Though my schedule is tight right now, I made time today to take my yearly Christmas picture of the kids so I can make my holiday cards. Since we had to go to Winter Garden for Gillian’s voice lesson, we took the pictures there, around the historical museum. They have a decommissioned caboose, tractors, and a fire truck that make nice props/ ( Read more... )

I have been interviewing my father in bits and pieces lately, trying to create a relatively complete history of his life. This effort is part of a larger project of mine, to have basic biographies (plus random interesting memories and stories) of all of my kids' close relatives ( Read more... )

Hello all. Lots of stuff has been happening, and logging on here is still not convenient. But I got to read my friend
list today (so want to see Torchwood!), and I hope to write a longer post this week. If I don't, here is a summary: kids, Sister in hospital, El and I got sick, suck, suck, Navy Pier, kids, Cirque Shanghai, playing in fountain, ( Read more... )

So, here I am in Chicago. The first couple of days were not sufficiently cooler and free of biting ants to make me really feel that I'd left Florida behind, but today was lovely. I've been hanging out at my parents house, admiring the living room they have where there used to be a slice of the apocalypse. I even bestirred myself to go running. The ( Read more... )

There is a word I once decided was a great descriptor of my father. A word that most people these days cannot inhabit the way he does. I have forgotten the word, and spent all day trying to think of it. Rather appropriate, since one of the things I most associate with my dad is words. Words in plays, words in poems, words dramatically spoken ( Read more... )

Happy 20th, poguer and isabeaus_mom! Thanks for showing how it's done.

Yesterday, rt_hon_rackman and I had a day out with no kids. For a mere $100, we had about four hours without them; Gillian went to an event at her gymnastics school, and we dropped off Elliot with Gillian's teacher. The morning started stressfully as we tried to get organized and out the door. Elliot wouldn't nap, and I managed to bump into rt_hon_rackman's car while backing ( Read more... )

Today was a rather Christmassy day. We cleaned the house this morning, which wasn't really Christmassy, but made me feel good and also made it easier to decorate. El got a haircut, and then we all went with Gillian to Petsmart to look at fish. She has wanted one for a while, but we required that she show a half a year of responsibility first. Which ( Read more... )

Hah! I successfully blogged every day this month, sometimes several times a day, in honor of NaBloPoMo. (My calendar thingy says I didn't post on the 7th, but it lies. There was some kind of time zone weirdness.) (Edit: I guess I missed the 26th, but I didn't have a computer available that day.) I liked the discipline of this; I frequently have ( Read more... )

We spent the morning in St. Pete hanging out at Kuya Kevin's house, then drove along the shoreline (which reminded me alternately of Hyde Park Blvd. around 51st-53rd Street, and Lincoln Park) until we got to the Dali museum. I went in with my sister-in-law, while everyone else played in the park and walked along the shore. A fisherman let Gillian ( Read more... )