Kitchen Sink

Feeling at home

I live in a relatively small town in Florida’s most densely populated county. Dunedin comes from the Gaelic name: Dùn Èideann, thus named by its Scottish settlers. It’s the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, their hometown in Scotland. It’s commonly mispronounced as a two syllable word: Dune-din (the first like the dunes of a beach, the second like the first syllable of the word dinner…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

The kids

What can I say? Both my kids continue their run of academic stardom. It feels like a source of (partial) absolution for my personal failings, seeing my DNA has some value. Beth continues to excel, outpacing all the other kids in her class. I just wish it brought her peace. While it was an asset when she was the oldest kid last year (her small school has mixed grade classrooms), there’s a…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

A sighting of the silver lining

Last week I did a light workout. I’m not a newcomer when it comes to working out, so I’m pretty in tune with my body’s limits. When I’m starting up after a long period of sloth, I take those already low limits and move the decimal point over one place to the left. At this point we’re basically talking five pound hand weights or the bar. Did I mention I start out…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

Nostalgia

A long time ago, in a place far, far away… I was a small child growing up in our first house. I knew what I liked and I knew where to find it. A kitchen chair was all I needed to make it to the next step: the kitchen counter. From there I could stand up and reach the top cabinets. That’s where the Pepto-Bismol was hiding. With my favorite cup in hand, I poured myself a generous…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

The muse and me

Lately I’ve been doing a bit of work on my web site. There was no reason. I just had to tinker with it. Have you ever had that feeling? Maybe you thought it was just right, or maybe you didn’t, but there was a little itch, right behind your starter switch, and you were driven to play around. Sometimes you played trial and error. Sometimes you played with a purpose, something new you…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

As the mind wanders...

This is not a sad story. Saying it up front kind of puts into question though, doesn’t it? Sows a little doubt maybe? This is a story about home. It could be about your home or a friends home, but only you could write that post, or your friend. This is about scratches in the hardwood floors of a house in eastern Massachusetts, in a mysterious spiral pattern. It’s about a patch of…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

Use

Anyone who knows me won’t have any trouble believing I like new gadgets. We have a semi-regular upgrade cycle on our Macs. I have feelings for my iPhone that probably aren’t healthy. The letters “TV” are synonymous with “DVR” in our house. Wi-Fi and bluetooth aren’t just wireless technologies, they are a way of life. But here’s something you may not…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

A phone's life In my hands

Brick – verb To strip a smartphone of all its useful features. To make it as useful as – I performed my first open case surgery on the iPhone to replace its failing battery last weekend. Pop quiz: Do you spend $15 to do it yourself or give $80+ to Apple, plus suffer through a week without your phone while it ships back and forth to God knows where? What do you do? WHAT DO YOU…
Read more
Kitchen Sink

An interesting day

Hearings kept me crazy busy yesterday and the medication let me forget about the headache. It was actually a fun morning. I thrive on days where I can lose myself in work, where time loses meaning. I love working with the Judge assigned to us, an old retired Colonel from the Marines. I enjoy talking to one of the attorneys I work with – a guy who worked as an enviromental engineer with the…
Read more