First Post!

So, I've decided to carve out my own little space in the crowded blogosphere. I'm not really sure why or what this will be. I do know that I've spent (too) many happy hours reading other blogs and feel like I should at least have a place to invite readers to visit.

However, this is mainly for me. I am at an interesting new phase in my life. My nest is more or less empty since my son has now left for college. He does return to it for periodic visits but I no longer have the day to day responsibility. I am fortunate to have a loving, hard-working husband who supports me, both emotionally and financially. I have the real and rare luxury of free time.

But, too much free time can be a dangerous thing. Like any excess, it's easy to squander it and get to the end of the day with nothing to show for it. Part of my problem is doing things in a vacuum. It's not that I need an audience, but I do need a place to recount some of the things that happen during the day. And, a place to show off some of my creative side a bit. And, a place to hold me accountable.

So, that's more or less the purpose. It will probably evolve along with me. Feel free to read along and I love comments, opinions and challenges.

Oh - about the name. It was inspired by the croquet scene in "Alice in Wonderland." That has been my favorite book for just about as long as I can remember, long before Johnny Depp and Tim Burton made it cool. (Although bless Tim for including my man, Johnny, in his movie!) This is the specific inspirational paragraph:

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.

That feels like my life. It can be difficult to keep both the flamingos and the hedgehogs in line at the same time. But, most of the time, all you can do is burst out laughing.