I've been resisting this "things about me" list mania that my fellow bloggers have taken up, but this being the first of the month, and with me close to brain dead after publishing 86 blog posts last month, I'm going to go for it rather than come up with something interesting. I will not be listing 100 things ... not even 86 ... as there are too many things about me that are, quite frankly either not at all relevant to the part of me that writes this blog, or not your business to know. Also, since there's already a lot you do know ... I have four... more

X-posted, as this is all I'm taking about today ....

Like millions of others, I woke this morning determined to remember ... to set aside this day for recollections and reflection ... and to consider the world as it is today. Five years ago I was at my daughter's home in North Carolina. My granddaughter had made her grand debut on the planet a month before, and I was learning to be a grammy.

Darling Granddaughter and I were having some quality bonding time, as DD was having some quality sleeping time, when the phone... more

The world is both a bigger and a smaller place for families with international adoption in their hearts and homes. Bigger, in that borders that may have been defined by city blocks, towns squares, county roads, state lines or national perimeters stretch to encompass parts of the world perhaps not locatable on maps before the kids were born there. Smaller because neighbors now include folks on the other side of the planet.

News of flooding in China and Ethiopia draws entire households to the television, and maps are perused as connections between... more

My mom sent me something this morning that is probably circulating all over the Internet. Perhaps everyone had already seen it, but I like it a lot and feel it's worth a bit more coverage ...

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.... more

Continued from here.

Lest you think there is any blanket thrilled-to-the-gills glee about all that's about to descend on this poor City-State with all the IMF/World Bank-is-coming-to-town-fiesta-feeling, keep in mind that there are those who are less than impressed with the overall goodness, rightness, correctness ... whatever ... of these organizations that are meeting in Singapore this month.

Some not only notice... more

Continued from here.

So, if this hoopla is all taking place well after we're home, why was our favorite hotel unavailable? Advance people. They were there in droves, dining out, shopping, taking up hotel rooms, planning, organizing, setting strategies, claiming parking spaces. And with Singapore known for being one of THE most organized cities on the planet ... nary a glob of pre-masticated gum or a cigarette butt to be... more

When booking our trip to Singapore, we'd not been able to get a room at our favorite hotel as it was fully booked. We thought that was a bit odd since we've been staying there for the last ten years or so with no problem and there were no public holidays or anything like that during the week we'd planned. It wasn't until we'd arrived that we caught on ... the IMF/World Bank circus is coming to town.

Timed to coincide with the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and... more

Ahhhhhh.

It's so good to be home.

There's nothing like a week away to have me appreciating just about everything about home. Even the quirky and normally annoying aspects of island life ... the chaos of baggage claim taking more than an hour at 4am, subsequent power cuts, and a total dearth of yogurt available anywhere ... meld into the warm fuzzies of dogs happy to see us, the comfort of my own bed with a view, the loving embrace of friends and family, and everything else that spells H O M E.

Cj was so happy to find herself... more

Since I'm still in Singapore, struggling to make myself understood by people who consider English their language, I'm posting the response to yesterday's rerun.

A response to yesterday's post about food and what things are called by people separated by a common language ... English, in this case ... comes from Australia:

What I want to know is ... what the h--- are those biscuits that you have for breakfast??? I... more

I'm in Singapore this week, so re-posting some of my favorite old blogs here and on the Older Parent page ... not the same ones, so you can double the repetition by reading both, if you like. English is the official language of Singapore, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The mix of Malay with dozens of distinct dialects of Chinese, plus any number of Indian languages has added some interesting lilts, twists and puzzles to what we'd recognize as the Mother Tongue.

With this in mind, I'm rerunning a ... more