Cold Spaghetti

The news:
– Sarah Jessica Parker has a house in Garden District and her favorite restaurant is Clancy’s (also in our neighborhood), which she frequents several times a week when in town. Jessica Simpson also notes this one as a favorite.
– Kate Winslet owns a house on Calhoun and recently bought a new pair of size 11’s at Shoefty (yes, that’s spelled correctly: S-h-o-e-f-t-y), which is right around the corner from our house.
– Nicholas Cage and John Goodman live in the Garden District (John Goodman bought Trent Renzor’s house) and frequently dine at Commander’s Palace together.

AND, thanks to Laura, I’m in the scoop about this gossip regarding Frankie Muniz (who we saw out on the town in May).

Wow! We really ARE in the middle of everything! Go NOLA!

Here is a super-great review of Half-Blood Prince, by Time Magazine.

(Fun note: Paul, Manx, and Scout are all watching him in this picture!)

Some pre-bedtime fun in the relatively mild evening air after a sweltering day. The picture makes it look as if it is really dark out. In reality, it was only about 7:45 and not very dark yet at all.

Not JK’s best, but still a fun ride. Sort of dragged through the middle (we’ve heard it all before) with occassional moments of entertaining “snogging” (my new favorite word) or concerns over “U-No-Poo: The constipation sensation that’s gripping the nation.” In short, the fun read she usually gives is there… only not driven by the usual gripping plot (until the end).

It is the story we’ve become familiar with: Harry against the world, no one listens or understands, etc. Only, more so. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily darker as a whole, but it leaves on the darkest note yet as Harry comes to terms with growing up and facing his future. In short, the book leaves you feeling like you’ve read a very long first chapter for the Book 7; it almost doesn’t seem to stand alone as a story the way the rest of them have. But take that with caution, as my experience is often that the books improve with multiple readings, so maybe I’ll pick up more on future reads. I did like that the overall take-home message is that the only way to front evil is with love: we’ve heard this throughout the series but it becomes poignant here, without being too heavy handed or sappy. Oh, and a warning: the rumors are right. Read with tissues.

The book doesn’t answer as many questions as I thought it would. But the questions it leaves are ones we’ve had since the beginning. It does a good job of tying in a lot of loose ends to make way for the final book in the series… which is going to be a doosy.

Scratch everything negative I’ve ever said about Florida. I love Florida. I want to live in Florida. Florida is wonderful.

I’ve just found out that the closest birth centers to New Orleans are in Florida. And that Florida has a lot of them. And that they have birth centers which support home birth. And that they have specialists in water birth. And (this is really super amazing part) they take insurance.

I repeat: I love Florida.

There is no love like the love a Momma has for her baby’s toes. *sigh*

We’ve been working on a few of Will’s big confusions: milk versus water (leche vs. agua) and the fact that all vegetables are not peas. So far, it’s not been a great success. An example: tonight’s dinner, which included corn.

The scene:
Will is climbing into his high chair as he sees me cooking corn. Immediately he pipes up, “PEAS!”

“Will, this is corn. Corn can be many colors but we usually eat it when it is yellow. It grows on a cob and is surrounded by a husk. Corn. Maiz. Corn. Corn. Maiz.”

“PEAS!”

“Corn. Maiz. Corn.”

“Peas. Peas. Peas…. PEAS!”

And repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat. It would be more maddening if he weren’t so darn cute the whole time.

In the news…

A T-ball coach pays one of his players $25 to hurt an disabled 8-year old teammate so he wouldn’t have to put the child in the game.

Using taxpayer’s dollars, Laura Bush travels to Africa and discovers life is rough for impoverished women living with HIV, and — despite overwhelming evidence that it not only doesn’t work, but makes things worse — lectures to them about abstinence.

Meanwhile, in the White House, the President continues to avoid questions regarding Rove’s deliberate leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame, made in order to get back at her husband for having the intelligence to point out that, in fact, Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and therefore, no real reason (besides oil) to invade.

So many issues here, yet, is there a greater evil? What’s worse?
– Practicing bigotry through exclusion and violence?
– Being clueless?
– Promoting a political agenda despite the danger and death it causes?
– Cronyism?

A person could go mad in the debate.

Will gets all dolled up for a walk with Mom