she's delicious

Ruthie, like most cats, likes to find unusual places to curl up and sleep. Today I pulled out a large, covered bowl of melted and solidified chocolate to reheat it and pitch it (it bloomed.....badly). I walked out of the kitchen for a moment and this is what I walked back in to find.

sage advice

When Jamie and I had our sham wedding that looked like a real wedding, my mom put out her Instamatic camera and a guest book for folks to sign. The following day when we were reading people's well wishes and words of wisdom, we came upon this from my grandparents.

Dear Kaci & Jamie,
Never go to bed mad. Always kiss and make up. You will feel better by morning. Never forget how much you love each other. I want a little red headed "baby" soon.
Love, Grandma [quotations hers]

Dear Jamie,
Get used to being wrong. You'll never win a fight, so unless you give in, the argument will never be over.
Love, Grandpa


At the time that we first read that, we were laughing and saddened by it all at once. My grandpa was a pretty quiet guy, but he wasn't necessarily a pushover. My grandma is a total ballbuster however and their years together post-retirement were grating and difficult at times. I stumbled upon the book yesterday as I was cleaning and was really happy to find that bit of advice from him. I don't think Jamie has taken his advice, but I'm very glad for that too.

Hands down, greatest news item of 2008, thus far

I couldn't stop laughing when I read this tonight. According to the Daily News he also spent $5,000 on colonic enemas. But I think the next to last line is what really seals this as my favorite article.

February 20, 2008 -- Benjamin Lovell says he kept trying to explain to Commerce Bank officials that he really didn't have $5.8 million in his account.But they kept insisting he could take the money and run - and so he did, scooping up $1 million the first day and another $1.1 million over the next four weeks.

Of the $2.1 million total, the married dad invested $1.5 million - badly - gave $36,000 to pals and spent $8,000 on gems for a girlfriend, according to the Brooklyn DA.

The bank, which bills itself as "America's most convenient," didn't turn out to be America's most forgiving. When officials learned of the multimillion-dollar blunder, they called the cops.

Lovell, who earns $600 a week as a salesman for KeySpan, was charged with first-degree grand larceny, and faces up to 25 years in the slammer if convicted.

He was ordered held in lieu of $3 million bond or $1 million cash bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court last night.

Lovell, 48, of Brownsville, had an $800 account at the bank's Montague Street branch in Brooklyn Heights.

The monumental mix-up happened because another Benjamin Lovell works for a firm called Woodlawn Trustee, which has a $5.8 million account at the same branch.Last December, Woodlawn - which manages trusts - asked that its Lovell be added to the account.The bank confused the Social Security numbers of the men, giving the wrong Lovell the right to withdraw money from the $5.8 million account, authorities said.

On Dec. 14, the wrong Lovell walked into the bank to make a $400 deposit. A teller mentioned that he had a second account with $5.8 million in it.To his credit, a confused Lovell spoke to the manager and other bank officials - and he said all of them insisted there was no problem whatsoever with him withdrawing money, he said.So, prosecutor Kevin Richardson said, he withdrew $10,000 and later in the day took out another $990,000.

From Dec. 16 to Jan. 10, he allegedly withdrew a total of $1.1 million.

Woodlawn Trustee officials, meanwhile, were getting bank statements and saw the money was missing.

Cops busted Lovell Monday and he was charged with grand larceny for knowingly taking money that wasn't his.

Lovell invested much of it in loser stocks and only $500,000 was recovered.

Lovell was last in the news in 1998, when Ol' Dirty Bastard, the late rapper, helped lift a car off his daughter, Maati, after an auto accident.

A Commerce spokesman did not return a call or an e-mail seeking comment.

counting crochet stitches

For the third time in a week, I got less than 2 hours of sleep last night. Thankfully those nights were not consecutive, so while I'm totally wiped out right now, I'm not downright stupid. [Apparently, I may be downright stupid, because as I typed that I accidentally left out the "not"] I have a lot on my mind these days and no matter how tired I am, as soon as the light goes out I'm wide awake and my mind starts racing. Last night I tried to picture crocheting and different crochet stitches in my mind because I thought maybe that would be my domesticated equivalent to counting sheep. It didn't really work. I last saw the time on the clock at 3:30am and I had to get up at 5am. Tonight will likely be easy sleeping, but who knows what I'm in store for tomorrow night. Especially since tomorrow is episode 2 of the new season of Lost! I'll probably be all wired and hopped up on island theories. Maybe I should try drinking my usual evening snack of Metamucil and Ovaltine warm instead of cold. How many people just threw up in their own mouths when they read that? Well, if you haven't tried it, you can just suck it because it's not only delicious, but it's good for you too! Oh god I need some sleep.