An Open Letter to Andy Roddick

Dear Andy,

I hope that today, instead of mourning your loss to Roger Federer, you are celebrating the irrepressible skill, talent, and artistry that you exhibited during the men’s finals at Wimbledon. You are an extraordinary athlete, and it was a thrill to see you play what must have been some of the best tennis of your life.

And yes…one day soon, your name will be up there as a winner of the tournament.

Best Girlfriends

There are really no words for photos like these. Jill and Vicki have been part of my life for years and years and years, and I’d be lost without them.

Tracy Hutson’s Book-Launch Party

Writing a book with Tracy Hutson was more of a delight that a project. Of course, we did lots of hard work. Of course, time was always flying by far too quickly. But from the very start, it was clearly a collaboration that meant a lot to both of us.

All of our passion and energy came to fruition last Thursday night, when Tracy officially launched Feathering the Nest at a party at Calypso Home in Santa Monica. To hold the book in our hands…to hear the enthusiasm of people who were anxious to buy it…to indulge in a sense of sweet, smug satisfaction–I’m not sure there’s a way to describe what that feels like. So let’s just have another glass of champagne, shall we?

Labor of Love

When I bought the house in Nevada City in 1996, I was a single mom with two little boys. The front garden, put in by the previous owners, was a tangle of junipers and a few strategically placed flowers. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either, so I hired a landscape company to maintain it and adopted a what-the-heck-it’s-green attitude.

And then I met Joseph, and everything changed.

Joseph is known throughout our neighborhood as being the best thing that ever happened to our garden. He yanked out the junipers, put in a small lawn, built walls and terraces, and planted masses of flowers and shrubs. Areas that were previously designated as Mother Nature’s raw goods became part of the landscape. It was like the part in “The Wizard of Oz” where everything goes from black and white to color.

Now, with the arrival of spring, his hard work pays off in abundance.

Marco and Me

There’s something about this photo that I love. It was taken outdoors…in the dark…with a cell-phone camera. My husband accidentally hit the zoom button as he was trying to take a full-length shot…hence the cropped faces. But Marco’s cheek against my temple…our smiles…the tangible connection between us…those things resonate for me.

Kim Vo Salon

Last Thursday was the grand opening of Kim Vo’s newest salon in the Montage in Laguna Beach, and the party was magnificent. The poolside setting with a backdrop of the ocean was nothing short of sublime. The bar featured drinks with names like VoTini and NuVo, and hors d’oeuvres included vegetable salad rolls with hoisin dipping sauce, raw ahi in savory little cones, crab lollipops, and skewered fruit with mint syrup.

The only thing I would have changed: the fact that I have devil eyes in this photo with Russell and Kim.

Yep…It’s spring.

To some, the appearance of daffodils marks the onset of spring. To others, it’s the soft green buds on the trees. To still others, it’s the temperature gauge consistently hitting at or above 60 degrees. To me, spring is heralded by the blossoms that appear on the flowering cherry tree in our front yard.

Year after year, I can count on it to blossom in time for Easter. It doesn’t remain in full bloom for very long, but even as its majesty is dwindling, it delivers a swan song of petals that blanket the ground like pink snow.

Spring? I think not.

Yesterday was the first day of spring…officially, anyway. But here in Northern California, it looks more like January.

Taking a Hammer to Grammar

The following article was forwarded to me by my friend Kim. I don’t know whether to be frightened or furious.

It’s a catastrophe for the apostrophe in Britain

Purists lament city’s dropping of punctuation mark from street signs

LONDON – On the streets of Birmingham, the queen’s English is now the queens English. England’s second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they’re confusing and old-fashioned. But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark. It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as “St. Pauls Square” or “Acocks Green.” This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all. Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city’s transport scrutiny committee, said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether “Kings Heath,” a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe. “I had to make a final decision on this,” he said Friday. “We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do.” ‘They confuse people’ Mullaney hopes to stop public campaigns to restore the apostrophe that would tell passers-by that “Kings Heath” was once owned by the monarchy. “Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed,” he said. “More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don’t want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it.” But grammarians say apostrophes enrich the English language. “They are such sweet-looking things that play a crucial role in the English language,” said Marie Clair of the Plain English Society, which campaigns for the use of simple English. “It’s always worth taking the effort to understand them, instead of ignoring them.” Mullaney claimed apostrophes confuse GPS units, including those used by emergency services. But Jenny Hodge, a spokeswoman for satellite navigation equipment manufacturer TomTom, said most users of their systems navigate through Britain’s sometime confusing streets by entering a postal code rather than a street address. She said that if someone preferred to use a street name — with or without an apostrophe — punctuation wouldn’t be an issue. By the time the first few letters of the street were entered, a list of matching choices would pop up and the user would choose the destination. Grammarians revolt A test by The Associated Press backed this up. In a search for London street St. Mary’s Road, the name popped up before the apostrophe had to be entered. There is no national body responsible for regulating place names in Britain. Its main mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, which provides data for emergency services, takes its information from local governments and each one is free to decide how it uses punctuation. “If councils decide to add or drop an apostrophe to a place name, we just update our data,” said Ordnance Survey spokesman Paul Beauchamp. “We’ve never heard of any confusion arising from their existence.” To sticklers, a missing or misplaced apostrophe can be a major offense. British grammarians have railed for decades against storekeepers’ signs advertising the sale of “apple’s and pear’s,” or pubs offering “chip’s and pea’s.” In her best-selling book “Eats, Shoots and Leaves,” Lynne Truss recorded her fury at the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy “Two Weeks Notice,” insisting it should be “Two Weeks’ Notice.” “Those spineless types who talk about abolishing the apostrophe are missing the point, and the pun is very much intended,” she wrote.

25 Random Things about Me

1. I have to start my day with coffee.

2. I love crossword puzzles.

3. I hate raisins.

4. I wish I had a dog.

5. I’m incredibly anal.

6. Airplane take-offs and turbulence scare me.

7. Great fashion and interior design make my heart race.

8. I’d love to have an apartment in Santa Monica.

9. I’m absolutely soothed by a fabulous glass of chardonnay, perfectly chilled.

10. I’ve always wished I had a sister.

11. My professional goal is to collaborate with a baby boomer actress on her autobiography.

12. It’s been awesome to watch my sons grow into men.

13. I’m learning not to say yes when I mean no.

14. I’m trying to be less critical…or at least less verbal about it.

15. It’s a treat to hear the president’s voice on the radio and not rush to turn it off.

16. I love receiving royalty cheques.

17. I was once in an airplane that fell out of the sky.

18. I saw Elton John in Barneys in Beverly Hills.

19. Shopping is one of my preferred pastimes.

20. I love, love, love the ocean.

21. Being physically strong is important to me.

22. I’d be lost without my girlfriends.

23. I eat really, really healthfully.

24. I love being Italian.

25. I have a weakness for shoes and purses.