My Special Day

Well, I didn't make it to Mendocino. I had all the hatches battened down, so to speak, and was ready to drive off when I remembered that Marilou had said she was leaving for San Francisco around 5 p.m. Since it was already 3 p.m. and we still hadn't gone over the pet feeding instructions, I hung around. When she left I turned on the TV and hunkered down for the rest of the evening.

Fortunately, there are only 65 stations to choose from (how did we ever survive with just NBC, CBS, ABC and sometimes PBS?), and TCM is not one of them, so it was pretty easy to run through the channels and decide that there wasn't anything worth watching. I can take just so much MSNBC or CNN before the ills of the nation and the world become too much to bear. In the past, I would have soldiered through (no pun intended) so that I could say I was up to date on current events. Now I don't care. The thing that I do to make the world a better place is to be conscious as much as possible, and I don't need Rachel Maddow for that (although I can think of a couple things she could help me with).

Yesterday I made the Pillsbury Bake-Off chicken recipe but I have to say I was underwhelmed. It needed something: salt for starters, and maybe red wine. I think I'll try it with breasts instead of thighs, and more almonds--more of everything, in fact.

Today is my birthday, did I tell you? It's Mae West's, too. My favorite MW quote: "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before." My brother Steve video-called me a while ago from Flagstaff with his impersonation of Elvis singing Happy Birthday (always a hit), right after my State Farm Insurance agent's assistant called to wish me happy birthday and remind me that I might need to renew my driver's license (I don't). I got an e-card from the woman I've been emailing through Compatible Partners (e-Harmony's LGBT off-shoot) and with whom I will have a first phone conversation at 1 pm today (some anxiety about that).

Here's a naughty birthday limerick for you (you need to be a TV-watcher of a certain age in order to "get it").

Lila’s Birthday

The day Lila turned sixty-two
She said, “What the heck should I do?
Like that Timex, I'm tickin’
But where is the lickin’?
I’ll find a new lover! But who?”

August 17, 2009
Fort Bragg, California

What do you think of that, Carolita?