Just some rather random and miscellaneous items that have entertained + captured me:

• Have you seen this hilarious item description on eBay by a mom selling the cards her kids tossed in the grocery cart when she wasn't looking? Just read the product description. Priceless (or, evidently, at least worth $142.51). I've been there, haven't you?

• I'm enchanted by Amy Butler patterns and fabrics. Enough, even, to get out my sewing machine and think about hooking it up. And that's saying something. Take a look at the skirt, the gumdrop pillows, the bags, the aprons. Now how do I get the thread through those dohickies on my machine again?

• I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth (got to practice my Spanish!) and the latest Bourne. And Mr. Bean. All good in their own special ways. I think someone should make a movie combining the best of all three--maybe Bourne's next challenge could be foiled by pesky Mr. Bean's antics, all set in WWII Spain with magical creatures and demons and chasing him instead of the CIA? The Bean/Bourne Labyrinth? I'm just putting it out there, any of you are welcome to steal this idea as long as you acknowledge me in your Oscar speech.
  

• As one of the only families in the neighborhood who are not going out of town this weekend, it looks like we're the go-to people for pet sitting. Now under our care: one guinea pig, one rabbit, and a bunch of cats. Kind of ironic, since one of the reasons we don't have a pet is G insists they are too much of a hassle when we want to travel. Apparently not when you know a family of suckers like us!
  

• Here's to inhabiting our days:

  "I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit" (Dawna Markova, found via ali edwards).

• Finally--not so random or miscellaneous but very important--my brother Chris sent his first photos from Mali. These are of the village where he'll be living once the language training is over at the end of September: on the Cliffs in Dogon country.