Sophie's Story

Our friend Kent and his daughter stopped by a few days before Christmas. They had a plate of treats and a Christmas card with a letter. I like Christmas letters so I opened it up as soon as I could. It was a good one. Instead of the details of the year as most letters tend to be, it was a list of lessons that had been learned during the year. I liked it so much that I am going to shamelessly steal their idea and use it for my column today. These are in no particular order. 1. Putting the word"step" in front of parent, still makes you a parent. I realised this when we sent Carrie off to London to study abroad this past fall. I wasn't worried about her safety or if she could care for herself. She is a capable young woman. I was worried that she would have so much fun travelling and seeing things in Europe that she would neglect her studies. I was afraid that she would like the lifestyle over there and would not want to return to finish her degree. When I was in Europe, I we

Hi! This is Skamp. I have decided that even though I am not going to be a famous TV star, I am going to be a famous writer. A famous writer should have a pen name. My pen name is Skamp. This is Kolbie. If Skamp gets a pen name, then I want one too. My pen name will be Kolbie. Skamp and I have been listening to the song "The 12 Days of Christmas". It has only confirmed to us that humans can be very strange. Leaping Lords? Piping Pipers? Do you really want all this stuff? It just seems like so much clutter. The only things that seem interesting or useful at all are the milking maids and the partridge in a pear tree. I wonder if partridge tastes like chicken? This is Skamp again. Kolbie and I have come up with a much more sensible list. We would like to share it with you. On the first day of Christmas, my humans gave to me one great big cat tree. On the second day of Christmas, my humans gave to me two cat beds and one great big cat tree. On the third day of Christmas,my humans

It is Christmas TV special season. People are tuning in to all their favourite holiday shows. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer","Frosty the Snowman", "It's a Wonderful Life" and other shows an movies about the season. There is also at least one showing of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" I think the Grinch gets a bit of a bum rap. I don't think he was always a grouchy, green creature. He wasn't born that way. Let me tell you what I think happened to the Grinch. The Grinch started out as a happy young boy named Gregory. He had a brother and sister who he was nice to (most of the time). He had friends. He did well in school, but not outstanding and it was pretty much thought that he would go on the be successful in anything he chose to do. He liked to be helpful and was interested in science. He decided he wanted to be come a pharmacist. He went to college, where he studied hard and got his degree and license. He wanted to be in a job wh

Last Friday C and I ventured to the monument to consumerism otherwise known as the Mall of America. (We call it the "big mall".) I needed some ideas of Christmas gifts for C and we wanted to do a little people watching. In colder weather, the big mall is the perfect place to do that. As we drove around looking for a parking spot, C said, "Wouldn't it be funny if we saw Karla here?" I answered promptly, "No! It would not be funny at all." A word of explanation is in order here. Karla is a distant relative of mine that I wish were more distant. She actually lives within 50 miles of us. I'm grateful for the fact that the Twin Cities metro area is a large one so the chances of running into one another are fairly small. I'm sure some of you are shaking your heads at me. We are supposed to love all people and especially our families. We are not supposed to say such things. You are right. However in reality I'm sure that most, if not all, of us ha

I just read that the color of the year for 2012 has been announced. It is Tangerine Tango,an orange red colour. It is supposed to radiate warmth and create new energy. Designers of all sorts will be rushing to make clothes, accessories and just about everything else in this new,exciting hue. To me it looks like one of the colours from the big crayon box that nobody uses. I think it was called "burnt sienna" at that time. (Maybe if it was called Tangerine Tango it would have been used.) Fortunately for me I turned my back on the fashion world a long time ago. Actually I never paid much attention to it, which is only fair as it never paid much attention to me. Somehow clothing designers and manufacturers think that all the women in the world are tall and thin. Short,sturdily built people like me don't exist. (Sour grapes? No,not me...) I prefer comfort over just about everything else. When I was in third grade I got a pair of saddle shoes. I don't know how I found them,

Like many women I keep an emergency supply of chocolate in the house. I know that when a craving hits you are supposed to drink water and wait for the craving to go away, but sometimes that just doesn't work. There are also those days that are just so bad that a little chocolate seems to make it better. Now that the Marathon bar and the Cadbury fudge finger have disappeared, M&Ms are my favourite candy. I keep a bag around at all times. There is one reserve bag in the freezer and another in a drawer. They are perfect. Who could stay grumpy when faced with a cup of chocolate in colourful candy shells. The fact that I can put some in a Ziploc bag and carry it around knowing they will be in perfect condition is a bonus. (Unlike candy bars that can get smashed.) Most people who like M&Ms have a favourite. There are the plain M&M people and the peanut M&M people. I think it's a little like being a dog or cat person. I prefer the peanut. I can argue that peanut M&