Well hello there! You look great! It’s been a while!

Last week I took my yearly Spring Business Trip to Las Vegas and brought Mom along. And then I got some sort of food poisoning (probably from my linguine and clams but I will never stop ordering linguine and clams so it is that it is) which landed me in the ER last Sunday and I’ve spent the week recuperating. And here I am!

Ten years ago he probably never dreamed I’d be using the pig filter on us in an ER.

I was out of work Monday and Tuesday. We only had a half-day scheduled for today, so I popped a half of a vacation day and that’s how I’m here in my slippers at noon while Ollie dozes at my feet and Murphy tears toilet paper off the roll upstairs. Wait..hold on.

Okay. He’s dozing on the stairs where he can look out the windows. Whew.

Now that I’m convalesced and mostly eating again, I can focus on posting all the things that are in my blog notebook!

***
Ten years ago this weekend, a Wandering Minstrel packed his red Jeep with a few things and a bunch of books and drove across country to live with me. By any account, it was a foolish thing to do and we NEVER should worked but here we are.

Two apartments, a house, a marriage, and a herd of cats and dogs later I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. I love you heaps, WM.

(The red Jeep is still here too, pretty dilapidated but still beloved.)

***
It’s Memorial Day Weekend – my favorite weekend because hey hey the summer season is here! It’s time for coffee in the back yard, soaking in my (kiddie) pool, and watching all my plants die because I am an awful gardener and because we are overrun by rabbits. Maybe we’ll even put together our 10-month-old grill! It was delivered around the time Max died last year and we kind of forgot about it/had no oomph.

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This Friday 5 theme is MVP. Let’s get to it!

1. What’s the most important single ingredient in trail mix?
I’m not an eater of trail mix. They’re deceptively healthy, but if I’m going to eat as much trail mix as it takes to make me snack-satisfied, I’d rather blow an equivalent amount of calories on cheese puffs. But of course, the most important ingredient is chocolate.

2. What’s the most important single topping in a taco?
The cheese, naturally!

3. What’s the coolest instrument in an orchestra?
I’m very biased toward the violin, because I unsuccessfully played it for a few years in grade school. It is SO HARD to learn. I had my once-a-week group lesson at school and wondered why I was so behind the rest of the kids. It’s because they could afford private lessons, which was why they were first chair while I looked like this.

(not the supermodel part)

4. What’s your favorite animal at the zoo?
I enjoy pandas, although they’re not at the Philadelphia Zoo. I saw them years ago in San Diego. And they do stuff like this!

5. Which are the best pieces in a sampler box of chocolates?
It was a life-changing experience when the internet came into my life in 1994 and I saw that someone had posted a guide to how to tell what type of candy it is by the shape. Some candy makers put a little directory in the box but some are still heathens and don’t. Since then, I will nick every square shaped candy in the box, because with the exception of the Whitman’s Sampler Delivery Guy piece, for me it’s caramel for life.

**
Two paths for my afternoon are in front of me.

Path 1:
> Vaccccuuummmm (I can’t spell it so I don’t) the floors. Desperately needed.
> Put away laundry
> Tidy kitchen
> Figure out a blandish but appealing dinner

Path 2:
> Go to the library
> Go to Ulta
> Bagels for dinner. Plain, because blandish.

Complicating the issue is my own inertia, because the house is quiet and the dogs are still sleeping and my own coffee is upstairs and free.