Economists and politicians may disagree about the economy, but there's no doubt that things are bad. Consider that the Hummer, the veritable flagship of conspicuous consumerism, may be on its way out. Of course, the fact that Hummer could be an endangered species will only increase their value, ...

My mom's ashes came inside a cardboard box labeled 'cremains.' Cute. Well, things could have been worse. It's a little surreal talking to my dad these days. He talks openly about how he's struggling with the loss, quite a change for someone who usually keeps his emotions in check...

My Jetta is almost nine years old, but it's held up fairly well, probably because the mileage is very low (less than 60,000 miles; when I say I don't get out much, I'm not kidding). But I'd been overdue for an oil change. When the 'check fluids' light came on, I figured I sho...

This past weekend, I actually played a couple of games on a Wii for the first time. Michael, age 8, was showing me around Wii Sports in typical 8-year-old fashion: he flipped through the game menus faster than I could blink, wouldn't tell me how to use the controls, and proceeded to kick my butt...

I knew that one day I'd have to try to explain to Quinn where babies come from. I didn't expect it to come when he was three. Like many of his questions, it came out of nowhere. We were going through the morning routine of showers and getting dressed, and I was helping Quinn get out of his p...

We discovered a few months ago that the boy likes watching Dirty Jobs. In case you somehow missed it, the show's host, Mike Rowe travels around the country doing particularly dirty and disgusting jobs, so the show spends a fair amount of time in sewers, tanks and other reservoirs of the unspeaka...

I read something the other day about how the track list for Britney Spears' upcoming album, Circus, had been leaked. Normally, I couldn't care less, but I was surprised to see that she's decided to do an album composed entirely of covers. I was more surprised by the diversity of her sele...

Monday, November 3 I had volunteered to help the Obama campaign, and after getting calls from two different Obama campaign offices, I had no idea what I'd be doing, or where, or when. I googled 'canvass Obama' and I wasn't sure whether to prepare for combat or hugs. People person tha...

My neighbor has recently put up another sign on his front door: Barack will redistribute the wealth and give you the "change" This is followed with a frowny-face, in case you weren't sure if this is meant to be an endorsement. I'm thinking of putting up a message on our door. Since...

I am waiting for the apocalypse. Perhaps I have an unhealthy fascination with life on earth after something happens to mess everything up. I'm not sure what scenario is more likely: global thermonuclear war, rapid climate change, machine sentience, meltdown, virus (or virus, or virus, or virus), zom...