Friday

sharon stone

I actually never saw "Fatal Attraction," but I've always kinda liked Sharon Stone. She's sassy and interesting and generally wears her clothes well. I loved her in "Casino."

But lately, her public persona has seemed a little, well, nutso. Have you seen THESE PHOTOS from her at the premier this week of her new movie, "Fatal Attraction 2"?? Note the bizarro fish-colored lipstick and the craaaaazy hair. Her expression seems a bit deranged as well.

And speaking of the new movie, the reviews are starting to roll in, and not unexpectedly, they aren't so positive. THIS ONE is negative but highly, highly amusing.

Now wouldn't it be fun if Tom Cruise and Sharon Stone took up with one another?

Elliot's New Poem


Elliot - First day of 2nd grade
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Rats

I like them.
Ask me why.
Because they are soft
Because they have a scaley tail
Because they are furry
Because they lick you a lot
Because they are very small
Because they have long little teeth
Because they have tiny feet
Because they have tiny faces
Because
Because
Because
That's why.
I like rats.

By Elliot

obit for the generation gap

This story, on the rise of grup culture is very interesting. Read and comment and I'll be back later with my own thoughts.

PS: I wrote a very similar piece for Salon.

Thursday

leggings, redux

Well, according to those fashion forward folks in Fort Wayne (I do loves me some good alliteration), LEGGINGS ARE BACK this year.

I am actually really happy to hear this. Leggings are one 80s trend I wanted to return (unlike the incerdibly offensive gauchos everyone is sporting at the moment). Back in the day, I loved wearing my fave black, Danskin leggings with miniskirts and my Converse high tops. When I felt all granola, I'd wear 'em under my baggy Laura Ashley jumpers with my clogs. Either way, they were uber comfy and I thought, quite cute.

And now they are "back."

I think I still have a few pairs, so I'm going to dig them out this week and give them a test-wear.

music for today's morning commute

Wednesday

nashville knucklehead

I think THIS GUY'S BLOG is my current fave personal blog reading (meaning, it's a personal blog, not political or thematic. Just his thoughts on this and that.) He just amuses the heck out of me. I really would like to meet him.

It's interesting reading about post-divorce parenting from a guy perspective...

my yard makeover

Front yard before:

IM000405

During:

DSC00219

DSC00220

Will post "after" pix when we are done. It's going to be very pretty.

too busy

I need a helper. Really, I do. If I could just cut the afterwork transportation part of my weekly schedule out (after I get off at 6pm, I drive about 50 miles roundtrip to go pick my children up on the other side of town - in rush hour traffic - and then brng them back to our side of town. This is HELL. I make the same trip each morning before work each day when the children are not with their father.), I'd be in good shape.

And maybe someone could do my grocery shopping.

Having someone come clean once a week was a very good decision. I had forgotten what a difference it makes in making me comfortable and less harried. It's great to have found someone so good again.

But I am feeling like I really need some help about now. Between work, freelancing, mothering, travel, household maintenance and repairs that need to be done, etc, I am just feeling slammed.

Whine over.

J. kicks back at Robert's


DSC00129
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

james & julie


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Originally uploaded by kgranju.

Julie, James, Robert & J.


DSC00183
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

kate 'n' robert


DSC00125
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

Bell Buckle weekend

Visited in the Buckle, sans children last weekend. Photo essay of weekend follows.

cuteness abounds


DSC00128
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
My niece and nephew leading the way

J., me at my bro's house


DSC00153
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

kate & robert


DSC00124
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Still life with baby brother.

nicole, barefoot and pregnant


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Originally uploaded by kgranju.
My sister in law Nicole is pregnant with baby # 4, so she was our designated driver for the evening.

i wish i could quit you


DSC00186
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Perhaps my fave photo EVER. This is my little brother and cousin James on our bowling jaunt

J., thinking


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Originally uploaded by kgranju.
His first trip to Bell Buckle. I am not sure what he's thinking here except maybe that the onslaught of my family scared him badly.

Julie & fish


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Originally uploaded by kgranju.
My cousin Julie won a fish whilst we were bowling. She christned him "Dat's Right"

i heart bowling


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Originally uploaded by kgranju.
I'd never bowled before last weekend, but it was pretty fun.

dancing w/ my brothah


Robert & Kate dancing
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
We danced in Wartrace Saturday night

Tuesday

jennifer aniston needs to eat some PIE

I think I'll take a close look at at these photos the next time I'm feeling like I have eaten too many cookies.

gone

For the record, I have absolutely NO idea why the blog vanished for 48 hours and then suddenly reappeared.

