From the time I left the States in 1993, dragging out the Yule Log year after year has been a dreaded task with little ChrisCringlyCheer attached. I went through the motions more Decembers than not and tried to work up enthusiasm, but for the most part the whole of the holiday spirit escaped me. 'Hollowed-out shell' of festive feeling was about all I could manage, and most of that was full of a whole lotta missing people and poor-me-ness. For me, Christmas is about family, and family to a great extent is about kids.... more

This was in my inbox this morning. Thought I'd share ... Holiday Greetings to Everyone, Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the (summer or winter depending upon which hemisphere you are in) solstice holiday, practised with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions... more

Kelly's mom and Mark are cousins, so that makes Sam and Kelly ... related. (I'm not clear on the 'second-cousins or cousins-once-removed' thing.) Not only are they some flavor of cousins, they're also good friends who've spent a lot of time together since they both started at the same pre-school at just over one-year-old.

Kelly is exactly one week younger than Sam, but has always been a tiny little girl making it appear that the age difference is greater ... if all that's taken into account is size. Anyone... more

Today I'm sharing a rare sight with you. This photo was taken this morning, and in case you're as unfamiliar with this particular domestic appliance as I am, I'll describe my activity: Sandra was sewing!

You see, I have this lovely piece of fabric art I bought in Kenya that I want to display, and yesterday, against amazing odds, I managed to find a curtain rail sort of get up that will do the trick. Thing is, I needed to attach a strip of cloth to the top of the tapestry-thing to make the system work.

Unlikely... more

In many ways, the adoption world is like the Circle Line of the London Underground ... zillions of people coming and going, many as familiar with the route as they are with the back of their hands, around and around past the same stations, one after the other in a predictable pattern that never alters. King's Cross/St. Pancras, Euston, Great Portland Street, Baker Street, Edgware Road, Paddingtom, Bayswater, Notting Hill, Kensington High Street, Gloucester Road, South Ken, Sloane Square, Victoria, St. James, Westminster, Embankment, Temple,... more

Our piece of land is an acre+ and much of it is on a fairly steep slope, a combination of features that makes it very difficult to keep tidy. Since there's no such thing as a lawn mower here anyway, the only way to keep the grass trimmed is with a ... What do you call those things, again? In England they're 'strimmers', but I can't for the life of me recall what they're called in America -- weed wackers? Is that right? ... well, one of those. Cows help, too, but we don't have control over the cows ... they're not ours -- more like rentals... more

I love where I live. Yes, I do.

But I hate how far away this island is from so many I love. My mother, a daughter and a son, and very importantly, my granddaughter, Addie, are all on the other side of the planet, a great distance that feels even more daunting when I long for that little girl. I had hoped and planned to be in North Carolina when my daughter gave birth, but things didn't turn out that way. Due to some issues, it was necessary to bring Addie into the world a few weeks earlier than anticipated, and an emergency... more

Continued from the previous post ...

Okay ... but back to the science ... The link on women in the house lead me to one that asked the question, "Which is the weaker sex when it comes to pain?"

New research has found that women report more pain throughout their lifetime. Compared to men, women feel pain in... more

I'm a big fan of science. Not that I understand a lot about a lot of it ... most of the intricate stuff goes either way over my head or quickly in one ear and out the other without pausing to be absorbed ... but I'm nuts about whatever can be boiled down for my consumption. Whether it be physics or paleontology or cosmology, biology ... big or small ... or any of a bazillion branches of the scientific tree, I'm interested in anything I can hang on to and swing around on for even a little while.

I taught myself what I know of Primatology... more

In the run up to the holidays, I've been looking at different ways people in various parts of the world prepare for special events in their area. Our tradition here in Seychelles involves a Christmas Eve open house at our place, then a big dinner Christmas Day at Gay's that usually involves at least twenty people from a dozen countries and religions and enough food for an army of hungry Huns.

The photo, taken Friday, shows how Gay is preparing for this onslaught ...

Tough life, isn't it?

She'll... more