Thursday's List

READING: homeschool curriculum catalogs, making plans for next year. This is one of my favorite things to do

POOLSIDE READING: The Lipstick Jungle by Candice Bushnell, author of Sex in the City. It is really entertaining, but also painful to read, following the three main characters, friends Nico, Wendy and Victory, as they try to level the playing field by pursuing their separate high-powered, high-pressure careers in a man's world. Just in case you think this book has something vibrant to say about career women and working mothers and whether it's possible to have it all, it doesn't. What it mostly says is that you have to make choices and be prepared to live with them, but it doesn't say it in a very profound way. Chick lit, baby!

LISTENING TO: a little bit of sparkling DeBussy

THINKING ABOUT: maybe buying a digital camera with my birthday money

HAPPY TO SEE: dancer Jesús wearing a Miraculous medal while being interviewed on So You Think You Can Dance yesterday evening.

FAVORITE NEW FIND: the latest issue of RealSimple magazine; not exactly a new find, but each issue is new and so much fun

FAVORITE THING TODAY: looking out the front window and seeing two little tow-headed boys -- maybe twins? About five years old? -- tearing down the sidewalk on tiny two-wheeler bikes, one red, one blue. They were followed by a guy who might possibly have been their manny, pushing a baby in a full-on navy blue English pram with shining silver hardware, while wearing baggy khaki cargo pants, scruffy hiking boots with pushed-down socks and a stretched out orange t-shirt. Cute!

WISH I HAD: the desire to go to the YMCA and exercise with Meelyn

SCRAPBOOK PAGES THIS WEEK: three more, but also had a moment of blinding clarity last night when I sat, open-mouthed and terrified in front of my scrapbook, contemplating the fact that scrapbooking is a project that will never, ever be finished. That kind of freaks me out.

PRAYING FOR: a dad in our homeschool group who was in a terrible motorcycle accident and the husband of an internet friend - they just found out he has pancreatic cancer. Please say a prayer for these two dads.