The tuition is $200/wk. And they are closed the week after Christmas.

Ouch. We're talking full day care/preschool? Still 'spensive.

Got our report back from the speech therapist. Owen does have mild delays in receptive/expressive and pragmatic language skills with excellent prognosis for catching up with a little bit of therapy. Not devastating news.

My south is red clay roads, spanish moss dripping off the trees, biscuits made from scratch by the touchy-feely method, dog-washes (rain so hard it washes the dogs out from under the house), swimming holes with rickety roller skating rinks next to them, fried fish when the family comes for a visit, gekkos in the house, my aunt Sharon washing her hair in the flower garden, my dad and brothers setting off M-80s on the rusty garden swing....

Ouch. We're talking full day care/preschool? Still 'spensive.

Yup. Way spensive. I'm totally in the wrong business.

But, I really did like it and Em would probably love it, specially since one of her teachers will be a guy. She'll have someone to flirt and be coy with.

I'm offering tour guide services for anyone who needs a South.

Are you booked next June? What for, you ask? Oh, I will just happen to be in Dallas the third week of that month. I'll have to check the dates and exact location, but barring a change in jobs, I will be in Dallas next year and I will build in playtime to the schedule.

I am not! At least not as of yet, but you're more than welcome to book me.

I'll have to check the dates and exact location

Definately this. Playtime activities are much dependant on location.

Cracklin' Oat Bran:

Cash, that's great news. I'm so happy it's mild, and correctable.

She'll have someone to flirt and be coy with.

That one definitely takes after her mother.

Now I'm going to get lunch. My stomach has made it known that a cup of coffee this morning was just not enough.

That one definitely takes after her mother.

Whatever do you mean?

bats eyelashes

My South is live oaks and spanish moss, red clay hills and plantations. It's quail hunting, turkey hunting, sink holes and fresh springs. It's sandy soil, scrub oaks, saw palmettos, and long leaf pines that go right to the sandy beaches. It's shrimp boats, cast nets, it's the thrill of being old enough to go from cut bait to spinning rods. It's fried mullet, cheese grits, cole slaw, hush puppies, and ice tea. Fried fish fundraisers at churches, Wednesday Night Fellowship, summers spent in Vacation Bible school and at the beach. My South is pick ups on the side of the road selling watermelon, peaches, boiled peanuts, and fire wood. Nehi Peach, peach cobbler, mayhaw jelly.

I just had to explain to our 19 yr old intern who's a vegetarian that Chicken Ramen Noodles have actual chicken in them. Not a lot, it's about the third to last ingredient but "powdered cooked chicken" is definitly in there.

My South is cornbread without sugar; biscuits; grits; greens; field peas cooked with a ham end; pulled pork with some outside meat; green beans cooked with ham and topped with chopped raw onions; and muscadines and scuppernogs. It's where "peas" means crowder, black-eyed, field and related peas, and the other peas are English or green peas. It's where people still talk about "sweet milk," as opposed to buttermilk, and iced tea comes sweet unless you ask for unsweetened. It's making eye contact with strangers and smiling. It's also poor schools; crazy liquor laws; an unhealthy obsession with high school and college football; and going from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to your air conditioned office.

Ginger and I have very similar Souths. Add in people still calling margarine "oleo," red velvet cake made from scratch, old women asking who your people are, funeral parlor fans at church for the women who are hot flashing (because there is air conditioning for the rest of us), hypocritical church goers who bemoan the demon liquor on Sunday and get drunk on Friday, leaving bags of squash and tomatoes on your neighbor's porch because your garden is overflowing, finding bags of eggplant and cucumbers on your own porch, sitting in the kitchen shelling peas and pecans and snapping beans, watching the Gaither Gospel Hour on Saturday nights, and swimming in the lake.