Hey MOBsters, it’s been so much fun to read your comments on Friday’s post. Thank you for sharing memories and confessions of your mental and physical age. As you know, I’m 51, which puts me right between the two people in this photo. That’s newborn Ian, 6 weeks, and my beloved Grandma Grace, 99. They represented the [...]
Oprah should have sent cameras to my family reunion in Colorado over the 4th of July. The middle generation was re-united with two cousins we have not seen for literally 50 years. Mark and Bob lived with their mom following her divorce from our uncle. When their mother re-married, they were adopted by their stepfather. Although [...]
It’s good to occasionally get away from your regular life and go someplace completely different. It’s even better if a family reunion is going on in a beautiful place, because your brother Tom and his wife Wendy had the excellent good sense to move to Durango, Colorado and invite everyone to come on over. Just [...]
When the boys were little and I had to take them to horrible movies like Pokemon 3, smuggling a book and a flashlight into the theatre was the only thing that saved my sanity. Chris drew the short straw on the Thomas the Tank Engine movie, as I recall. I still remember some of the brilliantly scripted moments [...]
The hydrangea post the other day inspired some readers, here and on Facebook, to throw out their own nominations for what makes someone “old,” if not having a hydrangea bush or two in the yard. Arlene: Decorating with or crocheting doilies Laila: Tending African violets and having crewelwork on the back of your sofa Kathy: Growing camelias [...]
I’m feeling old. Partly because people exactly my age keep turning up dead in their beds (see: Michael Jackson, Billy Mays). Partly because my thumbs hurt a lot and I have to wonder, it is the rheumatiz? But mostly I feel old because I love hydrangeas, and I have lots of them dotting my garden. As any mid-century-American [...]
The doorball rang the other morning. Very exciting – it was Fed Ex. Bummer – it was for Malcolm. Wait, why would Malcolm be getting an urgent envelope via Fed Ex? When our 12-year-old climbed down from his bunk bed two hours later, he excitedly ripped open the tab, only to groan in disappointment. “It’s from the [...]
Every year when Wimbledon rolls around, I am reminded of one of the greatest travel coups of my life. In 1985, my parents pulled up stakes, left Mid-Missouri, and went to England for six months. They rented a flat in Henley-on-Thames, tootled around the UK in a little car they bought, and had a ball learning [...]
I for one am very tired of the word “cougar” to describe older woman who track down and pounce on younger men. First of all, is there anything really wrong with that? And second of all, is there an equivalent word for men who stalk and bag trophy wives? “Horndog” isn’t quite specific enough. “Donald [...]
For the last 180 days, Malcolm informed us, he has been working very hard. At school. Certainly not at home. We agreed that yesterday, when school ended in the late morning, he could have his buddies over to blow off some steam. An impromtu backyard bacchanal was planned. It began with a lunch of pizza, fruit salad, and Coke. Two [...]
