And it's not even Sunday yet!

WHAT a weekend of ups and downs! Today is my youngest child's 19th birthday - HUZZAH!! She and her sister were coming in from the colleges they attend 200 miles away, to spend the weekend here, having a picnic, eating good food, and blowing out candles. Yesterday afternoon, we started getting phone calls from them - the weekend was falling apart because older sister, PWTH, couldn't get her shift covered for the weekend. So they stayed at college. We even went so far as to look into going over THERE to see her today, but decided not to go for a 24-hour jaunt. I did send her some pretty flowers, which cheered her up immensely this morning.

Later in the morning, she called me back to say that she was feeling oh-so-sick: 102 fever, headache, stiff/sore neck, lower back-ache. Enter mom's panic button! Her sister the saint drove the 45 minutes to take her first to a pharmacy with a nurse practitioner, then to an urgent/quick care facility. Once there, they had to wait on blood work to rule out all kinds of stuff like flu, strep, MENINGITIS. The doctor is pretty sure that she's got mono, which isn't fun, for sure, but it certainly beats meningitis.

Meanwhile, back home, mom was gathering together essentials, in case we had to hit the road to admit her to a hospital. Once the final phone call came, I could settle down and "enjoy" the remaining hour of the afternoon. All this to say, Happy Birthday to my sweet little bit, HRH!

Her Royal Highness, with her sister, then (above) and now (below). HRH is on the left in both pictures, and PWTH is on the right. I see absolutely no family resemblance, do you?

HELP Me!

Update: there is now a much smaller sized button to the right of my post, which makes me feel ever so much better. (thanks for the encouragement, Kami!) But I still haven't been able to create a "grab a button link" so the cry for help is still out there!

Bear with me, sports fans. I'm in the midst of trying to add my own button and a "grab a button" link to my blog and it's. not. working.!!!! I can't get the picture sized small enough to "fit" within the sides of the template. I changed the template, which made it look a little better (wasn't cutting off my button so much), but the button's HUGE. Not the way it needs to look. If ANYone has some suggestions to help me, I welcome them. Obviously the code I'm using is OK, as the picture is showing up, but I can't get PhotoBucket to resize the picture so I don't look like a megalomaniac. (it's a good word. look it up)

Anyone? Anyone?

True Story

Yes, it's true. The last time I was in Paris was one year ago today. You have no idea how much I miss it. The food, the music, the clothes. All these French women, slinking around in black. I may as well be in Manhattan, but the French did it first. Flying over on the Concorde, I made the trip in just over three hours, with champagne in my glass all the way. Which, of course, made going through Customs a rather surreal experience, but I digress.

You may ask me, why Paris? The answer's easy - Cancun has gotten way too familiar. THe thought of sitting on the beach there makes me yawn. Ho hum. So, Paris. The food's better; the travel time's shorter; the scenery's different.

Next year, why don't you join me? I'll be there, at the little cafe across from the Eiffel tower, having my cafe au lait and croissant for breakfast. See ya!















P. S. Check the date :)