I love little blessings that bolster our attitudes, such as when I hurry to get up in the morning because I slept through the alarm, so I stub my toes on a bedpost. “Yeow!” the cartoon bubble would read. Hop. Hop. Hop.
Scene: In the dark of night, a tiny object plummets invisibly to Earth. Glowing with the searing heat of the Earth’s atmosphere, it arrives on the planet as a tiny fireball before slamming into the ground in a suburban backyard. It’s flames immediately extinguished by the tiny impact, it’s arrival goes undetected by the slumbering people in the house. Not even the dog notices the crash and therefore no one sees an amorphous form emerge from the object. It has no defined shape or manner. It is an almost imperceptible orange gelatinous blob that oozes its way over to the nearest shrub, attaches to a branch and waits.
Weekly financial Q&A, with advice on teens and bank accounts, and life insurance.
Dave Granlund on Mitt Romney's opposition to gay marriage.
This was my wife’s first Mother’s Day with two children. Last year, around Mother’s Day, we were booking flights to Ethiopia in preparation of picking up Dawit –– our almost 5-year-old, after a two-year adoption process.
Mitt Romney’s camp has long portrayed him as a humorous high-school prankster. However, disturbing revelations that have come to light sound a lot more like bullying than light-hearted horseplay.
My daughter cried in my arms when I told her that her best friend was moving to California this summer. As her quiet tears dropped onto my shoulders, I realized I didn’t have the words that would comfort her. I only had words an adult might understand. New job. New opportunities. New adventure. Change. But those words fall flat to a girl who just turned 8; a girl who’s shared many of her childhood adventures with her best friend of five years.
By responding to this old story with candor instead of half-hearted spin, Romney could bring something positive to this discussion. He could talk about what he should have done, or what others should have done, to stop the hazing.
Since I have extremely short hair, it never made much sense to me to go to the salon to get my hair colored. I knew my roots would show almost immediately and I’d have to shell out a bucket of money to re-do it less than three weeks later. I thought using one of those “washes out in 28 shampoos” colors at home was a better plan because a) it was a lot cheaper b) the returning gray would be more subtle because it would show up gradually and c) if I screwed up the color, I only had to live with it for a month.
Ever since this whole uproar started about Dec. 21, 2012, being the "end of the world," according to the Mayans, it seems like everyone's been planning their End of the World party –– or investing in all the toilet paper and bottled water they can find.
I think I first truly realized how much my mother loved me when she agreed to organize an entire eighth-grade class graduation party in 1 1/2 days. She might have needed to show less urgent love if I’d told her sooner that this was her job.
Tell me why it is necessary to produce an environment so wrought with the fear of failure that teachers find themselves more focused on passing a test rather than deepening the atmosphere of gaining knowledge.
When I was younger, I was such a people pleaser. If everyone else was happy, then I could be happy. I was also a perfectionist. Everything had to be done by me. Everything was done from scratch. I used to clean everything, cook everything, make everything. There wasn’t anything I didn’t do or try to do perfectly.
Democrats like to portray Republicans as the party of, by and for the rich. If you buy into this portrayal, you may wonder why any poor person would ever vote for a Republican. Well, let us count the ways.
Probably the biggest downside to bikes is how they have to be ridden outside, powered by only your own dumb "feet" and "legs." You have to ride them around other people, along streets and sidewalks, sometimes in the rain and sometimes when it is uncomfortably hot. I mean, sure, they don't use any gas or fossil fuels and are usually pretty easily stored and offer exercise and environmental benefits and let you feel smugly superior to everyone you see/judge in a car, but otherwise they're pretty much the worst things ever, and that's before the chains slip off, which of course happens all the time, because bikes are terrible.
Occasionally, it absolutely makes sense to splurge. For me, that splurge usually comes in the form of flowers or plants and this time of year, my gardening gloves are itching to hit the dirt. As long as our budget warrants it, the budget will include garden spending in the spring.
I hate my name! It is so old-fashioned, and I don’t think that it fits my age or my personality at all. I have often thought of legally changing my name, but I’m afraid that I am going to upset my parents. I don’t want to hurt their feelings, but I truly dislike my name. What should I do?
