Just discovered that I posted this to the wrong blog last week:

Three things I'm loving this week:

1. Prince Harry. Oh...swoon...what red-blooded, heterosexual woman is not loving Diana's baby today (only it is kind of weird...it's like thinking your friend's teenage son is hot). Our little red-headed rabble-rousing bad boy had grown into a man with a moral conscious and strength of character that makes women weak in the knees. He's far too precious to be on the front lines and, yet, he insists on going. I'm sure his mum would be quite proud (worried to death, but proud).

2. Brussel sprouts. Where have these yummy little veggies been all of my life? My MIL made them for Christmas dinner and my BIL talked them up so much ("you have to try them with some apple cider vinegar on them!") that we all tried them and then fought over the rest of the bowl. At the time, I thought maybe I'd just had too much to drink (and, let's face it...everything tastes great when you're drunk), but...alas...I've eaten them stone cold sober a few times now and I love them.

3. Lipstick Jungle. I didn't have high hopes for this show or the other one that's just like it on ABC (which is not nearly as good). And, of course, both shows are criticized for being rip-offs of HBO's Sex in the City, but...whatever. All I know is that it's not another murder-death-crime-csi-law show in which another woman and/or child is brutally abused/raped/stalked/tortured/murdered and then dissected in the morgue right before our very eyes.

My husband and I (OK, my husband and his relatives/friends) put an entire 2nd floor on our house (among many, many other home improvement projects). The way it works in our family is that the guys work on each others' houses -- nobody keeps a score card, but when one of them has something going on, they show up for each other. Collectively -- the guys can handle any job -- big or small -- from pouring a concrete driveway to building an entire house (and it doesn't cost you more than a few cases of beer and lunch).

So...it's safe to say, I'm no stranger to home improvements and the gigantic mess that comes with them. And, yet, I was wholly unprepared for the dust-filled, throat-clogging hell I walked back into on Saturday when the guys gutted the back half of our house for our most recent home improvement project.

Three things I'm loving this week:

1. The Salvation Army thrift shop I don't think there's any more interesting (albeit peculiar smelling) place to shop than the local Sally's -- you just never know what you're going to find there. I was in need of some old dishware/houshold items for a story I'm doing in the April issue of Her Times, so I ran across the street to the 12th & Sass Salvation Army thrift shop and picked up everything I need for the photo shoot -- about 10 items -- for $12.09.

Sally's is intriguing and I find myself fingering items and wondering about their past lives. Why weren't they wanted? Who might want them now? And, just what is that lady with the cart full of mismatched silverware and candlesticks going to do with that stuff? Is she one of those pack rats whose house is so full of stuff that it's a fire hazard?

I think I could spend my whole day in that basement thrift shop people watching and contemplating the life cycle of a covered butter dish.

2. Hyacinths. One truly wonderful thing about a very early Easter this year is that my all-time favorite spring bulb can be found blooming in garden centers, floral shops and grocery store floral departments all over town. No matter how busy I am...or how fast I need to get through the store, I will always stop to smell the hyacinths. My kids even do it now.

3. A $20 Third Eye Blind Concert. And, it's on a Friday night and is just down the road from Cassa Cass. Hmmm...the only bad thing is that it's highly unlikely they'll be selling cups of beer I can raise above my head and spill all over everyone. That...and, at 36, I'll feel ancient there.

you have to watch these videos -- hysterical -- and soooooo true. I have an indoor/outdoor cat that acts exactly like the one in the 2nd video (even jumps up on the door handles).

"Wake Up"

"Let Me In"

The phone has been ringing off the hook all day with cancelations -- Family Fun Day at the school, classes at the YMCA, my dad's trip to the Detroit Auto Show, Sunday School. Life is on hold while Mother Nature swirls around us and dumps inches upon inches of snow.

We Erieites are notoriously winter hardy. I actually tried to go out for a run when the snow slowed up for a bit this afternoon. I didn't make it a quarter of a mile before I turned back and decided maybe I should just take the day off.

