stories

That about sums up 2006. Wacky. (warning--long-winded post ahead. sorry about that) This year has had more ups and downs than an escalator. On the whole, I'd say it was an up year but with some serious, life changing downs. Here's my version of the year in review, not necessarily in order of importance: A huge up was also a [...]

So the HVAC guys were just here for a second day, and the new furnace (a Carrier Infinity 96) is almost installed (almost). It's bigger, noisier (well, sometimes) than the old one, but here's the deal: It works. It's also smarter than the old furnace (which, after all, was a whole 27 years old). We no longer call its thermostat [...]

My first trip to the White House as a reporter was not exactly an unqualified success. For one thing, I hadn't been in Washington DC long enough to really acquire the jaded affect of the rest of the DC press corps and I stuck out like a sore thumb. For another, I wasn't exactly in the DC press corps--I was a PC reviewer for a newspaper about public sector computing, Government Computer News. My interest in the White House was usually limited to presidential use of Macs and PCs. Clinton and Monica Lewinsky would never appear on my radar...unless Clinton used an optical mouse instead of a cigar.

I am most emphatically NOT a birdwatcher. I don’t even own a pair of those khaki safari shorts or a pith helmet. I can point out robins and bluejays and hummingbirds, but get beyond that and all I can say is “it has feathers. must be a bird.” So when I heard a loud clacking behind me this morning, as [...]

September 11 changed my life in more ways than I thought possible–I have a hard time believing it’s been so long ago. […]

It’s a gorgeous day here in glassland, rained just enough yesterday to turn the car into a mud-spattered mess, and I stopped off at the carwash on the way home. Only about 500 people had the same idea, and while I waited patiently in line I spotted two teenage girls poking fun at a dumpy middle-aged lady. She was chubby, [...]