My daughter gave me a gift today, a gift guaranteed to make me dissolve into a puddle of tears – Love You Forever, written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw.  I don’t even need to open the book.  One glance at the cover and I’m a goner.  It’s like reading Charlotte’s Web or listening to Joni Mitchell sing The Circle Game or watching the movie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

I may be tough, but I’m not that tough. When it comes to those I love, I love them with all my heart.

Life is fragile and fleeting.  As my father says– We are less than a speck of dust  on a speck of dust on a speck of dust, ad infinitum, in the wake of God’s footsteps.

People come and people go, but like the book says, Love You Forever.  Okay, I’m going to start crying all over again.

I wanted one thing out of life, one single thing, to be a mother.  I’m a mother times three.  And for that great gift, I’m humbled.  

On a lighter note – Ya’ll remember the movie, Parenthood, with Steve Martin?  I was raising three little kids when that movie came out and it was amazing how much the movie resembled our life.  My kids were a little younger, but…

Even this scene was straight out of our life– it happened a number of years later, except picture my husband in Steve Martin’s place and the game was basketball.  My husband coached our daughter’s underdog basketball team and they beat the undefeated previous year’s city champs in the championship game.  My kids still talk about how my husband did this:

We parents are a bit meshuggeh.

Happy Mother’s Day! Love, Julia

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My birthday weekend is over.  There was some good, some better, some best.  I’m both gratified and grateful that readers seem to be reading Beauty and the Feast.  This is a story I loved telling, a book I worked night and day to get just right.  So did Jaye Manus, my editor-producer/director, and Lex at Winterheart Design who put up with my cover-fussing.

This contemporary romantic comedy is free for two more days.

A Game of Thrones was much better this week.  The show works when the focus remains on a few characters at a time, rather than trying to somehow integrate all the primary characters at once.  I was prepared to bail if this episode was nothing more than gratuitous nudity and feigned sex.  I mean, that’s all well and good, but I need more substance.  Tyrion Lannister and Arya Stark rock big time.

This promises to be a hectic week as I’m heading to Boston and then onto Maine on Friday.  But, I will be right here tomorrow.

Thanks, all, for the birthday wishes and poems and jokes and pictures.  You are the best.

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Not bad at all…
My husband and I went to Morimoto’s last night, yes, the Iron Chef’s place, for cocktails and appetizers.  Recently, we’ve decided that sharing several appetizers is way more fun than ordering full entrees.

We shared a calamari salad with quinoa two ways in a red miso dressing – totally yum – and I’m not a fan of quinoa, but I love the way it’s prepared at Morimoto’s – both crispy and tender.  The calamari is light and delicate.

Our daughter insisted we get the rock shrimp, Morimoto’s take on buffalo chicken wings – half the shrimp is cooked with fresh wasabi and the other half with some sort of red chili.  It’s served with an ice cold blue-cheese dipping sauce.  Delicious, especially the wasabi half.  Nice burn.

Last we ordered my favorite – Penny knows what I’m talking about, the King crab legs, split and broiled and coated with some sort of chili paste so exquisite, with such a brilliant flash of heat, I literally want lick the platter.  As it is, I lick my fingers and the crab shells.  I could, like, live on this stuff… the chili paste.  I’d inject it directly into my veins, but then I couldn’t taste it.  Damn, that stuff is killer good.

Last, but not least, the wait staff brought us a toffee squash cake with some kind of vanilla bean ice cream and tiny pears and a little birthday candle.  Scrumptious.  Since I’m a picky squash eater, (can’t be too squashy) it must be prepared just right.  Morimoto’s prepares it just right for my particular (or is it peculiar?) palate.

