Some families are sports families. Sports families revolve around their favorite teams. Vacations are planned around the teams’ schedules. Weekends are devoted to the planning for and watching of the games. Each member of the sports family has…

This is my 700th column. Yes, I number them for no other reason than they are easier to find on my computer. People number things like birthdays and anniversaries to remind them just how long it’s been since they could put their toes in their m…

It all started 15 years ago when we planted some fruit trees: A pear tree, an apple tree, and a peach tree. The first few years, the trees simply concentrated on growing. If we got a warty piece of fruit off one of them before our resident squirrel…

It all started 15 years ago when we planted some fruit trees: A pear tree, an apple tree, and a peach tree. The first few years, the trees simply concentrated on growing. If we got a warty piece of fruit off one of them before our resident squirrel…

In high school, he was going to be an actor. He had won some awards, and aced some auditions. He would’ve made a fine actor. He even had the business cards of agents who were eager to represent him. …Then he met Lora. She was going to…

Who are those two people? They are pictured in a frame on my bookshelf wearing a white tuxedo and a wedding gown. Look at them. Those beautiful faces; so full of optimism, strength and hope. They are almost strangers to me now. My husband and I have…

It’s the most disgusting task a parent has to do. Worse than changing diapers. Worse than cleaning the bathroom. Worse than finding maggots in your trash can. Well, okay, it’s a close second. It’s time to clean the minivan. There…

“Everybody thinks that zombies carry a virus that makes more zombies, but I think it’s more like a prion,” said a voice from the back of the car. “Strange, but I don’t think about zombies at all,” I said….

This summer may be one of the hottest on record for much of the country. Americans have handled the heat in different ways. Some are living in their basements, others start their cars 10 minutes before they have to leave their basement. Some people…

Women of a certain age should not paddle canoes. At least, that’s what my body said. While my body screamed for mercy the day after a canoeing expedition – which lasted barely an hour – my mind valiantly fought for rational…

A woman I have known for a couple of years approached me. I did not know her well enough to know her first name, but I have seen and spoken to her many times because her son and mine attend some of the same classes. She said, “I didn’t…

Dear Readers: This column is one I wrote 5 years ago. Recently, I was asked to re-release it. Enjoy. My husband is part genius, and part closet redneck. He’s a cross between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Larry the Cable Guy. Sometimes…

I love my country. I love democracy. I think it’s great that, in America, you are innocent until proven guilty by a jury of your “peers.” According to Mr. Webster, a peer is defined as a person of equal standing, as in rank, class…

The old cliché warns us not to judge a book by its cover. I would like to go one step further and say that you can’t judge a parent by their house. Did you ever see those houses that have weed-free, perfectly manicured lawns, trimmed…

Parenthood is essentially a big gamble. You will put years of hard work, difficult decisions, and mileage on your car into raising a child, and you won’t know, until years later, whether or not that effort has paid off. All the different…

Words are strange and beautiful things, depending on the order in which you place them. They are the unit we use most to communicate our thoughts. It would be much more efficient if we could learn to accurately “read” one another’s…

Love comes in many forms. The love for your spouse is much different than the love for your child, which is different from the love for a pet, which is different from the love of a friend. However, if you put all of them in a burning building and…

At first, I was good. I was very good. I picked my croutons off my salad before I ate it. I asked the waiters not to bring bread to the table. I drank water with a touch of lemon. Everyone said, “You can’t go on a diet, you have to change…

You know you have a Facebook addiction when your “friends” include the parents of the kids you used to know in preschool. You know who you are. You may have sent them a so-called “friend request,” but in reality, they are a no…

For the first 16 years of my married life, I was the only person in my family without a Y chromosome. I can’t help thinking that the Y chromosome was aptly named. “Why?” is a question I have asked my boys innumerable times since…

Sometimes I have a brain malfunction. It’s something about my wiring that makes me stop in the middle of a sentence and forget what I was saying. Perhaps I am a bit ADOS (AD Oh, Shiny!) That would be a typical diagnosis for someone who forgets…

I opened the freezer this morning and a frozen ham steak fell out onto my big toe. It crossed my mind that I should probably go back to bed and skip what I knew would be a bad day. A “bad day” is all relative, of course. What I actually…

“Mom, did you know that sea cucumbers come in herds of thousands?” How I kept a straight face, I’ll never know. “Is that so?” I was cool as a cucumber – of the vegetable variety – even though I was coming…

Over my writing career, I have assembled a list of words that I feel should never be used in a column. I could have said that in my spare time, I peruse my dictionary looking for strange words. It would have been more interesting, but I would have…

I was recently reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin. Why, you ask? I could not help but wonder why he was the only guy engraved on our money who was not a past president. Why was he so special? It turns out that Ben Franklin was a lot like my…