Happy birthday, . May it be a day filled with happy surprises and sincere smiles, and may it mark the beginning of a phenomenal year.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAINBOWBINKY.

My good blog-friend Laura, who is an American living and cooking in France, turned me on to a fun activity called Is My Blog Burning, that made me think of several of the folks I read here.

The current challenge is French peasant food, which is why I'm making Cassoulet for eight people in a week and a half. I'm cheating a little, and using chicken instead of duck, goose, or partridge, but other than that, I think it'll be fine.

Anyone reading this is invited to participate.

Once upon a time, in a time so long ago that 14,400 was considered a fast modem speed, a young woman named took her first steps on the internet, or at least, her first steps that weren't limited to a specific interface and a few email messages. At the time, she used the name “Zenobia” because she liked the way it sounded, and because it was the name of a character in a favorited childhood story that had been illustrated by Edward Gorey. Also, she'd been told single women shouldn't use their real names on the 'net.

Years past, and she clung to the id in a fashion that really was a bit ridiculous, but then, she's always been a bit of a collector (witness her shelf full of hat boxes some time), so perhaps this is not surprising.

Finally, one morning,more than ten years after she received that 14,400 modem – and (thankfully), on much-improved technology, after she'd had a restless night following a pretty productive day, she woke up and decided that it was time to let the last remnant of “Zenobia” go. Ironically, the last remnant wasn't even a direct remnant, as much as a distant relative, since it was spelled with an X, and all. (Someone had the nerve to have “her” name when she joined LJ, you see.)

But, as a child of the 1970's, this woman had been given a name that was extremely popular for girls just a little younger than her – girls who had been born during the early days of a tv show called “Little House on the Prairie,” which had featured TWO Melissa's among its cast. (But the heroine of our story was born before that, and is proud to say that she wasn't named after any television performer, but after an ingredient in shampoo.)

And so, after more than 10 years of being known as “Zenobia” (or one of its derivatives), she is finally closing the door on that identity.

Translation: “Xenobia” has been changed to “MissMelysse” (since both “Melissa” and “MissMeliss” are already taken, and I've flirted with spelling my name with a 'y' since I was seven).

Further information: As LivePress doesn't work in the current incarnation of WordPress, my actual blog can be found at . I hope you'll read it, but do understand if you don't.