When you read this, I will have been to Los Angeles and back, celebrating Christmas with our three California offspring, their spouses and children. I can’t tell you about it, though, since I’m writing this a week before I leave. Oh, bother, as Winnie the Pooh would say. It’s a bit of a muddle, he […]
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Every day seems to bring more allegations of sexual harassment or improper sexual behavior in some form. First, Harvey Weinstein was accused and convicted in the court of public opinion; and so many others including Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, and Al Franken have fallen. The President stands accused by multiple women, and the Senatorial candidate […]
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Perhaps you will remember my column two weeks ago in which I whined that I was hosting seventeen for Thanksgiving dinner. Well, I really didn’t whine – just stated the fact that it would probably be a bit difficult for me because I am culinarily challenged. As you’ve no doubt been holding your collective breath […]
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I’m writing this the night before Thanksgiving. It may be my last Hurrah for a few weeks since tomorrow I am hosting a cast of thousands for Thanksgiving dinner. I will probably need weeks to recover. Okay, maybe the number is closer to 17, but for me, that’s a cast of thousands. My culinary skills […]
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With another Halloween behind us, I will confess I never much liked the spooky celebration. Even as a child, I wasn’t crazy about it. Trailing up to the neighbors’ doors, wearing a sheet over my head and holding out a sack for treats just didn’t seem like a fun way to spend a cold (always), […]
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I’ve been adopted. A little homeless kitty has taken to darting around our house, in and out of the bushes and, one memorable time, parading back and forth in the long window box outside the porch. I was sitting on the porch reading when a gray tail waved at me – the rest of her […]
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I’ve written before about my love for football. My sister and I grew up hearing our dad’s tales of playing for Algona High and then Notre Dame. We loved his stories of being on the Knute Rockne-coached team with the famed Four Horseman in the 1920s. Later (obviously!) I married a football player whose love […]
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All five of our children came home for the Labor Day weekend. The gang also included one spouse and one grandchild. They flew in from California or motored down from Minnesota or up from southern Iowa, depending, of course, on their respective away-from-home locales. To me, away from home will always denote where they live […]
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Some of you may remember that last August, I wrote about a bat that came swooping into the TV room upstairs, sending me into paroxysms of panic. (I don’t think I’ve ever used the word paroxysms before, but it has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?) When my mother and dad lived here, […]
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California has a lot going for it. Namely, it has three of our offspring living there, as well as their three amazing spouses and, of course, two top-of-the-line grandchildren. What it doesn’t have is a postal service that is even close to adequate. Case in point: We once mailed a large box filled with wrapped […]
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