Mowing the Lawn

The book is now closed on Day 2 of trying to replace Thelma as homeschooler, mother, confidant, chef, tear dryer, maintainer of sanity, chauffeur, coach... I've earned an F for Failure to Perform, Forgetfulness and Lack of Fortitude. This is hard work.  In years past I would whisk the children from the Woodland Park Zoo to the Ballard Locks to the Vancouver Aquarium to swimming with Grandpa to the library to McDonalds and Alfy's and teriyaki.  It was high energy, but not terribly difficult.  Thelma would come home mildly disappointed to find that life with Dad had been nothing but fun and none of the kids seemed to have missed her. Things have changed.  Our children are older.  They have more commitments.  The school work is harder and can't be left for later.  I actually have to teach school instead of running a three-day stay-cation.  It's not that teaching the subjects is particularly hard.  I like doing math with Braeden and reading with Mark.  (Blessed Emma i

Day 1 in the books as a single parent while Thelma is away at BYU for her yearly pilgrimage to  Women's Conference .  Traditionally, life without Mom has meant an orgy of fast food and takeout.  No sooner had I dropped Thelma and my mother off at the airport then Braeden was calling me to see what I had planned for lunch. "I was thinking we could go to the Grand China Buffet," he suggested in his sweetest voice. I'm determined that this year will be different, though.  We aren't going to eat out every meal.  We're going to make our best attempt at cooking for ourselves, controlling our portions and choosing (moderately) healthy ingredients.  That's our plan and we're sticking to it... starting tomorrow. Tonight, it was the Grand China Buffet after all.  Braeden speaks of it in reverent tones.  Eight tables of Chinese and American food plus a Mongolian grill and sushi bar.  He must have been playing it up behind the scenes because Emma and Mark we

A popular refrain in the ongoing debate about the cost of health care in the United States accuses health insurers of making record profits at the public's expense. During a press conference last year, President Obama put it this way: "There have been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits, right now. At a time when everybody's getting hammered, they're making record profits, and premiums are going up." The inaccuracy of that statement is pretty easy to prove, but let's take it at face value for now and agree with the assertion that record profits are a bad thing, especially when the customers who fund those profits are hurting economically. (Let's also agree that President Obama doesn't really think we're all staggering around drunk when he says "everybody's getting hammered".) What then should we make of the fact that the Federal Reserve just announced record profits of $47.4 bi

It's not exactly like making a secret wish and blowing out the birthday candles, but I've usually been hesitant to share my New Year's resolutions because experience tells me that I probably won't keep them.   I don't like goals--or at least the discussion about goals.  Anytime someone starts going on about the importance of setting goals I feel like I'm being forced to watch an infomercial or listen to a pitch for a timeshare at Shady Meadows Family Resort and Oil Change. For a few years I've tried to be cheeky about the whole thing.  "My New Year's resolution is to keep my New Year's resolution."  I know it's not particularly humorous, but that will teach people to ask. This year, though, I've tried something different.  I decided to set a goal and actually try to stick to it.  I'm proud to say--now that we are more than a quarter of the way through the year--that I have managed to stick by my resolution with near perfect accu

(This is my experience evaluating Facebook for my daughter.  It turned into a technical exercise in CSS.  If you want the full narrative, read on.  If you just want the steps for using CSS to block ads on Facebook, jump ahead .) Emma asked permission to create a Facebook account so she can keep in touch with some of her cousins and friends.  Emma has been very responsible using our family computer and does a good job keeping our rules about what to do and how to behave online.  So, Thelma and I decided that it was probably OK once I had a chance to check out and become familiar with the privacy settings and parental controls. Even though I work for an online business and Facebook is a frequent topic of conversation when it comes to reaching out to and retaining online customers, I have to admit that I have rarely used the service.  I created an account for business purposes to become a "fan" of a client so I could keep tabs on some social marketing campaigns.  That's it.