But Call Me Betsy

Actually, I guess I don't love -love the show. I don't tune into it religiously, but I'll watch it if I happen upon it. The result? I throw stuff out. The idea of having so much crap that you can't walk around in your home makes me feel sick. And I've never given something away or thrown it out and then later regretted it or even missed whatever it was. This weekend, I took three huge bags of clothes to Circle Thrift and felt jubilant to get rid of these clothes I hadn't worn in a year or more (that's the rule. If you haven't worn it in the last 12 months, it needs to go. Unless it's that blue skirt with the sparkly things on it that's perfect for no occasion, but just too cute to get rid of). I also don't collect anything. Many of the people on the show are big collectors--of coffee mugs, of guns, of dolls, of things that belonged to dead people, of cats, of cat feces. Also, they don't seem to mind so much if their carpeted floors are fi...

We're not quite done with the cats-in-hats competition, but I did want to give you a behind the scenes look at what happens when you attempt to hat a cat.

I've been on a mystery reading kick lately. Read Ruth Rendel's Monster in a Box , Sarah Waters' Fingersmith , and am almost done with The Pale Blue Eye , by Louis Bayard. It started with T he Girl Who ... books and now I find myself reading The Best True Crime Writing in America and T he Best American Mysteries, 2009. My number of nightmares have not increased. I continue to have about 3 scary dreams a week. Last night, I dreamed I was in a zoo of horrifyingly mistreated animals, including several kangaroos who were tied up and lying on their sides and rhinos stranded on tiny rocks. Most of the animals were at their wits end and dangerous too. But anyway, the mystery stories are interesting. I prefer the ones that turn out well. Alice Munro has a story called "Free Radicals" in the 2009 mystery edition. I recommend it highly and guess what? You can read it here courtesy of The New Yorker , where it was originally published in 2008. I don't know yet if I co...

Well, this isn't a curbside give-away; just a rare glimpse of the Virgin Mary encroaching slowly on turtle-like thing. Took this picture after going with Jenn B. to the T-Barr on Jackson last night, where we met our friend and awesome realtor, Jeanne and a few of the other people she helped find houses in Lo-Mo. The day before was trash day, and I snapped a few photos of free things you can find on the streets of Philly, such as this highly- graffiti-ied , piece of crap door. Thought you might like to see a detail of the quality of work and originality here. Here is a free mattress, though it is marked "trash," in case the garbage men think it's just being stored alongside the house. Kitchen cabinet and perfectly serviceable golf bag. Sofa with fringe. And this is the saddest one of all--an old doggie that must have one time belonged to a kid who loved it, right? Though I guess if you had a small home, it would be hard to justify a stuffed animal who takes up muc...

Walked by Planned Parenthood today and noticed for the first time the signs reading, "Babies Killed Here," and "Baby Killing: Starting at $400." Of course, the protesters were two old white men who would have better spent their time volunteering at a homeless shelter. I felt this surge of rage, wanting to stop and confront them and ask them how many kids they have personally adopted in their lifetime. You want women to have their babies regardless of their ability to provide for them then you better be prepared to take on an extra dozen kids or so into your life. I also thought it might be fun to ask them if I would get a discount on the $400 if I were carrying twins. I didn't say anything--in real life, I'm not so great with being offensive and confrontational. But it still pissed me off. Maybe I'll walk by there again tomorrow and ask a few questions. Which will be answered by some kind of contradictory Bible verses like, "A baby is b...

Took a trip to Montreal with Dan and his family and returned to discover that I didn't take very many photos at all, and the ones I do have largely feature animals or insects. No dogs or cats, because for the entire time we were there, we saw about 4 dogs in total which of course was a bummer for me. We left on a Thursday morning and stopped in for breakfast at the Airport Diner. The menu had everything you could ever want on it, and, as a consequence, the food all tasted the same. Please note that Dan is embarrassing all of us by wearing a New Jersey t-shirt. And then we stopped for lunch at some place called the Cricket Restaurant. Name was apropos as no one was there and it was so silent that you could hear... Bruno traveled with us and here is being abused in the parking lot of the Hyatt Hotel where we stayed for four luxurious nights. Luckily, we were also able to enjoy the comforts of corporate America as there was a French-ish Starbucks directly across f...

We saw some sheep this weekend at the Howell Living Farm and I was reminded that sheep aren't the smartest farm animals you could ever hope to have. But here is a video of a cute lamb who hops: