How beautiful would it be to write your words, your truth, then be able to fully bring them to life through your voice, your eyes, your hands?
 
I’ve often longed to sing certain poems I’ve written and have the words leap, writhe, and bloom physically through me. Like, it’s one thing to write about sadness, and […]

This month, we’re reading Third Angel by Alice Hoffman.
 
Another book by The Hoff I loved: Ice Queen.

I’m thinking of giving this a whirl — The Secret of Lost Things — by Sheridan* Hay. Has anyone read it? Is it like every other book telling of lost manuscripts and obsessed book sellers?
 
*Footnote: Sheridan is the fake name I give to Starbucks baristas and put on those required name badges you have to […]

ROBIN FARNSWORTH WON (13th comment): Please e-mail me to claim prize! Congrats!
 
Contest time is up!
 
I’ll announce winner by Saturday evening!
 
I have one Kung Fu Panda computer game (for PC), three activity CDs (includes a dance video, photo/print projects, frames and cards, stickers, etc.) and a Kung Fu Panda soundtrack (Hans Zimmer) to give away.
 
Just leave […]

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Beautiful writing (sometimes bordering on contrived, but only sometimes), interesting characters, absorbing “larger” theme of cultural clashes.
 
Recommended…BUT please note there is not much plot resolution. So if this bothers you, you might want to skip it.
 

My friend Amanda debuted her site’s video podcast series today.
 
If you’re a soon-to-be- mom, have small kids or know someone who does, they’d love this first episode. And there’s more to come!
 
Check it out!
 

This scared me. Can you imagine?

Is it good or bad that in certain circles I’m known as the “gallbladder blog?”

“Nothing tastes as ‘chickeny’ as a chicken in the crockpot!”

Does anyone know of a good park in San Diego with slides and see saws (do they not make those anymore? are we THAT afraid of injury and liability these days?), clean bathrooms nearby and non-be-dog-pooped grass?
 
Would also like play structures appropriate for 2-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Plus a wine drinking fountain.
 

Have you heard of Pandora? I love it. You type in one of your favorite artists and a super secretish algorithm populates an online radio station with kindred musical artists. It worked for me. I dug almost every song played. Found some new stuff too.

One of my favorite bloggers, Eden, is the editor of a cool literary e-magazine called Toasted Cheese and they’re having a writing contest going on NOW. Check it out HERE.

Read about Justin and why we want Nate Berkus to care.

Does this work for you?
Magic Trick.
i have a theory about it.

New Man vs. Wild this Friday! New Man vs. Wild this Friday!
I’m keeping vigil for 5 days from now. If a man pronounces “vitamin” like “vit-a-min,” “glacier” like “gla-seer,” and pees on himself to keep warm, I’m so into it.
p.s. My husband knows all about it.

I’m starting a new San Diego Momma tradition called “PROMPTuesdays.”
 
And it’s going to really lube up those writing muscles (just decided that “lube” really is the kind of word which should only be used in conjunction with “oil”)…BUT, you know what I’m saying, right?
 
Every Tuesday, I’ll issue a new writing prompt and let the talent […]

Toots is obsessed with Scooby Doo and this morning looked up from her Doo coloring book to tell me she wants to be Daphne next Halloween.
 
“Great!” I say. That should be easy: mini skirt, boob inserts, bouffant wig. I should find that all in Party City’s “Appropriate for 5-Year-Olds” aisle.
 
Then Toots tells me that for […]

Book club is reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky this month.

I just got an e-mail from a colleague which began, “Hi, hope all is in fine fettle.”
 
Is that a thing?
 
I haven’t Googled it yet, but I don’t think that’s a thing.
 

I can’t help it! I like the latest Mariah song.
 
It’s just so me.
 
I mean, don’t you just want to roll around in these lyrics?
 
If there’s a camera up in here
Then it’s gonna leave with me
When I do (I do)
If there’s a camera up in here
Then I’d best not catch this flick
On YouTube (YouTube)
‘Cause if you […]

This month we’re reading Five Skies by Ron Carlson. I’ve heard good things. Word.

Trader Joe’s organic creamy tomato soup (in the box), add Trader’s Joe’s “soycatash” (corn and edamame) and TJ’s spelt. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Add cracked pepper and a RyKrisp.
 
Is good.
 

Just the fact that I’m drinking treated waste water is enough to send me over, then there’s this alarm-a-thon.

TED is an annual conference that challenges the world’s most influential thinkers to give the talk of their lives in just 18 minutes.
 
You’ve got to check this out.

This program works with your iPod to alert you when anyone in your music library is in town for a concert.
 
Very cool, unless your iPod is filled with one-hit wonders.

 
I loved reading about Captain Cook’s explorations in Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before (Tony Horwitz).
 
Although arrogant, he was gutsy.
Not that it got him anywhere in the end.
 

…than to open the e-mail titled “With Tremendous Force and Volume.”

Is there a software or technology out there which allows people in your general vicinity to see what you are doing/writing on your computer? Like a Google Earth but with computers? Where people can zone in on you and see your computer screen on theirs?
 
I hope not.
 

Thanks to my brother for this link.
It’s a poem from the New Yorker.
Here’s a poem my brother wrote.
I like it too.
 
p.s. To see my bro’s poem, go to this link, click on Scribble, then on the photo with the red-shaded lamp. You’ll be glad you did.

Yes, indeed.

Have you read the Memory of Running?
You should.
Then, please tell me who the author played in Sex and the City. It wasn’t the senator, right?

 
I disappoint myself when these types of videos get to me.
I know the message is worthwhile, I do. But it’s that they orchestrate the music, the photos, the words, to intentionally make you cry.
And then it becomes about the making-you-cry, and not about the making-you-think. (The fact that I’m bothered by that just highlights my […]

Well, now that the writer’s strike is pretty much over, I find this hilarious video.
Maybe not as relevant, still as funny.

This could be what puts me over my allotted Internet time…

Answer by Sarah McLachlan is simply the most lovely song I’ve ever heard. Makes me cry every single time. I would play this at someone I love’s funeral.
(I just blew the vibe, didn’t I?)

The Thirteenth Tale is the kind of book that revives your love of reading. It’ll make you stay up all night, hurrying to the last page. Or, maybe you want to savor it. I don’t savor, I rush. I’m working on it. Still, the book almost made a savorer out of me.