Life is a trip. My son turned thirteen today. It really does feel like it was yesterday that my little guy was born. After a brief touch of crying, he looked up with those dark, observing eyes and quietly took in the view of his awestruck green parents. And we were never the same. The hospital let us take [...]

It’s still so unreal. I have a Haitian friend who works in the Dominican Republic; his wife and children live in Haiti. When the earthquake hit, he emailed me to tell me he was going home and wasn’t sure where his family was, or if they were okay. I don’t know what that’s like. It [...]

Tylenol shouldn’t be at the top of your Christmas wish list. I mean, come on. Every year it happens, even amongst throngs of people who say they’ll resist it: turmoil over the Christmas season. Why? Why would we ever choose this? And I use ‘choose’ very purposefully. See, I think that all of the stress, [...]

Food is art. You have to have fun with food. Make it beautiful. Make it a memory. I was looking through some summer 2009 food pics that brought back some great memories; thought I’d share them. 1. Crawdads in Buttah: Had a great time this summer camping with friends down on the Deschutes. After tubing, we [...]

So Sunday afternoon I was at Costco for a value lunch (which means $1.50 hot dog and soda, or the free buffet, aka samples). I chose hot dog.  I tried to take a browsing stroll around Costco, but as always, I ended up in one of two places: electronics, or books. That day it was [...]

Hey, friends – took a very relaxing several months off blogging, but I’m back. Have some good book reviews, thoughts, restaraunts for you to visit, and pics to enjoy. Quick recap: Went on a fiction reading spree – something like a novel a week for almost four months now. Which I know isn’t a lot [...]

1. Great weather. 2. Baseball season. 3. Iced Coffee. Sorry, but when you live in the Pacific NW, the blogging goes down when the sun comes up!  I’m sure there’s a web tracker to prove that. I have been having a blast watching Aiden play baseball (.609 batting ave!), drinking lots of iced coffee, and [...]

A great couple of days.  Here’s some top moments from the weekend: – Opening Weekend for Capitol Little League – Aiden’s first up to bat of the season was a triple, about ten feet shy of the fence!  He couldn’t hide his smile from the rooters. – Saturday night dinner date with Kristy at Budd Bay.  Thanks [...]

A short summary of my last few weeks: The couch.  About three weeks ago I tore my Achilles tendon, and so after surgery I have spent many an hour here on the couch, developing a semi-permanet impression of my backside into the cushion. Some things I’m learning: – Krull (1983) was a great movie… in 1983.  [...]

Saw this online, couldn’t resist.  In a rush to give everything to our kids (usually at 8.9% interest!), are we missing what they need most?