Today I did something I waaaay don’t do enough: get out of the house! I was invited to conduct a writing workshop with a group of students at Deer Lakes Middle School, somewhere out by Saxonburg…or Mars…or Gibsonia or something? I’m not really sure. But I took old back roads the whole way, it was sunny…

I’ve decided that I really don’t write enough on here. I mean to. I plan to. But then nothing for weeks at a time. The problem is, I don’t always have something to write about. Sorta like right now. I usually like to wait until something noteworthy happens, like when The Animal destroys one of our kitchen…

Saturday is always a bittersweet day at Erma. By this time everyone’s gotten into their groove and you’ve already made a ton of new friends. But it’s also the final day of the conference, which means it will be another two years until you feel this inspired and energized again. That, and soon I’ll have to…

The Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop may have officially kicked off last night, but today it was all about getting down and dirty with the conference sessions, which is really the reason why we’re all here. That, and the wine. So here again are my highlights from the day that was: It all started with the Continental breakfast, where my…

So here I am again, back in Dayton for the bi-annual (or is it bi-ennial?) Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. I love this conference! Every two years I get to get away from it all for a few days, be surrounded by fellow writers, and, most important, have an entire king-sized bed to myself. This year instead of…

April Fools! Today’s post comes not from me but from Laura Jackson of the Friendly Fitness Foodie blog, and is part of a special day of shenanigans from other Pittsburgh Bloggers. You can see my post over on Josh’s World, where I talk about throwing in the white towel of parenthood. Enjoy! (And please share!) ____ Bend, Brew…

So I’m watching reruns of The Andy Griffith Show the other day with Cass and the kids, and it’s the one where Otis the drunk sues the county for negligence after a fall at the jail. Otis’s slimy lawyer lies to him, telling him that if he sues the county they’ll fix up the jail to…

So the other day my in-laws got back from vacation, and they brought the kids back these really cool drinking glasses that flash and light up. The next morning during breakfast I thought it would be fun to fill the glasses up with water and then turn out the lights. Sorta like an early morning disco party, just without…

Whenever I see a young family struggling to get through those oh-so-trying early years with their children, I always do my best to encourage them and tell them to just hang in there. After all, before they know it those days of endless diaper changes and sleepless nights will be a thing of the past as their kids…

I’m not really sure how I got into this Bigfoot thing. It probably started back when I was a kid and first heard about the Big Hairy Guy from Leonard Nimoy on “In Search of…” Over time, my interest only grew as I discovered things like Time-Life Books’ Mysterious Creatures and first read the word “cryptozoology”. For a…