It's a trend lately, like some boxers I ordered from Banana Republic three weeks ago that are AWOL....Maybe they will show up today.

Monday

sd

Thursday

the rise of 'lad culture'

I found THIS ARTICLE rather interesting.


As a single person dating mostly thirty-something age guys, I believe
there is a trend in which men who are 35 or 38 or whatever act more
like 22 or 24 year olds did 20 years ago...


I blame it all on Maxim ;-)

jetpack uk

One of the best small venue shows I've seen in the last year was Jetpack at Barley's earlier this Spring (as you can see from the photos in that link, I had a fine, old time that night). I had a chance to chat with the Jetpack fellas after the show and they live up to their billing as "Nashville's most amiable rock band."  I also got their CD and have played the heck out of it.

I got an e-mail from the Jetpackers the other day letting me know they will be back in Knoxville for another show at Barley's on May 12. I'll definitely be there.

racist column

THIS OP-ED from my hometown newspaper is so unbelievably racist that I am almost speechless.

Do people still WRITE stuff like this any more? I am trying to decide how to respond.

ADDENDUM: Three days after that column ran THIS TERRIBLE THING happened there, in the same town.

feminist heroism

Via my friend D.R.:


Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, is planning to open a Planned Parenthood on reservation land which will provide abortions. The state has no jurisdiction over reservation lands.

Ms. Fire Thunder's address, should you wish to send a letter of support:

Cecilia Fire Thunder, President
Oglala Sioux Tribal Council
Pine Ridge, SD 57770

Wednesday

meme

Out here in BlogLand, you may hear the word "meme" a lot. Perhaps you've wondered where the word came from and what it's come to mean. Here's an excellent discussion of this very topic.

quote o' the day

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

-MLK, Jr.

too liberal

My boss got a complaint this week that I am a "known Democratic actovist" and thus should not be producing the weekly public affairs program I produce.

More later on this, but I cannot begin to tell you how irritating I find this. My boss was wonderful and reasonable and thoughtful, as he always is (I've talked about how great my job is before), but I feel the need to defend myself in public, but I cannot. But this guy's assertion is completely without merit on every level.

on the small side

Here's an interesting tale about how one woman became accidentally pregnant

Heh.

Tuesday

lucky

My office is on a hill. I always park my car directly in front of the bldg, on a steep incline. Always.

A little while ago, one of the maintenance guys for the bldg asked me if something was wrong with my car.

No, I said. Why do you ask?

Well, he explained, it's on the sidewalk at an angle at the BOTTOM of the hill/street.

AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I left my car in neutral (although I did have the emergency brake on) and it apparently rolled down an entire city block and miraculously, did not hit anything or anyone and gently came to rest on the sidewalk just before taking out a fire hydrant.

(Thank you God. Really. Thanks. That was very, very nice of you.)

I am a big dork. And I need a chauffeur.

banged up

Last night Elliot called out to me during the night to come rub his back and help him get back to sleep. So as I often do, I climbed the ladder up to his bunkbed and snuggled up next to him. When he was breathing deeply again, I tried to sneak back out. Unfortunately, I missed the ladder getting down and fell out of the bunkbed to the floor, catching my leg in the ladder on the way down. My knee is swollen and throbbing, my forhead has a knot on it and I have various bruises all over my arms and legs.

Ouch.

Monday

c-sections

The c-section rate in this country continues to go up.

Anecdotally, my impression is that more women are choosing to be induced or have a surgical birth for reasons of convenience or because they are worried about the pain of vaginal birth.

But this new study seems to indicate that most of the pressure for vlountary c-sections is coming from the doctors.

jane fends off the papparazzi


jane fends off the papparazzi
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

jane & me at weekend horse show


jane2
Originally uploaded by kgranju.

jane & cinco


jane4
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Jane showed Cinco in Children's Pony this weekdn at our first horse show of the year. Suffice it to say it wasn't her best show. She and Cinco didn't win a SINGLE ribbon. I can't really remember the last time that happened.

On Sunday, however, she got to finish the next division up on a friend's pony and did pretty well. She was 4th in the USEF Pony Medal equitation class and then won one blue ribbon in one of the jumping rounds and placed in the second. This cheered her up.

You can see in this photo that she is really still struggling with not wanting to look down while riding. She needs to be looking up and ahead to the next jump.