Few storms slow us down, let alone shut us down. Six inches...are you serious?...we don't even turn on the 4x4s for that! Eighteen inches...we might leave a little early for work. Three feet?...whatever! But, today being a Saturday gives us all the opportunity to give in, hole up and wait the storm out. What a gift.

There is real beauty and joy in this forced day of rest. Admit it...it's kinda fun, isn't it?

Tomorrow, life will return to normal. The streets will be cleared, driveways will be snowblowed, and, we'll all be rushing here & there...going on with our lives.

Just for today, we stop rushing around -- on the orders of Mother Nature.

I knew I was getting sick on Saturday when I felt like I had just run 10 hard miles and I'd only managed to walk a few on the treadmill. Runners are notoriously in tune with their bodies -- we know when something's amiss and we know it quick (seriously, it's almost spooky).

My throat started to scratch. Then, it hurt. I hoped it was just from the sawdust my husband was creating as he worked on our renovation project.

By Sunday, it was clear it wasn't from the sawdust. I was pretty certain it was strep throat -- I've had it before. I knew it was highly contagious and would be until several doses of antibiotics.

If I'd have thought about it -- I'd have went for treatment somewhere on Sunday so I'd be ready to go to work today. I unwisely decided to call the Dr. 1st thing Monday morning (blame it on the pain).

Big mistake.

Today was sick day #2 for me -- which is more sick days than I've had in...oh...four years now. As if strep throat wasn't enough, seems I picked up a cold to add insult to injury. I feel like a giant germ magnet at this point.

For two days now I've been living a cat's life, alternating eating with sleeping and visiting the restroom. Occasionally I stare outside longingly.

I've learned a few things after laying around on the couch for two full days:

1. Not only is "Law & Order" on every single night of the week, but it's also on at 2 p.m. -- great timing for teens arriving home from school who want to unwind by absorbing a little senseless violence, rape and torture.

2. Even if you don't watch a soap opera for years on end, you will still be able to follow the plot lines and characters. On "Days of Our Lives," Patch is still with Kayla, Bo is still with Hope, John is still with Marlene. And, it still takes 18 months for someone to recover from a minor head injury and three years for a soap opera child to go from infant to sexually-active teen.

3. The mail comes at 3:23 p.m. -- like clockwork.

Poor Silda Spitzer...the lastest victim in the "stand-by-her-man" PR scheme to make the American public believe that women should be forgiving and should stand there and take any crap her husband dishes out (cause that's what a good little wife does).

Bullshit. She hates his guts and every woman watching her can tell.

Just once...JUST ONCE...I'd love to see one of these women use these press conferences to do what all of us want them to do. In the words of girlfriend, Lisa. "I wish she'd smack his face, call him an asshole and stomp off the stage."

Stand by her man?

More like propped.

She's a prop.

And, I can only hope she was on several valium.

Three things I'm loving this week:

1. Sunlight after 5 p.m. God Bless daylight savings time. Sure, it sucked to lose an hour of sleep this Sunday (but if you were lucky like I was, your church canceled worship services and you got to sleep in, too). It is nice to have time to go for a walk or play with the kids outside after work before the sun goes down.

2. "Into the Night" -- the Santana song featuring Chad Kroeger (Nickelback). For some reason every time I go to channel 9 on my Sirius satellite radio this song is playing and every time, I end up dancing around in the driver's seat and singing at the top of my lungs. Listen to it...I dare you not to wiggle it ...just a little bit.

3. "The New Adventures of the Old Christine." (Did I write about this already?) Few things can keep me awake past 9 p.m. but Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of them. This show is hysterical and I laugh out loud at least fifteen times every week. Funny as Julia is -- the other characters hold up their end of the show, too -- including, her brother, Hamish Linklater (how about that name), her best friend, Wanda Sykes, and the uber bitchy school moms -- #1 & #2

I overheard two co-workers talking this a.m. Co-worker No. 1 was telling the other that his son lost his first tooth. Co-worker No. 2 said something about the tooth fairy. Co-worker No. 1 said, "We don't really do that. It's sort of silly and we just don't have it in us to lie to him like that."

My ears perked up and I gave a silent cheer. I thought I was alone. I thought it was just me who thinks that perpetuating made-up holiday characters is just stupid and....in a way...kind of cruel.

