He's here!

Sorry to leave you hanging. Evan was born just a few hours after that last post (Nov. 5, 5:41 p.m., 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20.5 inches). Labor got off to a sort of slow start but once things started rolling it all happened very fast and I am so incredibly thankful for an easy, uncomplicated, practically pain-free delivery! From start to finish, it could not have been more different from Claire's birth story. I'll post the play-by-play sometime soon on Evan's blog.

The last week has been a blur. Overall, it's been a heck of a lot better than our first week with Claire. Dealing with Evan is no big deal, except for handling the lack of sleep. With Claire, I was a total novice about everything from breastfeeding to changing diapers to soothing her. Now, even though I've already forgotten some of the details, I'm a lot more comfortable and confident kind of playing it by ear -- which makes a huge difference.

According to Mom and Dad, who kept Claire last Friday and Saturday while we were at the hospital, Claire was pretty much perfect the whole time, so we didn't know what to make of it when she was a total basket case Sunday and Monday -- whiny, clingy, demanding, and waking up around 5 a.m. Finally we realized that the time change was to blame. Who knew one little hour could make such a difference? Gradually she's gotten back on track and now she's more or less back to her usual 12 hours at night plus an afternoon nap, resulting in a much better disposition. Thank the Lord.

I have hardly been online at all -- anytime at least one baby's asleep, Matt's been handling the other one so I can nap (no word yet on how I'll survive when he goes back to work) -- so I owe a ton of people emails. I mention that here only because a lot of the people I owe read this blog. I promise to respond ASAP!

Matt just got back from a run so I'm going to take advantage of the chance to take a shower. Thanks to everyone who's helped fill our fridge with good food and our house with gorgeous flowers and our inboxes with sweet messages. Can't wait to introduce all of you to Evan!

P.S. We do have a few pictures, but I haven't gotten them off of our camera yet. Check out Dad's blog if you don't want to wait.

P.S.

No time for a full-blown post at the moment, but I did want to mention this really quickly: Tuesday's couponing seminar was a rather spontaneous event, and the only people who even knew about it were the ones who had specifically told me they wished Amanda would share some of her secrets. If you'd be interested in attending if I were to persuade her to do a follow-up session, email me or leave a comment and I'll be sure to keep you in the loop.

I have NOT run this by her yet, so no promises as to whether there will be future seminars ...

Loco

Thanks to everyone for the input (via the blog, over email and in person) on the "court" case. Matt's final decision was that "no bracket should be changed under any circumstances once the tourney starts ... it can only cause trouble." I liked Ally's idea of including a disclaimer to that effect in next year's invite email. Anyway, I'm glad that's over and that everyone's still friends. :)

Tomorrow Lauren R., Stephen, Jacob and I are running the Loco Ocho trail run in the Uwharrie National Forest. I've never run it because it's about 45 minutes away, but I'm really looking forward to it (great trails, gorgeous scenery, cool T-shirt). It's been raining off and on for three days so I'm sure it will be a total mudslide. Don't worry, Mom, Granny, Terry and other concerned people, this is one race I don't plan to "race" because I am not going to risk falling. Although I do want to go at a decent pace because otherwise eight miles would just take too long to finish.

I ran on the treadmill one day this week and found out after I started that something was wrong with the TV. I thought I would die of boredom. I think I made it 25 minutes. Running outside is totally different. I think treadmills promote a special kind of mental endurance.

Speaking of endurance, I had my two most recent cavities filled yesterday. They got me totally numb and it was not bad at all, except for the bill, of course. And the lingering taste of burnt tooth in my mouth. Yum.

Cavity club

Today my cavity fillings -- two of them -- could be postponed no longer. It wasn't quite as bad as I worried but it was bad enough. The anesthesia that was supposed to keep me numb for three hours lasted about 20 minutes and they had to reapply it in the middle of the first filling. (They blamed it on my metabolism and my first thought was -- should I be concerned about how long my epidural's going to last?)

It also ran out in the middle of the second filling, which was on the other side of my mouth. They said they would give me more anesthesia but didn't really want to because of the pregnancy, even though my doctor had said it was fine. I asked how much longer they'd be drilling and they said only about 10 seconds so I sucked it up and went without extra numbness. I HATE how sensitive my teeth are. I also am not crazy about the taste of burned tooth that is now in my mouth.

