When you are a parent, you have to answer the tough questions. Questions like, “how big would all of the germs in the world be if you had them all together?” This is what my daughter asked me yesterday and, like an idiot, I decided to find out. Google was no help. Apparently this is […]
Category Archives: Ruby
A Day in the Ancient Past – A People Without Technology
Modern life is easy to take for granted. We become accustomed to things so quickly, and things change so fast, that it is sometimes hard to remember what life used to be like for people back in olden times. This past weekend I had the opportunity to experience life as it used to be as […]
How I Became a Bully, and What I Will Tell My Kids About It
Middle school was rough. If you don’t relate to that statement in any way at all, then you clearly did not go to middle school. Junior high, grades 6-8, ages 11-13, this terrible time in any young person’s life involves their body and mind going completely insane, and a sudden, new social world emerging in […]
Vertical 2nd Grade Mustache Party
“8-year-old birthday parties are really fun!” I said to one of the moms who was coming to pick up her daughter. She gave me a half smile and asked, “Are you being facetious?” And I totally wasn’t. Friends! 8-year-olds are AWESOME! We have turned the page! It is a new day! A third cliché of […]
What I See When I Look at My Daughter
Have you ever looked at one thing and seen two? Have you ever stared at something so long that you could actually start to see its past as well as into its future? Is it possible to acquire some sort of second sight that, because you don’t know how to use it, causes you to […]
The Donahue Sea Caves (and how we fell into them)
Before we get started, I have to make a disclaimer. The name “Donahue Sea Caves” is very misleading. There is only one of them. I did not name it, so it is not my fault, but I didn’t want you to get mad later, like I did when I arrived, when you discover that the plural […]
There is No Terror Like a Lost Child
There a lot of things to be afraid of in life. Some things are good, healthy fears, like the fear of fire or speeding cars. Most of our fears are stupid though, and we know this. We are lied to, tricked, and manipulated every day by businesses, politicians, the media, and whomever else has something […]
A Few Things I Learned About Hosting a Movie Screening
When the Oscar nominations were announced, I knew I was in trouble. We had only seen three of the five nominated animated films! My daughter asked how we could see them all, and instead of saying “we can’t,” I stupidly decided to figure out a way for it to happen. Do to the evils of the […]
I Swear This Was Not My Idea!
No, seriously. This was not my idea. I was just sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when Edward came up to me with the roll of tape. He was being loud, as usual, and I was concerned with our dwindling tape supply after the previous few tape incidents. Last time he’d found the […]
Letting It Go at the Stratton Ice Castle
I don’t think I can sing Geico’s praises highly enough, which might be a weird way to start a story about an ice palace, but if it wasn’t for their helpful rule-bending then we wouldn’t have been able to go. After our car was smashed into by an uninsured villain motorist on Thursday, we were left […]