Worth the Wait

Yesterday was a big day.  It was Catherine’s first ballet lesson.  It’s been a long time coming, but was all the sweeter for it. My daughter is an astonishingly single-minded individual.  She has been wanting to have ballet lessons for at least two years.  We enquired about them when she first started asking, and were told that she would have …

Free Legal Advice!!! Kind of.

This blog isn’t just about shameless self-promotion.  Oh, well, all right, yes it is, but occasionally I like to throw in a nugget or two of useful information, something you can amaze your friends with should the opportunity arise.  So here, for your edification, are a few fascinating legal insights into the whole citizenship issue.  And, hey, since it’s you …

Shifting Allegiance?

Six and a half years, I’ve been here now. This is where my children have spent ten of their aggregate twelve years on this earth.  This is where my wife was born.  This is where I work, live, and play.  While I was apparently looking the other way, my roots have been burrowing quietly into this soil, and it seems …

New Site is Here!

As you will know if you are reading this, the site redesign has finally been completed.  I hope you approve.  Appropriately enough, this is my 100th post.  Many, many thanks to my friend Paul Boomer for all his help in getting this done.  The man really is a genius. Please have a look around.  If you have any suggestions or …

Interesting Fact

If you type “farting duck” into google, there are 11,500 results. [Update: as far as I can tell, none of them is very funny.]

Writing Seminar Appearance

For my sins, on October 24 I’ve been invited to give a talk as part of “The Write Direction”, a seminar put on at Stephen’s College in Columbia by the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild.  I’m quite used to standing up in front of a crowd of strangers to talk about estate planning, but this is something else …

Flashy New Design Coming Soon

Watch this space.  With the help of a certified internet genius, I have been working to upgrade this site from humdrum-but-free wordpress.com to the swankier-and-not-free wordpress.org, which allows me more flexibility with lay-out, design, and so forth.  I hope you will find the site easier to navigate and enjoy.  With a bit of luck, it will also be easier to …

"We Always Swing" Jazz Series – 15th Season

Here it is, as promised – the schedule for the upcoming season of world-class live jazz in Columbia, Missouri, complete with links to various artist sites, etc.  Don’t say I never do anything for ya. October 16, 2009 – Jim Widner Big Band with Bobby Watson November 3 – Pat Martino Quartet (with Eric Alexander) November 22 – Christian McBride …

Look Who's in Our Yard

Spotted this out of the front window a couple of days ago.  Someone has been shedding his skin on our lawn. We have in past summers played host to a black snake who was probably about as big as this one.  Not sure if it’s the same guy. Frankly, I’m not that interested in finding out.  Snakes – just one …