Today I took Catherina into town for her ultrasound. What a hoot!

(If you've missed the Catherina saga, you can catch up starting here. It's a long saga, but continuing, so worth a look back if you're thinking you'd like to follow along.) First, the gaggle of preggos swarming all over the place gave me a buzz that must have been some sort of hormonal contact high ... heady stuff for a... more

I was talking about older men ...

Anyway ...

For the past few days, one hot topic on the GAARP group has been older single moms ... 50-somethings ... pining for potential male partners. They're looking for adoption-friendly men ready to settle down and raise a family later in life, maybe even with a tender spot for special needs kids and the women who'd love to care for them

Apparently,... more

Since Mark is 40 now, I suppose he could be considered an older parent, so photos of him doing dad stuff qualify as bloggable.

I'll post a few from Sunday when he was fishing with the kids in the lagoon at the end of our road. You'll get a good look at the one that didn't get away ... although all were released and no fish were injured in the making of this blog.

Continued ... ... more

Should freedom of religion mean that parents can refuse medical treatment for their children?

This is certainly not the only place this question has been posed, and the debate is bound to rage ... waxing and waning as circumstances arise ... well into this new century and longer. The focus at the moment is on a family in Canada, and the issue is fragile babies and blood transfusions.

Canada's first set of... more

I figured I'd better get a photo of this double-dish-action while I can. I'm not counting on it lasting much longer than Cj's toddlerhood, at least not voluntarily. Right now, pushing her chair up and giving a hand is a favorite activity, and when it's Dad she gets to help there's even more reason to rejoice.

It's beginning to become clear that it will be Cj, not Sam, who'll be Mark's fishing buddy in the years to come. Mark has fostered visions of father/son fishing trips for most of... more

This is continued from an ongoing tale of the life and times of me and mine. The last post can be found here.

My visitors left on the morning of the 25th, and by that same afternoon Catherina and Richard had finished moving in. Over the weekend they hung curtains where there have never been curtains before ... me not being into a lot of extra hoo-has, but happy enough for them to do the place up to their liking ... and the few items of... more

Sunday was one of those days that does my heart so much good.

I'm not talking about getting my HDLs higher or my LDLs down, or pumping out forty minutes of cardio. Nope. It's that warming thing that it was all about. The family of the most recent of Cambodia-born babies, home just before Christmas, invited us and another family for lunch.

There were four ... count 'em, four ... children under the same roof in Seychelles, all born in Cambodia and cared for at AOA orphanage, and the sight... more

As a writer and a reader and a talker and a listener, my world is defined by words as much as it is by sight and smell and touch. They are the indigo of my ink, the pigment of my paints, the marble of my Michelangelo.

Yes, if we were talking pyramids, words would be the blocks I'd be carving, then carefully fitting together into a structure meant to preserve and inspire for eons. Well, that would be the goal. Given my undying amazement at the power of words, my fascination for their command and utility, and my fondness for tossing them... more

My mother at nineteen, with me as a newborn.

Seventy-five years ago today, the 18th of January in 1932, my mother was born, and today those who love her celebrate that event and rejoice at the generosity of the grand scheme that allows us to continue enjoying the world with her in it.

Like most lives, my mother's has followed a meandering path through hills and valleys full of events great and tragic, small and trivial, seemingly inconsequential but actually life-altering, with unexpected twists and turns that presented... more

More in the saga from the home front ...

We had our meeting with C & R just before Jane and Lanny arrived, and it went very well ... I think. Communication is everything to me, and trying to establish an easily available and comfortable route for keeping things clear seems to be a good start.

Mark and I laid out the rules ... occupancy of the house is contingent on Catherina's employment, mutual respect and consideration... more