Mark just finished “A Widow for One Year,” a novel I’ve long described as my all-time favorite and the catalyst in my years-ago decision to one day write fiction. Mark also had a powerful reaction to the story, but his was about different elements — which only reiterates to me how intricate Irving’s writing is …

Yesterday was quite a day. I got some good news: I get to hire a student assistant to help me at work! This is HUGE and something I’ve been secretly coveting for ages now. The director of the Ph.D. program in political science at UTD sent me a response to an e-mail encouraging me to …

My friend-from-high-school Kim just had her first baby, a girl named Randi Diane. Her dad, now a proud grandpa, sent out an e-mail with a link to Randi’s picture. Awwww!

It was another brilliant night of hilarity at Section 8 last night at Ozona Bar & Grill. If you missed it, you *really* missed out! Their show has changed quite a bit since I last saw them. Julie was stunning in her newest “goin’ out” shirt (which did not escape the notice of the guys …

We had a “girls night out” (GNO) last night with a few good friends. The destination for the evening was the Studio Movie Grill in Plano, an interesting concept for a movie theater that includes a full bar and menu. The food was decent and the movie, “Spanglish,” was a really good choice for a …

Last summer, Julie appointed herself to the position of rollerblading coach in my tentative but determined baby steps (or were those jerks?) towards inline skating proficiency. I found out the other day that Plano Parks & Rec is offering a basic inline skating class starting Jan. 30 for 90 minutes once a week (Sundays), lasting …

Ok, so it’s not any thanks to Santa, but yesterday, I finally fulfilled a longtime dream. I bought a Dyson. Specifically, this one. Vacuuming is henceforth a totally changed experience. And I haven’t even had a chance to use it yet. 🙂

I don’t mean to imply that those with whom I spent time over the holidays are uncivilized, but rather that getting up at 6 a.m. is apparently something I’m going to have to ease my way back into — since today, I hit snooze for 30 minutes before turning off my alarm clock and sleeping …

Here’s my favorite Christmas picture, of (l-r) Daniel, me and Bobby, sporting our awesome reindeer antlers. Other pictures are at my Yahoo photo album. PS: My shirt read “I’ve been naughty” — Ma Norell cut off the critical last word. 🙂

Others have done an excellent job of conveying Christmas cheer (see: Sandra, Mark, etc.), so I’ll just say that the holiday was fantastic. It snowed quite a bit more in Mountain Home than it did in Dallas, but it’s not on the roads hardly at all and driving around isn’t an issue. We took the …