. In this case he went home three days before I did so I could have some quality time alone with the 'rents, and literally the MOMENT he got on the plane the weather turned gorgeous. Meanwhile, I gorged myself on all my favorite Cape Cod food, and all the stuff I knew I might never be able to eat again - fabulous bread, clam chowder, lobster bisque, fried clams, lobby rolls, etc. And oh yes, a fabulous night of fresh lobster with lots of lovely bread to dunk in the melted butter, and many bottles of good wine. My dad and step-mum are very good to me - I've never been able to find bialys in Georgia, so we had them every morning for breakfast. Yum!

The view from my parents' house is truly amazing - from their upstairs balcony you can see up and down the inside of the Cape. Husband put up some pictures - he's still having fun playing with the new SLR camera, so there are some random sort of repetitive pics in the mix, and I'm not sure why he put up some many of the Hood blimp. (And oh yes, I'm still waiting for him to upload the London/Indian Wedding pics...unfortunately he got busy with work, so that got set aside.)  These photos were all taken on the day we got there, when it was still gorgeous and the weather hadn't realized that Husband was in town.

And finally, I'm on call this week and next for Federal Jury Duty. Had a fascinating time participating in a "voir dire" session on Monday where 40 prospective jurors (including me) were interviewed in the courtroom with the judge, attorneys, and defendant (charged with the sale of marijuana and meth). I had asked my lawyer friend Tammy who they would be looking for and she responded quickly, "Not you." Apparently they don't want people who are opinionated, read a lot, and have political bumper stickers. Meanwhile I got to learn very private information about these 39 other strangers, including the fact that one woman has four brothers-in-law addicted to crack, another has a husband in prison for 40 years for abusing their 4 month old daughter, and one woman's brother was shot to death by NYPD officers inside the Nigerian embassy in New York. Anyhow, Tammy was right and I was dismissed from that one (as soon as they asked what my bumper stickers said - the other jurors chuckled and one muttered "oh yeah, you are SO not getting chosen")  but I still have to call every day for two weeks to see if I have to go back in.

And that's the news, folks.

Dear parents of Atlanta,

Those of you with small children clearly under the age of 10 who take your kids to see Dark Knight are bad parents and should be slapped upside the head.

No love,

Muse

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Husband and I went back to see it a second time with my 14 year old nephew, and while I was a bit worried that it was too scary for him, I was being naive - he adored it, of course. But would I take my 12 year old niece who is also visiting? Oh HELL no. She cringed when we watched Jurassic Park earlier this year.

Having a lovely time with the niece and nephew overall - this morning we went to the new ropes course at Stone Mountain, and I highly recommend it for those of you with kids around. Very worth the time and effort.
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For the last few months I've been composing posts in my head, and then not getting around to actually posting them. And then I felt that that too much had happened since my last post, and I'd never be able to catch up. So now I present a quick Top Ten Rundown of What's Been Happening in Muse's Life Since She Last Posted Three Months Ago:

10. I resigned from my job and started my own company (per rednekkid's recommendation I've removed the link, but I'll re-post it in a friends-locked post.)

9. Speaking of husband, he got a fantastic new job with Teach For America as a director in their marketing department - a terrific organization and one that he's really enjoying working for. Glad one of us is now doing something worthwhile and generating some good karma!

9. I've been very worried about getting business, but suddenly I find myself completely booked up for October (including a meeting in Budapest) and with a few scattered event gigs between now and then. Now I need to learn to juggle my time for multiple clients and make sure not to over-commit myself.

8. I joined the board of Actor's Express, and am now trying to plan their annual fundraising gala.

7. I turned 35 and have decided that I'd like to go back to being 32, as 35 is just a hair too close to 40 for my taste. Sorry, I'm not ready for that yet.

6. Husband and I went to London (just got back today) for an Indian wedding for a friend and had a fantastic time - husband took over 1,000 photos with our new SLR camera, so there WILL be a link to photos posted sometime soon.  To my delight it was pretty much just as I had envisioned it thanks to movies like Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham. And yes, we both bought and wore fabulous authentic outfits, which we fully intend to wear at the next opportunity.

5. I took over as Managing Editor for the quarterly magazine for the Georgia chapter of Meeting Professionals International, and articles for our next issue are due to the publisher tomorrow. Most of them are ready with one major and important exception. D'oh.

4. Going back to the Indian outfits thing, someone I met at the wedding suggested throwing a party with the theme: Wear That Thing You Have That You Never Get To Wear But Want To. Now I just have to find a free weekend to do that....

