Growing up geek.

Feeling Elin's pain

I'm not in the habit of feeling sorry for women with super-model good looks, money and a jet-setting lifestyle I can only dream about, and it's even more rare that I would see us as having anything in common. But I do feel sorry for Elin Woods, wife to the Olympic-level cheater and fallen golf hero, Tiger Woods, and we have plenty in common.

Posted 2 yrs. ago.

A bit late to the party.

Eleven years ago, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was published in the United States. Last week, my household started reading the series as a family. My husband has already read the series and seen most of the movies, but the children and I have not. I waited until my youngest was close in age to Harry, as recommended by J.K. Rowling, the series' author.

Posted 2 yrs. ago.

Book nerdery, junior edition.

As a geek mom, little warms my heart as much as seeing my children, ages 9 and 11, fulfill their destinies as book nerds. A precocious reader myself, I expected to have early readers, but, as always, they were on their own time. They didnât really like the reading-level offerings at school, with simplistic plots and cartoonish artwork, but I knew that pushing it would backfire. Working closel…

Posted 2 yrs. ago.

Inexpensive summer fun: The Library.

I just posted the first of several entries about inexpensive summer fun on my Everyday Geekery blog at The Hive. If visiting the library isn't part of your routine, it's never too late to start.

Posted 2 yrs. ago.

The Brussels Sprout Challenge: Are you brave enoug…

Brussels sprouts.

Posted 3 yrs. ago.

The recession has an upside.

Soon after school started last fall, my freelance workload reached an all-time low. I hadn't gotten any shifts at the newspaper for several months, Iâd wrapped up a long-term project and networking was yielding, at best, tepid âWeâll call youâ responses. It was time to tighten the budget.Â Â

Posted 3 yrs. ago.

Baby, it's cold outside.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I grew up in Maine. The average high temperature in my hometown is 50F or below six months out of the year; the average low is under 40F for seven months of the year.

Posted 3 yrs. ago.

Que Sera, Sera.

Years ago in an online community that I am part of, a mother who is a lesbian asserted that saying things to your daughter like, âWhen you get married, you and your husband ...â was a way of communicating to your kids that you expected them to be heterosexual. That, she argued, could cause kids to think that you would not be tolerant of them as anything else.

Posted 3 yrs. ago.

We're all working moms.

I just read The Case for Staying Home, a lengthy piece in Time magazine about women making the choice to stay home with their children.

Posted 3 yrs. ago.

Sometimes, you just gotta dance (or watch other pe…

I'm not sure how it started; maybe someone gave us the video as a gift or I found my ancient audio cassette of the soundtrack. But by the time my daughter was two years old, she knew what âThe Nutcrackerâ was, and by age three was watching several versions of the movie as often as Iâd let her. She went through a three-year love affair with the name âClaraâ and wore a tutu …