She'd tell you the same thing ;-)

jane, with her mama & daddy


jane6
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Chris and me with our brilliant girlxchild at the horse show this weekend. Could she look any more like her father? I don't think so.

j. and cinco


jon and cinco
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
The incredibly sweet J. takes on pony-holding responsibilities this weekend. Here he is holding my daughter's pony. He also drive 90 mins each way two days in a row with cranky Elliot in car, bought funnel cakes, moved heavy tack trunks, cheered for Jane, commented on how brilliant and cute my child is on a horse, chatted up all my friends about horse stuff, rubbed my neck when it got sore and just genearlly pointed out to me what a Good Man he is.

He was probably bored (he has never been to a horse show) and he got sunburned, but he never complained.

Lucky me :-)

Saturday

milf

I love my friend Marrit's new column about how men started hitting on her after she became a mother

an excerpt:

The men you meet, even randomly, don’t care if you go to the gym or are Forever 21. They’re burned out on hysterical and dramatic women. You’re fun and playful and listen well. You forgive people who vomit on you. You play Legos, and you can talk about chain-bucket dredgers and DeWitt Clinton trains, especially if you have a son. You know what boys need: talking down from tantrums, food, and occasional baths. You wear whatever’s clean and you have good groceries. You are compassionate and capable. You can yell into a cordless phone at your HMO while you’re helping Thomas the Tank Engine deliver apple boxes from Knapford Orchard on your kid’s wooden railway system. You have superpowers and extremely sensitive nipples.

wishing

Tonight Elliot told me he saw a falling star "a few years ago" and made a wish.

"Did it come true?" I asked.

"Not yet!" he answered optimistically.

I love it that he hasn't given up after several years.

good stuff

I can now let out a sigh of relief. My 8th grader got into our second choice school for 9th grade. If he hadn't gotten in, it was looking like a short walk down our street to the inner city public school in our "transitional" downtown neighborhood that, while it wouldn't be the end of the world, wouldn't have been my very first choice.

I also found out today that an essay I wrote is going to be included in a groovy new anthology with some of my fave NYT writers -- with Three Rivers Press, a very cool publisher, putting the book out. More details latah.

Friday

when i was 12

My friend Andi is putting together a book looking at what it's like to be/have been a 12 year old girl in America.

Check her site out here: http://www.wheniwastwelve.com/

Contribute your own story and pass it along to the girls & women in your life

the high score

A great way to celebrate St. Patricks' Day

busybusybusy

The last week or two have been waaaaay busy for me. Busy at work, lots of freelance work (for which I am very grateful. It's good right now), children, lots of music I have not wanted to miss, yard makeover (which has mostly been the work of my saintly and talented botanist friend, SK), old friend unexpectedly in town, new puppy, horse shows starting up, boyfriend I wanna see as much as possible....

It's all good. Life is good, but I need about a week to just hang around the house and wash clothes and sleep and cook and hang out with the fam with nothing to do and nowhere to be.

Last night I took Henry to see Wilco at the Tennessee Theatre. We had a lovely time but his allergies were so troublesome last night that we had to leave about 1/3 into the show. He felt terrible about needing to leave, but I was just so sorry he was feeling so bad. What we saw was quite astonishingly good and that is SUCH a great place to see a show. Henry is now a Nels Cline fan.

This morning I had to rush around to get Jane to the barn all packed up and ready for her first horse show of the season. She went with barn pals today and I'll join her tomorrow. I am taking J. with me. This will be his first foray into the wonderful world of equestrian obsessions ;-)

Wednesday

getting married

A question for Blog readers: when in your relationship and how did you know the person you ended up marrying was "the one?"

Comment below.

new scott miller



Last night I took my children, plus my niece Eleanor, to hear Scott Miller play a set at the DE South to celebrate the release of his new CD, "Citation."

They all enjoyed it, but Elliot, who has always been the biggest V-Roys/Scott Miller fan of the bunch, was pretty much in heaven. He really enjoyed it and near the end of the set, he whispered to me, "Can I get his autograph?"

So we bought the new CD and waited in line to get Scott, whom I've known since college days, to sign it. When we got to the front of the line, Elliot handed him the CD and was thrilled when Scott wrote "Elliot Rocks!" on it.

"Afterward he said to me very happily, "Mom, he knew to only put one 't' in 'Elliot'!"

(This made Elliot very happy since people frequently spell his name wrong.)

