Yes, I know I should still be in high school....

Over the last couple of years, I have started my own grant writing business, and though it has had a slow start....things are beginning to pick up. So much so, that my sister and I have discussed the possibility of her coming on as a partner (she is the best writer I know) a few times. One of those conversations came up again this morning, and we were running through the list of possible names for the business.

The conversation went a bit astray, however, when the obligatory combination of initials followed by a one word description of the business came up. Her last name begins with a "J", mine with a "B". I kind of think BJ Consultants has a nice ring to it, don't you?

Noodles to You

I discovered these noodles at Williams Sonoma a few months ago, and if I was Julie Andrews, these would definitely go in my song.

They are big, fat curly-Q's of happiness. And I challenge anyone to stay in a bad mood while these are in front of you. They go well with any sauce or in a soup, but don't try to serve them as a background player to chicken. No, they are divas, and will only give you their full love if you feature them as the headliner in whatever dish you are serving. The company that makes them is dai Marella and they are called Molloni. I have not seen them anywhere else, but will definitely be keeping my eye out for them everywhere I go now. Enjoy!

Jacket Weather

I had a delicious surprise this morning.

After months of stepping out into the suffocatingly hot and muggy summer mornings; after a summer full of swatting at flies and mosquitos so often that I am sure all of my neighbors are thoroughly convinced that I have a motor-skills disorder; after and unending parade of days that required me immediately stripping out of moist-sticky clothing as soon as I walked back through the door; this morning I was greeted with weather that invited me to go back inside for a jacket.

I adore the first day of jacket weather. It brings to my mind apples, and blue jeans, and the smell of library books.

I did forget one small thing in my glee. While the steamy humidity of the summer is equally draining on me and my pup, cool weather has the same effect on her that a Frappuccino has on a 10-year old with ADHD. Which is why all of the cushions have been pulled off the couch in the living room, my shoes are scattered in various places, and Charlie is standing in the middle of all of it, tail wagging, insisting that there is nothing more important right now than a game of tug-of-war.

Prologue

On a recent balmy day in Mississippi, I was driving down the interstate when I happened to see a man sitting on the side of the road. He was perched on a white, plastic lawn chair. He had no sign asking for money or a ride, and no evidence of any kind of bag or luggage. He was not hawking any wares or collecting any thing from the roadside. He was just sitting there....grinning. There was no vehicle of any kind in sight, which led me to believe that he had walked to this point, quite a distance from the nearest exit, carrying only a lawn chair.

My first question was "How?". The second was "Why?".

Of course, he could ask me the same thing.

I never dreamed I would live in the deep south. I never could have anticipated the insanity of being married to a med student...and now a resident. I had no idea the complete befuddlement I would face when I adopted a droopy-eared, big-eyed, 10-week old puppy from the shelter.

I have no clue how I got here.....but here I sit....grinning until my jaws hurt.