We rang in the new year with family, the kind of friends you call family, U2, The Ramones, chocolate martinis and deep thanks for water chestnuts in Safeway’s spinach dip. So far, so good, 2009. I could have done without the glimpse of poor Dick Clark, but it was a good reminder that it’s always […]

It’s 11:50 pm, December 30. It’s entirely possible that 24 hours from now, I’ll be fast asleep. New Year’s tends to be that way. More than ever this year, I’ve heard friends complain bitterly about how much they hate the holidays (namely: Christmas), which makes me incredibly sad. I wonder if anyone would ache to […]

Have you heard of Calef Brown? If you haven’t, grab one of the bookstore gift cards you got for the holidays, and run out and buy one of his collections of poetry, which include “Polkabats and Octopus Slacks” and “Flamingo on the Roof” (www.calefbrown.com). It’s the stuff you had children for — this guy’s the Dan […]

I woke up yesterday morning and noticed that the dog had a bar code on the bottom of her paw. Fitting, considering how much merchandise has made its way into our house, the last week. I’ve now learned my lesson about how important it is to take careful inventory…. We were all a little bleary-eyed […]

  Christmas is the loneliest day of the year for a Jew, and don’t try to tell me it isn’t. All notions of religion aside, it’s the biggest party of the year and the Jew, simply put, is not invited. I come by this feeling honestly. It’s genetic. My mother has her own story of a […]

I came closer than I ever have, this year, to writing a holiday letter. In a season filled with corny joys — from my favorite holiday song, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” not coincidentally my mom’s favorite as well, to the “crazy house” with all the lights we drive by at least three times […]

It came to me the other day, this term for the modern-day woman (and some men) obsessed with Martha Stewart and all that goes along with that. Martharexic. And as soon as it did, poof! I felt like a heavy blanket (chenille, just the  shade of cream to go with a perfectly appointed living room […]

Like any (okay, most) self-respecting snobby working mom, I love to diss scrapbooking. For years I’ve wanted to pitch a story to New Times (my dayjob) about what I’ve come to call “the hierarchy of craft”. Scrapbooking’s at the very bottom, with beading (beading that requires no skill, just shopping and stringing — by the […]

Some days I’m pretty sure Sophie’s smarter than the rest of us. Last night the holiday loot came home in the backpack, in the form of two more laminated ornaments for the tree (which, blessedly, no longer smells — or at least I’ve gotten used to it) and a laminated card. (Side note: Some day […]

It rained yesterday. That’s headline news in these parts. We’re always unprepared. Several of the caramel-dipped, chocolate covered pretzels I’d brought to school as holiday gifts fell in a puddle (don’t worry, they were wrapped, you can get them that way — warning, product shot! — at Granny’s Chocolates in Gilbert; the casualty was the cute labels I’d ordered […]