September 30, 2019 Having a dog in my life has always been a priority. I just never intended to have three. Who in their right mind would have three dogs, I ask myself every time my pack greets me at the door as if I am an ice cream cone on a hot day. […]
September 23, 2019 “I’m up to my eyeballs in needlepoint pillows,” came the text from my neighbor and friend Deborah Robison, when I asked how her mother’s move was going. “I’m decluttering generations of inheritance.” I have been there, and now Deborah is. Going through a parent’s belongings is a rite of passage almost none […]
September 16, 2019 Food, clothing, and a roof over your head most would agree are basic needs. We’re two out of three at our house. The soggy realization that our roof was kaput soaked in a few weeks ago. “Uhhh, Honey?” I said, looking up from the kitchen table toward a brown splotch forming […]
She arrived at my door full of hope, promise and foam-wrapped innersprings, the mattress I’d been dreaming of, the same model I’d slept on for two nights in a Chicago hotel, where I woke up feeling like a teenager again, with a back that moved like a Slinky, for the first time in years. The […]
August 26, 2019 We all have one. Many of us need a new one. Yet shopping for a new mattress is about as much fun as shopping for, say, a coffin. But at least when you buy a coffin it never has to be replaced. “The process was a complete nightmare,” Mike Magnuson recalls of […]
August 19, 2019 I’m not getting older. I just need a new mattress. That’s my story anyway, and I’m sticking to it as I wait, and wait, for the mattress I ordered several weeks ago to land in my bedroom and transform my cranky back into the one I took for granted as a teenager. […]
August 12, 2019 While on a business trip to Chicago last month, I woke up in a strange hotel and had the oddest sensation. As I got out of bed, my lower back, which, when I get up, usually feels like someone poured concrete down my vertebral column and it hardened overnight, felt as loose […]
August 6, 2019 Whenever I have a little problem, like how to choose a light bulb, I write a column. When I have a big problem, like how to clear out the family home, I write a book. For a writer, this is a good formula. I get free expert advice, avoid therapy, and pocket […]
July 29, 2019 Raise your hand if you and your partner have ever argued over how high to hang a picture. Raise your other hand if you have ever lazily hung a picture on a nail left by the last resident. Okay, now that we’ve created a nationwide wave, put your arms down. My friends, […]
July 22, 2019 “Are you okay?” My husband asks, coming into the family room worried, as he should be. I am doubled over crying with laughter, holding my ribs. I can barely breathe let alone explain. What started as simple research for a column turned into a binge […]
