rain, rashes, super mario....

It's raining - typical March blustery weather, but it's not freezing cold, so I don't mind.

I'm baking chocolate chip cookies, so the house smells nice and cozy.

My daughter and son have rashes on their arms. Both were out in the garden, so maybe they were bitten or brushed against some sort of poison plant. I'm taking them to the doctor tomorrow so he can see - it's sort of a poison-ivy looking rash, but there is none here in France, so I have no idea what it can be.

And my son uploaded all the Mario games to the Wii, so now my husband is happily playing the number 1 Super Mario game - the oldest one, where everything is 2 dimensional and you can only move forward or jump up and down. Strangely enough, it's our favorite, and we all fight to take turns to play.

:-)

Tomorrow my husband is off for 3 weeks in Spain! Lucky him - I bet the weather is lovely in Andalusia, where he's heading. (work contract - so that's good news!)

And hopefully we'll hear more about a contract in August while he's there. (fingers crossed)

But I'll miss him!!!

Spring!

It arrived last week.

First the crocus pushed its lone head out of the packed earth in my front garden and stood there, white and trembling. It cast no shadow. It kept its petals tightly closed, as if huddling against the cold. It should have waited. A few days later a watery ray of sunlight lit up a primrose, pink with excitement at being the first to bloom. The forsythia, not to be outdone, forced its flowers open and gold ran up and down the branches while violets, admirative, nodded tiny heads.

The sun finally gathered its strength and sent us a balmy week, which encouraged the grass to new heights and stirred the birds to song. Auguste has been chasing his nemesis - the wren - every morning at dawn as he runs out to pee...The wren teases him mercilessly, hopping just out of reach.

It's spring, and it means that every sunny day is torture to be inside, because spring is so fragile and the weather can slide back to winter at a whim. Teeshirts bunch beneath sweaters, coats hesitate on shoulders, and shorts are shaken out and inspected for moth holes.

And every cloud is a curse while blue skies promise - spring is here, and it will stay.

Free!

Head over to Calderwood Books this week and pick up a free e-book!
There's a new one every day - from romance to mystery to sci-fi and fantasy to children's books. Be kind to our planet. Try an e-book today!
CLICK HERE

Madonna and Jesus!

I just read an article about Madonna and her new man, 22 yr old Jesus is dating the 50 yr old Madonna, and they seem to be having a good time.
My first reaction was, 'well, maybe she's finally found someone she can relate to', but that sounded petty, and so I revised it to 'If I was single and had a choice between a 50 yr old and a 22 yr old - I know exactly where I'd head -22 here I come!' - and to hell with conversation - quite frankly, it's highly overrated.
:-)
As Joan Collins said when prodded about her relation with a man thirty years her junior - "Well, if he dies, he dies."

Dear Mr. President,

Dear Mr. President Obama,

Talking to my friends now and no one is flaunting their money; on the contrary - everyone is wryly ticking off lists of things they no longer do or own. It's suddenly chic to be poor. One woman said she was afraid to look at her investment portfolio - she's already lost a third of what she had in it. "A hundred thousand dollars, down the drain," she sighed.
Since I have exactly 700 euros in my bank account, and zip-zero in savings, and none in any kind of investment, I found it hard to sympathize. I mean, I felt sorry for her, sure, because she's a friend and her pain is real. But for me to really empathize, I think I'd have to had lost something too, and the only thing I've lost is my faith in capatalism.
A lot of my US pals are happy about you, Mr. President - and the richest ones are heading towards Switzerland to tuck their money in Swiss banks and out of your tax reach. That pisses me off. On one hand, I like these people - again, they're real friends. On the other hand, how on earth is any economy going to get back on its feet if it's leaking out the open doors and windows of high finance?

Mr. President, may I lay out my restructuring plan?

Step one: bring home the troops - and send them to Switzerland. We've honed our mountain attacks on Pakistan and Afghanistan, so we should be able to rout a few well-fed bankers. That money should be taxed at a fair rate. Most of those people are driving on roads paid for by taxes, using bridges built by taxes, and getting treatment in hospitals paid by taxes - maybe they should hold up their end of the deal?

Step two : point your missles at the off shore tax havens. An exonomist has said that the money stored away in those places would be enough to shore up the economy for years to come. Since most of that money comes from shady deals anyhow, you shouldn't feel any qualms about taking it all and spending it on a new deal to fix up America's wretched highways, trains, dams, and school system.

Step three : Do away with any kind of bonus and level the playing feild by capping saleries for everyone, including movie stars and sportsmen. Then raise minimum wage so that a person can have an honest job and still pay for rent and food. Now, wouldn't that be loverly?

Follow these three easy steps, and you'll have the economy back on its feet in no time.
Sincerely yours,
Sam