3. When last I posted, contact had just resumed after six years (with extremely infrequent exceptions over that time) with my sister, her husband, and four children. They actually wound up visiting us twice since April - once with the family split between our house and my mother's house (yes, my sister is once again talking to her as well - we think it's the influence of the Quaker church they seem to have become enthusiastic members of) and once with the entire family (all six) crashing at our house. It worked suprisingly well, and my favorite part would have to be the sight of my 14 year old nephew and his father (complete hippy, has never cut his hair or his curly beard, wears very bohemian clothing etc) playing Wii boxing together. The two eldest kids, the 14 year old nephew and 12 year old niece, are coming back next week by themselves, and I'm very excited to play auntie again.

2. I've seen a new doctor who is convinced, and presents a convincing argument, that the skin problems on the soles of my feet that have been plaguing me for years are the result of an allergy to gluten. So, starting in September I'm going to attempt two months gluten-free to test that theory. Why September? Because in August we're going up to visit my dad and step-mother at their house in Cape Cod, and I need to have fabulous French bread one last time (possibly) with my lobster. I'm so incredibly not-thrilled about this diagnosis, I can't even express my frustration. I'm a total foodie, and have always prided myself on being able to eat anything set in front of me. I hate the idea of having to be careful and cautious about what I eat, and I hate becoming That Person who has to inquire about all the ingredients of a dish when eating out. And I love bread. I ADORE bread. So, not happy. But if it makes the problem go away - and I can sleep and no longer look like I have leprosy on my feet - it's probably worth it. Probably.

1. Husband and I are well and happy, and enjoying the coolness from the brand spanking new HVAC system we had to have installed when our old one died during a week when the temperatures didn't get below 90. I spent a lot of time that week melted on the couch, while the cats sprawled next to me on the floor, all three of us unmoving until husband got home.

I'm sure there are some other crucial and important updates I've completely forgotten to post. I've been reading my LJ friends' journals, though mainly lurking and rarely commenting. I'll try to be better about both posting and commenting in the future.

Now off to sleep in an effort to get my body clock back on schedule.
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I'm sitting in the Jury Duty room at the Dekalb County Courthouse in Decatur - they have wifi, but I'm not able to get internet access on it for some reason, so I'm using my Blackberry's modem functionality. Not too shabby, as long as I don't have to download any emails with attachments greater than 2 MB.

So - weekend update!

1. Last Thursday the Husband and I went to the Tabernacle to see Flogging Molly, a fabulous punk Irish band, whom I have now added to my very short list of Bands I Will Actually Bother Seeing Live. They had two great opening acts, one of which was just hilarious and weird:

The band is called The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, and it's made up of a guy on a series of vintage guitars who is an AMAZING plucker (check out his wiki entry for a pretty cool story on that), his slightly scary looking but wholly entertaining wife playing a washboard (yes, a washboard) hooked up to an amp, and his brother on drums. They look like a bunch of redneck hillbillys, and their music is basically a punk version of 20's and 30's bluegrass. For some reason baldsug, I totally thought of you  - I think you'd really get a kick out of them. They sang songs that included such fabulous titles as "Your Cousin's On Cops" and "Mama's Fried Potaters."

2. Went to the neighbors house on Friday night to watch the latest installment of Lost, eat dinner, and drink too much wine followed by a little sipping Tequila. Lost has been fantastic this season - very gripping, very interesting, eliciting a disappointed "Nooooooo!" whenever we realize the episode is over.

3. Was very excited about going to supergoober's birthday party (happy birthday!!) and campaign launch on Saturday night, but by 2 PM my head felt like a cannon ball and my sinuses had drained into my throat to the point where the pain was such that I couldn't talk. *I* couldn't talk. Those of you who don't know me in RL may not realize how devastating and bizarre it is for me not to talk. Anyhow, spent the rest of the weekend drinking tea (ginger and lemon tea is my salvation), juice (orange mixed with pomegranate - absolute yum) and soup (chicken with wild rice.) Husband took good care of me as I snuffled and croaked my way through the rest of the weekend. Now I'm snuffling my way through jury duty (note to the people sitting around me: sorry about that.)

