Bloggerpalooza!

Alight, I wasn't going to have a book blog and I wasn't going to have a movie blog and now I have both and maybe even 2 book blogs!

It's all Lilith's fault. And some of it's Bragger's fault, too.

First... I wasn't going to do the movie blog; I was just going to post a review of the movies I watch on here, at the bottom of this blog. But then I was deleting stuff I wrote and I try to write every day and sometimes it's good stuff and other times it's shite, but I like to keep most things I write for comparison to... well, other stuff I write. Okay, you're all writers, you so you "get" this. Then Lilith found an AMAZING blog template for movies. And I've already watched 4 movies this year (2 on DVD and 2 in a theater) so I figured, 'what the heck' and I made a movie blog. You can see Reel Reviews 2010 right here, if you want. My former movie blog hardly had any followers but I couldn't help it, I just like to keep track of stuff. It's mostly for me, but I do get an occasional random hit, and sometimes a few of you would read, so please have a read, become a follower even if you don't follow. It'll make me feel better.

And now the book blog. Or book blogs. I blame Lilith and Bragger for both of these. First, I wasn't going to have a book blog because I was going to just write my reviews and keep track of my reading through a website called GoodReads. It's very cool and many of you have joined and are listed as my "friends" on this site, which is also wonderful- and I thank you! But there are some features I don't like on it. I also got into the book blog habit, and some habits are hard to break.

So Lilith (aka Hecate) and I've had an off again/ on again book club made up of the two of us over the last year. We agree on a book and we both read it, then we have dinner and talk about the book. It's cool and we usually get something that would interest us both, or at least would expand our horizons. Then she and I had this shared brain cell thing happen. We emailed each other at about exactly the same time with the idea of a virtual book club. And Bragger mentioned it on Goodreads, on the same day. Uh-huh. Great minds think alike, eh? So, she and I are planning a virtual book club and more details are right here at the group blog called "Read Any Good Books Lately?" The details are all hammered out. And I have to say, I am SOOOOOOOO excited about this project!

I'll probably go on with my boring self and post like I did when I had "Turn the Page" because I know that way but others might take a different approach, which is totally fine. AND I am BEYOND excited at the prospect of reading reviews from people I know and having discussions about books with intelligent people I like!

So while I was thinking I was going to down size my blogging, I actually just stayed at the status quo. Well, okay, I'm down by one blog since I'm not doing my photo blog anymore. Oh goddess, that means I could still add another... someone stop me!!!!!

Blogfully yours,
Maggie

Ohmygosh no waaaaaay!

I can't believe I forgot to blog about a girl's day out with Hecate a few weeks ago! I think it was one of those things I wrote the post in my head so many times I just forgot to actually TYPE it!

Other than our usual laugh hilariously over everything, get caught up on everything in our lives and just walked the mall and made fun of people and talked and ate and had an overall great time, we also went to a movie.

Funny thing: we went to the Vera Bradly purse store and though I love bags almost more than the next woman, Hecate's love of purses outshines me by far. I am also not a fan of Vera Bradley but she is. So I browsed and I have to say that when you can buy a purse, an eye glasses case, luggage, stationary, wallpaper, a wallet, a ball point pen, place mats, wrapping paper, and a tea cozy all in the same matching pattern, I think a person has gone a bit to far. Not to say that Hecate did that- not at all.... but she COULD. If she wanted. Since they sell all that stuff. Yeah... wow. I just sat on a little couch in the "shoppe" and tried to not touch anything or break anything.

I have to say the evening with Hecate was the best date I've had since March, maybe even all year! And I call it a 'date' in a joking way because she paid for the movie tickets- which was so super nice of her! (thank you again, by the way!) And when I jumped ten feet in the air and verbally shrieked in fear/ shock/ surprise and sucked air in a not quiet way, and grabbed her arm on one occasion, she didn't get up and leave me. We had more fun laughing at the three large, "MANLY" college age boys in front of us who also squealed like little school girls on more than one occasion. OMG- we about died laughing over that! Oh yeah, we saw Law Abiding Citizen.

She also bought me an early Christmas present at the bookstore. Now, before you all crack up laughing, I've been rather partial to this little creature for quite some time. Soooooo, when I saw this mini version, I KNEW I had to have it but I was broke so I wasn't going to get it. Hecate bought me SOCK MONKEY, a mini version! OMG! I carry him in my purse and he goes with me everywhere so I'm never lonely. Or bored. And I have a good conversation piece. She also informed me that out there in the big retail world there are PINK Sock Monkeys. Oh. My. Gosh, I MUST MUST MUST have one of these. A PINK Sock Monkey- I can't imagine anything better.

