We’re taking the train from Washington DC to New York City this morning, but we’ve had a pretty good week in our nation’s capital. The end-of-week weather was beautiful (hot and humid, of course, but clear and sunny), we pretty much figured out the Metro, and we got some great pictures, despite the fact that my camera decided to become temperamental and will be taking its own vacation to the Canon Factory Service Center after […]
We took a three-generation vacation two years ago – Mom-in-law, Tall Paul and me, and his kids: a classic “family road trip” to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon. It really worked out quite well, especially when you consider the amount of time we spent in the car – and that won’t be an issue this time. We’ll spend much less time on the journey and concentrate much more of it on the destination(s). […]
I considered taking today off, actually. I haven’t had much time to write during the past few days – we were out of town for Easter weekend, and things have just been busy. Still, “Tangents” exist for those random things that don’t justify writing a full post of their own, especially on Tuesdays – but just so you know, I may be skipping some days posting here and there during the next few weeks, because […]
Before the Twilight Saga was a movie series, it was books. It was a series of books that I gave to my stepdaughter when she was in the eighth grade. I hadn’t read them myself – at that time, I considered myself too old for young-adult literature, and I’d never pre-screened the books my son read, so it honestly didn’t occur to me to check them out first. I knew the basics of the story […]
I shared the details of this yesterday, but here’s a quick recap: A post that originally appeared here during the first six months of the blog has been published as part of an essay anthology, The Contemporary Reader*(it can be found on page 174 of the book). The anthology is a college-level expository-writing textbook, so it’s not likely most people are going to stumble across it, and the original post appeared at a time (September […]
It’s still sinking in that after more than eleven years, two states, three cities, and four homes, I don’t have a dog any more. I never knew how Gypsy’s story began. I was never even sure of her exact age. All I ever knew was that by the time I met her, in September of 1998, she had been pregnant at least once, so I assumed she was at least 18 months old. She was […]
I have the week off from work, since Chris (my DC-dwelling son) is with us till at least Thursday – he may wind up the week and spend New Year’s with some friends before he flies home on Saturday. He’s keeping himself pretty well occupied while he’s here – among other things, he’s written some blog posts, watched some football, bought an iPhone and (finally!) joined Twitter – and will be sending home a boxful […]
This was originally posted on the Los Angeles Moms Blog last year, but I’ve updated it a little… “Look, there goes Santa Claus,” I said to Spencer (my 9 10-year-old stepson) one recent Saturday afternoon. We were at the front of a store, waiting for my husband to finish a purchase, when we saw the Man in Red walking down the mall with a few of his assistants. “Yeah,” Spencer said. “He’s not the real […]
Today is the third anniversary of my second marriage! I celebrated the first one here with two posts of wedding randomata, but that was a couple of years ago. Readership was in the lower double digits back then, so I thought I’d revisit the event today with a (somewhat) condensed version of the original posts – after all, if you didn’t read it the first time around, it’s new to you :-). I hope you’ll […]
In connection with the American Cancer Society’s recently-launched “Campaign for More Birthdays,” members of the Silicon Valley Moms Group of regional blogs participated in a “Birthday” Topic Day on August 31. Birthdays are a big deal to me, and I decided to write about one that was particularly significant (although cancer isn’t part of the story). My mother died of complications related to early-onset Alzheimer’s ten years ago today. I’ve written about that before, and […]
I’ve never driven a “mom minivan” or worn the “mom uniform” (despite looking rather matronly for a number of years). My schedule isn’t governed by school functions and extra-curricular activities. I’m often seen with my husband, but without the kids. There may be people who know me and don’t even realize that I’m a mom. But even though I’m not on active duty these days – one child is out on his own, and two […]
The first apology is to my sister, because I’m not sure I’ll have had a chance to call and tell you about this before it posts, and I know you prefer not to have the blog be the first place you find out about things :-). The second apology is to every blog in my Google Reader, where I’ve already hit the “mark all as read” button twice in two days, and may need to […]
