Because some things are just too weird not to share, here’s a photo of a two-headed lettuce leaf that held an honorary place in our salad tonight. Creepy but curious.

Then again, my husband’s comment was, “It’s just produce.” Nothing special.

Maybe.  Maybe not.

I’ve always loved Mark Twain’s sense of humor, but then I’m a satirist myself, so I suppose that’s no surprise. So here are some of my favorite Twain quotes, and a few that have made me laugh. I may add to this list later, though, as all my books are still packed away in storage and I don’t have access to them right now.

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

“When I find a well-drawn character in fiction or biography I generally take a warm personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him before–met him on the river.”

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”

“I am dead to adverbs; they cannot excite me. To misplace an adverb is a thing which I am able to do with frozen indifference; it can never give me a pang. … There are subtleties which I cannot master at all, — they confuse me, they mean absolutely nothing to me, — and this adverb plague is one of them. … Yes, there are things which we cannot learn, and there is no use in fretting about it. I cannot learn adverbs; and what is more I won’t.”

“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”

“Familiarity breeds contempt – and children.”

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”

“Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.”

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”

“Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.”

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”

“All generalizations are false, including this one.”

***

(Both images are in the public domain, but can be found at Wikipedia Commons, if you’re interested.)

Well, I’ve never been one for Resolutions, but I still always find that the New Year is a great chance to view things with fresh eyes.  It’s a strange New Year for me, if only because I went to bed sober last night.  Pregnancy does change things (like keeping me up half the night with heartburn).

But this year really is a new start for us.  My husband is officially out of the Army now – his last day of active duty was Christmas Eve.  And this year is a new start in many ways:  a new home (we’re not in one just yet, but that’ll happen soon enough), a new baby (the March due date is right around the corner!), and a new life in general:  new jobs, new projects and new priorities.

I’m excited about 2010.  Here’s hoping this year is better than the last few.

***

And back to those Resolutions, here’s a New Year’s quote and t-shirt for you:

“New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”  – Mark Twain

My New Year’s Resolution – 1024 X 768 by scribbleprints
View more New year’s resolution T-Shirts

Saturday was my 28th birthday and my husband and I spent the day out.  We saw a movie, though that choice was mostly made because we had been meaning to visit the Big Cat Rescue but the weather was terrible and we needed to find an indoor activity.  So:  movie.  Simple enough solution.

Then we had a nice dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy at the Westshore Plaza in Tampa.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to have my birthday dinner, but his parents and sister gave me a gift certificate which was good at a few places, including Maggiano’s, and I’d been in the mood for Italian, so again:  easy solution.

The food was quite good and the décor upscale, but we’ll probably stick with Carrabba’s Italian Grill in the future since its still Seth’s favorite restaurant – and it’s cheaper.  I’m just not that much of a “high class” person, but when I do go somewhere that’s supposed to be classy, I don’t expect the servers to shout to eat other from twenty feet away or to touch every single water glass in the restaurant with the rim of the water pitcher or to ask me if we’d like them to box up our food when I’ve still got my fork in my hand.

If I’m going to chance putting up with all that, I’m going to eat somewhere cheaper.

The food, though, was very good, and because it was Seth’s first time eating there, we were offered (just like we saw them offering other tables) a complimentary sample of their fried zucchini, or Crispy Zucchini Fritte, appetizer.  That’s something I wouldn’t have ordered on my own, but it was incredibly tasty!  The crunchy, breaded zucchini with a warm, soft center then dipped into the lemon aioli cream sauce was more like a savory dessert then a vegetable.  Also, we had ordered the Bruschetta, which we both loved.  Fresh, juicy tomato chunks topped crouton-like, crispy bread, and I thought it could have used a little onion, but Seth thought it was perfect the way it was.  Those two appetizers were our favorite part of dinner, really, and we could easily go back for just wine and appetizers and be plenty satisfied.

For an entrée, Seth got the Chicken Marsala, which he said was very good, but he still preferred Carrabba’s – no surprise there.  (I think he could eat Carrabba’s Chicken Marsala every night and never get tired of it!)  He wished there was pasta on the plate, too, but since pasta is traditionally a first course, I believe that’s why it was excluded.  I ordered pasta as my main course:  a plate of Gnocchi with Tomato Vodka Sauce.  The gnocchi were tender and the tomato-cream gravy smooth and flavorful.  I do prefer more sauce on my food, which I know is merely a personal preference, but the top pieces seemed a little dry to me since the sauce had pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

No dessert was ordered because we were both quite stuffed, and there was cake waiting for me at home anyway.  In fact, I barely made a dent in my full-size (as opposed to half-sized) plate, which I believe could have really fed three or four people, and even Seth took home some chicken.  But that’s okay; we’ll just have leftovers for a little while.

There’s a part of me that wonders if starting a new blog while I’m halfway through my first pregnancy and my husband is in the process of medically retiring from the Army while we’re temporarily living with family during our search for our first home to buy because we’ve just moved from Maryland to Florida is an endeavor that proves I really am crazy.

Maybe.

But mostly, I’m just looking forward to having a new outlet to share all kinds of cool and interesting things with the world, whether about my new Mommyhood, moving into and decorating our new home, any traveling we do, any great recipes or crafts I find, and just anything at all I find intensely intriguing or tearfully hysterical.

Read on, explore, enjoy.