To Market, To Market...

Call me crazy (you wouldn't be the first) but I just gotta have my Farmers Market Fix...even on this - one of the coldest mornings on record. Since there is no year-round outdoor farmers market in Harford County, I am off on an hour long trek to the 32nd Street Market in Baltimore. (FYI this is the ONLY year-round outdoor Farmers Market in Maryland, except for Tacoma Park).

As cold as it was, the place was jumping as always and I could smell the Ethiopian Delights as I opened my car door. The hot foods - literally & figuratively - were the big sellers this morning...wild mushroom consume, chicken curry, still-warm tea cakes, as were the breads, spices, cheeses, eggs, milks, and Zekes Coffee of course. I left there with several of Barbara's (Neopol) quiches and one of Harmony's vegan pizzas for a quick healthy dinner later that evening.

As I made my way back through the crowd to my vehicle, I looked around and wondered 'why can't we have this?'. Bel Air could certainly benefit from a year-round market. The downtown businesses would certainly reap the rewards of bring shoppers into the area on a regular basis. Take a lesson from this market and have artists, musicians, and various year-long vendors in addition to the regular 'seasonal' farmer types.

Then I notice that they have OUR local farms selling here...One Straw Farm, Brooms Bloom Dairy, as well as others from PA and Glen Rock and Westminster and Elkton - surely Bel AIr would be a great asset to them as well...perhaps on a Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday morning?

Just a thought...

MLK Winter Wonderland!

SNOW!!!!!!

Spent the day reading (planning a spring weekend in DC), warming by a cozy fire, making brownies and hot cocoa while the kids played outside.

I couldn't think of a better way to end a winter holiday weekend than this...

Below is my garden/potager... resting peacefully like the rest of us this long cold winter.

(I can hardly wait 'til it comes to life in the next few months...)

To Cut, Or Not To Cut...That Is The Question (at least for most of my friends)

To all my 40+ girlies out there (you know who you are!) contemplating needles & knives to delay the inevitable aging process... DON'T DO IT!!!


I think any man, or woman, would agree that good health (gotta keep strong, energetic, limber) and confidence are far more sexy than having a smooth, non-expressive forehead! (And if he is that shallow__ move on sister!)


Having had 2 of the 3 forms of skin cancer in 1/2 dozen spots (3 of which were on my face!) and one that required major surgery - I am a daily wearer of sunscreen, 365 days a year. Spending my teens, growing up on the water...every sunny day was spent in a bathing suit in the sun. I am paying the price now. You would be surprised how many women I know in their 40's & 50's who still TAN! Some even go to tanning booths with their teenage daughters!


I think having daughters makes this subject of 'fixing' oneself more difficult...and the best thing you can teach them, besides taking good care of their mind & their heath, is self-love and acceptance. If they see us being self-critical, worrying about a few pounds/wrinkles/cellulite/stretch marks/etc...they will grow up with that need to be 'perfect' like mommy. I just believe the power lies with us, our generation of self confident women, to make it OK to have pale skin, tiny lips, a big nose, some smile lines, and a dimpled ass - whatever it is that makes us all unique. (BTW: Take a good look at some women, and a few men, in a certain age bracket from a particullar west coast city,...THEY are all beginning to look the same??? Scary!)

I am usually not one to judge - I just think you all are perfect the way you are. At our age we need to focus on what really matters from the inside out. I won't even mention the health/safety risks, or costs! Spend that $$ on a 2nd honeymoon or hot vacation with your significant other - definitely more sexy!

Don't worry about a few lines, some sagging skin, a little cellulite, and stretch marks... they all tell a tale - of nursing babies and pregnancies, incredible vacations in the tropics, staying up with sick children, worrying about a loved one, and waaay too many late night parties! We worked hard for them.

We should embrace it all and learn to grow old GRACEFULLY.


Well, maybe not gracefully...









(I have earned these lines and I don't plan on erasing them.)

Love At First...Bite?

Having not read the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer, but having a girlfriend and daughter who were clearly (and unashamedly ?) obsessed by this teeny-bopper phenomenon__ I went to the midnight premiere of Twilight to see what all the hype (HYSTERIA!) was about.

