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Tonight we celebrate!  I’ll brush on a little mascara and I’ll take extra time with my hair. Then I’ll slip on my sea foam green dress and a pair of sandals before heading out the door with my loving husband and my loathsome great, white calves.

In… Read full post »

For all the time I spend in the garden, complete surprises are rare.  With my nose down close to the dirt, or my camera directed at flowers and trees, it feels as comfortable and familiar as a good marriage.

That said, my husband still surprises me with flowers “just… Read full post »

If you garden, you weed.  The end.

Seriously, every garden has weeds; it’s only a matter of degrees.  I’m an expert weeder myself, probably because pulling weeds falls into the category of garden organization.  I  pull weeds and restore order.  It’s thera… Read full post »

I grew up reading Dr. Seuss books, and for the most part remember them for their nonsense rhymes and abstract illustrations.  I wanted to walk up those endless stairs, slide down the hills and cross the bridges of his fantastic literary world.  In between the original book… Read full post »

I’ve gardened in the rain and cold until my fingers were numb.  I’ve gardened at dusk till feasting mosquitoes drove me indoors.  I’ve even gardened in the mid-day heat, keeping the tormenting sun at bay with hats and sunscreens and moveable umbrellas.  But I&rsquo… Read full post »

 

We never intended a major do-over of the backyard.  It was nothing to write home about, but it was our little postage stamp of a garden on our suburban, percentage-of-an-acre lot.  I spent hours pulling out ivy, trimming back overgrown… Read full post »

Historically speaking, weeping at my son’s IEP meetings has been far too common.

 For the uninitiated, an IEP is an Individualized Education Plan, a document put forth, ostensibly, to ensure FAPE (Fair Access to Public Education).  As outlined here http://open.salon.com/blog/alys/20… Read full post »

I was made for social media!  I use all the popular sites on the web. Of course like anything in life, you take the good with the bad.  I’ve learned that everyone is not my “friend,” even though Facebook might say so.  Conversely, some of my closest friends… Read full post »

For reasons unclear to me, I've avoided more than a superficial look at the 9/11 Memorial. It seems we went from tragedy to fear to bickering about the sites, and then the politics came in to play. At some point, I shut it down.

I didn't lose… Read full post »

I hate August.  I hate the smells in the air, the oppressive heat, and that burdening longing that ricochets around in my chest.  I’m 51 years old and I miss Daddy.

As a girl, my grief went on forever.  I performed a ritual each night before I went to… Read full post »

At 7:03 this morning I learned that President Obama released a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate, hoping to put to rest his aptly termed “side show” critics.  The country is in turmoil; our leader has bigger issues at hand.

 My feelings, however, are mixed.  I voted… Read full post »

Alarming news:  The price of Hershey’s™ Chocolate is going up.  http://www.pragmaticpricing.com/2011/04/chocolate-rising-price-increase-at-hersheys/

Reading this today, not to mention the accompanying photo of delectable and beautifully wrapped Kisses™ sent my heart a pit… Read full post »

Standing on the Millbrae platform of a train bound for San Jose, memories dribbled out of me like a wound that won’t quite heal. The longer I stood, the sadder I felt, heavy, burdened, questioning as I stared down the train tracks of my youth.

Our family moved to… Read full post »

A green thumb, a compassionate world view and a love of animals are among the positive traits I inherited from my father.  Unfortunately, he also seems to have passed on his propensity for hitting his head on things.

 Around our house it’s called “pulling a Milner”: whene… Read full post »

The End: the part of a story when all the loose ends are tied up neatly and succinctly, bringing the tale to a satisfying conclusion. Anyone remotely familiar with special education knows that ‘the end’ is only as good as your next IEP (Individualized Education Plan), not the… Read full post »

I helped a client spirit away an unused, still-in-the-box crib to the local Salvation Army this weekend. They were expecting twins when I worked with them earlier this year, a boy and a girl.

John Lennon said, “life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.†Their daughter was still…

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It's my own fault. I jinxed myself on a Monday.

Tuesday morning and we’re off to the vet with Lindy. Minor bickering ensues over who gets to sit next to her in the car. Tiny, bleating mews from our otherwise low-key kitty emanate from the back seat.…

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Ah, breasts. That tender place where men rest their heads (and eyes), where babies nurse and grow, and where the heart of a woman lies just beneath this outward representation of the sacred feminine. This lovely place is the landing pad of both comfort and eroticism.

Breasts are not boobs, (a boob/…

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One exposes their fragility when they openly admit a crush, even if it is mired in ancient history. The nature of a crush is to carry feelings of tenderness and longing that by definition are not returned. I’ve had crushes that seemed silly after the passage of time, some benign, others…

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