I am reading entries on the tech world's beloved engadget blog, and I find I don't even understand what they're talking about when it's not technical. It reminds me of Rolling Stone in the early '90s when the term "indie" threw me, and I didn't know the musica...

After I burned myself out on chores yesterday, I spent a sleepless night with alternating sweats and chills. I don't know if I'm sick, or if it was just the clammy night air blowing in. But after yoga and breakfast this morning, I went back to bed with a massive headache. Again, it may just ...

Seems I owe you a concert review. Aside from makeovers and oil changes, and niece niceness, I was in Galesburg last weekend to hear the Knox-Galesburg Symphony. My 16-year-old niece had brought her boyfriend, Dylan, because I guess she wanted to hang out with him (go figure) and because the KGS was ...

This was Dale's favorite story to tell at a bar (other than Stupid Kay stories). It was 1986, and Dale called me at work. "Honey, something's going on in Chicago. Something to do with Vietnam. I don't know what it is. Can you find out?" I tracked down a guy at the Vietnam Veter...

Big night Saturday night: my sister was playing in a symphony concert to be attended by three of my four nieces, from far-flung geographical areas, so we were all gathering for dinner beforehand. (Ariel - Niece #4 - we didn't talk about you. Much. Really, hardly at all.) But this meant a three-p...

Another Tuesday – this one Fat Tuesday – and another blind date. This time I met up with Russ, a buzz-top redhead who is the general manager for an asphalt company. I can always use a friend who can make asphalt interesting – and he did.   “Think about when you bake a brownie,â€� he in...

Shoppin' with Biker Chick one day - one of those "let's get drunk and terrorize salespeople" days - I was accosted by a young man who wanted to buff my fingernail. My fingernails, which grow long and unblemished without any help from me, are often mistaken for fake nails, so I neve...

Don't you love the soundOf the last laugh, my friend?Don't you love the soundOf the last laugh at the end?Down in the gutter with the mad old soldiersDown in the scuppers with the drunken sailors ...But the last laugh, Baby, is yours.      ~ Mark Knopfler,...

A vendor cold-called me a couple of weeks ago. (It was National Aircheck, and the company totally deserves this plug.) My salesperson finished the call with the offhand question, "Which music do you know better, the 70s or 80s?" I laughed, thinking: what a nice way to ask how old I am! And...

Open Mike Night. I polled my coworkers: should I wear a) the nice blouse I had brought to go with jeans, or b) the END THE FED tee shirt Mark gave me a while back. It has a Rothschild quote on the back, "Give me control of a nation's moneyand I care not who makes the laws." My colleagu...