This is just to say....

A few weeks ago, This American Life did a feature on the poem, "This is just to say" by William Carlos Williams. It's a simple poem, but incredibly evocative, and often-imitated. Several of the regular TAL contributors composed their own versions of the poem, and the results ranged from funny to tragic.

Here is the original poem:

This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

-- William Carlos Williams

Here is my attempt (it's autobiographical, even):

This is just to say that
I ate your chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
from the Happy Harry's

and which apparently,
you were
saving for a before-bed snack
Lucy ate some too.

Forgive us
it was chocolatey
and chippy
and so sweet.

-- Kirsten

And here is Richard's entry, in his favorite creative style, LOLcats (click on the picture to make it bigger):

Christmas in May

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by kjerstieb

For Christmas, my mother gave all of us kids a weekend at the beach, staying in a great B&B owned by a friend of hers. Mia and her boyfriend Josh came out from California for a visit, so we were all together for the first time in ages (along with Marianne, Andrea and Brian). The weather on Saturday was amazing and we took a wholesome family bike ride to Gordon's Pond (except for Richard whose broken knee gave him the perfect excuse to stay at the B&B and read a book), where we collected tadpoles from a giant puddle, and found whelk egg cases and baby horseshoe crabs on the beach. We ate and drank way too much all weekend, and spent an excessive amount of time watching what we dubbed "Train Wreck Karaoke" at the Purple Parrot, and all in all, had a lovely time. Merry Christmas!

the horror

the horror
Originally uploaded by kjerstieb

We went to our friend Olivia's First Communion on Saturday (Lucy wore black pants and a blue polo shirt). After the ceremony, we went back to Olivia's house, and Olivia's grandmother, the very persuasive Nonna Bibia, convinced Lucy to try on Olivia's Easter dress. This was the result.