lifestyle

This weekend I was out doing errands for a few hours, and it turned out I forgot my cell phone. It was fantastic! My kids couldn't bug me every eight minutes with "Where are you, when are you coming home, and can you please get to the store for 'fill in the blank?' "

Q: We are having a buffet reception. What's the best way to get everyone fed quickly without creating long lines?

Here's to the Bad Girls, bless their hearts, who make all the Good Girls look good.

There's one in every family. You know who she is. She's the topic of conversation at every family table where she shows up late, or not at all, peddling some excuse nobody will buy.

I sat in a school group parent meeting this week for one of my children's classes. I felt inadequate.

Or rather, I felt like maybe I should have felt inadequate.

Warning: The following contains a recipe you should not try, unless you are hoping to be banned from cooking, in which case, be my guest.

For the record, it was not the recipe's fault. When I cook, it is never the recipe's fault. I have no one to blame but myself.

Of the gazillion thoughts we have a day, research has determined that 80 percent of them are negative. Science also tells us that we remember the negative because doing so is hardwired into our DNA. We had to remember where the tar pits were, so we wouldn't fall into them. Times are different, and our thinking process has to evolve as well.

The recent outrage over the super-skinny Ralph Lauren model caught my attention. You know, the model whose photo was altered in an ad so much that her waist was as skinny as her neck. And then she was fired.

Q: It's been months since I've had any contact with my DJ, and I'm getting worried since my wedding is two months away! I'm obviously going to look for a new DJ, but what do I do about getting my deposit back?

When my children were small and wild at heart, they loved Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are."

In closets everywhere hang memories of walks down the aisle. Wedding dresses that girls grew up dreaming about. Dresses that hushed a crowd at first sight and caused mothers to reach for tissues.

Traditionally, after the big day, brides clean and preserve their gowns in the hope a daughter might wear it.