Not exactly goodbye...

I've moved! Come visit me at my new digs. http://www.wendyboucher.com/blog Make that, PLEASE come visit me at my new digs. Oh, and if you are one of those nice people that link to me -- a little housekeeping will be in order. Thanks amigas!

I've been played.

Girlie was squirrely last night at dinner time. We had homemade soup (ever so delicious, of course). While we were eating, a friend stopped by to drop off some Nancy Drew books for Girlie. As I went to retrieve them, Girlie decided not to stay at the dinner table and opened the front door, which allowed Bella the lightning dog to make her escape. Ugh. We managed to retrieve her. Then, as we finished the aforementioned soup, Girlie decided that it would be fun to squish her mushrooms agains the inside of the soup bowl with her fingers. "Look, Mom, mushroom juice." Ah, hah, hah. So not funny to me and therefore exceedingly hilarious to Girlie. Until she knocked over her bowl and its contents after I had warned her to stop several times. Ugh. We cleaned it up. I confess I had a very trying day yesterday. I'm in the middle of swapping around webhosts and such and it isn't going smoothly because I don't have (uhm, what color is your thumb if you're good at internet stuff? Not a green thumb but a ...?) I guess Girlie could see that I was gearing up for a little crankfest at her expense so she said, "I wouldn't blame you if your punished me." She also said a little bit later, "Sorry about the two crimes I committed, Mommy." Okay, that was funny. Crankfest averted. I laughed, we got on with dinner and hey, wait a minute, what exactly did she learn? When trouble lurks, make Mommy laugh and you'll never get a time out again. Yep, that's about right. Sorry Dr. Spock.

Stephanie, oh Stephanie, how you made my day!

As most of you probably already know, Stephanie over at Pickleness rocks! On a day when I'm pulling out all my hair trying to figure our Bluehost and Wordpress, I get this lovely message that Stephanie has bought my novel, Parvenue Throws A Party (you know, that one prominently displayed in my sidebar). Thank you, Stephanie. I'm going to look in my computer for something to send you as a thank you. Ah, here it is, a Laughing Gull running for dear life from me and my sidekick (Girlie). It's not every day that you get sent a cyber seagull. You're welcome.

Watch out web, I've bitten off more than I can chew!

So. I have decided to change my main website, www.wendyboucher.com, to a different host and incorporate my blog at the same site using Wordpress. So far I have managed to cancel my old hosting service and delete my old site. If you go to www.wendyboucher.com, you'll see the first page of a blog that will be part of the new system. What I do next, I have NO IDEA! I'm working on it, I'm working on it. In the meantime, this Blogger blog, if nothing else, should remain in proper working order until I figure out my mess.

This will sound like bragging...

because it is. Unabashed bragging. As I mentioned in my life and death post below, last night I got to meet Izzy! Quite unbelievably, a blogger who I greatly admire lives very close to me. Guess what? She is exactly as advertised folks. Cool, funny, down to earth and exceedingly likeable. I AM SO LUCKY that we connected. She posted about it too and as she said, we showed up at Starbucks wearing the exact same clothes and ended up chatting for three hours. What she didn't mention is that we closed down Starbucks and had to move to an outside table where we continued to gab until very late while odd people came and went from the parking lot. I barely noticed them. The odd ones, that is. I'm wearing a big fat grin today. Thanks, Iz!

Which would you choose?

Death by car crash or death by poisonous spider bite? That was the life and death decision presented to me the other day as I drove to pick up Girlie from day camp. It goes to show you that you never know when you will be faced with life and death choice. And of course, it's all my Hubby's fault. The trauma of the event caused me to block it out of my mind for a few days but the story resurfaced tonight as I met with the awesome and deservedly famous Izzymom (a later post, to be sure). Here's how it went down - I'm back to the spider story, keep up people. Traffic was thick. And it had been raining - that bucket load kind of rain we get here in Florida - so many drivers were in panic mode. Panicky oldsters tend to drive with one foot on the brake. Panicky youngsters lock their knees and can't take their feet off the gas pedal. Throw in a lake or two in the right hand lane and you've got a dangerous traffic situation. (Cue the Twilight Zone music.) Now, imagine if you will, a big fat round-bodied spider that looks an awful lot like a brown widow spider creeping across the top of your windshield, on the inside of course, and just visible in your upward peripheral vision. It pauses just above your lap...thinking, thinking, mmmm, tasty mommy. Steve McQueen, were he still with us, could not have pulled a more perfect maneuver with my less than agile soccer mom van. Lickety split, I was off the road and squishing that spider in a used kleenex. I might have run over a Mini Cooper but it's hard to tell in the behemoth that I drive. If that was you I crushed, sorry. I still managed to pick up my daughter on time but unfortunately, I was still reeling from my experience and told her about it. "SHAME ON YOU. SHAME ON YOU FOR HURTING NATURE." Obviously, she was missing the life and deathness of the situation. "What would you have wanted me to do?" "You should have found a stick and a big leaf and some tape or string to attach the leaf and then gently scooped the spider out of the car." "That spider wanted to kill me." "SHAME ON YOU." "Okay. Next time. I promise." Sheesh, kids. As I drove home, I wondered where that spider had come from. Then I recalled that my Hubby had been using my van to haul sod. That's right. The real reason I don't have a Prius yet is that my Hubby can't let go of the pickup truck, I mean van. Sod. There's still dirt and sod droppings in the back. And probably more spiders. When I find one, I'm going to get that stick and leaf and tape and gently scoop the spider onto the seat of Hubby's Lexus. Oh yes I am.

My Cleo and Max picture is done!

I love this new collage. Besides, it proves to my cats that I never meant to play favorites having done a picture of my dog. Why is Max cut off? I just like how it looked and I took it from a photograph where the two of them were lying in those positions on our slate patio. Max was feral and to this day, will not tolerate being petted unless it's on her rump. Thus the rump shot. Cleo, fully featured, is the alpha pet in this household. She regularly thumps the dog. I'm having fun with this and I would be delighted to take commissions for art of your pets too. Just go to my profile and email me if you're interested.

What's on your desk?

It's Friday and I am going to clear my work area. But first I want to show you my typical working conditions. Exhibit A: I have spoken to the management about the yammering cat that keeps showing up in my inbox but thus far they've done nothing about it. If ignored, she gets up and licks me across the forehead. And if that weren't bad enough, Exhibit B: The dog-on-my-lap infestation continues as well. I don't know how I'm supposed to get any work done during the day. Luckily at night, dogs, cats, Girlies and snakes all retire to their proper beds. Then Hubby kills things in his video game and I work peacefully on my computer. If I ever slur my writing in a comment, you'll know that wine was involved too. Have a great weekend, all.

Big Heart and Topless Dolls

"So Girlie, whatchya doing with all those topless Polly Pockets?" "They're giving their tops to charity...and their pets too because they thought that would be a nice thing to give." "Okay then. Great job, Sweetie." What you can't hear is the tune Girlie is humming while she lines up the charity offerings. I asked her about it and she said it was the charity theme song. I really can't wait to pie hole my blog (add audio). Editor's note: Her game continues and I overheard her say that one of the Polly Pockets would have to donate a whole man to charity. (Hee hee.) And now thieves are stealing from the charity pile. I love imagination.