Weekend Notes
Sometimes the Midwest really sucks. We had a decent Easter weekend, weather-wise. Not perfect – if it was 5–10 degrees warmer it would have been ideal – but at least it was warm enough to do little kid activities outside. Then this morning it was snowing when I woke up. And it’s going to be 80 by Friday. Sheesh. We…
So This Is The New Year…
Happy New Year, everybody! Let’s kick off another calendar year of discussing random shit, shall we? Our New Year’s Eve was rather quiet, as usual. M went to a party, which was a first. That meant we had to stay up until we were sure she was safely at the home of the friend she was spending the night with.…
Christmas Notes
It is days like this you can’t help but wonder if climate change is a good thing. I’m sitting on our back porch, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, at 10:39 AM on December 27 and feeling completely comfortable. It feels like a May morning. Hell, it wasn’t that much warmer than this around sunrise in Hawaii. We will obviously pay…
Holiday Notes + Kid Sports
It seems like most of the family has re-acclimated to being in the eastern time zone, but our days are still all messed up. A full, five-day school week this week will surely get us back on track. Our holiday schedule is all out-of-whack from normal, though. The day after Thanksgiving is normally our decorating day. Since we were hiking…
Halloween 2021
I swear October is the fastest month. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating L’s birthday and now here we are on November 1 bracing for the onslaught of Christmas commercials. Hell, they started Saturday, from what I could tell so we’re already in it. Fall break, a trip, and lots of basketball helped to make the month speed…
Holiday Week Notes
A busy family and holiday week is in the books. We had visitors. My brother-in-law, his wife, and their three kids who live in Boston spent a week with us. Their kids are 6, 3, and 2. When I think of our kids being those ages and trying to spend a week as guests in someone else’s home, the word…
Weekend Notes
One of our more laid back Memorial Day holiday weekends is now in the books. Unlike most of the past decade, when we would either go to the lake or host a pool party, we had no major plans this year. We did have some friends over for dinner Friday, but it was cold and rainy that night so the…
A Christmas Unlike Any Other
Christmas, 2020. Like most folks, we were trying to have a semi-normal Christmas in the safest manner possible. Most years we end up having several big family gatherings of varying sizes. Last year was a banner year: four get-togethers greatly aided by temperatures in the 60s most of the week. Two days we were in the front yard hitting golf…
Timeless
We’ve lost so much this year, but proving that there is some light in the world, Darlene Love is still with us. For years and years she appeared on David Letterman’s program to sing her signature song just before Christmas. I did not know she moved that over to The View after The Late Show ended. Even Covid couldn’t keep…
Revisiting Classic Gifts
I was digging through the blog archives last night and came across this post, from December 2004. It is an accounting of the best Christmas gifts I received as a kid, which was about as “typical 2004 personal blog post” as you could get. I had two thoughts as I read it: 1 – If I re-did the list today…