Raise your hand if you're in your eighties! My dad would've been 90. Hi Harold wherever you are.

Carole and Alan Schonberg stopped in at Mom's. They drove in from Beechwood, OH, for their grandson's bar mitzvah.

Mom, her granddaughter Nikki and Nikki's mom Donna. In other words, Alfie, my mom, my niece and my sister. My other sister Lynn was there but left early to play poker. I was glad she didn't call me "Sissy" as she often does over the phone. Actually, after writing it out, it doesn't sound so bad.

My favorite food was Mom's sweet n sour meatballs.

We spent a couple hours reminiscing - while we noshed - about the good ole days in Cleveland. My dad was a manager at Majestic Specialties Ladies Apparel, which Alan said was the top women's apparel firm in Cleveland. The designer was the talented Jeanne Essig.

One summer my dad hired a limo and the whole family arrived at Essig's country home in CT. I was mildly embarrassed but my father was ecstatic.

Majestic was founded by the Klineman brothers - Emery, Erwin and Uncle Dave. Each man was dirt-poor when they began the company. These are the Jews who came over from Europe and came w/nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The company was named after the Majestic Hotel, which one of the Klinemans saw in passing.

At some point, the brothers decided to go public, on the NY stock exchange.

Emery Klineman, a small man with big ears, came in the office one day holding a check in his hand. "Whoever thought little Emery Klineman would have a check for a million dollars?"

Hard work and talent. And a great team.

Well, that day passed into this day. I just completed a super-hard task, writing a 10-page synopsis of my novel. You know what? It sounds really good. It's loosely based on my former boyfriend Simon. I actually feel like I'm with him when I read about him in the novel.

We all have 24 hours in the day. How did you spend your day today? I'll tell you a couple small things I did.

- I made a batch of thousand-island salad dressing, my current favorite, and locked it into a Pyrex container.

- I talked to Johannes on the phone and when I saw our call would be about 20 minutes, I jumped on my exercise bike upstairs.

- I wore my PJs all day and even went on a walk in the neighborhood with em on. Nice and warm.

- Sent a dreaded email to Adam, my library book discussion leader, saying Barbara Kingsolver has a terrific website, but unfortunately, I can't stand the book, The Lacuna. There's so much description I can't remember the story line. Every time I would pick up the book I would think, I can't remember what it's about.

- Baked my own bread b/c I can't stand 'bought bread.'

From dough to....

Dig this newest scam for doctors to make money:

All of Scott's wisdom teeth decided to come in this year. He's 52. Each time a new one popped up, he was in excruciating pain. The fourth and last came in three days ago. The pain is so terrible he can't eat. The dentist said, Get all four pulled.

He called an orthodontist who said, You'll need to come in for a consultation and after that, we'll pull them.

Nice way to milk the system, Dave. When I had my tooth pulled there a few years ago, you hadn't thought of that disgraceful way to pack your greed bag.

Miraculously, Scott's pain is totally gone today. We said to ourselves, Why do they wanna pull all FOUR teeth? Just the bad one should have been sufficient.

When I work hard on something, I brew a cup of tea with molasses to enhance the nonflavor of tea. All tea, to me, is weak and unsatisfying. And I gave up coffee.

This cuppa tea has the bonus of being in a lovely cup I just got from sister Donna. You know her condo was flooded, right? Well, she gave me three cups that were coated with mud.

I carefully washed them, although when I drank tonite's tea there was a slight flavor of salamander.