Fat Chix Coffee Cantina

This is the best find I've had in a long time. Tiny, colorful, eccentric building that makes you want to stop in and see what's going on..
Inside, the place is really small and filled with an ecclectic mix of interesting textures and trappings. Unlike anyplace else around here, and worth a visit just for the visual experience.
Mary, the owner, is a permanent fixture..and will have you talking the moment you walk in. You sort of feel like you've walked into her world, and she immediately sets about putting you at ease there.
The coffee is very good, and she trusts her customers enough to make the airpots self-serve with a can nearby for payment. That's really rare these days, and endeared the place to me immediately.

The customers, obviously regulars, were warm and welcoming, which is good since they are never more than five feet away from you. My favorite customer was the companion dog who quietly melted my heart with doleful brown eyes. Her owner could tell and invited me to pet her while telling me that the coffee shop pretty much belonged to this dog. That made me smile.

I left with a great cup of coffee feeling like my morning was better for having stopped by. I will definitely be back soon(just not when I'm in a hurry...because conversation is guaranteed).

Preschool Angst

This month Ginger has been having a hard time with preschool .. couldn't figure why she was not liking it, but the mere mention of going would cause her to cry lately.. finally the other day it came out that she doesn't like it because "the rest time is TOO long", and worse, because 'Biff' hits her in the back when the teacher isn't looking and calls her names. grrrr....
We walked into the classroom yesterday morning to be greeted by the sneering voice of Biff yelling from across the room,"I hate your dino hat Ginger!"..(she was wearing this insanely cute green spiked dinosaur hat)..and it took all my restraint not to turn into a dinosaur and roar him around the room..then I remembered that he's four yrs old and that moms can get in trouble for turning into dinosaurs at preschools. And that one day I might find out it's *my* kid terrorizing the class.
So I let the teacher know she was having a hard time and as I was talking to her another mom walked by and said, "yeah! my kid said Biff hits him and calls him stupid too!" and the teacher said she'd keep an eye on it.
At the end of the day a worried/hopeful Katie went to pick up Ginger. We spotted her green dino head over by the tree in the play yard and to my surprise she flew into my arms all smiles, talking about her great day. She paused to cheerily call out, "Bye Biff!"
OK, I thought. This is better.
"So Ginger, did you have fun at school today?", I asked.
"Oh YES! It was just fine! And you know what? Every time that Biff said something mean to me the teachers made him say something nice - so by the end of the day, I had LOTS of compliments."
And she trotted to the car, dino spikes bouncing.