Now, I let my kids believe in the Tooth Fairy -- we have the tooth fairy pillow and everything -- and I'm not out there destroying their Christmas and telling them that Santa isn't real, but...when they are old enough to figure out the truth for themselves, I'm not going to lie. And, I'm not going to the lengths that some parents do to "keep the magic alive."

I don't think there's any magic in lying to my kids. Seriously...wouldn't I just be setting them up for a BIG fall some day?

I know what you're thinking -- you're thinking I'm some psychologically damaged kid who went through life with cruel parents who deprived me of holiday joy. Wrong. My mother has holiday spirit up the wazoo -- she's even got holiday-theme shower curtains, toilet seat covers and bedspreads (I'm not even kidding). And, when I was growing up, my Mom did all that stuff that parents do -- she wrapped Santa's gifts in different paper, had a friend at work write the tags so we wouldn't know she was Santa, she hid the Easter baskets and pretended not to know where they were, she dutifully stayed up until God-knows-when to sneak into our rooms and exchange a quarter for a baby tooth....

But, the thing is...I don't ever remember buying into it. Maybe it's because I had four older siblings and one of them told me there was no Santa or Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy...who knows...I don't remember who -- if anyone -- ever destroyed the "magic" for me.

I just know that I always knew that the source of ALL the good things in our house were my parents.

I think that's magical enough.

In 1993, Dee Dee Myers made history as the first female White House press secretary. Since then, she's been wondering what would happen if more women were standing in the front of the room.

She just wrote a book about it. Myers' book, "Why Woman Should Rule the World" was just released this month and retails for $25 in hardcover (but you can get it on Amazon.com for $16.50).

I wasn't sure I wanted to invest the time and money in the book (sigh...another on the pile of books I'll get to "some day"). And, to be really honest, the title puts me off. I don't want only women to rule the world -- I want the best people to rule the world. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by pitting the genders against each other. We're different. We handle things differently and we should embrace those differences and -- WORK TOGETHER -- balancing each other out (and making each stronger).

But..then I read this interview. And, I just had to order another book for my reading pile.

Here, an excerpt from the interview about Hillary that rings true (particularly the line about society being unsure of just how much power we want to give to women):

Hillary continues to be controversial. And it isn't just her last name. She has been judged by a different, often harsher standard - in many ways because she's a woman. She's expected to be tough, but not harsh; caring, but not emotional; assertive, but for God's sake, not bitchy. As a society, we're unresolved about just how much power women should have, and Hillary often finds herself on the fault line between competing views. Still, she's proved that women can be serious candidates for president. And whether she wins or loses, nothing will ever be quite the same.

Her Times funny man, Josh West, is going to be a daddy. And, while his wife, Amy, is busy building a baby, Josh has been busy blogging about the entire pregnancy experience -- from the guy's side.

Check out Josh's blog at "Who are You (and What Are You Doing in my Wife?)."

I'm working on the next issue of Her Times and needed to round up some photos of style icons of days of yore for a beauty story we are doing.

Turns out our Erie Times-News Showcase editor, Doug Rieder has quite the stash of entertainment, music and movie publicity photos -- decades worth. And, I have to tell you...that they are organized so well it made my order-loving heart swoon.

Anyway....in the "Sophia Loren" folder I found a photo that stopped me in my tracks. She was, of course, stunningly beautiful, but...in this particular photo she had a body like, well, mine. And other normal women. Seriously...check this out:

You know that by today's standards our beautiful, gorgeous style icon Sophia would not even get called back. She'd be told to lose 20 lbs.

But, seriously...isn't she gorgeous?

Don't you wish this were the standards we were held up to -- instead of the adolescent boys that the fashion designers tell us we should strive for?

If only I wore born in the '40s -- I could've been a supermodel. (sigh).

Three things I'm loving this week:

1. Working on Good Friday...and any other holiday most other people are off. It's peaceful, it's quiet, there was almost no traffic this A.M. and no waiting at Tim Horton's. Even here at the paper, things are quieter, the printers are less busy (no waiting for proofs!) and our computer programs run faster because there are less staffers using them. I haven't gotten an e-mail in 2 1/2 hours -- not even a piece of junk e-mail. Woohoo.

