Shifting Gears   Baby Boomer…Member Life 2.0…Wife, Mother, Grammie…Bicyclist…GoldWinger…Mensan…Girl Scout…Reader…Knitter…Rotarian

My family and friends know that I’m anything BUT a fashionista.  I’ve managed to avoid being arrested and held by the Fashion Police but I’ve had my share of narrow escapes!  I leave the fashion trends – and shopping – to Tammy who is the Fashion Queen for our family.  So I thought it only appropriate [...]

When I read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver several years ago, I knew I had found an author to add to my list of favorites.  Not only is she a talented author but she also established the Bellwether Prize for fiction – a biennial award given to previously unpublished works of fiction which address issues [...]

We’re back from Des Moines and I’ve started the un-decorating process!  So far that amounts to hauling all the storage boxes out of the attic and putting away a few things – and already wondering about a few items.  Do I really want to save them for next year – or not?  On our current schedule [...]

I don’t usually spend an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen except to walk through it on the way to somewhere else in the house – or to drink coffee and read the paper in the morning.  But time spent in food preparation is often fleeting.  It’s not that I don’t like to cook [...]

We’ve had a whirlwind week with Len, Stacey and Alex here plus Cindy and her gang at the house for Christmas so tonight’s calm and quiet is a drastic change.  And considering we run a pretty low-key operation around here, it’s kind of good to be back to just the boring two of us plus [...]

John Irving has been one of my favorite authors ever since I read The World According to Garp.  In fact, it’s one of the few books that I felt transitioned well to the big screen, thanks in no small part to Robin Williams and Glenn Close.  I’ve since read several other tomes he has penned [...]

Daughter Stacey, her husband Len and son Alex (almost 12) are with us for a few days so we’re enjoying relaxing and hanging out together.  Last night Len’s parents came over for soup and we ended up playing a mean game of Mexican Train – which I won.  Since it requires very little skill, I [...]

Burl loves to go to movies so today he asked me for a date to the movies and dinner tonight.  How could I refuse?  Sure couldn’t tell him I had other plans, could I? There are a few movies out that I wanted to see but since we opted to go to the Springfield 8, [...]

I know that Christmas arrives every year – it’s always on December 25th no matter what the day of the week.  I also know that it takes time to shop, wrap, decorate, write, mail, bake and party – plus clean the house occasionally. So I’m happy to announce that a few days ago we finally [...]

The very best gifts are those things you don’t even know you want/need but show a lot of thought from the giver.  Such is the case of a birthday gift I received from Tammy and Steve.  I’m not sure which of them had the idea but I’m betting it was Steve since he’s our family [...]