Regular Life

What’s your most memorable Thanksgiving?
While all of ours have included massive quantities of family and food, and the mostly good things that come along with both, the one that stands out came when I was only a few years older than our five-year-old son.
In my hometown in Arkansas, we saw snow several times each winter. [...]

In the movie Punchline, Tom Hanks’ character passes down several nuggets of wisdom to the struggling mom-turned-comedian played by Sally Field. She relates the story of a mother who was excited about the new babysitter she had hired — little Davie Berkowitz. She doesn’t get a laugh.
Upon Hanks’ character’s advice, she changes the [...]

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Anybody want to guess what we’re looking at here?

This may come as a surprise to those of you not living in Las Vegas, but there are more Catholic churches than casinos.
Not surprisingly, some worshipers at Sunday services give casino chips rather than cash when the basket is passed.
Since they get chips from many different casinos, the churches have devised a method to collect [...]

I still don’t like gutting these things, but here’s our Jack O’Lantern for 2008.

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We followed a free pattern provided by The Pumpkin Lady. Face 19 in the 2006 patterns.
Note: new banner for November 2008. Please force a refresh if you still see the hot air balloons. I also have [...]

On our recent trip to Texas Hill Country, Shannon rummaged through our van’s glove compartment trying to ferret out anything we didn’t need. Maps of at least six different states somehow survived the cut.
The real keeper, however, was a note I had scrawled on a bright yellow Midas envelope. They had replaced a [...]

   
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Shannon and her friend, A, met when they were seven years old and living in Little Rock, Arkansas. Their families lived within easy walking distance and the two girls were inseparable. When they were 12, A moved to Texas with her parents, but the two friends stayed in [...]

(Note: Those reading “The Keys Are In It,” which is now badly titled, Part Thirteen is online at nearly 3,000 words)
I occasionally check statcounter.com to see how people find my blog. Sometimes mundane, sometimes hilarious, they never fail to entertain. Barring one exception, the below are not the most popular, but certainly the most [...]

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In late September Benjamin’s mommy showed him, and me, that she can climb a tree. Even after 16 years of marriage, she surprises.*
Every time we make a getaway to our favorite nearby woods — Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano — I’m at once glad that Benjamin is getting out on the [...]

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“Daddy, do we get to ride in one?” Benjamin said.
“No, son. Most people who go to the Balloon Festival don’t get to ride in one,” I said.
“But I want to ride in one,” he whined.
“That’s not how it works, Ben,” Shannon said.
“But I want to ride in one.”
We repeated this conversation [...]