• A peeve if you please

    Disclaimer: I’m not a jewelry guy. I own one piece: a simple, unadorned wedding band.

    I must confess to a weakness: I can’t help but draw prejudicial conclusions about people who wear more rings than fingers. Pray tell dear reader: are these people compensating for something? I see some old ladies with more rocks than a natural history museum, and I wonder…. Does it prevent you from walking with your hands down at your sides – lest your fingers be pulled out of joint? Can someone buy that much jewelry and wear it all at once, or do you have to work your way up to it – building up the necessary forearm strength gradually?

    One of the lessons of the newly established (and imminently notable) Kauffman School of Etiquette states: “no piece of jewelry should larger than the closest knuckle.”

    Full disclosure: I’m quite fortunate that my wife’s tastes in personal decoration trend pedestrian… I couldn’t afford one of those ladies’ fingers, let alone ten.

  • Outage

    We were off the air for a while this afternoon. I could explain why the site was down, but it would require a lot of technical terms…

    Well, then again… why not? You see, the plug to my router fell out of the power outlet.

    That’ll get you every time.

  • In the beginning

    The line between promise and threat can be razor sharp. It’s best to treat it like anything else with a sharp edge: with care.

    As his second birthday approaches, Adam has become familiar with the concept of “time out.” Thus far we have used it sparingly, such as when he drops prone to the floor in the throes of a full-bore tantrum. Thankfully those occasions have been somewhat rare, but they have been often enough to teach Adam the meaning of the words. All the same, a particular event yesterday was surprising.

    CHERYL: “Adam, don’t touch.”
    ADAM: (Touches the stereo.)
    CHERYL: “Adam, don’t touch.”
    ADAM: (Touches the stereo.)
    CHERYL: “Adam, if you touch that again you’re going in time out.”
    ADAM: (Touches the stereo, runs to his room, and closes the door… thereby putting himself in time out.)
    CHERYL: “John, did you see what Adam just did?”
    JOHN: “What?”
    CHERYL: (Chuckling, describes what Adam just did…) “I think that’s a blog entry for sure.”
    JOHN: “Yeah, just what we need: another child that produces blog entries.”

    Et tu, Adam?