A new year, and new milestones ( Read more... )

and I'm still horribly hit-n-miss with the posting. At least I have the excuse that I had my kids for six days, from the 19th through the 24th. I tried to make the most of it with day trips and activities ( Read more... )

I took the girls out today to shop for a birthday present for their brother (it'd Daniel's 12th tomorrow!). On the way to Toys-r-Us, the girls were talking about cats. Elyssia said that when she grows up she want to get a huge white one like we saw at PetSmart the other week. Then I said that I wanted to get a cat again but I need to move ( Read more... )

in a world economy that is anything but a level financial playing field, where there are children in some parts of Africa who get to eat once a day--if the relief workers can get to them; where there are teenagers in South America and the Pacific rim who get paid a dollar a day to make shoes or assemble electronics; where children in Iraq and ( Read more... )

I had my kids this weekend, which was an awesome change from being on call last weekend. We didn't really do anything special. Grocery shopped yesterday. I bought them yo-yo's, which they fooled around with throughout today. We also bought two dress shirts for me. One of the men's stores was having a 50% off sale yesterday. So I got an $80 shirt ( Read more... )

We empower oursevles simply by making choices. The more informed the choice, the more empowerment is obtained. Unfortunately, something so simple, and (I think) so obvious, is all to often also so easily ignored--or even outright denied ( Read more... )

I am an unapologetic list maker. I get a very real, extremely over-inflated sense of accomplishment of checking off task completed, drawing lines through work made unnecessary, and, once done, X-ing out the priority tasks that have been circled and starred. I have been guilty of adding items already done to the list, just so I can check a few ( Read more... )

I'm scheduled to be on call at work next week. I always get this sense of being held hostage whenever I'm on call. I don't know exactly when it started, but I'm sure that it was well over 10 years ago when my oldest boys were in grade school and I was grappeling with the dual obligations to work and family--and some days not doing very well with ( Read more... )

Yesterday silentq had a tea party and I made the effort to go. It was relaxed, pleasant conversation with some nice people. On the drive back, in Nashua, I got passed by a Lamborghini with Florida plates. I sped up to 80 and he was still pulling away at a good clip, so he was easily doing 95 or more. When I got through the tolls at Bedford, I saw him ( Read more... )

The semi-annual antiquarian book fair was today, which I took advantage of to indulge in 3 hours of escape from the rest of the world. The parking lot was packed, the fullest I've seen it in a long while. Unfortunately, there were slightly few dealers inside than last year. Still, there were many books to look at, and more than a few surprises. ( Read more... )