My husband and I were just in Southern California and spent most of our time near the ocean – driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, walking on beaches and on cliffs above the sea, looking at boats in the harbors, and kayaking in Newport Bay. (But no sunbathing; not active […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Family
Cady Killers
Those of you who have read this blog for awhile know that I hate spiders. I have a new enemy now – cady killers, more formally known as “cicada killing wasps.” My husband thought he found evidence of termites in our backyard a couple of weeks ago – holes under […]
Continue readingAnother Pie Story
Readers liked my gooseberry pie post, so here’s another tale about a summer pie – this time a banana cream pie I made myself. You’ll see I had issues with it, just like with the gooseberry pie my future mother-in-law and I made together. In 1969, Home Economics was a […]
Continue readingThat Vision Thing
In addition to our 35th wedding anniversary, I have another 35th this year – thirty-five years of wearing contacts. I began wearing glasses as a child, and switched to contacts in the summer of 1977. My opthamologist that summer first tried me in soft lenses. They were easy to wear, […]
Continue readingPie Week, Pi Day, and Gooseberry Pie
Last week was Pie Week, I learned on National Public Radio. Why Pie Week in the U.S. is in July, I have no idea – I didn’t catch that on NPR. The British celebrated Pie Week March 5-11 this year, which at least is closer to Pi Day (March 14). […]
Continue readingArachnophobia and Love Revisited
The spiders are back already. After a mild winter and a hot spring and start to summer in the Midwest, they are creeping out of the attic earlier this year and bigger than ever. So I thought I would post my essay, Arachnophobia and Love, from my Family Recipe book. I hope […]
Continue readingWriting Memoir: Family Myth Defines Us, Unless We Define Ourselves
Earlier this month I attended the Kansas Authors Club, District 2, retreat at Lake Doniphan Conference & Retreat Center in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. (Yes, the Kansas authors were brave enough to cross the state line. The Border Wars have been over for a long, long time.) My favorite part of the […]
Continue readingDad, Me, and the New Capri
In the fall of 1972, a few months after I got my driver’s license, my father bought a sporty new Capri sedan. The Capri would be my mother’s car, replacing her small Ford Falcon station wagon, the car in which I had learned to drive. The Falcon was an easy […]
Continue readingMy Father-in-law and the Fireflies
Fireflies don’t live in the western United States, and I never encountered them growing up in Washington State. I didn’t see my first firefly until after I was married and moved to Missouri. We were in my in-laws’ backyard on a hot, humid evening in June. It might even have […]
Continue readingInternet Dependent
Last Sunday I worked all afternoon on the Internet through my laptop’s wireless connection. I uploaded a blogpost, responded to email, read newsletters, and checked the answers to The New York Times crossword puzzle. (I didn’t do very well on the puzzle this week.) About 5:00pm the Internet suddenly vanished. Poof! it […]
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