One of my best friends is from Venezuela. She came to the US as a teen, and her English is basically perfect. I say “basically” because she still shortens my name to “Chay” (which frankly, I love), and while she can argue in English just fine, if she’s really mad, her English starts to go. Once she -- now famously --...
We’re back home in Marquette, MI visiting my mom and sister for a bit. Scotti’s doing shockingly well, now only 4 weeks post-op. We’re doing our usual things: going out to dinner, heading to the beach, and while she does get tired faster, you wouldn’t even know that she recently had brain surgery. Her face is still half-paralyzed, but...
I came up with a tentative after-school schedule for the boys yesterday. This is notable only because school doesn’t start for a few more weeks, and my move is usually to wait until the last minute and then scramble.
“Early August?? Look at you!” Linzi said. But I could hear the note of concern in her voice. Immediately, I’m annoyed. Both that she assumed...
Mike and I have been married 22 years today. We have actually spent several recent years “celebrating” our anniversary on the wrong day (oops), until my Mom corrected us.
And by “celebrating” I mean doing one of those horribly depressing adult things, the “oh hey, Babe! It’s our anniversary today!” sudden-realization thing.
If we’re lucky, one of us is able to run...
Are you guys watching the Olympics this weekend? I’m feeling…some kind of way about the whole thing.
Normally, I’m a big (huge) Olympics fan. I grew up competing in all kinds of sports, my Dad was a professional hockey player in his pre-kid years, and so Watching The Olympics was a big deal. A whole family affair.
In fact, one of...
It’s been a week, Gang. Scotti -- my sister -- went into surgery on Wednesday (for her acoustic neuroma), and the first couple of days after were pretty tough. Pain levels were high (as one might imagine after brain surgery), but they’ve managed to find a pain management schedule that (mostly) works. Scotti’s up and moving around (her balance is actually...
For those of you who reached out asking about Raines’ Outward Bound experience…he had an absolutely epic adventure. And if you haven’t yet heard of Outward Bound, it’s a company that specializes in “wilderness expeditionary courses” and has been around since…the '70s, I think. I first learned of Outward Bound because my Dad was totally enamored with the whole idea...
Happy 4th of July Weekend! I hope most of you are out enjoying some sunshine and BBQ, so I’ll keep this one short. As I type this, we’re en route to Vermont, but I’ll be back next week for the all of the NSale craziness.
Since I have nothing helpful or interesting to say -- truth be told, it’s been a...
We dropped Raines off last weekend for an Outward Bound 8-day expedition that includes hiking, rock climbing and camping every night in the wilds. And by "the wilds" I obviously mean bugs, bears, snakes, falling off cliffs, potential loss of limb, serial killers...
Yeah, those first few nights were really rough. For me. Not yet sure how Raines fared, but...
Happy Juneteenth Day!
Truth be told, I literally just Googled “is it OK to say happy Juneteenth” and found that “Happy Juneteenth Day” is -- according to many sources -- the appropriate phrase (although others disagree). As I’ve been falling out of love with July 4th these last few years -- a day dedicated to celebrating the founding of a...