(I've been taking pictures of Sock Monkey and me doing stuff together, but tonight when I loaded them, there was a problem with most of the pics, which means I probably have a problem with my camera. Life with Sock Monkey is another post, though.)

So I had a great time since we hadn't seen each other since school started since she's teaching full time, she's a full time nursing student, a full time mom, a full time wife, and also has other family and a personal life! We're going to get together next week because we'll be on Christmas vacation! Yahoo to both of us!

I love hanging with Hecate,
Maggie

Since most of my pictures with Sock Monkey aren't any good due to digital camera technical difficulties, and I don't have one of Sock Monkey, Hecate and me, here is Sock Monkey making telemarketing calls with me at work!

I'm having fun, damn it!

Whew... I am sooooooooooo tired. All the damn time. And I'm thinking about everything I'm doing this week that's fun, and I'm worrying about... EVERYTHING.

So I'm here to concentrate on the Fun stuff:

• Hopefully I'm going to see Amelia tonight with Daddy-O
• Tuesday XRayGirl and I are going to an Amish bakery for goodies and then Mac and I are going to see Pirate Radio
• Wednesday I'm going to visit Hecate, whom I've been dying to see for months! And then I'm going to see the late late showing of Law Abiding Citizen
• Thanksgiving Day I'm cooking a small dinner here at the house and watching the parade. I plan on napping. Mac and I might see a movie: New Moon or Planet 51
• Black Friday: Daddy-O and I talked about arriving for the 4am opening of Kohls. Him for the great sales and me for the free donuts. Then I would go home and take lots of naps.

I'm also subbing all three school days this week. I'm going to clean the kitchen, make some Christmas cookies and finish making some Christmas cards. (I'm gonna some laundry, too.) I'm also going to work on my knitting. I'm gonna hang with Curley. And I have several new books I'm excited about like This is Where I leave You, The Magicians, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Whole Death Catalog.

No wonder I'm tired. But I'm focusing on the fun. The fun. The fun!

Fun girl,
Maggie

Hecate's Quilted Bag... a post in pictures

My friend Hecate decided she wanted to use a BUNCH of quilt squares she bought on eBay. Instead of starting with a quilt, she decided to make a purse. I had a purse pattern and I bought an extra one so she drove here to Civilization with her material and we decided to sew for an evening.

After looking at the patterns she picked a hipster bag style that would be a cloth bag- quilted- similar to a Vera Bradly type of bag when we got done.

We spent a better part of 2 hours arranging the fabric into a pattern. I had quilt patterns we could use but Hecate wanted something a little more freeing.

So we arranged the squares and then she actually pieced the material together using the sewing machine. She was not impressed at sewing together 36+ squares, but only sewing 4 inches at a time, stopping the machine, cutting the thread, and then sewing some more squares.

Then we needed a border and we didn't have enough black fabric so a trip to Wally World was needed. Upon the return from Wally World, Hecate decided she was done sewing. She was NOT enjoying this process.

So, I volunteered to finish the purse and I knew I would ask my friend Curley to help me out if I needed it. So I added the rest of the border. Then the piece of material was done. Then I attached the batting and did an "in the ditch" stitch on the quilt pieces. After all that was done, I was now ready to actually take the pattern out of the package and start following the pattern.

I called Curley and told her where I was in the process and I went out to her house and she and I went the rest of the way together.

Hecate quilted all her pieces together and added the border, which looked like this when she was done.

Here are the pieces of the fabric with the pattern paper still pinned to the fabric.

Here are the pieces of the quilt after we cut out the pattern and took it off.

Here's the outside of the bag- all put together!

The lining is sewn over the red and black fabric and has to be turned inside out- here it is prior to the "giving birth" (inside out tuning) process.

The lining and the purse are sewn together wrong side out so the inner lining needs to be pushed through- reverse sewing, you might say!

Now that the outer bag was shoved through a hole in the lining, it just needs to be tucked inside.

A peek inside the bag- see the inside pocket?- after the lining was stuffed down in!

Sewing on the shoulder strap!

Here's the finished product!

Now Hecate and I just need time to get together so I can give her her bag!

Some people don't like sewing...

