This Earth Day I’m going to run crazy through my yard and pick dandelions from the vast weed garden in my yard and boil some potatoes (that I didn’t grow because that would require a green thumb whereas dandelions do not) and whip up some DandePotatoes.

Turn this nuisance into dinner!

Ok, maybe not. But my father’s wife Anni did. No kidding. A couple weeks ago they were in town and Anni asks me if I was going to use my dandelions. Really, it looked like we had a garden of them out there. (And it dawned on me our fruitful supply was likely due to Truman’s love of plucking them when they spout their fuzzy spherical heads and blowing the seeds about.) Anni said she wanted to pick them and I told her to have at it. Maybe, while she was out there she could pluck some crab grass and whatever other weeds were out there keeping company with the dandelions. Maybe she could mow and edge, too.

She plucked a generous amount – it was the leaves she was after – enough to fill a plastic shopping bag. She said it would make a nice side dish to their dinner that night. This is what I love about Anni. She isn’t afraid to try her hand at any dish. And she is a brilliant cook. She grew up on a farm in Germany and has an understanding of food that fascinates me. She tells us how as a kid her family would grow their own vegetables and render every ounce of a pig for months’ worth of meals. The original Slow Food, right? My father says the animals would live under their house in the winter to keep warm – which he said, in turn, would keep the family’s house warm. I’m not sure how much of the latter part of that statement is true, but it sure is fun to hear my father’s elaborations as if he were right there living with the livestock.

Dad and Anni said the Homewood, Alabama-dandelion mashed potatoes were fabulous. (Official name – Green Potatoes From Liguria.) Really, I’m looking at the Mark Bittman video and I’m thinking I might just try it myself. Rick’s game and Truman will try just about anything we put in front of him. It could be our salute to Earth Day later this month. (April 22.) Want to give it a try, too? What? Don’t have dandelions in your yard? I’d be happy to send you some, or no-freaking-sheet, you can buy them on E-bay!

Check out the recipe here:

Mark Bittman’s Green Potatoes from Liguria (New York Times)

(photo, Flickr, q8)

“Mrs. Clinton’s recent candidacy was a moment of reckoning for women of her generation, who treated her run as a mirror in which to examine their own lives. With Ms. Palin’s entry into the field, a younger generation of women have picked up that mirror, using her candidacy to address the question of just how demanding a job a mother with such intense family obligations should tackle.”

An interesting story in The New York Times, about what Sarah Palin represents to women: A New Twist in the Debate on Mothers.

Conservative women, who have traditionally criticized women for working, are super-excited about Sarah Palin being a mother of 5 and being a potential Vice President.

Feminist working mothers are questioning whether Sarah Palin can pull off being a good mother and be Vice President.

I’m so confused.

Image source: www.johnmccain.com

My friend Violet send me a very fascinating New York Times article about the struggles of getting and maintaining equality in a family.

It takes a very interesting look at what many, including probably myself, think of as the ideal - mom and dad working 30ish flexible hours and sharing equally the housework and parenting.

Life, and the other people that exist in it - like your boss and his boss - intrude on the ideal, of course.

Statistics show that even though women are working more they are still doing twice the housework and the same amount of childcare they were doing before. In other words, it’s not so equal in real life.

Many blame this on centuries of ingrained gender roles that are deep as DNA and hard to shake.

The article takes a fascinating look at how lesbian couples manage the work, household chores and childcare. Take gender out of the equation and what happens? It’s much more equal - but they work at it.

Also interesting is the biggest indicator of who does more work or plays what roles is your FRIENDS.

Evidently, peer pressure effects more than whether you will take the hit off the bong in high school. It also effects whether you will keep your job or quit, whether you expect him to do the dishes or you don’t, whether he takes the kids to the park or puts them to bed or mops the floor. The biggest indicator is what your other couple friends are doing and what roles they are playing in their marriages. Isn’t that odd? And fascinating?

Maybe I’ll reevaluate my friendships in that light.

Go check out When Mom and Dad Share It All by Lisa Belkin. You’ll find a family-labor issue you can relate to.

Mother Nature has been teasing us into believing that “Global Warming” is just a big fib.

In many parts of the U.S., there have been blizzards, severe ice storms and temperatures so brutally cold that even my big Labrador is hiding from his daily walk.

There is no phrase more prosaic or bursting with hope than “Spring Training”.

In two little words, come thoughts of both the warmth of spring (opening day) and the coolness of fall (World Series).

Today I saw a shot of our Derek Jeter, a girl’s Yankee fan’s answer to Matthew McConaughey (Derek is more of a class act).

