a word to the wise...man.
several years ago, while spending the summer at ft. myers beach, fl, where my parents own a condo, i had the good fortune to meet randy.

a movie, a snack...and the JAWS OF LIFE
when i was fresh out of college (the one year that i actually attended college) i moved into an apartment with my sister, denise. we lived in west palm beach, fl and our apartment was just 5 minutes or so from the mall. and the theatre. we were both single girls at the time. not desperate, lonely girls...but just extremely...picky. about who we went out with. we both had busy daytime jobs, she worked at the chamber of commerce and i worked at a small law firm. ( i later went on to work at a very large law firm, and oh, how i wish i still had contacts there. there were many times in the years to come that i could have used a good lawyer.on the off chances that

a 50 yr. old SQUATS...for a weed.
last thursday morning i was pulling into mama and daddys driveway and as usual, stopped to pick up their mail. they have a long driveway and the mailbox sits out on the main road. and this road gets a fair amount of traffic. as i got out of the car, i noticed this little yellow flower (some would call it a weed, i would beg to differ) sitting there in the dirt, all by itself. and i felt compelled to take a picture of it.

little blue truck...and the unlikely car wash.
it was the year 1983. james and i and our two boys lived at the time on a small piece of land in which the back yard bordered a man-made rockpit. for those of you who live in a city and don't know what a rock pit is...it's where these monster machines come along onto a big empty piece of land and scoop all the dirt out and use it for fill dirt and then they put water in the gigantic hole that is left behind and it looks like a little lake. they stock them with fish and of course, there are ducks. and turtles. and other critters that live in the water. occassionally, due to the wrath of mother nature, the edges of the rockpit will begin to deteriorate and you have to buttress the land

"the grass may be greener on the other side...but it usually ends up being astro-turf"
today was a very, very hard day for me. today i had to practice "tough love" with my son, who will turn 17 this week, and i find that is not something i am particularly good at. being tough. in fact, over the past few years, i have been told that there are alot of things i am not particularly good at. but that's a story for another time.