No matter what your take on the books or the movie was – one thing I think we all can agree on…Vampires are hot! There is nothing like the story of forbidden love: the building of sexual tension, the temptation of giving in to one’s greatest desires, the thought of being taken into total submission… I am getting al worked up just typing about it!

There is a price to be paid for such pleasure (no, I don’t mean the $9.75 ticket price), but the ultimate price…your mortality, your total being. (Hey, don’t most women risk it all for love anyway?)

In reality, the thought of someone loving us so completely that he will forgo his every instinct and be completely satisfied with just lying by our side and watching us sleep___ come on!

'Religulous'....Hilarious!

The crazy-funny but thought provoking documentary starring Bill Maher was just the fix I needed. Growing up an ever-questioning, somewhat rebellious Catholic myself - this film was worth every penny the Rotunda charged me. I actually wish it had been more anti-religious and more controversial, like Maher tends to be on his HBO's Real Time show. The film basically stated the obvious, that all religion is man-made and that no one really KNOWS what is out there/up there.

In this age of global 'crusades' for holy land and oil...in the name of one god or another...we should all take a few steps back to question how much of what we believe in is based on oppression, hatred, exclusion, ignorance and greed. ?

Fells Point Fun Fest...No Longer a Fan!

Big (disappointing!) changes since I was last here.

I know many years ago, the city of Baltimore stopped allowing free-flow street drinking within the festival boundaries…But why, I do not know.

This new ‘beer garden’ concept does not work – at least not for the families and responsible adults that patronize the businesses and vendors this particular weekend. In the beginning, the beer garden along Broadway, just outside the pubs, amongst the vendors, wasn’t so bad. But now, the beer garden is 4 blocks from the heart of the Festival, with no shade, on a stone parking lot, and not exactly a ‘family welcoming’ environment.

(This is what the festival should be all about...supporting local musicians & artists! How can we see these guys if we are 4 blocks away playing beer pong/flip cup in the garden?)

To make matters worse, when I decided to grab a pit beef sandwich for me & my boys from a vendor @ Broadway & Thames, I also decided that a great Clipper City draft would compliment the food quite well. Unfortunately I had to leave my sandwich and boys outside with Mr Festival as I fought my way thru the incredibly concentrated crowd in and around the bar…(FYI: back in the ‘olden days’, this wasn’t the case as there would have been beer vendors throughout the festival or you could pop in/out of pubs, grab a beer & continue on about the festivities)..23 minutes later I emerge back outside and was forced to sit – with my children, instead of along the water’s edge as planned – I had to sit on a street curb, just outside Shuckers Pub, amongst the drunken crowd within a little imaginary boundary that the bouncer would permit. We were treated like a caged animal and yelled at when I proceeded to leave to find a recycling bin for my EMPTY plastic beer cup.

I understand pub owners don’t want beer distributors/vendors too close to their facilities…then allow the pubs to set up their own outside bars. The festival ends each day @ 7pm, and from my experience – only us ‘families’ head home. Everyone else we saw stumble from the beer garden - heads straight for the closest watering hole for more of the same.

City of Baltimore, I BEG YOU…treat your festival patrons with the same respect ALL other festivals around the world do - let us wander your streets (albeit barricaded streets) at a leisurely pace, spending our hard earned $$$, all the while enjoying the company of a frothy pint. It’s the European/American way!

(And it sure beats chug-a-lugging while sitting on a dirty street curb)

Battle in...Baltimore?

First let me begin by saying...having to go online to 'demand' a movie be shown in a big city near you is pretty shitty. I certainly had imagined (hoped?) that certain 'artsy' and up-and-coming theaters in the Baltimore area would show the incredible documentary 'Battle in Seattle'.

I don't know what was more powerful __ the movie itself or the message. Both were phenominal! No matter what your opinion(or lack there of) with regards to NAFTA or the WTO,...the fundamental message of this documentary was the deterioration of the First Amendment to The Constitution of the United States and the right of her citizens.

Demand this film be shown in your area too at http://battleinseattlemovie.com/