An article in the Wall Street Journal with the headline “Why not wear pajamas all day?” got my attention. After years of dropping my daughters off at the high school and watching kids shuffle into school in slippers, the trend of wearing sleepwear to school was something that that really didn’t make sense to me. According to the article, many teenagers like looking like they just rolled out of bed in their flannel pants, camis, and t-shirts because it’s both… Read More »
A few months back, our longtime friend and business associate, Pam Davis, called Steve and asked if he would be willing to design the poster for her 50th birthday party bash called “The Heart of Winter.” A birthday party requires a poster? In Pam’s case, the answer is yes. It was important to publicize her birthday because turning 50 gave Pam the ideal opportunity to bring the community together to raise money for two of her favorite non-profits: the Sebastopol… Read More »
The other night the conversation shifted to Mitt Romney. If that sentence doesn’t send chills up your spine, then you’ve either just landed from another planet, or you know who you’re voting for come November. If it does, then you’re in good company, because the subject of Mitt causes a strong visceral reaction in me. I’m not talking about Governor Mitt, or Mitt the last, best, hope of the Republican party to dethrone the sitting President. I’m talking about Mitt,… Read More »
New Year’s day is such a strange day. It’s a combination of relief that the holidays are over. Everything that needed to get done, got done. It’s such a pleasure to go to Target and the grocery store and be able to find a parking place. The stores are quiet and easy to get around in. No more overly stressed shoppers trying to cross one more gift off their list. But I also have some post holiday letdown. I can… Read More »
Merry Christmas, As you saw on the postcard, we did a lot of downsizing in 2011 – even our Christmas greetings downsized to a postcard – so I appreciate you taking the time to find the website to read our annual family recap. After living on Paula Lane for 17 years, it became apparent to us that the house had become too much for us. It had too many bedrooms now that Ethan and Valerie weren’t living at home, too… Read More »
The ghost of Gourmet Magazine past visits my kitchen every Christmas. That’s because for almost 20 years I’ve been making the Biscotti di Greve recipe from the December 1992 issue to give as Christmas gifts. I always enjoy getting the magazine off the shelf and studying the fluffy intensely-pink dessert that is pictured on the cover and flipping past the NordicTrack ad to get to page 164. By now though, I’ve used the recipe for so many years that the… Read More »
When we moved a little more than a month ago, we downsized our square footage. But sadly, we also downsized in the number of pets we have. We don’t know if it was the move that was the tipping point for our old cat, named Charm, or just coincidence, but about two weeks after we moved, the kidney disease that we knew he had, got worse rapidly. He stopped eating and it was obvious that it was time to say… Read More »
Next week, we will celebrate our first month anniversary in our cozy condo in Cotati. And it’s almost starting to feel like home. I’m beginning to be able to identify electronic beeping sound goes with which appliance. Is it the dryer beeping, the microwave, the oven signaling that it has been preheated or the refrigerator telling me that the door has been open for too long? Of course, celebrating holidays and creating memories definitely helps a house feel like a… Read More »
Before the trauma of our recent move I had an entirely different appreciation for household decor. Previously, when I’d enter a tastefully done home, I felt admiration for the owners taste and style. A really beautiful oak hutch filled with heirloom china or a huge glass-topped coffee table always caught my eye and gave me a bit of a twinge of envy. Then we confronted the challenge of moving the 2700, split-level, square feet of furniture, appliances, books, artwork, and… Read More »
Tomorrow, we will have lived in our new place two weeks. I think I’m making progress getting adjusted because it only took me two attempts instead of three to find which drawer the silverware is in. I’m still having flashbacks about moving, particularly the amount of dust, lint, and cat hair that was living behind our dresser in the bedroom. It was scary. There was at least two inches of gray stuff billowing behind the furniture. Had I known it… Read More »
