I have a little confession to make: despite the amount of complaining I do about summer, about working from home surrounded by unproductive kids and their dirty dishes, about feeling like I’m having a stroke every time I run outside, I actually love summer. I love dinner on a patio with misters and fans going […]
The shoe thing is complicated
Yesterday was the kind of day that called for my butt-kicking black pumps. I needed to deliver bad news at one meeting, cope with unrealistic expectations at another, then pep talk someone out of a little funk. My shoes gave me extra swagger, showing people I wasn’t messing around. And then, like always, the things […]
Share this:
There isn’t any ice cream in Death Valley
So, it’s the time of year we have this kind of action. This is weather that inspires everybody to crank down the AC until it’s reminiscent of a Minnesota winter and we’re all wearing sweaters to meetings and complaining about the heat. Which I think, if you look it up, is the clinical definition of […]
Share this:
The Things Dads Say
I was at a friend’s party some time ago when someone noticed a rather meaty-looking cobweb hanging from a light fixture, and said something about not wanting to run into the spider that had spun it. “It’s just a cobweb,” I said, authoritatively, “they’re made from dust, not spiders.” I don’t remember if I punctuated […]
Share this:
If you need me, I’ll be in the yard
My lawn care workforce is currently on strike, but I think it’s going to be okay. Saturday afternoon, I watched Colin struggle to adjust the line on the weed whacker for the hundredth time. Somehow he cannot master the art of gently tapping the thing against the ground just enough to get the line to feed […]
Share this:
Travel with Teens: Road Trip Tips
If you’ve been with me the past couple of posts, you know we just wrapped up our Epic Family Summer Road Trip. At one point we took a shuttle boat across a lake and a short, guided hike up a mountain to see a secluded waterfall. The scenery took my breath away, but something else […]
Share this:
Rocks or kids, which do you think is easier to photograph?
If you’re just joining us, this is the final installment in our somewhat-epic summer journey to Yellowstone, in which I fervently hope we have a bear encounter that ends up well enough for us as well as the bear and whatever we happen to be driving. You can start here, and the whole set up to this […]
Share this:
I’d be a killer wildlife marmet photographer
If you’re just joining us, this is the third installment in our somewhat-epic summer journey to Yellowstone, in which I fervently hope we have a bear encounter that ends up well enough for us as well as the bear and whatever we happen to be driving. You can start here, and the whole set up to this […]
Share this:
The Grand Tetons, with a serious lack of bears
If you’re just joining us, this is the second installment in our somewhat-epic summer journey to Yellowstone, in which I fervently hope we have a bear encounter that ends up well enough for us as well as the bear and whatever we happen to be driving. You can binge-read the whole series here. We were discussing bear […]
Share this:
Boise to the Moon … and then on to Wyoming
When Mike says “we’re leaving early,” everyone around here thinks that’s sometime like “the crack o’ noon” – what the Markley family takes for early. In this case “early,” meant “before 10,” and we were ready. Mostly. We had decided to trade up from the Prius to a rental van, even though the thought that a grizzly […]
