Sometimes its hard to let things go. I have a ratty stuffed turtle at the back of my closet that I had when I was five. When I buy T-shirts as a keepsake from a trip, I dont wear it so it doesnt fade in the dryer.
Theres many more …

One day a week the 9-year-old next door comes over for the evening when his mom has a night class.
This week I asked him if he wanted to play a card game or did he want to carve one of the pumpkins that has been a source of fun recently.
We …

Ive decided that I am an action news reporter.?
Why not? A lot of other people are doing it right now.
Putting that label on myself makes me feel like I have my own soundtrack and am constantly looking over my shoulder and striking a heroic pose.
If those TV reporters can call …

About a month and a half ago I was lamenting that my tomatoes weren’t setting fruit. I had many blooms, but they would all just die off. So I contacted Cass Mutters at the Cooperative Extension office and he said to tickle the tomatoes to help pollinate them.
I taught Tommy …

It’s rare and beautiful when a person feels “understood.”
Dot first started e-mailing me about three years ago when I went to Hawaii and offered in my column that I would send a postcard to any readers who sent me their address.
She requested a postcard with a nice looking Hawaiin guy …

My best friend next door and the nine-year-old went to the Book Family Farm. They went with my sister and niece. It was a weekday, so Ill consider that the reason that I wasnt invited.
The nine-year-old, Leif, proudly pointed out the three enormous pumpkins they had placed on the …

For the longest time I didnt allow the television to be turned on, except for renting movies. When Tommy and I first started dating I told him that the clear sign that it was the beginning of the end? when a couple resorted to sitting around watching television instead of …

Tommy pulled a Lucy Ricardo.
We’ve all done that in our lives, a moment when we are a total dork and manifest a silly scenario worthy of 1950′s sitcoms.
We were staying at my mother’s house in Redding. Mom left us a key and said we could have the run of the …

When my niece was young, maybe 12 years old, we would play a story-telling game on car trips. We call it the “AND” game. The way it works is the storyteller gets to tell a story, but if she says the word and? her turn ends and someone else continues.
This …