Help Rodney

In her post today, Misty encouraged her readers to help Rodney, a Michigan photographer who is battling leukemia. I clicked on over to read some of Rodney's posts and check out his book, "Spiritual Wanderer," which you can get right here. I'm going to buy my copy today.

In case you didn't know, Misty and I are both copywriters - professional hacks. By day.

Like hac-opywriters the world over, we aspire to a greater purpose with our writing. But sometimes, persuading people to buy stuff can be a very good thing.

I'm going to steal some of Misty's words here, but I don't think she'll mind ...


Rodney's publishers are doing an amazingly cool thing. For the rest of 2010, they’re giving up their cut and giving ALL the proceeds from Rodney’s book directly to Rodney.

So, please, spend $10 and buy the book. The money will help Rodney and only Rodney. But I suspect his words will help many others, too.

Team Mancy

When Ashton first started talking we loved all the special names he had for us. I was Aunt Mancy. Lizz was Zizz. Midori was Peto. We don't know why.

Zizz, Peto, Claudette and I became Team Mancy.

Zizz is home for the short break between spring and summer semesters, so most of Team Mancy is together again and all is right with the world.

Now we're off to help with the church yard sale. In the rain.

On this day ...

I walk past my pantry door several times a day. Every now and then this hanging catches my eye and I have to stop and read it, even though I must have read it hundreds of times by now.

This is one of the many small things I loved about my house when I first toured the interior.

The previous owners moved here in the 1970s when they were in their 60s. A second marriage for both. I wonder if they received this as a wedding gift or picked it out together. I imagine them hanging this up and tracing the words with their fingers.

I think of the family celebrations and other gatherings that were celebrated here for about 30 years and the ones I've hosted since I've been here and wonder how many people have read those words and found meaning in them.

This is my favorite kind of to-do list. I think it's lovely.

This is NOT a lampshade

Misty calls this my lampshade. As in, "Grab your lampshade and get your butt moving so we can go to lunch."

Aunt Linda included this in the very thoughtful broken-ankle care package she sent me earlier this year. Because she broke her foot last year and knew how important backpack-y like things would be when I was crutchering around for 2 months. I love this bag, and have received numerous compliments on it from fashion-savvy people.

Fashionable and functional, it holds a lot of important stuff:

1. Cell phone
2. Little book for important notes, story ideas, grocery lists, prayer concerns, etc.
3. My "round 2 it"
4. Take-out menu from the creperie, church bulletin, misc. receipts and envelope of gift cards
5. Camera bag
6. Wallet
7. Ibuprofen
8. Lizard Lips lip balm
9. Keys
10. Gwen Frostic note cards
11. Various ID cards
12. Combination lock for the Y
13. Gin-gin candies
14. Altoids
15. Flash drive
16. Clinique bag with small Clinique Happy and Burt's Bees lip balm

It is so NOT a lampshade.

Herbalicious

Look, Share! My basil is growing! Right in the bag! 

I got this cool, grow-your-own-basil-in-a-bag kit for my birthday from my very special sister. It's pretty clear I won't be winning any photography awards, but you can see the little sprouts even in my fuzzy photo. Neat-o, huh? If you squinch your eyes a bit, you can see the sprouts smiling at you!

At the rate my baby basil plants are growing, I should be able to transplant them in a few days. I'm supposed to wait until they're 2-3 inches tall. (They're almost 2 inches now.) I think I started them a week ago? So easy ... I just snipped off the top of the bag, fluffed the mulchy stuff, added a cup of water and the seeds and then a few days later ... sprouts!

I love to surround myself with basil this time of year. Nothing says summer like a simple Caprese salad - vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, some really good olive oil and maybe a bit of balsamic vinegar drizzled between layers ... sea salt and freshly ground pepper ... mmmmmm ... 

I'm not much of a gardener, but I do love to plant lots of fresh herbs every year. Basil (several varieties), Greek oregano, marjoram, rosemary, cilantro and Italian flat leaf parsley are staples. My English thyme, lemon balm, rue, mint and lavender plants from last year survived the winter and are going crazy. I've had to cut them back twice already. 

Oh, and by the way: The rue and lavender have done NOTHING to deter the neighborhood cats from pooping in my yard.

So all day today I've felt like it was Friday. I almost put on jeans this morning when I was getting ready for work (we get to wear jeans on Fridays) and then remembered it was only Friday-like for me because I'm taking the next two days off. I'm going to see Edna bright and early (9 a.m.) to get my hair cut and brows waxed. And then? Well, we'll just see. There are so many possibilities.

