Cookies. We made homemade cookies today. Easter cookie cutters, Christmas sprinkles. I hope when she’s older she gets used to this kind of thing.

Na na na na Star! Ray: Na na na na Star! Na na na na Star! Me: What are you doing? Ray: I wish a star. Me: What do you wish for? Ray: I wish presents Christmas. Me: Good choice.

Writing stuff. It’s been a while… I finished the third draft of the story, and I still have a lot of work to do. Some things are going much better, some things are the same, and some things I still can’t figure out at all. Why? Why why why??? The problem with giving your characters

Sheesh. (Writing stuff.) It’s been a while… I finished the third draft of the story, and I still have a lot of work to do. Some things are going much better, some things are the same, and some things I still can’t figure out at all. Why? Why why why??? The problem with giving your

Weight. (Forgive me if I screw this up.) 1 lb = 16 oz. = 1 pint 1 c = 8 oz (2 c = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon) 1 gallon = 8 pints = 8 pounds. So a gallon (of beer) is 8 pounds. According to my

Badge. You don’t get badges for being a parent, but you should. Like “My Child Survived to Adulthood Only Because I Didn’t Kill Him (or Her).” Like “Did the Sex Talk.” Like “Made it through Flu Season with a Two-Year Old without a Direct Hit.” Here’s the badge I want: The “Fox In Sox Adult

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum! I talked Lee into helping us put up the tree today. He may have had fun; I’ll ask him after he’s had time to think about it. Of course, after three years, putting the actual tree up is pretty much a science, this snaps together with that, this goes here, the

Review: The Brothers Karamozov, by Fyodor Dostoesvsky As it turns out, this is a fun book. It has many of the features of an epic fantasy, except, of course, for the fantastic and epic elements. There’s the same sense of world-saving importance, the same philosophical digressions on good and evil, the same psychological themes turned

Quote: “They’re thirteen. The boogeyman is no longer in the closet or under the bed. The boogeyman is inside you.” — Alfonso Cuaron, probably not an exact quote, from the Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban interviews on the DVD. He said it in such an offhand, matter-of-fact way, too.

Ideas. I’m writing this down so I’ve written it down. Some people have eidetic memories. I have the kind of memory that remembers what I’ve written, at least the general gist of it. (I don’t have to use bookmarks for most books.) The next time I stare at a blank page and try to talk