So if your wife (spouse, significant other) goes to Book Expo in New York City, I have some advice for what to do, and not to do around the house. First, if you want to warm a… More Helpful Hints Around the House From Me
The other day Ellen told me a life lesson that a friend told her (and I know I am paraphrasing here, since my porous memory has become even more so). Her friend said that a… Let Them Eat Cereal
It is a very natural thing for a parent to feel pride in your children’s accomplishments. As both of my daughters remind me, I am biased (they are, of course, wrong, I am totally objective about each of them; I just happen by coincidence to have the best two daughters ever) and my job is to be proud of them (I do agree with this one).
But sometimes your children do something a bit more special.
Miriam and Tamar have talked about running a marathon together for a while. Over the last year they decided to be more serious about it, both doing a regular training routine, one in Northern Virginia and one in Brooklyn. They both submitted entries to the Philadelphia Marathon, held the week before Thanksgiving.
So this last weekend, I drove Ellen and Tamar up to Philadelphia Saturday morning, while Miriam met us there, taking the train from New York. We stayed in a bed & breakfast located a mile south of Independence Hall (a place Ellen and I found the last time we visited Philadelphia).
Saturday the girls picked up their packets and wandered around the Philadelphia Convention Center for the marathon exposition. Aisle after aisle of special shoes, special socks, belts, GPS time pieces, books, energy bars, and thousands of participants and friends-of-participants and family-members-of-participants.
Ellen’s parents, David and Bobbie Elow, visited us this weekend. I am very lucky to have had such great people enter into my life when Ellen and I were married. In addition to important personal… A Reminder That My Father-in-Law is a Very Smart Guy
As I have written previously, Ellen and I pick a local park to walk in every couple of weeks. Earlier this week, we went to Black Hill Regional Park, http://www.montgomeryparks.org/facilities/regional_parks/blackhill/. Black Hill is really nice, Little… A New Lesson From Our Last Walk
As many of you know my birthday was earlier this week.
Most of the day of my birthday I spent working on responding to discussion posts and grading midterm papers for the graduate class I teach at the University of Maryland University College. During the day I talked to my two wonderful daughters. I spent a weekend with Miriam, joined on Saturday by Ellen, seeing Broadway shows, movies (including Serenity, of course), an improv show, and wandered around New York City; my pre-birthday birthday. This coming Monday I will go with Ellen and my other daughter Tamar to see a jazz saxophonist at Blues Alley, Mindi Abair, my post-birthday birthday.
Of course I also received many Facebook and Linkedin Happy Birthday’s. One in particular stood out from someone I only met once. She worked at the FAA in Oklahoma City. I had lunch with her and a number of other FAA staff there, probably around 2007. She wrote that she had been thinking of me and the fact that I introduced her to Firefly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series), and Serenity, all of which she loved, and noting that if I was interested in watching Nathan Fillion, who played the Captain in both, that he was in Castle (which I was aware of, but appreciated being told). More on this shortly.
We try to visit Ellen’s parents every three – four months or so, they live in Hilton Head SC. When we had kids at home we would drive there, then for a while we flew,… Visiting Ellen’s Parents & Perhaps The Greatest Name in Baseball Ever
Ellen just called and told me she was catching the noon bus instead of the 4:00 bus, so I guess I need to straighten up earlier than I had planned. I spent my last night… Last Day of My Wild and Crazy Bachelor Week
Tonight I went to and had a great time at the Bethesda Young AFCEA Fiscal New Year Networking Event. It was good to see long-time and newly initiated friends and be reminded that the current… Jumping the Shark
I have been very fortunate not only in whom I married but also with the parents that are part of the deal. Both my father-in-law, David Elow, and mother-in-law, Barbara Elow, are very special people.
Both of my daughters have had many valuable moments with both of them, especially as the daughters have become young adults; something I never had growing up having met my only surviving grandparent only one time. My father-in-law has provided me with great and useful, and sometimes necessary, business and life advice during my checkered personal history.
But here is the thing, my father-in-law has historically been a pretty buttoned-down personality. Serious. Adult. Appropriate. Sort of the anti-me.
Except for his long-time desire to own an MG. Years ago, he bought one, which he took great pride in, but after some number of years he sold it.