The day after Christmas my mom, aunt and I dropped one of my uncles off at the airport.  It was sad to see the gathering of relatives begin to thin out so soon, but in the meantime I still had my two teenage cousins and my other uncle and aunt to fill out the family … Continue reading →

Mom and I were out shopping a few days ago when we stopped for lunch.  As we’d been driving around in the car we talked about things we missed from having Christmas up north.  One of the big ones was snow.   In reality snow is not only a pain in the bottom to shovel but … Continue reading →

Every few nights since I got back to Florida, I’ve been hovering in that pleasant space just above sleep when I’ve been jolted awake by a sound.  The sound of tiny feet scampering across the roof. I considered a number of increasingly dire possibilities as to the cause.  A freakishly nocturnal squirrel?  An unusually lively … Continue reading →

A couple of evenings  ago, the Saint Pete Beach Christmas Boat Parade made its way down the Intracoastal Waterway behind our house.  Mom, Dad and I were sitting in front of the TV trying to find a good Christmas movie while we waited for the boats to arrive.  There were mugs of hot chocolate and … Continue reading →

So I’ve decided that the world simply can’t live without a fabulous book about a girl who almost blows off her eyebrows trying to cook a potato, who finds a pseudo-dead body in the hallway of her hotel, and who lives on a houseboat in the Nile for a whole entire day.   That’s right.  … Continue reading →

I’ve posted all the research video I took while I was in Cairo.  I know the video quality itself isn’t great – I took the movies as research notes for me and my supervisor to look at, not because they would ever win the Palm d’ Or – but I thought you might enjoy seeing … Continue reading →

Due to some trouble sleeping lately, last night I prowled around my bookshelves looking for a book that would have something of a more soporific effect than the one I’d been reading.  I stumbled upon something I’d been given as a child called A Walk in Monet’s Garden.  This isn’t actually a book; it’s a … Continue reading →

Yesterday my dad and I decided to fix the fish lamp I brought back from Cairo.  He (the lamp, that is) needed a new plug and lightbulb socket.  We’d already tried to fix him once and it didn’t work, so yesterday morning we went back to the hardware store and got all the pieces we’d … Continue reading →

The Allentown-Bethlehem airport is really small.  It currently has a perky little website explaining how it’s an international airport because you can get a flight to Toronto from there.  Once upon a time, they used to keep the planes in dinky little hangars that looked more like garages.  I remember flying to Allentown to visit … Continue reading →

My dear Skirts, I am so sorry to have been absent for a whole week!  But if necessary I can produce a bona fide doctor’s note for a virus.  Equally importantly I just got my computer  back from cleaning and revamping since it had been taken over by nasty evil cyber creepy-crawly viruses while I … Continue reading →