By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.It’s Memorial Day! The unofficial start of summer. Is everyone ready for the beach?I’m almost there. Got the sunblock, the beach chairs and the book. I just need to do a few more things before our little beach house is ready for the sun, the sand and the revolving door.Vacuum all rugs, furniture and beds. Wash eight sets [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.“Enter At Your Own Risk.”Despite valiant efforts brought on by spring’s annual “urge to purge,” certain rooms in the Bontempo residence have become so overrun with “stuff” that I’m considering posting warning signs. Anyone brave enough to enter should do so only sporting hardhats and hazmat suits. Safety cords firmly attached to something outside the room in question [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.In yet another effort to further its plan of world domination, Costco is now offering members the opportunity to add a mortgage as well as giant jar of mustard to their shopping carts. I’m a recent Costco convert, as the big box giant just opened its first store in my area. For the uninitiated, Costco is akin to [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.I want a macaroni Mother’s Day.You know the ones. A little cherub-faced tot gifts mommy with a macaroni necklace and picture frame lovingly crafted in preschool along with a hand scrawled card proclaiming that you’re the “Best Mommy in the Whole Wide World!”It’s not that I crave a macaroni necklace. And I’m pretty sure I still have every [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Donald Trump, he of hotel, TV and money-making fame, may have unwittingly gifted the world with his best idea ever—and provided a solution for Scotland’s efforts to remain at the forefront of advances in green energy.Last week, The Donald barreled into Scotland to demand that the government halt plans to build a wind farm within view of his [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Well ladies, it seems we've arrived. Despite years of mortification at the squirts and drips that accompany a hearty laugh or an unexpected sneeze, it's finally chic to pee your pants.We've all been there. A gal is out in public, having taken great pains to tape and spackle everything in place. We're looking good and feeling fine. We're [...]
By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear the audio version of this post, click the play arrow below. Mark Cornelison, Lexington Herald-Leader / MCT / 4/2/12 I have always had a crush on Ashley Judd.Yeah, yeah. I've been married for 30 years now, three kids and all that heterosexual stuff. But we're talking Ashley Judd here. Can you blame me?The woman is gorgeous, a kick-ass actress (literally--have you seen her new show, Missing?), Harvard educated and [...]
