I love Wednesdays and do you want to know why I love Wednesdays? Because one set of parents at Jackson's school has an adopted Chinese daughter and they are paying a teacher of Mandarin Chinese to arrive after school once a week and teach Mandarin Chinese to any kid who wants to sit still for another forty-five minutes.

Thanks to fifteen minutes of snack time that means today I have an extra HOUR to whittle down the e-mail, naked, because who turned the sun up to BROIL? It is officially eleventy-thousand degrees here. Last week, nothing but gray skies and fleece; this week, bikini weather. November in California. I think Peanut's getting ready to shed his shell.

Orange patent leather peep-toe Steve Maddens bought at Nordstrom Rack for $10 last spring, and the cause of my barefoot escapade down 14th Street. Normally I would not wear shoes with bows on them, since I am not seven years old, but they are ORANGE SHOES and they are SIZE 11 and they make me look like a girl, for once, la di dah.