Just a few things I’m loving right now:

I Love You, Stinky Face – made even better by the fact that the little boy in the book calls his mother “Mama,” just like A. does. Plus, the story makes the little man laugh out loud, and by the time I get to the last page, he has his arms wrapped around my neck. Can’t beat it.

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake (thanks, Barb, for the recommendation) – somehow it manages to be filling but not too heavy. I used whole wheat penne pasta, and it rocked.

My beloved MSU Bulldogs making it to the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals – and playing Clemson this weekend at picture-perfect Dudy Noble Field.

These sandals – OH MY WORD AT THE COMFORT.

These environmentally-safe cleaning products – everything I’ve tried smells great and works beautifully – and the lavender disenfecting spray was a godsend when A. had his last stomach virus.

These popsicles are TASTY (I love the no sugar added tangerine).

I still think this lotion is divine. Now that we’re in full-fledged sandal season, I’ve been using it on my feet – and it works better than anything I’ve ever tried. As you may have gathered, I’m a fan.

I have SO loved reading your comments about our Martie Takes Manhattan trip (which probably won’t be until the end of the year, just FYI) – and now I can’t help but wonder:

What is the one place in the world you would absolutely love to visit but haven’t yet? What’s your dream destination?

For what it’s worth, here are my top three:

1) London
2) San Francisco
3) Madrid

I am proud to announce that I slept until 9 o’clock this morning.

Technically, though, that’s only 7 o’clock California time, so I’m not really a lazy slug after all.

Technically.

And I actually had a dream last night that I got to do a couple of things I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

The first goal I realized in my dream was that I found some terry cloth yoga pants. They were hanging next to the cash register at Walmart, and they were white, and they were soft as down. Except they weren’t down, of course, because they were terry cloth. And they didn’t have my size, either, so I just bought a medium and figured that maybe if I ate nothing but salad for the next year, I could wear them. Plus, they only cost $9.53, so I could hardly refuse.

Welcome to the inner-workings of my subconscious, everyone. It must be such a fun place to visit.

By the way, my terry cloth yoga pants obsession stems from the fact that Alex has a pair of terry cloth shorts, and they are adorable. And while I know I’m not, you know, four, I think having a pair of lightweight terry cloth sweatpants / yoga pants to put on after a shower would be oh-so-delightful, because then my legs wouldn’t get as itchy as they normally do when the air hits my damp skin.

These issues are important to me.

The second goal I achieved in my dream is that I planned a trip for my mother-in-law and me.

Please permit me to explain.

When Mama and Martha were here a couple of weeks ago, we had a long conversation about places we’d like to visit. At the time D. and I had our California trip on the horizon, and planning to go one place always fuels my desire to go to Lots Of Other Places. I start to think about all the cities I’d like to visit (London, Rome, Madrid), and because I’m such a practical girl I start to think about all the groceries I’ll stop buying in order to contribute to my travel fund.

I’m sure you can recognize that rationing my family’s food so that I can spend a long weekend in Spain makes total sense. And, I might add, is completely in keeping with Proverbs 31.

Ahem.

So anyway, Mama, Martha, D. and I started talking about places we’d like to visit.

Mama doesn’t really like to travel, so her list was pretty much confined to the cities where her children live, and that was really just a courtesy, God love her, because there’s absolutely nowhere she’d rather be than at home. She’ll happily have 100 people over to her house and cook a four-course meal for every one of them – but she hates to fly, doesn’t love staying in hotels, and isn’t so much for sightseeing.

Instead, her idea of a vacation is for Daddy to leave town for a few days so that she can rearrange furniture, dust baseboards and iron clothes to her heart’s content without having to stop and prepare meals for somebody else.

Which would be pretty fun for me, too, truth be told. My OCD-housekeeping side does like to come out and play every once in while, you know.

D. doesn’t want to visit anywhere outside the continental U.S., and in addition to that, he has absolutely no desire to visit New York City, which is probably my favorite place in the whole world.

Besides sitting contentedly by his side, of course.

I think D.’s reluctance to visit NYC is the result of watching one too many “Law and Order” marathons on A&E. In his mind there is a body in every alley, a criminal around every corner, and only two detectives in the whole city who can bring the evildoers to justice. Besides that, he sees NYC as a place with a murky, gray haze that never goes away (THANK YOU, “Law & Order” cameramen), a place where you can never find a moment’s quiet because you’re too busy trying to shield yourself from All The Gunfire when you’re not scrubbing like crazy to remove All The Grime from your person.

