We have seen some bad behavior this season from both youth and adults but the most consistently ill behaved person is a member of Caroline’s team. This kid is disrespectful to his parents, coaches, peers–you name it. I helped for the first half today since we had to sub in 6 players due to our large roster. Since I have been traveling, I have not learned the names of everyone on the team yet. This led to some fun as I tried to move people in and out of the game with the wrong names.

At halftime, Mr. Disrespect decided to tangle with me over the drinks his family brought for snacks after the game. He wanted one, I said no. He still wanted one and I continued to say no. Then he started to be bully me into giving him one and said I was not his mother and pulled the classic “you are not the boss of me” line. I explained to him that he had been dishing out this sort of disrespect all season but that he had met his match. I told him he was NOT getting a drink and I did not want to hear anything else about it. He tried to cry about it hoping another adult would give him a drink but he could not manage to make any tears come out, so that ended that.

Life lesson for today: enjoy your disrespectful attitude while it lasts because eventually someone is going to teach you a lesson.

It is only October 3 and I am already sick of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This post is going to anger a lot of people (or just the 3 people who read my blog) but here goes. When you buy that pink product, chances are that you did NOT personally support breast cancer awareness. Most of the companies that offer pink products (this practice is known as cause related marketing, which I am a HUGE fan of, for the record) make a set donation to Komen or another breast cancer organization. Even the Yoplait yogurt lid promotion has a cap of $1.5M, so if you mail in yogurt lid 1,500,001, you did not help cure breast cancer. Moral of the story…read the small print before you pat yourself on the back for helping cure cancer.

Imagine walking into Walgreens, Walmart, Lowes–you get the idea–after being diagnosed with colon cancer (the second leading cancer killer) or lung cancer (with the stigma that everyone who is diagnosed with lung cancer did it to themselves) and facing the sea of pink. Imagine needing a head scarf when you hair is thinning due to your non-breast cancer chemo and only finding pink themed ones. The pinking of America has crowded out most other cancer types from the cause marketing arena. As a professional in the cancer community, I have been involved with pitching colon cancer cause marketing ideas and trust me when I say the reason given for “no thanks” is that the party in question already supports breast cancer.

Look at the great work Lance Armstrong has done in the cancer community. He did not start the Lance Armstrong Testicular Cancer Foundation. He decided to fight ALL cancers and make ALL cancer a national priority. He partnered with a powerhouse company, Nike, at the start and they raised a tremendous amount of money and awareness for cancer as a whole. He has been very vocal in his support of other cancers, referring to lung cancer as the orphan cancer since the survival rates are so low. He has mentioned, repeatedly, the need for higher colon cancer screening rates since the disease is PREVENTABLE with appropriate screening.

I want to leave with one thought. Even on its best day, the best outcome with breast cancer is early detection. Early detection is hugely important and makes a difference in terms of survival. Colon cancer is about 90% preventable when people are screened appropriately. On our best day, we can remove a polyp before it ever has the chance to turn into cancer. Did you already know that? Isn’t that news worth getting out there? If someone could buy a TicTac to help get that word out, wouldn’t that be great?!

Even before we started looking at CSA shares and committed to eating more locally grown food, we loved visiting farm-to-table restaurants (before they were called that). Since I had to work in Philadelphia on my birthday weekend, I found a great restaurant to enjoy with my co-workers. I was excited to try the White Dog Cafe in the University City neigborhood in Philly. The menu looked delicious and the restaurant is in a charming brownstone.

Last night’s meal was one of the best ones I have ever enjoyed. My colleagues and I spent a few minutes making our decisions. For the first course, I had a cheese plate. All of the cheeses were local and paired with interesting items. The bleu cheese was paired with strawberry jam. When I read this description, I figured I would eat the cheese and ignore the jam. That would have been a serious mistake. I now want this for breakfast every weekend. The combo was unique and mouth watering. The pungent cheese was tempered by the sweet jam. The next pairing was a sharp, white cheddar with a slightly sweet slow roasted pecan. The pecan worried me since I am not really a pecan person but after almost missing out on the strawberry heaven, I ate the cheese with a pecan. Another wonderful surprise. The final cheese of the trio was goat cheese with honey. Even though honey is not my favorite, it was another pleasant taste.

The side dishes were so tempting that I almost crafted a dinner from a few of them. Since I had suffered through an awful steak the night before (eating a grand total of 6 bites), I could not resist the filet mignon. Before we get to that, I decided to swap out my potatoes (fries are always good but seemed like waste here) for smoked cheddar cheese grits. We had a strategy session and made sure all of us ordered a side to share. The table also ordered asparagus bacon risotto and baby vegetable with black pepper gnocchi. The filet was cooked to a perfect medium rare topped with zinfandel red onion jam, fresh tomato, arugula and (more) bleu cheese. I also had steamed asparagus and the aforementioned cheese grits. The grits were so cheesy, every bite had it own cheese contrail.

