Month: June 2009
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babies, bottles and bonfires
The one thing we did not need the evening we took care of my daughter’s children was a bonfire. The infant and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother had arrived in the early afternoon, hot, sweaty, miserable from the unexpected, intense heat at the picnic for the 10th year reunion of their mother’s high school class. “Everyone with…
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family pets
No excited phone calls, no cards in the mail, no flashy pictures on e-mail or websites announcing their arrival, but still they come – tumbling, pouncing, barking and mewing for their own place in the family. First, the Pennsylvania family announced they had returned from vacation with a couple of pit bull puppies. My son…
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playing games sharpens brains
Move over and make room for a few retirees at the clanking, banging, roaring games in the local arcade. Recent studies suggest action video games can improve visual acuity, mental flexibility and in physical coordination for senior citizens: Vision improves after playing games with bad guys popping on and off the screen daring players to…
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Happy birthday Maretta!
Incredible! Today, my oh-so-much-older-than-me cousin celebrates reaching the official age for retirement. Is this that awesome, much older, wiser, cuter and artistic cousin who came to stay for a few days to help my mom with her passel of five kids by ironing the basket of clothes that never seemed to be empty? In those…