I had the best of intentions when the new year began.  I was going to blog early and often.  I was going to update my look and my links.  I was going to COMMUNICATE. But then, well, then I sank into a funk.  The Boy hit 3.5 years with a vengeance and though Moxie and Am...

Yeah, I pretty much did C, D, and E (but minus the bloody Mary as I was getting over the stomach flu).  I might have been more brazen (who am I kidding) if I had extended more energy cleaning up before people arrived. I am not a tidy person, and I don't particularly care about a mess, as c...

More on the hosting dilemma tomorrow.  In the meantime, let me repeat the following conversation which just occurred in BrooklynGirl's non-Brooklyn home after a morning in which I had indulged The Boy in his baser pleasures of chocolate milk and a special viewing of The Jungle Book: The Bo...

You are throwing a small Sunday brunch for some friends of your husband's and their families.  It is an extremely casual affair--bagels, lox, some bloody Marys if you happen to have the ingredients on hand to make them.  You don't know these friends particularly well, but you fee...

I still have to buy something for my sister in law, and I have no idea what to get her because even though I've "known" her for almost 15 years, I don't really know her, and it makes me sad that we've lived in such similar orbits and yet are still basically strangers to one ano...

When your daughter is recovering from the stomach flu--nay, when you think she has recovered as it's been 4 full days with no vomiting and 3 full days with no diarrhea and she has been happily ingesting all sorts of BRAT foods--you may want to wait a few more days before you let her have a hot d...

As my nom de blog has become inappropriate, I've been casting about for a new name and virtual identity.  I haven't made much progress.  In a similar vein, over the last few months, I've been (re)connecting with people on Facebook: friends from high school I haven't seen ...

Wow.  The near unanimity is striking. Of course, I did A, and that, friends, is why I remain strictly junior varsity when it comes to parenting.  Here are the mitigating factors: The Boy had fallen at school the day before and hit his head and the teacher made a fuss over him (even calli...

The Boy sidles up to me and puts his head on my shoulder.  "You're the best mommy," he says, patting my cheek. "Thanks Buddy, you're the best son." "I love you Mommy." "I love you too, Buddy." He looks up at me and smiles.  Then the smile b...

This has never been my favorite holiday.  My earliest memories of Thanksgiving are of my grandmother chain-smoking Merits and swilling VO Manhattans while my brother and I tried not to bump into anything in her house that was jam-packed with breakable tchotchkes.   As I got older a...