Family and Friends

Relapse

Wouldn’t you know it; Adam woke up in the middle of the night last night. Just who does he think he is? Can you believe the nerve of some babies, filling their parents with false hope like that? He sleeps through the night for a few nights in a row, so I let my guard down, then WHAAA, WHAA, WHAAAAAAAAAA, it’s heads up at 2:30 a.m. Cheryl got up first. I heard her rustling in the…
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Kitchen Sink

The perils of trying new things

I’ve read recently that tea is good stuff. Yes, I’ve been reading that book on nutrition again. No, I’m not going to try and explain what the value of tea is, you’re just going to have to take it on faith. So anyway, I tried mixing up a batch for work today, but I noticed something a mite disturbing. If you shake up a batch of tea in a bottle of water, it looks suspiciously…
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Family and Friends

Who, me?

I’ll say this for my wife: there’s nothing wrong with her reading comprehension and retention. The occasion for this revelation was my mea culpa on a spending incident. I bought a book, on nutrition no less. Yes, the king of the candy bar, the sultan of snack machines, now owns a book on nutrition. Who woulda thunk it? As it turns out, my mistake was not buying the book on nutrition…
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Kitchen Sink

And now a word from retail hell,

Like millions of gifting challenged Americans this holiday season, I bought someone a retail gift card. I was visiting one of our representatives from the national chains the other day, standing in line with my card. When it was my turn I shrugged off the slightly out of breath, saccharin holiday greeting from the store clerk, and handed over my gift card. She asked me how much I wanted to put on…
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Kitchen Sink

The most recent temptation of John

I was reaching for the sweet nectar of life (another shot of caffeine please), when something gave me pause. It was my stomach. My stomach was telling me that it wanted something to eat – to ease the strain of another caffeine infusion. So I went into my desk drawer, to root through my personal cache wholesome snacks. Ah, but sitting right there next to my crackers was the initial source of…
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Kitchen Sink

Another lesson learned in the classroom of life

(Spare bathroom, Kauffman Household v2.3) Your tour guide through the psyche of a middle-class everyman, and the undisputed master of his domain, was studying his profile in the bathroom mirror this evening when he made an astounding discovery. Weight gain can change the shape of the human head; and with this change in shape, the eyes can be made to look closer together. U.S. Airways is offering…
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Family and Friends

And then there was one

There is a fog of contentment when your child is born. Those first days in the hospital are exhausting, yet exhilarating. And then the baby comes home. By the end of the first week you are still exhausted, but by now the exhilaration has worn off, leaving just the exhaustion. Midnight feedings and three a.m. diaper changes become the rule. Six hours of sleep becomes a really good night. Caffeine…
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Kitchen Sink

NPR listeners need not read further

I was listening to NPR on my way home yesterday and I heard the most interesting observation. It was a listener’s comment on a previous story about cell phones, and their impact on society. The listener was a blind man, and he commented that the use of cell phones in public has lead to some confused blind folks. Prior to cell phones, a blind person could safely assume someone was talking to…
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