While some put energy into worrying about transracial relationships, others are happy to jump not only species, but clear out of the phyla, "Chordata" and go all the way (not literally, I hope) with a mollusk. Yep, love in my garden is a shell game, with Sam's Giant Aldabra Tortoise, Helmut, and the unnamed snail who appears to have developed a strong attachment.

Helmut and Sam are the same age, four, as it's a tradition... more

I wrote on New Year's Eve about time running away from us like a three-year-old with spaghetti-covered fingers heading for the boss's white couch as we spin faster and faster on our axis, and had a couple of comments about situations that slow time down without having to get the entire population of the world to tilt west. These had me thinking of the periods in my life that hooked a ball and chain to time and had it dragging.... more

Continued from here ...

It's not in my nature to suggest a problem without also bending my mind toward possible solutions. Since this spinning thing is my theory, I figure I'd better invest some thought in correcting what I see as a cosmic error.

After all, when counting the blessings of 2006, you may put good health at the top of your good stuff list, but health is only of great long-term value if there's time to enjoy it ... a long term, so to speak. ... more

New Year's Eve, 2006. Since New Year's Eve 2005 happened about five minutes ago, I'm inspired this year to propose a theory ...

We're spinning too fast. Yep. That's all there is to it; there's been a speed-up in the rate of spin our globe does daily, and that's making time go faster than it used to. It's been a gradual process, but year-by-year we go just a tad bit faster and faster until today we're up to about three times the speed we spun in the 1950s.

When I was a child, old folks of fifty-five (my age now) would complain... more

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Of course, that won't take care of the pain and heartache ... only a good pair of pruning shears will help there ... but knowing that there's a secure financial future, no matter what, will make everything easier. May I also add that fathers should more often be custodial parents in cases of divorce? Women need to get around their guilt and understand that dads are parents, too, and that parent is also a verb. Aside... more

Blogging in the bigger world has some interesting side effects.

When most of my Internet writing was limited to my personal blog, I knew my audience ... not just in a this-is-what-they're-interested-in sort of way, but up close and personally. I was familiar with the family situations, the pasts and presents, the work environments. Spouses and children had been introduced, discussed and examined, and although I won't claim to know intimate details, I did know a lot. These days, I wouldn't know a reader if I passed one on the street, but readers do know... more

Thanks to the loving care of two Cambodian women, my kids came to me primed and ready for more of the same, expecting their needs to be met, their cries answered and cuddles and kisses to come their way regularly. Sam and Cj both entered AOA ... Asian Orphans Association, an orphanage outside Phnom Penh ... as newborns, and within minutes of arrival they were assigned nannies.

There's no stacking kids like cordwood in nurseries at AOA, no one-size-fits-all feeding schedules, no run-off-their feet workers trying to meet... more

In addition to rabbits, Sam got quite a few DVDs, so he's busy trying to watch them all. So far, he's fondest of one he calls "A Hundred Dollars" which is actually about a whole bunch of spotted dogs ... Here are a few more photos ... ... more

It was all a bit beyond Cj, who couldn't quite grasp why behaviors banned just a day before ... ripping wrapping paper off gifts under the tree, for example ... were suddenly encouraged, but Sam sure 'got it' all. On the Eve, after our open house guests were all gone and we were cleaning up, Sam caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. Mark apparently... more

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Almost as devastating? The realization that the following Christmas would be amazing, and our first as parents. When we did speak about all the Ho Ho Ho around us, that was the focus ...

Next year he'll be more than a year old.

Next year we'll put the tree up and really go to town on the decorations.

Next year the little darling we're... more