When I was a teenager, every year I’d go with my girlfriends to the State Fair. We couldn’t wait! Midway rides that made us all urpy. Cotton candy. Corn dogs. Enough dust to kill your sinuses for a year. There … Continue reading →

I went to the Wallpaper store today to pick out something for our guest bedroom — just one wall. I found the concept in a magazine and couldn’t wait to reproduce it– something complicated, involving tape measures and fancy molding. … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I wrote about authors who screw around with punctuation and make a bizillion dollars with their flagrant disregard for all those nasty grammatical rules — as set down in third grade by Sister Mary Hercules and her wooden stick. … Continue reading →

James Frey wrote a book. A work based both literally and loosely on experience. He tried to offer his manuscript as fiction, but somewhere along the line, someone decided it should be a memoir. So, memoir it was! A Million … Continue reading →

Here’s my favorite version of the classic Leonard Cohen song. My kids call it the Shrek song. I call it beautiful, haunting. Hallelujah I understand only part of its esoteric words, but misunderstanding something’s full meaning doesn’t make it any … Continue reading →

Me: Do you remember Underwear Boy? Dan: The one in the tidy whities that we could see through our bedroom window? Yeah, why? Me: We need curtains. Dan: We have shades. Me: I know, but we still need curtains. What … Continue reading →

It’s naptime at the McCanta house. Hubby’s on the couch, mouth open, sweet and softly snoring. Dogs litter the hallway with their long bodies, legs all akimbo. Now and then, I hear the thump, thump of a tail in half-wag, … Continue reading →

Wilson the Labradoodle is five months old now. He’s getting his big boy teeth. With the help of some nice hard Nyla bones, lots and lots of chewy toys, and a bizillion admonitions to “Leave it!” if he even looks … Continue reading →

I met writers today. REAL writers! Folks who have published books sitting right there on bookstore shelves. Published WRITERS!!! As I slobbered after them, trying hard to maintain my last semblance of decorum while drool ran down my chin, I … Continue reading →