I’ve written about my nine-year-old francophile previously. This week, I received via e-mail, my sister’s itinerary for her summer vacation. The trip includes Paris, Versailles, Venice and Rome.

Wah! I wanna go! Doesn’t that sound fabulous? We’re both seething with envy and plotting our own trip, still many years in the future.

If that weren’t bad enough, our friends Ed and Trish just spent a week in Paris (thanks for the wine, guys). What? Is everyone taking a European vacation?

Oh and, my in-laws have begun researching their European cruise (planned for next summer). The girl and I just look at each other and sigh. We’ll get there; you’ll see.

Check out that April-May! For this I must thank Angela, Waldo, Dana, Jennifer and you.

StLWorkingMom . . . as Jennifer said, “gently pointing out the obvious” since 2005.

Dear YUFA:

I haven’t seen such full force, orange-faced, jaw-line foundation since the experimental makeup of my fellow eighth graders in 1983. Darling, you’re in your twenties, entrenched in a profession that demands coiffed hair and natty, neck-scarfed uniforms. Why, then, the poor choice in facial attire? Do your fellow attendants cattily snipe behind your back?

Why, in this airborne sisterhood, where I imagine the elders passing down intricate French braid technique, does not one of your colleagues take you post-haste to the nearest Bobbi Brown counter for instruction in blending and how to match your coloring, not your outfit.

YUFA, we count on you for our safety, our beverage and our small, salty snack. Give us confidence with a fresh face that makes us notice your confident smile and your reassuring eyes, rather than your cosmetic mask and your dark room application.

Signed,

STLMom, Seat 6A

I found Waldo’s post about raisins laugh out loud funny. I can certainly relate and am happy to report that we have worked our way through the seemingly lifetime supply of Northern tissue and have pleasantly returned to the land where Charmin rolls free.

Carlos Santana
Originally uploaded by jeffmccann.

Sitting in the Charlottesville airport . . . they paged Carlos Santana. I told my husband, hey, they just paged Carlos Santana. He said, yeah, I think he was just in concert here.

I spent a few frantic moments looking around the tiny Charlottesville airport, to no avail, then checked the Santana Web site only to learn that Carlos is in Portugal. Ah, well.

Had me going there . . . I’m seriously overdue for a celebrity encounter.

While watching some goofy show hosted by William Shatner, I had this conversation with the girl, 9.

“Do you know what Star Trek is?”

“Yeah — there was an episode of Kim Possible where she was transported into a TV and was on Star Trek. She had on a red shirt.”

“Do you know what the red shirt means?”

“That she was one of the Star Trek guys?”

“Well, yeah, but the guy in the red shirt always gets it. So did she survive?”

“She was transported to another show.”

Awhile back, I blogged about hiding out with the Worst Haircut Ever. I’m happy to report that today, a day when I actually get to see people and, importantly, given my good hair day, they get to see me sporting the Best Haircut Ever. I returned to Heidi the Hair Goddess at Tangles and thankfully got just as good results as the first time I saw her for a haircut. She works miracles with scissors, folks. If you’re looking for a good stylist in Charlottesville — go somewhere else! She’s mine! No, seriously, it’s hard as heck to get an appointment with her and now that I’ve found her, I don’t want to go anywhere else.

After I wrote this post about sunscreen, I went and bought some for myself and discovered a tinted version of the sunscreen for faces. Whoo hoo — a makeup free summer! Yes, people think I’m weird because even though I work at home I do get decently dressed and do my hair and put on makeup, but one just never knows when a last minute lunch invitation will come, a neighbor will stop by, or, heaven forbid, the school will call and my presence will be requested.

Blogging of that, incidentally, let us all bow our heads and sent positive vibes toward my daughter, who will need strength to get through till Sunday incident free and in a good mood. Oh, and while you’re sending the good vibes, throw a few toward my husband who will be piloting the mothership while I’m off galivanting, uh, working in St. Louis.

Like many Charlottesville residents, (including neighbors J., Marty and Veronica) my husband auditioned to be an extra in Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty.

The last two days he’s enjoyed sightings of Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert and John Goodman on the set in Crozet where he played the role of a photographer.

The report from the set? It’s hot, man. Lots of standing around but the food is awesome. We’re looking forward to the big premiere . . . we have to wait until summer ‘07.

Wheeee! I’m blogging from the airport where today I will do “my trip” again — CHO to STL. Hopefully this trip will end better than the last one.

I talked to my mom last night. She’s been reading my blog (Hi Mom!) and is worried about me being too isolated in my home office because of this post. It’s true, I was a little depressed for a few days and had spent a little bit too long without social interaction. A cure is present in the form of the neighborhood pool where, last weekend, we spent two glorious days relaxing and swimming. Well, OK, swimming for me is a dunk in the pool before drying off on a lounge chair with a good book. But the kids swam and played for hours. I think weekends spent at the pool will be one way to solve my home office blues.