Blowing & Drifting

Today I read an incredible essay by Meghan Daum in The Believer – “Haterade.” Equal parts autobiography and social commentary, the article analyzes hater culture on the internet – horrible comment boards on news websites or blogs, vitriolic email criticisms to authors, and so forth. Maybe I’m naive, but I was shocked by some of [...]

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All right, friends. This blog has been awfully quiet for a while now, but I’m going to break the silence with another post on Shannon’s book. As you know if you’ve recently read this blog or her own blog, you know that her book – The Essential Stay-at-Home Mom Manual – was published last month. [...]

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Over our lives together, Shannon and I have enjoyed some everyday accomplishments – buying houses, having kids – and some less-ordinary ones – earning doctorates. Yesterday was a day for a very un-ordinary accomplishment: the publication of Shannon’s first book. This is the culmination of a lifelong dream and a lot of hard work. It’s [...]

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Uh, wow. Big honking news! Holiday Gift-Buying for all the Moms You Know (Including Yourself) Faithful readers! In just a few short weeks, in mid-December (exact date to be determined; I will update you!), my first book will be released by Booktrope Publishing. (OMG! Insert screaming and jumping up and down here.) A comprehensive handbook [...]

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Yesterday, Shannon passed a pretty cool milestone for her book, and wrote it up in her usual, wonderful way. As her biggest fan, I say, “Congratulations!” and ask, “Is it time to crack that bottle of Champagne yet?” Wondrous Life Yesterday I saw my book, The Essential Stay-at-Home Mom Manual: How to Have a Wondrous [...]

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So the Nobel Prizes have been announced over the last couple weeks. I’m sure all of the winners are deserving of this enormous honor, but I’d like to point out to the prize committees that they are full of Nordic crap. Clearly, my wife should have won each and every one of the prizes. A [...]

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Thursday afternoon, the girls decided that they’d finish Shannon’s run with her. They duly changed into their own running skirts and tee shirts, then joined their mom for a lap around the block. They actually ran with her, every step, and enjoyed it. I managed to take this shot just as they finished.

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Vivi turns five on Monday, August 15! Today, we held a great little party for her; three friends came and Julia joined in too. Everything went very smoothly: the amazing Cat in the Hat cake, games (including “Pin the Hat on the Cat,” drawn by Julia!), presents, and general festivity. And best of all, Vivi [...]

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While in the U.P., Shannon and I found it pretty easy to take scads of pictures of the girls, each other, my mom, and the girls’ cousins (and maybe a stray shot of my sister). Here are are the best ones.

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In our three days in the Copper Country, I want more than anything else to soak up the atmosphere – warm days, cool nights, forests, the lake, lots of stars, surprisingly cool towns – and to hang out with my mom, my sister, and her two kids. But I also want to make sure that [...]

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All in all, today was a pretty good Father’s Day, weirdly crummy weather notwithstanding. Shannon gave me a great book of photos from the last year, Julia made a wonderful book about me (scans to come!), and all three gave me some new swim trunks to replace my faded, out-of-style old pair and show off [...]

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Today is a pretty big day in the Tassava family: Shannon signed a contract for the book she’s written about modern stay-at-home motherhood. Some of the details are still being ironed out, but the arrangements are firm enough that we can look forward to seeing the book in print sometime in the next year or [...]

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I’m lucky, this Mother’s Day, to be spending it in the company of the two women who have had the biggest and best effects on my life: my own mother (here in 2005 with her mother and father – my late grandparents) and Shannon, the mother of my wonderful girls. Happy Mother’s Day, mothers!

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Shannon’s reading of her essay in Torn went very well! The house was packed with about 25 people (including the girls and Shannon’s parents, who came down to surprise her); her fellow essayist, Katy Read, did a wonderful job with her own piece; the Q&A was smooth and interesting; and of course Shannon read beautifully [...]

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On Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 pm Shannon Hyland-Tassava and Katy Read will read from Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood at Monkey See Monkey Read in downtown Northfield (420 Division Street; 507-645-6700). TORN is an anthology edited by Samantha Parent Walravens. The 49 stories are fascinating, true, day-in-the-life [...]

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