I was a regular member of the no-cavity club when I was a kid and once even won a giant stuffed kangaroo for my efforts, but in recent years it seems I always have cavities, even though I'm more diligent about dental hygiene than ever. Dentists always tell me it's not my fault, it's the shape of my teeth. So I asked the dentist today if there was any reason I couldn't just get sealants over the rest of my molars that are so far cavity-free. She said they don't usually do sealants for adults but that was pretty much the extent of the explanation. I might see if I can talk to her about that more.

I wish I had something other than the state of my teeth to talk about but I really don't. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.

This made me smile

I just checked email for the first time today and found this note from the Carolina Panthers cheerleader I interviewed for the NFL cheerleaders article, which was published this month. It made my day:

"Hi there Jennifer! I hope you're doing well! I just wanted to reach out to you to tell you I LOVED YOUR ARTICLE! MY WHOLE TEAM DID! I went into practice last night and everyone was gathered around looking at something and when they saw me they said, 'This is an AWESOME article!' so you now have a lot of new TOPCAT fans! I did get to keep the copy and my family is going to make a trip to our local hometown Pilot to pick up a copy for everyone as well, haha! I just wanted to thank you again and congratulate you on such a fantastic job!

"Oh, and just an update: since that interview, I was named TopCat of the Year by my teammates meaning I will travel to Hawaii in February to represent our team at the Pro Bowl and coincidently, Tiffany was also chosen as the Redskinettes representative! Cool, huh? You did an article on two 2009 Pro Bowl Cheerleaders and we didn’t even know it! Not to mention, she and I have something to talk about as soon as we meet!

"Well, THANKS SO MUCH again and cross your fingers for our Carolina boys this weekend! Go Panthers!"

Lauren R., thanks again for putting me in touch with her!

While we're on the topic of the Panthers, here are the pictures of us at the Panthers-Broncos game with Morgan and Brian that I never posted. Notice how warm and well-fed we look.
(This is what Morgan -- a Broncos fan -- wanted to wear, but she chickened out and wore Panthers blue instead. :)

Last-ditch effort

This is kind of funny. I just found out that tomorrow morning I have to give a very brief talk to the Southern Pines library staff on behalf of the local United Way. I'm planning to stick around afterward and see if I can make any headway on the library-card issue in person ... which I doubt. They have that town ordinance to fall back on. Still, wish me luck!

Disappointing

Bad news today from the Southern Pines Public Library. They're rejecting our request and saying we had a library card in the first place only because a staff member made a mistake.

Their reasoning: According to a town ordinance, only individuals may have library cards, and the property we are "seeking to rely on ... is owned not by an individual, but by a limited liability company. A limited liability company is not an individual, and therefore does not qualify for a card, and the individuals who own an interest in the entity that owns the property are not themselves the owners of the property."

The letter had the definite tone of a dead-end road, so now I'm going to make my case to the town, starting with the town manager. I moved dirt with him back in September so maybe he'll at least give me a hearing. I don't know how easy it is to have a town ordinance changed, though.

Meanwhile we're using the county library system, which is OK, if that. None of the branches are that close to us and all of them are about the size of our living room, but it's better than nothing. It's free, anyway.

My faith: Part 2

(Read Part 1 first by clicking here.)

By the time I got to high school I was burned out of trying so hard with no measurable results, so I backed off and settled into the role of generally good teenager. This was influenced less by my spiritual convictions than by the fact that I wasn't brave enough to really rebel.

When I went to college, through different people and groups, and most notably the church I joined, I began to view my faith from a different perspective. Basically, instead of obsessing over whether I was really a Christian, I chose to believe that I was and to try to live as though I were one. I once heard Pastor Tim Keller say something that's stuck with me (he was speaking to agnostics concerned with proving the existence of God): Reasoning can get you to probability, but personal commitment will get you to certainty.

So to summarize, whereas many people, especially those who didn't grow up in the church, struggle with concepts like the virgin birth and Christ's resurrection and the reality of heaven and hell, those are things I've never questioned.

For me, the struggle has been to accept that my personal faith is genuine and that it's a gift from God, not something I can conjure with a mysterious combination of well-intended actions and carefully constructed prayers and attempts to be earnest.

The biggest thing that has helped me with that is trying (and often still failing) to choose to act in ways that demonstrate faith -- praying, reading the Bible, actively loving people, etc. -- even when I feel faithless. Experience has shown that, for me at least, feelings often follow actions. My constant challenge is to live like my faith is real, meaning it should inform and influence every aspect of my life. Of course, anyone who knows me can tell you how often I fall short of that.

That leaves out a lot of ups and downs and randomness of my journey to where I am now, but this is supposed to be a blog, not a book. If anyone has specific questions, ask away and I'll be happy to respond in comments or via email or in person.

