Sunday tidbits.

First of all, thanks so much for your help to May's Team! They collected $7675, surpassing their goal by $175. You are SO awesome! May's parents appreciate you SO much!

(Though you can still give if you want to and haven't yet!)

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I like this quote from Peter Gammons' ESPN column, which is Lou Piniella talking about why he chose to manage the Cubs, rather than the Yankees, this year: "First of all, Joe [Torre] should be the manager of the Yankees. But if I were to go back and we won, it would have been what we were supposed to do. If we win with the Cubs, it will be one of the great moments of all time."

Yes it will, Lou, yes it will.

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At lunch yesterday, I saw something that seemed really sad to me. It was a father, mother and their two young sons, enjoying a meal out together. What made this sad (at least to me) was that the perfectly-dressed, cute, thirty-something father and mother mostly sat silent. On the other side of the booth, their handsome young sons shared a seat from which they stared transfixedly at a small DVD player angled so only they could see it. There was no conversation. Just an interruption here and there to make sure some of the food made its way into the boys. What ever happened to conversation during a meal?

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I've been tagged by Kell to provide six examples of how weird I am. I'm a rebellious girl who is going to tempt fate and not tag anyone else, though you are of course welcome to provide your own list if you wish! Here’s how the system works: Each player starts with the "6 Weird Things about Me." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

1. I hate talking on the telephone at home. So much of my work day is spent on the phone, which interrupts my time spent on my larger writing projects, that I am typically "talked out" when I get home, so much so that I don't even answer the phone or make any calls at home.

2. At each restaurant I regularly visit, I have a favorite dish that I order every time.

3. I pride myself on packing in such as way that I do not have to check a bag when I fly. If something weird comes up that forces me to deviate from that plan (such as a hateful and snooty French American Airlines employee at Charles de Gualle airport, for instance), it is very upsetting to me.

4. I am freakishly organized at work, but oftentimes (not always) freakishly disorganized at home and in my personal life.

5. When I go to a movie theater with stadium seating, I always prefer the seat in the middle of the row at the bottom of the rising seats, so I can prop my feet on the railing in front of my row while watching the movie.

6. I haven't been able to bring myself to go home for Christmas since my Grammie died. She WAS Christmas. There was her gentle, friendly, listening, laughing spirit, her decorated home, her pies, the running train and its village under her Christmas tree, walking around in the snow in her huge back yard, driving through the woods and over the river on the way to and from her lovely house, our ritual breakfast of hot cocoa and buttered toast on the morning before I flew back here . . . all of it is locked into my heart and so far, I cannot imagine a Christmas at home without her.

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It was announced publicly on Friday that the Board of my firm has approved me as a potential shareholder, with the official vote of all shareholders to take place at the end of January (two days before I leave for Hawaii). However, they say this Board approval step was the last major hurdle to clear in the process. I am relieved and hopeful, while at the same time trying not to count chickens. Either way, Hawaii will be a great place to either be very happy or busily drowing one's sorrows!

This may be what they call "burying the lead."