My fortune cookie messages tend to be pretty hum-drum:

You like Chinese food.

You will soon take a very pleasant and successful trip.

Success is just around the corner.

Yada, yada, yada.

Well, my husband has gotten the following fortune, not once, but at least three times (he carries the little slips of paper around in his wallet as proof). He is also the only person I know who has ever gotten this fortune:

You are the greatest in the world.

You can imagine what this does for his self-esteem (which was never suffering to begin with).

One week left till school starts and we have been busy!
And…I have been eschewing the Internet for books. I re-read a beloved Mary Stewart, Airs Above the Ground and can attest that despite all the books I’ve read since first discovering her, she is still, far and away, my favorite. I’ve never read her Merlin novels, but I loved all her romantic suspsense–all but The Ivy Tree. That one, not so much. But I was young then (heck, I’m still young now)–I figure I need to give it another chance. So after I finish (finally!) The Sweet, Far Thing, I plan to tackle it again.

A friend of mine revealed some rather surprising news this week. Evidently at a recent get-together in which her father-in-law (divorced, with two girlfriends) and I were both present, he was ‘quite taken with me’. Despite having met me multiple times over the course of the past several years, he was under the impression that we were being introduced for the very first time (yes, I’m that memorable–I was just telling my husband that I’d make a stellar undercover agent–no one ever seems to remember me). Anyway, we spoke for a total of about ten minutes (tops!), and afterwards, in the car, he apparently told my friend that I was–wait for it–‘quite a woman’ and that he could see himself marrying someone like me!!! EGAD! My friend suggested that maybe two girlfriends was plenty, seeing as I’m married and all.
So…what can I take from all this? Evidently I’ve still got it. At least as far as the over-fifty crowd is concerned.

And Mary Stewart used the phrase ‘wait for it’ in her 1965 Airs Above the Ground release. Talk about a trend-setter.

Let me just say that we have been ensconced in the Olympics since the awe-inspiring Opening Ceremony on Friday night. Seeing as I personally love the Olympics, both winter and summer, I’ve been trying to hype it to my boys for months. Any longtime readers of this blog will remember that we even themed their birthdays around the Olympics all the way back in January.

Well, my hyping worked beyond my wildest dreams (at least for my older son).

First of all he begged me to record the list of countries in order (all 204 of them) in his journal as they marched in for the Parade of Nations. Being a big Rockets fan, he was thrilled to see Yao Ming lead the Chinese into the Birds Nest.

Then yesterday, the Olympics were on all day at our house, and he was the our Master of Ceremonies, switching between various NBC channels to find the best and most interesting coverage, calling out a play-by-play during the qualifying heats of swimming events, and constantly asking when men’s basketball would be on.

Luckily today he’s backed off slightly, but it could be because he just got home from a Padawan Boot Camp where a pretty authentic Obi-wan Kenobi taught a crowd of younglings some basic lightsaber dueling moves. But I’m sure recovery will be swift and shortly we’ll once again be hearing chants of ‘U. S. A…U. S. A!’ throughout the house. Unless of course the U.S. isn’t competing, then it could be ‘Can-a-da! Can-a-da!’ We’ve found he’s not so picky.

Two weeks left of this…