Girls Night Out Part I

On Valentine's weekend I got a rare girls night out where I stayed out pretty late... gotta love the husband for that one. My good friend Von and her friend Beth and I went to see a play that my high school English teacher wrote down at the New Theatre in Coral Gables. It was the world premier of Dr. Sandra Riley's "The Hour of the Tiger."

Afterwards, we went to the Wallflower Gallerly to document what could be it's last couple of months in its home. The Wallflower Gallery is a cool little art and music venue occupying the upstairs floor of an old building downtown. Because the owner of the building really doesn't have much interest in fixing it up, the Wallflower Gallery may be forced to move because of the leaking roof and other structural problems. The Gallery has been there 13 years and is a real hidden gem of Miami's cultural and artistic community.

The Wallflower Gallery looking back from the stage

The shop at the Wallflower carries all local artists' work

The bathroom doors

One of the current art exhibits... interesting.

Then we went on to the Transit Lounge where we saw this really great band from Tampa called The Basiqs. They were like a cross between The Beastie Boys and Run DMC. Good Times!!

Beth and Von

Members of The Basiqs

Me and the lead singer

Olivia and her "Collections"

Olivia is fascinated with lining things up and organizing her toys into "collections." At first I thought to myself, "Gee, she's a little young to have already picked up on our OCD tendencies." But then someone told me that it is perfectly normal for kids her age to want to "line" everything up and that it is a good developmental sign. You never know when or where one of Olivia's new "artworks" has been installed. You might walk into the bathroom to find all the toys from the bottom vanity drawer lined up on the floor. Or you might go in to kiss her goodnight just before going to sleep yourself only to find she has systematically placed all of her plastic Disney characters right on top of the pillow with her. Interesting....she'd make a great museum curator. Wouldn't lose a single artifact!

What Haiti Really Needs

I read a fascinating article in the Miami Herald by Andres Oppenheimer about how all this talk about rebuilding Haiti is mistakenly solely focused on bricks and mortar. It certainly makes sense to me that a county with no natural resources is bound to be crippled by the effects. I was astounded to learn that Haitians have cut down nearly 99 percent of their trees. Without trees, their soil has lost its ability to retain water, crippling their agriculture; mud floods down the stripped bare mountains because there are no trees to impede the water flow, making hurricanes and heavy storms more disastrous than they really are. It is most interesting to read how the Dominican Republic, the neighboring country on the same little island of Hispaniola, dealt with that problem in the 1960s. To read the article, click here.

The border of Haiti (treeless) and the Dominican Republic. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Lifesavers: Baby Oxy Clean

Every now and then I come across products that actually do make my life a little easier. There is nothing I have yet found in all my years of doing laundry that is quite like toxic baby poop. If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about. If you're not a parent and have never had the pleasure of changing this type of diaper, you have not yet experienced the good life, my friend. (Actually, you are quite lucky.) One good blow out, and you don't have their clothing in some kind of cleaning solution right away, that cute little outfit is as good as gone, permanently stained. Here to save the day is Baby Oxy Clean! I just add a little to a sink full of water and soak Julia's clothes in it, and the stains actually magically disappear! Ok, so I have to help it a little by scrubbing the clothes and working the Oxy Clean into the stain, but still. It even gets out day old chocolate ice cream. Now beat that! And my neighbor showed me the COOLEST trick to getting out blood... Hydrogen Peroxide! I never knew that! Put a little on a Q-Tip and rub it into the blood stain... Presto Magic! Martha Stewart would be so proud.