This holiday season, take some time to sit down with family and friends to celebrate the simple act of breaking bread together. Communal dining may be one of our species’ most basic activities, and what better way to celebrate the…
Yearly Archives: 2011
Rainbow Healers
One of the great things about living in Southern California is the hippie beach culture. Part of this culture is a subset of healers, modern-day shamans that combine multiple forms of pseudoscience, placebo healing, and spiritual frou-frou with the enticement…
Living With an Extroverted Child
To say my daughter is extroverted is to say the ocean is slightly damp. When she was first learning to talk my wife and I delighted in every uttered sound. Now I lock myself in the bathroom for a few…
At Least I Can Still Bake
It’s reassuring to know that, despite my faults and impatience, my inability to clean the house without grumbling, and scathing reviews of most drivers on the road (honestly, it’s just rain! Move!) I can still put together a trio of…
The Old Man in Our House
We have a houseguest, a little old man, who can’t see very well, or hear, or walk. He sleeps a lot, which is good, but he dribbles food out the side of his mouth, grunts and wheezes, and is impatient…
Family Time over the Holidays
So what if the economy fell in the toilet, attempted to climb out, and is being flushed down again? So what if unemployment is knocking on everyone’s door? So what if the current U.S. congress is rendering themselves obsolete by…
One More Life
In a few days my wife and I will bring another life into this world as we welcome the birth of our second child. I’ve had four years to learn how to become a father, an apprenticeship really, not nearly…
The Haunted House
You’re never too old to get scared of things that go “boo” in the night. This weekend my wife and I had the entire house to ourselves. Child Harbat’s grandparents and aunt took her to Disneyland for her birthday and…