Hecate bought a whole bunch of super cool fabric squares on ebay and me, being the crazy friend I am said I would help her make a quilt. She being the reasonable friend that she is thought we could make something smaller to start with to see if she likes quilting since she had never quilted in her entire life. And the last time she sewed anything was about 20 years ago when she was in junior high school.

So we decided to make a hipster purse. That we would quilt first. Well, that she would quilt under my tutelage.

She came to my house and after pouring over all her beautiful fabric, we had no clue what she was going to do. She had all colors from the rainbow selected and i was trying to arrange them to make some sort of sense. We didn't have a pattern for piecing the quilted part, just a pattern for the purse itself. So I took a piece of tissue paper and traced the 1/2 yard x 45 so we just had to arrange the 4 inch squares in this space.

We arranged the fabrics over and over until we developed a pattern- then, we started weeding out the colors and she had all...pinks and reds. Now all of you know I ADORE pinks and reds but Hecate isn't a pink person. So we hauled out all the black and reds and whites and replaced the pinks and suddenly we had a design and color scheme that she liked. Now all she had to do was piece the fabric, cut the batting and the backing, pin it together, quilt it- then we could cut all the purse pattern pieces and then sew the purse together! Simple! Yeah.....right.

So I park Hecate in front of the sewing machine and I show her how to match the squares and the direction in which to stitch. She sewed them altogether, then she stitched the strips. And we found that we had worked for about...3 hours. And that's all that was done. And Hecate was done. She didn't really like sewing, or quilting. She like did picking the fabric and arranging our own pattern.

I was very excited about the whole project and those of you who know me know I can be HAPPY! and highly ENERGETIC! about things that I find FUN! Some might consider me BOUNDLESSLY ENTHUSIASTIC! and PERKY! I was afraid that I was trying to take over her sewing project by volunteering to do different parts of it, and by trying to give her helpful hints and creative ideas! Ummmmmm-- she wasn't buying.

I'll be finishing the quilt top, adding the padding and the backing and then quilting it. Then I'll be evoking the help of my dear friend that I love so much and who is creative and a wonderful seamstress who is going to help me put it together as a purse- if I need it!

Then Hecate will have a purse.

And I will have completed (with a little help from my friends...) another quilting project!

And I just can't figure out why she didn't think sewing a 4 inch long seam over 50 times was fun?!?

All sewn up,
Mags

Tids and Bits

• For the third week in a row Mac and I have been rained out of going to the zoo! Today would've been perfect but it's raining. So, we're going to try again tomorrow! The forecast says sun but since this is the third time- well, I guess anything could happen!
• Spent yesterday hanging out with Hecate. She seems to being feeling great after her surgery. We brunched, shopped, and talked- AND, I for one, had a super duper time. It'd been months since we'd done anything so this was fab! And everyone send her happy thought because she's interviewing (on Monday) for a kick ass full time college teaching gig in a business department! I have my fingers crossed for her!
• I've been watching the television show House. I'd never watched it before until Mac insisted on watching a marathon of it on the USA network. I was going to read but I found myself watching more than reading and became addicted. So we decided to rent season 1 but the video store didn't have it. They had season 2 but it was out so we rented 3 and 4. I want to watch seasons 1, 2 and 5 before season 6 premieres. Good stuff!
• On Monday was the 6 year "anniversary" of the passing of the great Katharine Hepburn. While I'm a huge Audrey fan, I also love the great Kate as well. I'm in the middle of reading her memoir right now, actually. But anyway, not only do people miss Kate as an actress but as a brownie maker. She was a chocolate lover and she loved to make brownies. Here's her special recipe if you want to have a go!
• I might get a wild hair and head to the late showing of Public Enemies tonight since today is the premiere and it stars- none other than Mr. Hottie, Sexy Johnny Depp. Yum!
• Last night was my favorite insurance telemarketing night of all nights because... I didn't have to make any calls! We purchase lists and I had called all the ones we owned so I did filing and data entry instead! Yahoo!!! Not one person hanging up on me or yelling! It was awesome.

Sharing random stuff,
Maggie

Hecate Rocks!

I want to say a HUGE big thank you to Hecate for fixing my blog. I had all those weird photobucket error messages and she brought it back to where it needed to be- to the cute little pink shoe blog that is my world!

She is a wizard, a genius, brilliant, and WONDERFUL! Thank you Hecate!!!!!!!!!!

My finished Mug

Remember when I told ya'll that Hecate and I painted pottery? Well, here's the finished product! I was pretty pleased with my efforts and the bottom line was that she and I had a great time!





