Ocean

What can I say. It was cold again. Dismally so. For Ocean readers living in warmer places, I have a few portraits for you: faces of the nor...

I shopped for a better mortgage on my condo this afternoon. Erin, representing the lending institution, smiled her way through the interview...

Do you remember this Tom Paxton song? It's a long and a dusty road It's a hot and a heavy load And the folks that I meet ain't a...

Yes, shopping with Ed. There is a pattern there and it’s one worth noting, if only because it is always so predictable. And it says a lot ab...

Yesterday is a blur. I remember waking up to a light cover of snow outside. Good. We need a clean layer. The old stuff reminded me of how sn...

2008 was memorable in many ways and one stands out for me at the moment: I did not cook for anyone the entire year. (Except for myself, my f...

Maybe it’s the elevator -- I just heard these words on a library-borrowed DVD (Boston Legal) and I thought: how oddly insightful! Because e...

Life is complicated. I said as much to a colleague who then remarked: things evolve. It struck me that for some, things evolve, and for othe...

You think you know what it means. You (like me, like everyone) undoubtedly believe that in your life, you have made many. You, the giver, th...

A day of extremes. The warmest February 10th ever. 54 degrees. (Don’t laugh, southerners!) I wore short sleeves to class. Fantastic! Less fa...

Tiny ants inhabit my Cymbidium King Arthur “Round Table.” In the late afternoon, when the sun is out, they climb out of the tangled roots to...

Navigating the day. It’s a bright one, though not as warm as yesterday. Fill up with b&b food (oh, the guilt!) and head out toward Lake ...

Port Washington (Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan) registered a record breaking 53 this February afternoon. Ed and I were not in Po...

Well, a commenter last week predicted it right: we hit 40 in Madison and, consequently, the kids put on the shorts. You think I exaggerate?...