The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah….

Springtime in this neck of the woods is characterized by capricious weather and the subtle awakening of critters large and small.  Nothing makes my heart sing more than hearing the birds twittering in the trees outside my window first thing in the morning.  It means they’re happy, and that it’s warm. 
The downside to warmer weather [...]

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Ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Don’t you just hate it when someone takes something that works just fine and tries to improve it? 
I went for a massage last Friday.  I’d been needing a massage since our ice storm back in late January, but time and money prevented me from doing so.  (Five days of my parents living with us = [...]

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Another battle has begun.

Dipping back into the “things that annoy the holy living shit out of me” file: 
Every two weeks, we have our recycling pickup.  This past weekend, I discovered a box in our outbuilding, full of beer bottles and aluminum cans.  I am assuming it was left over from one of our barbecues last summer, and my [...]

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A fool and her money.

Spawn’s class won the used book sale collection contest, no doubt in part to the three cargo-area loads of books that I took to the school.  My SUV may be small, but it can pack a whole lot of books. 
To my credit, I came home with only two boxes of books.  Such are the perils [...]

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Schoolitis.

As kids, most all of us have faked being sick from time to time.  I know I did it, I clearly remember doing it.  I can remember lying on the couch in the teacher’s lounge at my small rural elementary school, waiting for my mother to come and get me.  Like any kid, I just [...]

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Nothing.

You know what I like best about the beach? 
Nothing. 
And I mean that in the best possible way. 
Nothing, as in “doing a whole lot of” or “thinking about” or “an ample supply of.”  There are no expectations at the beach, beyond getting some sun or digging in the sand.  If you time it just right, you [...]

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Ain’t for sissies.

Conversation in the Irish pub last Friday night: 
Friend:  Man, I’m getting where I can’t see my watch anymore.  Or my cellphone screen. 
Me:  Get yourself some reader glasses. 
Friend:  I’ve never had glasses. 
Me:  No, the magnifiers you get at the drugstore.  You can see little stuff better with them. 
Friend:  Huh.  No kidding. 
Me:  I’ve got several pairs. 
My husband:  [...]

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Playing hooky.

It’s a perfect storm of events. 
Spawn is being released from school early today (I have no idea why but I’m not arguing).  The weather is sunny, warm, and gorgeous.  And I am taking a half day off to spend the afternoon with my kid.  You know, while my kid still thinks it’s cool to spend [...]

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All day long you’ll have good luck.

I’m a penny picker-upper.  Always have been. 
A lot of people won’t bother to stoop down and pick up a penny from the sidewalk.  “It’s just a penny,” they’ll say.  But I maintain that if you do that 100 times, you have a dollar.  And most people will stoop down to pick up a dollar.  Also, [...]

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Literary snob, that’s me.

I have always been one to be a bit suspicious of the NYT Bestseller lists.  Stroll into any bookstore chain in America these days and take note of what greets you at the door.  More often than not, it’ll be a table loaded with books that have been promoted to the hilt. 
Now, I am sure [...]

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