drama, characters, jersey shore…with gifs!

Oh, I am going to admit a dirty little secret. Ready? Freckles McYoungest and I have been watching old seasons of The Jersey Shore. *Ptui!* Man. I felt filthy just typing that. It started when we were with Bottled Lightning, and she kind of sort of FORCED US to watch an episode or two. Holy [...]

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thanksgiving cookieing

I’m going to let Freckles McYoungest’s and my vlog say it all…quite literally. Oh, and the reason it’s called “short cookies” is the original vlog was too long to upload to YouTube. You won’t find any big cookie-making secrets in this video. You may be mildly entertained. Or not. Here’s the recipe: M & M [...]

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book banning backfire

When Freckles McYoungest was in eighth grade, her Catholic elementary school got a new principal. It was a shame, because the old principal had been there since before Freckles had been born. Mrs. Original Principal had ushered BoyWonder and Bottled Lightning from preschool through their Wonder Years, and we’d hoped she’d shake Freckles’ hand when [...]

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crossing the tracks–barb stuber’s launch party

Barbara Stuber’s book, Crossing the Tracks launched in June. So pretend I’m not two and a half months behind in my blogging and come along with me for a run-down. She had a fabu party at the Faultless Starch Company Headquarters, replete with food, her trailer playing on a big-screen TV and snippets of her [...]

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wondering why i didn’t post last week?

Bottled Lightning is home. Freckles McYoungest has finished her sophomore year. I try desperately to stick to my writing schedule. This is what happens. So yeah. Motherhood.

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let them go

Okay, all you parents who are easily offended, line up.  You are about to get schooled. There seems to be two types of parents these days.  We’ve got the morons who pay absolutely no attention to their kids, figure their responsibility to their spawn ended the day they plopped them out. I’m not talking to [...]

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flippin’ out at the “little piano girl” book launch

My delicious friend Ann Ingalls launched her book, Little Piano Girl last Saturday at our local indie children’s bookstore, The Reading Reptile. Co-written with her sister, Maryann Macdonald, Little Piano Girl (Houghton Mifflin) tells the story of Mary Lou Williams, a jazz piano genius who arranged music for Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. [...]

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i know i said i was going to blog about something else but guess what happened–it’s far more exciting!

So we came downstairs this morning to discover that somebody came by to hang out. On one of our carbon monoxide detectors. In case you are unaware, Missouri is the Cave State.  Which means we are bat-a-trophic.  Our neighborhood and house are sneaking up on 100 years of age.  Bats are quite ingrained in the [...]

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play

The guy who invented this: and this: died last month.  Hans Beck, aged 79. Bow your heads, moms and dads, for a man of brilliance. Boywonder and Bottled Lightning own the above systems and a great many of their accoutrements.  Freckles McYoungest had an American Doll instead.  What a mistake.  I shudder to think of [...]

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1T

I have been chastised. By Bottled Lightning and Freckles McYoungest.  (Boywonder doesn’t give a flyin’ monkey butt.) About my language. No, not the %&**@#!! kind.  They’re fine with that.  It’s text slang.  Apparently, you have to have a license to use it, and there’s an age criteria.  Under 30. Things like “K” instead of okay. [...]

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