4. So most of you know about my Crazy Sister Who Lives in a Yurt - well after reading this, I've decided she may be crazy (no, my mother's alleged disapproval of the midwife process did NOT cause you to have a caesarean, you nut) but she also may not be stupid. She and her husband carry around jugs of water from their own well, and avoid having their kids drink public water at all costs. As this study points out, we just don't know the long-term effects of all the pharmaceuticals in the water, and it's probably a lot safer not to find out.

And speaking of my sister: she, her husband, and their four children will actually be coming to visit the first weekend in April. Most of them will stay at my mother's house (where my sister has chosen to never visit, in the 10+ years my mother has lived there) but we're thinking maybe two of the kids will stay at our house. Since I have virtually no contact with my nieces and nephews, I'm very happy about this.

5. You know that awful, fear-mongering "who will answer the phone while your kids are sleeping and bad things are happening" campaign commercial from Hillary Clinton? Turns out the little girl in the stock footage is now 18 years old and an active Obama campaigner in her high school. I'm thinking Hillary's reaction to this was probably, "you are fucking kidding me."

6. Husband and I are making another attempt at organized sport - after having a blast a few weekends ago playing kickball, we've joined the kickball league and will be playing on Wednesday evenings. WooHoo!

Have a lovely week, all, and please keep your fingers crossed that I'll be dismissed and not put on a jury. I leave on Thursday for a 1,000 person conference in Las Vegas and I'm just a teensy weensy bit busy trying to prepare.
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And once again it's snowing in Atlanta - those of you living in cold climates would be terribly amused by the OMG!!!111 panic that sets in if anything resembling snow hits the forecast.

My mom-in-law made it in on Thursday from Ohio, and has been having fun playing with Luna. The real reason she came down (I haven't seen her in a year) is to see the kitties, not us. But that's ok. She likes us, too.

She leaves early Sunday morning, and then we go have Dim Sum with some friends - it's a group that started off with a nice small manageable size - a few other couples and us - and then suddenly everybody invited everybody, and now we have 12 all together. I don't even remember if Canton House has tables that big, but I guess we can always split in two if needed. After that we're going to go see Cloverfield (the 2:20 PM showing at Regal Hollywood 24 on I-85 and Shallowford, if anyone else wants to come) which seems to be getting good press.

This morning I received a subpoena for a deposition in the lawsuit currently going on between my old company and That Asshat Company That Ruined My Physical and Mental Health (second link is friends-locked, but I'm considering changing that) last year, and then refused to pay for our services. My old boss keeps telling me that they can't compel me to appear because I no longer work for the company, but my sister the attorney says that's baloney, and the subpoena says I can be held in contempt of court if I don't appear. Of course the time that they are saying I have to show up is completely conflicting with some important conference calls I have with my current clients, so I don't know if I have any recourse to make them reschedule... Sent a copy of the subpoena to my sister, and I'll see what she says. Personally I have no problem with testifying about how hard my team and I worked, and what a crappy project it was from the beginning thanks to poor decisions on the part of the client. But for some reason the attorney for my old company seems to be trying to find a way to keep me out of it. Hey, whatever works.

I made the soup again! That would be the Fabulous Divine Best Vegetable Soup Ever. Only this time it came out really good, but not divine. I think the problem is that I used to much broth. At any rate, if anyone is interested, here's the recipe, more or less:


Enjoy the snow, all you other Atlantans. I'm glad we have a big pot of hearty soup and some nice crusty Tuscan bread to go with it. That, plus some movies, and there's our Saturday.
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Merry Happy Christmahannukwanzica to all!

We had a lovely holiday weekend. Mom-in-law arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday we all went to my mother's house for Xmas Eve. My mother roasted a goose which I find to be the tastiest of all fowl - the flesh is so rich, and when done right the skin is crispy and divine. It's much less fatty than a duck, but still has enough fat to baste itself during the roasting. Hers was perfect and tasty. We stopped off at my aunt's house before dinner for a quick champagne toast and appetizers, and then back to Mutti's for the goose, followed by presents and stven's lovely chocolate pie.

Slept in a bit on Christmas Day, and then got up and had some tasty jam filled croissants for breakfast with Husband and mom-in-law. There's a snooty French side of me that's completely appalled at the heresy that is a jam-filled croissant; you'll find pain au chocolat which is a lovely, flaky pastry bread filled with chocolate, but you won't find real croissants in France filled with anything but lovely, buttery soft pastry goodness. Croissants, incidentally, should NEVER bear a resemblance to bread when you pull them apart. That's simply a roll in the shape of a crescent, NOT a croissant.

