I never intended to take a blogging break, but two weeks after my last post, it's clear that's what I did. My apologies. I may have an explanation for that, but for now, I'll just jump in with a few random notes to see if I can remember how to put a sentence together.

1) Not to start any rumors, but today for about ten minutes I was convinced that Lenny Kravitz must have died. Here's how that happened: I got back in the car after Kate and I had joined some friends at the zoo and couldn't find my i-Pod. I figured it was buried in my purse somewhere (which it was) so I turned on the radio instead. First channel was playing Lenny Kravitz. Not the biggest fan, so I skipped to another station, which was also playing Mr. Kravtiz. Third channel --- ALSO PLAYING A LENNY KRAVITZ SONG. Maybe I don't fully appreciate the Kravitz genius, but at the moment, the only possible explanation I could think of for this phenomenon was that he had died suddenly and I had missed the news, kind of like how I figured out Michael Jackson had died when "Bad" was being played everywhere I went one afternoon. When I got home I actually got online and checked CNN to see if I had missed something regarding Lenny, but he's fine. I'm sure you're relieved.

2) This is the time of year when I remember why I love living in Albuquerque. We just had a cold front come through, and the weather today was crisp and beautiful. In two weeks, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicks off, and Dan and I are probably looking forward to taking Kate to it more than we've looked forward to anything since we saw U2 in concert. This is what parenthood does to you, but I'm telling you, she is going to freak out. The highlight of her life right now is when we drive somewhere early in the morning and see hot air balloons in flight, which we do frequently since that's a big hobby in New Mexico. Seeing several hundred of them at once is going to be the greatest thing she's ever imagined, assuming we can convince her to get off the school bus we'll ride to the field from the Park and Ride lot, which is going to just rock her entire world, she's so in love with buses and trucks right now. I don't know if toddlers are the target audience for this event, but mine is going to be ecstatic. Thank you, Albuquerque. We have kind of a love/hate thing going on, but in October I heart you.

3) Our dryer is broken. Well, actually it's not broken, you can still turn it on, but when you do, it makes this AWFUL noise like WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH that has progressively gotten so loud that I am now afraid to turn it on for fear it's going to spontaneously combust. A repairman is coming tomorrow to assess the damage, but we're on Day Three since the laundry stopped getting done, so some of us are wearing ... interesting outfits. Dan and I are actually OK, but because Kate's outfits have an average life span of about three hours before they have to be washed, she's down to just about nothing. So today I did a load of her many many pink clothes and they are air drying all over the house. At least that's the idea. What's actually happening is that Kate is going around pulling them all down and trying to put them on. What can I say? She loves her clothes.

4) We are going to this wedding in three weeks and I am so happy! Kate also is in a state of near-hysterical excitement, because I stupidly told her there would be dancing at Hannah and Daniel's wedding, and now every time it comes up, she says "Hannah Daniel wedding dance! Dance! Dance!" And then she gets mad that we aren't dancing at the wedding right this minute. So heads up Hannah and Daniel, I don't know who is in charge of the music, but they better be prepared to bring the party, because Kate is ready. I'll try to keep her from dancing during your church ceremony.

5) Note to self: Write embarrassing rehearsal dinner speech for sister's wedding. Include photos.

6) I'm afraid I'm going to forget this if I don't write it down. The other day we were eating spaghetti at the table, and around the same time, Dan and I looked up to see Kate dropping spaghetti down the front of her shirt. "No! No! No!" we said And she looked at us and said "Pockeet!" Now I am wondering where my kid got the idea that the front of your shirt is a pocket. I suspect that she has been observing the popular New Mexico practice of large women using their bras as a place to hold their cell phones. (I'm not even kidding.) This is probably our fault for taking her to Wal-Mart, but I'm not sure why she decided spaghetti would also be an appropriate things to put down there. Now she's obsessed with having "pockeets," and I keep finding weird stuff that has fallen down the front of her diaper after she dropped it down her shirt and totally forgot about it.

So I think that covers some of the stuff that's been going on around here lately. I promise some real substance soon, or at least what passes for substance on my blog, and hope you're all doing well. Maybe I will come over later and use your dryer and you can tell me about it.