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Piano Lessons, 1992-2002
Part of my purpose in writing this blog is to leave something of myself behind for my kids to read when I’m gone. As such, there are going to be posts where I just go off reminiscing of the olden days. Hold on to your butts. When I was in first or second grade my…
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Is it a healthy boredom, or is it social isolation and a harmful lack of parental interest?
It’s May and change is in the air. The children are extra squirrely. I’ve had “teacher gifts” on the bottom of my to do list for weeks now. The calendar is full of recitals and graduations. It’s almost the end of the school year, and as the unemployed parent I both eagerly anticipate and dread…
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The Unexpected Benefit of Cabin Ownership
We’ve been up at our cabin the last two weekends working to get ready for the summer. We planted a bunch of new trees this year. We got out the kayaks, launched the jet ski, mowed the lawn, and did some beaver-proofing on our favorite trees. I removed four wheelbarrow loads of muck and weeds…
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Have It Your Way
I was embarrassingly old when I found out that you could request alterations to your meal at any restaurant. Like… really embarrassingly old. I’m talking post-college. Yeah. But what am I supposed to think if Burger King is going to use the tag line “Have it your way!” in their advertising? If it’s special that…
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Documentary Reviews x2/ Score: A Film Music Documentary, and Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel
Score: A Film Music Documentary(currently available on Amazon) This is a fantastic documentary that gives us a peek behind the scenes at how film scores are created and recorded. I watched this several years ago but there are a few bits that have really stuck with me: Definitely worth a watch, even if you know…
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Shuffling off to the doctor again.
Last Thursday my youngest kid woke up and croaked out the words that I dread hearing from him because he’s always correct in his diagnosis: “I think I have strep.” Off we went to his favorite urgent care location and favorite pharmacy (you would have a favorite urgent care and pharmacy too if you got…
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Documentary Reviews…?
I am trying to figure out how I want to handle documentaries on this blog. My intention had been to write a very short, generally positive review every time I watched a documentary. Eventually someone looking for a documentary to watch could click on the “documentary review” tag and find a list of documentaries I…
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Tiny Dinosaur
When I was little, I accidentally dropped a small, plastic dinosaur out the back window of my dad’s 1987 Ford Ranger. I was five years old and had been pretending that the dinosaur was running quickly through the woods, holding him up against the open pop-out window as we sped through the Cascade Mountains. My…
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Check ID
I started working retail in 2001, back when I was still in high school. I was at this little shop in my small hometown that sold patio furniture and pool chemicals and swimming toys and all sorts of junk that nobody needs. There was no computer when I started. We were still using those little…