I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. This morning I was getting ready for work, just like I do every other morning. I'm a creature of habit, and my morning routine never changes. I have all of my "face" stuff on my sink to put on when I get out of the shower - my spraybottle of facial toner, moisturizer, eye cream. Then I brush my hair and spray some styling lotion in my hair before blow drying.

Well, this morning I had my laptop on my bathroom counter so I could check emails while I got ready, and I reach for the spray bottle and begin spraying the left side of my head while I'm replying to emails and being terribly efficient. Only then I realize I'm not spraying hair styling lotion, but facial toner. So the left side of my head might not hold a blowout, but would be blanced and refreshed with a restored protective pH balance all day. Not to mention the botanical extracts to soothe, soften and tone. By the time I realized this I'd already pumped about six streams into my hair and there was no going back. That's why the pony tail holders are also on my bathroom counter, for situations just like this.

Another friend, another book! This time it's Melanie Lynne Hauser's sequel to SUPERMOM - SUPER MOM SAVES THE WORLD. This time it's six months after the Horrible Swiffer Accident that left her a superhero, and Birdie Lee is still adjusting.

For starters, she's hearing voices and having lustful thoughts about Mr. Clean. Then there's the fact that her daughter is suddenly sporting a bright pink streak in her hair, courtesy of her new friend Vienna (and if recent history has taught us anything, we all know that a girl named after a foreign city is going to be trouble). Birdie's son is experiencing his first case of puppy love, her nerdy scientist love interest has just proposed marriage, and her annoying ex-husband is suddenly less annoying. Which can only mean he's up to no good.But things get even more sinister when her hometown of Astro Park gets Little League fever in a big way. Rabid parents, performance-enhancing Gatorade and a domed stadium on shaky - potentially explosive - ground are just the beginning of Super Mom's problems; throw in a ticked off school janitor and a corrupt mayor, and Super Mom has her hands full. Can one superhero — one mother — struggle to keep her teenagers in tow with one hand while saving her hometown from disaster with the other — while trying to find time for herself as she plans her marriage to her very own Super Man? Only if she’s Super Mom!

Yesterday I took my daughter to the Spring Bulb Show at Smith College. After having lunch in the student center (tuna melt, as always) and buying yet another Smith t-shirt for my collection, we headed to the Lyman Plant House for the festivities. Now, in my four years at Smith, I never so much as stepped a foot into the plant house. As a matter of fact, the only time I remember even pausing briefly in front of the beautiful glass conservatory was my senior year, around 1am, when my boyfriend and I were heading back to my apartment from the senior weekend dance - and even that brief pause wasn't so much to admire the flora and fauna as it was to keep from falling down in my high heels after several hours at the keg.

In any case, the blub show was beautiful, and we spent a while wandering through the conservatory, checking out the "jungle" room, which was delightfully warm and humid, the cactus room, and all sorts of other plant rooms. At one point I turned to my daughter and said, "You know, in my new book a character breaks into the plant house in the middle of the night."

I'd totally forgotten about that! Even though I never went to the plant house in college, there is a character in INSIDER DATING who does, in fact, break into the Lyman Plant House during college. I couldn't tell my daughter what the character really does in the place after she breaks in, she's still too young for that, but I gave her a G-rated version. After the realization that I'd written the scene without ever having been there, it was fun to see it all in person. And to magine Maggie sneaking in there in the middle of the night, doing something that would make even the bolded tulip turn a scarlet shade of red.