• Thanksgiving 2017

    An action-packed Thanksgiving break in our house. We kicked things off Wednesday by heading to the post office to submit passport applications for all three girls. We are going to Mexico next spring break and wanted to give their applications plenty of time to percolate through the system. We double, triple, quadruple checked that everything was in order, talked to…

  • KD Comes to Allen

    Busy, busy day around here getting ready for tomorrow. All the errands have been run and (hopefully) the final trip to the grocery store completed. The girls and I are midway through our house cleaning regimen. I’m about to head outside and do some leaf blowing and grass mowing in the 90 minutes or so the thermometer might reach 40…

  • Reader’s Notebook, 11/21/17

    So much for my little lull. I raced through two books over the past week. So as I don’t forget about them over the holiday weekend, here they are. The Lock Artist – Steve Hamilton This book arrived with loads of praise from many different sources. And it ended up being a magnificent read. Our narrator is Michael, a man…

  • Friday Playlist

    The flow of new music has slowed recently, as it always does this time of year. Thus, I’ve spent more time reviewing and whittling my Favorite Songs of the Year list lately, getting it ready for unveiling in about a month.  So for today’s playlist, I decided just to open up Spotify, select my Songs, hit shuffle, and share the…

  • Reader’s Notebook, 11/16/17

    Funny thing. After reading that Van Halen book in one day, I then didn’t read a thing for an entire week. And then took roughly a week to really get into my next book. Obviously my body was self-regulating and making sure I didn’t get too far ahead of my book-a-week pace. The Sellout – Paul Beatty Here we have…

  • The Most Wonderful Link of the Year

    As I do every year, I’ve bookmarked this site and check it every day to see what holiday shows are on that evening. We’ve already recorded Home Alone and L has watched about half of it. This Saturday looks like the first big TV night of the season. Christmas TV Schedule

  • Hoops Are Here

    Here we go. Too early for sure, but the first big night of the college hoops year is tonight. These games would likely be much better if played a month from now but, whatever, we have to live with all these marquee matchups before Thanksgiving. This year’s Champions Classic is perfectly arranged. Duke and Michigan State, #1 vs. #2, two…

  • On The Academic Tip

    A couple cool things M has accomplished recently. Earlier in the year, a big group of girls in her grade attended the induction ceremony for National Junior Honor Society. M had never mentioned a thing about it, and when I asked her, she just shrugged. I dug into the student handbook and saw her GPA last spring was 0.3 points…

  • Saturday Song

    Damnit. I’ve reached the point in my life where if I want to remember things, I have to somehow set a reminder. The girls tell me they need more school supplies? Set a reminder. There’s something I’d like to remember in three months? Put it in the calendar.  I know this isn’t some kind of radical new system, but up…

  • Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/2lBBncMZRrkcvpJDZYK3WS “Intrepid” – Pinegrove. A fine new single and the exciting “More News Coming Soon” entry on Pinegrove’s website is promising for 2018.  “Boy Crazy” – Lydia Loveless. Likely the first single I ever heard from Loveless, who in now in that group of 20 or so artists that I love the most right now. Originally released in 2013, it’s…