Shark and Beach Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

I made shark and beach cupcakes this weekend. Yet more proof that the projects in Martha Stewart’s Kids magazine are far less daunting than the Living ideas. I didn’t even need to buy a jig saw.

I like this poem. It’s from a book called Sure Signs.

Selecting a Reader

by Ted Kooser

First, I would have her be beautiful,

and walking carefully up on my poetry

at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,

her hair still damp at the neck

from washing it. She should be wearing

a raincoat, an old one, dirty

from not having money enough for the cleaners.

She will take out her glasses, and there

in the bookstore, she will thumb

over my poems, then put the book back

up on its shelf. She will say to herself,

“For that kind of money, I can get

my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.

When you’re kayak camping, and all of you are peeing in the same general area, don’t serve asparagus for dinner.

After the London bombings last week, I wanted to offer my condolences to the UK. I am so sorry. All of this is awful, bewildering, and needless, and the rest of the world is as stunned as you must be. We are with you in your grief.

Sorry for the brief interruption of service, I was busy. Busy with pain. I thought it was food poisoning, but it turned out to have been some sort of virus. The sort of virus that makes you wonder, disinterestedly, whether your insides may have liquefied.

Still, because we had barbecued ribs and strawberry shortcake at our Fourth of July picnic, and I awoke at 1:30 a.m. to revisit a less-appetizing version of said meal, I’m currently feeling bitter toward those foodstuffs. I’m ignoring them for a while, say several years, until they’ve learned their lesson.

(You know what sounds good though? Weak herbal tea and saltines. Mmmmm hmmmm!)

Actually, despite being mostly immobile for the last two days, I awoke feeling pretty damn good. Fine, in fact. The contrast is so great that I feel like doing something incredibly productive. Painting the apartment! Lining up all of our shoes and shining them until they gleam! Showering!