And Elliot fell asleep listening to his new CD and literally clutching the signed CD case. It was tres cuteness ;-)

Tuesday

not good

Okay, I have totally got to stop drinking diet Pepsi all the time...

And so do you, Robert.

too loud

I go see a lot of live music and loud doesn't bother me. In fact, I like it loud. I like loud, crunchy, fuzzy guitars in small clubs. I like that.

But Saturday night, when I went to see a favorite band at my favorite bar, the music was just too damn loud. It was so loud that I had to leave, eventually.

That's a first, I think, for me. Maybe I am just getting old. Maybe this is just the very first sign of an approaching curmudgeonliness (sp?) and soon I'll prefer listening to Trace Adkins and Celine Dion to The Stooges and Sleater Kinney.

Maybe.

write what you know

You know that old writing advice, the one that say you should "write what you know"?

As a writer, I can tell you it's a good idea in many cases (although I am currently getting a good bit of work writing about remodeling bathrooms and kitchens, something I don't know very well).

In the case of this guy, he wrote what he knew...in the Biblical sense. Wel,, in a roundabout way, anyway, and it's a good tale, involving Ratt, a guy driving a Fiero and a Playboy centerfold.
After a month or so, we have decided Cookie the dog isn't going to re-appear, so I told Jane she could get a new puppy. After I got off work last night, we drove to South nowhere, Knox County to pick up a border collie mix puppy, whom Jane has named "Chica." She's very cute.

Anyway, Chica came from a farm out in the middle of nowhere, and it was dark, then it started storming really hard and the puppy was crying. Plus, my two youngest children are TERRIFIED of storms and were freaking out.

I don't drive that well in the sunshine of a nice day. On a dark, stormy night on windy, country roads, I really drive badly. Plus, I became completely lost, at which point the puppy began vomiting. Some of the dog vomit got on Jane's skirt, so she there was much moaning and gnashing of teeth about that.

Then Elliot decided we were going to be struck by lightning, which irritated big brother Henry, who took it upon himself to explain to his little brother in a very pissed off voice why we would not be struck by lightning while driving in the car. This didn't reassure Elliot, who was on the verge of tears. The puppy was still whining. Then Henry decided it was a great time to argue with me about where he will start high school next year, informing me that if he is made to go to the school it looks like he may have to attend, he plans to drop out and become a traveling guitarist.

It was quite a car trip. We finally made it home (had to stop and ask directions, and to tell you how lost we were, the first two people we asked had no idea how to get back to the city of Knoxville)

And I was up late cleaning dog vomit out of my car.

journalists have become obsequious and lazy

Helen Thomas is right in her opinion that the White House press corps have become a bunch of lazy lap dogs. How often do reporters break big stories these days? Where did the muckrakers go? Journalists are scared of being banned from the West Wing, scared of being jailed, scared of being rude, and as a result, we have no one asking the hard questions and digging up the stuff that needs to see the light.

Sunday

gardening

My friend Steve is a saint. He spent just about the entire weekend getting my gardening projects underway. He tilled up the front yard for our planned cottage garden, tilled up a vegetable garden spot in the back and created a whole new flower bed - a big one - in the back.

He put in the Carolina Jessamine that's going to eventually cover most of my fence and put the wisteria in that will climb up and over my front porch. He also got the little brick walkway we are putting in underway.

The weather was beautiful and it felt great to be outdoors all weekend. My hands are sore though, from dirt and from carrying bricks (which I am using to line my new back flowerbed). But Steve is probably exhausted. It's going to be really nice, though.

I love gardens and flowers but have never tried to do anything like this myself. I would have no idea where to even begin, so it's just wonderful to have Steve to take the lead on it. He knows everything about plants and gardens.

I'll post photos once we have things better established.

Saturday

the good ones



I got sent a review copy of this book and have been reading it. It's really good. The recurrent theme in all the essays is this: women, particularly creative women (and these women are all writers) seem to be drawn to dramatic, painful, ultimately fruitless relationships with dark, screwed up men. These same women find it difficult to pay any attention to the good, honest, kind, straightforward men right in front of them.

My response? Uh, yep.

I thought I realized this about myself after my divorce and vowed not to repeat this pattern. But then I did, to the nth degree. I could not have ORDERED UP a less suitable, more screwed up guy. But hey, he was witty and clever and wrote me beautiful letters and plays guitar awfully well. SHouldn't that be enough? Apparently not ;-)

But now I am seeing perhaps the finest man I've ever dated. This guy is an Eagle Scout. Literally! He is exceptionally kind and sweet and straightforward and good to me. I trust him. My friends and family - the ones who have met him yet -- really like him. And he has no weird hangups or dark skeletons in the closet.

