• Slogging To The End

    I think we’re ready, all of us, for school to begin. Trips to the pool have been the cornerstone of my daily plans for the summer. Give the kids time to veg in the morning, get outside a bit before it heats up, maybe run an errand or two after lunch, then spend the afternoon at the pool. But we’re…

  • Say It Right Or Don’t Say It!

    I’ve enjoyed the recent references amongst my Kansas City friends on Facebook to one of my favorite restaurants, Il Centro. Adding to the fun is the, now, obligatory comments about how everyone was sure to pronounce the name correctly. For the non-KCers out there, as an Italophile, I was quick to correct my friends who called the spot “eel sen-tro”…

  • So Very Eighties

    Last weekend I was sitting around, enjoying an 80-Acre Hoppy Wheat when Madness’ classic 1983 tune “Our House” came on the radio. Being the reflective cat I am1, I savored my beer and considered that I very well could have been listening to the same song exactly 30 years before that moment. I also thought if you had to sum…

  • Books

    You must forgive me. I’ve been on a bit of a reading roll lately, ripping through these five books in three weeks, along with a couple other more technical works I’ve been reading bits and pieces of between. Honestly, I kind of forgot all the details of the first. So shorter comments this time. I’ll try to keep up with…

  • Summer Lovin’

    It’s been a few days since we’ve been to the pool. The weather began to change the middle of last week, we were at the LVS over the weekend, and so far this week it’s been too cool to get in the water. With just two weeks until M. and C. begin school , we’ve enjoyed our first year as…

  • R’s – Poor Timing

    The Royals are doing it all wrong again. After a quarter-century of losing, they decide to rip off a hot streak just as this year’s trade deadline approaches. In the process, they’ve likely tricked General Manager Dayton Moore into thinking they still have a chance to sneak into the second Wild Card spot and thus stop any attempts to move…

  • Nine

    Nine years and one hour ago (as I type this) M. came into the world, screaming and demanding attention. She hasn’t shut up since. I kid! Kind of. Our girl loves to talk, as she is quick to admit. Now she is in the midst of 30 or so hours that are all about her, which is her idea of…

  • A Case Of The Mondays

    I’ll admit, sometimes I feel like my life is one big first world problem. I’m super fortunate that while there are some annoyances that test my patience each day, some wrinkles I’d love to have smoothed out, I face no true, big problems. I try to remain mindful and thankful of that at all times, as I know how quickly…

  • A Few Digital Music Thoughts

    The horse is long out of the barn. That’s my reaction to Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke’s announcement earlier this week that he was pulling his solo and Atoms For Peace music from the streaming service Spotify to protest the minuscule royalty payments it, and other similar services, issues to artists. I absolutely agree with his point: there needs to…

  • 2013 All Star Game

    This year’s All-Star Game retrospective won’t be quite as exhaustive as some in the past have been. By the time S. was home from a meeting and the girls were in bed, it was the top of the third. Fortunately, it was still 0-0 so with the exception of Robinson Cano getting plunked, I saw just about all the best game…