We got home early enough that my husband wanted to watch a Netflix movie we’d had sitting here for a while, Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman.  I was like… “Okay.  But it’s two hours. (whine… whine)  I can’t sit for two hours…”  And he’s like… “Yeah, but you can do your usual puttering around while I watch… And Wolverine is in it.”  And I’m like… “Okay, fine, I’ll putter around while you watch…”

The truth?  I ended up sitting for two hours watching a very entertaining movie.  It was like watching Rocky on steroids or larger than life Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.  The fight scenes gave me the same heart pounding high of a real boxing match.  We were both yelling… “Get up!  Get up!  Right cross!  Uppercut!  Knockout!”  The special effects were stellar and it was really fun to watch a robot do the Rope-a-dope!  Yes, I was a little kid, but I do remember the Rope-a-dope. It was a fun birthday and Saturday made it even better. Happy sigh…

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A birthday poem from my friend, Scottish friend, Tom:

This is the first time I’ve ever had a poem written for me!  I’m thrilled.  Thanks, Tom.  It’s a great poem.  Happy anniversary next week, Tom and Ishbel.  It’s ours as well.

I have a favorite wedding picture – in case you’re wondering, my wedding flowers were purple heather and white roses.

This is my very favorite photo for reasons which I suppose aren’t apparent.  It obviously does not show my face or my husband, still, it’s my favorite photo because it’s so real.  I didn’t even know it had been taken.  That’s my son.  Sorry about the quality.  I took photos of photos.

Here’s another that shows my husband with his pornstache – it was all the rage… and he was and is very cute.  (There’s a prayer going on, but my attention is elsewhere. Typical.)

Skip ahead a generation and here’s my daughter’s ranch wedding last summer – there is no expiration date on love.  It transcends time and generations.

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First of all, let’s get one thing straight–  I cried myself sick the day I turned 30 and I’ve refused to officially acknowledge any birthday since.  Are we clear?

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to…

Beauty and the Feast.  It’s free from April 13th-April 17th.  So it’s free from my birthday to my anniversary.  Stream of consciousness here – you see… like the British Royal Family, my husband and I are related.  I know… don’t freak out.  We weren’t aware of this fact when we met, not that it would have mattered a lick.  Our grandfathers were some kind of cousins.  My grandmother, Jennie, also an Aries, took sort of a proprietary interest in our relationship.  Unfortunately, she didn’t live to see our reunion, so I scheduled our wedding as close to her birthday as I could as a tribute to her.  My husband and I were married on April 17th in the middle of a blizzard.  Everybody got stranded in Omaha for three days.  And, of course, my husband decided he didn’t want to live in the Midwest any longer.

I do believe in reincarnation.  I have my reasons, both logical and nonsensical, but isn’t that the way of things…  One of these lives, I’m coming back as a raptor.  When Jake and I were hiking in the rain a couple days ago, I caught this juvenile golden eagle balancing on a slender branch – the branch couldn’t have been more than an inch and a half in diameter, if that.  Oh these hollow-boned creatures!  I took some photos with my inadequate wet cell phone.  He let me get within 20 yards of him.  Yes, I am most definitely coming back as a hawk.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for me to come back as a hawk, feel free to visit my friends.

Jaye Manus has been holding my hand for weeks as we’ve worked on formatting and professionalizing (is that a word?) Beauty and the Feast.  We both wanted this book to look damn good as an ebook.  And I do believe we’ve succeeded.  Go read her boast post .  She deserves every boastful word.  She performed miracles with this book.

Author Penny Watson also has something to say about Beauty and the Feast.  She was the first person to fall in love with the original version.  It’s how we bonded– over food and sex!  This revised version is even better.  If you stop by her place on Friday, I believe she may have a few surprises for you (and read her 4/12 post while you’re there – great stuff).  Click here for the link.

Ya’ll have a wonderful weekend.  Remember – FREE BOOK!  Click Here to upload Beauty and the Feast!  If I get ambitious, I’ll bake our traditional family birthday cake, for the birthday I don’t acknowledge – a whiskey cake.  It’s everybody’s favorite cake, but it’s not what you think.  I’ll take a photo for you.  Be good and thanks for stopping by!  Julia

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