I made a slide show...possibly to put on my art site:

Both Merritt and Justin are very allergic to mosquito bites. And since we are finally getting the almost daily tropical rainstorms again after three years of drought, the mosquitoes are in full force. I hate putting Deet on them but it works. Unlike this shoddy product: Bugband. Do not waste your money on this seemingly clever, safe idea! It does nothing. I put one on Merritt's ankle and let him play outside in mosquito territory--he had thirteen bites in less than ten minutes and most of them were on his legs. So it's back to Deet.

Soooo, last night I watched The Secret. And yeah, it is as amazing as everyone says. I've tried some creative visualizing before and it definitely works, but it's a lot of effort. Mental effort which can be incredibly hard. It's an inspiring film, a little campy at times, but it got me out of a funk about a few things. Of course today I'm trying to use The Secret to get the boys to sleep more ("I'm so happy Justin is sleeping until 8 am every morning and taking a three hour nap in the afternoon"). I want to use it to try selling the real estate we had on the market but I don't know if it will work...here's why: I don't know if I really want to sell it. We bought two lots years ago with the idea that we might build our next house on them. Since then we realized that we like this house and this location so much that we probably never will build again in Palm Coast. So we listed the lots and nothing happened so we just let it expire--the market is really flooded here right now so it wasn't surprising. Now I am reminded that I could put a ton of mental energy to make those lots sell to get the money I've been pining for to redecorate this house plus some, but if deep down I am not ready to let go of that land then they will never sell.

Merritt is almost potty trained and Justin is at that stage of walking where they fall and hurt themselves hourly. Exciting times at the Rice household.

It's been a little while since I've posted...what have I been doing? Oh yeah, watching DVR of course! I've realized that I won't get my moneys worth out of Netflix anymore so I'm going to cancel my membership. Right now I've got five good movies saved in DVR that I haven't watched yet--so no point to Netflix anymore. I will print out my queue before I cancel though so I have a record of all the films I want to see.

What else? The family is finally over the cold from hell although as with all illnesses he acquires, Justin's subtly lingers. He is officially A Sickly Child. Cute as hell though and learning to walk. Says uh-oh, gives high fives, waves, squeals with delight when he sees his brother. The two of them are thick as thieves already and play together all day.

I got an idea for a novel and wrote five or six absolutely beautiful paragraphs in the middle of the night. Next day I tried to write some more and no dice. So the seeds of a story sit there, quite possibly some of the best writing I have ever done, most likely never to be finished. I'll give it some time.

I've been spending a lot of money and eating a lot of sweet junk. Need to let up on both.

I DVRed The Notorious Bettie Page--very enjoyable. Of course I loved it when she went to Florida and her life went from black & white to color. I found it refreshing that she overcame her obstacles and never played the victim; I hope that was the way it was for the real girl.



So what the hell is going on lately? Today I had to dump out 13 bags of Veggie Booty (I had bought a case of it online) and mail the wrappers to the company for a refund. Another salmonella recall. It seems like just the other day James the red engine had to be "sent away to the train doctor" because of lead paint! What's next--Elmo dolls stuffed with asbestos? Toxic waste in the Cheerios? Or perhaps pesticides in baby food...no wait, that's normal.

I turned 37 today. Last night Andy took me out for an amazing dinner at 95 Cordova in Saint Augustine. I was very much in the mood for upscale cuisine after watching Top Chef lately. Speaking of which, my birthday gift was DVR! Now I can record hours and hours of the best kids shows, movies that play only in the middle of the night on HBO, and just anything that I never get to watch anymore. It was a fantastic present. Tonight I'll be watching the movie I recorded this morning, Thank You For Smoking.

We got our first home exchange offer from a couple in Iceland, for Christmas time. As much as I would love to go to Iceland I don't think winter would be the best season.