Happy Baby Yoga

A little Happy Baby yoga on a Tuesday.

Baby Yoga

Then the real thing...water-themed yoga in the Sanctuary tonight, almost pitch black except for the candles. I could see the outline of a Christmas tree and some presents and the walls of the room sort of wave, look like they are moving in the flickering light, really beautiful. Mary focused on how we are mostly water and that we need to flow more, move it around, twist and turn, shake your money maker, gonna get low, low, low, low, low, low, low, float through life moving like a ball, just roll wit' it, guru. We even partnered up at the end, "paddling" on each other's backs, then "raining" down at the end. Yoga with Mary - just dive in.

Pass The Moolah

OK, let me get this straight. You start with a balanced budget about a decade ago with taxes pretty low and unemployment low and Social Security nice and safe, then let the corporations take over with the banks and the drug companies and the insurance companies and the Haliburtons of the world posting bigger profits than ever (but for some reason they have stopped hiring people), start a couple of really, really expensive wars with a billion here and a billion there - oops - gone missing every month or so (not to mention the lives lost and the legs and arms and minds of our young troops) and watch as millions lose their jobs and their homes and their insurance and then the folks that thought up all these super great ideas win an election by promising to balance the budget, no more debt unless it's paid for, really, we promise on our tea leaves, we've got to get this under control, and oh, by the way, we're not going to even talk about anything for the next month or so like immigration or Don't Ask, Don't Tell, because we are unable to do more than one thing at a time, and that one thing is to give the rich more money. And since you won't get any Bush or Boehner of the world to hire anybody with their little quarter million gift from you and me, borrowed from China, chunk of change, we'll be left with even less than when we started. Is that right? Is that how all of this works?

Movie Madness - Morning Glory

Rise and Shine! A sweet, fresh squeezed bit of Morning Glory with the girls. Great cast, a few too many cliches, but another fun Movie Madness at the always amazing Harkins Theater (Dan, Dan, where for art thou, Dan? I'm thirsty).

Tempe Festival of the Arts

Sunny Sunday strolling through the Tempe Festival of the Arts with Jo, who seemed to love everything little thing that I did, especially the Arizona wine tasting fest, getting to know all of the creative wine makers, sitting under an umbrella, listening to a great jazz band and planning a January Diva trip to Arizona wine country in Jerome - who knew we had such good wines here!

Tea Party

Upcoming - Carefree Christmas party down on Easy Street in Carefree. Holiday tea . Cucumber sandwiches. Scones. Funny hats. Wine-ing at the bars. Ho, ho, ho-ing on Santa's lap. Snow. Just get up to Carefree, it's always worth the trip.

Totally Bananas

The Weight Watchers meeting this morning was a friggin' zoo. The new PointsPLUS system is here and the line was out the door, people stessed out, anxious, shaking. Counting calories is now out, carbs are in. Fruit's free, have as many bananas as you want, go for it, but guacamole and that second glass of wine? Better just push it away. And it wasn't just crazy in little 'ol Scottsdale, either. Big fancy NYC is freaking out, too. We all got new books, new points allowances, new iphone apps and new calculators. Our fearless leader, Stephanie, explained it all, walked us through slowly, asked for some patience (even Mr. Chatty Cathy guy in his up front teacher's pet seat kept his mouth shut the whole time). We figured it out. We were sent home to read up on the changes, but first, buy all the new WW paraphernalia and lose, lose, lose.

So...as Stephanie always says, "See ya'll lighter next week!"

Ole!

The stars were out at the Scottsdale Waterfront tonight as the Flamenco dancers clicked their fingers to the guitars and drums and the tapas and paella and flan and sangria and a coconut filled with white chocolate mousse just kept coming at the long overdue Sullivan/Spence double date extravaganza. I don't know the whole story, but one of our old faves Tapas Papa Frita shut down years ago and has reopened in the 'hood. The food was so amazing that Shawn fell off the vegetarian-only, eat for your blood type diet wagon and partook of some incredible red snapper and crab. I can't believe he sat this close to some juicy looking lamb without diving in as the rest of us dove in to stories about paratroopering and saving the world from the enemies and leaving the childhood bubbles and venturing into strange new lands and the traveling and the Monte Carlo cars and gambling and famous last words and don't forget the kids and closer to home adventures like what would life be like without our morning caffeine. Probably pretty boring, just like life without fun friends. Ole!

Holidaze

I used to believe in Santa...

thx Amy, so much more to come!

There she is! Amy Silverman (or in my family, known as Amy Si., since our own Amy has the whole Amy S. thing taken). She's an incredible writer and editor and she must be having withdrawal symptoms from a recently ended Mothers Who Write class and is doing it again. Tonight at the awesome Changing Hands. Writing about the holidays. Daze, what a daze.

With friends like these...

Married to a weenie? Guest house is all yours. Got boob problems? Picking you up at noon. Need anything else? We've got you covered. Got your back. Call in the troops. Let go of the rope and it won't hurt so much. No fear. You think who's normal? Nobody's normal. Have another glass of wine. Meet at The Vig. Dark, cozy, warm little neighborhood joint (not above, but aren't we cute?) - just like the gang - dark, cozy, warm. Squish in for some good advice.

PointsPLUS

Just when I thought I figured out Weight Watchers, they went and changed everything. A whole new program based on all new scientific evidence starts this week. I made it through Thanksgiving unscathed, even with all of the holiday meals and company and pie. So starting Saturday it's new points, new carb counting, something about free fruits, plus, plus, plus. Same short-term goal ('cuz that's all I can handle right now) - make it to 1/1/11 at the same weight then long-term (fingers crossed, point calculator in hand) move down some more, lighten the load, head toward new goal, lifetime member. No more PLUSes, minus sounds better.