My faith: Part 1

"I'm curious about your faith," Ally wrote when I asked for blogging ideas. "Have you pretty much always been a believer?"

I don't delve deeply into my faith on this blog because if you haven't noticed, I keep this blog pretty superficial. Unlike some blogs (which admittedly are more interesting to read), I rarely if ever write in depth about the layers of my marriage, my struggles and hopes and regrets or even my thoughts about life in general. My best friends know the details of these but I have no desire to put it all out there for an anonymous Internet world.

Still, it's a fair question, so thanks, Ally, for asking. I can never remember a time that I didn't believe in God and accept that the basic tenets of Christianity were true. I am really thankful to my parents, who along with my grandparents demonstrate changed hearts and lives through Christ better than anyone else I know, for raising me in such a way that I can say that.

The fact that I never had a dramatic conversion "experience," though, bothered me for years. In the Southern Baptist culture where I grew up, the conversions that were deemed most credible followed this pattern: 1. hard-core rebellion against God 2. a dramatic, instantaneous turnabout 3. a changed life of Christian T-shirts and church at least three times a week. People celebrated "spiritual birthdays" marking the day and time when they shifted from unsaved to saved. Things were black and white.

In this world, almost every Sunday, in almost every sermon, preachers asked, "Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're saved?" And every sermon concluded with an invitational hymn, until someone walked the aisle (to profess salvation or rededication or to join the church or just for prayer) or at least five verses of the song had been sung, whichever came first.

At youth-group days at Carowinds, at Carman concerts, at Ridgecrest retreats, the message was always the same -- "Do you know that you know that you know that you're saved?" Multiple professions of salvation were common ("I've prayed 'the sinner's prayer' before but this time I really mean it") as were subsequent multiple baptisms.

This screwed me up. I wasn't one for walking the aisle, and I was baptized only once, but I lay awake plenty of nights wondering if I'd worded my prayers for salvation exactly right so they'd count, asking God for signs, and trying to will inanimate objects in my bedroom to move, thus proving I did have the faith, at least, of a mustard seed.

(This is getting long, so I'm going to break it into two parts. Read Part 2 by clicking here.)

Racing and me

Last week in response to my request for ideas on what to blog about, Kate commented: "I would like a list of your favorite races (running, obviously) and why!"

That simple sentence gave me major writer's block because the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't know that I've EVER enjoyed a race. Racing is my least favorite part of running. I'm too competitive not to care how well I do, and too lazy to train hard enough to ensure that I do well.

When I was a freshman in high school I didn't know any better and turned out to be a pretty good runner. All of my running glory began and ended in ninth grade. Although my times weren't that great compared to what high school girls run these days, I ended up placing at the state championships in indoor and outdoor track that year.

Only afterward did I realize the problem: I was no longer an underdog -- a position in which I tend to flourish -- and for the rest of my high school career I raced every race with the pressure of expectations. I don't know that I ran much better or worse than before, but I started to hate running.

After I went to college I was so happy to be done with track that I stopped running altogether for about two years, which in retrospect is hard to believe. My junior and senior years I found some good running partners and gradually got back into it. Still, I remember soon after I met Lib near the end of my junior year, she described me as "a runner" to her father and it jarred me because I no longer thought of running as part of my identity.

That was in 2000. Five years later I entered my first race since high school (I think -- maybe I'm forgetting one or two somewhere along the line). Now I run a few a year, usually thanks to Kate's persuasiveness. The good thing about our local races is that most of them are 5k's, so painful as they may be, at least they're over relatively quickly. (I spend a lot of time during races repeating to myself: "The faster you run, the sooner you're done.") I always dread them before I start but later am usually glad I ran them.

I know that none of this answers your question, Kate, but maybe at least you see why it's a hard one for me to answer!

Let's see ... I guess I can think of two races I enjoyed: the one for the two-mile state championship in outdoor track my freshman year, and the 10k Pinehurst Turkey Trot a couple of years ago. I remember both of them just felt good. I was in good shape for the two-miler because it was the end of track season, and that run felt so easy because I was used to racing four events at every track meet instead of just the one. And I was in good shape for the 10k because I was training for a marathon.

Next up: responses to Ally's questions about my faith and my community involvement. After this rambling discourse on running, I'm sure you guys can't wait to see where I go with those! :)

Mishmash

1. Mom gave me a really cute purse for my birthday. She had bought it for me on our New York trip and managed to get it from Chinatown to our hotel and all the way back home without me noticing, but then she stuck it in her closet and forgot about it. A couple of weeks after my birthday she remembered it, found it and gave it to me.

