Cool Jobs
How would you like to get paid for taste-testing bourbon, chocolate, or various beers? Would training to be a wine steward and earning the title sommelier appeal to you? Or maybe you’d rather don your cool shades and earn a…
Amy Laundrie
To All the Fitness Fads I Loved Before
I admit it. I’m fickle. I can get caught up in exercise fads, buy equipment, and then, after the newness leaves, the new toys sit. I recently tried to get rid of a stationary bike. “Pedal,” as I’d affectionately named…
Reaching Out to Friends, part 1
I never dreamed I’d have a feathered friend to rival Happy Feet, a Runner Duck who was the only one who hatched from our incubator a few years ago and imprinted on my husband and me. She pecked her…
Gertie, One Terrific Goose, part 2
E.B. White, in his classic Charlotte’s Web, had the famous spider write adjectives in her web describing the beloved pig. The words Some Pig, Terrific, Radiant and Humble saved Wilbur’s life. I wish E. B. White was still alive so…
Gertie and Doc, the Teenage Years, part 3
Our rescued Canada goose, Gertie, and our pet mallard, Doc, continued to entertain my husband and me. Gertie the goose stretched her neck, getting her head as close to me as possible, and told me stories. I loved hearing the…
Gertie, the conclusion
I was anxious to return to our cabin and check on Gertie and the duck since my husband and I had left them on their own. I especially missed Gertie, the orphaned gosling we’d raised. Get a grip, I told…
My Smelly Reputation
The janitor, spray can in hand, looked around my fourth grade classroom. “Did a snake escape and die in some corner?” “No, I don’t think so.” I breathed through my mouth to avoid the smell. A girl had recently brought…
Message Received
Several years ago my daughter Heather and I visited a friend’s lovely flower garden. The friend commented that she hadn’t yet seen a monarch. Minutes later, one appeared. It sipped nectar from an orange and black coreopsis. My daughter and…
The Cast Iron Skillet
In August my sister Rachel and I had the chance to spend several days together. We were bound to talk about childhood memories, our deceased parents, and the difficult task we faced when dealing with their possessions. “I wish we…
The Cast Iron Skillet
In August my sister Rachel and I had the chance to spend several days together. We were bound to talk about childhood memories, our deceased parents, and the difficult task we faced when dealing with their possessions. “I wish we…