And if you can't read the whole thing, it says, "With a cup of coffee and the right shoes, I could be queen!"

The artful dodger,
Maggie

Hanging with friends, and a floral boardgame experience

I don't want this blog to turn into a "what I did today" agenda. Sometimes that happens, I realize, but I don't want it to be the overwhelming theme here. That being said, I've been doing some fun things of late, and spending time with family and friends are all part of my return. Almost like a healing...

Last weekend Mac, Daddy-O, Curley and I spent time hanging out. The guys went to a movie (Grand Torino and they said it was amazing. Mac told me that if I didn't like Clint Eastwood I was a Communist and should go live in Cuba... he's really good at being 15 years old!) and Curley and I went to a clothing shop that was going out of business- 40 to 90% off on all stuff and I got three much needed shirts. Living in the Wild West left my attire in my despair!

Yesterday was fun, too, because Hecate and I went to the Botanical Conservatory in Fort Wayne, IN. The theme of the winter garden display was "Clue"- you know, as in the board game? And this was one of my favorite all time games to play as a kid, and come to find out it was Hecate's favorite board game, too!!!

It was really cute. The main garden exhibit hall had "Clue rooms" set up and decorated: a Conservatory, a library, a dining room and the study. There were posters about each character (remember Col. Mustard, Prof. Plum, Mr. Green, Mrs. White, Miss Peacock, and Miss Scarlett?) scattered around and we had to read a little narrative to see if they characters had motives and alibis. The Conservatory provided little packets for use to write down clues, weapons, to make notes and sketch the major clue, a leaf found on Mr. Boddy. Of course, since Hecate and I both brilliant, we solved the case: Miss Peacock with the knife in the conservatory. We spent time enjoying all the floral displays. And we can't wait to go back in the spring and summer when the 2 outdoor gardens are open!

I wonder what she and I will get ourselves into next??????

Mysteriously yours,
Maggie

Or was it really Hecate in the dining room with a candlestick?

Or maybe it could it be Maggie in the study with a rope?

Picasso I ain't!

Yesterday Hecate and I met in Northern Civilization to hang out. We met early and left early because of the HUGE winter storm that was headed our way.

After I arrived 25 minutes late because I overslept like the dumbass I can sometimes be, we dined at Arbys and got caught up on the usual stuff. (I had to tell her about a former Sam of mine who wanted a date but then proceed to tell me about having to come up with an excuse (LIE!) to feed his fiancee... OMG! WTF! WAJ! [What A Jerk!]) Then we headed out to paint pottery.

I have zero artistic ability. I can barely draw stick figures. I have no talent when it comes to painting or drawing or sketching or knitting or crocheting or anything artsy or crafty. I love art history and I love to look at art, but to create it... well, for me, it's not my strong point. All that being said, I had a great time.

After getting slightly lost on the way to the studio, we finally arrived. We were the only ones in the brightly painted shop, other than the owner, which was good since I asked lots of questions and we moved about a lot to get supplies and stuff. We browsed the bisque pieces and each selected a coffee mug to paint, ironically. We also selected the SAME piece to paint, double irony.

We got our paints and brushes. I sort of had a vision of what I wanted it to look like- something to do with coffee, pink and shoes. But when one has no artistic ability, one needs to describe her vision to someone who can do more than straight lines and produce the desired art on said coffee mug. ie: The woman who owned the place drew a shoe on my mug for me.

Hecate and I sat and painted in contented silence. I think she was amazed that I could be quiet for so long. The radio was on to music I liked and we chatted and listened to music and painted. It was a quite a fun time, at least for me. My mug looked like... I tried, while Hecate's, on the other hand, looked beautiful with her Chinese symbol and lettering. It turned out great and nice and neat and professional looking, completely unlike mine...

And in one week we can go back and pick up our "creations" after they are fired in the kiln. And I promise to show pictures here next week when we get them back.

I love doing stuff like this, even though I have no art ability. And lemme be the first to tell you, I don't try and pretend to have art ability either. (I'm also not one of those people who say they have no art ability and then can draw a complete replica of the Sistine Chapel and be all modest. I really can't do ART!). Several years ago when Mac was just little and I was dating Canadian Sam we painted at a similar type of place and it just stressed to out because mine always looked awful compared to everyone else's work. this time it didn't matter, as long as I had fun doing it- and I did. Don't sweat the small stuff and this was small. Important, but small. And fun, which is all that matters!