I took it with me to Maine, where a part of the clasp fell off. Last week I finally got around to going to Lowe's for a replacement nut. Now the purse is functional again. Don't you love it? It's perfect for fall, too. 2. I have firepit envy from Wendi and Cory's party Saturday night. It was warm, it was cozy, it was conducive to conversation, and it made my hair smell like a wood fire (that's a good thing) until the next day.

3. I did end up going to see the induction of Lee Smith and two others into the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame on Sunday, and I am so glad I did. She and her family actually sat in the row right in front of me. Jill McCorkle, another good writer, who happened to be in the first creative-writing class Lee Smith ever taught, read from "Fair and Tender Ladies," so that was an extra treat. Fred Chappell also spoke, and Doris Betts was there. North Carolina is blessed with an abundance of amazing writers.
4. I have now won three straight weeks in fantasy football! Now that I've figured out what I'm doing and have a good quarterback I want to play against Matt again. He beat me bad the first time.

5. CrossFit is killing my back. I am skipping weight days until I can pick up a laundry basket without pain.

6. I think Carrie's going to have the baby any day and I CAN'T WAIT.

7. I had lunch with Melissa yesterday and it makes me sad that she is not available to be friends with everyone in the world. She is so uniquely wonderful.
That is all.

The usual ... junk drawer

I cannot believe this, but according to my new dentist I have THREE cavities. One of which supposedly is in between two teeth. Is that even possible? Apparently I have deep pits and weak enamel and prescription rinse is just the cure. When I was a kid, I was always a member of the no-cavity club. Once I even won a giant stuffed kangaroo for my efforts. I don't know what's going on here.

Do not tell me I drink too much Coke. I am not listening.

Matt's dad is alive and well. We've known that for a few days, but I forgot to say so on here. Sorry about that.

I worked from home today because I needed to get a good start on the Greensburg article, because I'm going there Monday and Tuesday and need to know enough to ask intelligent questions, but I was strangely unproductive. Normally when I stay away from the office I get twice as much done as usual.

Tonight I was reminded once again that I don't have a go-to "most embarassing moment" story to pull out for cheesy icebreakers. I do and say stupid things all day long, but they're never the stuff of great stories.

Until I was 20 years old I thought the purpose of flossing was to keep your teeth from growing too close together, and that's embarassing, but see how it's not a great story? It's also not the kind of thing you want to advertise. I don't mind announcing that on a blog because I can't see you laughing from here.

I love getting packages

My e.l.f. stuff finally came today. Yes, it took a couple of weeks to get here and yes, they left out two of the items I ordered (charged me for them anyway) and yes, some of the stuff is on the small side, but seriously, I still got a lot of stuff for $11.

This might sound unbelievable but I don't think I've ever used up an item of makeup. Obviously, that can't be true, but I just do not go through the stuff. Mascara's the one thing I wear every day and I throw it out when it gets clumpy, but I've never just run out of it. Most of the eyeshadow I have, I've had since high school or even before. I'm sure that means it should be thrown out, but whatever. I'm probably jinxing myself and will have an eye infection by the time you read this.

I do feel pretty confident that I've literally never used up a tube of Chapstick. Unfortunately Lib's recently given up her legendary Chapstick collection (to include all kinds of lip gloss) -- and the accompanying Guinness World Record quest -- but for all the years I've known her I've used my Chapsticks until I got tired of them and then passed them on to her, still mostly full, even if I'd used them for years. She would then proceed to wipe them out in weeks! I still don't understand how that worked.

P.M.

For once, a day's gone according to plan. By the time I was done showing houses it had cooled down a little and was still light out. I happened to be close to the reservoir and I had my running stuff with me so I ran there. It sounded a heck of a lot more appealing than pounding the hot asphalt around our neighborhood.

I got in only one lap around the lake because on the second mile the bugs were really, really bad for the first time this season. So after that I just followed some random trails until I was ready to quit. I have no idea how long or far I went, but it felt good. After I finished I stretched out on the dock for a few minutes before heading home for a shower and a sandwich with the last of Granny's ham.

Then I did the closet inventory and was surprised how evenly things broke down. I have a total of 193 articles of spring/summer/summer night clothing, including shirts, cardigans, dresses, skirts, shoes and pants. (I forgot about the stuff in my ironing pile, and my winter clothes are in another closet and didn't get counted, but 193 is close.) I know 193 sounds like a lot but don't judge me until you count your own!

