meal worms and puppydog tails

The Science Fair is history. It seemed to me that we had been building up to this Fair with an excess of drama. First of all I hate these group projects because they are fraight with one kid doing nothing and temper tantrums all round. and I was right with this project in a perverse way because one of the kids ran away from home and while recaptured so to speak is not back in school. But somehow Kate and her co consipirator worked it out so that the meal worms were somebody else's problem and lived at somebody else's house. Thank god. But the Science Fair was interesting for me because I had a chance to see all her classmates again and to see how they have grown. i have pictures of them in my mind from k or first grade and low and behold it's 8th grade and almost time to graduate!

Memorial Day weekend and the living was easy. Arnie came in from Nville and we saw friends for dinner, had a coffee in Bryant Park, went to the theatre to see the Chris Rock play with the bizarre name, went to see Woody Allen's new movie, midnight in Paris, which I loved and in general had a good time hanging out. The weather was amazing and even today looks and feels like a present. We had our first dinner on the roof which is always a harbinger of summer, and we had it all to ourselves which was sweet.

Graduation for Kate in 2 weeks! Of course our only hurdle is a week of exams....

Another day in Seattle

I read a small squibb in the Times this morning about Chicago city planners who anticipate that the chicago weather will ressemble that of Baton Rouge in the near future. So they are changing the kinds of building materials they mandate, re thinking their plantings to those that thrive in hot, steamy climates. Maybe we in New York should become the center of the umbrella industry because it's raining again...
So I came to work and I knew it would be better if I had a piece of chocalate..you've had days like that but at 9:30? hmmm then I was offered an extra copy of Nat Geo and then I thought maybe that's it. I never had Nat Geo growing up. Everyother friend of mine lived in houses literally filled to the brim with Nat Geo. Never. Am I deprived?

Kate and I watched Slumdog Millionaires this weekend which is great, funny and oh, so sad. She wanted to see it 2 years ago and I thought no. I am smirking because for me, I was right. I like being right.

We bought jeans, opened a bank account for Kate, did home work, she did, not me...thank god. Science Fair coming up....

Building the ark

OMG this is the day after the day before the day after the day that it rained to build the ark. It was not raining for a nono second alround lunch and I took advantage of this amazing phenomenon to step outside and pass amongst them. Yikes. The security guard at one of the entrances assured me that it would not rain anymore. must remember not to check in with him about weather or the ponies. Lucky that I did go out then because I see and hear that it is raining again.

Peg Fraser came in from Vermont and we had a girls evening last night. I've known her since we met at a frat party at W&L lo these many years ago. It's always wonderful to see her because there is no pause in the conversation. We can just pick up in the middle of a sentence. And when I got home I found that she and Kate had been chatting and she knew everything that there was to know! i wish I had that ability with kids to just be able to talk with them. I don't have it. With Kate maybe but I'm always amazed to find that half of her friends are intimidated by me. Oh, well.

lemon grass followed by lilacs

Msade a tour of Union Square Market this morning to find that spring has actually come to the surrounding farms and the produce is plentiful. Bunches of delicate red and white radishes, amazing tomatoes and rhubarb are just some of the offerings this morning. Plus of course beautiful lilacs which brought smiles and comments from almost everyone on the subway and they are now sitting safely in my office.

it's for sure that my work with the media which often requires me to sit in on press interviews when scientists are invited to talk their lives, radical influences and their work, has resulted in interview envy. I have things to say, too, you know. This morning I mused that in my dreams of glory interview about major life influences I would site the red, black and orange book of fairly tales edited by Andrew somebody. I took out everyone of his books from the 96th Street Library and gobbled up amazing tales of derring do, For instance there were the 12 dancing princesses who escaped every night and danced through the silver, gold and diamond woods at midnight or the good fairies and the one outrageously bad fairy who laid down the 10 year curse. These stories have informed my life. Scary, huh? Although I'm not exactly sure how that plays out. But I want to say that it does. One very specific offshoot of that early reading was my interest in having 12 good friends and one wicked fairy come together for Kate's baptism. The question was always how to choose a wicked fairy and if this should be a ceremonial position. or did I really have someone to nominate as being evil.

Too late now. But I still think about the amazing time we might have had.

Travelling with Lemon Grass

Arnie went into the hospital for an operation on Wednesday and I flew down to Nashville clutching a stalk of lemon grass. Besides being with him to fetch and carry was also to cook hence the lemon grass for a fabulous grilled pork recipe that tastes like nothing without the aforementioned lemon grass. I was able to smuggle it, along with my ham sandwich, onto the plane inspite of scanners and all matter of modern technological equipment.

But I degress. Arnie is fine. Living la vida loca on his sofa and wishing mightily that he could get off pain killers and go back to work. But we had a great visit inspite of the underlying medical theme. I lunched with friends and made executive decisions until Sunday when I flew back to New York to be with Kate on Mother's Day, She gave me a beautiful silver necklace that says Number # 1 mother which I will never take off. Especially since there may be days when she may regret that expression. And tonight we are going out for a Mother's Day dinner at Eatley which we both hope will not be wildly crowded on the Monday after Mother's Day.

We will know more later.

Jam packed

that was the weekend that was. Kate and a friend stayed at the Museum for the massive sleepover and they were thrilled because they were included in the crew and had special privileges. I didn't understand for several days that these two girls didn't hit the sack until 2 am. The mother in question was dropping off at 10! So much for stepping out to trip the light fantastic. Then Kate took her bright red souvenir T shirt and artistically shredded it. That's the only way that I can describe it except to say that it looks just great. If I had taken scissors to any item of clothing it might have looked more like a jealous lover on a rampage. But her results are great.

Saturday night I dressed up in a "we are a New Yorker" costume that is to say a black suit with high heels plus aligator bag and went off to represent family for Lucy Banks and Danny at their end of year cocktail party for graduating seniors from Syracuse's program. I think I was more fascinated with the fact that I could wear high heels than almost anything else. I guess that makes me totally self centered but I realized this weekend as I tranferred spring clothes out and winter clothes went in that I had worn black jeans for the most of the year because it was all about my feet and my shoes.

In the old days it was high heeled sling backs and now, sob, it's flats