--WARNING--NOT FOR THE FAINT OF STOMACH--

I have a dog.

He's damn lucky he's so cute. He's a mixed-breed shelter mutt, labrador and something, maybe border collie, maybe Aussie shepherd. Who knows. We got him about eight months ago, he was a year old then.… Read full post »

I don't understand the Thailand protests. I traveled there for two weeks, and barely scratched the surface of Thailand. This is something that has apparently been brewing for years--an outsted prime minister, a coup two years ago, disaffected poor from the north.

We were there at the end of March.… Read full post »

Persuasion

The one with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. My favorite Jane Austen, and my favorite movie. It's Austen's story about love late in life (for Austen, it was 27, but anyway). Amanda Root does an incredible job of "blooming" in the movie, as her sad and washed-out character comes to… Read full post »

I live in the sports-mad suburbs. Every kid I know plays something--softball, baseball, lacrosse, swim team, tennis, football, fencing, soccer, tae kwon do, even cricket.

My kids have tried them all over the years. I've spent countless hours with my butt parked in a folding chair in the pouring rain… Read full post »

I started my Facebook account to keep in touch with former workmates. We all worked together at a company that went bankrupt, and we all scattered to the four winds. These people were great, and even more, they're my valuable professional network--the people I will rely on some day when my… Read full post »

Just in time for Mother's Day, a mother's conundrum.

My son is in middle school.

This isn't like elementary school, where we had strict instructions to never send birthday party invitations to school. We had a school directory, with snail mail and email addresses, and never was a party invitation… Read full post »

(This is in response to Froggy's Open Call: What is Your Road Not Taken?)

“We got a postcard from Lucy and Dan today.”

Those words punctuated my childhood—at least once a month, sometimes more. Dan and Lucy were my great aunt and uncle, and they were travelers. They… Read full post »

I love reading all the snippets of people's lives here on OS. Maybe because I'm secretly nosy as all hell.

But what about the life you didn't live?

We all have them. That fork in the road when you went left, not right. Or maybe you went off the path entirely.… Read full post »

(This is part of a series. See Adventures in Thailand #1, #2, and #3.)

The best day by far in Thailand was our last.

In Chiang Mai, Thailand's "gateway to the north" there are a lot of opportunities to see elephants. Every street corner has a travel agency, booking… Read full post »

Daughter, girl, sister, student, cousin, paper-girl, babysitter, girlfriend, ice-cream scooper, musician, exchange student, college student, girlfriend, bridesmaid, burger-flipper, roommate, reporter, writer, chemist, lawn-mower, girlfriend, traveler, friend, backpacking instructor, technical writer,… Read full post »

We'd been in Bangkok for five days.

Like any major world city, Bangkok is crazy. Hot, chaotic, crowded, noisy. Fun, yes, and lots of things to see. Stinking bloody hot, trips around the city on the skytrain, see the temple, snap the pictures, all incredible, all exhausting.

It's time to go.… Read full post »

I love Engrish. If you need a good laugh, anytime, go to www.engrish.com. It's a fantastic site where people send in their photos of mangled English, mostly from Asia. These contributions are from me, in Thailand.

And I mean this with the best of humor. My Thai consists of about three… Read full post »

Here's the first of many blog posts about our trip. With a few exceptions, I'm not giving a blow-by-blow of the tourist sites. They're wonderful and cool, but you can read about them in Lonely Planet Thailand.

What I love about travel is the unexpected, the things you don't read about… Read full post »

I know, I know. I haven't posted about Thailand yet.

It was magical. It was incredible. I have mounds of notes and pictures, and the transition back to normal life after traveling SUCKED bigtime. I'm still reeling from electric bills, mail, email, kids homework, and crap.

Mostly crap.

Our family of… Read full post »

1990.

Southeast Portland, Oregon.

One newly graduated no-longer-college-student, living alone in her first real apartment. 

I had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen in a funky 1920s brick building. All mine. No housemates, no studios. A real space, for me. I had a car, an elder… Read full post »

We're here, we're traveling, and due to spotty internet connections, and the inability to spend a child-free hour in an internet cafe, I haven't posted until now.

Thailand is HOT. Hotter than hot. Mind-blistering, puddle-of-sweat, fried-egg-on-sidewalk hot. There are three seasons here, the cool seas… Read full post »

To understand Sister Pat, you have to understand my brother.

I went through all my school years, preschool through high school, in my brother's wake. He's one year older than me. I was a duckling behind a speedboat, tossed by the waves my brother left behind. He was the quintessential ADHD… Read full post »

As I'm chasing all over my house looking for socks, malaria tablets, spare glasses, quart ziplock bags, and waiting for my nifty new ultralight daypack to arrive, I keep thinking.

This can't be it. This can't be the only big trip we take.

My brother said, "wow, that's the trip of… Read full post »

I love all the little stuff.

The last few weeks have been full of a thousand details. International travel, as opposed to chucking everything in the car to go to Grandma's for the weekend, is an entirely different ballgame.… Read full post »

And no, this isn't a flounce.

It's a trip. Lea Lane would be proud.

We're going to Thailand. Taking the kids. 

And it's not really about Thailand. That's just the destination. We've been there before, many years back, before kids. We got some great tickets, and once you get there,… Read full post »

Hi there,

You're pretty. Really. Did you know that? I know you don't think so, but you are.

Dump that guy. Yes, he's amazing, and gorgeous. But need isn't love. Neither is loneliness, or the ability to long for each other. When is the last time you laughed together? Think about… Read full post »

Thanks for listening, everyone, to my ongoing struggles with Mr. Tadpole's ADHD. It means a lot.

I went to a lecture tonight about ADHD at a local private high school. The name of this school keeps coming up again and again, from friends, from the dyslexia tutor, from our new specialist/pediatrician.… Read full post »

Sorry, I missed Sunday. But here is my good news for Monday.

Some of you might remember several months back when I blogged about my dog Cassie. She's gone now, and we have a new dog.

His name is Leo, he's a shelter mutt, and I'd like to personally strangle whoever… Read full post »

I have a 12-year-old son. He is an addict.

The kid, like most 12-year-olds in America, lives and dies for video games. He has limits. A lot of limits. In the summer, it's not so bad. The kids play outside a lot. But in the winter, it's western Oregon. It rains… Read full post »

It seems that almost every day, I come across someone, in a blog, in a news report, in an overheard conversation in the grocery store, who thinks that kids on ADHD meds are the embodiment of everything wrong with America. The parents are lazy. The schools are lazy. The teachers are… Read full post »