It’s official. I’m a wreck. Work any place for 17-plus years, and co-workers will come and go. I’ve said my share of good byes and even shed some tears. The alt weekly I work for has a small staff, and people work really hard. You get attached. But I can’t recall a departure that’s affected […]

This weekend was refreshing — like eating popsicles with your best friends. Actually, that’s exactly what I did. For the first time in too long, Ray and I ventured away sans kids to LA for a dear friend’s wedding. It was barely 80 degrees, but the ceremony took place in the direct sun (I can’t […]

Nothing says “summer” (not to mention “over-achieving babysitter” — Courtney and Sophie made these together) like pinwheels.

You can’t really see the veil in this photo, but above is Sophie, practicing to be The Bride in this week’s dance recital. She will be performing (something, I’m not sure what) while Annabelle sings along to a song called “Happily Ever After,” from a musical called “Once Upon a Mattress.” The most interesting thing […]

I’m working late tonight, and look what arrived in my in box from Ray, taken in our front yard. I don’t think it needs any description.

Yesterday morning I got up extra early to make Annabelle’s birthday cake. I wanted it to be a stressfree experience — serene, happy, full of love — to avoid the pitfalls described in Aimee Bender’s new book “The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake,” which I wrote about last week and read last weekend. (The ending really creeped […]

If you don’t live in metro Phoenix, this won’t be of much interest. And even if you do, it may be of no interest whatsoever. But in the interest of, well, shameless self-promotion, I’ll tell you that I will be teaching and co-teaching some writing workshops in July — one at Changing Hands Bookstore, the […]

There is nothing worse than a friend who has vowed not to shop for the entire year. Unless it’s two friends who have vowed not to shop for the entire year. Consider my good friends Robrt and Todd. The other day, Todd sent me an email. Subject line: This is not a Hobby Lobby Coupon… […]

It finally happened. Sophie has a loose tooth. Two, actually. Both her top front teeth are loose. She was so excited when I point this out that she did that thing where her whole body vibrates, and all day long, she grabbed people’s hands and tried to shove them in her mouth to wiggle the evidence. […]

I snapped a quick photo of Sophie this morning at dance camp, thinking, “How cute!” But then I took a good look at it and changed my mind. I thought, “Oh no, not again.” I thought I was over this — but apparently not. If I was fastidious about categorizing blog posts, as I know […]