The asparagus risotto was masterful and managed to be just the right texture without having bacon that either too crispy or too mushy. The asparagus tasted like it grew in the courtyard and had been harvested 30 minutes earlier. The baby vegetables and gnocchi were delicious and the black pepper offered a nice contrast to the sweetness of the veggies. The still crunchy veggies and the pillows of gnocchi had a great mouthfeel.

We shared a pumpkin cheesecake with a chocolate crust to end the night. This was served with a salted caramel sauce. The Cafe did an excellent job with balancing flavors. I splurged and drank some peach sangria to start the evening. For a birthday that started with a 5:00 a.m. supervision of tent set up in the rain, progressed to managing another Undy 5000 in the rain and then the inevitable clean up in the rain (see a theme here), it was a perfect redemptive moment. Funny how a great meal can help erase the challenging day that came before it.

We were very fortunate that our house did well in the flooding rains around Atlanta. We did take on water in the garage but compared to what was happening 20 miles west of here, we were spared. Since the garage was serving as a free storage unit, my procrastination in unpacking has come back to haunt me. I just did not have the time or inclination to check on how wet things were before I left for Philadelphia for Philly Goes Blue for Colon Cancer. To all of the suffering people in north Georgia, our hearts go out to you.

I have been doing some reading and talking with friends and I am becoming more convinced that we need to eat food that is a) produced reasonably close to our home and b) raised humanely. We have always been big fans of the farm-to-table movement in the restaurant world and have had a garden many summers. Both of these are good things, for sure, but they do not go far enough. We bought a leftover share in a CSA group last week and while I was thrilled with the concept, I was not thrilled with the selection of produce nor the quantity. We received lovely produce, for the most part, but not nearly enough for 4 people for more than a couple of days. The price was high, understandably, but I am not sure we have the luxury of paying so much for so little.

So, what do you do to eat well and affordably? Why are we forced to do one or the other?

I can tell you are upset that the rest of the boring ranch homes our our cul-de-sac have not been torn down to build other McMansions. The way you rush into the house when you get home rather than saying hi, drive too fast down the street and roll through the stop signs are pretty good clues that you are not feeling too much a part of our modest community.

I know our house is of particular angst since we are the lowly renters on the street. I would challenge you to look past the fact that we did not buy and appreciate the fact that we are out taking care of the yard (we mow ours more often than yours but who’s keeping track, right?), we don’t leave our trash can out for days on end and our dog is well behaved.

Before assuming all renters are evil people who move into a neighborhood with the goal of plundering, pillaging and that most awful crime of all, making property values plummet, not everyone can afford to buy the American dream. We have had personal challenges, that are actually none of your business since you avoid us at all costs, that hit us economically and it will take years to recover. So instead we treat our home like we own it and attend to it with great care. Perhaps one day, we’ll invite you over and laugh about all of this. That assumes, however, that you stop long enough for us to introduce ourselves. Running into your garage to meet you before the door closes just doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Sincerely,

Your neighbors

Mollie has been in the magnet program for a few days now and even though it has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked, she is making her peace with it. I think our county does have a very flawed system as students will continue to come off the waiting list until all seats are filled or mid-October, which ever comes first. Adjusting to a new school 2 months into the school year would be hard for anyone and I am glad we were not faced with that decision.

That title got your attention, didn’t it? Our family, luckily, has to make a choice between two good schools. When Mollie was not accepted into the magnet program via lottery earlier this summer, we made the decision to move to another attendance area to ensure a better high school next year. We have amazingly moved 39 spots on the waiting list since June and it appears (if the online system is correct) that she was selected late Friday afternoon for the magnet program.

The magnet program is the same one Caroline is in, so it would mean that both girls would attend the same high school. I don’t I have to explain how helpful it would be to have both girls at the same school for Mollie’s junior and senior years. The real rub is that Mollie just spent a perfectly lovely first week of school at the new middle school and is reluctant to leave. She was equally reluctant to attend early this summer. So since we have two nice choices, I think we should have flipped a coin to make the decision. The weekend has been high angst and drama. I think we have a decision but some additional recon work needs to be done tomorrow. Stay tuned…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost her cool yesterday when a student in The Congo asked her what President Clinton thought of a controversial topic. Hillary went ballistic and said her husband was not the Secretary of State and she would not “channel” Bill Clinton. Some speculate that jet lag was responsible for her lapse. Other say she is tired of being in Bill’s shadow. Apparently the student asked about President Clinton but meant to say President Obama.

I don’t really care if the student or translator made a mistake. I do care the the nation’s highest ranking diplomat was anything but diplomatic. If Hillary Clinton was stuck flying coach class on her 7 nation tour, I might have some sympathy for jet lag. If the Secretary of State cannot pause long enough to craft a diplomatic response to a question in a press conference, perhaps it is time to find another Secretary of State.

The kids at the House of Clay head back to school in a week and we have been at Tar-jay two days in a row searching for those last elusive school supplies. This year, we are having trouble finding composition notebooks in different colors so that Caroline can tell them apart for her different classes. I am refusing to purchase everything on both of the girls’ lists to start the year, just to have them misplace items before they actually need them. I know, a classic mean mom move, but c’mon…who wants to buy 1258 sheets of notebook refill paper if they don’t have to?