Let's hope I don't totally screw this up, as I am prone to...

Friday

Apparently, even Joan Rivers needs love

the pop culturephile

Hey, don't forget to check out my other blog sometimes.

J. told me yesterday that the photo of me on that one looks absolutely nothing like me. I sort of agree... Maybe I should get them to take a new one.

Thursday

SOme men are just complete idiots

Wednesday

vote

What's your vote? Is Britney pregnant again? Or is she just a lil chubby at the moment (understandable, given the fact that she JUST gave birth, plus she's married to a skanky, pothead loser who would drive me to eat carbs all the time just for the serotonin rush)?

Bt anyway, look at these photos and post your vote below.

bad boob job

THIS, dear readers, is why I will never get breast implants.

(That and the fact that mine are quite large enough already, thankyouverymuch... ;-)

the family bed

I slept with all three of my babies in my bed and even wrote a book about it. So I have pretty strong opinions on family bedding, and was pleased to see this excellent new article from. Dr. James McKenna on the topic.

Eddie Van Halen made me promise I'd never get fat

This website:

Wedding Gown Challenge

is bizarre on so many levels, I don't know where to begin.

Just read some of it. And look at her picture.

Here's a good bit from it:

Q: What about child obesity?

MeMe Roth: Apples don’t fall far from the tree, and neither do peaches. Mothers must break the obesity cycle; we can’t leave it solely up to our children. If we’re fat, our children are 15 times more likely to be fat. This generation of children is the first to be given a lesser life expectancy than their parents. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, social stigma—you know the list.


What does "and neither do peaches" even mean? And is "social stigma" really akin to heart disease?

And more of this woman's pearls of wisdom:

MeMe Roth Speaks Out:

“Somewhere between the wedding reception and delivery room, many women abandon their brains, body and libido.”
“It’s wrong to be fat. It’s easy, but it’s wrong.”
“Dump your friends who plan to grow fatter with every year. Surround yourself with those who aspire to greater things.”
“Stop scape-goating your pregnancies.”
“Refuse to excuse.”
“We should all, with a little help from SPANX, be able to squeeze into our wedding gown, regardless if it's several husbands or babies later.”


Or how about this part:

Q: Any special motivation?

MeMe Roth: I see staying fit as an obligation to my self and my family. Back in the 80s when I was Van Halen’s “number one fan,” I did get the chance to meet the band. Eddie Van Halen made me promise I’d never get fat. He said I looked like something out of Playboy. Talk about making a girl swoon... I kept my part of the bargain; maybe he’ll come to the Wedding Gown Challenge?


NOTE FROM KATIE: I think I may make that my new personal motto: "Eddie Van Halen made me promise I'd never get fat."

Tuesday

woohooo!!!!!

PAGING Betsy Babb Kennedy: We are SO there. You must come up here for this - Kate

Country music icon Loretta Lynn comes to the Tennessee Theatre

Who: Loretta Lynn with special guest Jennifer Hanson
When: Friday, April 21, 8 p.m.
Where: The Historic Tennessee Theatre
How: Tickets go on sale Friday, March 10, 10 a.m at the Tennessee Theatre box office, all Tickets Unlimited outlets, online at www.tennesseetheatre.com or charge by phone at 865-656-4444. Tickets are $49.50 and $39.50, plus applicable service charges

KNOXVILLE For more than four decades, Loretta Lynn has fashioned a body of work as artistically and commercially successful—and as culturally significant—as any female performer out there. Her music has confronted many of the major social issues of her time, and her life story is a rags-to-riches tale familiar to pop, rock and country fans alike. The Coal Miner’s Daughter—the tag refers to a hit single, an album, a best-selling autobiography, an Oscar-winning film, and to Lynn herself—has journeyed from the poverty of the Kentucky hills to Nashville superstardom to her current status as an honest-to-goodness American icon.

Her Grammy award-winning album, the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, has reminded the world of Lynn’s power as a vocalist and her skill as a songwriter. As she puts it on “The Story of My Life,” the album’s closing track: “Not half bad for this ol’ KY girl, I guess...Here’s the story of my life. Listen close, I’ll tell it twice.”