2.Free birthday treats. I can't say I'm real enthusiastic about my birthday anymore. They were fun until...oh...about the 30th one. Now, not so much. BUT...here's some good news about birthdays -- they can earn you some cool free stuff. This site provides a list -- separate for adults, kids & pets -- to the places that offer free treats on your birthday. Word of caution: Signing up for all these "birthday lists" means you're on their mailing/marketing lists. Is it worth a free ice cream cone? You be the judge.

3. Beary Creative -- Erie's locally-owned build-a-stuffed-animal place. You can go to the pricey, brand-name Build-a-Bear in the mall and stand elbow-to-elbow, sweating from the body heat in that tiny space and spend $50 on a stuffed animal that they stuff for you OR...you can take a nice drive over to the west side of town (eastsiders...it's as easy as hopping on the Bayfront Hwy.) and spend $20 on an animal AND an outfit and support a local Erie family business. The birthday parties at Beary Creative rock, too -- $10 a kid and you get use of the playroom, the party room and each kid stuffs an animal.

I've told you that the husband and I have embarked on a new home improvement project renovating the back half of our house and building the master bedroom suite of our dreams.

Unfortunately, I was born with absolutely no aptitude or interest in home interior design.

I realize that most women love home interior design and fussing with curtains and bath fixtures and finding just the right things with just the right look for the rooms in their home. I know lots of women who pore over the latest issue of House Beautiful and Country Home and they have their dream kitchen already completely planned out in their head.

I'm not one of them.

I get a headache just thinking about it.

I'm getting a headache now just writing about it.

Dan kept warning me that we needed to go pick out the shower and tub and sinks so he could keep moving on the project. I ignored him as long as I could.

This weekend, he actually got a sitter (yes, he did) so we could go to the home improvement stores.

do virtually anything? Check out this Web site.

But, don't blame me if you burn up your lunch hour learning how to read your palm. :-)

Check out the making behind today's Varsity section cover in this fun video.

Today's my 14th wedding anniversary. Fourteen years. 14 years. That's amazing, no?

I know what you're thinking...she can't possibly be old enough to have been married for 14 years. :-) I was a child bride. OK...OK...I was 23, but that's practically a child by today's marrying standards.

We're waaaayyy past the point of exchanging gifts and cards and roses (I mean, it's all coming out of the family budget, so what's the point), but just for grins I decided to find out what the traditional gift is for the 14th wedding anniversary.

Ivory.

Uh...OK. Isn't that just politically incorrect? Isn't it, in fact, illegal?

Apparently so...according to this web site you're supposed to twist the ivory theme to mean ivory-colored items or elephant gift items.

I say...in lieu of some silly ivory knick-knack or elephant painting, we settle for eating like elephants at the local watering hole.

I didn't mean to watch NBC's Celebrity Apprentice. In fact, I made a conscious decision NOT to watch the show as I'd grown tired of the board room nastiness and drama (remember, I have this huge aversion to meanness and fighting). I know lots of people find it entertaining, I just find it painful and I can't even watch it. I just can't.

But, then, I got sucked into the show -- the way I always do -- when I leave the TV on while I run around the house doing other things and...before you know it...I'm making a point to leave the TV at that time the next week and, well...

A topic of discussion among my girlfriends and family at a Friday night get together was the laziness (for lack of a better word) of some of the teens in our families. As they get older, their laisse faire attitude is threatening to derail their future. They are so-so students, barely bringing home passing grades, who lack the motivation to do much of anything, let alone pick a career path.

First two disclaimers:
1. I'm sure the same thing was said about my generation when I was a teen
2. My kids are still young and I have no idea what it's like to parent a teen (my day will come and who knows what's in my future)

But, our discussion got me to thinking about how kids learn responsibility and accomplishment and that it starts at home. It starts with contributing to the household duties and, let's face it, most kids today are not expected to help around the house. They're too busy, after all, with their activities and their homework and whatnot.