26/366

Don't you hate it when you count 13 things in your basket, not "10 items or less, you're in express," and the lady in front of you really is buying her week's worth of groceries, and putting them on the counter
one.
item.
at.
a.
time...?

215/365

"A weevil is a type of beetle from the Curculionoidea superfamily. They are usually small, less than 6 mm (0.24 in), and herbivorous. Over 60,000 species are in several families, mostly in the family Curculionidae (the true weevils). Some other beetles, although not closely related, bear the name "weevil", such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum), which belongs to the family Anobiidae."

- "Weevil," from Wikipedia

ewwww.

92/365

I love the car wash until I get to the very end, when you have to coast through the wind tunnel and you wonder "is it really finished?" and "should I put it in gear yet?" and "hey- isn't that car behind me getting awfully close...?"

70/365

Oh Daylight Savings Time, you poseur. I can't keep track if I am falling forward or tripping backward or going in whatever direction you tell me to change. You keep telling me that you are here to help, but I don't see it. All I know is that you kicked my bee-hind on Saturday night, and wake up time certainly seemed awfully early on Sunday, and Monday wasn't yet quite right either. By Wednesday I should have had you figured out, but my regular morning run seemed much more dusky than it did a week before. It seemed like I turned off the streetlights as I passed them by, clicking off one after another as if I was flipping off the switches for the day ahead. Why can't we just leave things be?

23/365

a ginger ale and 4 saltine crackers kind of day.

276/365

an exercise in patience,
and a bit of disappointment as well.

170/365

travel- yes.
travelling these days- not so much.

124/365

likes:
free internet
cable tv shows I can't watch at home
Jamba Juice Pomegranate Passion
strolling through World Market and HalfPrice Books
Texas waffles in the morning
two of my favorite travel buddies

dislikes:
funky hotel smells
shower heads for little people
sinks that don't drain
clock radio alarms that go off in the middle of the night
stinky soccer shoes

121/365

some days are
forget stuff you are supposed to remember,
get stopped for stopping past where you are supposed to stop,
drive back and forth and back and forth,
checks that go through the wash,
mosquitoes that bite through shirts,
stay up to get clothes in the dryer,
no sheets on the bed,
crawl under the comforter anyway.

thankfully those days are few.

84/365

oh Harlingen library, how you vex me so.
I love your gardens, your sculpture, the sound of the water falling in your fountain.
But inside, it's never easy, is it?

I know, no giggling out loud, no humming the Mission Impossible theme while searching for a daughter lost in the stacks.
I'm sorry that even my flipflops sound loud when I climb the steps to the second floor non-fiction shelves.

But when I pull out my running book list, you seem to mock me. Nothing today- not one from the list.
And when I look for the shelves starting with the P authors, I find it not next to the O's and Q's, but rather, the shelf after large print T-Z's.

And then, you force me to scrounge the bottom of my bag, the bottom of my daughters' bags, for the cash to pay not only my fines, but also my kids', before I can check out a book? Before the non-offending kids can check out a book? Ahh, the challenges of five active library cards- always paying for the offenses of others...

I know, the library is a privilege. And I know, I push the envelope every single time.
Can we declare a truce? Next time, I'll do my part, I promise.
Can we all just get along?
(and could you please add some Wendell Berry to your catalog? please?)

Most sincerely,
a loyal bibliophile

312/366

flight from Harlingen to Houston. check.
flight from Houston to LaGuardia. cancelled.
flight from Houston to LaGuardia. cancelled.
flight from Houston to LaGuardia. cancelled.
flight from Houston to Newark. cancelled.
standby flight from Houston to Newark. cancelled.
flight to Newark. rebooked.
hotel in Houston. reserved.
luggage. retrieved. (thankfully!!)
dinner at Waffle House. eaten.
trying again early tomorrow. hopeful.

destination JFK, 5:45 pm

310/366

allergies, allergies, allergies.
at the end of the day, orange tea and to bed.

287/366

at this point in my life, participating in garage sales feels like playing a part in an episode of Hoarders.
But, it was pretty fun to bargain in Spanish...
:-)

206/366

things-I-don't-normally-confess-on-the-blog-but-hey-this-is-real-life...

we turned in eight overdue library books and I didn't have enough cash to pay the fine. And that was a huge bummer because I still had about 100 pages left of one of the books and they wouldn't let me renew it...

My relationship with the library-
mostly love, occassionally strong-dislike, generally all my fault!

days of summer- 68

I'm really thankful that both days they waited to make an appearance until AFTER class was over!

UMP Initiative

Today I made a quick stop at the local grocery store, four items on the list, including milk. Milk is a complicated and divided affair at my house, with girls that prefer Skim and their dad and brother who are Vitamin D Whole milk kind of guys. Today I walked into that age old trap of milk buying. I stumbled through the mine field of colored caps and fell victim one more time.