OK, guys…we felt your pain…two whole weeks without any significant sports to speak of (especially if you read The New York Times sports section).

Only to be followed by the onslaught of Valentine’s Day.

Soon, there will be new grass on the field and a whole new season of outdoor grilling…Play Ball!

Image: Newsday.com

For the last couple of days, I’ve been in a deep flu-fog — making typing errors, not wanting to deal with work, but mostly I’ve not done much but stare vacantly at the tv, like a child.

And just like a sick child, to find comfort, I spent Saturday morning watching cartoons. Mostly to avoid our world’s horrifying and frightening current news reports and images.

I love Dora The Explorer, Ed, Edd and Eddie and Kim Possible .

But as I was flipping around, I came across a darling and familiar face from my past: Madeline!

I was never a Barbie kind of kid…she always seemed like a tart, and her Californian persona did nothing for me…still doesn’t. (I did like the packaged outfits — not for her, but someday for me.)

But Madeline was smart, sophisticated, she lived in Paris, the illustrations were beautiful and mysterious. And most of all she “she lived in an old house in Paris that was covered in vine”.

I so wanted to be Madaline…to be kind, courageous, precosious…and to have her convent uniform, her accent and especially, her yellow hat.

I always wondered why my parents and other family members did not know how much I loved Madeline?

As an adult, to make up for that loss, whenever a friend has a baby girl, I always buy her Madeline gifts.

At that young age, I knew I wanted to be considered classic…I’m still trying…is that sick?

We are all so overscheduled, so committed to almost every waking hour that, I swear, even the dog sometimes looks up and thinks “oh, gawed!…not the mailman again, I just barked at him yesterday!”

I thought that on this sweltering Father’s Day, you might get a kick from reading Alex Williams’piece in The New York Times Sunday Styles section, in which the operative phrase is “Can We Reshcedule?”.

I do hope your day is filled with nothing but The World Cup finals, a hot dog and a beer.

Oh please, just admit it — you know who you are, and you know what your problem is — you or someone you know has a very specific electroninc dependency…and it’s got to stop.

Sneaking around, checking potentially IMPORTANT e-mails, leaving that stupid blinking light on 24/7, even in the blackness your room as you sleep (or your partner tries to sleep)…oh, and the bzzzzz that scares the dog toward having a mild stroke — I’m begging you…take a break and get some help.

It’s your Blackberry and there are steps that can be taken. Read Adam Bryant’s thoughts on this supremely disturbing affliction in this Sunday’s New York Times.

And for goodness sake, it’s Memorial day…I promise, it’s just spam. No, it is.

I will start by acknowledging that my hubby does much of the laundry on the weekends. However, it may very well be my imagination, but since I started working from home to manage my business, The Pet Set , I get the distinct feeling that there has been a reversal of roles without my knowledge. For years I commuted to and worked in Manhattan and so did/does hubby; therefore household chores seemed to have been shared equitably.

This Sunday’s New York Times Style Section , covers the issue of the rift in who does more house cleaning with the deft of a Swiffer (the greatest invention ever!)–pointing out that “…women spend twice as much time on housework than their husbands…”

I certainly recognize that since I’m home all day, I may as well do some cleaning…but there is a level of expectation on his part that kills me. He has always been a neat freak and would never leave a dirty cup in the sink. Lately, I feel like the “little woman” or “the Mrs” character from the “I Love Lucy” era. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed what little boys men really are.

I believe there has always been a silent double standard about the person who works from home. I can remember from my corporate days, women calling in for meetings from their home office and those physically present, kind of rolling their eyes at the other person as if to say, “she’s got the life.” I’ve often witnessed a sarcastic undertone…co-workers would use the international symbol of using fingers to illustrate quotation marks: “She’s working from home today.” As if noone really believes you are truly working.

If it were a normal Tuesday at the office or (I love this one) a person’s “real” job…you wouldn’t have to excuse yourself from a meeting to make sure the recycling stuff is put outside, would you? Nor would you have to stop what you are doing because you can’t stand looking at the dirty windows for another second.

And here’s my favorite laps in memory on the part of hubby. He happens to work lower Manhattan, where I once commuted to and from every day. He tells me the “horrors” of his commute…but this is how it sounds to me: “there are these big trains that take you to this place called the train station, where they have these big boats…and then the boats go on the icy water of the Hudson…and you’re not going to believe it…they take you from New Jersey..aaaall the way across to that big city New York…you know, New York?”

But even if you don’t work from home, you can be sure that when push comes to shove, it is the wife who will be the one to make the bed.

Swifers are on sale this week at our grocery store.