ArcaMax

"We need to talk about the elephant in the room," said my husband.

I gulped and nodded. It was a conversation I had tried to avoid for some time, but it was clear that there was no putting it off any longer. This was something that was not going to get better on its own. It had to be addressed.

"The elephant has got to go," he said ...Read more

Dear Lake America,

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Gosh, sorry. I never know how to start. You'd think I'd be smoother at dispensing advice, but I'm the same awkward ocean basin I've always been.

It's been more than a year since I, the Gulf of Mexico, was renamed against my will as the Gulf of America. Now I am morally ...Read more

I recently experienced something of a meltdown in the egg aisle at the supermarket over which kind of eggs to buy. After much consideration, I finally settled on the eggs I wanted (organic, free-range and cage-free), when I discovered another problem.

When I opened the egg carton I'd selected, there was an egg missing.

Having been the victim...Read more

Greetings, students.

With school in session, you're probably learning mnemonic devices, handy sayings and acronyms. "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" helps with the order of operations in math. Likewise, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles" stands for the planets.

But have you heard of DARVO? Oh, you must learn DARVO. DARVO will...Read more

Like many women I know, I have a vast array of shoes. Unlike clothing, shoes, for the most part, continue to fit whether you gain or lose weight, so they are the bright spot in a sometimes cruel and taunting closet. For this reason, women take their shoes very seriously and many will spend quite some time organizing their shoes by height, ...Read more

If you drive north on U.S. 19 for hours, turning only at the end of the journey, you'll reach the Florida State Capitol. Almost one clean shot takes you to the hub of state government, a formal house of lawmaking festooned with candy-striped awnings.

I suggest this road trip if you're ever so inclined. Sure, it might save time to hop on an ...Read more

"Oh boy!" exclaimed my husband. "There's a hot sauce shop in town!"

We were away antiquing for the weekend in a quaint village populated by bed-and-breakfasts, art galleries and, apparently, a hot sauce shop. For my husband, this was like discovering that someone had bought you a lottery ticket and you won ... if the lottery prize was a ...Read more

I'm taking a couple late-summer days off next week to noodle around on leisure writing. Perhaps this sounds bananas to normal people, taking a staycation from a writing job to write, but, you know. Some of us were a pleasure to have in class.

My husband is taking the same days off with a goal to clean the garage, a task I want nothing to do ...Read more

I was talking to a friend one night when I abruptly ended the conversation.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," I said. "Otherwise I'll miss the 8:16."

"Oh, are you catching a train?" she asked me.

"No," I replied. "An alien."

The truth was, we had a quandary. Well, it wasn't really that much of a quandary. It was more like an event. A very long, ...Read more

Do you want to start a political action committee? Congratulations on taking the exciting first steps! There are a few key things to know.

First, what is a PAC? Such a baby is born when two or more people give or take funds to support a candidate, party or issue. This allows like-minded folks to pool cash for a cause, like when we got ...Read more

In the time that we've lived in the 'burbs, we've had a veritable parade of icky insecty things cavorting through our home. There were the things with a million legs that crawled up our bathtubs, the infestation of little black ants that marched through our kitchen, the termites that lunched on our wood deck, the Japanese beetles that stopped ...Read more