It is the slickest and most deceptive of set-ups in the milk cooler. You can't let your guard down. I first looked for the Vitamin D, the most reliable, the ol' predictable, the red cap. No. Not here, not at this grocery. It was purple! Purple? Then I moved on down the row to the light blue skim. But the off-brand (hmmm... "off brand" is never a phrase you want to use with milk. Let's just say that it wasn't the store brand label...) was 50 cents cheaper and milk is milk and 50 cents is 50 cents, right? So I grabbed the light blue capped cheaper version and headed to the checkout line. I was out of the store and back in the car when I looked at the receipt and WHAT?!? One vitamin D milk, one 1% lowfat?! WHAT HAPPENED?

Foiled by cap color, yet again!

(of course, since it was 98 degrees outside, no way was I dragging that sweaty gallon back into the store, so hopefully the girls will see the blue cap and think "skim milk" and like their mom, not notice...)

So today, after years of making "we should..." statements, today I am publicly suggesting the UMP initiative- the Uniform Milk Packaging act. One color per label- standard across the industry. No more mistaken milk purchases in the parking lot!

And I'm not the first with this idea.  A quick Google search under "milk labeling colors" shows that Startled went public with a similar idea a year ago.
Red for Vitamin D whole
Purple for Reduced fat 2%
Green for Low fat 1%
Light blue for Skim milk non-fat ("because skim milk really is a pale, deathly blue. Also, it is gross." says Startled. My son would agree.)
It is easy and it just makes sense.

My conservative senses dare not demand government intervention or legislation, but really milk producers. Unite! You can make a difference!

(and wow! what's with the price of milk? It's the same price per gallon as gasoline!! And I think that my 15 year old son gets about the MPG, minutes per gallon, as our 12 passenger van... sigh.)

P's

A list of p's:

Pelicula:  We saw The Legend of the Guardian today, completely in Spanish.  And understood it, mostly, which is worth a holler.  The animation in this film is terrific, the details visible right down to the last feather.  Keeping track of the owls is a little tricky.  The story is the best kind of animated tale, of noble animal heroes triumphing over  the forces of evil, of courage and valor and honor.  For my friends with young un's, warning!  This is a dark and sometimes scary movie.  But for those ready to handle intense battle scenes, you'll find it very worthwhile. 

Pops:  Me encanta Helado Pops!  This week, nieves frutas.  Delicious mixed fruit ice.  mmmmmm.






Pan:  (say: p-ahn) (translation:  bread)  Our Saturday morning routine consists of shopping for the bulk of the week's produce at la feria (farmer's market), and then a stop at la panaderia (bakery).  There are two bakeries, Pan Por Kilo and Musmanni, a block away from one another.  We don't have a favorite, meaning we like both, a lot.  Today we bought empanadas, which are croissant turnovers filled with potatoes, beef, and chicken (or pineapple, as the case may be...) to eat at lunch, a load of crusty bread to have with dinner, and a ring of apple cinnamon rolls for Sunday breakfast.  Could man live by bread alone?  Maybe...?

Pizza:  My husband is the pizza king.  El Rey de Pizza!  Look at those pies from last week- ham and (very fresh!) pineapple, and hamburger and tomato.  He's doing it again on Sunday evening.  It's no small feat to make pizza here, as cheese is premium.  The mega bag of mozzarella from PriceSmart (say: Sam's Club) is worth it.

Preview: We're hosting a visitor this month. Sneak preview here. More to follow... (He never fails to make me smile!)

Pests: Twice this week, I found one of these guys at the bottom of the washing machine tub, AFTER going through a full wash cycle... They must live for cold water adventure!
(and wait 'til I get around to posting the video of the ants in the nearby park...)

Life in the tropics...

91 days of summer- 64

front porch neighbor

yard sale

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:19-21

and so, in one sense, it was easy to have a yard sale.  I'm tired of storing up- that attic has been much too full!  It was easy to go through my house and purge.  It was easy to set it all out on tables in a driveway and let others have at it.  (uh, well, easy to set out except for this that somehow got into the pile.  No sir, not that, not yet...)  I'm more than ready to travel light, well, lighter.  (does a family of 7 ever travel light?)

but in other ways, having a yard sale is oh-so-hard.  All that STUFF, spread over my house- that makes me GRUMPY!  That we ever accumulated so much stuff- that makes me grumpy.  That I'm asking people to buy my stuff- that makes me grumpy.  And that people ask for a fraction of the pittance price- that makes me grumpy too. 

confession- by the end of the day Saturday, I was grumpy. 

confession- I am sure my family would tell you I was grumpy long before that. 

But back to the good news...

less moth and rust.

faithful Lord.

hard working family

dear friends.

money for travel while we are sojourning this summer.

(and my radio remains in my possession.)

where my treasure is, there my heart will also be.

Personal Crusade

I have one daughter, who out of respect for Ms. Austen and Mr. Darcy, is determined to physically turn every cover of this book , and this book, that she sees...

You go, girl.