As you may have gathered from last year’s letter, Steve and I are not farmers. However, we did grow up in relatively rural, grow-and-can-your-own households, and we continue to cling to the dream of a backyard garden in spite of the fact that we live in a place with horrible, rocky dirt for a yard …
Steve loves pumpkins. Pumpkin-spiced this, pumpkin-flavored that; it doesn’t matter what. When fall rolls around, and the Trader Joe’s flyer turns to all things pumpkin, our shopping cart is quickly filled with indulgences. In early October this year, several new pumpkin recipes showed up on the kitchen counter one weekend; seeing them, my only response …
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Or, as our friends in Scotland might say, Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhma mhath ur! This year, Steve and I took a trip that we have long been talking about, but have had to delay for many years, spending a wonderful two and a half weeks exploring Scotland. Those of …
Continue reading ‘2015 – Are You Being Served?, or, All It Will Take Is One Good, Stiff Wind’ »
Greetings weary traveler. While the year has been full of emotional twists and turns, you are welcome to pull up a chair, sit by the fire with a cuppa, and share our tale. As with many of life’s changes, we begin with loss. While I hesitate to start the holiday epistle with sad news, it …
Continue reading ‘2014 – A Tale of Two Kitties, or, Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss’ »
My dad is not your stereotypical “dude”. I don’t know that he’s ever watched a game of sport in which a descendant was not playing; he is not prone to crash-em-up, ‘splosion movies; and he is usually rather mild-mannered, unless he’s encountering a TSA agent. But he does like fast, sporty cars; a native son …
Steve put a lot of thought into every aspect of our raccoon foster care cage when he designed it ten years ago. From the type of rot-resistant wood to use, to the gauge of the hardware cloth needed to keep bees out, to what was essentially the construction of two separate cages connected with a …
I must begin by admitting that the response to last year’s holiday tale was quite overwhelming; apparently tales of marital brinksmanship make for amusing holiday letters. Unfortunately, there are no such anecdotes to tell this year. But perhaps that is just a failure of my memory. For you see, this year has been notable for …
Continue reading ‘2011 – Happy… Ummmm… You Know… That Thing… , or, Where’s My Thesaurus?’ »
Contrary to popular belief, it can get cold in California during the winter, at least in the northern parts of the state. I know that my friends in New England and across the Midwest are scoffing at that statement, but it’s true. Having grown up in Illinois, where it can feel like your eyeballs might …
Continue reading ‘2010 – A War of Attrition: Letters from the Front, or, It’s a Four Cat Night’ »
There are some years that I dread that passing of Thanksgiving, for I know that once we have finished our feast it will be time to sit down at last to write the Holiday Letter. For weeks before Thanksgiving, I’ll contemplate the years’ events, trying to think of an amusing anecdote with which to regale …
Continue reading ‘2009 – Mother’s Always Right, or, They Don’t Make Things How They Used To’ »
Ah, holiday letter time. Is it possible that it is yet again time to encapsulate another year of our lives? In my annual struggle to formulate an amusing yet coherent tale to weave, I have decided that my parents’ July visit warrants some exploration. Although my parents consistently come out each year, the circumstances of …
Continue reading ‘2008 – The Birdman of Alcatraz, or, What’s in the Box?’ »