Ode to Baseball

Wes at bat

It’s late September and I’m already lamenting the long drought ahead. One hundred and sixty-two games, some stretching past midnight into extra innings, will come to an end one week from Sunday. Season over. Sure, there are the playoffs, the intensity, joy for the victors, made all the more interesting if your team is in the hunt, but it’s the […]

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Turn an Ordinary Walk Into an Adventure

Photo of Parents with kids on shoulders

The Take Time to be a Dad campaign from the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse has brought back some wonderful memories of when my kids were small. The ad calls attention to the importance of family togetherness. Like most families, we took our kids to amusement parks, the zoo, museums and county fairs, but the best times seemed to be when […]

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Mark Twain the Travel Writer

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is known universally for his popular fiction starring a devilish boy name Tom and an adventurous youth called Huck. If you haven’t read Twain beyond these two works, then you are missing out on some of the most spectacular non-fiction stories of the American West. Roughing It Four years before writing The Adventures of Tom […]

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Straight Talk on Hotel Towel Racks

Over the past decade, our family has stayed in more than a dozen hotels, including several varieties of Hiltons, Marriotts, Sheratons and independently-owned inns in an equal variety of states on both coasts. Regardless of the establishment or location, each had implemented similar green initiatives to conserve water, reduce waste and improve energy efficiency. As guests, we were asked to […]

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The Best Baby Shower Games Guide

When you ask a friend if she’ll host a baby shower the typical response is, “Sure, but I’m not planning the activities.” The idea of entertaining guests ranging in ages from nine to 90, some of whom have never met and yet others who don’t exactly get along, is an intimidating thought. But because such a diverse group of people […]

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Girl in Translation translates impressively to audiobook

Girl in Translation

The only thing more satisfying than reading Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is listening to Grayce Wey’s audiobook rendition of this remarkable debut novel. The semi-autobiographical story takes us into the world of eleven-year-old Kimberly Chang and her mother, brought to America from Hong Kong by their purported sponsors, Mrs. Chang’s sister Aunt Paula and her husband, Uncle Bob. […]

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