On Friday Jonah (age eight) got us together for lunch to select Secret Santas, also announcing that if we got our own names, we had to buy a present for ourselves. And I did. There was something so sweet about this –– buying a present for yourself and wrapping it up –– that I really enjoyed. And I was dete...

First, a true triumph:  yesterday and today, feeding Val and Clark’s cat Tula was easy and delightful.  The keys they gave me worked perfectly.  The food was exactly where it was supposed to be. And Tula –– whom I have known exclusively while cowering away from Belle at dinner parties –– was unbeliev...

What’s that William Blake line again: What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? (I guess things rhymed differently back then). Nonetheless, today brought such amazing “fearful symmetry” (well, more like impressive/fearful) that again, I marvel at the Universe’s sens...