It seems that all my friends and family have some artsy ability, or crafty ability, whereas I'm lacking. I like to try and I have fun. I do like to mess around and scrapbook, which is crafty but I will never make a page that will be featured in a magazine. I just like to give it a whirl and if I'm please with the results, then I keep trying. If I frustrate myself into NOT having FUN, then I stop. I don't give up, but I realize this is something I'm trying as a hobby or for fun and if it's not FUN, and not a life requirement, then I'm just not gonna do it. Life is made up of too many things we MUST do that aren't really all that fun so why add on more?

So, painting pottery scores high on the fun list. And I can't wait to go back and make a saucer to match my mug... or paint one of those cute frog statues... can I have a pink frog?

No stadingstill life,
Maggie

The Writing Nook- "The Amazon broke the Princess"

So my friend Hecate bought a great book with a daily journal topic and writing prompts. It's to help the lost writer, or the person who needs idea for writing and journaling. It's a very cool book.

One discussion led to another and she is emailing me the topics a week at a time. I'm writing my responses, sending them back to her, and she is picking her favorite among my writings. Then I am going to post her favorite one of mine of the week. I'm doing the same to her. And then I'm going to post her favorite here each Saturday- something a bit different than a meme. You never know what you're going to get with this little project.

The weekends are a veritable wasteland in the blogger world so I thought this would be a good place to introduce "The Writing Nook".

Here is the first one. The topic was "write about a wound"! I hope you all enjoy!

When I was in the 9^th grade, a big horsey girl who was the star center on the basketball team was assigned as my guard in a PE class basketball game. I didn’t NOT play sports; I danced but had zero coordination for anything to do with a ball. And I hate gym class, considering it one more thing to make my high school years miserable.

And I knew it would not go well when Ms Jock was blocking me. I couldn’t touch the ball without her plowing me over. And since she towered over me by about 13 inches and had played basketball since she could hold a bottle, nor could I block her or be defensive or offensive or whatever I was supposed to be doing. I could barely stay on my feet let alone do anything remotely related to “playing” this stupid game in a stupid all girls PE class as a stupid frosh in stupid high school.

Crunch! She went up for a rebound and I got in her way and she landed on my foot. Which promptly broke. And I promptly lay on the floor writhing in agony. Of course no one would listen to me when I said it was broken. The super jock gym teacher just drug me to the sidelines where I sat on the sideline with ice on my foot. Then I hobbled to the office and waited for my mom to get me. She did, and took me to the doctor's office.

At the doctor office we took of my shoe and sock and it was GROSS. My foot, which was normally a size 7 and thin and milky white, was now double in size and so purple it was black. It was nasty. My toes were resembling Vienna Sausages. My ankle bones looked like buttons in the midst of the swelling.

The x-rays showed nothing broken through the swelling. But lo and behold, two days later it was x-rayed again because I still cried when I had to walk on it, and it was broken. It was still swollen, still black, still couldn’t move my still sausage like toes. It was broken. I got a cast, one of those old fashioned plaster ones. When the doctor put the cast on he and I sang most of the score to the Broadway musical The Music Man. (I don't know why. It's just the way my doctor was.) My dad painted a huge Christmas tree on it since this happened 3 weeks before the holiday.

Good news- I was done with PE for the rest of the year!

I'm a writin' fool,

Maggie

Click here to read my favorite Hecate writing out of this week's assignments!

Made one laugh and one mad- not bad for a day's work

A long time ago in a lifetime, far far away, Hecate and I ate dinner at Cheddar's, where I proceeded to get rip roaring drunk on their super yummy margaritas which were the special that day. Peach- I think.

I was loud and obnoxious. I threw lettuce at people and on the floor. I made phone calls- drunk dialing. It was bad. I was bad. I cannot believe she didn't disown me on the spot. I can't believe we didn't get thrown out. I can't believe they let us back in last weekend! Thank the goddess she was sober and smart. I would tell you more about that day... but I don't remember anything else- it's a little hazy.

So, fast forward to last week, and Hecate and I got together in North Civilization to chat books, eat and hit used bookstores, and maybe see a movie. Since I picked the eatery the first time we hung out, it was her turn this time- Cheddar's, her fav place as well as the scene of my past drunken crimes.

The waitress said there was a wanted Poster of me in the backroom because we told her of my previous drunken escapade because I refused to order a peach margarita that I really wanted and which was on special again, but I wanted to be functional for the rest of the day. And though we didn't get thrown out, we wondered if we were going to.

