making her famous

totally forgot that tomorrow is mother's day and didn't even send a card! but you can all help me by making my mom famous because there's no better present than that. if you wouldn't mind - forward this link to everyone you know + 10 people that you sort of know + 5 people that you really don't know, but are hoping to get to know better and ask them to leave a comment on the blog telling my mom -

how pretty she is
how famous she is
how nice her hands are
how you never seen a better picture of someone sticking out their tongue during a professional photo shoot

i will then forward her all of the comments and it will be the BEST mother's day present ever!

thanks for your help. by the way, nothing will happen if you don't forward this on in the next 10 minutes - no death, destruction, bad luck etc. but, you will help me dig myself out of the procrastinator's hole. oh, and not to make you feel guilty, but i'd totally do it for you :)

back yard baby birds

spring has sprung and the eggs are all hatching. we have 4 little somethings living under our air conditioner and they're very loud!


but even cooler is the little something that was learning to fly today and he was sitting right next to me while i picked spinach out of the garden - while mom and dad watched from the tree above.

welcome to america

today was a day of confusion and clarity -


riding the bus home today and a woman looking rather clueless boarded after me. she mumbled something to the driver and he told her to just sit down. what she, clearly a tourist with limited english proficiency, said was - "is this the bus to georgetown?" what he she should have told her is what a horrified middle-aged woman barked -"honey, you couldn't be going more in the wrong direction! you're headed over the bridge and there aint no georgetown over there. you need to go back the other direction!" she still look confused and a young boy put his hand on her shoulder and said - "welcome to america ma'am!"


yes, osama is dead; or as the newspaper seller hawking the evening edition of the examiner at eastern market was yelling -

"extra, extra! it took obama to get bin laden!"

"we got him," obama stated emphatically, but i don't think it's as easy as that. bin laden, while despicable and detestable, was not the root of all evil and it would be presumptuous and dangerous to think that we're safer now than we were yesterday. i think that the most disturbing part for me have been all of the stories about the college students celebrating in front of the white house early into the morning. many of those students were from george washington university, my alma mater. at first i was perplexed as to why someone would go to celebrate that a person, again no matter how despicable and detestable, was shot twice in the body and once in the head at close range. it seems beyond explanation. but then i became even more dumbfounded as reports emerged that some of these kids were engaging in debaucherous behavior under the guise of celebrating the death of a man, no matter how despicable and detestable, who was shot twice in the body and once in the head at close range. petula dvorak sort of felt the same way.

but then i got home and the world started to make sense again. why, you ask? because i was greeted by pictures of pippa middleton that i inadvertently left on my screen last night. come on - woman, man - it doesn't matter. that dress is inspirational!






so welcome to america and god bless the flipflopfed! after all, where else could you get a story from the bus, commentary on bin laden and a gratuitous shot of pippa middleton all in the same blogpost?

it's been a while dad

today marks one year since my dad passed away. not really sure how i feel about it or even how i feel about how i feel. i wonder if i'm supposed to be sad? crying? melancholy? mournful?

i definitely miss him, but there was such a sense of relief that he no longer had to fight to stay alive and that i could let my mind rest.

my mom went to visit him today down by the river and she told me that he really likes the wind chime that we put up a few weeks ago. "not too loud and not to girly," she reported :) i decided to spend part of my day doing something that my dad would have done - volunteering at the food bank. delivering lunches and dinners for meals on wheels was one of his great joys in life.

maybe i'll cry tomorrow, but today's been a good day just the way it was.

harry and pippa 2012

i'm starting a campaign to marry off prince harry and pippa middleton. they make a striking couple!

in the name of the father, son and holy spiggot

i didn't get up at 4:00 am, but i have now watched the royal wedding. while it was beautiful, i couldn't help but be completely distracted by my thought that i seen this whole thing once before. no, not the nuptials of charles and diana (although i did get up to watch those - the difference between a 10 year old body and a 39 year old body, i guess); rather one of my favorite movies of all time -

four weddings and a funeral

indulge me before you disagree.

beautiful main characters? check!

goofy rectors? check!

gay friends? check!

john hannah? check!

alright. maybe the pictures haven't convinced you, but watch this scene from four weddings and a funeral and then tell me that i'm wrong.

the wedding of
bernard geoffrey st. john delaney and lydia jane hibbot

there's another great scene where everyone is singing "jerusalem" by charles hubert hastings perry and the camera keys on the characters who are less than impressed with everyone's singing - just like what happened today at westminister abbey.

i rest my case and andi mcdowell and hugh grant should immediately seek royalties from today's broadcast because it was a ripoff!

god save the queen.

* i didn't want to taint my analysis with pettiness, but someone HAS to talk to the archbishop about those eyebrows! i know he's sort of a big deal in the church of england and all, but he was marrying the future king and queen. he didn't have to cut them, but a little gel wouldn't have hurt.

yeah for friends and family abroad!

a cousin living in japan and friends living in guatemala and mongolia mean that i have an international readership. they're not my first repeat multinational readers though. last year i had a frequent flier from nigeria who needed me to help him cash a check. he was such a nice young man!