Rolled in late last night. Hundreds of miles. Dozens of constructions. Four small children and me. Arriving home four days early to surprise my husband? Priceless.

Only turned on the computer to get an address. And posted this to find out the date. Ok, so there are probably less agressive ways to figure out the date. But ... I'm a little sleep deprived and I know this will work.

I'll post something interesting tomorrow. About the vacation and the funeral and the shopping and the cooking and the other stuff.

I'll leave you with this piece of advice ... Black-cherry and Lime and Cola Jello dessert is NOT a good thing!

Ok, I'll be busy-busy-busy for about three weeks. That means you're on your own for a few days. Do NOT wander off and forget to come back!

(P.S. HANNA SALE! Wooooooooo! Underwear half-price! No scratchy hideous fake-cotton from Walmart! Yay for oxo-tech organic cotton from Sweden! And, yes, I bought the next bigger sizes. Children generally don't shrink. And, yes, I almost threw-up when I saw the total. But now I'm good-to-go about the children's underwear for the next twelve months! Yay!)

Comments seem to be down -- AGAIN! Along with my email. Which is a bad combination :(

I've noticed that my boys behave significantly better when there are strict "school" expectations and structures. This Summer is hard because we need to do some Summer School to get back on track and the packing for the move is causing a lot of structure to disintegrate.

I've decided to have uniforms for school next year. Seriously. Now, I'm just thinking about WHAT uniform to have! Should I go with khaki or navy pants? I like a crisp khaki, but the local private school goes with navy and thats where we'll do our standardized testing. "Polo's" most days, and one day a week button-down-with-tie day.

But, what to do about ties? I'm a little tired of the standard "navy-gray-forestgreen" combo that so many schools seem to favor. How about red? But finding boys ties is a PAIN! So many times the quality is ... hideous ... to put it gently.

Anybody out there got a good source for non-hideous ties for boys? C'mon, you can share ... really ... it'll be fun ... just click on "wave" and share the info ... you'll be my new favorite person!

(Alternate Title: The Borg Book) Quickly, the back story: Katherine is moving, and her move is going oh-so-much-more higglely-pigglely than mine will since she's moving across countries and I'm moving across town if the house is ever done. And she made Butterscotch Brownies, and mentioned the recipe can be found in The Joy Of Cooking, but only an old edition and hooked me up with an article about the various editions which mentioned the Butterscotch Brownies at the end. Although it doesn't give the actual recipe and I'm going to insist she send it to me (like she has NOTHING else to do) when her world settles down! Which I hope is soon, because I NEED a good recipe for those. How selfish am I !?! Note to Katherine: I'd hope your world settled down soon even if you didn't have a stranglehold on that recipe :)

Anyway, The Joy Of Cooking is a perfect example of when bad things happen to good books! The original was brilliant reading (although it sounds like questionable cooking). The next few were ok. Then, the author died and her untalented and socially-liberal descendents started churning out dreck. Which is why I don't own the book. I have looked at it a few time, since people rave over it, but never been impressed or charmed with the ones I looked at that were the current editions. I had no idea I was being decieved!

Here's a tip I've heard: Look for the 1951 edition at used bookstores. Or the earlier ones. The lastest edition doesn't have the Butterscotch Brownie recipe.

And we all know: I have no fear of butter! Cook boldly! Lard is your friend! Cream! Salt! People that don't like vegetables have never had vegetables cooked right!

I say that last part because thinking about cooking leads me to think about something a friend told me a few months ago. We moved here about three years ago, which is not enough time to run through my whole repetoire of recipes (and yes, I say "repetoire" because cooking is so performing). A friend told me she'd now try anything I cooked because she doesn't even like coconut and the coconut cake I made was so temptingly pretty she tried a bite of her husbands and discovered that she DOES like coconut, if I make it! And a few other dishes. And now she's come to the startleling realization that maybe lots of the foods she doesn't like is really her not liking those foods cooked poorly.

Which is a shame. Because with very little effort, ANYONE can be a good cook. The key lies in finding a good cookbook. Which is SO not the current edition of The Joy Of Cooking. Who knows? Maybe I'll write one. Maybe a very basic one my boys could use. Hmmmm. Like I don't have enough on my plate! But, now the urge has been sparked. Maybe ... after the move. Maybe ... the boys want cooking lessons anyway. Maybe ...

Note to husband: NO NO NO NO NO

Ya know how this is mostly a happy " island"? And how most of my links are happy-ish? Except for Babalu. Which is shockingly heart-breaking-ly informative. But its so well written about such an interesting topic that I just can't de-link him. I've tried. But when you come right down to it, I just can't click that button.

I've come to this conclusion. Val's site IS a happy site. Its just that his plan is to concentrate all his "happy" into the post the day Castro dies. I can live with that. Now, I just have to keep checking his blog until Happy Day!

I had a thought while I was dashing past the alcohol aisle to get to the deli at the grocery store yesterday. "Hmmm, maybe I need a little something sparklely to celebrate when Castro dies. And I'll need enough glasses so the kids can celebrate too. Wonder how I can explain it to them!?!"

Just a thought. Are YOU ready?