Did I mention the snooty French side of me? What can I say - went to kindergarten in Paris, and they start early on the gastronomic lessons of life.

After breakfast we tore into presents, and then I worked on our meal: standing rib roast, thin green beans, rosemary potatoes and a big salad with lots of vegetable goodness. We've always had trouble roasting in our oven, and it's always taken longer than expected. Finally figured out that our oven thermometer is completely off, so we compensate for that now and have our own thermometer to tell us the REAL temperature. I used a recipe from my father (an amazing gourmet chef) that called for slow roasting at 200 degrees to get a medium-rare roast. Um. Yeah. Didn't so much work for us. Completely rare beef, anyone? So although I thought this year my meat would finally be done when expected, instead it went back in the oven for an additional 30+ minutes while I tried to keep the potatoes and beans warm.

Our lovely friend Marc joined us, plus Mutti and stven, so it was a nice group of six. We ate, drank some excellent wine, had mom-in-law's delicious homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and then lay around and digested. In the evening Husband and I went next door to  eyeheartjamaica and gibbs_vols house where we drank more good wine and played games until almost midnight.

I got some very cool presents - an absolutely gorgeous glass bowl from my aunt, an iPod Nano from Husband to replace my iPod Mini that I lost (he had already gotten me a clock radio that plays an iPod when I lost mine, so then he had to add the new iPod to my gifts... he's very sweet and generous.) I got some pretty jewelry, a very cool shirt from whyvette that says "Fake News" (in Daily Show font) "Is All I Trust", the "Teacher's Edition" of Jon Stewart's "textbook" from mom-in-law (with encouragement from Husband), Amy Sedaris' new book from eyeheartjamaica, neat deco platters from stven, a convection/toaster oven from Mutti, and lots of other cool and thoughtful stuff I can't think of off the top of my head but thoroughly appreciate.

I did wind up getting that USB Rocket Launcher for Husband, which made him grin gleefully and vow to ignore the "no flying objects" rule in his cube farm. 

All in all, a lovely holiday.

Oh, FYI to our friends and loved ones, Husband printed out mailing labels for our holiday cards last week and even affixed them to the envelopes. But somehow we haven't had a chance to actually write the cards themselves, so consider them New  Year's cards when you get them... or just please don't move in the next year and we'll send them out NEXT holiday season...

One round trip ticket on Delta: 25K Skymiles plus $5

One Hertz rental car with coupon: $1

Gas and parking at the airport: $25

Flying home for 24 hours to surprise my stepmum for her retirement reception and getting the chance to see her, my dad, both my sisters AND my stepbro: priceless

Had a pleasing 24 hour jaunt up to Northampton in time for a reception for my stepmum who is retiring after 25 years of teaching at Smith College. Told my dad, but no one else knew, and I had no idea that my siblings were going to be there so that was a lovely surprise for me. I've only seen my parents once this year, and hadn't seen my oldest sister at all.  It was completely worth the trip, and I'm resolved to make time to go up and see them all more often.

Meanwhile, Husband spent the weekend playing a drunken clown who beats up a car for an interactive flash bit that's going to be part of an e-card you'll be able to forward to friends - I'll post the link when it's released, but it won't be for at least another month. I can't wait :-)

Off to Phoenix tomorrow for a site visit, back Tuesday late night. Have a lovely week, y'all.

Oh what a lovely weekend!

As previously mentioned, my step-brother, Claudio, was in town for a gig with his current band. He arrived in massive pain after doing something to his back whilst moving an amp, but miatuc was kind enough to stop by and diagnose it as a badly pulled muscle, and provided some lovely muscle relaxant and pain medication. (Thanks, all for the chiro suggestions - we decided that if it was just a muscle, he'd be better off just resting with a heating pad and lots of ibuprofen.) Claudio made it through the gig, and actually I thought the band was excellent - my friend Mark H. came, as did my mother and Stven.  The band played some very cool Reggae-ish African-ish music with some cool lyrics and beautiful complex rhythms and melodies. Claudio thought it was a lame performance, but the audience enjoyed it.

So the rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, relaxing, watching football, going out for brunch and Mexican food. Today I had Dim Sum with a bunch of girlfriends, came home and worked the rest of the day (editing, editing, editing), and then cooked a nice big meal for Claudio and Husband. I love cooking, and I don't do it nearly often enough. And if I do say so myself, it was quite delicious.

