I have a real soft spot in my heart for librarians

and people who care about books.

Ann Richards

I'm participating in the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival: Winter '08 Edition!

I am giving away a signed copy of Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle.




Eric Carle is a favorite of mine and I received this book in a gift bag at an event he was speaking at. It is a lovely hard copy personally signed by him. It would be a great addition to any young reader's collection. Books are one of my favorite things so I'm happy to pass this along to my winner!

Please leave a comment below and tell what your favorite children's book is to enter your name in my giveaway! Please include the best way to contact you if you should wine (e-mail or your blog) and I will gladly ship to U.S. residents. I will randomly select the winner on Sunday, February 3 and announce the winner shortly after.

Good luck!

If a man watches three football games in a row,

he should be declared legally dead.
Erma Bombeck

I love going to watch football with Nick on Sundays. Yesterday I met him and his friend Aaron at the Ale House to watch the New England Patriots v. San Diego Chargers and then the Green Bay Packers v. New York Giants. I'm not really a Packers fan but it's close enough to my born and bread Chicago Bears that I wanted them to beat the Giants! Boo.

I've also learned that although I love our football Sundays what I really look forward to is the big onion rings dipped in spicy ranch, making fun of the girls in the pink jerseys, the funny bartender and being with Nick. But you know, I can pretend to really like football forever just to enjoy all of that.

Random: lacking any definite plan or order or purpose

• I stayed up until 12:20 a.m. Friday night. I felt really proud of myself for staying up that late. And also felt really, really old because I was proud of myself for staying up that late.
• I went to a wedding last night. The bride looked beautiful, the music was nice and three quarters of the guests were wearing jeans. Jeans. But, I'm at the point where I will go to any and every wedding I am invited to because it is considered research!
• My lovely flowers are still alive (see previous post) - horray!
• It's cloudy, windy and quite cold here today. It's a perfect excuse to still be in my pajamas at 3:30 p.m.
• The soft pretzels sticks at Bar Louie make me so happy. Yum.
• I hit my middle toe on one of those big plastic storage containers that was full of books. I didn't break it but it is currently deep purple and prevents me from wearing any shoe except my OKA b.'s. Boo.

No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden.

Hugh Johnson

I'll admit it... I have a a bit of black thumb. It's not that I don't love plants and flowers but I really have a knack for killing them. Quickly. It also isn't good for plants when they are munched on freely by a tabby cat.

So when for Christmas I received a Paperwhite bulb from Casey and then an Amaryllis bulb from Amanda on my birthday I was a little nervous. Little did these beautiful bulbs know what they were being handed over to! But I followed all the instructions, set them near a sunny window and waited.

You know what? They are gorgeous! Bella doesn't really like them and they are growing so fast and healthy. Maybe I was just meant to grow blubs. The Amaryllis is blooming and the Paperwhite is close. It's fun to see their progress just over night.

Now my mom and Nick (both great gardeners who don't kill plants) can leave me and Bella alone about all of my past dead plants because I am growing these lovely flowers!

On January 7

Yesterday morning

This morning

After scolding one's cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word. And has filed it for reference.

Charlotte Gray

Note: this is a great question to be answered by a pet owner and may gross you out if you aren't... thank you!

My cat Bella has a nasty little habit. She has a tendency to do the side-of-the-kitty-box-peeing. She is inside it like a good girl but instead of popping a squat right on the kitty litter she just relieves herself on the side of the box standing up (EDIT: She has a covered litter box and still goes all over the side). Almost like a male cat spraying, but she is just using the bathroom.

I know you can't really train a cat to use the bathroom the way you would prefer but does anyone have an idea how to reduce the odor associated with this? Because the urine is not going in the litter it smells like she just went on the tile floor... nothing to absorb the odor because it is just on the side of the plastic litter box. Yikes!

I know it's gross but if anyone has a brilliant idea of how to relieve (no pun intended) the smell it would be greatly appreciated.

Bella is ready and waiting for your advice!

Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.

Richard B Sheridan

What is more devine than beautiful roses?

Beautiful roses you buy for yourself!

Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game

in the world at which to be bad.

A.A. Milne

One of the benefits of living in Florida is being able to play golf on January 6. And sweat the whole time. The weather is beautiful here, a little on the warm side, but still so lovely.

Nick's old friend and fellow golf professional, Aaron, is down here for a few months because his course up north is, well, covered with snow. Kind of difficult to see your putt in that kind of weather! Aaron was one of his closest friends when he lived here so it's nice for Nick to have him around for football, Heiniken, steak and golf (of course!).

We played on Sunday afternoon at Nick's club which was great way to get outside. And wear my new golf shoes (because everyone knows you play better golf with cuter shoes, of course).

It was also a plus because I basically got four hours of free lessons from two golf professionals.

"Keep your head down"

"Swing with your torso, not just your arms"

"Pretend you're just hitting the tee, not the ball"

"You're too far away from the ball"

"Bend your knees"

Phew! I really did play so much better but I am.so.sore! Wowza! I think the tips of my elbows even hurt.

I need to play golf more often for my body to get used to this. Or, at least wear my cute shoes around a little more to break them in!

Nick and Aaron on the course

On our way to play!

Going to the chapel

And we're gonna get married.

The Dixie Cups

The day we were engaged was a pretty wonderful day to begin with. December 30 was by 25th birthday and I was hosting a cocktail part (if you're not going to throw yourself and party, who will?). So I spend the morning at my mom's house out of town and enjoyed breakfast and presents.

I headed back to my home in the early afternoon to buzz around to prepare stuff for the party. Nick arrived around 3 p.m. and then good friends from out of town arrived at 5 p.m. Lots of yummy food and good conversation.

At about 8 p.m. Ashley (in the tan jacket above) made this big fuss about having me blow out the candles on my cake and everyone sing happy birthday. So she shuffled me around the other side of the kitchen to, as I later see was so obvious, to set me up in a good position. I found out later that Nick had pulled aside both Ashley and Casey (in the cranberry v-neck sweater) to let them know. They were both in tears and so happy... but composed themselves very well around me!



All of a sudden Nick grabbed my hand and got everyone's attention that he had an announcment. I still had no idea. I didn't understand what he was doing...




He then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I love my friend my friend's face behind us the whole time. Everyone was so surprised!



Putting the ring on my finger...

Lots of kisses and hugs...

We're engaged!

Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have

elections is to find out if the polls were right?

Robert Orben

Have I officially become a full fledged dork if I am literally excited about the Iowa Caucuses?

I cannot wait to hear the results and how it will effect New Hampshire, and then the elections later this year.

I am as stumped as the next person of who will pull ahead and who will ultimately get my vote in November. It will be interesting to see how it all goes this evening.

How can I not put some faith in those Iowians? I'm marrying one!

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

I stopped by the grocery store on my lunch break to pick up a few things.

I laughed out loud when looking at my purchases during check out.

• 10 Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meals (they were 50% off!)
• 5 gala apples
• 2 packages frozen SteamFresh vegetables
• 1 Weight Watchers magazine
• 1 The Knot-Florida Weddings magazine

Hmmm.... gotta lose some weight and plan a wedding. Here's to a new year!

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental,

but diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Marilyn Monroe, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Warning: shameless engagement ring picture below.

I'm only doing this because it was requested!