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There was a crash of breaking glass from the living room. My first thought was: Oh, no! Not the blue vase. I like the blue vase. Pretty blue vase.
No, Barry was on the other side of the room, and one of the table lamps was on the floor. My thought was: Oh, well. We need [...]

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Tonight’s the night! Kaferine deNerve was just here stocking up on coolers for ice and water, since the weather promises to be a scorcher. At least we don’t have to worry about rain turning the meadow into a swamp.
I have the honor of being the handler for one of this year’s contestants, Badonna. I’ll be [...]

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In a few months, I will have the honor and the pleasure of attending the wedding of a woman I’ve known since she was a mere fetus that I would refer to as “Spike.” Pondering her path from zygote to soon-to-be-married-college-graduate has gotten me thinking about the phases that people go through during that journey. [...]

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I’m of the opinion that the best branding in the world can be erased by one bad customer service experience. On the other hand, when a company goes out of its way to provide above-and-beyond customer service, I think it’s worth noting.
My Mom and I had dinner this evening at Carrabas, on 15-501. Barry doesn’t [...]

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Two days in my 7 years of North Carolina have really stood out: my wedding day, and a day about 4 years ago that I spent canoeing down the Haw River. Yesterday I got to combine the two: Barry and I paddled the Haw together. This was a different stretch: a little further north, class [...]

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“I get out of the shower and Zoey is sitting on the toilet staring at me!”
“That’s because she either wants you to fill the graywater bucket up to the top so she can drink out of it, or sit on the toilet so she can jump in your lap.”
“Well she better get over it because [...]

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If I could choose a day to live again,
it would be any random afternoon when,
coming home from school,
I’d find you in your upstairs room,
the cat and dog gone fast asleep
and lying in the sun,
and you would let your work lie fallow
in your lap and tell me tales
of ancient kings, of artistry,
of long-forgotten trinities that flourished [...]

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Last week I wrote about how a cancer diagnosis of benign carcinoma is the best bad news ever.
Finding out that a dear friend died is the worst.
I didn’t know Martha well, but she was the beloved wife of a beloved friend of my own beloved husband, and that’s close enough for me to shed a [...]

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One of the realities of getting older is that cancer becomes less an abstract thing that happens to people Someday Far in the Future if they smoke or drink too much or get too much sun or eat too much bacon, and more something that your friends and family are dealing with. Since moving to [...]

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