So, you’re best friend is making you feel guilty because you don’t scrap. She’s preserving her family’s memories in pink-and-blue borders with ballooned quotes with catchy subtitles for candid photos taken at every juncture of her children’s lives. Her camera costs more than your car, and her bookcases are filled with scrapbooks categorized by each child’s birth year, vacation destinations, and first-day-of-school photo comparisons.
You, on the other hand, are lucky to print out the photos you take. You lost that cheap digital camera (though it is probably in one of those heaps in the closet and one day you’ll dig …read more

I’m excited to see the movie Julie & Julia, which comes out in the United States tomorrow, though I might have to wait a few weeks until the kids are in school and I have an afternoon to myself to do it!

Based on two separate books — Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia, and iconic celebrity chef Julia Child’s book My Life in France — the movie (and Powell’s book, which is what the movie is based on), chronicles Powell’s attempt at making every recipe in Child’s cookbook, The French Chef, in one year and blogging about it (and to …read more

Do you think I’m under a bit of stress lately? I’ve certainly been talking about it a lot, haven’t I?
To relieve stress, I usually cook a ginourmous pot of stew or pasta sauce — which of couse is in itself a form of stress…the prep work, the chopping and especially the clean up. There must be better ways to leave your troubles behind.
There is, it’s called travel. I just came back from Vegas and had a wonderful time. I love everything about travel — truth be told, I don’t even mind the circus act that we know today as …read more

I wanted this be a light-hearted piece about one of my favorite office observations: the difference between how men and women talk at work. You know, men say things like: Boil the frog (ask your boyfriend what that means) or Get a leg up or Sh**ts and giggles…and women say things like do me a favor? or please, or I’m sorry, or thank you.
But I became side-tracked. As I was searching on-line for some references, I came across this Newsweek review of three new high-schoolish book titles of which the focus is how undermining, sneaky and downright mean women are …read more

Or, how to feel and look fabulous traveling from home to work.
It’s 6:30am, you’re standing at your train stop, it’s freezing, your monthly ticket is somewhere at the bottom of your purse.
Instead of muttering how much you hate commuting and that you’re going to start looking for a job in your home town, here’s my top ten list of things to love about that chunk of time in the morning:

Keep saying to yourself that you are never going to get out of your PJs ever again.
Put all of your make-up on.
Change your shoes.
Read Rachel Ray’s new magazine but cover it …read more