If there’s one thing Southern gals know how to do, it’s gab. Silly or serious, all it takes is a glass of iced tea and time. Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, and make yourself comfy…get ready to dish!
Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
mimi isn’t big on April Fool’s Day pranks (although the rubber band around the sink sprayer trick has proven reliable for years now), but foolery is something else entirely. Spending four years as the designated Court Jester at my college’s annual Christmas Madrigal Dinner didn’t happen by accident, you know. Neither was being cast as Puck in a freshman year production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Guess I was just born to wear jingle shoes and a floppy hat–or, in Puck’s case, horns. Enjoy the foolery–and watch out for that sink...
read moreSpring Break
Four denizens of Chez mimi with no alarm clocks to set. Three new books waiting to be read. Two bare feet. One top down on Inga, the convertibeetle. Spring Break at last!
read moreThe Bed List (Late Night Edition)
DVRs were made for faces like these. Since mimi is famous in her circle of friends for her “social narcolepsy,” aka, falling dead asleep at 9 pm while sitting upright, the DVR is her direct line to membership in Craig Ferguson’s Robot Skeleton Army. How many things can we adore about Craig aside from that lovely Glaswegian accent? Those twinkly eyes! The cheekiness of his monkey! The things IN HIS PANTS. He’s hilarious and smart and funny and sexy and all mimi can say is that she’d like to DVR life and get him out of those pants. (Did she say...
read moreGirls’ Night In
Tomorrow is the church Men’s Retreat, so Mr. Man will be spiriting Frick away for an overnight and a cookout. While they’re shivering in a pup tent in 30-odd degree weather, Frack and I will be getting our X chromosome on.Admittedly, mimi doesn’t stray far into the female end of the spectrum. I somehow missed the Cute Shoes and Darling Accessories alleles in my genetic profile. Pink has never been a favorite color–unless it’s on something from Lilly Pulitzer, and then I’m all over it. But that’s my latent preppy side emerging, not my...
read moreOrange Blossom Special
The key scene in Marcel Proust’s À la recherce du temps perdu, or Remembrance of Things Past, is the madeleine episode, where the smell and taste of a cookie transports the narrator back to his childhood. (You can see a cartoon version of this famous French scene in the Pixar film Ratatouille). This happens to me every spring when the orange trees bloom.When we first moved to Central Florida, we moved into what was left of an orange grove. The houses on our street had been carved out of a larger grove, as had all the houses in the...
read moreHousewifely
No school today (thanks, Presidents Washington and Lincoln!), so you know what that means…chore time! Days off like this come so infrequently that they often devolve into catch-up-on-errands free-for-alls. You know, compulsive counter wiping, or cooking, or laundrygasms. That sort of thing.Want to know a dirty secret? We kinda likes it, Precious. mimi rolls out of the house at 6:45 every day to get to work, so having a day where I can sleep in until about 7 am feels slightly naughty. That’s probably why I spend the rest of the day in a...
read moreHappy Valentine’s Day
It’s de rigeur for those of us who write for women to also write something about the girly holiday of Valentine’s Day. Why girly, I hear you ask? Because most of the noise surrounding this day issues from men who are not only expected to show up with roses and dish out major bucks for a romantic dinner á deux, but also being guilted into buying jewelry or making other grandiose gestures to somehow prove their love. On this day, or else the whole love thing just goes down the toilet, apparently.To which I heartily throw the bullshit...
read moreThe Bed List
Who would have thought the geeky handyman on The Facts of Life would have turned out this pretty? Although there’s something cosmically unfair about any one human male being this handsome, it would be far worse if all that handsome came in a dumb package–and this one is certainly not dumb. He’s a passionate advocate, a smart businessman, and a clever director (did anyone see Syriana coming after Batman in the infamous nipple suit?). And did I mention he’s handsome?I’ll have the George, with a side of George, and a bit of George for...
read moreKitchen Smackdown, Family Style
Today the church music ministry held its annual cookoff. This year’s twist? Take a firefighter favorite recipe, make it your own, and submit it for judging by actual firefighters. Mama, sis, and yours truly all entered–different categories, as it turns out–and brought home two wins! My mother is an excellent cook, so I was not surprised at all when her version of Low Tide Chicken won first place in the main dish category. I was a little surprised to hear my name called for best side dish, though, considering the number of people...
read moreHow Not to Write a Novel
Thanks to agent Kristin Nelson for this gem! Actually, I don’t mind that insanity abounds like this–makes actual writers like me look like we know what we’re doing!
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