13 Hours of Rain

My husband. I am very thankful for him. Yes, there are times when our personalities seem to be polar opposites of each other, thereby causing short moments of tension in our lives. Yet, these moments have served to strengthen and refine our individual personalities. By God's grace, we are becoming better people because of knowing each other. Here is a short list of what I have learned from him. Some lessons are profound, others are simple and practical (and a bit funny). 1. When you are adding spaghetti to a pot of boiling water, grasp the dry noodles on both ends and snap them towards the pot. Shorter noodles are easier to cook. Furthermore, snapping the noodles towards the pot allows for splinters to enter the water instead of the surrounding area. 2. If you need to keep score of points during a card game, list the players on your record sheet clockwise in reference to yourself. This increases the efficiency of record keeping. 3. Just because there is silence in answer to a quest...

I really do not desire to be a Twitter participant. However, since these haphazard thoughts are "Twitter-like", I thought the above title was appropriate. 1. Visited Indigo . I was browsing through books at Indigo with my husband. Paused in the baby section. Read a few sections from Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding . Almost cried while skimming through one of the chapters. Wish I read this book before I went through my experience. Seems like a balanced view of the issues. 2. Saw green and orange cars . I've noticed something in my drives around the city. Aspen green and burnt orange are the two colors of choice in new cars these days. Dig the green. Not a fan of the orange. Maybe we'll get a snazzy aspen green Toyota Prius when the price of hybrid cars drop in market value. 3. Watched the Gags . My husband was watching Just for Laughs: Gags a few weeks ago. I joined him. A human behaviour caught my attention. Many ...

For the past three months, my esthetician and I have had a little arrangement. I arrive at her home for an eyebrow wax and she hands me the next season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Her husband has kindly granted us the privilege to methodically view his precious collection of all seven seasons. We are currently in season three. My husband and I are thoroughly enjoying this trip down memory lane. Captain Picard's brilliant leadership is inspirational. Plus his dry wit and brief moments of boyish enthusiasm are a delight to watch. Worf, the Klingon Chief Security Officer, is entertaining as he heroically attempts to tone down his warrior spirit in light of Starfleet diplomacy. And Worf's stoic comments are hilarious! Lieutenant Commander Data - now here is one fine android officer! While his computer-like skills are admired by his comrades, he would trade them away in an instant to become human. True, his reflections on humanity are at times naive, but at other moments hi...

Followers of pop culture reacted in shock when the news rolled in: Michael Jackson found dead at the age of 50. Grocery store airwaves played Jackson tributes all day. Hundreds of copies of Thriller were gobbled up by consumers. Frenzied fans watched their e-mail with anticipation , hoping to receive tickets to the King of Pop's memorial. It all seemed surreal, like a clip from a Hollywood motion picture. Yet the sadness that people are expressing over the lose of a cultural icon seems hollow, especially in light of the last decades of Michael's life. Ugly rumors and condemnations haunted the pop star's world. Who can forget the image of Jackson being escorted by police in his pajamas for accusations of child molestation? Or what about the disturbing video of him precariously dangling an infant over a balcony? These pictures are so divorced from my memories of a vivacious young man moonwalking across a concert stage. The following questions beg to be asked: What is more...

First family vacation: just the three of us. Destination? Bed & Breakfast, lakeside, two hours out of town. Forecast? Rain, rain, rain, And a bit of sunshine. Here's hoping? Packed her cute pink swimsuit Plus several summer clothes. Donned on jeans and bunny hugs instead. It's okay. No splashing in the shallows with baby girl. But she discovered our hosts' beautiful and gentle cats instead. No building sandcastles with her brand new pail and shovel. Yet she ate strawberry ice cream in a "shanted-out" cafe that brought laughter to her parents. No restful nights for Mommy and Daddy as she refused to sleep in a playpen. Instead she snuggled and slept by her Mommy while her Daddy kindly dozed on the couch to make room. It's okay. It's a matter of perspective. It was worth it.