Could you describe the ruckus, sir?

You Don't Mess With My Heart (Komen et al)

2012-02-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

This post is in part about the Komen debacle; if you aren't familiar with it, start here. Otherwise read on: See this? This is my heart. My HEART. Although this is just one of my three children, for the sake of this post, it doesn't matter which. Let this baby stand for them all. My children, my heart. I have been spitting mad since I first heard about Komen's

Fuck you Chris Christie (in defense of New Jersey)

2012-01-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

You and your "Jersey style" rants don't fool us. Intimidation is the tool of a bully, and everyone knows the truth about bullies. You think you're big and powerful? You get a rush out of threatening people? Despite your obvious efforts to be otherwise, in truth you are a little, little man. This power trip you're on? It won't last longer than last nights pudgy little hard-on. Yeah, I'm

Rejoining the Land of the Living (and spending a day undead)

2011-10-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to rejoin the land of the living after a long, unproductive, unwelcome, unintentional withdrawal. The adjustments required by an empty nest, aging parents, and impending work and retirement choices are, for some, No Big Deal. But for me, and presumably others, it is a sea change requiring major reinvention and the questioning of Every Single Thing I've Ever Done. Our sold van;

I'm a shitty writer, and a crappy artist.

2011-05-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Or maybe it was crappy writer and shitty artist. Either way, the truth is debatable, but that's what one of my "friends" said in a comment on my facebook page. To her credit the comment disappeared a moment later, replaced by an edited version- still insulting but somewhat less so. Baby Spewing Stars (mama with the blue hair) This "friend" was someone I'd met years ago on the now defunct Ebay

Hey! Crone!

2011-04-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

crone (plural crones) (obsolete) An old woman an ugly evil-looking or frightening old woman; a hag There you have the definition of crone according to Wiktionary. But I say they got it way wrong. Because I'm taking over the name, me and a zillion other boomers, and putting a new face on it. I'll be 51 soon, and like a lot of women my age, struggle to define my post-menopausal, newly-empty

How many bras do you own?

2011-03-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

I own 72 bras. That doesn't count sports bras, which would add another dozen.I learned this eye-opening fact last week when, in a rare burst of productive energy, I began my annual bedroom clean-up. As I was sorting through my clothes I noticed my bra bin overflowing. This wouldn't normally be apparent due to the pile of clothing which serves as my closet (and which regular readers may recall

Yummier than it sounds.......

2010-12-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

I only like to cook in winter, and even then I keep it to a minimum. This is one of my favorite winter recipes because nearly everything can be measured out and combined ahead of time, then put into plastic bags or glass jars and sit until you're ready. Although the recipe calls for chicken broth I use bouillon so I can include it with the other dry ingredients. I usually combine enough

Um, dude? "We trounced your asses" ? Are you f**king kidding me?

2010-11-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Some days are like that. This is one of them. Got up in the middle of the night (ok, 5:30 am, but it was dark) in order to make it on time to a breakfast meeting for a business group with which I have an affiliation. As I am especially morning challenged I did the sniff test on clothes at the top of the pile, threw on some random items, and decided I was doing great when I left the house only

The mess I make

2010-10-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

First, a warning. This post lacks wisdom and is quite literally about the mess I make. I'm working on honesty here, and honestly, my house is a mess. The truth is I don't usually care. Except that two things happened. One, someone came over (that never happens). Two, I've been reading more blogs and find that- astonishingly- people frequently post pics of their homes. From the inside. And they

Barn's burnt down. Now I can see the moon...

2010-10-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'd seen it before, but this haiku by Japanese poet Masahide caught my eye as I researched quotes for the sign in front of my store. The store which will soon be closed- 6 months after opening and probably 5 months too late. I am not surprised- I knew the odds for small businesses, especially start-ups, especially those that are under-funded. So when the store first presented itself I told

And now for something completely different...

2010-10-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

I promise you I will never win any Mother of the Year awards. Some of you already know that my post of October 1st went wildly, unexpectedly viral, and generated hundreds of comments plus phone calls, emails and facebook messages. Many of the messages complimented my parenting skills. It's all very flattering, but... My gang. The post, if you haven't seen it yet, was actually a letter to

Letter to my daughter ( in the wake of senseless tragedy)

2010-10-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hello my girl, I wanted to say hi and tell you how much I miss you and that I hope your classes are going well and that you are having fun too. But I also have to have a mommy moment- bear with me here. I won't take long, and I won't be saying anything I haven't already said in one form or another, but it is important. You may or may not have heard about the NJ college student who killed

Feast, Famine, and Thanks, the long way round.

2010-09-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Of necessity, about 15 years ago I read "The Tightwad Gazette", a newsletter by Amy Dacyczyn, which had been compiled into a book-actually, 3 books. Along with ideas for spending less, she wrote about the ways that we think about and use our money. Her "feast or famine" observation caught my attention. She demonstrated how we tend to spend freely when we have money, with the inevitable

5k in a week, raising funds for flood relief

2010-09-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Some of you already know that I am running a 5k on September 25th, and raising funds for flood relief in Pakistan. This will fufill one of the goals I had for my 50th year. Although I really don't much like running, at least for the first mile, I keep doing it because every study I have read about exercise and health has come to the same conclusion- that regular exercise is the single best way

Paddle with your left to go right

2010-09-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

On labor day Monday, I conquered the Delaware. Well, first my brother Joe from Pa invited Jim and I to come up and go kayaking. It would be us, he said, and Marybeth (my sister-in-law), and a friend of theirs.Now Jim has gone kayaking a number of times with our daughter, Addie, and they've always enjoyed it. In fact, last summer Jim was pleased and honored when Addie had wanted to spend her

Alice, Harriet, and Fried Green Tomatoes

2010-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that Jim and I have a newly emptied nest, with our youngest at school in California, our middle guy off starting his life in Washington, DC, and our eldest having been on his own for some years now, living and working elsewhere in NJ.So what do you do with an empty nest?You fill it.With birds.Meet Alice and Harriet, more formally known as Alice and Harriet II. The original

Addie in the grass: 1, 2 and 3

2010-07-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 versions of a photograph of my daughter Addie. She's modeling one of the wrist cuffs I made for my Etsy shop. The first pic is unedited, taken with an inexpensive digital camera. Let me say right off that I am camera-stupid and barely computer literate. Whenever I think I've mastered one computer function or other there'll be a kid in the wings ready to blow that notion to

Menopause cured my bug phobia

2010-07-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

I have been phobic about bugs all my life. I can remember wearing my mother's high heels around the house because I wanted to be as far off the floor as possible just in case something was crawling.I wore long sleeves, long pants, and a hat one hot summer so nothing would land on my skin.When I had my first apartment I made my Dad drive across town to kill a spider in my shower. I once spent a

Celebrating my 50th all year long

2010-07-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

Last month was my 50th birthday, and I promised myself I'd create and maintain a blog through my 50th year. It's a little late, but here we are.I also set a goal of doing 50 things this year- things which were either interesting or fun, creative or hard, challenging or odd, outside of my comfort zone or simply something I hadn't done before. Naturally, I am way behind, and needing to do much