it was a lovely week, really

Despite my last post, life here in Fetnerville has been quite enjoyable lately. Given that our usual excitement consists of looking for worms after a rainstorm and watching Kid buckle his own seatbelt, it is tough to imagine so much happening in just a few days. We missed Easter completely, though throughout the weekend I [...]

adventures

Included among our adventures in the last week:

scarlet fever
hockey tournament
bum bruise
broken leg
panic attack

So, I am behind in all correspondence other than Twitter. That is all.

vacation wrap-up: heading home

I’m sitting in the dark in our hotel room, as I have done every night this week. Kid’s bedtime is 8pm, and what is there to do besides sit quietly and read? I hadn’t even figured out that he can fall asleep with the computer glow on until last night. Before that, I was reading [...]

vacation post: from san bruno

Whew! After my great trip in Denver, I spent half a day hanging out in the Denver airport, half a day flying to California, and half a day hanging out with my family. Does that add up to a day and a half? That’s what it feels like, anyway. Husband and Kid are flying in [...]

email victory

Way back in May, I reported my attempt to achieve the unthinkable: the zero message e-mail inbox. Mine had swollen to 1300 messages and I had to try to cut it down to get my sanity back. At this time of that report, it seemed like the goal was well within reach. I’d progressed all [...]

grace is not my middle name

I just sliced off the tip of the pinky finger on my left hand. Good thing I have a blog so that I can share this moment with you. That dot in my palm is my former fingertip:

dong redux

I received my dental bill from Dr. Dong today. It was handwritten. Should I think this is weird? And, if weird, is it weird in a hipster-down-home-indie-dentist way, or just weird in a bad way?
Also: Dial Idol and the prediction markets still think that Scatterplot’s own David Cook is going to win [...]

downed by the dishes

I’m out in sunny California, checking in on my folks and giving my sister a break from caregiving. Things here are much less chaotic than my last visit, when my mom was in a car accident. She’s much better now, and Mom & Dad have caregivers who drop by every day for cooking, laundry and [...]

providence in portland.

My best friend, Laurie, lives in Portland, Oregon, worlds away from South Bend. We usually see each other during the summer, but this year there was a special treat – I’d be at the Pacific Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Portland – that would bring us together an extra time this year.
Laurie’s mom is dying. [...]

adventures in new york

So this morning I’m calling to set up an appointment to get my hair cut.
Shamus: I need a hair cut.
Salon: Great! [Details...] Oh! And we’re having a special right now. With a hair cut you get a free make-up consult.
Shamus: Um… I’m single. [Meaning: there's no one in my life who could use [...]

prudent printing is about more than saving paper

If your job requires you to share a printer, either be careful what you print or pick up said printing immediately. Saving trees and saving face are both virtuous.

conflicted

I have an old email account I check on occasion. Others sometimes mistype their own account and register for services using this email address. Most services ask for confirmation so there’s not much of a problem. In such cases I don’t confirm and that way the registration doesn’t really go through. Presumably the person eventually [...]

the state of affairs.

Did anyone else watch the State of the Union address last night?

we hit our 100,000th view today

Next stop, 1,000,000!

gettin’ old: the bad news follow-up

Thanks to everyone who had good ideas about what to do for my folks that are getting up there in years. It turns out that there are lots and lots of resources just like the ones I was looking for: agencies that screen, train, and bond workers to help seniors out and allow them to [...]