Hey. Bullets? Okay.

* My husband asked me out for lunch. Wasn’t that sweet? Then he bought me an iced vanilla latte. That was sweet, too. Almost as sweet as the mango custard we had with lunch. Almost as sweet as the kheer. (Had to sample that, too.) Almost as sweet as Steve. He’s pretty sweet. Hmm. Maybe I’ll do his laundry for him now.

*Lentil Garden, you are the best Indian buffet place around. I mean it. Smooch. Thank you for the “Southern Comfort” food.

* No, I haven’t studied yet today. (Edited to say: I opened workbook. It intimidated me. I closed it. I opened it up again and began to study.) (School at age 44 is a lot different than school at age 22. If you’re young and you’re thinking of dropping out, or “wrapping up that degree” later on, plz you will think again.)

* The nail tech next to me yesterday, to her client: “I’m taking this class and I’m thinking, What the hell? This is so frickin’ hard! For my final I wrote and wrote and wrote and my teacher wanted more and I told her, Too bad, I’m out of ideas.”

* hahahaha. For some reason, she is going to be able to get by with this and still graduate I just know it. Me? The prof would flunk my ass.

* Hmm. I did work out last night and this morning. You?

* Our son had a great birthday weekend. Seven is so grown-up. Six is still a little kid. Wow. I have a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old.

* They’re still not too old for the park, thank God.

* I’m still not too old for the park. My knitting, a mug of coffee, my girlfriends, all the kids tearing around, ahhhh…

* Really loving the sunshine.

* Happy Monday to you.

xxox

wm

Oh, Chris Cornell. Ouch. Too bad you had to leave your sexy-awesome wife and run off with… a French model? What? (I may be getting the story entirely wrong.) (I don’t think so, though.)

Note: Kim Thayil in background looking remarkably like Young Steve, circa 1989.

(Also, would kill to find copy of interview Ann Magnuson did with Soundgarden, “Sub Zep?” for Spin, February 1992. I believe this is the interview wherein she asked them, “Who would you kill if murder was legal?” and Kim Thayil got all huffy, Well, it’s not. “But what if it was?” Well, it’s NOT. “Sheesh, Ted Nugent wouldn’t have a problem with this one.” hahahahaha Ann Magnuson, you are funny, funny girl.)

(Why am I rambling? Why am I posting all this? Cuz you know I am feeling thoroughly, totally, completely outshined at the moment.)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, MY PEEPS!

wm

ps my mom-in-law is in town. We will consume wine, celebrate Kim Thayil’s Hockey God’s birthday early and eat cranberry sauce. TTFN.

I have this problem. For me, it’s a small problem. For my husband, dear, sweet, understanding Hockey God, it’s a big, big, big, huge, frickin’ out-of-control problem. It’s all over the table, floor, stacked up in a rack next to the china cabinet.

It takes up a ton of room in the recycling bin and is heavy.

It makes his brain hurt when we talk about it, when I won’t pay attention to him at the table, because I’m absorbed in the obituaries, the recipes, the People column.

Newspapers. I have a pretty serious newspaper addiction going here.

A-hem. A few of his frequent comments go like this:

“Why don’t you read it online?”
“You know you can read it online.”
“Can I recycle these? All of these? No? Why not?”
“Really. Why the hell not?”
“Can we cancel our subscription? I mean, permanently?”

Yargh, the pressure, I cannot take it.

I like a newspaper. I like the heft of it. The thud when they throw it on the front porch. The slick ads. The metro section. The metro brieflys, about horrible, random things happening to random people (who are usually not horrible. But sometimes I suppose they are. Like when a drug dealer’s house burns down because his gro-lights got too hot. I’m supposed to feel bad about that? If he had little kids, I’d feel bad for them. But usually child welfare has already nabbed them. Or when two guys are drunk in a bar and beat each other up, then crash their trucks into each other in the parking lot and get arrested, and their girlfriends won’t bail them out. Hmm…).

I digress.

How will I know about these horrible, random things if I quit my subscription?

Then one day it occurred to me: Why do I want to know about horrible random things? It’s enough to give you a headache. Why give yourself a headache on purpose? That happens enough on accident, no?

Then one other day it occurred to me: This is the only reason I keep my subscription to the Oregonian. That’s right.

Don’t judge me, you. I never claimed to be all fancy-schmancy over here.

For Better or Worse is a good reason to stay married (ten years for us next month!) (and happy 25th to my younger-than-ever girlfriend L and her youthful groom, by the way). But subscribing to the paper just so you can read For Better or Worse? Not reason enough to pay out the money.

Subscription now canceled.

My daughter will miss the funnies but y’know? She can read all of them online.

I’ll get her a free subscription.

You know, this Friday (that would be May 9th, 2008) it will be eleven years since Hockey God and I went on our first date. I didn’t really believe in Modern Love, or magic, until I met him. Now I do.

Happy anniversary, you big hunk. I’m playing bunco that night, you’re on your own. (PS — not really. I mean, you’ll have the kids and all.)

love,

wm

Steve, I love you a lot. Nancy

(ps I swiped this list from the cutest newlywed on the Internet, Diamond in the Rough.)

1. The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds – they mature slowly. ~Peter De Vries

2. I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

3. Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open. ~George Bernard Shaw

4. Newlyweds become oldyweds, and oldyweds are the reasons that families work. ~Author Unknown

5. Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~Simone Signoret

6. Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate. ~Barnett R. Brickner

7. Never get married in the morning, because you never know who you’ll meet that night. ~Paul Hornung

8. Divorce: The past tense of marriage. ~Author Unknown

9. The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through eternity. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

10. Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. ~Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints, 1966

11. In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare. Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced. ~Robert Sexton

12. English Law prohibits a man from marrying his mother-in-law. This is our idea of useless legislation. ~Author Unknown

13. Wedding rings: the world’s smallest handcuffs. ~Author Unknown

The first fight my husband and I got into (he doesn’t remember this but I do), we were outside of Lisbon, Portugal, at the remains of an ancient Moorish castle. (It was Castela dos Mouros, not the Castle of Sao Jorge.) My future mother-in-law was with us — he took me to Europe to meet his mother! At the moment, I thought that was romantic, now I’m thinking — was he nuts? Did he not realize I was already pregnant and this would complicate matters? (more…)

Here, dear readers — My day in real time.

Sort of.

5, 6, 7 & 8 a.m.: Sleeping. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Large Wacky Cat 2, the stripedy one, pins me in on one side; muscular husband pins me in on the other. Why does the Cat want to sleep with us? It’s so flippin’ hot. Unable to move. Sex? No. Have to sleep. Can’t open eyes. Consider a new lifestyle that involves not staying up so late at night. Hmmm. What time did we go to bed? Vaguely remember 11 o’clock news. Keep eyes closed. Sleep. (more…)

I’m glad the sky is painted blue,
and the earth is painted green,
with such a lot of nice fresh air
all sandwiched in between.

(anon.)

Well, well, well. When there are no kids at my house, it is extremely quiet. Also I got a little lonely. But not too lonely! Hockey God took me to Sal’s for dinner (salmon for me, veggie lasagna for him). We’ve been going to Pause non-stop, and why? Because Pause kicks ass. We love Pause. But Sal’s is alright, too. Then we drove over to Vancouver, Wash., to see “Knocked Up,” the new film by the “Forty Year Old Virgin” Guy.

(That’s how I refer to him, cuz I can never remember his name. FYOVG.)

(His real name is Judd Apatow.)

Hockey God thought it needed a major re-write. I thought it was funny as hell. We were both right.

WE SLEPT IN. We had tamales, potatoes and fresh fruit salad for breakfast, and a pot of coffee. We got the kids from mom’s (they had a great time, of course), stopped by the library, went out for lunch, now Hockey God’s off to his game. They may win, they may lose, they may push the other players down. It’s hockey, it’s hard to say.

Perfect day today. Perfect weekend.

That’s right. The kids are staying at Grandma’s house tonight. Little does she know about their latest habit — staying up until midnight, freaking each other out and screaming about monsters. “They’re in the bathroom! Behind the door.” “No, they’re not! Yes, they are!!!”

I think we’ll stay home, just for the sheer joy of not having anyone walk in on us.

While we’re watching Jeopardy!

Dang, what were you thinking?

What’s your top fave dream date? The sky’s the limit. Just tell me.

I’d like to say that I got up earlier than usual, just so I could post, but that would be a lie. I’m running late. I haven’t had my coffee. But I know when I go to read my favorite blogs and they haven’t updated, I get grouchy. Grouchy! How lame is that, to let the Information Superhighway dictate your moods? Y’all are great writers and photographers — I need my fix of your art. Oh, yeah — you’re great moms, too. But today, that is third on the list of your accomplishments.

* We’re still planning on moving to Iowa. No job offers yet. In the meantime, maybe I should… (more…)