I ordered us an appetizer of onion rings, which were super yummy- light and flaky, with 2 dipping sauces. It looked so pretty when served- the presentation was fun- we deiced to take a picture of it. We arranged the table and I took some shots, sat back down and we proceeded to visit and laugh and have a good time. Until the manager came to our table.

I had not thrown one bit of food, I swear. Neither had Hecate! He kneels at our table and starts laughing. He said we managed to crack his bartender up with laughter because we whipped out a camera and took pictures of food, NOT each other. Us, being folks who like to take pictures, must looked like "well, duh, it was a great shot" on our faces, because he kept going on about it. So we told him about me living in the Wild West where we didn't have restaurants which worried about presentation. He laughed and moved on...

I finally took out my camera and tired to take pictures of Hecate, which she avoided and swore at me over, waving her finger. (And when she does that she scares me since she's a witch and I'm worried she's gonna accidentally put a spell on me or something very Charmed will happen and lightening will zing out that finger!)

We did have a fun time and the food was great and the company was even better! The chicken and shrimp with the pineapple pico de gallo was to die for!

Later in the day, we trolled some book stores and the mall. And then we settled in at Barnes and Noble for a good chat. I would like to say that in our defense, we are sort of loud talkers, me especially. But this was a NON quiet bookstore, in a MALL, with little KIDS running around, and teenagers being LOUD. This was not a library. And we weren't being rude to other people- we were just really into our own conversations. And people around us were talking out loud as they milled about. And if people heard us, we didn't really care, because it was a public place, after all. All that being said...

As we sat side by side in a conversational grouping of 4, we chatted. At first there was a teenager and some older guy sitting across from us. We talked and told each other funny stories- and Hecate had me rolling with laughter over stories about her kids (Toilet seat of death!), especially her son. We just... chatted and we were being us. The older guy leaves and we both figure out that he was listening to us the entire time, to the point where he held his cell phone to his face and faked a conversation, in which he never said a word, so he could stay longer to listen, and laugh. I wonder if he was recording us on his phone?!?

So the eavesdropping guy was replaced by another old guy, who was the father of the teenage boy who was still sitting there, doing his thing. About this time, I get on a roll about the future which leads me to make a comment about if my shrew of a grandmother would die and leave me money, I wouldn't have to find a job and could go back to school. Which got me on a tangent about the shrew of a grandmother. Hecate and I giggled over it. Yes, I know what I said was horrible and mortifying to a total stranger but Hecate knew the down and dirty details of the horrible-ness of said grandmother. Suddenly the old guy says to his son, "Are you ready to go?" And the kid said yeah and got his stuff. The old guy said , "We might as well since it's too loud to read here anyway" and as they walk away he says really loudly, "Shrew of a grandmother indeed" and then we couldn't hear the rest of it. Well- OMG- Hecate and I look at each other and then burst into hysterical giggles like the inner 13 year girls we are. And we proceed to make fun of him. And then we proceeded to go on the other side of the store and look over our shoulders in case he sent the Barnes and Noble police after us.

It was funny, though...

So even though we didn't get make a scene at Cheddar's we did manage to make a small one somewhere else... Hecate and I are going together to paint pottery this weekend- I wonder what will happen there?

Big loud mouth girl even when sober,
Maggie

So, here we are!

Here we are, and welcome!

It's about Damn time I got my act together and said hellooooooo to everyone! What do you think of the new digs? Rather fitting, don't you think? Shoes, purses, pink, me, you... ah, such a blissful cocmbination that I think I should have a Cosmo!

In celebration of my return to Civilization, I hung out with Hecate today. We had a whole day planned with about 37 things to do and had been planning with for about 2 months now, and we only did about 6 because of the holy terror weather. While I adore winter and Jack Frost is usually such a sweetheart of a fella, he was in a right foul mood to dump snow then freezing rain then flat out rain on us! He ruined my girls' day out with Hecate, just darn near. But she and I persevered and we hit STARBUCKS, ate food and managed to troll the mall and B&N booksellers, several times! We had so much fun and it was great to be back from the Wild West and living here in Civilization again. No man will get between a woman in her girlfriends, shopping, food and coffee!

However, I didn't buy new shoes. Nor did I get a new purse... but all is not lost! Daddy-O and I are going to hit Kohls on Friday to tackle the after Christmas sales and see if the black patient leather Vera Wang bag I'm drooling over is on sale! Please pardon me while I take a moment of silent reverence over Vera Wang and Kohls- and to wipe said drool off the keyboard...

In shoes we trust,
Maggie