And the fact that he’s (OH, PARDON THE PUN IN ADVANCE, I BEG YOU) dead wrong is of no consequence, really. The bottom line is that he simply does not want to visit the Big Apple. And that is fine. Because I do not want to listen to podcasts about Macs or read magazines about computers. Sometimes it’s just better to accept your differences and move on.

(How? How do I ever find my way back to my original topic? How?)

So after hearing about Mama wanting to go, well, nowhere and D. wanting to stay far, far away from NYC, I was curious about Martha’s perspective on the whole travel thing. She hasn’t taken many trips in the last few years because of Sissie’s declining health, and I wondered where she might like to visit now that Sissie has full-time care.

And wouldn’t you just know it? She wants to go to New York City.

She does! And what I didn’t realize, prior to our dinnertime conversation, is that she has never been there before.

Which can only lead me to one conclusion:

WE ARE SO GOING.

Sister is going to help me plan the trip and will be our official tour guide. I’m hoping my sister-in-law Janie will be able to go, too. And if any of you do some sort of documentary filming on the side, you might want to think about joining us. Because MY WORD! WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THESE BUILDINGS? MY WORD! HAVE YOU EVER? I MEAN, HAVE YOU EVER? MY WORD!

Martie Takes Manhattan, y’all.

So, where are all the nice people who have been preparing my meals for the last five days?

Because I have enjoyed all the nice people preparing my meals.

And strangely enough, those people are not in my house tonight.

I miss them.

So now I need to figure out what the cook-in-residence (that would be me) is going to be serving this week, and I need to make out a grocery list, and then I need to gear up for a morning of grocery shopping that will require reacclimating Alex to a world where there are no animated characters roaming the streets, no special effects when you speed down a hill, no parades at the end of the day. Which means that I need to plan some fun things for our week – just so he’s not BORED OUT OF HIS MIND by, you know, Wednesday.

It was a whole bunch of fun, y’all. Thanks for letting me share it with you.

So here’s a four year old’s initial reviews of some of the attractions at The Land of Large Mouse:

Dumbo – [squeals of glee]

King Arthur’s Carousel – [big grin]

Teacups – [hysterical laughter]

Matterhorn – “I want to ride it again! PLEEEEEEASE?”

Alice in Wonderland – “That was fun, Mama!”

Space Mountain – “THAT WAS MY FAVORITE! It was a VERY! FAST! TRAIN!”

Thunder Mountain Railroad – “THAT WAS MY FAVORITE! It was a VERY! FAST! TRAIN!”

Pirates of the Caribbean – “That was pretty cool!”

Haunted Mansion – “Can we go back to ToonTown?”

It’s A Small World – “LOOK AT ALL THE EXIT SIGNS! AND LOOK! ANOTHER EXIT SIGN!”

Mulholland Madness – “I want to ride it again! Can we PLEASE ride it again?” (We rode it four times.)

Tower of Terror – “It made me very sad. Those elevators made me very sad, Mama.” (We knew we were pushing our luck with this one – but he was bound and determined to ride it.)

Jumpin’ Jellyfish – “Those parachutes made me VERY HAPPY, Daddy! Can I ride it again? PLEEEEEEASE? It made me so happy.” (We rode it three times.)

Sun Wheel – “We are up VERRRRRRY high!”

Soarin’ Over California – [completely ambivalent] “What are we doing next, Mama?”

Grizzly River Rampage – “I got VERRRRY wet! And I want to ride again! Let’s ride again!” (He rode it again.)

Playhouse Disney – “LOOK AT UNCLE TODD!”

Yeah he did. And we got the whole thing on video.

Block Party – “I had SO much fun! I had a WHOLE BUNCH OF FUN at that parade!”

Also: New Marti jumped right in the interactive part of the block party, which made ALL of us squeal and clap with glee:

Oh my word we had fun, y’all.

So perhaps I will shower now and start to consider the possibility of choosing to walk again. My right foot is VERY, VERY ANGRY with me if the throbbing that is located down around the toe area is any indication.

But don’t worry – I will push through the pain and MAKE SOME MORE MEMORIES, DADGUMMIT.

Because that is what the Large Mouse wants.

And I am happy to oblige him.

Silly me.

I was completely oblivious to the fact that hand-washing requires, you know, instructions.

Also, today we saw CHARACTERS! MANY CHARACTERS!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go chop off my aching feet with an axe and climb into bed for a night of peaceful slumber.

See y’all tomorrow!