Various and Sundry

I am in no mood to wrestle with the waterfall calculation I'm supposed to finish by tomorrow. Here are some musings:

• Ash Wednesday has a way of sneaking up on me. I have to fight the urge to say, "Excuse me, do you know have some shmutz on your forehead?"
• As of today, this pregnancy is 35% complete. Woo hoo! I feel great now, except for the whole clothing issue. Plus, the results of the Ashkenazi panel/first trimester screening showed that I am a perfect genetic specimen. Well, from the hereditary disease standpoint. The poor kid is still going to be myopic and need orthodontia but better that than Tay-Sachs!
• We had our housing inspection yesterday. It was long and there are a lot of issues, but nothing drastic. Any work that we will insist they perform is work that any buyer would want. Like running water in the upstairs bathroom.
• So many articles about Mireille Guiliano in the NYT. What she has to say makes a lot of sense, but she is oh so Parisienne in the contempt she shows for everyone who does not follow her ethos or share her physique. This sentence I loved: "She says she is constantly appalled that American cocktail parties are filled with chatter about diets, a subject that shouldn't be deemed proper conversation." Amen! I loathe it when the conversation turns to compare-and-contrast my starvation diet to yours. When I am socializing I don't want to be lectured about how the avocado I am eating is the root of all evil and how I simply must cut my carbs. Gauche gauche gauche! If two women want to discreetly exchange information regarding their latest fad diet, which won't work any better then the one they were on last week (or, on the rare occasion one wants to ask a fit and sane woman what her secret is), they have every right to talk about it amongst themselves in much the same way they would ask for advice on how to treat a yeast infection. Not at the dinner table in front of everyone! But, for the record, just as I don't want to know how much money you make, I don't want to know your weight or how many calories you consumed yesterday.
• And now for something with substance: Ayelet Waldman has a great piece in Salon today. I love her.