We had:

* Rock Cornish Game Hens with rosemary, garlic and lemon
* Green beans, steamed with some more rosemary
* Some cool little squashs that I cooked and then mixed their insides with butter, salt, pepper and a little Grand Marnier
* Accompanied by a lovely little Pine Ridge white wine - a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Pinot Blanc

Dinner was followed by French bread and an array of cheese (real Roquefort, a French Pyrenees Le Roy, and an Italian Fontina.

I need to do some MORE work (an editor's job is never done) and then we'll have a little dessert.

This has been a great visit. Claudio and I have really never spent much time together except with parents, when we're both visiting them. He did come to my wedding in Jamaica, and even gave me away, but there were 36 other people there so it's not like we had a lot of one-on-one time. This time it was just the three of us, and Husband and I both really enjoyed getting to know him better (growing up he lived with my dad and step-mom, and I lived mostly with my mother.)

A lovely weekend, indeed.

On Thursday we're off to Negril to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary - we're only going for four days, but I just can't wait.

Here's hoping everyone has a great week!
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Swiped from whyvette:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have?

Interesting, as I never thought of myself as having a Boston accent. I grew up about two hours west of Boston, and have been in Atlanta for the last 15 (whoa - *doubletake*) years - so I have NO idea where the West accent might come from...

Where's the category for Eurosnob?? 

And on an unrelated note, for the second time in ten year, my step-brother is coming to town! I'm very excited about that, because we hardly see each other. We're not incredibly close, but we're very fond of each other. Originally he was going to get to town on Friday just in time for his gig at Smith's Olde Bar, but he just called to say he'll be here tomorrow sometime. (So eyeheartjamaica if you see a strange tall guy coming and going from my house, he's legit! Oh, and do you have plans on Saturday?)
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My stomach is fluttery and I don't know if it's because of

A) The greasy food I had for breakfast on Sunday with my mother at Waffle House

B) Learning that my mother had been stabbed in the heart, figuratively speaking, yet again by my psycho sister and her psycho husband aided this time by my psycho brother-in-law's psycho brother (she came THIS CLOSE to being able to once again see her grandson and then BAM - denied. Again. I'm so angry I can hardly see straight.)

C) Odd sleep patterns since miatuc convinced me on Saturday night to get gothed out and go down to the goth night festivities at Dragon*Con, and I didn't get home until 3:45 AM - and then Husband came home from Ohio last night, unexpectedly early, and wound up waking me at 5:30 AM looking for his eye drops that I had put away whilst cleaning house.

or the ever optimistic but too early to check option:

D) Pregnant?
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I'm trying to find something nice to send my father for Father's Day - he's not really into "Hallmark" holidays, but I like to at least acknowledge it, because I love him and it's an opportunity to remind him that he's loved. 

But it's very hard to find anything - cards or presents - that suit him. He doesn't wear ties (he's retired from teaching international politics for 37 years at Smith College), he's never played golf, he only watches sports when he's with my husband, and then only college football. He's a gourmet chef in the kitchen, and when he goes out to grill it's generally to do something else gourmet (marinated flank steak, butterflied chicken basted with something tasty). I'm pretty sure he's never "barbecued" in his life.  So far all of the Father's Day cards and gifts that I've found are about golf, other sports, or barbecue.

So, I'm soliciting ideas. Here's a little info about my dad:

* He's turning 79 in July
* He's traveled the world and continues to do with my step-mother (he's more mobile and in better shape than I am)
* He reads, mostly historical biographies and political books (and in case you're wondering, he's thoroughly depressed and disgusted by our current adminstration)
* He loves to cook, loves gourmet food and wine
* He loves jazz and opera
* He writes books 
* He lives in Western Massachusetts

I'm thinking possibly the DVD set of the first season of Slings and Arrows - his uncle Lawrence Langner was a big Broadway producer in the 1920's, and we have a family history of theatre. He loves British comedy (his mother was British, and he was born in Milan and raised in Belgium and England) and Canadian comedy has a lot of the same edge.

Any other thoughts? 

EDIT: Thanks for all the great suggestions!! And yes - I thought my father deserved a good review on Amazon.com. The rest of you should read the book and post your own reviews :-)
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Hello all!

As my usual chorus goes, I'm swamped. However, wanted to do a quick post about what a lovely weekend I had, and to update folks on the termite situation. (It's actually a long post, so it's LJ-cut for your pleasure.)


Busy week ahead - I'm going to an MPI conference in Atlanta (downtown) on Wednesday and Thursday, so much to get done before that, of course.