After dominating country radio from the ‘50s to the ‘80s, Loretta Lynn spent the '90s largely away from the spotlight, caring for her ailing husband Oliver “Doo” Lynn and, after he died in 1996, grieving his loss. The music scene has changed considerably in her absence, but it’s also a scene she helped create. Indeed, it would be all but impossible to imagine the likes of Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine” and Deana Carter’s “Did I Shave My Legs for This?” or any number of Dixie Chicks hits, without her. Van Lear Rose, with its moody, propulsive arrangements, loud and rocking guitars and intimate songwriting, can only extend Lynn’s profound influence into a new century—and to a new generation of fans.

spunk & bite

I am a word geek. Grammar excites me. Diction delights me. A well-turned phrase makes me breathe heavily.

This looks like a very cool new book. It bills itself as the punchier, edgier heir apparent to the venerable Strunk and White.

vintage flyers

Jeff Bills of Lynnpoint Records has started a very nifty online display of local band flyers, dating back about twenty years.
You should check out Jon's blog

Sunday

cottage garden


45polsky
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
This is what I want my front yard to look like.
Busy weekend at Casa Granju. The guy I have been seeing, J. met the kids, which seems to have gone very well. He didn't try too hard, which my kids hate, and they seem to like him. It felt very comfortable to have him around. I'm not sure how comfortable HE feels, given that, as he says, what 26 year old single guy would choose to find himself seeing a woman with 3 kids? (The answer: none) But I'm a package deal: me plus three, so it's sort of take it or leave it, you know?

On Friday night I cooked some Indian food and my sister and her kids and J. came over and ate with us. During the day on Saturday, S.K. came over and we walked my yard and mapped out my gardening plans, with which he is going to help. He's a botanist by training, so having him to assist is a real treat for me. We're going to have veggies and flowers in the back and American wisteria on my front porch and we are going to cover my ugly metal fence with some Carolina Jessamine and we are going to take out the nasty shrubbery up front and till up some of the front and make it into a little cottage garden. I am really, really excited about this.

Last night we went out for Mexican with about 22 other friends, which was really fun and then we all went over to my sister's for a bonfire.

Today we have horsey activity at our barn and then tonight I am hosting a party. It's ostensibly an Oscars-watching party, but the Oscars are actually just an excuse for me to throw a party, since I love doing that. Sundays are a hard night to get people out for a party, so I have no idea if five people or 50 will show up.

Friday

I love Free People but I always have to order their stuff or buy it when I am in other cities. But today I was driving along (coming home from parent-teacher conferences, in which I was happy to hear my children are doing quite nicely) and decided to stop at this little store in Bearden, Obligato, that I've passed a million times and never been in. What do I discover, but that they carry a lot of Free People stuff and even better, they were having a big sale, so I got this very cute silk skirt for 70% off... They also have great jewelry and Tracy Reese dresses, which I also love.

I love clothes, so a good find to start the day makes me a happy girl...

AND I got a new cell phone, but was able to switch my # over, so I am now communicado again. People have probably given up trying to call me though.

Thursday

conservatown

The very rich guy who used to own Domino's Pizza has announced plans to build his own Catholic-themed holytown, in which he will own all commercial enterprises and forbid the sale of porn, birth control and who knows what else (it always confuses me when people lump porn in with birth control).

According to CNN.com, Florida governor Jeb Bush attended the groundbreaking for the town, to be called "Ave Maria," (I am not making this up), and "lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens."

What's next? Sharia-villas? Perhaps Taliban-towne? Or maybe Burka-burg?

This makes me want to re-read "The Handmaid's Tale."
I am happy to read that Wisconsin's prisons will no longer shackle women while they give birth.

wilco in knoxville

I am getting excited because two weeks from today, my favorite band (whom I've never seen live) plays at the Tennessee Theatre. Ashley Capps from AC Entertainment says there are still a very few tickets available if you are interested.

Wednesday

soundtrack of the day

Unabashed romantic yumminess

camera recommendations?

I am about to invest in a new camera before the 2006 horse show season begins in earnest. I want to get a digital SLR. I have an old Canon film SLR that I love and never use any more, and also a Sony digital that I hate but mostly use. Both will soon go to the big eBay in the sky.

I want to get a digital SLR with a really good optical zoom and the ability to actually operate at pretty swift shutter speeds. I like to be able to do the manual thing if I'm in the mood to tinker, but put it on auto when I'm too busy to deal with aperture, etc.

I'm leaning toward the Nikon D50.

Anbody have any recommendations?