I think this was the fourth year my neighborhood has had a Memorial Day parade/festival, and the first that Neil hasn’t been in it. There’s a lot of things I love about my neighborhood, but I really love having a parade right in it. This year, it was the highlight of our Memorial Day weekend, [...]
At the end of May, gas prices were rising quickly, and they were expected to hit the $4 a gallon threshold imminently. I wasn’t in a situation where I could give up driving altogether, but I decided to give myself a small challenge: could I use less than $100 of gas during the month of [...]
Despite my black thumb, my summer garden last year was a success, at least by my standards. Sure, three innocent tomato plants gave their lives, but one hardy hybrid managed to bring forth some late summer snack tomatoes. The green peppers were about the size of golf balls, but they tasted great. And the pumpkin [...]
The other day a clerk at the grocery store praised me for being “green” and bringing in my own bags. I was a little startled, and just hoped he didn’t think I was also one of those types of people who drives around in a hybrid car with ECOLOVR license plates on it. The fact [...]
I love having children who love to learn, and that Neil is particularly eager to encourage Kelly towards that end. A few months ago, he used his own hard-earned money to buy an arcade game featuring her favorite character, Snoopy. Neil told Kelly he’d give it to her when she could count to 20 all [...]
Unlike some parents, I don’t object to sex education in the schools. Sex and religion are both sensitive topics, best taught in the home. But you can’t always dance around or avoid the subjects in education, and some parents are so queasy about either or both, they never teach them at home either. So they [...]
For his school’s open house, Neil, like the other fifth graders, had to do a science project. It was pretty challenging. I don’t remember ever doing a science project, and just coming up with a project that a) wasn’t a known science project template, b) involved month-long study and observation, and c) could be carried [...]
Following the lead of hipper, younger folk, a few years ago Peter and I canceled our land line service and now just use our cell phones. However, as we found out when I went to Germany, our cell phones can’t make international calls. But I emailed Peter to check out Skype, which I’d heard about, [...]
Paul Graham wrote a great essay Why Nerds are Unpopular, which, encapsulated at its simplest, says smart secondary school students aren’t popular because they’d rather be smart. From observation and personal experience, I agree with Graham’s essay. And I’m even happier that Neil won’t have a secondary school experience where being smart is a social [...]
Peter left yesterday to go on a business trip to Germany. This morning he called me from Frankfurt. After I got over my delight that the German cell phone I’d bought and loaded up with euro credits was still working, I found out, that, like everyone who’s flown British Airways this year, he had been [...]
