Well, that seems appropriate, somehow. I’ve finally come back to writing here and Uncommon Grace (a crafty writing mama with great photos!) mentions that she’s doing NoBloPoMo. (I first heard of it on Grace’s site a year ago, I think.) There’s a challenge: can I find something to say every day for a month? More interesting, I think: if I succeed with November, will the habit stay with me? I blog for a couple of reasons. I have a far-flung collection of family members and friends, and it’s nice to be able to post things about what I’m working on …

I had a record player when I was a kid. It was blue. And it played real records, not the plastic things that the other “record player” we had played; that was really a music box that could play a number of different songs. To go with the record player, we had a small collection of kids records, usually abbreviated versions of Disney movies with a picture book. I suppose it was a kind of read-along experience, kind of like Caitlyn listening to a Skippyjon Jones disc while looking at the book. I think we had one for the Aristocats …

Harvested some kale from the backyard this morning, sautéd it with onions and sweet potatoes, and made a savory bread pudding for dinner with it all. The results were very pretty, with vivid orange and green. Caitlyn, of course, looked at it and announced that she didn’t want it. Coaxed into trying it, she announced, “It’s not as yucky as it looks!” and then ate two servings. I’m trying to see this as a happy moment, not a critique of my cooking. Four year olds can’t be reliable food critics, right? Or we’d all eat nothing but mac-n-cheese and PB&J. …

This has not been an easy couple of days. Our neighborhood homeowners’ association is due to transition away from developer to homeowner control, something that people have been wanting for more than a year. But, in order to do this, we need to elect an all-homeowner board. I’ve been very flattered that so many of my neighbors think I would make a good board member. I’m floored by the number of people who just randomly say, if you run, I’ll vote for you. The last time I ran for anything, I was in junior high, and I lost the election …

In response to the 25 Things thing on Facebook: I have a very noisy cat. I don’t write as much as anyone who has claimed to want to be a writer should. Walking from a West End theater to a hotel one night in London was a life-changing event. I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up… there’s just so much I want to do! The best compliment anyone has recently paid me came last week when a neighbor said, “Whenever I walk by your yard, I think ‘little farm in the city’.” I horde …

I try not to think about high school all that much. I didn’t really care for the experience. Sure, it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been, but it didn’t live up to the hype of the Brat Pack movies and Seventeen magazine. I’ve read Odd Girl Out, and I didn’t suffer what those girls did, the rumors and the backstabbing. I didn’t make it high enough on any one’s radar to worry too much about the sudden subtle shifting of the social sands. Instead, I spent those years reading lots of books, waiting for graduation, and ignoring as …