I have to write an article for Event Solutions magazine which is due Friday - will probably work on that tonight, since tomorrow night we're going out for a friend's birthday, and Wednesday/Thursday I'll be out at MPI events.

Next week - Chicago!

And husband and I decided that we ARE going back to Jamaica for our 5th wedding anniversary, and are inviting friends, so I have much planning to do on that end as well.

Have a lovely week, all!

Forgive me father for I have sinned. It's been over a week since my last confession - sorry - blog post.

Oh wait- I'm not Catholic - never mind.

Why has it been so long, you may ask?

Well, a number of reasons. This is long, so let's go with the subheadings, and you can pick your poison...

( I DON'T WANNA WORK I JUST WANNA BANG ON THE DRUMS ALL DAY  )
( I LOVE MY HUSBAND )
( VISITING 'RENTS AND FISH )
( FREE BOOZE )
( GAY COWBOYS AND PRE-DIVA JLO )
( AUTHOR AUTHOR )
Note: at this point my post is really just about the things on my mind, and not distractions. Just wanted to make that point.

( A LONG TIME AGO WE USED TO BE FRIENDS )
( CROSSING MY LEGS )
( DAMMIT )
( EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS ROCK )
( JESUS PROTECT ME FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS )
( MORE FREE BOOZE )
Ok, enough of this. When I arrive in Ontario I'll have a one hour drive to Palm Springs, and I'll try to stop in my room and upload this before it all becomes moot.

( UPDATE )

Because I need to take a moment to breathe...

*whew*!

So, everyone likes the hair? Yah? It's actually far less "corporate" than it looks in the photo - it's nice and choppy, angled in the front, cut higher and choppy in the back so I can even spike it a bit. The color is kind of fun and uneven because I covered up more of the gold chunks, and now I just have one gold chunk in the front, kind of underneath, so it's subtle and cool.

Color me pleased!

So, other updates, in brief:

( WORK )

( FAMILY )

( PREGNANCY )

( MISC. )

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Tags: family, food, random day, travel, work

My dear friend John gave us season one of Veronica Mars on DVD.

miatuc gave us a nice bottle of wine (lots of nice wines were given at our party, but most were drunk right away. This one was safely stashed.)

We gave Mutti a giant book of New Yorker cartoons, a gift certificate to iTunes (since she's becoming such the pirate, we thought we should encourage a little bit of legality), some nice products from Bath and Body and also "Airplane!" on DVD (her favorite comedy, and featuring your very own blow-up co-pilot.)

We gave mom-in-law a gift certificate to Target (she just moved from a house to an apartment), some mysteries, some nice Bath and Body products, and some maple syrup that we brought back from Massachusetts.

Oh yeah - hubby's girlfriend* gave me a karaoke machine. So I'm thinking whyvette and supergoober should come over some time and we can watch John Cusack movies, and then sing 80's tunes until dawn.

My sister Jenny gave us beautiful ornaments for the tree. My oldest sister sent us a generous check, as she always does. And my Yurt Sister (LJ entry explanation is forthcoming) sent us homemade cookies, which my husband, having seen the conditions of the yurt and their friendly attitude toward dirt and bugs, have politely refused to touch.

Had a nice lunch today with our lovely former neighbors, a wonderful gay couple that mom-in-law has adopted as "her boys" (pretty sure they're the first gay people she ever met), and going to dinner tonight at the stately mansion ("brick ranch" my ass, with 7' doors and about 7 bedrooms) of a lovely lesbian couple that mom-in-law is on the verge of adopting as "her girls". Our circle of friends in Decatur has provided quite the diversity education for a woman who was the original Coal Miner's Daughter in Appalachian Kentucky with only an elementary school education. It's fun to see her becoming such a passionate advocate of gay rights, based on the fact that she now knows and loves some gay people. She has a non-nonsense approach when it comes to loyalty to people cares about. Hubby's best friend, aka "Super Jew", gives her the best arguments against anti-semitism - because she likes him and likes his family. Hubby inherited this loyalty (and discrimination was never a factor in his personality, unless you count his intolerance for stupid people), which is one of the many things I love about him.





* Not real girlfriend. We're not poly. But he likes to tease me that she's his girlfriend when I'm traveling. Luckily for him she A) is slightly scared of me, B) really likes me, and C) has recently fallen in love with a cool guy of whom I approve. So the teasing is mostly acceptable.