Desert Magnolia

In less than two months I'm turning 50. The big five-oh. Half a century. And just a few weeks after that, so is GG. We've tossed around a lot of ideas for how best to celebrate this rather momentous event. We knew we wanted to get away for a few days. We knew we didn't really want to do the whole party thing. Black balloons, bad cards and terrible jokes about impending death are fun, but we wanted to keep it a little personal this time. First we thought we'd go South, maybe back to Cancun for a few days of R&R, Paamul style. Then we thought we'd head up to Pagosa Springs to enjoy a weekend soaking in hot, steamy pools in the mountain air. But over the weeks we both knew we hadn't yet hit on exactly what we wanted to do. But then we both came to the same conclusion at exactly the same moment - Seattle! Why Seattle? I want to share this event, as it turns out, and my dear friend JL just happens to live there. :-)  When this song came out, the ye

For no specific reason I awoke a little cranky today. Contributing factors may have included: Tipper Ann insisting on perching on my hip while I was curled up in a fetal position. That doesn't work well for several reasons, including that she is heavy, and that she keeps readjusting so that she doesn't fall off. So nobody really gets any sleep; GG watching a movie late last night, thinking the sound was down low but really it wasn't and I wasn't in the mood to get up and ask him nicely to turn it down a little so that those of us who had to get up and work today could sleep. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have come off as nice or supportive at that point, so I opted to just not go there; GG coming into bed around midnight after his movie was over and waking me out of a sound sleep. And waking up Tipper Ann, who, after getting up for a snack, decided that then would be a perfect time to give herself a (loud) tongue bath which took forever if you were me; G

Love is one element, that, when withheld, can actually kill us. A human with no love is emotionally starved, and will die. The power of love is infinite. The variety of love is limitless. The healing power of love is miraculous. The capacity to which we are capable of love is immeasurable. There is only infinity when we speak of love. Any limitations are based on our own perceptions. One of the marvelous things about getting older is recognizing that it is possible to love so many people in so many ways and yet the supply never runs low, it only continues to flow. Love is, truly, all that really matters. Whether it is the love you feel for a child, for your lover, for your mother or father or deepest friends, for your dog or cat, nature, or God...love is the beautiful glue that binds us, that strengthens us, that inspires us. For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. Judy Garland Take a moment, during th

I have a really beautiful calendar featuring, yes, Paris. This morning I gave it a cursory glance and realized how incredibly lovely this month's featured image is. It's the Arc de Triomphe..., lit up with a golden glow...and in the foreground is a street at night..with those really pretty white crystal lights strung on trees....and one brilliantly red roof on a quaint little restaurant... And it made me completely nostalgic, and yearn for another taste of that beautiful city. We will return, we've already discussed how we'll do it. We'll plan on a few weeks, ideally during the summer, and we'll find an apartment. We'll walk around during the day, cook at night, and enjoy Paris from a less touristy, less frenetic, more 'yes, we're staying just around the corner until the end of the month' kind of way. No hurry, no stress, just Paris at its best, revealing itself to us, a little at a time, on its terms. Our only responsibility? Be absolutel