No iPhone here. Shiny they are, but not on my want list. I'm on my computer 16 hours a day and it has all my needed toys. My phone is an old pocket pc that totally sucks battery power, but serves a needed function.

It is overcast here today so I am going to brave the great hot outdoors and do some weeding and pruning. Eeep!

Also had no groceries last night, but DH brought home yummy stuff compliments of some Rx company. He was doing some work at a big medical practice and they had a catered lunch of chicken marsala with angel hair pasta and a very yummy big salad bowl. They had enough leftovers for our family dinner and lunch today. It was quite a nice surprise. We spend a lot of time in medical offices and half the time they have free lunch (and gooooood stuff) from some pharmaceutical rep. I need to time our visits better...

Sox, tons of ~ma to your DH! That sounds miserably stressful. Keep us updated.

This week has been crazy filled with Buffista meals, all of which I have criminally failed to report on until just now:

• Wednesday: Lunch at Delancey Street with Katarina Bee and her in-laws, who adore kids and offered a free lunch in exchange for the privilege of an hour in Matilda's company (I hope that doesn't make me her lunch pimp). After a brief warming-up period, Matilda was big giant bundles of TEH CUTE and TEH CONFIDENT, walking all over the restaurant and smiling at people and patting her reflection in the big copper coffee bar at one end, causing a ripple effect of swoons and twinging uteri all around the room.

Katie Bee's in-laws are excellent people, a dedicated crafter and a retired GP who insists on calling himself a retired quack, and Matilda was comfy enough to give them facepats before we parted. Then, bonus Katie Bee time chez Zmayhem while she reassembled a necklace Matilda had bitten in half and pondered Matilda in her silliest hat, a tin funnel from the kitchen, as a consequence of which we may be getting a little Tin Man costume for Matilda next week.

Yesterday: Lunch with billytea! And Hec, Suzi, vw, juliana and megan in her spiffy aubergine coat, with a special guest appearance by Java Cat, fresh off the ferry from San Rafael. Matilda wore her pumpkin costume and left a trail of bodies in her wake all the way from our neighborhood to the Ferry Building, where she turned out to like billytea quite a bit (photographic proof to be posted later).

Then: Dinner with vw! Which I actually assembled myself, in one of my twice-yearly forays into the kitchen for actual cooking! Followed by Pushing Daisies and lots of squeeing over Matilda's many excellences (with detours into lots of squeeing over how incredibly well vw's conference is going and how much support and enthusiasm her thesis is garnering).

Buffista-related goals for the next month or so: Game night with megan, lunch with Lee (n.b.: Matilda is much less fussy and squiggly and much charminger if you can get her past the noon mark), Monkey Noodle, see if I can entice any localistas into dressing up and going to the Dickens Fair for high tea (ISTG I'll never work there again, but dressing up for tea and waltzing is fun fun fun).

So jealous! I may feel comforted with pictures.

Much ~ma for Sox and DH. Stress relief ~ma variety.

Trying to work on the house today since it shows the signs of massive neglect from working all the time. Really bad.

Laura is me. except that I'm going to a rugby game and pretending that my house isn't a freaking disaster.

Aimee, you're performing?

Sadly, no. I have smoked and drunk away too much of the script to perform it well enough any more. I will be in the audience, Time Warping and wishing I could throw cards for sorrow and cards for pain.

I am so not brave enough to dress like you are just to be an audience member. I'm a big chicken.

You are my hero. No, seriously.

Was it fun? Where are you?? I know what time it is in this time zone, missy!

Sox, much ~ma to your DH

So jealous of all the SF fun.

Has anyone here tried drying herbs in the oven? I did some googling and we're giving in a try, but I wanted to know if anyone here has any advice.

sj, I dried bunches of lavender in an oven, but that was many, MANY years ago. Er, in England. In my friend's stove.

....but it worked!

Okay, that wasn't helpful. What are you drying?

I haven't tried it sj, but I'll bet the house will smell great.

I do it. Lowest setting you can manage (200?), check frequently (every 5-10 minutes) - it's easy to burn them. Goes faster than you think. Spread them thinly on a baking sheet.

Okay, that wasn't helpful. What are you drying?

Thyme, oregano, and sage, all from Nora's garden. We've used a good amount of them, but there is still some left, and it seems a shame to waste it, so I figured I would give this a try.

I haven't tried it sj, but I'll bet the house will smell great.

It does, as do my hands after arranging everything on the baking sheets.