The Maryland Side of Great Falls. The C&O Canal has a working packet boat and they run it up through a lock then turn and come back. Not a bad way to spend a cool morning with the...

Well, we’ve turned the corner on the decade marking September 11, 2001. Eleven years out, now, but who’s counting? Over the years I’ve written many different 9/11 posts starting with our experience long before there were blogs. I also wrote about it irregularly here, on or around 9/11 anniversaries. on the ten year anniversary on the nine year anniversary on the six year anniversary and last year, after being interviewed by...

Surgery update here. Thank you all, so much, for all of your help.

My son needs surgery. Not planned surgery but that kind of kick-in-the-gut surprise surgery that is halfway between, sure okay and It’s An Emergency.   The Long of It If you’ve followed my blog or podcast since 2005-2006, then you know that my younger son was born with Microtia—a not-as-rare-as-you’d-think condition that gave him a very small ear and no ear canal on the right side, but a working middle and inner...

After my Close Encounters with ugly people, I got to go re-visit Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Thing 2 had an ear appointment down at UVa, and that, my friends, is a two-and-a-half-hour drive for us. Thing 1 was dragged along. Life was made tolerable by home-made (two of them gluten free) Egg McMuffins. We toodled down to meet the wonderful doctor who told us that, indeed, Thing 2’s ear canal skin graft had mucosalized (how, you may...

I have a long and proud track record of failure at the various knitting O[ymp1c5 and this year may be no different. I’m made a remarkable amount of progress (for me) while being at the beach and other places that aren’t particularly conducive to knitterly pursuits. At the same time, I know others who have taken on less insane tasks than I and are already winnahs, but gosh darn it, I really wanted to make this shrug. And the shawl....