A Pocket Full of Posies

It's been an eventful week.

My friend Michelle has been housesitting an amazing mansion style house with a big pool. On Thursday (the day the weather finally turned cold, naturally) I went over there and swam. My first and probably only swimming of the year. It was fun, but freezing. There was a West Highland Terrier there who rode around the pool on a surfboard. If only I'd taken pictures.

On Wednesday, I contracted the Black Death (tm) from one of my six-year-olds. Swimming in the subzero temperatures did nothing to cure me. (I'd had high hopes for the sterilization effects of chlorine).

By Friday, I was in bad, bad shape.

Saturday, I was contemplating euthenasia.

But then I went to see a production of Lost Highway: The Hank Williams Story, which was beautifully sung and acted, and though I cried when we got there because I realized I had to pee after we'd been seated in a packed house and would not be able to pee for 2 and a half hours, I enjoyed it immensely. I then tried the sterilization effects of two glasses of wine and a fine conversation with my friend Steve at the bar. Perhaps as ill advised as swimming, but it worked.

I awoke today feeling weak but on the mend. Go wine! The wine in question, should it work for others, was a Pinot Gris called The Four Graces. It is made in a steel drum rather than an oak cask, giving it no wood flavor at all and a stronger taste of flowers than fruit. Very, very good. And medicinal to boot!

Page count: 336

Read: Marley and Me by John Grogan
Reading: Circles on the Water by Marge Piercy

The Accidental Hostess

Because I am the queen of all that is sane and logical, after we arrived home yesterday, we threw a small party. One of Thomas's high school friends came into town, which involved the inviting of another friend of theirs (and ours), who happened to be seeing a movie with a friend of mine at the time...

Next thing you know, I've consumed a bottle of wine.

I slept terribly, wracked with guilt and worry at having to teach in the terrible condition I was in. I dreamt that someone forced me to drink Mercurochrome. It was not good.

I know I'm supposed to be posting about my grandmother and the ABC paintings, but I just don't have the strength. So here are some pictures of my mom's pies. They were good, but I had to walk 5 miles today to even begin to erase their memory.




You might also be interested to know that my mom REALLY likes Elmo.


















Also, her car rules: