30 minutes of my morning

The following occurs between 7:30 and 8:00 am:


Enter kitchen to discover that the $%#@! mites are back, and have invaded the kitchen table, feasting on the tiny crumbs in the middle where the table leaf would go. While scrubbing all table surfaces, get report in from Flash (my 6 yr old) that there is a WASP in the house. Shoo kids into my bedroom and prepare to attack. Wait until he (yes, I'm sure he was a he) goes behind the roman blinds. Whack the crap out of him with broom and paperback copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". Put his carcass in a cup, take it outside and deposit him on the nearest fire ant pile (cruel? no, he was dead anyway... this just ensures that he, uhh... returns to the fertile soil). Return to scrubbing table. Put tablecloth on top to prevent further crumb issues. Kill mites; mop kitchen floor. Boys come into kitchen for Breakfast Round 2. Make breakfast for them. Pour cranberry juice all around. Super Q spills his IMMEDIATELY. Cringe. Super Q gets upset because I made a face and declares "I don't yike eddy-buddy (everybody)." Pour new juice, this time in sippy cup. Retreat to computer to blog the whole thing. Hear suspiciously light-saber-like noises in other room. Save blog entry and return to the trenches.

birthday princess

Hooray for me, I turned 34 and only had one tiny "I'm getting old and fat and wrinkled and what have I done with my life" crisis. The mini-crisis was soon offset by very nice gifts and cards that arrived, including three packages in my mailbox on the same day! Not that I'm a gift fiend, but wonderful books and clothes and flatware and gift certificates are a pleasant distraction from the aforementioned old/fat/wrinkled anxiety. Thank goodness for thoughtful friends, family and husband and for rad Japanese food, including a coconut tapioca "bubble tea" to drink. (If you are not familiar with this drink, google it now and get yourself to a bubble tea shack asap. You won't be sorry.)

I just finished I Capture the Castle again. Loved it again. Now it's on to Stumbling on Happiness, which is not as interesting as I had hoped, but good enough for bathtub reading (<-- librarian heresy right there). And, of course, Stiff, thanks to Lindsay and Tony, and Peace Like a River courtsey of Janette. And the incredible America's Test Kitchen cookbook courtesy of Mindy, which not only teaches you how to make birthday cake with an "incredibly fine crumb" but tests barbecue sauce so you don't have to!