Life lessons from Jimmy Buffett as remembered Saturday when I was at his concert:

• A Margarita a day is never a bad thing
• If we weren’t all crazy, we would go insane.
• The worst occupational hazard is when you’re occupation’s just not around.
• I’m glad I don’t live in a trailer.
• I need to go to my favorite places more often
• landsharks are far more dangerous than the aquatic ones
• Why yes, I AM a pirate
• It’s a great song that combines mythology, storytelling and astronomy with the words "Jolly Mon"
• Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but life’s pretty good
• Come Monday, it will be alright
• I know, it’s my own damn fault
• Lava is a difficult word to use in a pun.
• Going vegetarian causes one to dream about cheeseburgers.
• We live on a big, round ball
• There’s a thin line between Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
• One should not ponder questions too long when one is hungry.
• Changing your latitude may do you a world of good.
• One should not argue or try to reason with the weather.
• Maybe getting your college degree was good, or maybe just being a singer in a band and soaking up rays in the Islands is the way to live

Points to anyone who can name all of the songs.

I love Yoko, my acupuncturist. Seriously LOVE her. I don’t mean in the sense that we will run away and live together feeding each other sushi with our lips (I’m allergic to fish, remember?), but I love her.

Yesterday, I made the serious mistake of WAKING UP. This was a mistake because when I moved my head, something snapped. I heard it. Ouch. The muscle that runs from the neck down the spine hurt like a son of a son of a sailor. I distinctly remember saying "Ouch ouch" on the car ride in whenever I turned my head to look at something. Riding my bike up with Soleil and riding back was painful.

Then I saw Yoko. I had an appointment with her today (hence the work from home day) so I told her about the muscle. She must have put 40 needles in my back, but now? I barely feel it. I love her.

Since it is a WFH day, I was quite nervous when we had 2 targets of opportunity come in today. Fortunately, they were both for the same object, so only one was approved and it wasn’t my responsibility. Whew.

I did realize that we are starting to get a wee bit over run with tomatoes and wouldn’t a nice bruchetta sound good right about now. Then I realized we didn’t have Italian bread. Then I smacked myself in the forehead, pulled out the bread maker and let it do the hard work.

Here’s the bread and the tomatoes, fresh from my tomato experiment. 

We’re going out for lunch. TO KEY WEST! OMG! A private jet to KEY WEST!

The land of Buffett!

It’s a parrothead’s paradise! 

Hmmmm…..

I made pistachio biscotti today and had some left over chocolate for dipping. So I added some milk and Jay and I are now sipping THE BEST hot chocolate I have had in ages….

MMMMMMM 

… I failed basic Gingerbread house class

Don’t see the problem? How about with this one?

Yep, I cut the gables 2 inches SHORTER than the front and backs of the house.

Sigh 

Soleil came into Luna’s room this morning while I was getting tights on Luna…

S:"Mommy(whinny voice) I stepped in something YUCKY!"

Me: "Where?"

S:"On my foot!" 

Me: (in my head- Duh, of course it’s on your foot, you stepped in it!) "Which room did you step in it?" (see I can grammerize it!)

S:"The kitchen doorway!"

I dry off her foot and then follow. Under the fridge door, two pools of a yellowish orange liquid are oozing out
Toss down towels, worry that the fridge has died again.
Nope! Turns out we bought cider 2 weeks before Halloween and FORGOT ABOUT IT!
The wee beasties have been having a ball in there and the gas pressure burst the bottle!

Oops!

Then I had to explain fermentation to the kids…. 

I may actually have a double header post today! I am getting a hair cut (normal on a day at home) BUT also some highlights! Never did that before! I might do a before and after picture….  

It’s 2:30 am. Why the hell am I up? I drank a cup of coffee at the temple meeting tonight. What the hell was I thinking?

Decaf. I must stick to decaf after 5pm… Shoot me… I need to sleep!

I was reading today’s post at Forks and Chopsticks, and I think Stephanie has some interesting points.

We are in the midst of a birthday hell. There are 13 birthdays in Soleil’s class between May and August. We have gone to party after party after party. There is quite a spread in party stuff.

One had a song entertainment. We had to sing songs with the kids and generally feel like we were thrown in a mommy and me class.

One got moved to an indoor place at the last minute. It was great, but crazy. The cake was amazingly huge and   expansively decorated. The kids were wonked out on sugar!

One was on Luna’s birthday. This was pleasant and in the family’s home, but they did hire a story teller who did a great job, but it interrupted the kids playtime to do stories (good? bad?)

One was at a puppet theatre in Boston. This was too much for some of the kids. The show was 45 minutes long and the kids went a little nuts at points. It was better for older kids instead of 3-4 year olds.

Several have been canceled due to weather or moved to another inside place.

So far, nothing has been so over the top as described in Forks and Chopsticks. That is good, but I do feel the pressure. For alot of the kids in Soleil’s class, the parents are older and have chosen to have
one child. I think these kids are getting lots of attention (which is good).

So some of the parties are beyond what I would do. We want birthdays to be fun, but not an elaborate event. We already know that in 9 years* we are screwed (and again in 11 years), so why not keep parties simple
and fun?

Our birthday party for Sunday is scheduled as such:
3:30pm- Party start. We will have the sprinkler ready and the wading
pools filled.
4:30pm- Pizza and cakes (yes, Soleil wants an ice cream cake, but I am
also making another cake tonight, you know, open box, bake?)
5:00pm ish- Beat the crap out of the pinata!
5:30pm Send kids home with the goodie bags we made last night.

Is that so much? Don’t kids just want to play? Do we need to entertain our kids? Or should we let them entertain themselves?

That is what I thought when I read Stephanie’s post…

* Bat Miztvah happens at 13. This is guaranteed to be a big party… like $5K big party just for all of the people you have to invite…