Of these, 64 came from a thrift or consignment store; 63 came from a store along the lines of TJ Maxx (I counted Target in this category) or an outlet; 61 came from a "regular" store, like Banana Republic or Gap; and five were given to me.

The first thing I noticed is that I have a ton of skirts (35), and 24 of them (69 percent) are secondhand. (This reflects the fact that I wear a skirt any day I can get away with it and that pretty much any skirt that's a size "small" fits me fine.)

In contrast, I have 15 pairs of pants, and 13 of them (87 percent) were bought new, mostly at Express, since their "longs" are actually long enough for me. (This reflects the fact that I have a terrible time finding pants that fit me right so I usually don't even look for them in thrift stores anymore. It's worth it to me to pay full price for pants that fit me well.)

I was surprised to see that I have only one pair of shoes from a thrift store. More than half of my shoes (14 out of 25 pairs, or 56 percent) are from the middle category -- mostly Ross Dress for Less. I used to find a lot of shoes at thrift stores, and I still look for them, but I guess I haven't been buying them lately.

I didn't have a single clothing item from a yard sale. I thought I would, but in retrospect, I've never been very lucky with clothes at yard sales, and for years now I haven't even looked for them there. Furniture, yes; books, definitely; clothes, not so much. In high school I got an Ann Taylor dress for $5 at a yard sale and that was the end of the road.

After all that I just now made it out to the porch. I think my favorite thing about Matt being gone is that I can stay up as long as I want. I'm probably even going to sleep out here on the porch. We've been meaning to get our air mattress back from Stephen for that purpose but haven't yet, but I'm an easy sleeper and think I'll be fine on a pile of blankets.

Haircut

I think practically everyone who reads this blog has already seen me since the haircut ... but for the out-of-towners, here you go.


It doesn't look like this every day, but at least you can see the length. Every time I wash it I've been trying something different. I'm hoping one day I'll like how it turns out and then I'll stick with that. So far I've tried flipping it out, curling it under, just letting it be and (pictured) using the flat iron.

Many of you are concerned with how Matt is handling the haircut. For anyone who doesn't know, Matt is rather passionate and vocal about his preference for long hair on most girls. (I have seen his reaction to a drastic haircut bring one of my good friends to tears. I don't think she's cut her hair since.) The one other time my hair was short, I cut it at the beginning of the summer I lived in New York and he didn't see it until it had been growing back out for two months.

I have to give him props for taking it in stride this time. "The thing about hair is, it always grows back," he said when he first saw it. (Right after "What? What did you do?!")

He gets double-props, though, because I'm also in the process of growing out my leg hair so I can get my legs waxed with Amanda in two weeks (another item on my list). I have no problem getting waxed -- it's this part, being seriously prickly and confined to pants for three weeks, that horrifies me. I have shaved almost every day for years, since before we were married (largely thanks to a Dashboard Confessional song, but that's another story), so both of us are very used to my legs being smooth.

So, to summarize: I chopped off a lot of my hair. My legs are getting hairier by the day. And Matt's being a good sport. Thank you to everyone for your concern on his behalf.

P.S. I'm just using a hairband and a couple of hair clips for running, and surprisingly, it's short enough that it works fine.

Seriously?

Two days ago I finally got around to listing my New York "Coach" bag on eBay. I didn't have high hopes that it would sell, considering that it was in competition with about 1,100 other black Coach purses, but I figured there was no harm in trying.

Then this morning I woke up to an email from eBay informing me that my listing has been removed because of a trademark violation. My eBay listing was pretty much identical to what I wrote about it on this blog, including that I didn't think it was real. I didn't want someone to buy it and then accuse me of trying to pass it off as authentic.

Well, according to the email I got this morning, "Sellers may not disclaim knowledge of, or responsibility for, the authenticity of the items they list on eBay. Listings for brand name items are permitted on eBay only if the seller can verify the authenticity of the item. If you cannot verify the authenticity of an item, it is not permitted on eBay."

Can you believe that? With so many fakes floating around out there, how many people can honestly guarantee the authenticity of what they're selling? Do those 1,100 other bags all come with the original sales receipt?

Plan B: sell my other fake black Coach bag (it's gotten A LOT of use and is looking pretty ragged) at the consignment store and start using the new one as my main one.

Procrastination

I'm in serious procrastination mode. All day yesterday and this morning I have been going like crazy, and I think my mind just quit. Melissa's house went under contract while we were in New York so there's some stuff to coordinate with that, especially since it turns out her driveway isn't all the way on her land, and the easement for it isn't in writing, and the man who verbally granted it is dead. Always fun to straighten out. But the great thing is that she and Thomas got a really, really good offer and will be closing in a month. I am so happy for them!

