ok... counting down

Just about 15 hours until the first leg of the trip to Italy. I'm packing at 10:50 p.m. Thursday night (knowing that mom has been fully packed for two weeks and frozen her underwear and socks so she'll be fully prepared like she is for a holiday meal). ahem...

looks like Steve and Ellen have dodged a bullet out in Southern California. The fires blew past their place and while they were worried about a predicted shift in wind direction today, it looks like they're ok so far.

Howard is on his way home from San Francisco - on a red eye. Then he'll take a nap tomorrow morning before taking me to the airport.

I'm pretty excited. We'll see how this all goes. I have a global cell phone with me and I'm having my regular cell forwarded directly to this global phone (which I've rented for the week). So you can call me super siblings if you miss your mommy.

Oh my goodness. Did I just SAY that? ;) ... Ciao!

Four days and counting...

Well... while I'm sifting through things to pack (particularly shoes), we're saying a prayer here for Howard's brother Steven and his wife Ellen. They have a beautiful home in Fallbrook, California, and Howard (who is out there on business this week) emailed some photos of wildfires basically encroaching on their house. These are scary, scary pics. Fallbrook has been evacuated but as of today, Steve and Ellen were home and playing it by ear. They live on a mountainside and while the fire is closing in, they were not yet required to evacuate - I think they're trying to just figure out what to do. It's amazing how much has burned out there. They have a beautiful ranch with a citrus orchard and these great gardens. And it's in pretty imminent danger.

Five Days ... and counting

My most sincerest apologies for not posting anything on the blog for quite some time. It's been a bit hectic here. Meghan applied to NYU early decision, which meant we had to get everything done and in before this week because - well, after Friday, I'll be IN ITALY!!!!!! Meantime, we've been dealing with the usual extra-curriculars for both girls, work hell, painting one side of the house, fielding phone calls from the wayward traveler - Howard, not me. He just got back from a trip to Monaco for heaven's sake and now he's in San Francisco.

And... well, I am astounded that neither sib #1 or sib #3 have discussed the Ellen situation. Good lord above, the woman adopts a dog from a shelter, gives it up to the family of a beauty parlor worker and then gets all hot under the collar when the shelter takes the dog back. She took her personal beef with the dog rescue people onto the air and now the rescue people are getting death threats... Now this is a scruffy little dog, mind you (not at all like Leona's Trouble). I can't post the pic because it's got a Baltimore Sun photo copyright, but head to this link to see for yourself: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.to.pets20oct20,0,1429241.story

WHAT is this world coming to when these celebrities' doggie problems take top billing in the news?

Then again, Marie Osmond did just collapse during her samba on Dancing with the Stars, and that did make headlines this evening...

I have been taking an Audiobooks course in Italian, by the way, so that I can speak up whenever mom tries to order something toxic for dinner or pay too much for some bizarre souvenir when we're IN ITALY!!!!

Seriously, despite the fact that I'm in pretty serious denial about how it will be to spend 10 days with the matriarch... I AM pretty excited about going on this trip! Ciao!

Inconsolable

Margaret is deeply saddened by the news that Ellen will not be hosting the 2008 Oscars. As she knows Ellen is a serious animal lover, Maggie was hopeful for a cameo role in the program.

Bring Back Ellen!!!!

It is a slow news day in the shifting world of dead socialites (think Leona Helsmley, Brooke Astor...). So I'm raising the alarm bell on the first murmurs of a very disturbing announcement. Ellen has not been asked to host the Oscars in 2008. Instead, they have tapped Jon Stewart for a third trial (he hosted in 2001 and 2002, and both times were ... forgettable). I am mildly outraged that Ellen is not being considered for a second attempt. Personally, I thought she was delightful as the 2007 host. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of her monologue and subsequent quips between award categories. What could have gone wrong? Did she offend someone, unintentionally and unknowingly, from the Academy of Arts and Sciences? Did she look too masculine on stage not wearing a dress? Or is it, gasp, because viewers complained about the choice of a lesbian as host? Whatever the reason, I am dismayed. And bored in advance. Because Jon Stewart was b-o-r-i-n-g as a host.

More poop on the pooch

Dahlings ... not ONLY does Leona's brother not want her dog OR the $12 million she left the poochy, but her former housekeeper is preparing to sue the dog because it bit her once while she was working at the Queen of Mean's Manhattan apartment. Credit goes to Sibling #1 for breaking the first portion of this meaty little celeb tidbit. Further research unearthed the housekeeper angle to give you up to the minute reports. I attach the wanted poster image of said doggie, aptly named "Trouble".

Trouble obviously shops at Abercrombie and Bizarre, by the way. You can tell by the fashionable aloofness of this pic.

Abercrombie and Bizarre

Can I just say that Abercrombie and Fitch is a stupid store? Seriously. I had to take Anna there tonight to get this "have to have" shirt on clearance so that she could wear it on her first day of high school. (AAAGGGGHHHHHH!) Anyway, I don't get this store: they play terrible music at 250 decibels; they spray their clothing with this strange perfume (I'm not kidding; Tyler and Kyle can probably verify it). And they charge ridiculous prices for anything not on sale. Like $40 and up for flimsy cotton shirts and skirts that should be outlawed.

I agreed to take Anna because she really wanted this particular shirt and it wasn't outrageous in appearance. Plus it was a treat for her first day as a freshman (AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!) Plus it was on clearance.

Anyway, we get there and get the shirt only to realize at the checkout (which is always manned by the dumbest guys - preppie, muscular and very dumb) that I don't have my credit cards with me. OK now who's dumb? Anyway I ask the guy to hold onto the shirt and we'll be back. "Um..." he says "I can hold it for like five minutes; we're really not supposed to hold anything here." (It's a shirt on clearance, for God's sake. Try holding onto your brains moron before they slip through your ear canals and get squashed on the floor).

Anna and I drive all the way back home and I grab my credit cards. We head back to Abercrombie and see the shirt tossed onto a table behind the checkout. "I'm back for that shirt behind you," I tell the same blockhead at the register. And he just looks at me like I have three heads and reaches for some tank top next to him. "Noooo... the shirt BEHIND you that you couldn't put on HOLD," I say, wondering if I've been gone so long that he really can't remember me or the shirt. He turns around, points to the shirt and actually says, "This one? You sure?"

Seriously. It's a stupid store. We bring the shirt home and Anna and Meghan make this big dramatic play of smelling it because of this spray Abercrombie puts on all its clothes. Oh, and by the way, I bought a shirt for Meghan there too. On clearance. I'm thinking she'll be ecstatic. Only once she sees it, she's thumbing her nose at it; Abercrombie is NOT on Meghan's "fashion DO" list this year.

Stupid store.