Ann wasn’t happy with the way William and I were haphazardly placing ornaments on the tree, so she took them all off and had us organize them into distinct groups: snowflakes, angels/Santas, colored balls, stars, hearts, snowmen, animals, etc. (The Nativity scene is always hers to place as the angel on top is mine.) Then […]

Part I: Going With the Flow Three weeks ago my dad emailed me and asked if we were free the next weekend for a visit.  This was exciting because my parents live in Colorado and the kids and I don’t get to see them in person that often.  Our last visit was in Colorado during

On Monday, Ann hosted a Halloween party, (this was the day after a great toilet explosion detailed earlier, but you wouldn’t have known it except the wood flooring was and still is somewhat warped in the hallway—I call it “character”).  Ann planned it all from decorations to activities to snacks to the invite list.  The

One of these days I will learn to just hire it out… The downstairs toilet has been going off on its own for over a year now.  It’s been annoying, but I’ve always managed to adjust or reseat some piece of equipment in the reservoir tank to buy a couple weeks of stability.  But last

I put an alarm clock in Ann’s room a while ago just because it was around and she seems interested in 1) the time and 2) the weather forecast.  (Not that the clock I put in her room would help with the latter, but she has several ways of getting that on her own now. 

On Labor Day, the kids were away and my parents and I decided to do a bike ride in the late afternoon.  It would be like the one I took with William recently and described in an earlier post—through Gallop Park and into Ann Arbor—although a little bit longer. I was busy cleaning the bathrooms

Ann had two birthday parties to attend yesterday; one of them being a sleep-over.  That left William and I to our own devices for several hours.  All of us hung out in the morning before Ann’s gatherings and ate lunch before dropping Ann off at her first engagement.  William and I ran a couple errands

I don’t seem to have much luck with rabbits. Several years ago at the old house, I was mindlessly mowing the lawn listening to music when all of a sudden something leaped out of the ground right in front of the lawnmower. After recovering from that jerk back to reality, I realized that I was

We just returned from a vacation to Washington D.C. First of all: a huge thanks to my Michigan parents for providing this as we would not have gone without them financing the whole thing! It was a great trip with several stories to tell, but I’ll try to stick with just an overview. Monday: It’s