she's just saying...

[I suppose Bend isn't really the suburbs, but life sure looks and feels like it.] We did our annual ease-back-into-school mode with the "Meet the Teacher" event at Henry's school this afternoon. The kids see their new classrooms, check out their teachers and eat popsicles from the PTA. We catch up from the summer and plan playdates and carpools for flag football practice. I enjoy the...

My big-beautiful-Bob and the killer princess Muffin are not pleased with the presence of the little squirt Oreo in the house. Bob stomps around growling deep in his throat and avoids the house except to eat and get a lil lovin' from the mistress (me). Muffin prefers the cold silent mean-girl stare. All the while, little happy-go-lucky Oreo continues to play, jump, and pounce, pretty much...

Yankees/Red Sox on! Don't tell me the score - I just got home so I TIVO'ed it. Right about now everyone gets fired up about the football season starting when baseball is just getting good. Of course if you don't have a team in the running, the season is pretty much over anyway. Do you enjoy watching a team sporting event if you have no personal interest in the...

And fixing it. Maybe. Good news: I found the source of the leak in the pond, and it's fixable. More good news: I found out where at least one of the tadpoles went, while I was looking for the leak: it turned into a baby frog. So clever! Bad news: I have to move a bunch of the boulders and rocks from the pond perimeter to deal with the leak, which turns out to be from water siphoning up...

No one else willing to take a shot at a six-word memoir? How can I post the top 10 submissions if you don't submit anything? Or I could get my brother to write more -- that's a threat...

Cortney Maddock/rgj - See? I do give credit. Another great show by Beck last night. This show was the complete opposite of the concert he gave here two years ago. No sets, no puppets, no video, no utensil drumming; just wall-to-wall Beck songs - sort of the "Best Of" (in a good way). Starting off with "Loser," they played "Hell Yes," "Where it's At," "Guero," "Lost Cause," a bunch from...

The book Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, is a cogent little compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were: For Sale: baby shoes, never worn. (I don't really understand this actually: was he referring to his own shoes? He had...