Once again, the holiday season is upon us.  And in my little corner of Northern California paradise, that can mean only one thing:  time for Don and Spirit, our neighbors up the road, to send out their annual call for a Winter Solstice Synchronized World Orgasm.

Don… Read full post »

I know a lot of you also have this cold/flu thing that seems to be going around, so please, please trust me on this one.  Nothing against the recipe, Irritated Mother, I’m sure you meant well.  A picture of me would say it all but this…is…not…the…morning&he… Read full post »

Just ran into this yesterday and thought I'd pass it along.  I thought it was hilarious, especially in light of m.a.h.'s very amusing post:  "Unrequited Love, Man and Cat."

Dog Diary

8:00 a.m.....Dog food!  My favorite thing!

9:30 a.m.....Car ride!  My favorite thing!

9:40 a.m....… Read full post »

This time, I thought we were finished for good, I really did.  I even had the suitcases out, ready to move on to greener pastures.

 I’d had it with your lousy judgment.  Your terrible taste in friends.  Your – dare I say it? --  obnoxious sense of superiority… Read full post »

(This post is written in response to another post by Teendoc, on the subject of a toy janitor/maid’s cart, available for $150 in the current FAO Schwarz catalogue.  While the irony of a high-priced let’s-play-maid kit is not lost on me, I was taken aback by the level of distaste expr… Read full post »

 8 a.m.   black coffee, white grape juice, lime jello.

10 a.m.  juice, jello

 noon:     broth, juice

1 p.m.    jello, juice

2 p.m.    juice, jello 

4 p.m.    broth, juice 

6 p.m.  &nbs… Read full post »

“Cut it all off.”

The techno pop blares, the lights sizzle, the stylist is half my age.

I tell him I want a new look.

Three hours later, most of my hair, once mousy brown, is gone.

My new color:  Platinum Ice, so blonde it is… Read full post »

I’ve got strange red blotches all over my skin, and I think they may be caused by anxiety.

You know that dream where you’re walking down the middle of a crowded street and you suddenly realize that you’re stark naked?  And you’re so mortified, you just want the… Read full post »

This post is an extended reply to another post, On Writer’s Block and Open Salon, in which m.a.h. beautifully chronicles her eight-year effort to avoid writing at all costs.  On the generally reliable premise that misery loves company, I thought I’d share my own story, though followi… Read full post »

Okay, so I’m a kvetcher.  Yesterday, I did a little grousing about the choice of “sexiest man” as an Open Call topic and, in response, Fortunate Pen has graciously thrown down the gauntlet:  if I’m so clever, what alternatives can I come… Read full post »

At the risk of antagonizing the editors and forever dooming myself to OS Siberia...surely there's a topic more interesting than this one.

In any event, I expect our President Elect will yet again score a predictable landslide.

(Part II of a Reno campaign odyssey)

If pit bulls could vote, Obama would win this town hands down.  Reno has A LOT of pit bulls and, despite the Sarah Palin connection, they are largely in the yards of Democrats, based on my admittedly unscientific polling data. For… Read full post »

Laurel, when you look back on Election Day years from now, you’ll tell your friends and family that this was the moment you helped make history.

This morning’s email pitch from Michelle Obama, inspirational as always.

Destiny has called and, by God,… Read full post »

I wonder if he’s still alive, the man whose lunch I ruined nearly fifty years ago at the sandwich counter of a long gone five-and-dime store on the northwest side of Detroit.  He’d be at least eighty by now, probably older, but who knows, maybe he’s out there somewhere.  A/… Read full post »

Joe the Plumber, meet Sarah the Shopper.

Seventy-five thousand dollars in just one day at Neiman Marcus.  Fifty grand more at Saks.  Another $7k at Barney’s and Bloomies. 

And we thought those AIG executives were high rollers.

Poor Pat Nixon.  All… Read full post »

Senator Lieberman, I’ve been following your career with interest for awhile now, so I hope you don’t mind if I call you Joe.

I watched your speech at the Republican Convention back in early September, just after Hurricane Gustav ripped through the Gulf Coast – a storm that,… Read full post »

"Somewhere in heaven, Norman Rockwell is smiling."

--New York Times columnist David Brooks, commenting on Sarah Palin's performance in the Vice Presidential debate

"Ya f--- with me, I'll kick your ass."

--Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin's future son-in-law, on his MySpace page (now shut down)

Now I… Read full post »