Sweet dreams, all.

A great line

My daughter and I share a love of reading. For the past several years, one of my favorite gifts from Lizz at birthdays and Christmas has been a pile of books she's selected just for me. Sometimes it is a mix of library books and purchased books. Often, the books are accompanied by an illustrated list of some sort that I can keep long after the books have been returned or integrated more fully into my library.

For my birthday a few weeks ago, it was a bookmark-list, with a bit of cash stuffed in a little pocket in back. Isn't it cute? I'm sorry my photo is fuzzy so you can't read the list but here are the books my very cool kid selected with me in mind:

1. Everything I needed to know about being a girl I learned from Judy Bloom - done
2. The Last Lecture - done
3. Bound South
4. The Imperfectionists
5. Stones from the River - in progress
6. An Ocean in Iowa
7. The Secret of Joy
8. If You Lived Here

I wanted to share a line from this book, by German author Ursula Hegi:
Threads of cold rain stitched the earth to the gray sky.

Isn't that a great line?

I thought so.

Have you come across a really great line in something you've read? Do share!

Listing to the left

A list. In honor of ... Monday.

1. We went to France for dinner last Tuesday.

OK fine. Not really. It was the creperie in Frankenmuth. Because Little Bavaria is where you expect to experience authentic crepes (pronounced CREHPS - not CRAPES) served in darling little paper cones just like the street vendors in Paris serve them. Friends K and B and I have been doing a culinary world tour thing on Tuesday nights. We've been to Mexico, Japan, India, Greece and France. We're running out of countries to visit here in the Great Lakes Bay region.

2. I made some new friends while in Frankenmuth. I think the big guy above fell in love with me. He kept calling to me from afar. Or maybe he was squawking at me to stay far away.

The one below looks overly suspicious.

3. Last year, when Lizz worked at the zoo, I got to share in the excitement of the arrival of new baby peafowl. I thought they should be called peewees.

4. There are two scrawny gray kittens outside my window. Anyone need a cat?

5. My editor is stripey and not-so-scrawny. She is keeping my elbow warm.

6. It seems freakishly cold for June 7. But baybe dat is because I hab a code id by dose.

7. I hate cleaning the litter box.

8. Nobody (audibly) farted at yoga tonight. And I only fell over once. Er - twice. But we were doing a lot of crazy balancing stuff.

9. After injuring myself during a photo shoot a couple of years ago, I took some time off from doing handstands. That made me sad because I used to do handstands a lot. Like at work in the afternoons to bring the blood back to my head. This is me doing a handstand against a tree - a bit crookedly - at Parc Güell  in Barcelona. That was just a little over five years ago. I'm so excited that I'm working my way up to doing handstands again, safely, in my yoga class! I just found a video on this page that shows how we're doing it. (Scroll down.) It also has some good info about the benefits. 

10. Some of the items on my Life List include doing handstands in famous parks around the world. One of these days, I'll post the list. You can go look at Margaret Mason's, which has some pretty big corporate sponsors. Very cool.


All righty. I need to go get Vernor's and toast and cut this sore throat off at the pass. Or something.

Hola cannola

Or maybe I shoulda said, "Adios." But that doesn't rhyme.

I enjoyed a cannola (singular for cannoli, the delectable Italian confections stuffed with sweetened ricotta and chocolate and dipped in lovely ground almonds) from Bommarito Bakery in St. Clair Shores for breakfast. What a yummy start to the day.

Wha ... 11-ish isn't the start of the day? Seriously? Does it count that I ate well over an hour ago? That I put the coffee on at 8:30? Does that count?

My lifelong friend, Netty, brought cannoli plus a big loaf of many-grained bread when she visited the other day. Now those are essential elements of a balanced diet, don't you think?

Claudette and I are thinking. Strategizing about our day. We just happen to be doing this brain work in a place most conducive to maximizing the strategic potential. I have a graduation party to go to at 1:00-ish and was thinking I had just enough time to do some yard/house stuff.

I'm thinking about hosing down the front of the house and doing a little scraping and paint prep. I bought the paint last Sunday - Roycroft Copper Red from the Sherwin-Williams Arts & Crafts collection. I am now officially committed to this painting thing.

Ugh. I just caught and crushed another ant. That's the fourth this morning. What is up with that? I don't see where they're coming in but they keep appearing, seemingly out of nowhere. And they're big enough that I see them creeping along the lampshade or pillow or a book or up the curtain - out of the corner of my eye. Ew.

O.     K.    Here ...... I ....... go ...... off to be semi-productive ...