I have a rule about not posting anyone's picture without their permission, but since her hands are in front of her face, I figure this one is okay. Plus she's so freaking cute, my cousin's baby. 

I love the way a new tube of lipstick looks, so shiny and moist. I almost want to eat it.

Everyone in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of his life, in his normal condition, feels some individual responsibility for the poverty of others. When the sympathies are not blinded by any false philosophy, one feels reproached by one's own abundance.--Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A friend is participating in God's Love We Deliver Race to Deliver and asked me to make a donation. I'm filling out my info online--something I've done a gazillion times, being quite the internet shopper--and the very first thing they ask you, even before your first name, is your title. Usually this means either "Mr.", "Miss", "Mrs." and once in awhile you see "Dr." But this webpage ain't foolin' around. You seriously get a million choices like "Prof.", "Cantor", "Rev.", "Hon." What fun! I thought it was a great opportunity to give myself a more interesting career, so I picked "Admiral." In the future, please address all correspondence to Admiral Michellephant because Miss Michellephant is dead.

The Snowman and I hadn't been to Umi in a few weeks. When we went last Friday our waitress said, "We haven't seen you in awhile." As an old friend once said, who had something similar happen to him at IHOP, "It's nice to be missed."

And the next day, at our other favorite restaurant, Houston's, our regular server even remembered our usual drink orders.

Here I thought no one noticed me at all...

I bet you didn't know...

Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing. Think you had candied yams at last year's Thanksgiving? I bet you didn't. Yams, native to Africa, are not widely available in the United States. Read all about it...

What I love...

The sound of a can of soda opening. It is so crisp, clean, simple. Everything good about America can be found in that "pop!"

Is there anything better than eating cold pie out of the fridge for breakfast? Not only is it delish, but in the back of your mind you're thinking "I'm eating dessert and it's only 8 AM! Ha, take that mom and your lousy puffed rice cereal!"

Claudius the God

I just finished Claudius the God by Robert Graves. I didn't like it quite as much as I, Claudius, mostly because there is a significant part of this book that deals with the invasion of Britain, which is not quite my cup of tea. But I still thorougly enjoyed it, and it is rather difficult for initial infatuation to be carried on through subsequent works. I do look forward to watching the miniseries.

Favorite quote: My plans were vague. I talked liberty to many of my friends and, you know how it is, when one talks liberty everything seems beautifully simple. One expects all gates to open and all walls to fall flat and all voices to shout for joy.

I have a colleague (code name: Virginia Slim) who is quite obsessed with the election. As soon as I came in this morning she asked if I voted and I said I didn't want to tell her. She said "I bet you won't vote. I bet you saw the long line and turned tail." I tell you, is that anyway to speak to someone? The question used to be whether you voted Democratic or Republican and based on your answer people made assumptions about you. Now the question is simply whether or not you're voting, but those same assumptions are still made. It seems to me the whole point of democracy is that you don't have to participate. In fact, it's the eligible voters who don't go to the polls who underscore the basic tenet of American freedom. Why, they're more American than the Americans who do vote.

Virginia Slim, by the way, is the same person who insisted on buying me a birthday present (which I thought was quite unneccesary), then later said, "I'll only buy you something if Kerry wins." It's not that I even care about a present, but I don't think you can offer something to someone and then put a condition on it that's really got nothing to do with the person at all.

GOOD FOOD ALERT! best hot chocolate

I forgot how good the hot chocolate at La Maison du Chocolat really is. It's more like soup, it's so creamy and rich. Nothing like the watered-down stuff you make at home. Even Starbucks and Godiva fall far behind. If you like hot chocolate, even just a little, you will not believe how great this stuff is.