Archive for November 2009

The Left Hand of the Father: Kindergarten

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 30 November 2009 with 2 comments

Most adults were amused and bewil­dered by my pre­co­cious ways at only four years old, but by September 1st, 1981, my mother had enough of my con­stant ques­tions and demands for expla­na­tions and decided it was high time I went to kinder­garten so she could have a break. Trouble was, most schools required that children […]

Love: awesome! Thank, feel, wish.

In Miscellany on 29 November 2009 with no comments

I love word clouds. I love text analy­sis. I love words as art, words as emo­tion, words as points of con­tact. 
And I love how pos­i­tive, happy, and lovely this Tweetcloud is. 
Make your own: Tweet Cloud
Feel the love 

Thanksgiving 2009

In Culture, Family, Holidays & Traditions on 27 November 2009 with no comments

Thanksgiving.
I com­plain every year about Thanksgiving, because I grew up cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­day with extended fam­ily: sib­lings, aunts, cousins, friends, and tables of food. But ever since I left home, Thanksgiving has just been me and my hus­band, and then as our kids came along, our kids.
That’s just four peo­ple. When you grew up cel­e­brat­ing with […]

Wine: It’s What’s For Dinner

In Family, Holidays & Traditions on 22 November 2009 with no comments

As you can see, my Thanksgiving shop­ping is done. Six bot­tles of wine for two peo­ple. It ought to be a good hol­i­day.
And, okay, yes, that’s a bot­tle of Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice hid­ing in the back, there. My mom used to buy sparkling juice for me and my brother when we were lit­tle. She […]

The Passing of Father Jim

In Miscellany on 18 November 2009 with no comments

I know it’s stu­pid to think, “But I just saw him!” when you hear that some­one has died.
But it was my response. I just saw Father Jim on Friday.
I just received an email that the pas­tor of my daughter’s school passed away unex­pect­edly dur­ing the night. He was found dead this morn­ing.
I didn’t know him. I’m […]

Donuts Are Delicious

In Baking, Family, Miscellany on 15 November 2009 with no comments

The best place to get donuts in Austin is Mrs. Johnson’s bak­ery. They keep weird hours, appeal­ing, osten­si­bly, to the 420 crowd, but the donuts are soft and fluffy and not too sweet. Good tex­ture, good taste, and they always give you a nice, hot glazed to eat in your car along with the rest […]

I Write Because I’m a Writer, and That’s What Writers Do.

In Writing on 10 November 2009 with 5 comments

I despaired yes­ter­day.
After decid­ing to fin­ish (or rather, truth be told, get a bet­ter start on) Book One of the Love & War paper series, I sat down at my desk to write and ended up read­ing chap­ters one through four, reas­sur­ing myself that I don’t, in fact, suck. While there are def­i­nitely sec­tions that […]

Epilogue to a Rainy Day

In Baking, Family on 9 November 2009 with no comments

Rainy days demand good food. My idea of good food is home­made bread and a deli­cious soup. Yesterday we pigged out on grilled cheese sand­wiches made with home­made bread, and home­made tomato soup with mozzerella and basil.
We were some happy sons of guns up in this house.
This is my bread recipe.
This ain’t a food blog, so yo […]

Reading for October: Summer of the Ubume

In Books, Reading on 8 November 2009 with no comments

Summer of the Ubume, by Natsuhiko Kyogoku.
If you’re think­ing that I have been on a Japanese kick, you’d be right. I get tired of the same-old, same-old (who doesn’t?) and although I love hor­ror nov­els, I get a bit tired of American hor­ror. Right now, with vam­pires and zom­bies being trendy as hell, […]

We Can Get There From Here: making a badass web

In Culture, Web Development, Writing on 3 November 2009 with no comments

My arti­cle, You Can Get There From Here: Websites for learn­ers is live today on A List Apart.
For var­i­ous rea­sons, this arti­cle was a long time com­ing. I started writ­ing it over a year and a half ago, but I just couldn’t spit out what I was try­ing to say. Every incar­na­tion of the article […]