Blowing & Drifting

Shannon took this rather nice picture of me in the 15k road race that I ran earlier this month. I’m the one wearing an actual shirt.

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To give Shannon a little space to work on her book, I took Thursday off and headed up to Minneapolis with the girls, planning to ride the light rail train from the Mall of America to downtown and back, then hit the American Girl store at the mall and have lunch with a too-infrequently-seen friend. [...]

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After sitting around the house all morning, I convinced the girls to go for a walk after lunch. Julia, being averse to nature, was reluctant to go, but Vivi volunteered to lead the way, so off we went. After a few sulky minutes, Julia came out of her shell and we walked along like a [...]

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It’s 7:30 on Friday night. I’m home with the girls while Shannon runs a couple errands. I’m trying to get the girls upstairs to start the bedtime routine. Julia: “Daddy, will Mama be home before we go to bed?” Me: “I don’t know, honey. She’s going to Target and to Cub, so it might take [...]

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What are they trying to do by digging up the sidewalk in front of my office building? Putting in a nice bed of begonias. Using up surplus “Warning! ¡Cuidado!” tape left over from other summer construction projects. Adding 5-10 seconds to the walk from the parking lot to our office. Finally winning the war against the [...]

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In addition to their usual array of interests – dolls, playing kitchen and school and “club,” Little House on the Prairie – the girls have adopted a few new and/or transient obsessions lately. Horses This is mostly Julia’s fascination so far. She loves to pretend to be a horse, to pretend to be a “cowgirl” [...]

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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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In a shocking development, the unrest that has seized London for the past several nights today spread to an area of the small Minnesota town of Northfield. There, two youths, ages 7 and (almost) 5, rioted for nearly an hour in protest of baths and bedtime. Caught off guard, the local authorities struggled to respond [...]

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My Tuesday evening trip to the city pool was a high point in my parenting life: I watched Julia and Genevieve do amazing stuff in and out of the water: going deep under the water, jumping into the “deep part” (four feet!), and of course actually swimming, with kicks and strokes and everything. It was [...]

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We’re all not killed on the roads every day. Yesterday, in the course of a couple blocks of my ride home, I saw a woman who didn’t look up from her cell phone for the better part of a full block, another woman who hurtled through a three-way stop at about 35 miles an hour, [...]

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I’m in the girls’ room, puttering around with pre-bedtime tasks. They’re in the bathroom, doing the same. I call to them, “Don’t forget to try to go to the bathroom, girls!” Julia calls back, “I just did!” Vivi says, “I’m going to try right now.” I hear her lift up the toilet lid and settle [...]

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Today was the perfect summer day: 70 to 80° all day, clear blue skies, brilliant sun, a gentle cool breeze, and – best of all – nothing much to do. The girls and I spent a huge part of the day outdoors. In the morning, we picked beans for an hour at our CSA farm then [...]

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A few weeks ago, my colleague Nancy Braker, the director of Carleton’s Cowling Arboretum, sent out a message seeking volunteers for the Arb’s yearly tree inventory. I’ve been waiting literally years for a chance like this, so I asked about the time commitment, which turned out to be quite manageable. Since my office work is [...]

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In going out of town for a conference last week, I took the opportunity to track my email messages at work over the days I was out of the office. By the end of the day before I left for the trip, I had emptied my inbox. I let everything pile up while I was [...]

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Belatedly, here a few photos from last week’s grand visit to Walla Walla, where I enjoyed a fantastic conference at Whitman College, great networking socializing, excellent food and drink, and some wonderful scenery. A view from our turboprop flight from Seattle to Walla Walla: circular fields irrigated by water drawn from some of the Columbia [...]

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