Odds and ends

Josephine just peed in the potty and announced, "Princess pee!" And then she marched out to the family room, where Princess Margaret had collapsed on the veterinarian surgical table. (This is where we treat the poor little dogs who drink soda and cats who look too long at the sun.)

"No touch princess!" Margaret commanded.

So big changes in the Royal Castle these days.

Our new au pair arrived two weeks ago from a very small village in Austria, replacing Julia who seemed to think such things as "university" would be more rewarding than caring for the Royal Family. Sigh. First Julia, then Supergold, and now Ted Kennedy -- and frankly, I am glad bad news doesn't come in quadruplets.

I can not stress enough how much I liked Julia. You know if I didn't you would have heard much more about her...

Supergold, by the way, was the little fish that we brought home from the county fair on Sunday night. (That is, 36 hours before we discovered him listless on the bottom of an old flower vase.) Oh, my first book! "Mired: The Short Life and Fast Times of Supergold."

Oh! The other things we won at the county fair! Lucy -- a third-place ribbon for her painting. I call it "Square Rainbow"...see here:


I entered a half-dozen chocolate hazelnut crinkles in the over-hyped drop cookie competition -- and I got honorable mention, but that's really not very good, I don't think. (I blame the chocolate. Or actually, I blame myself for not thinking to buy the semi-sweet chocolate specified in the recipe and instead, hauling over the step stool, scrambling around the top shelf of the pantry, and emerging with a half-eaten bag of old Nestle chocolate chips...)

Next year, I might try filled cookies. Less competitive, I hope. Or maybe I'll just transfer my unrealized ambition to my children and force them to raise prize-winning tomato seeds. That makes the most sense, right?