I was supposed to go to a party tonight with my sister and her friends, but I was way too tired, so I'm eating the collards and black-eyed peas I was going to bring.

JZ, The New Look for 2010.

cute! But JZ can smile in pictures, really she has a super duper smile.

mac and I had BK for lunch, then both got a pair of shoes at Payless, he got a new pair of size 10! pants, saw a friend, then grocery shopped. I am cooking, have marinara sauce simmering over turkey meatballs, sausage queso dip melting together in the crockpot, a mix of beans soaking after a quick boil, and arepas con queso in the skillet getting brown. I did prep work for making Ethiopian food tomorrow. I forgot to buy butter, so must go to the store tomorrow so I can clarify that with all the spices I mixed up. Then it will be lentils and split peas and chicken cooked up in various Wat mixtures.

now more champagne.

Graaah. I just sent email to an eBay seller letting them know that the "brand-new, sealed" DVD I purchased from them was so badly scratched that it wouldn't play, and that I want a refund. I also gently suggested that they should talk to their DVD supplier, because the image quality of the cover and included booklet makes the DVD look like a pirated copy. Which is me being very polite, because it is obvious that the damn thing is a pirated copy: the printed graphics on Disney Masterpiece editions are never that fuzzy or badly color-corrected.

HAWT! JZ, you look amazing! I mean, not that you weren't awesome before, but I just love that pic!

cute! But JZ can smile in pictures, really she has a super duper smile.

50s Vogue models don't smile.

JZ, you look fantastic!

I'm all blushy at the compliments. Blushy, but not smiley, because lately all my smiley pictures look profoundly double-chinned, way out of proportion to the way I look in real life; I've never been more than averagely photogenic, and always had a fairly large number of pictures so wrong they warranted prompt destruction, but it's gotten noticeably worse over the last year. The Vogue-ish not quite smiling pictures are practically the only ones lately that look at all like me, to me anyway.

Does this happen for anyone else? You look at the majority of pictures of yourself and you don't so much think God, I'm ugly as Who the hell is that? That doesn't look like me, it looks like someone who vaguely resembles me if you squint.

Almost hoppin johns time here!!! There were no good looking greens at the (not so) superfresh so no collards. Hope that doesn't screw up our luck!

JZ, yes.

But the rest of us like to see you smile, so. Later on, you'll wish there were more photos of your smile.

H is having chills and an urpy tummy and will be having plain rice for dinner. I'm finishing up the hummus and having celery and cottage cheese, a selection of Calamatta, green, black, and variously stuffed olives, and fresh mozzarella. What? I love all those things, right? Begin as you mean to go on, I say.