Have I mentioned that Pinehurst finally lifted its ban on watering? So we actually have bushes and (as of tomorrow) grass around our house and in the yard now. I'll have to take pictures. The bushes are very small, but at least we no longer appear to reside on a pinestraw island.

Yesterday was the first day of landscaping so I stayed home so I'd be around to answer any of the landscapers' questions. Plus, I had to finish an Etsy order and catch up on some editing that I couldn't do in New York because we lost Internet. Not to mention the house hadn't been cleaned for two weeks. It was a good day to have an excuse to stay home.

I have decided not to get certified to teach Body Pump. For the first week after Jodi mentioned it to me I thought about it as if I were going to go forward with it; for the second week, as if I were not. I felt better about things the second week, which is the main reason I decided against it.

The other factor is my obsession with maintaining a flexible schedule. I started thinking about how annoyed I would be if I had to miss a couple of days at the beach over Fourth of July, my favorite week of the year, because I couldn't get a sub for my class or classes. I thought about how often our group decides on the spur of the moment to, say, get together for all-you-can-eat ribs, as we did last night -- not possible if I had to teach a class. Finally, I thought about how much time I would be spending on Body Pump, not just teaching but learning the new releases, in staff meetings, etc. All in all, I think I'll be happier keeping up my twice-a-week routine, even though I won't be getting paid for it.

One more thing. I've taken the music off of the blog because only three people voted to keep it. Six voted to remove it and one person (plus, presumably, everyone who didn't vote) didn't care. I think you can still listen to the playlist by going to http://www.projectplaylist.com/ and searching for my playlist, which I think is called "jenndare."

I almost forgot ... Movie meme answers

1. "Where is this love? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words." "Closer," guessed by Amanda

2. "In a good shoe, I wear a size six, but a seven feels so good, I buy a size eight." "Steel Magnolias," guessed by Melody

3. "I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up 'money laundering' in a dictionary." "Office Space," guessed by Amanda

4. "'Not Allowed' signs are the latest trend! The other day, I was in a shop with my friend the kangaroo, but their sign said 'No Kangaroos Allowed,' and I said to my friend, 'Well, what can I do? They don't allow kangaroos.'" "Life Is Beautiful"

5. "Meanwhile, the more fortunate in Flint were holding their annual Great Gatsby party at the home of one of GM's founding families. To show that they weren't totally insensitive to the plight of others, they hired local people to be human statues at the party." "Roger and Me"

6. "I don't want anyone sitting on the furniture. If you have to sit down, just sit on the floor. Also, don't anybody use the telephone. ... And furthermore, Daddy's bourbon is strictly off limits. Other than that, make yourselves at home!" "Shag"

7. "After all, the wool from the black sheep is just as warm." "The Sound of Music," guessed by Rachel

8. "Oh my God, I'm getting pulled over. Everyone, just ... pretend to be normal." "Little Miss Sunshine"

9. "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!" "Dead Poets Society," guessed by Ally

10. "Wow, your shorts are, like, especially gold today." "Juno"

Butterfly picture

Finally, I saw one of those blue butterflies on a parked car when I had my camera with me! I never would have noticed the SMW without being told, but it's obvious when you look for it.

Verdict

I ended up preparing the lasagna and then freezing it, to be thawed and cooked later. Three people advised me to do it this way, two voted for cooking before freezing, and about six admitted having no idea. I'll find out in a few weeks how it turned out and will report back.

Today was my kind of day. First I spent some time editing, then at 10 a.m. a person I've talked to a few times but never met called wanting to make an offer on a lot. Around noon Amanda and I began an extravagantly long lunch. During lunch two people whom I'd cold-called about buying their unlisted lots called back to say they are interested in selling, which is something of a miracle.

Right after I got back to the office the buyer came by to sign the paperwork and I submitted the offer, and then it was time to go to a grievance committee meeting, which satisfied my need to be nosy. And then I went straight home, picked up Matt and dinner, and took it to Melissa's for us all to eat.

I'm having a hard time forcing myself to finish this terrible book I started, "Love, Again" by Doris Lessing, but I'm way too far in to quit. Normally if I don't like a book, I just quit reading it. I haven't had to be disciplined about finishing one since college. This particular book is so very bad that I am no longer going to consider Lessing one of my favorite authors. I do love her short stories, but she should stick to them.