1. Windows XP. The most perfect computer operating system ever. Now, alas, its economic utility to Microsoft is over, so Microsoft will no longer sell it (forcing us all to purchase Vista instead. Not me. I shall resist to the death!)

2. Toll House Cookies made from the recipe on the back of the Nestles Chocolate Chip bag. No additions and no substitutions, please. Don’t muck with perfection.

3. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies made from the recipe under the lid of the Quaker Oats Oatmeal canister. Sometimes it’s printed on the side of the canister and sometimes it’s called “Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies”. As in #2 above, no additions and no substitutions, please. Don’t muck with perfection.

4. The 2004 Subaru WRX with the Turbo-charged Boxer engine. This is my car, selected for me by my son. He selected it for reasons of safety, economy, durability and coolness. I have a heavy foot and a competitive nature…so if you beat me off the line at a stop light, it would be because I let you win. There are teenage boys who drive trucks in Howard County who will never be the same. Oh and the Viva Viagra middle-aged boy in the Mustang….no contest!
I’ll add to the list as I notice perfect things…you should add, too!

HOWEVER, I wish I’d seen this woman doing HER version of mall moving. I might even pull up chair and watch, ’cause I sure won’t be trying it! I’m 50! For goodness sakes!

Check this out!

I know that I don’t wear them anymore. And except during rare and fleeting periods in my life, I couldn’t/shouldn’t/wouldn’t have worn them. And I don’t think that I’ll be wearing them anymore because they just don’t seem right; they make me feel inappropriately exposed.

Is this an mid-life modesty that I eschewed in other decades? Or is it an acceptance that short shorts are wrong for my body-type? Has my self-perception changed so that there are now some clothes that are simply “too young” for me?

Do you wear short shorts?

Read on - are you “like every other woman” as described by Stella McCartney (remember that her father, Paul, was the cute Beatle.)…

“I’m like every other woman. I don’t want my underwear to make me feel fat” - Stella McCartney in Vogue . . . ”

Think about it.  Does your underwear make you feel fat?  What does that mean?  What kind of underwear could that be, other than ill-fitting underwear or a thong?  Do men have this problem?

http://www.43folders.com/2007/11/12/vox-populi-reasons-quit

I post this for all of us with bags of yard and piles of new fabric from project ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time…endless lists and half-started novels. Unfinished stanzas. There’s new stuff bubbling up all the time and we need to make room and time to accomplish it!

There comes a point, I think, in every endeavor when you’re pretty far into it, but you can’t see the end. So you forget why you started in the first place, but you keep going. Sort of. And either it gets finished or not. Either way, the project hangs over you and saps energy.

If you’ve forgotten why you started, maybe the reason for the doing is no longer there.

Just a pre-dawn thought today…

However, while I was waiting in line at the pharmacy Monday afternoon, I heard the news guy talking about the new president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

My ears perked right up because when they call her by her last name, they call her Kirchner. HEY, that’s the same as my last name at birth. OK, so it’s spelled differently. But when you hear it, it’s definitely the same. So you can imagine that I was kinda excited to hear about her win.

But here’s what got me. I believe I heard Lou Dobbs repeat AT LEAST THREE TIMES, that “Kirchner is remarkably bright and beautiful.”

I must confess that when I checked the transcript from CNN. It shows only: “That’s an interesting report on Cristina Kirchner, remarkably bright, attractive woman.” So maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he did say it only once. Maybe I was so surprised that the words got stuck in instant replay only in my brain… and maybe the transcripts aren’t really every single word spoken?

She is beautiful. I’m sure we are twins separated at birth. I’ll have to ask my mom about that. See for yourself…

Here’s the Argentine Kirchner

and here’s me
If you squint and the pictures are small enough, we’re nearly identical, doncha think?
But I digress.

Kirchner just got elected president of a whole freakin’ country! I hope she’s more than remarkably bright. (I, too, am more than remarkably bright. Hmmm, another reason to think we’re twins?)

Dictionary.com defines remarkable as “notably or conspicuously unusual; extraordinary.” Why is it conspicuously unusual that a woman is bright? Or is this to imply that it’s unusual that an Argentinean woman is bright? Man, I am NOT going there!

Look, I must admit that I don’t know a whole lot about Argentina. But I hear they have pretty many “issues” down there, issues that will probably require a person a whole lot more than just bright—even remarkably bright–to run the country.

I wonder if they ever called the president of the US remarkably bright… I mean ANY president. It seems condescending to me.
People might be surprised to find that some athletes are remarkably bright. Our culture doesn’t expect them to be smart. There is certainly nothing precluding the possibility of brilliance. The ads during the Final Four basketball games highlight the scholar athletes who will probably not go on to pro ball, but who just might discover a cure for cancer.So why are people surprised that women in power are smart? I’m sure some women get power in less than admirable ways. (Some men do, too.) But why can’t the media figure out what to do with the smart woman stories? When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House, they talked about her wardrobe. They talk about Condoleezza Rice’s hair styles.

Did the press talk about how cute JFK was? They sure didn’t announce it on the 6 o’clock news! My friend Mary Klotz says, “They didn’t need to. Everybody knew it!”

I wish I had the opportunity to meet Lou Dobbs in person. I think I might like to screw a light bulb into his head and see if might BECOME “remarkably bright!” Maybe he could become a shining example to the rest of the media.

1. After 37 years, the smell of my own cigarette smoke is disgusting.

2. Chantix. Pharmacology is a wonderful thing!

Hope you learn something useful!

While the “boys” were whipping cream, my now 76-year old mother was on the deck explaining to my ex-husband, my brother and his wife that the ducks that currently inhabit her waterfront must be homosexuals, since there are no female ducks.  This - of course - does not explain the appearance of baby ducks.  She doesn’t have any problem with that apparent contradiction in her thinking. 

My Donald is working in Detroit at the moment.  I hope that when I tell him these stories, I can give them a “you were there” feel!

Clearly not the Cleavers.