(photos taken while driving do leave something to be desired–this is the church sign from my childhood parish, just down the street from my parent’s house–it reads, “Pray for the victims of the bridge collapse”). I’m at my favorite Minneapolis cafe, the Turtle Bread Company. I smell fresh baked bread, hear the whir of the [...]

If you have ever owneda tortoise, you already know how terribly difficultpaper training can befor some pets. Even if you get so faras to instill in your tortoisethe value of achieving the paper,there remains one obstacle–your tortoise’s intrinsic sloth. Even a well-intentioned tortoise may find himself, in his journeys,to be painfully far from the mark. [...]

Today I took Anna, Maya and Natalie with me to get my nails done. We waited until Natalie fell asleep in her infant seat and then we seized the moment. I found a parking spot a mere eight blocks from the salon and lugged the sleeping Natalie in her car seat as I limped along, [...]

I was raised in a wilder time. We didn’t bother with car seats or even seat belts much of the time. I remember riding in the back of a neighbor’s pick up truck–she did, of course, tell us to duck when we passed the police station. I also “smoked” candy cigarettes, built ramshackle tree houses [...]

Natalie seems to be a lady of many words, although for the most part we have been unable to make sense of them. But the other day she woke John by rolling over and grabbing his beard and saying “hidada.” You may call this mere coincidence but I believe that her first word was actually [...]