Pure Sweetness

Great weekend. Claire and Elsie had some Easter pics taken - inspired by a picture of Mary and me at the exact same ages. Yes, I'm that old. Shut up already.

We also managed to do a powerful lot of shopping. I got shoes and purses and makeup and, and, and... it just goes on and on. I was joking that we were doing our patriotic duty - to spark the economy and all that.

My brother is branching out to bread (from the pretzel making - and believe me, his pretzels are high art). This makes me happy: today I got a loaf of freshly baked challah bread that I didn't even have to bake myself. PLUS I now have someone who understands that a $500 stand mixer is completely reasonable. Bargain, actually. Yeah. It's a nice warm feeling - I think it's name is enabler. Love you bro. Bake on.

{Well, this is kinda huge!}

My friend Beth is the Featured Seller on Etsy today. Yes, it's the one over there...in my list of links. Elizabeth Williams. Go check her out. Buy something. You won't be sorry.

http://www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php

On an unrelated note - my sister is concerned that the aforementioned hoosier neighbors may be reading my blog. I guess it's possible, but I don't think they even know my name. If you are out there reading my blog: Well, hey there. I knew you'd come through on the blinds. Okay, well, I was hoping (praying) anyway. They look great.

CNN article about Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea)

Just saw this on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/03/three.cups/index.html

{PRAISE BE!}

BREAKING NEWS....

My hoosier neighbors finally broke down and bought blinds. Installed 'em too.

No more foam puzzle rug pieces propped up in the windows!

No more glaring views of the air hockey table in the dining room!

All this and they've started to put their trash cans away. Life is good.

Hallucinating?

Back home after a week in Houston. It was not easy to leave the 70-80 degree weather.



On my way home as I was waiting to board my plane I noticed a woman walking across the terminal who bore a striking resemblance to Sande Kriege ( http://sandekrieger.typepad.com/ ). Walking in the opposite direction I noticed a woman who I would swear was Heather Armstrong. ( http://www.dooce.com/ ). I decided that it would be highly unusual to see two bloggers that I read in the same trip...so I decided to mind my own business and stare at the people pouring into the gate from the plane that had just landed. And, I noticed a woman that I used to work with. Soon, more and more people from my directorate came off the plane. Easily ten of them. That's when I decided I must have been hallucinating. If anyone is aware of some sort of MOD convention / group trip that would have brought everyone home on Friday- please share with me. It will put my mind at ease.


I added a couple of links to the blog that you might find interesting. In the past few months I've enjoyed several books dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Three Cups of Tea. I found these books to be tremendously helpful in gaining some perspective on the Afghan and Pakistani cultures. You should take a look, if you haven't already.