Hitting the road

Tomorrow morning Sam and I head out for our 'road trip'. The trip is built from the basic request Sam had to "just drive, and sleep in the car." We'll take the back seats out of the RAV4 and add foam and sleeping bags. Should be great fun. We are both very excited. Sam is so excited that he was trying to convince me to leave tonight --"we'll just drive for a couple of hours and then sleep somewhere." I managed to talk him down from that ledge of enthusiasm. We'll leave in the morning. We will take lots of pictures and come back Monday in time to collect Catherine from the airport at around midnight.

Grumpy Old Woman

I was reading my copy of More (a magazine for women over 40) last night in the bath and imagine my horror at the three page spread on how to apply leg makeup. I mean, really. It's bad enough trying to patch over the dark eye circles and sun spots on the face, but now, I'm supposed to make up my legs too!

When the self is beyond self help

Awhile back, Alison launched her periodic series profiling a self help book. I too have a weakness for such tomes -- not that they do much good. Here is what I found this morning when I was looking for a shower cap for Catherine:

Another baby in my orbit

Well, if its not enough that both my sisters and my sister and law have new babes in the last year, my friend Ellen has also popped one out. Here she is at their first dinner party!

SAM

Here are pictures of 1) Sam as king of his class's medieval banquet; and 2) his most favorite thing at the moment: fish in his fish tank.

phew

Just back from an afternoon of shopping with Catherine. She is off to Quebec next week for a school trip and we both decided that it really wasn't on to have her walking the fashionable streets of Montreal and Quebec City in her year old sketchers the sides of which have ceased to be attached to the soles. And then there is her underwear situation and her collection of tops... And what 14 year old's wardrobe is complete without a peace sign necklace...? Mission mainly accomplished although we didn't succeed with shoes because we couldn't find her size in the ONLY acceptable pair (according to her).
I will now attempt to order them online for a rush delivery, because according to her friend Niki (the vegan, wiccan): "your mom rocks".

rude names

So, Catherine has a friend whose last name is 'Cundick'. I kid you not. C was telling me that another of their friends was calling said friend by her last name on the school bus last week, and another friend said, "um, you really shouldn't use her last name, it just doesn't sound good." Catherine said the girl didn't understand what the problem was. "Really?" I asked. "Really," Catherine said. Now, that is sheltered. Meanwhile at bedtime tonight my kids were riffing on the subject of "what if that girl got married to the boy in Sam's class whose last name is 'Dickman' and they hyphenated?"....