As many of you know, my husband and I were in Maui, five miles north of Lahaina, when the huge fire hit. The winds were incredible, the smoke so black it was night. We'd been in Lahaina, our favorite town on Maui, on both Sunday and Monday, out on a dinner cruise from Lahaina harbor and back some six hours before the devastation.

The amazing 4th of July is now in the rearview. I won't forget the incredible fireworks we saw (Sausalito, Oakland and San Francisco) -- always awesome. The cities compete to see who can light the sky up with the most dramatic displays.

Organized chaos is just around the corner, leaving this Saturday for the OBX (The Outer Banks, N.C.) for our yearly family reunion with 40 relatives, maybe more this year since people keep insisting on procreating and so the list gets longer and longer and there's so much laughter and eating and ping pong and movies and yelling kids all you can do is go shopping.

Happy May: Lots of fun things this month: Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day - lots of celebrations and gratefulness and maybe even some margaritas or Diet Snapple with a shot of Grey Goose.

Yep, that's right, we're calling it Super Bloom — what with all the rain in California, the flowers and wildflowers are going nuts, bursting out of their leaves or buds, depending on how persnickety you are, painting the hills red and blue but not black, thankfully.