Five things I learned this weekend

The holiday season begins in T-minus three days and I'm feeling panicky generous. As I'm coming off an especially educational few days, I thought I'd share a few tips I picked up during November's spare weekend. 1) Toilet paper is no substitute for paper toweling. Does this seem obvious to you? It only occurred to [...]

Surprise! Happy birthday Kathy, my most gullible sister

Under the cover of 10,000 hogs, we pulled off the perfect surprise birthday party Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee. Planned with military precision by a three-generational task force -- the indomitable Grandma Peggy, Katherine and Erin -- the party required coded messages on cellphones and layer cakes, thirteen helium balloons and a tiny human carrier just [...]