We like to take our toddler Henry to the Monday night City Band concerts in City Park. But I'd be lying if I said he peacefully enjoys the music. While he listens, he also pokes his fingers in the irrigation control valve covers, smacks the metal...
Last month at my 15th high school reunion in Woodstock, Vermont, I had a chat with my class's valedictorian. She's nowhere to be found on Facebook, so this conversation was a genuine catch-up — that is to say, we didn't have to pretend we had...
Does “AXYDLBAAXR = LONGFELLOW” mean anything to you? In a cryptogram puzzle, each letter stands for a different letter of the alphabet. I don't like to brag, but I've been doing newspaper “Cryptoquotes” with my mom since I was a kid, and I'm a real...
My brain is like a cobwebby attic where I spend most of my time labeling boxes of things and putting them on shelves. That, or making sprawling lists of things to do or remember. Or just chasing rascally squirrels out with a broom. When I...
I get freaked out about branded products with chemicals and additives. I realize they're formulated to do a good job, but I saw one too many articles on Facebook about potential carcinogens and rolled up my sleeves to make my own deodorant and toothpaste from...
“No, no, no, we don't throw our food on the floor,” I find myself saying for the zillionth time, wagging my finger. I thought that when my toddler Henry mastered the fine art of cutlery he would stop flinging pasta all over the place, but...
It's 9:32 a.m. and in the rearview mirror on the way back from dropping Henry at daycare I'm eyeballing the tumbleweed on my head that is supposed to be a ponytail. Can I swing a third day without a shower? Will my 11 a.m. client forgive...
