• I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    Middle-Aged Dogs, New Tricks

    February 24, 2020

    One of the trade-offs of having grown kids who live elsewhere (Wah! I miss them!!) is that we have a lot of spare time to do…well, whatever we want. A few months ago Jim made a couple of comments about possibly wanting to learn how to play guitar, something he did as a child but only short term. I thought about buying him a guitar for his birthday and, after debating with myself about whether he was really serious about wanting to take it on, I headed to Guitar Center. I bought him a basic acoustic guitar, figuring that if he didn’t really care to learn we could just return…

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    Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Fun in Knoxville,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    On Getting Lost and Found

    December 29, 2019

    The very first argument Jim and I had as a married couple was on our wedding day. We left the courthouse in Norfolk, Virginia and drove back to Knoxville; he was on leave from the Navy for the rest of the week. After a very long eight-hour drive, we got off the interstate and had to navigate through downtown Knoxville, which has lots of one way streets and odd intersections. It wasn’t long before we got completely turned around and totally lost. This was way before cell phones and GPS navigation (imagine that, kids!), and we didn’t have a map in the car. I wanted him to pull over so…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  The House,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    The Dining Room and Other Ways We’re In Sync.

    April 24, 2017

    I figured a month was long enough to have my toilet paper obsession have center stage. Actually, to be honest, I’ve been too busy even to think about blogging. It’s all good, though. I’m in the thick of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO season (13 days until the show! Need tickets? Go here.), work is gearing up to Level: Crazytown (#BlogHer17 is only two months away! Need a ticket? Go here.), and Jim and I are busily working on our new house in Knoxville. The house thing? It’s been awesome. As unhappy as I was when Jim and I were hanging in that special kind of limbo that occurs when…

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  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    My Favorite Things: The New Jersey Edition (Yo!)

    November 16, 2013

    Yesterday was my last day in New Jersey and, because she’s real smart like that, Liz thought we should go out to breakfast and do a little more local sightseeing in the area rather than sit around at her house, crying because we had to say goodbye in the afternoon, which totally would have happened. During a lovely walk in Thompson Park—which is NOT named after Liz or her husband Garth (Not His Real Name); I checked!!–we talked about our week and I told her that I didn’t even have a favorite part; the entire visit was my favorite. That was only a little true. I have some favorites, but…

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  • Fun in Chicago,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    Stalking In Starved Rock State Park

    October 14, 2013

    A little more than a week ago, Jim and I were sitting around trying to make a variety of plans for the weekends ahead. It’s what you do when you’re an Empty Nester, you know. Suddenly you have all of this time on the weekends because you don’t have kids coming and going at various times: if you don’t make plans to do things, you’re basically just living from meal to meal and that’s no fun at all. Jim and I are all for fun, so we spend lots of time on our calendar of activities. After a few minutes of silent and individual thinking he said, “You know, if…

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