It’s a good thing my mother never signed me up for ballet lessons or some such childhood activity that required flair, balance or a slight dose of dignity. (Although she did allow me to brave the rink at Lawson Ice Arena for lessons that didn’t do a whole lotta good.) […]

Oh, to have such lovely hair So tomorrow is the Eve. It’s difficult for me to process that. Although there’s plenty of snow on the ground, and much more to come, I still don’t feel like I’m ready for all the fuss. The tree is finally decorated. The holiday festivities […]

I’ve never gone without a tree this time of year. My mom handled the specifics when I was a kid, then I inherited a small fake tree that graced a few of my apartments over the years. Even my first year in Chicago, when I was sure I wouldn’t be […]

Well, I woke up this AM to 707 emails in my in-box. About 700 of them were comment spams. Nice. Who the h-e-double-toothpicks is inconsiderate enough to do that? They added about 150 of them a couple of hours later. Running them through Blacklist is a decent solution — although […]

Decking out my fake pine shwag Today we toured Breton Village again. I come back to this mall time and again because 1) it’s less than a mile from my house; 2) it’s NOT crowded (like the Bath and Body Works store at Woodland yesterday, where 20 stupid women waited […]

Eh, I didn’t get the name of this sculpture So many people have posted comments to this site — or emailed me directly. You’ve said nice things, given advice, made observations. The typical stuff. I want you to know that I’ve read every word — and that I appreciate it. […]

I’m not a big girl. Yet a wee bit over a year ago, some of pants started to get a tad, um, tight. Not a huge surprise to me since my fitness regimen was badly fractured and I didn’t compensate by reducing the amount of ice cream I was eating […]

From the archive: Rockford, Michigan Like any new parents, we’re facing a cash-flow issue. So I started looking into where I could cut back. Beginning with clothes — and going from there. Painful as it is, I’ve pretty much stopped buying anything for me this last month. Not that I’m […]

Tracy in stripes — from last weekend With all the craziness engulfing the household this week, I haven’t used my camera once. Others have. Kev borrowed it last week, although his photoshoot fell through. And Sonja snapped pics of me unwrapping stuff last night. I’ve resigned myself to my first […]

Chloe is mesmerized by Aladdin

It’s that time of year again I was diagnosed with low blood sugar, hypoglycemia, about five years ago. I suspected I had it for a few years before that, though. You just never wanted to mess around with me when I’d gone too long without food. It was a bad […]

Rogue River Dam We attended the R.E.M.-Bruce Springsteen-John Fogerty-Bright Eyes concert in Detroit Sunday night. Much good music. Much loudness. Much bouncing in my seat. Much screaming and applauding. Much fun. While I was there to see (finally!) Michael Stipe and fellas, the rest of the crowd was definitely there […]