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Dismissed by Mom during my Tender Deathbed Scene

Inspired by Steve Blevins’ delicious concoction of humor and poignancy titled “Mom Feels Great, but I’m Planning Her Funeral Anyway,” I’ve decided it’s time to tell a few stories about the last week I spent with/… Read full post »

Last night Sasha brought me a favorite ball to throw over the family room couch.  Andrew was sitting on the couch doing his homework and tried to block my throw with one of his school binders.  Thus developed a new game.  I got a point for every throw… Read full post »

Many of you know that my mom died 5 weeks ago, on March 14th.  I spent 18 days in Indianapolis with Dad, being there for support and transacting boatloads of burial, memorial, and financial business.  About 24 hours after I came home to Ohio, my younger son Andrew came down with… Read full post »

Three weeks ago, when I woke up Saturday, I put together a piece about Mom for Steve to post.  I’d spent a week taking care of Mom and listed things I took for granted that my time with her enabled me to appreciate and ways Mom was lucky despite many trials… Read full post »

Received this in an e-mail from my husband Steve's college volleyball coach, who owned an amazing German Shepherd named Shaker while we were in college at Earlham.  David is one of the few people I know who "gets" the way I feel about dogs.  He received this from his daughter, so… Read full post »

    Times are tough.  You may have lost your job.  If employed, you may be scraping by from one paycheck to the next.  Your retirement savings have probably been reduced by half.
    I recently returned from visiting my mother for five days.  In April… Read full post »

As we drove to our Florida vacation destination over our sons' winter breaks, we passed near the home of OS friend Nangramma and made a side trip to meet Nan.

Here's Mary with Nan in her lovely Florida home.

Steve, The Bionic Man, helps Nan download a gorgeous… Read full post »

In order to appreciate the appropriate lyrics, please drag the song progress bar to about 2:10 (we know how to edit a song that we own to start where we want, but we don't know how to embed it except from imeem; enlightenment is welcome!)

You Spin Me… Read full post »

Inspired by a comment bbd made about Mary’s organ donor t-shirt in her “ Early Voting in Ohio” post.

Inspired by bbd, here is a Valentine for my beloved Stephen,  The Bionic Man here on OS.

For your Valentine's Day viewing pleasure, I recommend Peter Jackson's film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.  Over this three day weekend, Steve & I are watching the entire… Read full post »

Karen,

If you'd like to have the actual Valentine (it's real, not computer generated) to put up on your 'fridge, I'd love to mail it to you.  Send me a message with an address and I'll drop it in the mail right away.

Wishing you healing, peace, love,… Read full post »

After enjoying a rare two-week road trip with all three of my guys (and The Weasel!), I came home sick.  Even sleeping 12 hours/night during older son James' last week of winter break from college couldn't fend off my current sinus infection.  Thanks to those who sent notes asking about our… Read full post »

Happy Holidays, OS friends!   Bionic Man Steve and I will be on the go to a gathering of my family, back home, then a vacation with James, Andrew & The Weasel, so if we don't comment for a while, it's not that we don't love you, we're just away from our… Read full post »

My niece Katie is the one who got me onto Salon by giving me a gift membership years ago.  She is owned by two rescue dogs, Gordon and Maddy.  About a year ago, Katie posted a list of Gordon’s nicknames on her blog.  Being another O/C member of the… Read full post »

Mary's 1st snug with the baby weasel! It was all over before it even began. Sasha was five and a half weeks old and still living with the litter at the breeders.

The baby weasel's 1st yawn of record. Look at those cute little… Read full post »

OK, all you Led Heads, this one’s for you. Dog people, you’ll appreciate the title cameo by our own Black Dog. According to music legend, Led Zeppelin’s song “Black Dog,” which has nothing to do with a dog--black or otherwise, was so named because while the… Read full post »

When I think of Mom, I think of warm cookies. I’ve just walked the three blocks home from school, enduring chilling rain, a crisp fall nip, or bitter Indiana winter. Throwing open the front door and patting our enthusiastically wagging dog, I yell, “Mom! I’m… Read full post »

Esteven,

I’ll never forget New Student Week at Earlham in September 1976 when I met you. Your all-male hall and my all-female hall were paired for games and activities. The first week, I spent a lot of time with your hallmate Dave, until… Read full post »

Concerned about spending all day with family you love but find hard to talk to about a number of subjects? Coming from such a family (as recounted by my sister The Wood Elf in a post about pre-election e-mail), I can offer one subject that is probably safe and may… Read full post »

(Gratuitous puppy photo of the Baby Weasel to give you something to rate, moved to the top at the request of Verbal Remedy)

 

OK, here’s the deal. There's still time to join in and become… Read full post »

Hope that everyone is enjoying the OS Avatar Collage project.  

For those of you that didn’t see this earlier (back in October when it first came to light, the brain child of Skeptic Turtle), the project has now been expanded and is underway.  The goal is to… Read full post »

The large house in front of us has been empty for years. In August 2007, I noticed a family had moved in and one of the women was wearing a hijab. I baked chocolate chip cookies and we went over to introduce ourselves. Thus began one of the… Read full post »

Here’s my bionic man’s first surgical scar. The Studbolt had his hip replaced back in 1996 when he was only 38 due to the severe rheumatoid arthritis he’s been fighting since age 13. Isn’t this a beaut?

Over the 7-year period from 1996 to 2003, Steve had 13 surgeries.… Read full post »

When I think of the great American orators of my lifetime, I hear the passionate and mellifluous voices of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Edward Kennedy. As of Tuesday night, I have to add Barack Obama to that list.

Here’s a book report I wrote about… Read full post »

Now that you’ve voted, (you have, haven’t you? --I said you have, haven’t you?) it’s white knuckle time as you await the results.

F5 . . . F5 . . . F5 . . . Why isn’t this $?&!^@% election finally over .… Read full post »