What Would Jane Austen Do?

home row, yo , originally uploaded by houston mamacita . I tried this nail polish, and I like the color. Sometimes it looks brown, sometimes gray. You know, greige . It's by Essie and it's called Merino Cool. Men seem to hate it, which is a sure sign of its coolness. And no, I can't straighten my middle finger. It's crooked like that all the time.

I do hope you've had a beauty of a day on Talk Like a Pirate Day.  We celebrated, as ever, with a piping hot bowl of Pirate Pasta.   Pirate Pasta  has been a favorite of the wee mateys ever since my friend Angela told me about it.  It's one of the two things they actually request for dinner (the other is Chicken Milanese). It's called Pirate Pasta because it combines small meatballs (cannonballs!) with penne (spyglasses!) and marinara sauce* (uh ... marines!). * Okay, nitpickers, it's not technically marinara sauce if there is meat in it.  But you put it together as a marinara, then add meat to it ... whatever WALK THE PLANK. Pirate Pasta Meatballs: In a big bowl combine ground turkey and Italian sausage .  Add an egg and/or dry breadcrumbs to hold it all together.  Oh, and you'll need salt and pepper and what not.  So mix all that together with your hands and form small meatballs.  I make these in big batches and freeze the...

...(A)ll I have is an Eagles Palace plastic laundry bag with spare underwear, a toothbrush, and a bottle of Ambien. Well, if Dr. Thompson replaced psychotic paranoia with gingivitis.

Amazon is running a contest for Best (Magazine) Covers of the Year .  You get to vote in several categories; you're eligible to win a Kindle just for voting.  There was some good competition, but I think that one above is my favorite entry.  [Yes, it's three covers.  I didn't make the rules, y'all.]

double rainbows on hwy. 290 , originally uploaded by houston mamacita . My heart is cold and small, but even I was unable to resist the double rainbows on Hwy. 290 yesterday afternoon. Living in the flatlands means that you sometimes get to see the two endpoints of the rainbow. No leprechaun sightings, though.

#458  You can wear that sassy little romper to the PTA meeting, but you should know that you will be called "Romper" behind your back until your child graduates from college.

In September of 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed 40,000 trees in Galveston. The Island Tree Conservancy, instead of having everyone grind down the tree stumps, had them turned into tree sculptures. I'm sure they look better in person, but here are some photos that came to me via email. These two are from flickr: "The Tin Man," by cybertoad "Tree Sculpture" by photine