A dream, extinguished.

Committment to common goals, common methodology, mutual respect -- is only as good as the heart of the person making it. A business partnership is like marriage in that regard. And when the allegiance of one of the partners is more tightly bound to someone outside of the partnership, then, as in marriage, the committment is irretrievably broken. And like the dissolution of a marriage? It hurts.

Betrayal is not an easy experience. Which is worse: the betrayal itself, or the knowledge that your initial evaluation of the betrayer could have been so dismally off-the-mark? Though not of your sole making, betrayal has the effect of causing you to doubt yourself and your judgment, to second-guess your intuition.

And so, it ends. Abruptly. And as it does, another chapter begins. Except, there's no table of contents nor prologue to set the stage for what's next.

Please, wish us well as we struggle right now to believe in the basic good of real-life humans, and the indomitibility of the human spirit, and that doing the right thing, simply because it's the right thing to do, is STILL the right thing to do.

Oh ye of little faith!

Vulture Dog:





Please, please, please, please... lemme have it!





Ha! I got it!





Wha???! It's mine!





Aw, Sissie... don't be sad. Here, we can share it.

I didn't take Brizzy Pix today.

But I will tomorrow, I promise. Night, night.

My heart only breaks when it's beating....

Frankly, this situation breaks my heart, but I can't leave it at that because that's too passive a response. Please, go give some blove to Deb right now. She has leukemia and is in the process of undergoing a stem cell transplant this week. It is hell. And it could take her life. Not that you'd know from reading her blog, because Deb? She is remarkably witty, incredibly insightful and inspiring.

Despite her "I can do this" attitude, she could use all the love and prayer and positive energy you can spare, and so could her little girl, Zoe. Thanks, truly. It's a small thing, I know, but life at it's finest is made up of the accumulation of lots of little things.



"To offer a kind word when none was needed, to extend small courtesies to even common folk, these are identifying traits of nobility." ~Anonymous

No, I didn't take any pictures, and I didn't bring you any presents...

I'm ba-aaack! You are the best bloggies a girl EVER had!! Thank you for stuffing my comments with the perfect mix of sweet and funny while I was gone -- it had me grinning ear-to-ear tonight!

I'll spare you the minutiae of my trip, but suffice it to say that the flight to Providence last weekend during/following the Blizzard of '06 was a whole blog entry all by itself, which I hope to write soon. The week saw my MIL improve drastically to the point where she's now been discharged from in-home physical therapy!! It was difficult and poignant and fun and exhausting. My MIL is an amazing and lovely woman, and I will treasure the memory of this past week for the remainder of my life.

Now, let me start at the end and tell you about my flight home yesterday. Originally I scheduled it to arrive around 5pm which would give me the time to drive the 2.5 hours home and still get in at a reasonable time. The airline in its infinite compassion, however, saw fit to change my itinerary to arrive at 10:39pm, after which I'd need to collect my luggage, drop off my friend/airport shuttle service back at his house, and then get on the road home to arrive somewhere in the wee hours. So, it was with exhausted determination that I trudged into baggage claim, pausing at the top of the stairs to let a woman and her child pass. The woman walked by briskly, but the child inexplicably hurtled himself into me, nearly knocking me back down the stairs before I realized it was in fact my own child! Wha????? Yes, my husband and kids decided to surprise me and drove over the passes to meet me at the airport, and had arranged to stay the night at Brian's so that we could go to the zoo today as a family! Which explains my extended absence, Shoshie-my-sister-who-worries. Now you know why I didn't get back online yesterday as planned.

I can't wait to browse around tomorrow and see what you've all been doing! But tonight, I'm going to unpack and go to sleep now. Love to you all!

Absence Explained

Aging, when taken to its extreme, can be a real buzz-kill.

Today is my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. To celebrate, she underwent total hip replacement surgery. Sweet, huh? Now this woman is no delicate flower, having had a kidney removed in the process of beating kidney cancer back in the 1970s, and then having a breast removed in the process of beating breast cancer back in the 1980s. She lives independently, cares for her 82 year old husband who suffers from CHF secondary to a MI/stroke episode awhile back. She drives -- a big ol' Caddy -- and does so capably.

Now? This fierce, independent creature has been reduced to an agonized heap of de-pendence, thanks to a rare neurological response to her hip replacement that is causing nearly unbearable pain. She cannot care for herself. She cannot care for her husband.

But I can. And I do. And I will, starting Sunday. I will be in Massachussets for a week. I've been making all the necessary arrangements for my children and my work, so please forgive me for neglecting this site. I am still prowling the world wide web, checking up on all of you and randomly commenting though, so don't think I've left you entirely to your own devices. Especially you, Bucky. Your own devices usually scare me...

Shamelessly swiped from Squirl-Bob

You Are a Newborn Soul

You are tolerant, accepting, and willing to give anyone a chance. On the flip side, you're easy to read and easily influenced by others. You have a fresh perspective on life, and you can be very creative. Noconformist and nontraditional, you've never met anyone who's like you. Inventive and artistic, you like to be a trendsetter. You have an upbeat spirit and you like almost everything. You make friends easily and often have long standing friendships. Implusive and trusting, you fall in love a little too easily. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Alright. I'm a little freaked out by how accurate I find this one to be. Gaaah! These things are always so hokey it makes them entertaining. But this one is almost creepy.

Having been recently (gently) chided by Nikki, from Sarah's Wacky Loving Family, I realize I am remiss in my posting. I have no way to justify this, since, as Nikki very adroitly pointed out, I live on the west coast and thus have 3 extra hours each and every day. Whatever have I been doing with all that time?? It adds up to a weekly surplus of 21 hours -- nearly a whole extra day each week!

So, to capitalize on this abundance, I've decided to open a new business: relocating people to the west coast -- if you're not already here -- and it will literally add days to your lives. No, not Days OF Your Lives, because really, who would buy that?

I'll give a discount to any of my bloggies deciding to utilize this new and exciting service I intend to provide, just as soon as I get all the paperwork in place.

Which, I'll do just as quickly as I have my next extra day!