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Lessons Learned from Solitaire

It’s the middle of the night. I’m tending to a sick child. Cait’s sleeping peacefully at the moment. I know that won’t be the case for long. So I do what I always do when it’s the wee hours and I know I won’t be getting much sleep. I play solitaire.

It’s a game that suits me on so many levels.

My dad taught me how to play long before there were such things as home computers, never mind computer … Read More

Growing Older Together

Cait’s sitting on her favorite seat in the house — me. As she’s done since she was a baby, she brushes the hair back from my face with both her hands so she can see my whole face.

“Mom!”

“What?”

“You’re getting white hairs!”

Cait has announced this with some alarm. As though, for the first time, she’s realizing the clock’s not standing still.

“You can’t get old,” she adds with a hint of worry in her voice.

I joke, … Read More

A Review of My Canon Powershot SD600

canonsd600.jpgHave you noticed there’ve been more photos recently? That’s because I finally got a new camera. I’d been using Cait’s Polaroid Izone 300. While it’s a fine kid’s first camera, it just wasn’t getting the job done for me. I am now the mostly thrilled owner of a Canon Powershot SD600 Digital Elph.

After doing some research and narrowing it down to the Sony Cybershots, and the Canon SD600, I went with the Canon. The price fit my budget (you … Read More

The Morning Routine

Cait’s and my morning routine goes something like this:

I get up around 4:30 a.m., go downstairs, get the coffee going, let the dogs out, go back upstairs with coffee and dogs, and write for a few hours. Then I wake up Cait, get her breakfast, sit and chat with her while she eats, wait for the first bus to go by (which means there’s exactly five minutes until her bus will arrive), double-check that she has everything she needs … Read More

Wanderings — The Socio-biology of Empathy

Here’s a great article on the socio-biology of empathy and the roots of moral behavior in animals.

The NY Times article begins:

“Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days.

Biologists argue that these and other social

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