We are getting ever nearer to having a clean safe water supply. What a hassle. It's taken: two bacteria teststhree visits from the county water quality inspector one extremely spirited conversation between husband and county inspectorthree meetin

Our new well is underway. On Monday, a big drilling truck arrived. It looked like this: And all day long it went along banged and clanged while smacking this big metal thing into the ground. On Tuesday-- water! Lots of clear, fresh water. 15 gallons

I'm incredibly sad about the recent suicide of David Foster Wallace -- sad, but not totally surprised. There was a palpable madness about his genius. If you've ever tried to read Infinite Jest, and I have, you'll know what I'm talking

Now and then people call Isaac "Ike" for short. He took to it last year, and for a few weeks had all his little school chums saying, "See ya Ike! Good bye Ike!" Then it wore off, like the wearing of a coat and tie. The other day I

Today was Elias's first full session at toddler school-- 8:45 a.m. to 11:45. Indeed I went back to get him at 11:00 just by force of habit, but he didn't see me and I was able to sneak away and enjoy some more of the bounty: I filled the tank

Here is a recent photo of our dear Mr. Lumpy, our sometimes toad.  However, shortly after this was taken, we found Froggy again (lives in the play structure) and Isaac insisted that Mr. Lumpy be freed and Froggy be recaptured.  I have to ag

What an amazing moment. I'm sitting at a Panera (Ben right next to me, but having a meeting). We just dropped off both boys. Elias, as I had hoped, didn't care a hoot about us as soon as we walked into the room. He showed us his cubby (marked

For the last two weeks, we've been embroiled in the start of school. The first week, it was logistically awkward, because Isaac had only mornings and Elias had one hour a day with me there. The times overlapped, but still I was spending a lot of